An autonomous solar powered wireless monitoring and surveillance system

In recent years, there has been a drastic increase in the number of monitoring and surveillance camera systems installed worldwide. This is due to the ever-increasing crime rates. Remote surveillance system have become popular, and enable people to monitor their properties in real time, via the internet. Video surveillance has experienced a number of technology shifts. The latest is the shift from analog CCTV surveillance to fully digital, network-based video surveillance systems, which are meant to be ON, 24-hours a day. It is also noted that commercial home security systems are still unaffordable to a vast majority of the middle and lower class families. However, the emergence of cheap microcontrollers, like the Arduino, has enabled the implementation of low-cost security systems, incorporating the majority of features present in commercial systems. Also, even though a security camera system takes up only a small portion of the total household energy consumption, a small step to green up the home security system will not only diminish energy spending but also reduce carbon footprint in the long run. In this paper, we present a highly scalable, autonomous, solar powered, wireless monitoring system that also provides live video broadcasting. It is based on a low cost microcontroller, a camera module, and an online internet of things (IoT) platform. A motion detection system was also implemented and the microcontroller sends email notification whenever motion is detected. The whole system is powered by a photovoltaic system. Tests show that the system is fully functional and behaves as expected. The system can be used in residential buildings, commercial buildings, and also in remote, mobile offices, whereby there is no supply of electricity from the utilities.