Systems and methods for pre-scheduling repair of home equipment

• US 10,217,068 B1
• Filed: 08/10/2015
• Issued: 02/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Original Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Inventors: Davis, Justin, Hailey, John, Matesevac, III, Edward P., O'Flaherty, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Choi, Peter H
• Assistant Examiner(s): Karmis, Alissa D
• Application Number:
  US14/822,436
• Time in Patent Office: 1,296 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/026 for alarm, monitoring and auditing in vending machines or means for indication, e.g. when empty

Abstract

A method and system may automatically detect failures and pre-schedule repairs for home equipment in a smart home environment when the property owner is away from the property. A smart home controller may receive sensor data from each of several pieces of home equipment to detect whether any failures have occurred. If the smart home controller detects a failure in one of the pieces of home equipment based on the sensor data, the smart home controller may communicate with a repair service provider to pre-schedule a repair of the piece of home equipment which experiences the failure. The repair service provider may then transmit a pre-scheduled time and cost for performing the repair and may perform the repair at the scheduled time.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for automatically scheduling repair of smart home equipment, the method executed by one or more processors programmed to perform the method, the method comprising:

receiving, at a smart home controller, an indication from a property owner pre-authorizing automatic scheduling of smart home equipment repairs;

for each of a plurality of pieces of smart home equipment located at a property which includes a smart home system;

periodically collecting, at one or more first sensors communicatively coupled to a first piece of smart home equipment, a first set of sensor data for the first piece of smart home equipment;

periodically collecting, at one or more second sensors communicatively coupled to a second piece of smart home equipment which is physically connected to the first piece of smart home equipment, a second set of sensor data for the second piece of home equipment;

receiving, at the smart home controller, the first set of sensor data for the first piece of smart home equipment from the one or more first sensors and the second set of sensor data for the second piece of smart home equipment from the one or more second sensors;

identifying, by the smart home controller, a failure at the first piece of smart home equipment;

in response to identifying the failure at the first piece of smart home equipment, determining, by the smart home controller, that the first piece of smart home equipment needs to be repaired based on a collective analysis of both the first and second sets of sensor data for the first and second pieces of smart home equipment, respectively, wherein the collective analysis is used to identify whether the first or the second piece of smart home equipment is a cause of the failure, the collective analysis including;

analyzing, by the smart home controller, the first and second sets of sensor data to detect that the first piece of smart home equipment is operating outside of normal operating characteristics for the first piece of smart home equipment and that the second piece of smart home equipment is operating within normal operating characteristics for the second piece of smart home equipment;

when the first piece of smart home equipment needs to be repaired;

automatically and without interacting with the property owner, scheduling, by the smart home controller, a repair of the first piece of smart home equipment including;

transmitting, by the smart home controller, a first notification to a repair service provider for scheduling the repair of the first piece of smart home equipment, wherein the first notification includes an authorization to access the property and access information for accessing the property; and

receiving, by the smart home controller, a second notification from the repair service provider including a scheduled time for repairing the first piece of smart home equipment to cause the first piece of smart home equipment to be repaired; and

providing, by the smart home controller, a control signal to the first piece of smart home equipment to shut down or limit operation of the first piece of smart home equipment in response to the failure.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second notification from the repair service provider includes a cost for performing the repair, and further comprising:

obtaining, at the smart home controller, a pre-authorized payment amount from a property owner.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein when the received cost for performing the repair does not exceed the pre-authorized payment amount, the method further comprises transmitting, by the smart home controller, a pre-payment for performing the repair at the scheduled time.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein when the received cost for performing the repair exceeds the pre-authorized payment amount, the method further comprises transmitting, by the smart home controller, a third notification to the repair service provider not to perform the repair at the scheduled time.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein when the received cost for performing the repair exceeds the pre-authorized payment amount, the method further comprises:

transmitting, by the smart home controller, a request to the property owner to increase the pre-authorized payment amount to an amount corresponding to the received cost;

receiving, by the smart home controller, an authorization from the property owner to increase the pre-authorized payment amount to the amount corresponding to the received cost; and

transmitting, by the smart home controller, a pre-payment for performing the repair at the scheduled time.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first notification includes preferred times or preferred time ranges for scheduling the repair and wherein the preferred times or preferred time ranges are when the property owner will be away from the property.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing, by the smart home controller, the received first set of sensor data to identify diagnostic information for the first piece of smart home equipment; and

wherein the first notification includes the identified diagnostic information.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the information for accessing the property includes at least one of:

a security code for entering the property, location information for retrieving a key to the property, or an alarm code for disabling an alarm located on the property.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the first piece of smart home equipment needs to be repaired includes:

obtaining, by the smart home controller, one or more equipment conditions for determining whether the first piece of smart home equipment needs to be repaired based on a type of equipment for the first piece of smart home equipment;

comparing, by the smart home controller, the first set of sensor data to the one or more equipment conditions corresponding to the matching type of home equipment; and

determining, by the smart home controller, that the first piece of smart home equipment needs to be repaired based on the comparison.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of pieces of smart home equipment include at least one of:

a refrigerator, a freezer, a dish washer, a washing machine, a dryer, an oven, a stove, a microwave, a heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) unit, a furnace, a sump pump, a plumbing fixture, or an electrical outlet.

