Creating a User Interface For Home Automation

In this thesis, the author provides a brief theoretical background to home automation and examines how the user interface of a home automation system should be designed. The thesis was inspired by Jukka Aarnio (Dr. Tech.) and carried out under his supervision. The topic of this thesis is both practical and controversial in the field of engineering in general as home automation is exponentially developing. The topic was suitable for a Bachelor’s thesis because the depth of knowledge needed was reasonable. This was also an advantageous project for the author for gaining more experience, particularly, in the field of home automation. The final objective in the project was to provide an example of a web-based user interface application which would include some basic features of a home automation system: control of lighting, energy management and status indication. Moreover, there was a mode feature which sets household appliances into pre-set modes. Additionally, the application was programmed to have a security layer to protect the interface from unauthorized users. Finally, the interface was to be controlled remotely through WLAN to give users comfortable experience while manipulating all the electronic devices in the house. In order to achieve the goal, Indusoft Web Studio software was chosen as a beneficial application for creating the user interface. Therefore, most of the practical work for this thesis was performed on Indusoft Web Studio v8.0