Universal Mobile Application Development (UMAD) On Home Automation

Abstract

At present scenario the market is flooded with many cell phones compatibility issues intended with Operating System and hardware's, so the applications are not made in a manner to suite large mass. Till now the applications made were targeted to a particular Operating System only which restricted there usability. With the limitations of above in mind there is a need of a universal mobile application development (UMAD) platform. So that an application can be developed in a universal XML format which can be easily ported to any other mobile devices.  This paper presents the design and implementation of the Home automation system on one of the Operating System and creation of a unique XML document that can be placed over the server which can be adapted by any other mobile device without any platform issues. The XML format which controls the layout of the screen remains common, only the part which needs to be coded on every platform is the downloading of the XML file from the server and parsing it. This reduces a lot of coding effort as the design part is coded only once, and the same file can be used by every other platform. We have taken Home Automation system as our application, in which all the household devices such as Bulb, Fan, AC etc. all are controlled by a smartphone which is connected to a server containing the XML file via an internet connection. Every change made by the user on the smartphone affects the data in the XML file of server, which thus helps in continuous updating of data and all other users get an updated Graphical User Interface. We have taken Home Automation as one of our application, but the same principle can be implemented in any other applications like Mobile Themes, Games etc.

Keywords: Android, Hardware Modulator, Home Automation, iOS, UMAD, Universal Mobile Application, XML.