[Mes17] Sebastian Messinger. Ein zuverlässiges User Interface für Smart Homes und Assistive Technologien. Master's thesis, ArT-Lab@Research Group Embedded Systems, FH Technikum Wien, June 2017. [ bib ]
Because of the ageing society, technologies that support an autonomous lifestyle are becoming increasingly important. Active and Assisted Living (AAL) applications should make this possible. The aim of this work is to create a reliable, user-friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI) for the ViTAL project, funded by the municipal department 23 of the city of Vienna. It is intended to enable the functionality of a Smart Home control by displaying a building plan, an e-health application and the control of an assistive robot. It should be executable on computers and mobile devices, such as tablets or smartphones. A failure of the GUI is to be recognized, in order to prevent endangerment by the assisting robot. The implementation of the objectives is described as a prototypical web application based on AngularJS. It showed that the functionality of the Smart Home control, the e-health application and the control of the robot could be successfully tested on a computer as well as on a smartphone. The user-friendliness of the User Interface (UI) was proven using the ISONORM 9241/110 test. The detection of a failure of the GUI by means of the MQTT protocol, which is also used for the communication with the ViTAL middleware, was not sufficient due to the measured high latency. Finally, additional measures such as the speed limitation or the use of a partly autonomous operating mode of the robot is discussed.

[Bai17a] Claudia Baierl. Android Applikation zur Indoor Lokalisierung des TI SensorTags über die KNX Gebäudesteuerung. Technical report, ArT-Lab@Research Group Embedded Systems, FH Technikum Wien, June 2017. [ bib ]
The main goal of this bachelor thesis is to analyse an new approach to localising lost items. This approach is a reference analysis of values retrieved from the Texas Instruments CC2650 SensorTag and values retrieved from the KNX building automation system.

To do this an Android application has been implemented, which can find lost objects by comparing values from a SensorTag to values retrieved from the building automation system. The SensorTag sends temperature and lux values, which will be compared to the values retrieved from the building automation system from certain rooms. In case similar values are returend from the rooms in question, the user can switch the lights on or off in the rooms, which will allow an accurate positioning due to changing lux values.

All results based on various test cases have been analysed as to determine whether an accurate localisation can be done with the developed application. In addition to that suggestions are made for further development for this way of indoor positioning

[Has17a] Günter Haschka. Development of a Traffic Light Control Panel. Technical report, ArT-Lab@Research Group Embedded Systems, FH Technikum Wien, June 2017. [ bib ]
Traffic light signals, such as traffic lights, are indispensable for everyday traffic. neither for controlling of crossroads nor pedestrian crosswalks, if there are not such systems there would be more a time traffic jams or even accidents. Therefore the reliability of those systems is one of their most important characteristics. This paper is about the Development of a control panel for traffic lights, to change the operating conditions of the traffic lights. This action can be performed by the service personal as well as from police officers. This basic function of a “keyboard” is part of this System, and also storing important events in form of a log-book. The control panel is connected to the control box via a serial connection, to be able to move the panel around in order to get a better view of the junction. It’s to note that the reliability of the system is also very important at this point. The current prototype is based on a Raspberry Pi 3 as main part of the system and as interface to the already existing traffic light system. The control panel itself is based on an Arduino Mega 2560 and is connected to the Pi via RS232. The Prototype is able to log all events of the system as well as displaying them on the control panel. The basic function of the panel, the change of the operation conditions, is also given and the integration into the existing traffic light control system was successful too. The prototype has been running now for 5 days without any failure.

[Hau17] Philipp Hauswirth. Modular testing of headlamps with the VT System. Technical report, ArT-Lab@Research Group Embedded Systems, FH Technikum Wien, June 2017. [ bib ]
During developing the development of a headlamp a lot of tests have to be done in order to validate the performance and design of the product based on customer requirements and international specifications. The automatization of this tests offers several advantages. To implement such an automatization a test-system from the company Vector Informatik GmbH was ordered. This bachelor thesis describes which components are required to use the system for headlamp developing. Furthermore the different functions of the used components and their interaction is mentioned. This thesis also describes which software is needed and how to take the System into operation. To create different test-cases some basic software functions were created during the project. In addition there is an instruction on how to use them. The final result of the project is a fully functional automated test system that can be programmed individually.

