Handling security services visitor at a smart-home

• US 10,735,216 B2
• Filed: 12/31/2014
• Issued: 08/04/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Fadell, Anthony Michael, Rogers, Matthew Lee, Matsuoka, Yoky, Sloo, David, Honjo, Shigefumi, McGaraghan, Scott A., Plitkins, Michael, Veron, Maxime, Guenette, Isabel
• Primary Examiner(s): Zarka, David P
• Application Number:
  US14/587,835
• Publication Number:
  US 20150127712A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,043 Days
• Field of Search: 709201, 709202, 709203, 709204, 709206, 709223, 709224
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 19/005 combined burglary and fire alarm systems
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/002 Generating a prealarm to the central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/008 Alarm setting and unsetting, i.e. arming or disarming of the security system
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/003 Signalling to neighbouring houses
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 29/185 Signal analysis techniques for reducing or preventing false alarms or for enhancing the reliability of the system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2807 Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving network analysis for automatically determining the actual topology of a network H04L41/12; hardware or software tools for network management using graphical user interfaces H04L41/22; address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/283 Processing of data at an internetworking point of a home automation network

Abstract

This patent specification relates to apparatus, systems, methods, and related computer program products for providing home security/smart home objectives. More particularly, this patent specification relates to a plurality of devices, including intelligent, multi-sensing, network-connected devices, that communicate with each other and/or with a central server or a cloud-computing system to provide any of a variety of useful home security/smart home objectives.

Claims

1. A method of handling an agent of a service-provider entity that comprises a service computing system at a smart environment that comprises at least one smart device, the method comprising:

sharing unique invitation identification information associated with the service-provider entity between the service computing system and an environment computing system;

receiving responsibility information at the environment computing system, wherein the responsibility information is indicative of a characteristic of a plurality of environments that the service-provider entity services, and wherein the plurality of environments comprises the smart environment;

based on the sharing and the receiving, defining, using the environment computing system, at least a portion of a mode setting that is associated with the shared unique invitation identification information and the smart environment and that comprises at least one platform action and at least two conditions;

after the defining, obtaining, at the environment computing system from the smart environment, invitation identification data detected by the at least one smart device from the agent, wherein the received invitation identification data comprises the unique invitation identification information;

analyzing, using the environment computing system, the unique invitation identification information of the received invitation identification data from the smart environment to identify the defined mode setting associated with the unique invitation identification information and the smart environment;

after the obtaining and the analyzing, determining, using the environment computing system, that each one of the at least two conditions of the identified defined mode setting is satisfied,

wherein a first condition of the at least two conditions is based on a current occupancy of the smart environment detected during the determining, and

wherein a second condition of the at least two conditions is based on a hazard condition detected at the smart environment by a hazard detector smart device of the smart environment during the determining; and

only after each one of the at least two conditions is determined to be satisfied, automatically carrying out, using the environment computing system, the at least one platform action of the identified defined mode setting based on the analyzing and based on the determining, wherein the carrying out the at least one platform action comprises;

enabling accessibility by the agent to a portion of the smart environment; and

conveying a first audible, textual, or graphical message to a portion of the smart environment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the at least one smart device comprises a smart doorbell device positioned proximate to a door at an entry point to a portion of the smart environment; and

the smart doorbell device comprises;

a doorbell component operative to be interacted with by a user for generating a request to contact an occupant of the smart environment; and

at least one sensing component operative to detect the invitation identification data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the at least one smart device comprises a smart doorknob device for a door to a secure area of the smart environment; and

the carrying out the at least one platform action comprises unlocking the door with the smart doorknob device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first condition is satisfied when no current occupancy of the smart environment is detected during the determining.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the second condition is satisfied when a particular hazard condition is detected at the smart environment by the hazard detector smart device of the smart environment during the determining.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the second condition is satisfied when a particular hazard condition is detected at the smart environment by the hazard detector smart device of the smart environment during the determining.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the carrying out the at least one platform action further comprises conveying a second message to the agent via the at least one smart device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the second message comprises information indicative of at least one of the following:

the current occupancy of the smart environment detected during the determining;

a map of the smart environment;

or

the hazard condition detected at the smart environment by the hazard detector smart device of the smart environment during the determining.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein:

the second message comprises information indicative of the current occupancy of the smart environment detected during the determining.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first message is conveyed to one or more occupants of the smart environment based on the current occupancy of the smart environment detected during the determining.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

prior to the sharing, generating the unique invitation identification information using the environment computing system; and

the sharing comprises sharing the generated unique invitation identification information with the service computing system using the environment computing system.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

prior to the sharing, generating the unique invitation identification information using the service computing system; and

the sharing comprises sharing the generated unique invitation identification information with the environment computing system using the service computing system.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein

the plurality of environments further comprises another smart environment;

and

the method further comprises, based on the sharing and the receiving, defining, using the environment computing system, at least a portion of another mode setting that is associated with the shared unique invitation identification information and the other smart environment and that comprises at least one other platform action.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving comprises receiving the responsibility information at the environment computing system from the service computing system.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the characteristic is a geographical characteristic common to each environment of the plurality of environments.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the geographical characteristic comprises a zone improvement plan (“

ZIP”

) code.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising, after the receiving and prior to the defining, analyzing, using the environment computing system, the received responsibility information to determine that the plurality of environments comprises the smart environment.

18. A method of handling an agent of a service-provider entity that comprises a service computing system at a smart environment that comprises at least one smart device, the method comprising:

sharing unique invitation identification information associated with the service-provider entity between the service computing system and an environment computing system;

receiving responsibility information at the environment computing system, wherein the responsibility information is indicative of a characteristic of a plurality of environments that the service-provider entity services, and wherein the plurality of environments comprises the smart environment;

based on the sharing and the receiving, automatically defining, using the environment computing system, at least a portion of a mode setting that is associated with the shared unique invitation identification information and the smart environment and that comprises at least one platform action;

after the defining, obtaining, at the environment computing system from the smart environment, invitation identification data detected by the at least one smart device from the agent, wherein the received invitation identification data comprises the unique invitation identification information;

analyzing, using the environment computing system, the unique invitation identification information of the received invitation identification data from the smart environment to identify the defined mode setting associated with the unique invitation identification information and the smart environment; and

automatically carrying out, using the environment computing system, the at least one platform action of the identified defined mode setting based on the analyzing, wherein;

the defining comprises defining a first condition associated with a first platform action of the at least one platform action and defining a second condition associated with a second platform action of the at least one platform action;

the method further comprises, after the obtaining but prior to the carrying out, determining, using the environment computing system, whether at least one of the first condition or the second condition is satisfied;

the carrying out comprises;

conveying a first audible, textual, or graphical message to a portion of the smart environment;

carrying out the first platform action of the identified defined mode setting based on the analyzing and based on the determining only when the first condition is determined to be satisfied; and

carrying out the second platform action of the identified defined mode setting based on the analyzing and based on the determining only when the second condition is determined to be satisfied;

the carrying out the first platform action comprises conveying a second message to the agent via the at least one smart device;

the second message comprises information indicative of a current occupancy of the smart environment;

the carrying out the second platform action comprises enabling accessibility by the agent to a portion of the smart environment;

the first condition is satisfied based on both a first hazard condition detected at the smart environment during the determining and a first occupancy condition of the smart environment detected during the determining;

the second condition is satisfied based on both a second hazard condition detected at the smart environment during the determining and a second occupancy condition of the smart environment detected during the determining; and

the first condition is different than the second condition.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein:

the first hazard condition is different than the second hazard condition.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the first message is conveyed to one or more occupants of the smart environment based on the first or the second occupancy conditions.