Applications of Wireless Sensor Networks and RFID in a Smart Home Environment

With the aging population and increased need to care for the elderly there are fewer of the younger generation to administer the necessary care and supervision. This condition is one of the reasons many researchers devote their time in evolving smart homes. These homes offer the occupant(s) a level of convenience not seen in traditional homes by using technology to create an environment that is aware of the activities taking place within it. The focus of this paper is on the integration of radio frequency identification (RFID) and wireless sensor network (WSN) in smart homes and applications of this system such as identifying a caregiver who enters the home. In the following work we present an architecture consisting of RFID, a WSN to identify motion within an environment and who is moving as well as several useful applications which take advantage of this information.