The Importance Of Mobile Applications In Everyday Life

Abstract -
In our day to day life, mobile devices are becoming an irreplaceable part. The
different development environment is affected by the advance technology in
mobile. Apps are developed for our day to day aspects of life, such as education,
transport, cooking, banking, energy-smart meter, and many different types of apps
are developed. British Gas Smart Meter is a specific app used by many people.
Different users have downloaded this app almost one million times. Within this
project, I am going to develop a smart meter application for mobile phones. It is
very challenging to create such application because, in the App Store, there are
hundreds of similar applications are available. Still, my application will free to
purchase, which makes my application more special. As compared to other similar
types of application which are available in the different app store, other applications
may charge more amount for the premium and additional features like daily update
within 12 hours. I am developing an application which provides some unique
features which will be very helpful for the users and my application also determine
savings for the month which help the users to maintain their pocket, and payment
can be made from the phone, which makes the payment very easy and quick. This
application mainly developed for adults and young people who tackle such bills.
This report contains huge difficulties and challenges faced in every phase of the
development of an application called smart meter application and its advanced
features for the smart home. There are many different techniques and tools are
used to develop the smart meter application. Does this application is connected
with the network that permits your electricity and smart gas meter to interact with
each other as well as with your in-home display? The smart meter uses a Wide Area
Network (WAN) whenever the smart meter needs to communicate with your energy
provider. This network is secure as like the mobile phones that are used to transmit
the data of the users.
Smart meter app developed to target the teenager and adult users as they can
track the usage of electricity and gas and also able to track their use for the month.
In the current scenario, the demand is increased for electricity in the world, and
many technologies have been developed from time to time to save energy such as
smart grid, which manages energy and helps to measures smart appliances.
1.1 Introduction
The title of this project is “Investigation of smart meter and its feature for smart
home” and design and develop a mobile application. Mobile phones made a
significant effect in human’s life because there is an app which wakes up in the
morning, plans the fastest route which helps us to reach our destination, monitor
our heart and also manage our bank accounts. There are many applications for
every single work. In this project, the main focus on designing and developing a

mobile app called smart meter with features for smart homes. The apps can track
all the details about electricity usage. It will show how much electricity you are
using in the month, and there are many unique features on the app.
Apple Store is an electronics store that given to its users to download millions of
apps that they can use daily. “In 2008, the Apple Store was launched with 500
available apps. After five years, the number of apps available in the app store
crossed 1 million”.
Play Store, which owns by Google, also has millions of apps to use for its android
users. ‘’Google launched its app store called Play Store in 2008 as well, which
formerly known as Android Market It overtakes Apple Store with 82% of growth as
compared to apple store.’’
Users of the smart meter app face a different problem, likes how the application
works to provide such information or how the meter shows reading. For example,
suppose a user using EDF energy, and the user wants to check the electricity usage
for the month, the meter may show incorrect information because the user was not
in home for the last one week and it displaying that you used electricity even you
were not at home. It is a widespread problem.
The major challenge will develop a smart meter app that works correctly and
accurately with a decent login/signup page and also provides a graphical
representation for the meter reading. It will be difficult because I have to write
codes for the login and signup process with a correct email address and password
after that I have to write codes for another page of the app which shows the
individual meter reading companies with a graphical representation of electricity
usage.
Chapter 2
2.0. Literature review
This Literature review contains the following topics of research which incorporate
definition of mobile application, mobile application development, different platforms
Android and IOS, unique about mobile phones, smart meter’s history, motive of
smart meter, existing smart meters available in the market, features of different
smart meter, compare other smart meter apps, comparison for three separate
application, methodology wireframe, proposed solution android studio, select the
right and appropriate programing language, project plan, source code. The above
topics will be discussed in detail.
2.1. Mobile application – Definition
The mobile application is a type of software. Applications which are developed for
small devices is known as a mobile application. This software’s are built to work on
smartphones and tablets, not for computer or laptop. It is also known as a mobile

app.
Usually, mobile applications are already loaded in the mobile phones. A mobile
application can be downloaded from the app store and different sources. App Store
is for IOS devices, and the Play Store is for Android devices. Both of the app stores
provide a verity of rare apps such as travel advisors, games, and many more.
2.2. Unique about a mobile phone
Every mobile phone has a distinct feature because it comes with various
specifications and characteristics like the size and weight of the mobile phone,
battery capacity that powers the device, Wi-Fi, and many more. All the above things
are unique to different mobile phones.
Every mobile phone associated with an IMEI number. The full name of IMEI number
is International Mobile Equipment Identity. This IMEI number is uniquely associated
with every single mobile phone. IMEI number is a type of unique identification
number that comes with every mobile phone. Generally, the IMEI number has 15
digits. The IMEI number can be found by simply typing *#06# on your mobile phone
it also tells us the mobile is blocked or unblocked. If the IMEI number is blocked, you
are not able to use any mobile service.
2.3. History of mobile smart meter
In 2006, Company started an initial trial for limited people by installing smart
meters for testing purpose.
These meters are installed in limited homes because still, the government was
doing the trials for the smart meter. But in June 2007 the government announced
first roll-out for the Christchurch people was started. In the next coming year,
companies installed almost 112,000 smart meters in the household, which is a good
sign for the users because everyone can track their electricity usage and how much
electricity you consume in the month.
Over 6300 smart meters had been installed in late 2006 for the initial trial period.
The first roll-out started on 28 June 2007 in Christchurch, and they are planned to
install smart meters in more than 112000 homes by January 2009.
In the market, many companies are providing smart meters to their customers,
such as Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), OVO Energy, EDF Energy, British Gas,
and many other companies.
Most of the above companies are similar but offer different types of feature. British
Gas does more than electricity and gas that makes a difference for the customers.
British gas has over 30,000 people. It is a very famous company concerning others
because they provide outstanding service to their customer. It changes every year,
but they try to provide the cheapest service to their customer concerning other

companies available in the market.
EDF Energy is the largest producer of Low- Carbon electricity. In Great Britain, EDF
Energy is the biggest supplier of electricity, and In the UK this company is the
second cheapest company. Companies using the smart meter in households, which
helps the users to see which product is using a high amount of electricity. In Homes,
having a smart meter measure the amount of gases and electricity you are using
and measure the cost of this. In the house which having one smart meter is great
because it automatically sends the status of your electricity and gas usages once in
the month, which helps the company to estimate for you.
All over the research, I got different apps available in the play store and apple store.
After some deep research, I found some top apps for android and IOS on the app
store of both platforms and also looked at the apps which one is similar and what
the difference between them. Based on the research, I have chosen the top three
apps among them.
2.5. Existing smart meter apps
Everyone knows that in the market, there is an app available for everything which
used daily by thousands of people. Similarly, there is an app for meter reading;
thousands of people use such meter reading to track their electricity and gas
usages and also track how much electricity they consume in the month. To check,
the user needs to install an app for smart meter that you can easily find on the
Apple store or Google Play Store. In the market, the most used and trusted smart
meter app is British Gas, OVO Energy, and EDF Energy. These apps are download
and used by most of the users on the Google Play Store concerning another smart
meter app that is available in the app stores.
However, in the market, there are many distinct smart meter apps available, but
many people did not use these apps because many people have not heard about
these apps before. The apps are E.on Energy, ISmart Meter, Scottish Power and
Smart E-Meter.
2.6. Different smart meter apps and features
In this, I am going to discuss some typical features of various smart meter
applications. The smart meter apps in which features are discussed below are the
EDF Energy app, E.ON Energy app, British Gas app, OVO Energy app, Npower app,
Scottish power app and First Utility app.
2.6.1 British Gas App features–