N2Z – A NFC to ZigBee® transceiver

ZigBee home automation systems have been around for years. They include smart energy efficient wireless systems that connect devices via mesh networking. It has always been a problem to connect to these ZigBee nodes with existing technologies we use daily. The premise of this project is to provide easy access to these nodes via near field communication, which is a technology that is available on a majority of smart phones today. The report details the design and implementation of N2Z, a device that translates data provided by an Android app through a NFC interface to a ZigBee device and vice- versa. We first discuss the requirements and use cases for the device and application. Then the report goes on to discuss the base technologies behind N2Z, which include the Android platform, Near Field Communication (NFC) & the ZigBee platform. The report then goes on to discuss the design and implementation of the system. Consequently, we discuss the final results of the system with certain use cases and provide some empirical data that gives us insight into system operation. Next we discuss other existing technologies that exist in the market. Finally we conclude the report with a discussion on future work and thoughts on the future of ZigBee.