Smart Home Model: Web-First Building Management System
The Smart Home Model project is an 18-500 Capstone Design initiative that demonstrates the feasibility and limitations of fully centralizing building control through a web-based platform. Unlike traditional smart home systems that retain local control capabilities, our system intentionally creates complete dependency on a web dashboard to explore the critical question: “How much control can be centralized before you risk losing it?”
This project addresses the growing demand for integrated, intelligent building management systems in an era where artificial intelligence and cloud connectivity are rapidly expanding. By building a physical model house equipped with RFID-based access control and real-time environmental monitoring, we prove that sub-second latency web-first architectures are achievable for critical infrastructure—while simultaneously exposing the vulnerabilities inherent in such designs.
Core Focus Areas
1. RFID Door Lock Access Control
Sub-500ms authorization from card swipe to lock actuation.
2. Real-Time Temperature Monitoring
Sub-1-second dashboard updates with 100% data logging.
3. Intelligent Lighting Control
Daylight harvesting with ambient light sensing for energy optimization
The system leverages modern asynchronous web technologies (FastAPI, Redis Streams, WebSockets, TimescaleDB) paired with ESP32 microcontrollers featuring hardware cryptographic acceleration. Through rigorous testing and optimization, we demonstrate that web-based building automation can meet the performance demands of security-critical applications—provided the network infrastructure and failsafe mechanisms are properly designed.