System for building condition sensor monitoring and control

• US 10,158,498 B2
• Filed: 07/10/2017
• Issued: 12/18/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hartford Fire Insurance Company (The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hartford Fire Insurance Company (The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Brandman, Michael Louis, Feldman, Julia M., Marchetti, Richard J., Ryen, Steinar
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, LEON VIET Q
• Application Number:
  US15/645,058
• Publication Number:
  US 20170310498A1
• Time in Patent Office: 526 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: B42D 15/0033 Owner certificates, insurance policies, guarantees
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 17/10 Actuation by presence of smoke or gases , e.g. automatic alarm devices for analysing flowing fluid materials by the use of optical means
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 19/00 Alarms responsive to two or more different undesired or abnormal conditions, e.g. burglary and fire, abnormal temperature and abnormal rate of flow
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/20 responsive to moisture
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]

Abstract

Apparatus and systems for providing home and building security and condition monitoring include a plurality of devices, including intelligent, multi-sensing, network-connected devices, that communicate dynamically with each other and a remote server.

Claims

1. A dynamic building control system for detecting one or more conditions associated with one or more building regions of a building property, the system, comprising:

a plurality of sensors configured to monitor the one or more building regions of the building property, wherein each of the plurality of sensors is configured to generate electronic signals corresponding to one or more sensed conditions of the one or more building regions;

a plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices configured to control one or more building components;

a wireless network in communication with the plurality of sensors and the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices; and

an electronic control center connected to a remote server system and a remote data system, wherein the electronic control center is configured to;

receive, from the wireless network, the electronic signals corresponding to the one or more sensed conditions of the one or more building regions;

transmit, via a communications interface device, to the remote server system, data related to the electronic signals;

receive, via the communications interface device from the remote server system, instructions for controlling one or more of the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices to mitigate a risk condition when the data related to the electronic signals indicates a presence of the risk condition corresponding to the one or more building regions;

transmit, via the wireless network to the one or more of the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices, the instructions to control the one or more of the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices to mitigate the risk condition, wherein the one or more of the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices are configured to implement the instructions;

receive, after implementation of the instructions by the one or more of the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices, additional electronic signals from the plurality of sensors corresponding to the one or more sensed conditions of the one or more building regions; and

transmit, via the communications interface device to the remote server system, additional data related to the additional electronic signals;

wherein the remote server system determines, based upon the additional data, whether the risk condition was mitigated by the implementation of the instructions; and

responsive to a determination that the risk condition was not mitigated by the implementation of the instructions, modifies one or more stored parameters associated with the building property.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of sensors comprise at least one of a fire detector, a smoke detector, a CO2 detector, a water leak detector, an appliance monitor, an electronic lock sensor, a temperature sensor, a video monitor, a water usage monitor, a security system monitor, a leak detection system, a furnace monitor, a boiler monitor, an entry/exit sensor, a motion detector, a glass breakage sensor, an ultraviolet (UV) sensor, an infrared (IR) sensor, a multi-spectrum infrared (MSIR) sensor, and a visual flame imaging sensor.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one of the plurality of sensors comprises one or more of a smoke detector, a fire detector, and a visual flame imaging sensor, wherein the risk condition comprises a potential fire, wherein the one or more of the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices comprises a fire alarm, and wherein the instructions to control the one or more of the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices to mitigate the risk condition comprises an instruction to control the fire alarm to initiate an alarm.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the one of the plurality of sensors comprises a temperature sensor, wherein the risk condition comprises an open window detected based on temperature data sensed by the temperature sensor, wherein the one or more of the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices comprises a window motor, and wherein the instructions to control the one or more of the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices to mitigate the risk condition comprises an instruction to control the window motor to close the open window.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the electronic control center is further configured to continually receive the additional electronic signals from the plurality of sensors and transmit the additional data relating to the additional electronic signals to the remote server system via the communications interface device, and wherein the remote server system is further configured to determine a usage of one of the plurality of sensors based upon the additional data and modify the one or more stored parameters associated with the building property based upon the determined usage.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the remote server system is further configured to receive auxiliary data indicative of current enrollment in monitoring services provided by one or more third party monitoring services currently monitoring one or more of the plurality of sensors, and wherein the remote server system is further configured to modify the one or more stored parameters associated with the building property based upon the auxiliary data.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the remote server system is further configured to determine, responsive to the data related to the electronic signals indicating the presence of the risk condition corresponding to the one or more building regions, whether a first notice of loss has been received.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more stored parameters associated with the building property comprises one of a premium, a discount, and a surcharge to be applied to a risk policy for the building property.

9. A system comprising:

a communications interface device for transmitting and receiving data from an electronic control center networked with a plurality of sensors for detecting one or more conditions associated with one or more building regions of a building property, said data related to electronic signals generated by one or more of the plurality of sensors corresponding to one or more sensed conditions of the one or more building regions;

a data storage device configured to store sensor data; and

a server communicatively coupled to the communications interface device and the data storage device and configured to;

receive, via the communications interface device, from the electronic control center, the data related to the electronic signals corresponding to the one or more sensed conditions of the one or more building regions;

determine whether the data related to the electronic signals indicates a presence of a risk condition corresponding to the one or more building regions;

responsive to a determination that the data related to the electronic signals indicates the presence of the risk condition, transmit, via the communications interface device to the electronic control center, instructions for controlling one or more of a plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices to mitigate the risk condition;

receive, via the communications interface device from the electronic control center after implementation of the instructions, additional data relating to additional electronic signals corresponding to the one or more sensed conditions of the one or more building regions; and

determine, based upon the additional data, whether the risk condition was mitigated by the implementation of the instructions; and

responsive to a determination that the risk condition was not mitigated by the implementation of the instructions, modify one or more stored parameters associated with the building property.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the risk condition comprises one of a water risk, a fire risk, and a wind risk.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the one or more of the plurality of sensors comprises one or more of a smoke detector, a fire detector, and a visual flame imaging sensor, wherein the risk condition comprises a potential fire, wherein the one or more of the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices comprises a fire alarm, and wherein the instructions to control the one or more of the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices to mitigate the risk condition comprises an instruction to control the fire alarm to initiate an alarm.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the one or more of the plurality of sensors comprises a temperature sensor, wherein the risk condition comprises an open window detected based on temperature data sensed by the temperature sensor, wherein the one or more of the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices comprises a window motor, and wherein the instructions to control the one or more of the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices to mitigate the risk condition comprises an instruction to control the window motor to close the open window.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the electronic control center is further configured to continually receive the additional electronic signals from the plurality of sensors and transmit the additional data relating to the additional electronic signals to the server via the communications interface device, and wherein the server is further configured to determine a usage of one of the plurality of sensors based upon the additional data and modify the one or more stored parameters associated with the building property based upon the determined usage.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the server is further configured to receive auxiliary data indicative of current enrollment in monitoring services provided by one or more third party monitoring services currently monitoring one or more of the plurality of sensors, and wherein the server is further configured to modify the one or more stored parameters associated with the building property based upon the auxiliary data.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the server is further configured to determine, responsive to the data related to the electronic signals indicating the risk condition corresponding to the one or more building regions, whether a first notice of loss has occurred.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the data storage device is further configured to store historical and comparative sensor data, and wherein the server being configured to determine whether the data related to the electronic signals indicates the presence of the risk condition corresponding to the one or more building regions is based upon analysis of the data related to the electronic signals based upon the historical and comparative sensor data.