Electronic voting (e-voting) systems are gaining increasing attention as a means to modernize electoral processes, enhance transparency, and boost voters’ participation. In recent years, significant developments have occurred in the study of e-voting and blockchain technology systems, hence reshaping many electoral systems globally. For example, real-world implementations of blockchain-based e-voting have been explored in various countries, such as Estonia and Switzerland, which demonstrates the potential of blockchain to enhance the security and transparency of elections. Thus, in this paper, we present a survey of the latest trends in the development of e-voting systems, focusing on the integration of blockchain technology as a promising solution to address various concerns in e-voting, including security, transparency, auditability, and voting integrity. This survey is important because existing survey articles do not cover the latest advancements in blockchain technology for e-voting, particularly as it relates to architecture, global trends, and current concerns in the developmental process. Thus, we address this gap by providing an encompassing overview of architectures, developments, concerns, and solutions in e-voting systems based on the use of blockchain technology. Specifically, a concise summary of the information necessary for implementing blockchain-based e-voting solutions is provided. Furthermore, we discuss recent advances in blockchain systems, which aim to enhance scalability and performance in large-scale voting scenarios. We also highlight the fact that the implementation of blockchain-based e-voting systems faces challenges, including cybersecurity risks, resource intensity, and the need for robust infrastructure, which must be addressed to ensure the scalability and reliability of these systems. This survey also points to the ongoing development in the field, highlighting future research directions such as improving the efficiency of blockchain algorithms and integrating advanced cryptographic techniques to further enhance security and trust in e-voting systems. Hence, by analyzing the current state of e-voting systems and blockchain technology, insights have been provided into the opportunities and challenges in the field with opportunities for future research and development efforts aimed at creating more secure, transparent, and inclusive electoral processes.

Blockchain is a distributed and decentralized ledger of transactions that are linked together cryptographically leading to immutability and tamper-resistance, thereby ensuring the integrity of data. Due to the ability of blockchain to guarantee the integrity of data, it has found wide-range adoption in electronic voting (e-voting) systems in recent years, this is in a bid to prevent manipulation of votes. However, due to the distributed nature of the blockchain, opportunities arise for privacy intrusion of the data being secured. The translation of this privacy flaw in blockchain to e-voting systems is the possibility of violation of the privacy of the electorates. Consequently, in a bid to achieve integrity and privacy of votes in e-voting, this study presents the use of an open-source blockchain system, coupled with a privacy-oriented cryptosystem known as the Paillier cryptosystem, towards addressing the privacy concerns of the blockchain. The performance of the system was evaluated and a transaction throughput of 1424 tps was obtained for ten thousand simulated ballot transactions. Further evaluation was carried out on the system, by increasing the number of system transactions. This showed that the mining time of the blockchain increased by an average factor of 0.18 s for every thousand increases in the number of transactions. Also, the response time of the system to a range of user actions was evaluated over an increasing number of voters. Results obtained showed that the response time of the system for vote casting operations increased by an average of 0.33 min per thousand voters while for vote tallying there was an increase in response time by an average of 0.848 min per thousand voters. The scientific value of this study is the development of an integrity and privacy-preserving e-voting system consisting of an open-source nodechain coupled with a privacy-oriented cryptosystem known as the Paillier cryptosystem following the security requirements of e-voting systems. The proposed system addresses the issue of integrity in e-voting while still maintaining the privacy of the electorates.

The prevalence of political interference during election processes remains a significant challenge to the free, fair, and credible conduct of general elections. This election event is crucial as a pillar of democratic governance in any democracy, with the potential for unfitting disturbance and chaos, such as multiple votes, illicit voting, and malicious actors that can be exploited electronically to disrupt voting or affect vote counts. However, this research proposed to develop a secure, smart, verifiable e-voting system (SSVEVS) that can offer an authenticated end-to-end tally voting system, a top-secret ballot election system, and confidence in overall election integrity. The proof of this smart and secure electronic voting system utilizes a 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A76 processor, integrated with multimodal biometric (facial and fingerprint) authentication systems, programmed with a deep-learning image processing (DLIP) algorithm to optimize image detection and recognition. Also, an Ethereum blockchain technology (EBT) with a homomorphic encryption algorithm was implemented on the system to ensure that the original information record is maintained, immutable, tamper-resistant, and transparent throughout the electoral process, and stores the information in a decentralized database application. The system achieved 1,424.501 TPS for 10,000 transactions with a mining time of 7.02 seconds. The biometric (facial and fingerprint) authentication achieved a False Acceptance Rate (FAR) and False Rejection Rate (FRR) of 0.00% respectively. The True Acceptance Rate (TAR) is 100%, with a false image template of 0.04% true identification rate (TPIR).

