GRD Journals | Global Research and Development Journal for Engineering | National Conference on Computational Intelligence Systems

(NCCIS17) | March 2017

e-ISSN: 2455-5703

An IOT Based Approach for Vehicle Theft

Detection
1K.Kanimozhi 2D.Mukesh 3M.Ashok
1,2
Student 2,3Senior Assistant Professor
1,2,3
Department of Information Technology
1,2,3
Rajalakshmi Institute of Technology, India

Abstract
Property crimes is said to hover around 10 million annually. Of this vehicle theft tops the list and often occurs in all parts of the
world. There are so many recent technologies evolving and new methods are being upgraded in overcoming this issue. Internet of
Things has paved way to provide interaction between things. Internet of things with intelligence is a new era for the technology
developments. The existing methods have various shortcomings like the logics used cannot be implied in all the situations. The
methods involved in vehicle theft detection have become aware to everyone including the burglars and they try to break the system
and steal the vehicle. Therefore there must be a system which invisibly and uniquely authenticates and authorizes the vehicle. The
system should not know its existence to the outsiders. A mobile app can act as an interaction between the user and the vehicle.
Location updates are sent periodically to the registered user through mobile app. Privacy plays an important role which is
maintained through the mobile app where vehicle is being monitored when friends, relations and drivers uses the vehicle.
Keyword- Arduino, fingerprint sensor, mobile app, Internet of things, vehicle-theft
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

I. INTRODUCTION
Vehicular theft constitutes a high percentage of reported criminal acts [7]. The number of automobiles involved in travelling each
grows drastically high and it becomes impossible to identify the stolen vehicle. If the stolen crosses the national border then the
probability of capturing the vehicle is quiet low. Some vehicles are even stolen from attended garages and parking lots and thieves
ingenuity has overcome the most complex and safest mechanical locking devices.
There was steady increase in the number of stolen vehicle and the searches carried out as reported by INTERPOL [2].
The above fig (1) represents the automobile burglary rate increase in India. About 165,690 vehicles are stolen in India
where the graph depicts a huge deviation is seen at 2004-2013. The automobile theft could have increased proportionally with the
increased population in the recent years [9].In 2013, FBI estimated about 699,594 motor vehicle thefts nationwide. However there
was small decline in the previous year which again kept on increasing in the upcoming years after 2013. For every 13minutes a
vehicle theft occurs in India has been reported by the Times of India [1].
The industry observers and the technicians create awareness about the technologies used during the theft and the tactics
that are widely being followed by the burglars among the people. The automobile industry uses different technologies like the
smart keys, which eliminated hot-wiring to steal cars, switching to vehicle identification number, different lock systems for the
vehicle. With the help of these technologies there was reduction in the vehicle theft for few years.

Fig. 1: Automobile burglary rate in India

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 An IOT Based Approach for Vehicle Theft Detection
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II. LITERATURE SURVEY

With the evolution of technology in the recent years, different mechanisms and innovations are used in various fields. Vehicle theft
detection concentrates mainly on the various lock system or monitoring and controlling of vehicle from a remote location. These
types of devices cannot be practically implied as there are various shortcomings and the logics needs to be revised.
A sensor based vehicle theft detection system along with some features like fire detection is implemented in the vehicle
[4]. Two android devices communicate with each other one from the vehicle and the other is with the owner of the vehicle. A
password lock is used to control the vehicle. When a user tries to access the vehicle the intended uses needs to be authorized only
then the vehicle ignition can be turned on.
Constant surveillance of any object is maintained on car. Remote monitoring of vehicle is streamed through the
surveillance pad [5]. An event detection module consists of event detection sensor and event detection logic. Whenever the ignition
is started the location is updated in the pad.
Password locks with remote ignition cut-off mechanisms are used with the controller of the vehicle [8]. If any incorrect
password is encountered more than three times then the engine is cut off and the vehicle cannot be accessed anymore. When any
event of theft has occurred is alerts the nearby user with a buzzer sound.
Face recognition mechanisms are used when the engine is started a picture is captured and sent to the owner of the vehicle
[3]. This person can verify the user and identify whether the vehicle is stolen or not. The image is stored in the compressed format
and only when the image is verified is vehicles ignition can be enabled.

