1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
Security has been defined by Viola (2001) as safety from harm. It is a term that has different dimensions in psychology, public safety, defense and military matters and information access. Safety, also by Viola (2001)is defined as protection from action from without or subversion from within. Security and safety are always intertwined and it is impossible to design a security system without taking into account the safety of the object or person into consideration. Security in embedded systems is usually an afterthought.
Considering the current global security environment, the importance of good physical security is difficult to ignore. Physical security services are becoming a private rather than public service i.e. individuals and organizations tend to hire private security firms and install security equipment and use the police as the back. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2004), private security officers outnumber police officers by more than 2 to 1 in the United States of America. Recent reports suggest that this trend holds true for both daily security operations responding to terrorism, natural disasters. Physical security has seen less attention and it is primarily an applied field, it has no dedicated line of research. Instead, it is scattered through fields like engineering, computer science, chemistry and physics as well as social sciences such as criminology, sociology and psychology. Providing security relies on two main elements:
- Equipment or technology and
- People
Without any statistical proof, it is the belief that major funding goes more into equipment security research than people security research. Others might disagree with this point of view for example, Pieters (2017) stated that General Eugene Habiger (retired), former commander of US strategic nuclear forces and advisor to the US department of Energy was quoted saying that “good security is 20% equipment and 80% people”. Human security, according to xiango (2015), has the tendency to want to cover more ground than actually securing the ground. Human security has several reoccurring problems which include:
- Disgruntled employees
- Professionalism
- Job characteristics
- Security structure and climate for security
These reoccurring problems tend to disturb or halt the work to be done or carried out.
Security system are gaining increase importance in recent times to protect life and valuable resources, many advanced method of providing security have been developed and are in use in the last few decades. Of this one important area is the security system required for military /strategic applications, which has advanced greatly. But such systems being complex and expensive are useful to high end application only. However with recent progress in technology and the growing need for increased security in civilian and other applications, many low cost solutions for security system have now emerged. in the field of Burglar Alarm Systems using modern approaches has become a major means of providing security in all applications, both military and civilian.
Due to high state of insecurity being experienced in the entire world the need to keep the occupants of the office aware of any intrusion in to their premises forms part of the project.
1.2 Problem Statement
Security is an important aspect of all our lives. A secure environment tends to give individuals rest of mind. However, with a global recession occurring, people have resorted to less honorable means to make ends meet. Theft rates (in a typical Nigerian University) have increased causing disharmony in the areas where such events occur. This sometimes leads to unpleasant occurrences such as fights and sometimes injuries. These injuries are either sustained when the culprit is caught and a mob action is decided upon. The aim of the proposed design is to reduce such occurrences by alerting the appropriate quarters while an unauthorized entrance into a room occurs. The relevance of this paper cannot be overemphasized.
1.3 Previous Work
In Nigeria most security solutions are provided by security firms. These systems have been operation for some time which mostly is foreign developed. These translates that they tend to be expensive and hard to maintain because suppliers keep on producing new product and not supporting their older versions.
However this project is geared to development of office grown simple security system that meets the same needs as commercially available system.
The final product will be cheaper, easy to maintain and foolproof.
1.4 Objectives of the Study
This project is aimed at designing, simulating and implanting a cheap and reliable alarm system using Small Scale Integrated and Medium Scale Integrated chips that can detect and warn on external intrusion.
The system has to satisfy the following:
- Ensure the security of an office by deterring person intending to burglar and warning the occupants of office of any unauthorized entry into their premise.
- Provide psychological satisfaction of being secure to the office occupant.
1.5 Project Structure
Project was designed in the following modules:
1. House Intrusion Module:
This module consists of motion detectors placed strategically in concealed location this sensors when activated should activate the following devices in the following sequence:
- Activate buzzer to warn the occupants.
- If present, activate the cameras
- Finally it should set off the alarm
2. The Control Unit Module:
This is the decision making center that interprets the various inputs from the sensor and makes the appropriate logic decision.
3. Arm and Disarm Module:
This is for arming and disarming the system.
4. Alarm Module:
This is for warning and deterring the intruders.
Block diagram:
There is a block diagram here which is available in complete material
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