[Jos17b] Anita Josic. Ein Intelligentes Türklingel System, zur Verbesserung der Lebensqualität in einem Smart Home. Technical report, ArT-Lab@Research Group Embedded Systems, FH Technikum Wien, June 2017. [ bib ]
The rapid advances in technology have made it increasingly attractive to develop applications that are designed to improve quality of life, so-called Smart Homes applications. This project describes a further development in the home network, which should support humans while they are not at home. The problem to be addressed is the uncertainty of who is at the door. In this project a prototype doorbell has been developed that consists of a button switch and a camera, tied to a Raspberry Pi Zero W. By pressing the button, an image is taken and then analysed using Python libraries for image processing. The data obtained are transmitted to the resident of the smart home. The benefit derived from this is that the owner of the Intelligent Door Bell System is notified when someone is pushing the doorbell. IThe main object of this thesis is the feasibility of performing personal use of open source applications for image processing and transmitting the result as a message through the use of established standard technologies. The personal classification is limited to the identification of groups of persons, compensate company logos by text recognition. The result of the determination of the text is sent to the resident's e-mail address. The doorbell of course also plays a melody, which is replayed over loudspeakers available in the household. The system includes the latest hardware components and a functionally vertically distributed software. For the processing of the photograph, the OpenCV framework and the optical character recognition motor Tesseract-OCR are used to recognize text in the natural image. In addition to its usefulness, the project also includes an innovative aspect that relates to the field of application of optical character recognission. While the photo could be sent as an attachment in the recipient’s email, image analysis is carried out, which is not used in any other smart home application. Therefore, this work demonstrates the applicability of open source applications for text extraction from natural images.

[May17a] Reinhard Mayr. Entwicklung eines sprachgesteuerten Hörsaal-Assistenten unter Verwendung des intelligenten Amazon Echo Lautsprechers. Technical report, ArT-Lab@Research Group Embedded Systems, FH Technikum Wien, June 2017. [ bib ]
Presentations fail each day because of insufficient knowledge how to use the media technology in the classroom. How handy would it be if a classroom could be controlled just by saying a simple voice command like it is possible in today’s smart-homes! To investigate how existing smart home technology can be transferred in a business context, an intelligent Amazon Echo loudspeaker is integrated with media devices and KNX based facility technology. This is done by using standard "off the shelf" consumer technology. Result is a lecture room assistant based on a Raspberry Pi system. The implementation starting from finding a solution architecture to the final device is described in detail.

[Rie17a] Fabian Rier. Design und Implementierung eines Smart Home Demonstrators. Technical report, ArT-Lab@Research Group Embedded Systems, FH Technikum Wien, June 2017. [ bib ]
This work deals with the design and implementation of a Smart Home demonstrator, which is intended to serve as a model of various components and controls in the Smart Home sector. With the help of the demonstrator, it will be possible to test various technologies for air conditioning, heating, cooling and lighting control. As the Smart Homes industry continues to evolve, the standards and technical solutions are constantly being further developed. For this reason, it is important to integrate smart homes as a key focus in education. According to research, no models for knowledge transfer are commercially available in this area. Therefore, a separate model was designed and implemented which maps these technologies. For this purpose, a movable system was developed, which comprises a complete heating and cooling circuit, an air conditioning system and an electrical installation. The respective actuators and sensors in the prototype are combined in a distributor and connected to the controllers with 64-pin cables. Thus, the demonstrator can be extended as desired and can also be equipped with new technologies in the future. During a project at the Vienna University of Technology a similar Smart Home demonstrator has been developed. Attention was paid to adapt the system to the TU model at the University of Applied Sciences', so that an exchange of the controllers is possible. The demonstrator will be used in the classroom after completion in order to give the students the opportunity to work on a house installation. At the end of the work, a large part of the electrical installation was successfully tested, but the air-treatment system was not finished yet.

