System and methods for home appliance identification and control in a networked environment

• US 7,155,305 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2005
• Issued: 12/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Universal Electronics, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Universal Electronics, Inc.
• Inventors: Hayes, Patrick H., Black, Jeremy
• Primary Examiner(s): Masinick, Michael D.
• Application Number:
  US11/047,441
• Publication Number:
  US 20050159823A1
• Time in Patent Office: 694 Days
• Field of Search: 700/90, 700/221, 700/219, 700/224, 455/403, 340/447
• US Class Current: 700/224
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 19/28 using pulse code
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/20 Binding and programming of remote control devices
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/21 Programming remote control devices via third means
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/33 Remote control using macros, scripts
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/41 Remote control of gateways
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/91 Remote control based on location and proximity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2805 Home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] 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 12/2814 Exchanging control software or macros for controlling appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving configuration of the network and network elements H04L41/08
• 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 12/282 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: H04L 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/45 Network directories; Name-to-address mapping

Abstract

A home control and automation system and method. The system generally includes one or more wireless remote controls, a plurality of appliances (including network enabled appliances and traditional legacy appliances in the exemplary system), associated control centric devices, and associated content centric devices. Various methods for control and operation of appliances in the networked home control and automation environment are disclosed. Specifically, methods are disclosed which enable advanced home control features such as location based control setup and operation, network enabled legacy appliances and system integration, save and recall capabilities for appliance and media states, generic command based appliance controls, dynamic/complex macro command generation, and Internet based control capabilities from remote locations are disclosed in conjunction with the system of the current invention.

Claims

1. A method for setting up a system device to command operations of an appliance, the method comprising:

reading from an RFID tag associated with the appliance an identifying characteristic of the appliance; and

disseminating the identifying characteristic of the appliance read from the RFID tag to at least one command centric device in a network, wherein the command centric device uses the identifying characteristic of the appliance read from the RFID tag to access data stored in an existing device database to configure itself to transmit commands for controlling operations of the appliance with the data being otherwise incapable of being communicated from the appliance itself to the network.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, comprising causing the at least one command centric device to access a network database to retrieve the data for use in generating the commands for controlling operations of the appliance.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, comprising causing the at least one command centric device to access its local memory to select the data for use in generating commands for controlling operations of the appliance.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the identifying characteristic of the appliance is read from the RFID tag as the appliance enters an environment.

5. A method for setting up a system device to command operations of an appliance, the method comprising:

reading with a device from an RFID tag associated with the appliance an identifying characteristic of the appliance;

using the identifying characteristic of the appliance read from the RFID tag at the device to retrieve data from an existing device database for use in generating commands to control operations of the appliance; and

disseminating the retrieved data from the device to at least one controller via a network, wherein the controller uses the retrieved data to configure itself to transmit commands to control operations of the appliance with the data being otherwise incapable of being communicated from the appliance itself to the network.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, comprising causing the device to access a network database to retrieve the data for use in generating commands to control operations of the appliance.

7. The method as recited in claim 5, comprising causing the device to access its local memory to select the data for use in generating commands to control operations of the appliance.

8. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the device reads the identifying characteristic of the appliance from the RFID tag as the appliance enters an environment.

9. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the device communicates generic commands to the controller and the controller uses the generic commands to select corresponding ones of the commands to control operations of the appliance.

10. A method for routing communications between a controlling device and a controllable device in a control environment, comprising;

using an identifying characteristic read from an RFID tag associated with the controllable device to determine the presence of the controllable device within the control environment;

associating in a centralized command routing system a network address within the control environment with the controllable appliance in response to the controllable appliance being determined to be present via the read identifying characteristic;

receiving a command request at the centralized command routing system from the controlling device;

determining at the centralized command routing system from the received command request that the controllable appliance is intended to be a recipient for one or more commands intended to control one or more operations of the controllable appliance; and

in response to the determination that the controllable appliance is intended to be the recipient for one or more commands, causing the centralized command routing system to use the network address that has been associated in the centralized command routing system with the controllable appliance to route one or more commands corresponding to the command request received at the centralized command routing system from the controlling device to the controllable device.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the identifying characteristic is read from the RFID tag when the appliance enters and exits the control environment.

12. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the controllable appliance is a legacy device incapable of communicating directly with the network, the centralized command routing system associates the network address with a command transmitting device adapted to communicate commands to the legacy device, and commands intended for receipt by the controllable appliance are routed by the centralized command routing system to the command transmitting device.

13. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the controlling device comprises a remote control.

14. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the identifying characteristic read from the RFID tag associated with the controllable device is used to dynamically modify a pre-existing macro used to command plural operations of one or more controllable devices within the control environment to thereby include within the macro one or more commands designated for transmission to the controllable device determined to be present via the read appliance identity.