Method of operating a home-automation installation

• US 10,416,622 B2
• Filed: 10/25/2011
• Issued: 09/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Somfy Activites SA (Somfy SA)
• Original Assignee: Somfy Sas (Somfy SA)
• Inventors: Mignot, Pierre, Duchene, Isabelle, Lapierre, Stephane
• Primary Examiner(s): Shechtman, Sean
• Application Number:
  US13/881,852
• Publication Number:
  US 20130289751A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,884 Days
• Field of Search: 700 90
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2642 Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2809 indicating that an appliance service is present in a home automation network monitoring functionality H04L43/0817; discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services, H04L67/51

Abstract

A method of operating a home-automation installation, the home-automation installation including items of equipment fixed in a building and a mobile unit for controlling the items of equipment, the elements communicating over a home-automation network, each element being furnished with an identifier which is specific to it and with an authentication key specific to the home-automation network, termed “common key”, identical for all the elements and authenticating an element'"'"'s membership of the home-automation network, The method includes a step of locating the mobile control unit and delivering an item of position information, then a step of pinpointing using at least the item of position information to pinpoint a particular item of equipment, the pinpointing step allowing the identification of the particular item of equipment and allowing the locating of the particular item of equipment in a mode of configuration of the home-automation installation.

Claims

1. A method of operating a home-automation installation comprising elements including appliances fixed in a building and including a handheld mobile control unit for control of the appliances, the handheld mobile control unit comprising a localization means, the elements communicating on a home-automation network, each element being furnished with its own specific identifier and with an authentication key specific to the home-automation network, termed “

common key”

, identical for all the elements and authenticating an element'"'"'s membership of the home-automation network,

wherein the method comprises;

a step of locating the handheld mobile control unit with the aid of the localization means and delivering position information locating the position of the handheld mobile control unit, and then

a step of spotting, using at least the position information, to spot a particular fixed appliance of the fixed appliances within the building, the spotting step including a user action on the handheld mobile control unit,

the spotting step identifying the particular fixed appliance in a usage mode of the home-automation installation and localizing the particular fixed appliance in a configuration mode of the home-automation installation,

wherein the spotting step includes using the location of the handheld mobile control unit, in the configuration mode, as the location of the particular fixed appliance and recording said location of the particular fixed appliance, which corresponds to the location of the handheld mobile control unit, and a related specific identifier in a cartographic memory during the configuration mode.

2. The operating method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the position information is expressed in a spatial mesh able to differentiate the respective positions of two appliances of the home-automation installation.

3. The operating method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the particular fixed appliance is the appliance nearest to the handheld mobile control unit during the step of locating the mobile control unit.

4. The operating method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method comprises a step of aiming the particular fixed appliance, using a means of aiming of the handheld mobile control unit, able to provide an aiming information and wherein the position information comprises the aiming information.

5. The operating method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the aiming information comprises an information of orientation of the handheld mobile control unit during the aiming step and/or an information regarding the distance between the handheld mobile control unit and the particular fixed appliance, wherein the information is a telemetric information coming from the handheld mobile control unit aiming means.

6. The operating method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method comprises, subsequent to the spotting step, a step of transmitting to the handheld mobile control unit an identifier of the particular fixed appliance and/or of transmitting to the particular fixed appliance a selection instruction.

7. The operating method as claimed claim 6, wherein the position information is transmitted on the home-automation network to all of the appliances or at least to a specific appliance.

8. The operating method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the position information is transmitted to a remote server by using a communication means of GSM type and/or a shared network of Internet type.

9. The operating method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the spotting step uses appliances localization data, situated in a cartographic memory.

10. The operating method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method comprises a step of displaying, on a display means of the handheld mobile control unit, a control interface of the particular fixed appliance.

11. The operating method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method comprises a control step in which the handheld mobile control unit transmits a command message on the home-automation network to the particular fixed appliance, this command message comprising the identifier of the particular fixed appliance or having been preceded by a selection message comprising the identifier of the particular fixed appliance, and wherein the method comprises a step of execution of the command by the particular fixed appliance.

12. The method of operating a home-automation installation as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method comprises a configuration step in which the position of the particular fixed appliance, determined during the spotting step on the basis of the localization of the handheld mobile control unit, is recorded in a cartographic memory.

13. The method of operating a home-automation installation as claimed in claim 12, wherein the data of the cartographic memory are incorporated in a three-dimensional modeling of the building.

14. A home-automation installation comprising appliances and a handheld mobile control unit, wherein the appliances and the handheld mobile control unit comprise hardware and software for implementing the operating method as claimed in claim 1.

15. A handheld mobile control unit, wherein the unit comprises hardware and software for implementing the operating method as claimed in claim 1.

16. The method of operating a home-automation installation as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a step of moving the handheld mobile control unit to second of the fixed appliances within the building;

a step of performing the locating step and the spotting step for the second fixed appliance within the building; and

a step of iteratively performing the moving step, the locating step and the spotting step for each of the other fixed appliances within the building.