[Sal17b] Raffael Sala. Testing Framework for a communication plugin used for battery management systems. Technical report, ArT-Lab@Research Group Embedded Systems, FH Technikum Wien, June 2017. [ bib ]
This paper describes how a Testing Framework for a communication plugin of an Austrian Institute of Technology developed Battery Energy Storage System is developed. In order to take account of the error-prone communication interfaces as well as the correct data transla-tion of the plugin, the Testing Framework encapsulates the tested plugin. This approach guar-antees a comprehensive testing routine. The Testing Framework, called AIT Gateway Bat-Man Tester, written in Python, combines three independently interchangeable modules to increase adaptability. The Testscript acts as supervisor for the whole system and comprises the test logic, the other two components mirror and simulate real world components. The Bat-tery Management System simulates the Battery-side of the communication whereas the AIT Gateway partly simulates the eponymous component of the Power Conversion System. To ensure a responsive implementation a multithreaded approach is utilised. The Battery Man-agement System is developed with use of the Pymodbus library and can either be manually configured with JSON files or used in automatic mode with the default preset for a TCP/Modbus/Slave connection and randomly generated data. The AIT Gateway inherits the C wrapped libAIPC of the real AIT Gateway and is a TCP slave with a custom frame format. The Testscript reviews the translated data and displays the result to the user. The evaluation of the implementation shows that all requirements have been met and that the Testing Framework operates flawlessly. The simplicity of use and margin of adaptability and ex-pandability is remarkable nonetheless providing a stable and user-friendly execution.

[Say17a] Zübide Sayici. Implementierung und Integration eines openHAB 2 Bindings für die Open Data Services der Wiener Linien. Technical report, ArT-Lab@Research Group Embedded Systems, FH Technikum Wien, June 2017. [ bib ]
Viennas public transport organization “Wiener Linien GmbH & Co KG“ provides access to their real-time and route planning services as part of the ”Open-Government Initiative” created by the city of Vienna. Data access is provided through web services and supports JSON and XML as response data type. This thesis describes the implementation of a new openHAB binding prototype which enables the user to use the provided data services within an existing openHAB environment without any further configuration. The new binding is implemented based on a defined set of requirements and enables the user to view current public transport information and interrupts for user-defined places, to calculate the route between defined stops and to monitor departure times for a selected halt point. To model the use of the new binding, a new prototype of an openHAB configuration has beenhas been created based on the binding implementation. The configuration is based on the use case of the user’s daily morning routine and includes the process of waking the user and route planning functions. The prototype openHAB configuration is implemented using the openHAB add-on ”HABPanel” and uses existing features provided by openHAB but also involves the implementation of new ‘’Custom Widgets” to complete the configuration.

[Sch17b] Stefan Schmidt. Finden, Identifizieren und Belauschen von versteckten Bluetooth-Geräten mit dem Ubertooth-Stick. Technical report, ArT-Lab@Research Group Embedded Systems, FH Technikum Wien, June 2017. [ bib ]
The Bluetooth protocol is a widely used wireless communication method mostly implemented in mobile devices. Even when the Bluetooth specification includes a variation of different security mechanisms, many vendors and users do not use them. The main goal of this bachelor thesis is to evaluate the technical possibilities to find hidden Bluetooth devices, identify them, sniff their communication and to crack the encryption used. This thesis points out the weak spots in the security with a focus on finding and listening to hidden Bluetooth devices communication. The user of these Bluetooth devices does not recognize these attacks as such as it happens completely passively. The theoretical background needed to find and identify hidden Bluetooth devices has been researched by analysing different previous research on this issue. To demonstrate the security leaks, the Bluetooth stick Ubertooth found in the open source libraries of the vendor, has been used. The theoretical and practical attack vectors have been analysed, and based on these results a prototype has been developed. The prototype development uses documentation for the Ubertooth from open source libraries. The overall outcome is a prototype that allows the user to identify hidden devices and follow their Bluetooth communication. Possible future work could be the development of future attacks to automatically decode Bluetooth communication in real-time.

[Has17b] Günter Haschka. Erstellung und Integration einer Aquariumsteuerung in OpenHab. Technical report, ArT-Lab@Research Group Embedded Systems, FH Technikum Wien, February 2017. [ bib ]
Indoors ornamental fish must be kept in aquariums. The appropriate care of these animals is not always easy, especially in small tanks up to 100 litres. A good working biosphere is essential for the health of the fish but requires high maintenance causing a great deal of work. This paper is about the development of an add-on system for fish tanks that not only allows the autonomous measurement of important water data but also the control of devices built in the aquarium. The integration of this system into a smart home service, that makes monitoring and controlling easier for the user is also examined. OpenHab is used for the smart home focus. The integration of the measurement uses the specific binding, Serial-Binding that is available in OpenHab. The rrd4j-Binding is also used to log all the collected data. An Arduino is responsible for all the interaction with the sensors and actuators. The communication between the smart home server and the measurement station takes place via radio frequency to make the integration in already existing smart home networks easier. The system was created to run seven sensors and four actuators and was built in a 63 litres tank. It has been running for one week without any failure. The following values were successfully monitored: water temperature, conductivity, light entry, water level, flow through the pump, pH-value. The actuators implemented are: lighting, control of pump and heater and a display to present the data.

