REMOTE CONTROL FOR ACTUATING GARAGE DOORS AND OTHER BARRIERS, AND METHOD AND SYSTEM OF USING SAME

• US 20180357847A1
• Filed: 06/07/2018
• Published: 12/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Olibra LLC
• Original Assignee: Olibra LLC
• Inventors: Shinar, Zohar, Merck, Christopher Andrew, Zeltzer, Guy
• Granted Patent: US 10,553,057 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 2009/00492 whereby the code is a rolling code
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 2009/00769 with data transmission performed by wireless means
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 2009/00928 for garage doors
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 2209/10 Comprising means for protocol conversion, i.e. format conversion
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/00309 operated with bidirectional data transmission between data carrier and locks
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/21 having a variable access code
• 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 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

Remote control for actuating garage doors and other barriers, and method and system of using same. A base unit includes: a wireless receiver, to wirelessly receive from an electronic device an incoming wireless signal indicating a command to actuate a garage door; a wireless signal constructor, to dynamically construct an outgoing wireless signal which comprises a rolling code; a wireless transmitter, to transmit the outgoing wireless signal to a wireless receiver of a motor unit that is operably associated with the garage door. A wireless signal constructor dynamically constructs the outgoing wireless signal without having access to a secret seed value that is accessible to the motor unit. A local storage unit stores a data-set of rolling codes that are associated with the motor unit; and the outgoing wireless signal is dynamically constructed based on a next-available rolling code obtained from the local storage unit of the base unit.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a wireless receiver, to wirelessly receive from an electronic device an incoming wireless signal indicating a command to actuate a garage door;

a wireless signal constructor, to dynamically construct an outgoing wireless signal which comprises a rolling code;

a wireless transmitter, to transmit said outgoing wireless signal to a wireless receiver of a motor unit that is operably associated with said garage door.

2. The apparatus of claim 1,

wherein said wireless signal constructor is to dynamically construct said outgoing wireless signal without having access to a secret seed value that is accessible to said motor unit.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a local storage unit to store a data-set of rolling codes that are associated with said motor unit;

wherein said wireless signal constructor is to dynamically construct said outgoing wireless signal by including in said outgoing wireless signal a next-available rolling code obtained from said local storage unit of the apparatus.

4. The apparatus of claim 3,

wherein the wireless receiver is to further receive, from a remote server, the data-set of rolling codes that are associated with said motor unit.

5. The apparatus of claim 3,

wherein the wireless receiver is to receive, from said electronic device, a wireless communication signal indicating a user-indication of a property of said motor unit;

wherein the wireless transmitter is to wirelessly transmit, to a remote server, said user-indication of the property of said motor unit;

wherein the wireless receiver is to receive, from said remote server, the data-set of rolling codes that are associated with said motor unit.

6. The apparatus of claim 3,

wherein the wireless receiver is to further receive, from a remote server, the data-set of rolling codes that are associated with said motor unit;

wherein the data-set of rolling codes, that is received from the remote server, is only a partial subset of an entire dataset of rolling codes that can actuate said motor unit.

7. The apparatus of claim 3,

wherein the wireless receiver is to further receive, from a remote server, via a secure communication channel, an encrypted version of the data-set of rolling codes that are associated with said motor unit;

wherein the apparatus comprises a cryptographic unit to dynamically decrypt only one rolling code of said data-set, upon receiving a user command to actuate the garage door.

8. The apparatus of claim 3,

wherein the wireless receiver is to capture and record a sample wireless signal that is transmitted by a proprietary remote control unit that is associated with said motor unit;

wherein the apparatus comprises;

a demodulator to demodulate the sample wireless signal;

a signal analyzer to analyze a demodulated version of said sample wireless signal, and to determine a type of said motor unit;

wherein the wireless transmitter is to wirelessly transmit, to a remote server, an indication of said type of said motor unit;

wherein the wireless receiver is to receive, from said remote server, the data-set of rolling codes that are associated with said motor unit.

