Bibliography | Sequeira, Nicci: User engagement for smarter buildings. University of Stuttgart, Faculty of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Information Technology, Master Thesis (2023). 70 pages, english.
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Abstract | From the time the Internet came into existence, it has revolutionized the communication
domain by not only helping to connect various forms of devices but also people around the
globe over the network. This ever-emerging technology is accessible everyday for almost any
purpose with the goal of always providing information, be it accessing digital content via applications,
exchange of audio-video calls, emails and supporting e-businesses. It has helped
make the world smaller by making interactions possible digitally. Within the current ecosystem,
by associating objects such as sensors and actuators into the network, it has built a
way of communicating the surrounding to the digital platform either over a wired or wireless
network to help gain more in-sights into the real world analyzing user preferences, behaviours,
interactions etc. Based on such recorded data, smart services could be provided to the endusers
thus making these objects or "Things" smart as well. Not to forget that the introduced
technology would very well reduce the complexities and efforts which the old-fashioned ways
could not solve. This led to the popularity of the concept called "Internet of Things" or IoT
which has flourished among various domains of work; be it in the transportation industries,
medicines, building management systems (BMS) etc.
Any structure that utilizes information and communication technology to support building
operations automatically and without the need for a manual set of steps can be referred to as
a smart building. The reason it is said to be automatic in nature is because of the fact that
the Internet of Things devices actuate systems or operations that are completely dependent
on interactions with a clear visibility of the actionable instances. A comparison study between
conventional buildings and a smart building would undoubtedly favour the smart building
because it not only automates tasks but also proves to be better at maintaining a high energy
saving potential with improved user comfort, productivity and well being of the occupants [1].
Real-time fault detection and abnormalities in building operations can also be detected, preventing
system failure. But as time passes, these sensors are prone to deterioration and require
on-site assistance for setup and maintenance, which increases time and expense. Again, the
occupants of the smart space are given low priority due to the emphasis on energy. Building
owners and facility owners are focused mainly with energy conservation, but because they
do not always occupy the building space, it is impossible to determine whether the provided
set of automated services is actually effective. Hence there is a need that the occupant must
contribute equally to the set of operations at the elementary level that will supplement the
process. This engagement will ensure that the user is also taken into account in order to
influence the actionable instances.
Considering the downside of totally depending on the IoT object data, the thesis aims at
providing a smart service that will use these object data (indoor environmental conditions
and external environment conditions) and incorporate user engagement as part of the decision
making process so as to deduce a recommendation that fits the user comfort index at the given
moment. Along with the sensor data and third party application programming interface (API)
for weather information, user also has the option to provide their own context of the sensed
surrounding as sensory data. The collected data then suggests the users to actuate certain
local settings that would be considered apt for the surrounding thus improving user experience
and help understand user preferences. The feedback from users are taken at a recognized
time called micro-moments when they would be idle to provide responses and most receptive
to engage into recommendations. User concentration is improved with a time management
technique called Pomodoro which is implemented within the service itself. The communication
across the "Things" and the service application is supported by an OASIS standard
messaging protocol called "Message Queuing Telemetry Transport" (MQTT). Since it reuses
a single connection/port for several messages that have low size and has a reduced average
response time, it is suitable for the stated service. The recommendation engine is based on
a rule based conditional logic along with AI planning for realization of action sequences. All
the relevant data is stored on the MySQL database for data management, status setting and
retrieval for decision making. The complete service along with data analysis and tracking
is realized on a python based web framework called Django because of its clean design and
distinct modules for each service or feature.
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