Systems and methods for sending diagnostic information during scheduling of home equipment repair

• US 10,229,394 B1
• Filed: 08/10/2015
• Issued: 03/12/2019
• 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): Diaz, Susanna M.
• Application Number:
  US14/822,354
• Time in Patent Office: 1,310 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0736 in functional embedded systems, i.e. in a data processing system designed as a combination of hardware and software dedicated to performing a certain function testing or monitoring of automated control systems G05B23/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0769 Readable error formats, e.g. cross-platform generic formats, human understandable formats
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0775 Content or structure details of the error report, e.g. specific table structure, specific error fields
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1097 Task assignment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2827 Reporting to a device within the home network; wherein the reception of the information reported automatically triggers the execution of a home appliance functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0654 using network fault recovery ring fault isolation or reconfiguration in loop networks without recovery actions by a network management system H04L12/437
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5074 Handling of user complaints or trouble tickets

Abstract

A method and system may automatically detect failures and send diagnostic information when scheduling home equipment repairs in a smart home environment. 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 diagnostic information for the piece of home equipment experiencing the failure to a repair service provider to schedule a repair.

Claims

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

for each of one or more pieces of smart home equipment located at a property which includes a smart home system;

transmitting, by one or more processors of a smart home controller, an authorization screen to a client device associated with an owner of the property to pre-authorize a repair scheduling system, wherein pre-authorization of the repair scheduling system allows a smart home controller to automatically (i) schedule a time for a repair service provider to repair the piece of smart home equipment and (ii) provide access to the property to the repair service provider;

detecting, at one or more sensors communicatively coupled to the piece of smart home equipment, sensor data for the piece of smart home equipment, the one or more sensors including at least one of;

a voltage sensor, a current sensor, a resistance sensor, a temperature sensor, a flow rate sensor, a pressure sensor, a proximity sensor, a level sensor, a speed sensor, or an audio sensor;

receiving, at the one or more processors, the sensor data for the piece of smart home equipment from the one or more sensors;

obtaining, by the one or more processors, other sets of sensor data from smart devices of a same type as the piece of smart home equipment at other properties which are not associated with the smart home controller;

learning, by the one or more processors, new sets of characteristics from the other sets of sensor data for the piece of smart home equipment based on the other sets of sensor data;

in response to learning the new sets of characteristics for the piece of smart home equipment, determining, by the one or more processors, normal operating characteristics for the piece of smart home equipment;

analyzing, by the one or more processors, the sensor data to detect that the piece of smart home equipment is operating outside of the normal operating characteristics for the piece of smart home equipment;

determining, by the one or more processors, that the piece of smart home equipment needs to be repaired based on the analysis;

analyzing, by the one or more processors, the received sensor data to identify diagnostic information for the piece of smart home equipment including;

(i) the received sensor data for the piece of smart home equipment, (ii) data indicative of normal operation for the piece of smart home equipment according to a manufacturer of the piece of smart home equipment or the new sets of characteristics for the piece of smart home equipment, and (iii) one or more parts within the piece of smart home equipment that need to be replaced;

selecting, by the one or more processors, a repair service provider from a plurality of repair service providers for performing the repair of the piece of smart home equipment, wherein the repair service provider is selected based at least in part on whether the repair service provider has one or more replacement parts in stock corresponding to the one or more parts which need to be replaced; and

verifying, by the one or more processors, that the one or more parts within the piece of smart home equipment need to be replaced by;

transmitting, by the one or more processors, a first notification to the repair service provider for scheduling a repair of the piece of smart home equipment, wherein the first notification includes an indication of the piece of smart home equipment which is experiencing a failure, the identified diagnostic information, and step-by-step instructions for performing the repair of the piece of smart home equipment customized specific to the failure and the identified diagnostic information to cause the piece of smart home equipment to be repaired;

in response to transmitting the first notification to the repair service provider including the indication of the piece of smart home equipment and the identified diagnostic information, receiving, at the one or more processors from the repair service provider, an indication confirming that the one or more parts of the piece of smart home equipment need to be replaced, wherein the repair service provider verifies that the one or more parts need to be replaced by analyzing the received sensor data and the data indicative of normal operation;

receiving, at the one or more processors, a second notification from the repair service provider including the time for repairing the piece of smart home equipment; and

providing, by the one or more processors, access to the property to the repair service provider at the time for repair.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the diagnostic information includes at least one of:

identification information for the piece of smart home equipment, an indication of a cause of a failure for the piece of smart home equipment, an indication of one or more parts included in the piece of smart home equipment which need to be repaired or replaced, or identification information for one or more parts included in the piece of smart home equipment which need to be replaced.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the diagnostic information includes identification information for one or more parts included in the piece of smart home equipment which need to be replaced, and further comprising:

receiving, at the one or more processors, a third notification from the repair service provider including an indication that the repair service provider has one or more replacement parts corresponding to the identified one or more parts which need to be replaced.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, at the one or more processors, an indication from the repair service provider that the piece of smart home equipment does not need to be repaired based on a further analysis of the received sensor data and the data indicative of normal operation by the repair service provider.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a first set of sensor data from the piece of smart home equipment and a second set of sensor data from another piece of smart home equipment are obtained for determining whether the piece of smart home equipment needs to be repaired.

