Home automation system

• US 6,473,661 B1
• Filed: 03/15/2000
• Issued: 10/29/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Auto Time, LLC
• Original Assignee: Auto Time, LLC
• Inventors: Wollner, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hartman, Jr., Ronald D
• Application Number:
  US09/526,308
• Time in Patent Office: 958 Days
• Field of Search: 700/17, 700/19, 700/65, 700/83
• US Class Current: 700/83
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric

Abstract

A home automation system for automatically controlling the electric lights and appliances in a Jewish family'"'"'s home or Jewish institution. The system is preset to generate a regular schedules for Shabbos and Jewish Holidays based on the Jewish calendar and may also generate regular weekday scheduled events. Special schedules such as vacation mode, guest mode, summer mode and the like may be added and adjusted by the user as well. The special schedules or modes may be manually activated by a mechanical device outside the computer. Updated schedules are reported to a remotely located monitoring system. Some rooms may be bypassed by the regular schedule if desired. Power fail recovery and automatic atomic clock synchronization are also provided in the system.

Claims

1. A home automation system for automatically controlling electric devices in a home, comprising:

a plurality of switches for turning on/off each of said devices;

a computer having means for generating a regular schedule and special schedules of an on/off time for each of said devices;

means for automatically activating said switches according to either of said regular schedule or special schedules; and

a control panel for manually selecting between said regular schedule and said special schedules so that said activating means operates according to said selected schedule;

wherein said regular schedule is set according to the Jewish calendar, rules on Jewish religious activities and family preferences and lifestyle.

2. The home automation system of claim 1 wherein said special schedule is set for vacation days when home members are out for vacation.

3. The home automation system of claim 2 wherein said special schedule is set as such that a non-vacation situation is emulated by turning on/off said electric devices following said special schedule.

4. The home automation system of claim 1 wherein said special schedule is set according to different daytime lengths.

5. The home automation system of claim 4 wherein said special schedule includes a summer mode and a winter mode.

6. The home automation system of claim 4 wherein said special schedule includes an early Mincha mode.

7. The home automation system of claim 4 wherein said special schedule includes a night Simcha mode and a day Simcha mode.

8. The home automation system of claim 1 wherein said special schedule includes a guest mode.

9. The home automation system of claim 1 further comprising means for updating said schedules in a predetermined interval.

10. The home automation system of claim 9 further comprising means for reporting said updated schedules to a remotely located monitoring system after each updating.

11. The home automation system of claim 1 further comprising means for automatically synchronizing a timing clock in said computer with an atomic clock.

12. The home automation system as described in claim 1, further comprising a power failure recovery device for restoring the system to a scheduled state as of the time of power restoration with each of the electric devices either on or off as is appropriate.

13. A home automation system for automatically controlling electric devices in a home, comprising:

a plurality of switches for turning on/off each of said devices;

a computer having means for generating a regular schedule and a vacation schedule of an on/off time for each of said devices according to the Jewish calendar;

means for automatically activating said switches according to either of said regular schedule or vacation schedule; and

a mechanical device for manually selecting between said regular schedule and said vacation schedule so that said activating means operates according to said selected schedule.

14. The home automation system as described in claim 13, further comprising a power failure recovery device for restoring the system to a scheduled state as of the time of power restoration with each of the electric devices either on or off as is appropriate.