Intelligent management apparatus and method of digital home network system

• US 7,627,098 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2005
• Issued: 12/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Lim, Shin Young, Baik, Seoung Ho, Huh, Jae Doo
• Primary Examiner(s): Woo; Stella L
• Application Number:
  US11/292,704
• Publication Number:
  US 20060140205A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,461 Days
• Field of Search: 379/102.05, 379/102.01, 379/102.02, 379/102.03, 379/102.04, 379/102.06
• US Class Current: 379/102.05
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2821 Avoiding conflicts related to the use of home appliances cryptographic protocols H04L9/00; protocols for network security H04L63/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2829 involving user profiles according to which the execution of a home appliance functionality is automatically triggered
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5022 by giving priorities, e.g. assigning classes of service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5058 Service discovery by the service manager

Abstract

Provided is an intelligent management apparatus and method of a digital home network system. The intelligent management apparatus includes: a context aware portion for extracting context aware information from sensing data, generating context information, history information and object information based on the context aware information, and generating context priority information based on the context information when at least two contexts conflict with each other; an information directory for storing the context information, the history information, the object information, the context priority information; a service determining portion for detecting events based on the context aware information, reasoning services corresponding to the events based on the information stored in the information directory, and outputting reasoned service information; and a service control portion for determining a service priority of services to be executed based on the reasoned service information and controlling drive of devices corresponding to the respective services according to the determined service priority. The intelligent management apparatus and method of the digital home network system prevent a collision between the context information and services which may happen during operation of the digital home network system and minimize user'"'"'s intervention.

Claims

1. An intelligent management apparatus of a digital home network system, comprising:

a context aware portion for extracting context aware information from sensing data, generating context information, history information and object information based on the context aware information, and generating context priority information based on the context information when at least two contexts conflict with each other;

an information directory for storing the context information, the history information, the object information, the context priority information;

a service determining portion for detecting events based on the context aware information, reasoning services corresponding to the events based on the information stored in the information directory, and outputting reasoned service information; and

a service control portion for determining a service priority of services to be executed based on the reasoned service information and controlling drive of devices corresponding to the respective services according to the determined service priority, wherein when at least two service priorities of services are the same, the context aware portion generates a user intervention request signal to adjust the at least two service priorities.

2. The intelligent management apparatus of claim 1, further comprising, a sensor network for sensing inside and outside environment of a digital home and generating the sensing data.

3. The intelligent management apparatus of claim 1, wherein the information directory further stores service information which represents specification of services which exist in the digital home and a user priority information which represents a priority of users of the digital home, and the intelligent management apparatus further includes an update device which stores the history information, the object information, the service information, and the user priority information in the information directory at an initial stage and updates the information stored in the information directory to updated information.

4. The intelligent management apparatus of claim 3, wherein the information directory includes:

a context directory for storing the context information and the context priority information;

a history directory for storing the history information and the user priority information;

an object directory for storing the object information; and

a service directory for storing the service information.

5. The intelligent management apparatus of claim 3,

wherein the context information contains location information of users and objects which exist inside and outside the digital home and information for contexts which happen inside and outside the digital home,

wherein the history information contains profile information of the users, and

wherein the object information contains profile information of the objects.

6. The intelligent management apparatus of claim 3, wherein the context aware portion includes:

an information interpreter for interpreting the sensing data and outputting the interpreted information;

an information integrator for integrating the interpreted information and outputting the context aware information based on the integration result; and

an information manager for generating the context information, the history information and the object information based on the context aware information, determining whether the at least two contexts conflict from the context information, and generating context priority information based on the context information when the at least two contexts conflict.

7. The intelligent management apparatus of claim 6, wherein the information manager calculates priority values respectively corresponding to the context information, compares the priority values, and generates the context priority information according to the comparison result.

8. The intelligent management apparatus of claim 7, wherein the information manager determines priorities that the context information occupy in a plurality of priority items based on reference priority information previously set therein or information stored in the information directory and adds up the priorities.

