METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING POWER TO AN ELECTRICAL LOAD BASED ON SENSOR DATA

• US 20140005851A1
• Filed: 01/08/2013
• Published: 01/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ubiquiti Inc.
• Original Assignee: Ubiquiti Networks, Inc. (Ubiquiti Inc.)
• Inventors: Cheng, Linker, Pera, Robert J., Frei, Randall W.
• Granted Patent: US 10,326,678 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/295
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/10 Program control for peripheral devices G06F13/14 - G06F13/42 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/01 characterised by the transmission medium
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/281 indicating a format for calling an appliance service function in a home automation network for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2818 from a device located outside both the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; arrangements for transmitting signals characterised by the use of a wireless eletrical link G08C17/00; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with remote control systems H04M11/007
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2825 Reporting to a device located outside the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with telemetering systems H04M11/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/024 using relational databases for representation of network management data, e.g. managing via structured query language [SQL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/065 related to network devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/256 NAT traversal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2575 using address mapping retrieval, e.g. simple traversal of user datagram protocol through session traversal utilities for NAT [STUN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5061 Pools of addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 : involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 : Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/289 : Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 : Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 : Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/10 : Technologies improving the efficiency by using switched-mode power supplies [SMPS], i.e. efficient power electronics conversion e.g. power factor correction or reduction of losses in power supplies or efficient standby modes
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 : Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A load-controlling interfacing device obtains and processes event data, for example, from a touch-screen user interface and/or other devices, and that processes rules based on the event data to control an electrical load, such as a light fixture. During operation, when the interfacing device obtains event data, the interfacing device selects a rule to process based on the event data from the touch-screen user interface. If the interfacing device determines that the rule'"'"'s condition is satisfied, the interfacing device can process the rule'"'"'s action description to perform a corresponding action for controlling power to the electrical load.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

obtaining event data, by an interfacing device;

selecting a rule to process based on the obtained event data, wherein the rule includes an action description for performing an action, and includes a condition that takes the event data as input and indicates criteria for performing the action;

determining that the rule'"'"'s condition is satisfied; and

processing the rule'"'"'s action description to perform the action, wherein the action configures the interfacing device to adjust power to at least one electrical load based on the event data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the electrical load includes a light fixture.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the event data includes sensor data from a touch-screen user interface.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the touch-screen user interface includes one or more of:

a capacitive-touch surface area;

a resistive-touch surface area;

a proximity sensor; and

a motion sensor.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the event data from the touch-screen user interface indicates one or more of:

a portion of the touch-screen user interface that was touched by a local user;

a detected object within a determinable distance from the touch-screen user interface; and

a detected motion.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein obtaining the event data involves processing information from the touch-screen user interface to determine a gesture, wherein the gesture includes one or more of:

an upward finger swipe for increasing a light intensity of the light fixture;

a downward finger swipe for decreasing a light intensity of the light fixture;

a finger tap for activating or deactivating power to the light fixture; and

a finger tap for adjusting the light fixture'"'"'s light intensity to a determinable level.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the event data satisfies a data-subscription request from a remote interfacing device; and

communicating the event data to the remote interfacing device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the remote-interfacing device is electrically coupled to a corresponding light fixture, and wherein the remote-interfacing device is configured to adjust power to the corresponding light fixture based on the event data.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the data-subscription request indicates one or more of:

a sensor measurement from a touch-screen user interface;

a user gesture determined from the event data;

a minimum threshold value for sensor data from a proximity sensor;

a minimum threshold value for sensor data from a motion sensor;

a maximum threshold value for sensor data from a proximity sensor; and

a maximum threshold value for sensor data from a motion sensor.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein communicating the data to the remote interfacing device involves communicating the data via an established peer-to-peer network connection associated with the remote interfacing device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the established network connection is established using one or more of:

a WebSockets protocol;

a communication channel via the Session-Traversal Utilities for Network-address-translation (STUN) protocol; and

a Comet protocol.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the request for establishing the network connection using the WebSocket protocol includes at least one of:

a WebSocket handshake request to upgrade a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) session to a WebSocket session; and

a Sec-WebSocket-Key token from the network device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein establishing the network connection using the WebSocket protocol further involves:

storing the Sec-WebSocket-Key in association with the network device;

generating a Sec-WebSocket-Accept token for the interfacing device based on the Sec-WebSocket-Key; and

sending to the interfacing device a response which acknowledges a persistent WebSocket communication channel, wherein the response includes at least the Sec-WebSocket-Accept token for the interfacing device.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein establishing the network connection using the STUN protocol involves:

receiving a binding request that indicates network-addressing information for the network device, wherein the network-addressing information includes at least one or more of a network address and a port number; and

storing the network-addressing information in association with the network device.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein establishing the network connection using the Comet protocol involves:

receiving a long-polling request from the network device;

determining network-addressing information for the network device based on the long-polling request, wherein the network-addressing information includes at least one or more of a network address and a port number; and

storing the network-addressing information in association with the network device.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the action includes one or more of:

activating power to the light fixture;

deactivating power to the light fixture;

modulating an amount of current provided to the light fixture;

sending an email message to a predetermined recipient;

creating a system alert;

generating an event for an event log; and

computing a data value based in part on the received event data.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising adjusting a color of a light-emitting diode (LED) indicator based on one or more of:

determining that the interfacing device is in a factory-default mode;

determining that the interfacing device is provisioned by a network controller which monitors or controls one or more interfacing devices; and

determining that the interfacing device is being monitored by the network controller.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

obtaining event data from a user interface;

selecting a rule to process based on the obtained event data, wherein the rule includes an action description for performing an action, and includes a condition that takes the event data as input and indicates criteria for performing the action;

determining that the rule'"'"'s condition is satisfied; and

processing the rule'"'"'s action description to perform the action, wherein the action configures the interfacing device to adjust power to at least one electrical load based on the event data.

19. The storage medium of claim 18, wherein the electrical load includes a light fixture.

20. The storage medium of claim 18, wherein the event data includes sensor data from a touch-screen user interface.

21. The storage medium of claim 20, wherein the touch-screen user interface includes one or more of:

a capacitive-touch surface area;

a resistive-touch surface area;

a proximity sensor; and

a motion sensor.

22. The storage medium of claim 20, wherein the sensor data from the touch-screen user interface indicates one or more of:

a portion of the touch-screen user interface that was touched by a local user;

a detected object within a determinable distance from the touch-screen user interface; and

a detected motion.

23. The storage medium of claim 20, wherein obtaining the sensor data involves processing information from the touch-screen user interface to determine a gesture, wherein the gesture includes one or more of:

an upward finger swipe for increasing a light intensity of the light fixture;

a downward finger swipe for decreasing a light intensity of the light fixture;

a finger tap for activating or deactivating power to the light fixture; and

a finger tap for adjusting the light fixture'"'"'s light intensity to a determinable level.

24. The storage medium of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises:

determining that the event data satisfies a data-subscription request from a remote interfacing device; and

communicating the event data to the remote interfacing device.

25. The storage medium of claim 24, wherein the remote-interfacing device is electrically coupled to a corresponding light fixture, and wherein the remote-interfacing device is configured to adjust power to the corresponding light fixture based on the event data.

26. The storage medium of claim 25, wherein the data-subscription request indicates one or more of:

a sensor measurement from a touch-screen user interface;

a user gesture determined from the event data;

a minimum threshold value for sensor data from a proximity sensor;

a minimum threshold value for sensor data from a motion sensor;

a maximum threshold value for sensor data from a proximity sensor; and

a maximum threshold value for sensor data from a motion sensor.

27. The storage medium of claim 25, wherein communicating the data to the remote interfacing device involves communicating the data via an established peer-to-peer network connection associated with the remote interfacing device.

28. The storage medium of claim 27, wherein the established network connection is established using one or more of:

a WebSockets protocol;

a communication channel via the Session-Traversal Utilities for Network-address-translation (STUN) protocol; and

a Comet protocol.

29. The storage medium of claim 28, wherein the request for establishing the network connection using the WebSocket protocol includes at least one of:

a WebSocket handshake request to upgrade a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) session to a WebSocket session; and

a Sec-WebSocket-Key token from the network device.

30. The storage medium of claim 29, wherein establishing the network connection using the WebSocket protocol further involves:

storing the Sec-WebSocket-Key in association with the network device;

generating a Sec-WebSocket-Accept token for the interfacing device based on the Sec-WebSocket-Key; and

sending to the interfacing device a response which acknowledges the persistent WebSocket communication channel, wherein the response includes at least the Sec-WebSocket-Accept token for the interfacing device.

31. The storage medium of claim 28, wherein establishing the network connection using the STUN protocol involves:

receiving a binding request that indicates network-addressing information for the network device, wherein the network-addressing information includes at least one or more of a network address and a port number; and

storing the network-addressing information in association with the network device.

32. The storage medium of claim 28, wherein establishing the network connection using the Comet protocol involves:

receiving a long-polling request from the network device;

determining network-addressing information for the network device based on the long-polling request, wherein the network-addressing information includes at least one or more of a network address and a port number; and

storing the network-addressing information in association with the network device.

33. The storage medium of claim 18, wherein the action includes one or more of:

activating power to the light fixture;

deactivating power to the light fixture;

modulating an amount of current provided to the light fixture;

sending an email message to a predetermined recipient;

creating a system alert;

generating an event for an event log; and

computing a data value based in part on the received event data.