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a growing network of physical devices that are connected to various types of sensors and can share data with the aid of internet connectivity. Safety is an important consideration when designing a house, town, smart kitchen, etc., and it continues to play an important role in today’s world. In general, the kitchen is regarded as one of the most crucial tasks in our everyday lives, making it imperative to equip this vital element of human life with smart devices to avoid commonplace incidents such as gas leaks, intense particles in the environment, or fire outbursts. Gas leaks in the kitchen can be dangerous and deadly, resulting in fires if they go unchecked. For smart kitchens, various systems have been built to combat gas leaks and fire outbreaks. However, despite their high precision, these systems each have their own set of flaws that have severely restricted their implementations. The state-of-the-art in gas leakage, fire, and smoke detection in a smart kitchen is discussed in this paper. Different methods of gas leakage and fire detection are also addressed, along with their strengths and weaknesses, as well as products available in the market today.

Insufficient power generation has facilitated the search for alternative power generation, as the world is gradually making the transition to renewable green energy sources as a replacement for fossil fuels and other conventional power generation methods that causes environmental pollution. One of these methods is the use of solar energy for electricity generation through the use of the photovoltaic solar inverter which harnesses the power from the sun to generate electricity. The inability of electricity distributors to provide enough and sustainable power supply for homes and businesses, coupled with the need to live a smart life has made humans sort for an easier control method of electricity generation and usage. Hence, this research presents a smart voice and mobile application control modular inverter integrated with a smart metered energy distribution system, which equally distributes power amongst the users for effective and smart energy usage. A test of applied load on the inverter as compared to normal electricity usage deduced an 8% error rate giving a 92% accuracy for the inverter. The mobile app was tested for both online and offline usage and a 67% accuracy was deduced as the overall accuracy of the software. This gives an inference that the system can be fully operated by a user in the luxury of their comfort. For smart meter monitoring and energy allocation, 93.33% and 96.8% accuracy and precision were achieved respectively. This research makes the usage of green energy more efficient with its feature which allows for equal distribution of energy. The system also helps prevent energy theft or misuse by providing only the proper user with alerts and administrative control.

In the Nigerian economy, agriculture plays a very important role, and most of its people depend on it for their livelihood. Agricultural practices in the country are still mainly based on conventional, traditional methods of farming which usually results in wastage of water resources and low production of crops to meet the country's demand. There is a need to transform farming from the traditional way to a more efficient method with optimum water utilization. Irrigation is an assistive measure to salvage the problem of inadequate water for dry season farming. Irrigation consumes a lot of water, time and must be done on a timely basis. The automated irrigation system helps to curb the problem of overwatering and under watering of the land. This research proposed an Arduino-based smart irrigation system using a wireless sensor network to overcome the problem of overwatering, underwatering, and efficient time utilization in farming. The system is implemented using Arduino IDE, Proteus Simulation Tools, and Blynk Platform. The effect of the four-mobile network: MTN, GLO, Airtel and 9mobile on response time for Gidan- Kwano area was evaluated. Testing carried out on the system resulted in a response time of 0.75 seconds for Glo 2G network and 0.45 seconds for Glo 4G network. Less than 1sec in the worst-case scenario. This makes the system effective in terms of time response, thereby eradicate the waste of time that manual system operation poised to irrigation scheduling. Also, the appropriate soil moisture content is maintained, whether it rains or not. This reduces excesses and ensures healthy plant growth, increasing agricultural productivity, and cultivating crops are made possible throughout the year. The system also will help in driving agricultural innovation through the use of IoT.