Device discovery and control in a bridged home network

• US 7,490,293 B1
• Filed: 06/12/2000
• Issued: 02/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Wang, Dongyan, Humpleman, Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): Lo; Weilun
• Assistant Examiner(s): TRAN, MYLINH T
• Application Number:
  US09/592,596
• Time in Patent Office: 3,165 Days
• Field of Search: 345733-740, 345/700, 345/764, 345/835, 345/853, 345/969, 709/203, 709/220, 709/223, 709/224, 715733-740, 715/700, 715/764, 715/835, 715/969, 715/869, 370/257
• US Class Current: 715/734
• 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 12/40091 Bus bridging LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; single bridge functionality H04L12/462
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2849 Audio/video appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display

Abstract

A method for providing user interfaces in a first network including first devices interconnected via a communication medium and at least one interface device connecting said first network to at least a second network having interconnected second devices, the user interfaces for controlling the devices that are currently connected to the first network and devices that are currently connected to the second network. The method includes the steps of: (a) obtaining information from said first devices currently connected to the first network, said information including device information; (b) obtaining information from the interface device about the second devices connected to the second network; (c) generating a user interface description in one or more of said first devices based at least on the obtained information, the user interface description in each first device including: (1) at least one reference associated with the device information of each of said first devices, and (2) at least one reference associated with the device information of each of said second devices.

Claims

1. A method for providing user interfaces in a first network including first devices interconnected via a communication medium and at least one interface device connecting said first network to at least a second network having interconnected second devices, the user interfaces for controlling the devices that are currently connected to the first network and devices that are currently connected to the second network, comprising the steps of:

(a) dynamically obtaining information from said first devices currently connected to the first network upon connection to the first network, said information including graphical and/or textual information;

(b) dynamically obtaining information from the interface device about the second devices connected to the second network upon connection to the second network, said information including graphical and/or textual information;

(c) dynamically generating a user interface description from the obtained information, the user interface description including;

(1) at least one graphical and/or textual reference of said first devices that are currently connected to the first network, and (2) at least one graphical and/or textual reference of said second devices that are currently connected to the second network; and

displaying a top level user interface from the user interface description on a device connected to the first network capable of displaying user interfaces;

(d) displaying a control user interface on a device connected to the first network capable of displaying user interfaces, for user control of one or more of said first and second devices, by;

using a reference in the user interface description for a first device or a second device, to perform the steps of;

using said reference to communicate over the first network and/or the second network to access the associated information stored in said corresponding device;

generating the control user interface including device data corresponding to said corresponding device using the accessed information stored in said corresponding device; and

displaying the control user interface for user control of said corresponding device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said interface device includes information about the second devices.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network comprises a 1394 bus, and the second network comprises a non-1394 bus.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the interface device includes an address extension table for the second devices, and wherein step (b) further includes the steps of using the address extension table to access said second devices.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein in step (a), obtaining information from said first devices comprises obtaining a first set of information from one of said first devices, and wherein in step (d), using said reference to communicate over the first network and/or the second network to access the associated information stored in said corresponding device comprises accessing a second set of information stored in the corresponding device, the first set of information being a subset of the second set of information.

6. The method of claim 1 further including the step of:

displaying one or more top level user interfaces each based on a user interface description, on one or more devices connected to the first network capable of displaying a user interface, for user control of said first and second devices.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of displaying each top level user interface further includes the steps of:

using each reference in the corresponding user interface description to access the associated information stored in each device;

generating the top level user interface including device data corresponding to each device using the accessed information in each device; and

displaying the top level user interface on said device capable of displaying a user interface.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of generating a user interface description further comprises the steps of:

associating a hyper-text link with the device information of one or more of said first and second devices.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the information in each device includes a user control interface description for user interaction with the device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the step (c) further includes the steps of generating each user interface description such that each reference in that user interface description is to at least the user control interface description in each corresponding device.