34. The storage medium of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises adjusting a color of a light-emitting diode (LED) indicator based on one or more of:

determining that the interfacing device is in a factory-default mode;

determining that the interfacing device is provisioned by a network controller which monitors or controls one or more interfacing devices; and

determining that the interfacing device is being monitored by the network controller.

35. An apparatus, comprising:

an event-monitoring module to obtain event data;

a power terminal for providing power to an electrical load; and

a rule-processing module to;

select a rule to process based on the obtained event data, wherein the rule includes an action description for performing an action, and includes a condition that takes the event data as input and indicates criteria for performing the action; and

responsive to determining that the rule'"'"'s condition is satisfied, process the rule'"'"'s action description to perform the action, wherein the action configures the power terminal to adjust power to at least one electrical load based on the event data.

36. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the electrical load includes a light fixture.

37. The apparatus of claim 35, further comprising a touch-screen user interface;

wherein the event-monitoring module is further configured to obtain sensor data from the touch-screen user interface.

38. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein the touch-screen user interface includes one or more of:

a capacitive-touch surface area;

a resistive-touch surface area;

a proximity sensor; and

a motion sensor.

39. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein the sensor data from the touch-screen user interface indicates one or more of:

a portion of the touch-screen user interface that was touched by a local user;

a detected object within a determinable distance from the touch-screen user interface; and

a detected motion.

40. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein while obtaining the sensor data, the sensor-monitoring module is further configured to process information from the touch-screen user interface to determine a gesture, wherein the gesture includes one or more of:

an upward finger swipe for increasing a light intensity of the light fixture;

a downward finger swipe for decreasing a light intensity of the light fixture;

a finger tap for activating or deactivating power to the light fixture; and

a finger tap for adjusting the light fixture'"'"'s light intensity to a determinable level.

41. The apparatus of claim 35, further comprising:

a data subscription module to determine that the event data satisfies a data-subscription request from a remote interfacing device; and

a communication module to communicate the event data to the remote interfacing device.

42. The apparatus of claim 41, wherein the remote-interfacing device is electrically coupled to a corresponding light fixture, and wherein the remote-interfacing device is configured to adjust power to the corresponding light fixture based on the event data.

43. The apparatus of claim 41, wherein the data-subscription request indicates one or more of:

a sensor measurement from a touch-screen user interface;

a user gesture determined from the event data;

a minimum threshold value for sensor data from a proximity sensor;

a minimum threshold value for sensor data from a motion sensor;

a maximum threshold value for sensor data from a proximity sensor; and

a maximum threshold value for sensor data from a motion sensor.

44. The apparatus of claim 41, wherein while communicating the data to the remote interfacing device, the communication module is further configured to communicate the data via an established peer-to-peer network connection associated with the remote interfacing device.

45. The apparatus of claim 44, wherein the established network connection is established using one or more of:

a WebSockets protocol;

a communication channel via the Session-Traversal Utilities for Network-address-translation (STUN) protocol; and

a Comet protocol.

46. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein the request for establishing the network connection using the WebSocket protocol includes at least one of:

a WebSocket handshake request to upgrade a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) session to a WebSocket session; and

a Sec-WebSocket-Key token from the network device.

47. The apparatus of claim 46, wherein while establishing the network connection using the WebSocket protocol, the communication module is further configured to:

store the Sec-WebSocket-Key in association with the network device;

generate a Sec-WebSocket-Accept token for the interfacing device based on the Sec-WebSocket-Key; and

send to the interfacing device a response which acknowledges the persistent WebSocket communication channel, wherein the response includes at least the Sec-WebSocket-Accept token for the interfacing device.

48. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein while establishing the network connection using the STUN protocol, the communication module is further configured to:

receive a binding request that indicates network-addressing information for the network device, wherein the network-addressing information includes at least one or more of a network address and a port number; and

store the network-addressing information in association with the network device.

49. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein while establishing the network connection using the Comet protocol, the communication module is further configured to:

receive a long-polling request from the network device;

determine network-addressing information for the network device based on the long-polling request, wherein the network-addressing information includes at least one or more of a network address and a port number; and

store the network-addressing information in association with the network device.

50. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the action includes one or more of:

activating power to the light fixture;

deactivating power to the light fixture;

modulating an amount of current provided to the light fixture;

sending an email message to a predetermined recipient;

creating a system alert;

generating an event for an event log; and

computing a data value based in part on the received event data.

51. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the user interface further comprises a light-emitting diode (LED) indicator;

and

wherein the apparatus further comprises a user-interface-controlling module to adjust a color of a light-emitting diode (LED) indicator based on one or more of;

determining that the apparatus is in a factory-default mode;

determining that the apparatus is provisioned by a network controller which monitors or controls one or more interfacing devices; and

determining that the apparatus is being monitored by the network controller.