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

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

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

determining, by the one or more processors, that the piece of smart home equipment needs to be repaired based on the comparison.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting sensor data for the piece of smart home equipment includes:

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;

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 the sensor data for the piece of smart home equipment includes receiving 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, and wherein the method further comprises;

identifying, by the one or more processors, 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 one or more processors, that the first piece of smart home equipment needs to be repaired based on an analysis of both the first and second sets of sensor data for the first and second pieces of smart home equipment, respectively analysis including;

analyzing 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.

8. A system for sending diagnostic information during scheduling of home equipment repair, the system comprising:

one or more processors in a smart home controller;

one or more sensors communicatively coupled to one or more pieces of smart home equipment located at a property which includes a smart home system, the one or more sensors including at least one of;

a voltage sensor, a current sensor, a resistance sensor, a temperature sensor, a flow rate sensor, a pressure sensor, a proximity sensor, a level sensor, a speed sensor, or an audio sensor;

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 system to;

transmit an authorization screen to a client device associated with an owner of the property to pre-authorize a repair scheduling system, wherein pre-authorization of the repair scheduling system allows a smart home controller to automatically (i) schedule a time for a repair service provider to repair the piece of smart home equipment and (ii) provide access to the property to the repair service provider;

receive sensor data for one of the one or more pieces of smart home equipment detected by at least one of the one or more sensors communicatively coupled to the piece of smart home equipment;

obtain other sets of sensor data from smart devices of a same type as the piece of smart home equipment at other properties which are not associated with the smart home controller;

learn new sets of characteristics from the other sets of sensor data for the piece of smart home equipment based on the other sets of sensor data;

in response to learning the new sets of characteristics for the piece of smart home equipment determine normal operating characteristics for the piece of smart home equipment;

analyze the sensor data to detect that the piece of smart home equipment is operating outside of the normal operating characteristics for the piece of smart home equipment;

determine that the piece of smart home equipment needs to be repaired based on the analysis;

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

(i) the received sensor data for the piece of smart home equipment, (ii) data indicative of normal operation for the piece of smart home equipment according to a manufacturer of the piece of smart home equipment or the new sets of characteristics for the piece of smart home equipment, and (iii) one or more parts within the piece of smart home equipment that need to be replaced;

select a repair service provider from a plurality of repair service providers for performing the repair of the piece of smart home equipment, wherein the repair service provider is selected based at least in part on whether the repair service provider has one or more replacement parts in stock corresponding to the one or more parts which need to be replaced; and

verify that the one or more parts within the piece of smart home equipment need to be replaced by;

transmitting, via the communication network, a first notification to the repair service provider for scheduling a repair of the piece of smart home equipment, wherein the first notification includes an indication of the piece of smart home equipment which is experiencing a failure, the identified diagnostic information, and step-by-step instructions for performing the repair of the piece of smart home equipment customized specific to the failure and the identified diagnostic information to cause the piece of smart home equipment to be repaired;

in response to transmitting the first notification to the repair service provider including the indication of the piece of smart home equipment and the identified diagnostic information, receiving, from the repair service provider, an indication confirming that the one or more parts of the piece of smart home equipment need to be replaced wherein the repair service provider verifies that the one or more parts need to be replaced by analyzing the received sensor data and the data indicative of normal operation;

receive a second notification from the repair service provider including the time for repairing the piece of smart home equipment; and

provide access to the property to the repair service provider at the time for repair.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the diagnostic information includes at least one of:

identification information for the piece of smart home equipment, an indication of a cause of a failure for the piece of smart home equipment, an indication of one or more parts included in the piece of smart home equipment which need to be repaired or replaced, or identification information for one or more parts included in the piece of smart home equipment which need to be replaced.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the diagnostic information includes identification information for one or more parts included in the piece of smart home equipment which need to be replaced, and wherein the instructions further cause the system to:

receive, via the communication network, a third notification from the repair service provider including an indication that the repair service provider has one or more replacement parts corresponding to the identified one or more parts which need to be replaced.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the instructions further cause the system to receive, via the communication network, an indication from the repair service provider that the piece of smart home equipment does not need to be repaired based on a further analysis of the received sensor data and the data indicative of normal operation by the repair service provider.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein a first set of sensor data from the piece of smart home equipment and a second set of sensor data from another piece of smart home equipment are obtained for determining whether the piece of smart home equipment needs to be repaired.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein to determine that the piece of smart home equipment needs to be repaired, the instructions cause the system to:

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

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

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