HOME DEVICE CONTROL ON TELEVISION

• US 20120291068A1
• Filed: 05/09/2011
• Published: 11/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Khushoo, Rahul, Xiao, Hong, Potluri, Ravi, Vyas, Sanjay
• Application Number:
  US13/103,466
• Publication Number:
  US 20120291068A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/282 based on user interaction within the home receiver circuitry for displaying additional information being controlled by a remote control apparatus H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4131 home appliance, e.g. lighting, air conditioning system, metering devices home automation data switching networks exchanging configuration information on appliance services H04L12/2807
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/186 Video door telephones

Abstract

A set-top box may present video content on a television and receive a user request to present an interactive home controls application on the television. Based on the user request, the set-top box may retrieve information associated with one of multiple home devices, and may generate, based on the home device information, an interactive home controls frame that includes functional tiles for managing the home devices. At least one of the functional tiles may include information associated with the one of the multiple home devices and options to control the one of the multiple devices. The set-top box may simultaneously present to the user the interactive home controls frame, including at least one of the functional tiles, and the video content on the television.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

presenting, by a set-top box, video content on a television;

receiving, by the set-top box, a user request to present an interactive home controls application on the television;

requesting, by the set-top box and based on the user request, information associated with a plurality of home devices;

receiving, by the set-top box, the information associated with the plurality of home devices;

generating, by the set-top box and based on the home device information, an interactive home controls frame that includes a plurality of functional tiles for managing home devices; and

presenting, by the set-top box, the interactive home controls frame, including at least one of the plurality of functional tiles, and the video content on the television.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the information associated with the plurality of home devices includes:

receiving the information associated with the plurality of home devices from one of a backend server or a control point associated with the home devices.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the user, a selection of another one of the plurality of functional tiles; and

providing, based on the home device information and within the interactive home controls frame, information associated with the selected other one of the plurality of functional tiles.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the user selection of the one of the plurality of functional tiles is received via a signal from a remote control.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the signal from the remote control is one of a horizontal indicator or vertical indicator to position the other one of the plurality of functional tiles within an active tile frame.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

presenting, within the other one of the plurality of functional tiles, a selection mechanism to control a home device associated with the other one of the plurality of functional tiles;

receiving, from the user, a selection of the selection mechanism; and

sending, based on the user selection, a signal to a control point device to control the home device associated with the other one of the plurality of functional tiles.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the user selection includes a vertical indicator signal from a remote control.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the selection mechanism is for video content from a video camera, and wherein the method further comprises:

requesting, by the set-top box, an MPEG-2 stream of video content from the video camera;

retrieving, by a control point, an MPEG-4 stream from the video camera;

transcoding, by the control point, the MPEG-4 stream to an MPEG-2 stream;

sending, by the control point and to a particular port, the MPEG-2 stream;

tuning, by the set-top box, the particular port to retrieve the MPEG-2 stream; and

presenting, by the set-top box, the MPEG-2 stream on the television.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the functional tiles include one or more of a security camera tile, a devices tile, an energy tile, a thermostat tile, a modes tile, or a notifications tile.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the plurality of functional tiles includes is a security camera tile that presents thumbnail images from an Internet protocol (IP) camera, and wherein the method further comprises:

requesting, by the set-top box, JPEG files from the IP camera;

retrieving, by a control point, a Motion-JPEG stream from the IP camera;

transcoding, by the control point, the Motion-JPEG stream to JPEG files;

sending, by the control point and to the set-top box, the JPEG files; and

presenting, by the set-top box, the JPEG files as a thumbnail image within the security camera tile.

11. A system, comprising:

a set-top box to;

present video content on a television,

receive a user request to present an interactive home controls application on the television,

request, based on the user request, information associated with one of a plurality of home devices,

receive, the information associated with the one of the plurality of home devices,

generate, based on the home device information, an interactive home controls frame that includes a plurality of functional tiles for managing home devices, wherein at least one of the functional tiles includes information associated with the one of the plurality of home devices, and

present the interactive home controls frame, including at least one of the plurality of functional tiles, and the video content on the television.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the one of the plurality of home devices includes a video camera in a security system of a home.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of functional tiles for managing home devices includes a security camera tile, a devices tile, an energy tile, a thermostat tile, a modes tile, and a notifications tile.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the interactive home controls frame includes a stage to alternately activate one of plurality of functional tiles when one of the plurality of functional tiles is positioned within an active tile frame of the stage.

15. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

a control point device to;

receive, from the set-top box, the request for information associated with the one of the plurality of home devices,

retrieve, from the one of the plurality of home devices, data responsive to the request,

transcode the data responsive to the request, and

forward the transcoded data to the set-top box; and

a backend server to;

provide, to the set-top box, configuration information for the one of the plurality of home devices, wherein the configuration information includes an Internet protocol (IP) address.

16. A set-top box, comprising:

a memory to store a plurality of instructions; and

a processor to execute instructions in the memory to;

present video content on a television,

receive, via a remote control, a user request to present an interactive home controls application on the television,

obtain, based on the user request, information associated with at least one of a plurality of home devices,

generate, based on the information associated with the at least one of the plurality of home devices, an interactive home controls frame that includes multiple functional tiles for managing the home devices, wherein at least one of the multiple functional tiles includes information associated with the at least one of the plurality of home devices, and

present simultaneously the interactive home controls frame and the video content on the television.

17. The set-top box of claim 16, wherein, when obtaining the information associated with the at least one of the plurality of home devices, the processor is further to execute instructions in the memory to:

request the information associated with the at least one of the plurality of home devices from one of a backend server or a control point associated with the home devices.

18. The set-top box of claim 16, wherein the processor is further to execute instructions in the memory to:

receive, via the remote control, a first selection signal to select the one of the multiple functional tiles for managing the home devices, wherein the first selection signal is one of a horizontal indicator or a vertical indicator to position the one of the multiple functional tiles within an active tile frame of the interactive home controls frame,

receive, via the remote control, a second selection signal to select a particular function of a home device associated with the one of the multiple functional tiles for managing the home devices, wherein the second selection signal is one of a horizontal indicator or a vertical indicator that is different than the first selection signal, and

send to a control point, based on the second selection signal, a command to execute the particular function.

19. The set-top box of claim 16, wherein the processor is further to execute instructions in the memory to:

present, within the interactive home controls frame, one or more other of the multiple functional tiles within an inactive tile frame, wherein the multiple functional tiles within the inactive tile frame include current home device information that can be viewed and not controlled by the user.

20. The set-top box of claim 16, wherein the multiple functional tiles a security camera tile to view video output from an Internet protocol (IP) camera.