11. A system for automatically scheduling repair of smart home equipment within a smart home, the system comprising:

one or more sensors communicatively coupled to a plurality of pieces of smart home equipment located at a property which includes a smart home system, wherein the one or more sensors collect sensor data for the plurality of pieces of smart home equipment; and

a smart home controller including;

one or more processors;

a communication network; and

a non-transitory computer-readable memory coupled to the one or more processors, the one or more sensors, and the communication network, and storing thereon instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the smart home controller to;

receive an indication from a property owner pre-authorizing automatic scheduling of smart home equipment repairs;

for each of the plurality of pieces of smart home equipment;

periodically receive a first set of sensor data for a first piece of smart home equipment generated by at least one of the one or more sensors which are communicatively coupled to the first piece of smart home equipment;

periodically receive a second set of sensor data for a second piece of smart home equipment which is physically connected to the first piece of smart home equipment, wherein the second set of sensor data is generated by at least one of the one or more sensors which are communicatively coupled to the second piece of smart home equipment;

identify a failure at the first piece of smart home equipment;

in response to identifying the failure at the first piece of smart home equipment, determine that the first piece of smart home equipment needs to be repaired based on a collective analysis of both the first and second sets of sensor data for the first and second pieces of smart home equipment, respectively, wherein the collective analysis is used to identify whether the first or the second piece of smart home equipment is a cause of the failure, the collective analysis including;

 

analyze the first and second sets of sensor data to detect that the first piece of smart home equipment is operating outside of normal operating characteristics for the first piece of smart home equipment and that the second piece of smart home equipment is operating within normal operating characteristics for the second piece of smart home equipment;

when the first piece of smart home equipment needs to be repaired;

automatically and without interacting with the property owner, schedule a repair of the first piece of smart home equipment including;

 

transmit, via the communication network, a first notification to a repair service provider for scheduling the repair of the first piece of smart home equipment, wherein the first notification includes an authorization to access the property and access information for accessing the property; and

 

receive, via the communication network, a second notification from the repair service provider including a scheduled time for repairing the first piece of smart home equipment to cause the first piece of smart home equipment to be repaired; and

provide a control signal to the first piece of smart home equipment to shut down or limit operation of the first piece of smart home equipment in response to the failure.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the second notification from the repair service provider includes a cost for performing the repair, and wherein the instructions further cause the smart home controller to obtain a pre-authorized payment amount from a property owner.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein when the received cost for performing the repair does not exceed the pre-authorized payment amount, the instructions further cause the smart home controller to transmit, via the communication network, a pre-payment for performing the repair at the scheduled time.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein when the received cost for performing the repair exceeds the pre-authorized payment amount, the instructions further cause the smart home controller to transmit, via the communication network, a third notification to the repair service provider not to perform the repair at the scheduled time.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein when the received cost for performing the repair exceeds the pre-authorized payment amount, the instructions further cause the smart home controller to:

transmit, via the communication network, a request to the property owner to increase the pre-authorized payment amount to an amount corresponding to the received cost;

receive, via the communication network, an authorization from the property owner to increase the pre-authorized payment amount to the amount corresponding to the received cost; and

transmit, via the communication network, a pre-payment for performing the repair at the scheduled time.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the first notification includes preferred times or preferred time ranges for scheduling the repair and wherein the preferred times or preferred time ranges are when the property owner will be away from the property.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the smart home controller to:

analyze the received first set of sensor data to identify diagnostic information for the first piece of smart home equipment; and

wherein the first notification includes the identified diagnostic information.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the information for accessing the property includes at least one of:

a security code for entering the property, location information for retrieving a key to the property, or an alarm code for disabling an alarm located on the property.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein to determine that the first piece of smart home equipment needs to be repaired, the instructions cause the smart home controller to:

obtain one or more equipment conditions for determining whether the first piece of smart home equipment needs to be repaired based on a type of equipment for the first piece of smart home equipment;

compare the first set of sensor data to the one or more equipment conditions corresponding to the matching type of home equipment; and

determine that the first piece of smart home equipment needs to be repaired based on the comparison.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of pieces of smart home equipment include at least one of:

a refrigerator, a freezer, a dish washer, a washing machine, a dryer, an oven, a stove, a microwave, a heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) unit, a furnace, a sump pump, a plumbing fixture, or an electrical outlet.