IoTtalk-RC: Sensors As Universal Remote Control for Aftermarket Home Appliances

Almost half of all Americans either own smart home technology or plan to invest in it. Therefore, many commercial smart IoT solutions aim for home automation, and try to live up with high expectation for smart home. A major problem of these smart home solutions is that they cannot flexibly accommodate the existing remotely controlled aftermarket appliances. This paper proposes IoTtalk remote control (IoTtalk-RC), a mechanism that utilizes sensors as universal software-defined remote control for aftermarket home appliances. Our solution replaces the infrared remote controller of cheap aftermarket home appliances and provides extra intelligence of sensors that can be manipulated by the homeowners. We conduct measurements, analytic analysis and simulation experiments to investigate the time complexity of IoTtalk-RC. This paper indicates that the extra transmission delays of remote control incurred by IoTtalk-RC are small even if the IoTtalk server is remotely located at a virtual machine of a cloud. In other words, IoTtalk-RC is feasible and can be effectively operated with the IoT technology.