INTEGRATED HOME SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM (IHSS) via SMS TECHNOLOGY

There has been a rise in the home breaks in Malaysia. Recent statistics shows 27000
cases of home break in have been reported in the year 2006. Most of the victims reported
were from the middle class residents. Although people are starting to realize the
importance of home security systems yet many are reluctant to equip their home with
one. On the other hand, the high class residents are always finding ways to better secure
their homes due to their social background as well as their financial background. Threats
have been always significant in their daily life, which leads them to secure their homes.
Threats are also there to the middle class residents where a survey conducted on 50
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS undergraduates from middle class family with their
parents' combined salary between RM 3500 to RM 4000, proves this point. The survey
was conducted to understand the factors that prevent the middle class residents in
equipping their home with security system. The survey results show that there are three
factors that contribute to the hesitation of middle class residents to secure their home with
any form of security system; the implementation costs, post implementation costs and
complexity of the security system which needs the home owner to have some level of
technical knowledge. The objective of this project is to create home security system that
is affordable, efficient, technologically sophisticated yet requires minimal technical
knowledge in implementing the system. The proposed solution, the Integrated Home
Surveillance System (IHSS) is designed to provide a security system that suits the middle
class home owners.