Smart connected climate control

• US 10,131,204 B2
• Filed: 01/05/2015
• Issued: 11/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Aich, Sudipto, Seagraves, Jamel, Feldman, Casey Bryan, Redda, Yonathan Aklilu
• Primary Examiner(s): Ruby, Travis
• Application Number:
  US14/589,489
• Publication Number:
  US 20160193895A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,415 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/00657 Remote control devices
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/00985 Control systems or circuits characterised by display or indicating devices, e.g. voice simulators characterised by the input of sound using a voice synthesizer B60H1/00757; B60H1/00978 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/30 for purposes related to the operation of the system, e.g. for safety or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/48 prior to normal operation, e.g. pre-heating or pre-cooling
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/56 Remote control
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/62 characterised by the type of control or by internal processing, e.g. using fuzzy logic, adaptive control or estimation of values
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/64 using pre-stored data
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/65 for selecting an operating mode
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2110/00 Control inputs relating to air properties
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2120/20 Feedback from users

Abstract

A system may receive historical climate control selections by a user and environmental conditions across a plurality of climate-controlled contexts; identify a correlation of temperature settings in a first of the climate-controlled contexts to temperature settings in a second of the climate-controlled contexts for an environmental condition; and update a user profile of the user according to the correlation. The system may also identify an upcoming user transition from a first climate-controlled context to a second climate-controlled context; and precondition the second context in accordance with the correlation.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a computing device programmed to

identify an upcoming user transition from a first climate-controlled context to a second climate-controlled context; and

precondition the second context in accordance with a correlation, for current environmental conditions, of climate control selections in the first context to different climate control selections in the second context, the correlation identified according to a user profile including historical climate control selections and environmental conditions across a plurality of climate-controlled contexts,

wherein one of (i) the first climate-controlled context is a home premises and the second climate-controlled context is a vehicle or (ii) the first climate-controlled context is the vehicle and the second climate-controlled context is the home premises.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is further programmed to identify the user transition according to a comparison of a location of the vehicle to a location of the home premises.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is further programmed to precondition by sending an automation command to the second climate-controlled context to instruct the second climate-controlled context to adjust temperature settings of the second climate-controlled context in accordance with the correlation identified according to the user profile.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the correlation indicates a temperature setting of the second climate-controlled context likely to be selected by the user according to the temperature setting of the first climate-controlled context and the current environmental conditions.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the temperature setting of the first climate-controlled context and the temperature setting of the second climate-controlled context specify different temperatures.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is further programmed to set the first climate-controlled context to an away status upon the user transition to the second climate-controlled context.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is one of a smartphone and a vehicle computing system.

8. A computer-implemented method comprising:

identifying an upcoming user transition from a home premises climate-controlled context to a vehicle climate-controlled context; and

preconditioning the vehicle context in accordance with a correlation, for current environmental conditions, of climate control selections in the home premises context to different climate control selections in the vehicle context, the correlation identified according to a user profile including historical climate control selections and environmental conditions across a plurality of climate-controlled contexts.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising identifying the user transition according to a comparison of a location of the vehicle to a location of the home premises.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising preconditioning by sending an automation command to the vehicle climate-controlled context to instruct the vehicle climate-controlled context to adjust temperature settings of the vehicle climate-controlled context in accordance with the correlation identified according to the user profile.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the correlation indicates a temperature setting of the vehicle climate-controlled context likely to be selected by the user according to the temperature setting of the home premises climate-controlled context and the current environmental conditions, wherein a temperature setting of the home premises climate-controlled context and the temperature setting of the vehicle climate-controlled context specify different temperatures.

12. A computer-implemented method comprising:

identifying an upcoming user transition from a vehicle climate-controlled context to a home premises climate-controlled context; and

preconditioning the home premises context in accordance with a correlation, for current environmental conditions, of climate control selections in the vehicle context to different climate control selections in the home premises context, the correlation identified according to a user profile including historical climate control selections and environmental conditions across a plurality of climate-controlled contexts.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising identifying the user transition according to a comparison of a location of the home premises to a location of the vehicle.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising preconditioning by sending an automation command to the home premises climate-controlled context to instruct the home premises climate-controlled context to adjust temperature settings of the home premises climate-controlled context in accordance with the correlation identified according to the user profile.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the correlation indicates a temperature setting of the home premises climate-controlled context likely to be selected by the user according to the temperature setting of the vehicle climate-controlled context and the current environmental conditions, wherein a temperature setting of the vehicle climate-controlled context and the temperature setting of the home premises climate-controlled context specify different temperatures.