[Rie17b] Fabian Rier. Visualisation of a smart home demo building using NETxAutomation`s BMS server. Technical report, ArT-Lab@Research Group Embedded Systems, FH Technikum Wien, February 2017. [ bib ]
This paper is about a visualisation of a demo Smart Home using BMS Server developed by the company NETxAutomation. The aim of the work was to create a project containing a model Lego house and three rooms of the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien F-Building on the 6th floor. Both, the Lego house and the UAS rooms, already had a KNX installation available. In addition there was a MODBUS installation controlling the elevator for the model Lego house. Furthermore the Lego house already had an OpenHAB project with a working visualisation. The purpose of the work was to connect both projects, the UAS rooms and the Lego house, with the BMS server and to show how similar projects could be implemented. Eventually it should be possible to install an application on which a KNX and MODBUS could be controlled with limited programming skills. Two ETS KNX projects, one for the Lego house and one for the UAS rooms, were required, which were first uploaded to the BMS Server and then combined with the MODBUS definitions. Using the Client Editor the configurations were matched with a graphical user interface to ensure ideal control over the project. For each room of the UAS and the Lego house the lights, the shutters, the heating controls were tested through a mobile application. The elevator of the Lego house was similarly tested. Every application was successful, showing that the combination of KNX and MODBUS can be universally applied.

[Sal17a] Raffael Sala. OpenHAB controlled Digital Addressable Lighting Interface using the KNX-Bussystem. Technical report, ArT-Lab@Research Group Embedded Systems, FH Technikum Wien, February 2017. [ bib ]
This bachelor paper describes how a home automation system can be implemented into the Embedded ArT Lab of the University of Applied Sciences (UAS) Technikum Vienna. The home automation system should expand the current KNX controlled fluorescent lamps and provide ambient lighting. To achieve this DALI, a home automation bus system which is specialised in illumination was integrated into the laboratory to create a comfortable atmosphere while also supplying the highest possible amount of control. The software counterpart to DALI is openHAB which is an open source home automation interface. DALI was integrated into the KNX system utilising a DALI/KNX Gateway, this succeeded in the ability to configure the new lighting system within the ETS. The hardware was installed using a tree topology between the gateway and the electronic control gear (ECG). To allow the highest possible flexibility, every ballast is controllable individually. openHAB allows the user to control each ballast as well as predefined groups of lights with an Android tablet or directly via computer. The results show that all requirements could be achieved and that the integration of DALI into an KNX system could be executed flawlessly. The use of openHAB as supervisory body is remarkable. The implementation demonstrates a versatile possibility to create a holistic lighting system.

[Bai17b] Claudia Baierl. Vergleichsanalyse von Indoor Lokalisierungssystemen basierend auf Bluetooth LE und ZigBee. Technical report, ArT-Lab@Research Group Embedded Systems, FH Technikum Wien, January 2017. [ bib ]
Das Problem den Schlüssel, das Handy oder andere Gegenstände des Alltagsgebrauchs nicht zu finden, ist vielen Personen bekannt. Mit Systemen zur Indoor Ortung kann diesem Problem entgegengewirkt werden. Darüber hinaus eignet sich Indoor Lokalisierung für viele andere Bereiche, wie Asset Tracking, Kundenflussüberwachung oder im assistiven Bereich. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, anhand einer Analyse von zwei unterschiedlichen Technologien, bestimmen zu können für welche Anforderungen die Technologien am besten geeignet sind. Zu diesem Zweck wird zuerst ein Überblick über die derzeitigen Möglichkeiten der Positionsbestimmung gegeben, um anschließend die unterschiedlichen Technologien näher zu beschreiben. Darauffolgend werden in einer empirischen Fallstudie Messungen mit Tags durchgeführt, welche Bluetooth Low Energy und ZigBee verwenden. Abschließend wird, aufbauend auf den Ergebnissen der Fallstudie, analysiert für welchen Use Case die jeweilige Technologie geeignet ist.

