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I've been using&nbsp;<a href="https://www.home-assistant.io/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Home Assistant</a>&nbsp;to control my home IoT devices for a while. Although it fulfills all my needs, I wanted to make my own system so as to get a fully customized smart home control panel and learn how to build such an application in the process.

Foreign models are quite in demand in Japan and as such it is not uncommon for foreigners living there to have a side activity in the modeling industry. I had the chance to meet the manager a <a href="https://azs-group.jp/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">AZS entertainment</a> and was told that the agency was currently recruiting. So, since I am always looking for new life experiences, I decided to join.

Web applications commonly require a user database and the management logic for it. Having to build such software infrastructure for each individual app would be time consuming so I designed a general-purpose user management microservice that can be easily integrated in a project.

As part of a previous project, I installed an IoT lock on my front door, which allowed me to control it using my smartphone. However, having to take out my smartphone every time I want to unlock the door quickly becomes annoying. To improve on the situation, I installed an RFID reader on the lock, which I used in combination with an RFID ring which now serves as my key. To follow up on this trend of finding new ways to unlock my door, I decided to explore face recognition technologies.

Although a wide variety of sensing devices can be envisioned for home automation systems, motion and temperature sensors are among the most widespread. This is mostly due to their low cost and simplicity of use. In order to equip multiple rooms of my apartment with such sensors, I designed a simple IoT sensing module that can easily be produced in any quantity.

I am not much of a cook so salads are usually one of my favorite options for a healthy meal. So, just like for everything else, I started wondering if I could make my own. However, I don't have access to a garden so I started looking into solutions to grow vegetables indoors. I settled for hydroponics, which seemed to provide a good balance between yield and operational hassle. Specifically, I went for a Deep Water Culture type of hydroponic system as it is usually considered easy for beginners to setup.

An IoT RGBW LED controlled via MQTT with integrated motion and illuminance sensor.