Cost-Efficient Automated Intrusion Detection and Reporting System for Homes in Nigeria

Substantial investments are made to mitigate the persistent threat to lives and assets posed by various forms of intrusion. Automated security systems have emerged as crucial tools for safeguarding homes against intrusions in recent times. A major advantage of this is its independent ability to report human activities around homes without direct observation. However, the cost of implementing the system is not pocket-friendly to an average Nigerian given the prevailing economic situation. This research therefore seeks to develop and implement an intrusion detection and reporting system using low cost materials while maintaining a balance between quality and cost at the same time. The system architecture employs the passive infrared sensor (PIR) for motion detection, the ultrasonic sensor measures intruders’ location from the home entrance while the NodeMCU ESP8266 microcontroller is responsible for coordinating the reception and relaying of signals within the system. The system was implemented with varying distances of human presence from the security device.  Reports of potential intrusion alerts were obtained within reasonable time frames (between 11 seconds and 49 seconds) on the homeowner’s mobile phone via the Blynk application.  This performance demonstrates the reliability of the system for home security. The system is equally cost-efficient relative to most similar state-of-the art IoT based home security systems considered in this work. Our work therefore contributes to knowledge by proposing an affordable home security solution for a low budget Nigerian user.