9. The apparatus of claim 3,

wherein the wireless receiver is to capture and record a sample wireless signal that is transmitted by a proprietary remote control unit that is associated with said motor unit;

wherein the wireless transmitter is to upload to a remote server, at least a portion of a copy of said sample wireless signal, to enable said remote server to demodulate and analyze said sample wireless signal and to identify a type of said motor unit;

wherein the wireless receiver is to receive, from said remote server, the data-set of rolling codes that are associated with said motor unit.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a User Interface (UI) element to receive a direct manual input from a user;

wherein said wireless signal constructor and said wireless transmitter are also triggered to operate based on said direct manual input from the user.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a pairing module to perform a wireless pairing process between said apparatus and said motor unit;

wherein actuation of the pairing module triggers the wireless transmitter to transmit a wireless communication signal having a rolling code, which enables the motor unit to pair with said apparatus.

12. The apparatus of claim 1,

wherein the wireless receiver of the apparatus is to wirelessly receive said incoming wireless signal directly from said electronic device via a local Wi-Fi communication network in which said apparatus and said electronic device participate.

13. The apparatus of claim 1,

wherein the wireless receiver of the apparatus is to wirelessly receive said incoming wireless signal directly from said electronic device via a local Wi-Fi router which is in direct Wi-Fi communication with each one of said apparatus and said electronic device.

14. The apparatus of claim 1,

wherein the wireless receiver of the apparatus is to wirelessly receive said incoming wireless signal indirectly from said electronic device via a home automation unit,

wherein said incoming wireless signal is transmitted wirelessly from said electronic device to said home automation unit which in turn generates and sends a different wireless signal to said base unit to trigger actuation of said garage door.

15. The apparatus of claim 1,

wherein the wireless receiver of the apparatus is to wirelessly receive said incoming wireless signal indirectly from said electronic device via a home automation unit and via a cloud computing system,

wherein said incoming wireless signal is transmitted wirelessly from said electronic device to said home automation unit, which in turn sends another, different, signal to said cloud computing system, which in turn sends yet another, different, signal to said base unit to trigger actuation of said garage door.

16. The apparatus of claim 1,

wherein the wireless receiver of the apparatus is to wirelessly receive said incoming wireless signal from said electronic device which is a smartphone or a tablet.

17. A system comprising:

(a) a base unit comprising;

a wireless receiver, to wirelessly receive from an electronic device an incoming wireless signal indicating a command to actuate a garage door;

a wireless signal constructor, to dynamically construct an outgoing wireless signal which comprises a rolling code;

a wireless transmitter, to transmit said outgoing wireless signal to a wireless receiver of a motor unit that is operably associated with said garage door;

(b) a remote server comprising;

a storage unit, to store a data-set of rolling codes that, when included in a wireless signal, cause said motor unit to actuate said garage door;

a wireless transceiver to transmit to said base unit a partial subset of said data-set of rolling codes.

18. The system of claim 17,

wherein the remoter server generates said data-set of rolling codes by:

(I) actuating a proprietary remote control unit of said garage door, and (II) capturing a wireless signal transmitted by said proprietary remote control unit, and (III) extracting a rolling code from said wireless signal; and

(IV) repeating operations (I) through (III) at least 100 times.

19. The system of claim 17,

wherein the wireless transceiver of the remote server is

(I) to transmit to said base unit located at a first venue, a first partial subset of said data-set of rolling codes, and

(II) to transmit to another base unit located at a second venue, a second partial subset of said data-set of rolling codes,

wherein the first partial subset comprises rolling codes that are not comprised in the second partial subset,

wherein the second partial subset comprises rolling codes that are not comprised in the first partial subset.

20. The system of claim 17,

wherein the base unit further comprises a local storage unit to store said partial subset of rolling codes;

wherein the wireless signal constructor of the base unit is to dynamically construct said outgoing wireless signal by including in said outgoing wireless signal a next-available rolling code obtained from said local storage unit of the base unit.