[Jos17a] Anita Josic. A Welcome Home system to improve quality of life in a Smart Home. Technical report, ArT-Lab@Research Group Embedded Systems, FH Technikum Wien, January 2017. [ bib ]
The main concern of this bachelor thesis is the development of a system, that improves quality of life through the automated control and the more conscious use of devices in the household. This description includes two goals. On the one hand, the search for a more simple and au- tomated control of devices is to be achieved. The second goal is energy saving through the controlled use of the devices. Some of the most frequently simply running devices in homes are for example televisions and various light sources. For this reason, the Welcome Home sys- tem controls a television and a light source. This work describes the requirements for the system, as well as the possible hardware and software technologies. Subsequently, the implementation of the requirements with the selected technologies is described in the form of a prototype application running on a Raspberry Pi minicomputer. Specifically, the Home-Assistant web application is used as an executive unit. From there the TV is controlled by means of CEC-compatible HDMI cable. The light source is switched on and off via a radio socket. Other components used are a 433 MHz transmitter for the control of the radio socket and a PIR motion sensor, to determine the presence of people in front of the TV. Selection criteria and the procedure for the implementation are described under the usage of screenshots and code examples.

[Maj17] Piotr Majewski. Developement of a smart couch table. Technical report, ArT-Lab@Research Group Embedded Systems, FH Technikum Wien, Jan 2017. [ bib ]
The basic idea for this project came into being when my mother asked me to invent a solution which will replace her TV remote and stop her from misplacing it. My initial solution was to create a touch screen which replaces the TV remote and is mounted to a table. After careful consideration I also decided to include further functions introducing a “smart touch table”. The applications that were chosen to be integrated were WhatsApp and Skype in addition to different sensors that seemed sensible. For the future many more functions and a unified GUI is imaginable including smart home integration like light or heating control. The integration of all these features would be a great help especially for less technically savvy people (eg. older generations) in order to stay connected socially while also being comfortable in their own homes.

[May17b] Reinhard Mayr. Praxistauglichkeit von Sprachassistenten in Smart-Homes. Technical report, ArT-Lab@Research Group Embedded Systems, FH Technikum Wien, January 2017. [ bib ]
Internet of Things platforms and Connected Homes are according to the well-respect Gartner Research Company on top of "The Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies". Daily there are media reports bringing news about the arising of speech controlled assistence systems embedded in the totally connected home. Manufactures are spreading new kinds of products to the market and carry out heavy marketing to persuade customers about the advantages Goal of this paper is to describe the relationship between speech controlled assistant systems and available Smart Home devices. The practical fitness of these combinations will be analyzed. Additionally will be stated whether these devices are ready for use by a broad audience or whether they are in a pre-series stage.

[Say17b] Zübide Sayici. Machbarkeitsstudie zur Implementierung eines RFID basierten mobilen Assistenzsystems zur Objektverwaltung. Technical report, ArT-Lab@Research Group Embedded Systems, FH Technikum Wien, January 2017. [ bib ]
RFID based property management systems are used in different industry areas. Automated book lending is an important use case of such systems. A feasability study was performed to examine the possibility of an implementation of a similar system for private use. The implementation of the designed system should be based on the performed analysis. Therfore the developed solution should act as an assistance which prevents the user from leaving needed objects behind. During the implementation of the feasability study different RFID technologies were compared and examined if they are usable for the new system. The use of a high frequency RFID based system has emerged as the most practicable solution which also meets all requirements.

[Sch17a] Stefan Schmidt. Ein Kühlschrank-Inventar-System basierend auf einer Android-App. Technical report, ArT-Lab@Research Group Embedded Systems, FH Technikum Wien, January 2017. [ bib ]
The main concern of this bachelor thesis is the development of an application to reduce the spoil of food products. Depraved food products which are thrown away because they weren‘t consumed in time, summarize to a huge amount of money for each household. When using this application in a conscientious way it is easy to save money. To solve this issue, it is necessary to identify food products by their barcode and their best-before date. The user of this application will be informed just in time before products will deprave. In this thesis, all the requirements were identified and compared to develop this application. Part of this requirements are hard- & software needs along with the optical systems to recognize barcodes. Besides the theoretical comparison of the requirements a field trial was done with different solutions and products. Based on the best system for this application a prototype was developed.