CPE 322: Engineering Design 6;

Assignment 6;

Smart Home Doorknob

3/31/14

Logan Weiss

Alexandru Popa

Joseph Powers

Andy Chau

I pledge that I have abided by the Stevens Honor System.

Section 1; Individual Contributions

Like the other reports, the group decided to split the work needed for assignment six as evenly as possible, with each member handling a diagram describing a Smart Doorknob function as well as the description of the diagram. The following is a work breakdown of this project report;

1)Logan Weiss

  1. All Functions

2)Joe Powers

  1. All Functions

3)Andy Chau

  1. All Functions

4)Alexandru Popa

  1. All Functions

Keeping with the above, the workload was split evenly between the four group members;

L. Weiss / A. Chau / J. Powers / A. Popa
Percentage of effort towards this assignment / 25% / 25% / 25% / 25%

Section 2; Functions/Diagrams

1)OverallFunction

Essentially, our device has three main functions; it must be capable of converting rotational forces into linear displacement (like any regular doorknob), take in commands (in the form of RF signals) in order to operate a locking/unlocking mechanism, and convert sound and images into transferable items of the same type. In order to do so, it must take in rotational force, RF signals, sound, images, and electricity to power the device. Our desired outputs are linear displacement (to open the door), the ability to both lock and unlock the door, viewable/listenable image and sound items, and heat (to be expected when dealing with converting energies).

2)Opening Activity

The opening mechanism will send an alert of a guest and a picture of the guest to the users’ application. When the user allows the voice transfer, our device will receive the user’s voice and play it through the speaker and will send the guests voice when the guest speaks. This implies that our device will require power and will therefore produce heat.

3)Application Activity

The application will receive an alert that there is a guest and the image that was taken when the guest accesses the main device. The app will also always show the received lock status of the device (i.e. Locked or Unlocked). When the user allows speaking between the two parties, the app will send voice data as well as receive the guest’s voice data. When the user wants to lock or unlock our device, verification will be sent from the app to the locking system. If the application uses the correct standards, then the power and heat should not be an issue, those issues lie with the phone or computer.

4)Short Range Wireless Activity

The main device will receive a radio field to trigger its near field capabilities. Then, the device will send out a radio field to the user device for verification. The user device will then respond and the main device will receive its magnetic field and read it. If it is correct, the main device will send a verification code to the locking system. Finally, the main device requires power and therefore will produce heat.

5)Security Function Tree

The primary purpose of our device is to emphasis security for its user. In this case, we split up its functionality into the user’s ability see who at their door and to give whoever is at their door access to enter. To this we explain the smart door knobs surveillance and entrance permissibility.

The device is capable of several different ways to allow the user to communicate with his guest. Using an intercom and a telecommunication system, involving both a camera and microphone, were the two most feasible ways for that to happen. For the device to use an intercom, the guest could simply push a button in order to vocalize their needs to a server, where the information would be stored, which then would be delivered to the user’s mobile device or in-house console. On the other hand, there is the telecommunication system using the camera and microphone. This could either integrate a live stream broadcasting system, where the device could stream what is happening outside the user’s house onto a server which could be localized right to the user’s mobile device or in-house console, or the device could capture short snippets of data when the guest would prompt the device. This could record it to our servers which would then transmit that recording to the users’ mobile device or in-house console just like the intercom, but with a video as well.

In addition to surveillance, our device’s functionality also includes the doorknob itself. In this case, we have several options in which the door knob could connect to the user’s mobile device in order to activate its locking mechanism. First, we have the Bluetooth connectivity. As one of our further ranged device connecting services, the user would have to enable its Bluetooth in order to attach to the device to activate it locking mechanism via mobile application. Next, there is the Near Field Communication option, or NFC. With close proximity, the user can simply prompt the locking mechanism via NFC via mobile application. Then, there is the cellular and Wi-Fi options. These two options would work closely together because of the idea that when the user isn’t close enough to a Wi-Fi, it would use its cellular network. However, if we were to just use the cellular network alone, we must consider that to activate the device without a Wi-Fi chip, it would be necessary to prompt the device via SMS. Ultimately, these are all feasible options for our device to engage in its primary purposes: security and convenience.