ACCESSORY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM USING ENVIRONMENT MODEL

• US 20150350031A1
• Filed: 05/29/2015
• Published: 12/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Burks, Andrew, Nadathur, Anush G., Rama, Srinivas, McLaughlin, Kevin P., Abuan, Joe, Haskins, Harlan
• Granted Patent: US 10,454,783 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2642 Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• 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 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/16 Involving different core network technologies, e.g. a packet-switched [PS] bearer in combination with a circuit-switched [CS] bearer

Abstract

Controllers can be used to control the operation of various accessories. A group of accessories can be organized into an accessory network that can facilitate coordinated control of multiple accessories. The accessory network can be organized according to an environment model that can include a hierarchical representation of a physical environment where accessories are present. The environment model can be synchronized across different controllers that have access to the accessories.

Claims

1. A method executable in a first controller device, the method comprising:

defining, in response to user input, an environment model, the environment model including a hierarchical representation of a physical environment where a plurality of accessory devices are present;

adding, in response to user input, a representation of each of the plurality of accessory devices to the environment model, the representation of each accessory device being independently assigned to a location in the environment model at a lowest level of the hierarchical representation; and

propagating the environment model to at least one other controller device.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

establishing a pairing with each of the accessory devices, wherein establishing a pairing with an accessory device includes providing to the accessory device a long-term public key of the first controller device and obtaining from the accessory a long-term public key of the accessory device.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the environment model includes a plurality of rooms and a plurality of zones, wherein each zone contains a subset of the plurality of rooms, wherein accessory devices whose representations are assigned to a common room or common zone in the environment model are controllable as a group.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the environment model includes one room that is not assigned to any of the zones.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein adding the representations of the accessory devices to the environment model includes assigning the representations of the accessory devices to rooms, wherein for each accessory device, the representation thereof is assigned to exactly one room and wherein representations of accessory devices that are assigned to a particular room are also assigned to the zone in which the room is contained.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

defining, in response to user input, a service group within the environment model, the service group having at least a representation of a first accessory device and a representation of a second accessory assigned thereto,

wherein the representation of the first accessory device and the representation of the second accessory device are also assigned to rooms that are in different zones.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

defining, within the environment model, a triggered action set, the triggered action set specifying a triggering condition and one or more control messages to be sent to one or more of the accessory devices represented in the environment model in response to detecting, by a controller device, that the triggering condition obtains.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the triggered action set further specifies a triggering event such that detection by a controller device of the triggering event results in testing whether the triggering condition obtains.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein propagating the environment model to at least one other controller device includes propagating the environment model through a direct synchronization operation of the first controller device with the at least one other controller device.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein propagating the environment model to at least one other controller includes propagating the environment model through a cloud-based synchronization operation of the first controller with a cloud-based data service followed by a cloud-based synchronization operation of the at least one other controller with the cloud-based data service.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein defining an environment model further includes defining an access list for the environment model, the access list including a list of controller devices that are authorized to access the environment model.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein defining an environment model further includes defining an access list for the environment model, the access list including a list of users that are authorized to access the environment model.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the access list further includes a list of controller devices associated with each authorized user.

14. A controller device comprising:

a user interface;

a communication interface to communicate with one or more other devices including at least an accessory device; and

a processing subsystem coupled to the user interface and the communication interface, the processor configured to;

define, in response to user input, an environment model, the environment model including a hierarchical representation of a physical environment where a plurality of accessory devices are present;

add, in response to user input, a representation of each of the plurality of accessory devices to the environment model, the representation of each accessory device being independently assigned to a location in the environment model at a lowest level of the hierarchical representation; and

propagate the environment model to at least one other controller device.

15. The controller device of claim 14 wherein the processing subsystem is further configured to execute an application program that has a configuration mode and a control mode, wherein the configuration mode allows a user to operate the user interface to define the environment model and add representations of the accessory devices to the environment model, and wherein the control mode allows the user to operate the user interface to control the accessory devices within a framework corresponding to the environment model.

16. The controller device of claim 15 wherein the user interface in the configuration mode includes a user interface screen describing an accessory and a user-operable identify control for the accessory,

wherein, responsive to user operation of the identify control, the controller device sends a reveal request to the accessory device, the reveal request being recognizable by the accessory device as an instruction to perform an action that is observable by the user, the action being determined by the accessory device.

17. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon program instructions that, when executed by a processor in a controller device, cause the controller device to perform a method comprising:

defining, in response to user input, an environment model, the environment model including a hierarchical representation of a physical environment where a plurality of accessory devices are present;

adding, in response to user input, a representation of each of the plurality of accessory devices to the environment model, the representation of each accessory device being independently assigned to a location in the environment model at a lowest level of the hierarchical representation; and

propagating the environment model to at least one other controller device.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the method further comprises:

establishing a pairing with each of the accessory devices, wherein establishing a pairing with an accessory device includes providing to the accessory device a long-term public key of the first controller device and obtaining from the accessory a long-term public key of the accessory device.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the environment model includes a plurality of rooms and a plurality of zones, wherein each zone contains a subset of the plurality of rooms, wherein accessory devices whose representations are assigned to a common room or common zone in the environment model are controllable as a group, and wherein for each accessory device, the representation thereof is assigned to exactly one room.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19 wherein the method further comprises:

defining, in response to user input, a service group within the environment model, the service group having at least a representation of a first accessory device and a representation of a second accessory assigned thereto,

wherein the representation of the first accessory device and the representation of the second accessory device are also assigned to rooms that are in different zones.