Digital Lifestyles Reference Guide

Home Automation Security

Last updated May 6, 2005.

Security is one of the key areas where home automation technologies are focusing innovation. Providing a sense of security is an easy sell for companies looking to install automation products in homes because it reaches an emotional trigger in the buyer. Many of the home security products also offer convenience in other areas of daily life, but at their core are designed with protection in mind.

Access Control

Access control is one of the most obvious ways to deliver automation to the home. Adding a layer of entry control beyond a key lock on doors creates a system for both altering when an intruder attempts to breach security, as well as defining rules determining who gains access to what based on permission based roles. For greater sense of security a combination of access control systems may be used.

Password Protection Systems

The most basic access control is password protection. In most cases, this is a pin number typed into a key pad. For simple systems, the pin number disarms or arms a home alarm system. In more complex pin access scenarios, entering the proper pass code presents access to specific portions of the home (maybe the garage is off limits without a pass code to keep small children from entering unsupervised). In more sophisticated systems the password may be a spoken phrase with voice matching, which overlaps into the realm of biometric access control.

Biometric Entry Systems

Biometric systems come in a variety of formats. The most affordable form of biometric security is the fingerprint. This is also the least secure method because fingerprints are proven to be easily faked, which is why they generally accompany a second form of access control like a pin or physical token.

More complex forms of biometric entry protection include hand geometry, which requires the entrant to place their hand on a sensor with a computer authentication system detecting patterns in the hand for access. At the high end of biometric protection, retinal scanning technologies authenticate based on a person's eye.

Physical Token

Physical token systems require a physical object for access. This type of access is most similar to what we are used to in gaining access with a key. The token may be a smart card with a chip inside. It might be an object with a barcode imprinted on it or it may be a type of key with a sensor that the authentication system determine to be friendly.

Monitoring Systems

Monitoring the home for security breaches both when residents are inside the home and when they are away is a primary role for security systems. Detecting unusual movement to trigger an alarm, capturing images based on motion detection or over elapsed time or simply recognizing that a physical entryway is open or closed are all mechanisms of security monitoring. Some combination of monitoring technologies delivers a snapshot of home security at any moment in time.

Entryway Open/Close Detection

Knowing whether entryways are open or closed, whether they are locked or unlocked, is one way to verify a secure perimeter. At a simplistic level, this may be contact points on doors and windows, with half the contact on the entry way and the other half on the physical obstruction of the entryway (the door or window). When these two halves are in close proximity, the door or window is viewed to be closed by the security system. When the two halves are separated, the entryway is viewed to be open. Depending on configuration settings in the security control center, a open portal may trigger an alarm, log an open/close event or do nothing.

Motion Sensors

Motion sensors are designed to detect movement in a room. These are typically used as a determinant to indicate someone actively in motion within a space. Motion sensors are used to send alarm signals back to the security center to inform the system that someone or something is moving in a room where no movement is expected.

Camera Technologies

Camera technologies provide the most accurate picture of what's taking place wherever the camera is aimed. Cameras are used to recognize someone at an entryway. Cameras are used as a motion detection device to grab an image of who or whatever may be in motion. Cameras are also used to capture everything in view of the lens over a period of time. In the event of a security breach, a camera provides a clear picture of who was in the breached environment.

Warning Systems

Warning systems are used primarily to act on data provided by authentication tools and monitoring systems. Various types of alerts and alarms may be triggered depending on what a particular information gathering tool transmits.

Audible Alarms

Audible alarms are often used to inform an intruder that they are discovered. Audible alarms may also function to alert people sleeping in a home to the appearance of an intruder within the previously secure perimeter. This type of alarm presents the benefit of potentially scaring an intruder into leaving while offering an immediate feedback system to alert residents they should be seeking safety.

Silent Alarms

Silent alarm systems are primarily used to send a message to an offsite security company about a breach. Silent signaling is used to keep an intruder from realizing they've been detected, which may be useful for a rapid response team trying to catch the intruder in the act of intruding.

Email Alerts and Paging

Some security systems offer alternative methods of delivering security system feedback. Email of photos taken when a motion sensing camera is triggered provide immediate feedback for someone away from home with computer access to know a motion event occurred. If logging the opening and closing of doors is important, an email or SMS message provides a running text log of when events take place.

Control Interfaces

At the heart of every security system is the interface for establishing system event rules, setting up passwords and identification procedures and storing data collected in the monitoring process. Depending on the level of sophistication available in a security system, it may contain some or all of these things.

Keypads

Keypads are a common mechanism for security control. They offer simply numerical options for configuring home security, like press '1' to activate the alarm. Keypads may be used on the outside of a home or garage to require a pin or alphanumeric sequence to gain access.

Web Access

Web access is becoming more common in security systems as Windows and Linux computer systems are increasingly used as the control center for security and other automation functions. Web access may be available via local computers, with a Web page essentially providing the visual interface or it may be an outward facing gateway with password authentication available from anywhere on the Web. The number of home automation applications integrated into any one computer ultimately determines the complexity.

Television Control Screens

Television-based control systems are currently available in several varieties. In some instances, they are an extension of Web-based PC access, providing access to common functions by way of a media center computer connected to the television. In other cases, they are integrated into a more traditional keypad system with a more user-friendly interface tied into the television remote control. As media center applications play a larger role in home theater setups, this is likely to become a popular way for people to interact with home automation.