System and method for adapting the ambience of a local environment according to the location and personal preferences of people in the local environment

• US 20030227439A1
• Filed: 06/07/2002
• Published: 12/11/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Lee, Mi-Suen, Strubbe, Hugo
• Granted Patent: US 7,298,871 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/156
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/16 Human faces, e.g. facial parts, sketches or expressions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2829 involving user profiles according to which the execution of a home appliance functionality is automatically triggered
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2849 Audio/video appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42202 environmental sensors, e.g. for detecting temperature, luminosity, pressure, earthquakes
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/125 by using cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/175 by remote control
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/40 Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection

Abstract

A system and method for automatically controlling systems and devices in a local environment, such as a home. The system comprises a control unit that receives images associated with one or more regions of the local environment. The one or more regions are each serviced by one or more servicing components. The control unit processes the images to identify, from a group of known persons associated with the local environment, any one or more known persons located in the regions. For the regions in which one or more known person is identified, the control unit automatically generates a control signal for at least one of the servicing components associated with the region, the control signal reflecting a preference of at least one of the known persons located in the respective region

Claims

1. A system comprising a control unit that receives images associated with one or more regions of a local environment, the one or more regions each being serviced by one or more servicing components, the control unit processing the images to identify, from a group of known persons associated with the local environment, any one or more known persons located in the regions and, for the regions in which one or more known person is identified, automatically generating a control signal for at least one of the servicing components associated with the region, the control signal reflecting a preference of at least one of the known persons located in the respective region.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising at least one camera associated with each of the one or more regions of the local environment that provide the control unit with the images associated with the one or more regions, images captured by the at least one camera associated with each region being processed to identify any known persons located in the region.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the control unit applies image recognition software to the received images to identify any one or more known persons located in the regions.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the image recognition software uses stored reference image data of the known persons associated with the local environment to identify any one or more known persons located in the regions.

5. The system as in claim 1, wherein the control unit retrieves preferences stored for the one or more known persons identified as located in the regions.

6. The system as in claim 5, wherein, for the regions in which one or more known person is identified, the control signal generated for the at least one of the servicing components associated with the region is based upon at least one of the preferences retrieved for at least one of the known persons located in the region.

7. The system as in claim 1, further comprising a memory that interfaces with the control unit, the memory storing preferences for each of the group of known persons relating to the one or more servicing components servicing the one or more regions, the preferences for an identified person being retrievable from the memory by the control unit.

8. The system as in claim 7, wherein the preferences for each of the group of known persons relating to the one or more servicing components servicing the one or more regions are input manually via an external input interface with the control unit.

9. The system as in claim 7, wherein the preferences for each of the group of known persons relating to the one or more servicing components servicing the one or more regions are generated by the control unit in a learning mode.

10. The system as in claim 1, wherein the servicing components are selected from a group comprised of lights, heating units and audio systems.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein one of the servicing components associated with one of the regions is a heating unit, the control signal generated for the heating unit reflecting a room temperature preference of at least one of the known persons located in the one region.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein one of the servicing components associated with one of the regions is a light, the control signal generated for the light reflecting a lighting preference of at least one of the known persons located in the one region.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein one of the servicing components associated with one of the regions is an audio system, the control signal generated for the audio system reflecting at least one of an audio volume preference and a music type preference of at least one of the known persons located in the one region.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more regions of the local environment is defined by a room of the local environment.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more regions of the local environment is defined by an extent of coverage by one of the one or more servicing components.

16. A method for controlling a servicing component located in a region of a local environment, the method comprising the steps of:

a) capturing images associated with the region;

b) identifying, from a group of known persons each associated with the local environment, a known person in the region from the captured images associated with the region;

c) retrieving a preference of the identified person, the preference related to the servicing component; and

d) controlling the servicing component according to the retrieved preference of the identified person.

17. The method as in claim 16, wherein the step of identifying a known person in the region from the captured images includes the step of processing the captured images with image recognition software.

18. The method as in claim 16, wherein the step of retrieving a preference of the identified person includes retrieving the preference from a memory using the identity determined in the identifying step.

19. The method as in claim 16, wherein the step of controlling the servicing component according to the retrieved preference of the identified person includes generating a control signal for the servicing component that reflects the preference and transmitting the control signal to the servicing component.

20. The method as in claim 16, wherein steps c) and d) are performed for one or more additional servicing components in the region.

21. The method as in claim 16, wherein steps a)-d) are performed for one or more additional regions in the local environment.

22. A software package that receives image input associated with one or more regions of a local environment, the one or more regions each being serviced by one or more servicing components, the software processing the images input in conjunction with data comprising a group of known persons associated with the local environment, to identify any one or more known persons located in the regions and, for the regions in which one or more known person is identified, the software accessing a memory to retrieve a preference of at least one of the known persons located in the respective region for at least one of the servicing components associated with the region and generating a control signal for the at least one of the servicing components associated with the region based upon the retrieved preference.