Lessons and experiences of a DIY smart home

As our daily lives become busier and more complicated, owning a smart home is increasingly becoming a necessity rather than a luxury. Surveillance systems are heavily utilized by police departments to assist in solving crimes. People rely on surveillance systems to provide them with real-time events taking place inside and outside properties they own. The probability that a smart homeowner can act sooner than later when emergencies arise provides the homeowner a sense of security. In an emergency, time is of the essence and a smart home equipped with the right tools and devices can give a smart homeowner an edge over his/her non-smart home counterpart. Therefore, it is important that the process of converting a home to a smart one is not a complex one. The ease of installation, operation, and maintenance of smart home devices unarguably plays an important role in the wide spread use of smart homes around us. This paper mainly discusses early experiences related to the installation of a surveillance system, the challenges faced during installation, problems encountered after installation, and a glimpse into future work. It presents areas and issues in a smart home that require more investigation in the hope of intriguing researchers to further study smart homes and tackle existing issues.