Practical Design of a Home Appliance Control System Using Audio Signals

In this paper, the design of a system that controls home appliances using voice commands is considered. This system may be utilized by people with special needs and the elderly. By using just their voice, they can control the lighting of their room, and turn on or off their television, air conditioner, or fan with safety and security and without needing someone else's assistance. This may be achieved by passing their voice commands to a microcontroller, (Arduino), through a device that uses voice or speech recognition technology. Herein, the system is designed at the lowest possible costs. Two basic ways are discussed to build this system, a wired system that does not depend on wireless technologies and the other depends on Bluetooth technology. Each of them has advantages and disadvantages. The hardware parts utilized in the design process are the Arduino Uno, Relay Module, and voice recognition module. The latter could be replaced by a Bluetooth module and a smartphone with an application that uses voice or speech recognition technology. The proposed wired system proved to be advantageous in terms of privacy, security and reliability. A comparison between the two systems is concluded at the end of this paper.