11. A network system for performing a service, comprising:

a first network including first devices interconnected via a communication medium and at least one interface device connecting said first network to at least a second network having interconnected second devices;

an agent in each of one or more first devices adapted for;

dynamically obtaining information from said first devices currently connected to the first network upon connection to the first network, said information including graphical and/or textual information;

dynamically obtaining information from the interface device about the second devices connected to the second network upon connection to the second network, said information including graphical and/or textual information;

dynamically generating a user interface description in one of said first devices from the obtained information, the user interface description in each first device including;

(1) at least one graphical and/or textual reference of said first devices that are currently connected to the first network, and (2) at least one graphical and/or textual reference of said second devices that are currently connected to the second network; and

displaying a user interface on a device connected to the first network capable of displaying a user interfaces, by;

using each reference in a user interface description to communicate via the first network and/or the second network to access the associated information for the corresponding device;

generating the user interface including device data corresponding to each device using the accessed information; and

displaying the user interface on said device capable of displaying a user interface.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said interface device includes information about the second devices.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the first network comprises a 1394 bus, and the second network comprises a non-1394 bus.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the interface device includes an address extension table for the second devices, and wherein each agent is further adapted for using the address extension table to access said second devices.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the obtained information from one of said first devices is a first set of information, and wherein the accessed associated information stored in said corresponding device is a second set of information, the first set of information being a subset of the second set of information.

16. The system of claim 11 wherein the agent is further adapted for displaying one or more user interfaces each based on a user interface description, on one or more devices connected to the first network capable of displaying a user interface, for user control of said first and second devices.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the agent is further adapted for displaying each user interface by:

using each reference in the corresponding user interface description to access the associated information stored in each device;

generating the user interface including device data corresponding to each device using the accessed information in each device; and

displaying the user interface on said device capable of displaying a user interface.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the agent is further adapted for generating each user interface description by:

associating a hyper-text link with the device information of one or more of said first and second devices.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the information in each device includes a user control interface description for user interaction with the device.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the agent is further adapted for generating each user interface description such that each reference in that user interface description is to at least the user control interface description in each corresponding device.

21. A method for providing user interfaces, the user interfaces for controlling first devices that are currently connected to a first network and second devices that are currently connected to a second network, comprising the steps of:

(a) dynamically obtaining information from said first devices currently connected to the first network upon connection to the first network, said information including graphical and/or textual information;

(b) dynamically obtaining information from second devices connected to the second network upon connection to the second network, said information including graphical and/or textual information;

(c) dynamically generating a user interface from the obtained information, the user interface description including;

(1) at least one graphical and/or textual reference of said first devices that are currently connected to the first network, and (2) at least one graphical and/or textual reference of said second devices that are currently connected to the second network; and

(d) displaying a user interface on a device connected to the first network capable of displaying a user interfaces, by;

using each reference in a user interface description to communicate over the first network and/or the second network to access the associated information for each corresponding device;

generating the user interface including device data corresponding to each device using the accessed information; and

displaying the user interface on said device capable of displaying a user interface.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein in step (a), obtaining information from said first devices comprises obtaining a first set of information from one of said first devices, and wherein in step (d), using each reference in a user interface second set of information.

23. The method of claim 21 further including the step of:

displaying one or more user interfaces each based on a user interface description, on one or more devices connected to the first network capable of displaying a user interface, for user control of said first and second devices.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the step of displaying each user interface further includes the steps of:

using each reference in the corresponding user interface description to access the associated information stored in each device;

generating the user interface including device data corresponding to each device using the accessed information in each device; and

displaying the user interface on said device capable of displaying a user interface.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the step of generating a user interface description further comprises the steps of:

associating a hyper-text link with the device information of one or more of said first and second devices.

26. The method of claim 21, wherein the graphical and/or textual information in each device includes a user control interface description for user interaction with the device.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the step (c) further includes the steps of generating each user interface description such that each reference in that user interface description is to at least the user control interface description in each corresponding device.