This study investigates, designs, and implements an inexpensive application that allows
local and remote monitoring of a home. The application consists of an array of sensors
for monitoring different conditions in a home environment and also for accessing the
devices that might be connected to the system. Only a few sensors are initially involved
in this study and information about the temperature level, forced entry detection, smoke
and water leakage detection can be obtained at any time from any location with an
Internet connection. The application software (coded in C language) runs on an
embedded system which is basically a wireless Linksys router running on a GNU/Linux
based firmware for embedded systems. Interaction between the sensors and the
application software is achieved through an implemented sensor interfacing circuit. The
communication with the sensor interfacing unit is done through the serial port, and
accessibility of the connected sensors is achieved through a telnet client. The sensors can
be accessed from local and remote locations with the sensors giving reliable information.
The resulting application shows that it is possible to use the router for other applications
other than what it is intended for.