Electrical Appliance Control for Smart Buildings Using Real-time Location Tracking and Virtual Environments

Building automation is becoming increasingly popular due to the growing use of the Internet of Things (IoT) framework in the built environment. While there has been a spurt of mobile applications that control electronics in buildings, most of these utilize complex user-interfaces that require multiple interactions to realize user-intent which negatively impacts their adoption. In this paper, we present a framework that provides an intuitive and effective user interface to control electrical devices and fixtures in the connected home of the future. The framework utilizes a hand held point-and-click device that can be used to turn appliances on and off by pointing at them. This functionality is enabled by tracking the location of the device in real time within a virtual building model to determine the user’s context and intent. The position and orientation of the device is used to project a ray in the virtual world to determine the appliance of interest to the user, which is then controlled through the IoT infrastructure. The system is proposed to be implemented using ultra-wideband (UWB) and inertial measurement units (IMU). This research proposes a novel and necessary interface between users and “things” in the IoT paradigm for the built environment that does not require extensive modifications to the appliances itself. Future research will be performed to determine means of incorporating our framework into existing automation efforts such as motion-controlled devices and for defining presets for multiple devices through an extension of the presented framework. Additionally the virtual model also provides a means for tracking and accounting for the electricity usage of the home per device. This utility of the prototype enables sustainable maintenance and operations to optimize the energy-usage of buildings.