Research

Highlighting innovation in home automation and IT systems, conveying the idea of a safe, integrated home environment.

August 2022

Authors:

Josejorge Hernandez

Thales Group

In today’s digital age, families and individuals increasingly rely on various platforms to manage their homes, ranging from security systems to entertainment setups. However, many of these platforms are plagued by security vulnerabilities, lack of reliability, and an over-reliance on external providers, which can expose users to significant risks. This patent introduces an innovative approach to home automation by integrating robust IT systems into home labs, providing a secure, self-reliant, and comprehensive solution for modern households. By creating a unified and dependable ecosystem, this system mitigates the risks associated with traditional platforms, offering enhanced security, appliance monitoring, multimedia and entertainment management, surveillance, and reliable backup solutions. Additionally, it supports study and test ecosystems, fostering a controlled environment where users can explore and develop new technologies within their own homes. This solution empowers users to regain control over their home environments, ensuring that their personal spaces remain secure, reliable, and customized to their unique needs.

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Article

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Screen printed flexible IDC sensors for pressure sensitive HMIs and breathing applications

April 2025 · Flexible and Printed Electronics

Interdigitated capacitive (IDC) sensors are one of the most commonly used sensors in wearable applications because of their high sensitivity and relatively simple manufacturing process. This is still true despite the numerous advantages of the technique, and its potential for broader sensing applications may be hampered by challenges like multiple mode sensing and environmental parameters, ... [Show full abstract] including humidity. In this work, IDC sensors were fabricated on a PET substrate using carbon ink with a screen printing fabrication process. These fabricated sensors portrayed optimal sensitivity to the pressure of human finger touch in detecting low-pressure touch (LPT), medium-pressure touch (MPT), and high-pressure touch (HPT). The sensors proved to be very responsive, with rise and fall times of 11 ms and 15 ms respectively. The stability tests likewise showed the sensor’s consistent performance over 20 000 durability cycles. These IDC sensors were then implemented in wireless pressure-sensitive HMIs to perform various operations like RGB light color control, keyboard operations in Microsoft Word, and gaming interfaces like moving avatars in Free Fire and Tekken 3. The pressure applied by the human finger recognized the pressure-sensitive IDC sensor the system to display different light colors of RBG leds for LPT, MPT, and HPT. The multiple keyboard key operations performed by different finger touch pressures indicate possible real applications like pressure-sensitive keyboards and gaming pads. The IDC sensors’ humidity sensitivity was examined and the sensors were placed in face masks to detect mouth and nasal breathing frequencies based on the humidity of human breath, thus demonstrating potential uses in health care. This design proposes flexible, multi-channel sensing solutions for next-generation interfaces, security, and home automation applications. This entry’s discussion of the stability and reliability of the reported IDC sensors demonstrates the future possibilities of smart sensing and intelligent devices, video game control devices, and smart homes.

Article

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Design and Implementation of Smart Homes Using IoT and Cisco Packet Tracer

March 2025 · International Journal of Scientific Research in Science and Technology

[...]
Zahraa Khazal Rashad

This article explores the implementation of smart homes using the Internet of Things (IoT) through Cisco Packet Tracer 7.0. It discusses the design and configuration of smart networks that integrate home automation, security, and intelligent vision technologies. The article addresses the application of Packet Tracer in the setup and configuration of complex smart networks as part of smart home ... [Show full abstract] systems, including appliances, security systems, and intelligent vision technologies. The implementation outcome simulates the concept of smart homes supporting various automation systems and demonstrates Packet Tracer’s feasibility as a powerful tool for designing and installing smart home systems. The Packet Tracer simulator provides a variety of IoT devices that allow for quicker and easier design and implementation of a smart home system before it is implemented in actual environments. It provides the ability to combine wireless networks, sensors, and monitoring or tracking devices for increased system integration and pervasive security and control within home settings. Automation is done effortlessly using pre-defined control rules for all devices that are connected and without the necessity of complex programming skills, making systems safer and more efficient. Such outcomes advance the vision of smart and integrated smart homes, and show how cutting-edge technologies can help make lives better and create a safe and comfortable environment.

Preprint

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In Specs we Trust? Conformance-Analysis of Implementation to Specifications in Node-RED and Associat...

February 2025

Low-code development frameworks for IoT platforms offer a simple drag-and-drop mechanism to create applications for the billions of existing IoT devices without the need for extensive programming knowledge. The security of such software is crucial given the close integration of IoT devices in many highly sensitive areas such as healthcare or home automation. Node-RED is such a framework, where ... [Show full abstract] applications are built from nodes that are contributed by open-source developers. Its reliance on unvetted open-source contributions and lack of security checks raises the concern that the applications could be vulnerable to attacks, thereby imposing a security risk to end users. The low-code approach suggests, that many users could lack the technical knowledge to mitigate, understand, or even realize such security concerns. This paper focuses on "hidden" information flows in Node-RED nodes, meaning flows that are not captured by the specifications. They could (unknowingly or with malicious intent) cause leaks of sensitive information to unauthorized entities. We report the results of a conformance analysis of all nodes in the Node-RED framework, for which we compared the numbers of specified inputs and outputs of each node against the number of sources and sinks detected with CodeQL. The results show, that 55% of all nodes exhibit more possible flows than are specified. A risk assessment of a subset of the nodes showed, that 28% of them are associated with a high severity and 36% with a medium severity rating.

Article

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Analyzing and Mitigating Attacks in IoT Smart Home Using a Threat Modeling Approach-Based STRIDE

January 2025 · International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies (iJIM)

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of interconnected devices that enables data exchange. It is widely used in areas such as healthcare, aviation, agriculture, energy, and home automation. Despite its rapid growth and the massive adoption of connected devices, IoT presents significant security risks. Traditional threat modeling approaches are insufficient to address these risks. ... [Show full abstract] Architecture-based modeling is recommended, as it considers the entire system and helps in understanding potential threats. Threat modeling is a systematic technique used to identify and evaluate potential threats that could compromise the security of a system. The main objective is to understand the vulnerabilities of a system in order to design appropriate security measures to mitigate them. This paper aims to analyze and mitigate specific IoT smart home threats using the STRIDE threat modeling framework, which systematically identifies potential vulnerabilities at the development level. By applying STRIDE, which stands for Spoofing, Tampering, Repudiation, Information Disclosure, Denial of Service, and Elevation of Privilege, we focused on addressing key security threats, including denial of service (DoS), phishing, and man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks. Our findings demonstrate that the proposed mitigation strategies are effective in countering these threats, providing a robust security layer for IoT smart homes. Through this study, we highlight the importance of architecture-based threat modeling to enhance security within the IoT ecosystem and offer practical solutions that strengthen IoT smart home resilience. The outcomes of the STRIDE-based analysis and the effectiveness of the mitigation techniques are detailed, offering empirical evidence to support our approach.