III. PROPOSED SYSTEM

In recent times, with the increase in technology development the crime rate also increases proportionally. The Auto Theft is said
to increase in the recent years which is said that Car Theft in U.S on rise in 2016. About 1.65lakh cars are stolen every year in
India. There are so many detection systems designed but it is not used in most of the cases. Therefore an intelligent auto theft
detection system is designed in such a way it can predict the event of theft accurately. The cars are enabled with Arduino controller
and finger print sensor. A mobile app can be used as the medium of interaction between the car owner and the vehicle. The
fingerprint sensor is placed at door knob of the car where it performs the authentication and authorization of the driver whos going
to use the vehicle. This sensor silently authenticates the driver but it is not made aware to the driver. When any unknown person
tries to access the vehicle periodic location updates are sent to the owner through the app. Privacy is one of the major factors as
the vehicle can be used by the driver, relations, friends etc. When any known person tries to access the vehicle, the finger print
pattern is got in advance through the app and sent to the Arduino controller. During this process, when an unknown person tries to
access location updates are sent to the owner otherwise the option is disabled. If there is probability of sure event then a contact is
made to nearby police station along with location and the registered car number.

IV. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

The system architecture comprises of the components and the interaction with the components followed in the system. The
proposed system architecture comprises of three parts. Initially the Arduino controller is interfaced with finger print sensor and the
Global Positioning System (GPS) module. Here the finger print sensors are not used for authentication purpose rather these finger
prints are stored and verified. There is no lock system in the cars but silently does the authorization and sends the location details
to the owner of the vehicle. A mobile app is used to interact with the Arudino and the database. Two databases are used, they are
location database and finger print database. Location database contains the location of the police station. When theft is suspected
by the owner tries to make a contact to the nearby police station. The details such as location of the vehicle, registration number,
finger prints of the driver are sent to owner who in turn provides that information to the police. Privacy is maintained by adding
close acquaintances data in the mobile app which is sent to the controller. This help to maintain privacy and unwanted surveillance
can be avoided.

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 An IOT Based Approach for Vehicle Theft Detection
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Fig. 2: System architecture diagram of the proposed system

V. WORKING
The entire working procedure of the system architecture is explained in this phase. Working can be explained in two ways such as
when an unknown or a known person tries to access the vehicle. The knobs of the car are made into finger printised knobs which
is not openly visible to the outsiders. Initially when any known tries to access the vehicle the fingerprints are stored using the
mobile app. Using the add user option the finger prints are added and surveillance are not necessary for the known people. The
fingerprints are verified when encountered and disables notification.
When an unknown person tries to access the vehicle the finger prints are sent to the controller. The controller sends the
data to the mobile app. The owner verifies the data with the already existing finger print data. If not present, then owner makes a
call to the last used person and verifies about the safety of the vehicle. If the owner suspect of theft then he makes a call to the
nearby police station and send the details of the vehicle. Finger print data can be used to search in the Aadhar card database and
which helps to identify the burglar.

VI. CONCLUSION
Every existing system is based on a lock mechanism in the vehicle. The recent technologies paved way to break the lock and
becomes easy to steal the vehicle. Therefore a system should be designed in such a way that it invisibly authenticates and authorizes
the driver. It must help the owners monitor the vehicle at any time and live stream the vehicles location and update it periodically.
If the owner suspects that any theft is likely to occur it should report to the nearby police station. The thief cannot dismantle the
entire system or break the lock as everything is invisible. This can easily help the owner to identify the vehicle and the thief can
be caught red handed by the police.

REFERENCES
[1] A vehicle is stolen every 13 mins in Delhi; rate up 44% since last year-Timesofindia.
[2] INTERPOL-A Statiscal assessment made during 2013 for automobile thefts.
[3] Zhixiong Liu, "A new embedded car theft detection system," Second International Conference on Embedded Software and
Systems (ICESS'05), 2005, pp. 6 pp.
[4] Akshay Zacharia, Ajo Thomas, Rinto Roy,VTDS: VEHICLE THEFT DETECTION SYSTEM, TECHNICAL RESEARCH
ORGANISATION, ISSN (ONLINE): 2395-6151, VOLUME-1, ISSUE-1, 2015.

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 An IOT Based Approach for Vehicle Theft Detection
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[5] Champa Bhagavathi.R , Gowri.B.R , Kasturi.R , Pooja.C,Vehicle Theft Detection and Prevention Using
[6] GSM and GPS, International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer and Communication Engineering (An ISO 3297:
2007 Certified Organization) Vol. 4, Issue 5, May 2016.
[7] Stolen equipment recovery device US 4284985 A,Google Patent.
[8] Kunjal P.Tanna, Preeti Kumar,Shubha Narayanan, Instant Theft Alert and Tracking System in Car, 2010 International
Journal of Computer Applications (0975 - 8887) Volume 1 No. 21.
[9] www.knoema.com, Survey information and graphical represenation of the lost vehicle.

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