9. The intelligent management apparatus of claim 8, wherein the plurality of priority items include the user priority, an interest priority, and a demand priority, and the information manager determines the priority of the context information such that the priority of the context information is lower as the priority value is lower and generates the context priority information according to the determination result.

10. The intelligent management apparatus of claim 7, wherein the information manager generates the context priority information based on user selection information which represents priorities of the context information respectively corresponding to the at least two priority values and the priority values.

11. The intelligent management apparatus of claim 3, wherein the service determining portion includes:

an event handle for detecting happened events based on the context aware information and outputting event signals;

an intelligent agent for requesting and receiving the context information, the history information, the object information, the context priority information, the service information, and the user priority information in response to the event signals, reasoning services corresponding to the events based on the received information, and outputting the reasoned service information; and

a directory access controller for reading the context information, the history information, the object information, the context priority information, the service information, and the user priority information by request of the intelligent agent and outputting the above described information to the intelligent agent.

12. The intelligent management apparatus of claim 11, wherein the service control portion includes:

a service manager for determining devices to be driven based on the reasoned service information and device identification information and generating a device selecting signal based on the determination result and the reasoned service information;

a device identifying portion for outputting the device identification information which represents specification of available devices among service performing devices which exist inside and outside the digital home; and

a device driving control portion for controlling drive of a corresponding device in response to the device selecting signal.

13. The intelligent management apparatus of claim 12, wherein when the devices to be driven do not exist the service manager outputs a first user intervention request signal to an external portion, receives first user selection information which represents specification of substitution devices of the devices to be driven from the external portion, determines whether at least two services conflict with each other based on the reasoned service information, the device identification information or the first user selection information, determines a service priority for the at least two services when the at least two services conflict with each other, and generates the device selecting signal according to the determined service priority.

14. The intelligent management apparatus of claim 13, wherein the service manager calculates priority values respectively corresponding to the at least two services, compares the priority values, and determines the service priority for the at least two services according to the comparison result.

15. The intelligent management apparatus of claim 14, wherein in order to calculate the priority values the service manager determines priorities that the at least two services occupy in a plurality priority items respectively based on reference priority information previously set therein and adds up the priorities.

16. The intelligent management apparatus of claim 15, wherein the plurality of priority items contains the user priority, an importance priority, and an available device priority, and the service manager determines the service priority such that a priority of the at least two services is lower as the priority values are lower.

17. The intelligent management apparatus of claim 15, wherein when the at least two priority values are the same, the service manager outputs a second user intervention request signal to an external portion and determines the service priority based on second user selection information which represents a priority of services respectively corresponding to the at least two priority values.

18. The intelligent management apparatus of claim 13, wherein the service manager generates study information based on the service priority, and the intelligent agent is studied by one of the study information and the context priority and updates information stored in the information directory through the directory access controller based on the study information.

19. An intelligent management method of a digital home network system, comprising:

extracting context aware information from sensing data for inside and outside environment of a digital home;

generating context information, history information, and object information based on the context aware information;

aware contexts happened in the digital home based on the context aware information and generating context priority information which represents a priority of at least two contexts when the at least two contexts conflict;

detecting events based on the context aware information and reasoning services corresponding to the happened events based on the context information, the history information, the object information, the context priority information, user priority information, and service information;

determining service devices to be driven based on the reasoned services and determining a service priority of at least two services when the at least two services conflict;

generating a user intervention request signal to adjust at least two service priorities of services when the at least two service priorities are the same; and

controlling drive of the service according to the determined service priority.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the step of generating the context priority information includes

calculating priority values respectively corresponding to the at least two contexts;

and

comparing the priority values and determining a priority of the at least two contexts according to the comparison result.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising, storing the context information, the history information, the object information, the context priority information, the user priority information, and the service information, wherein the step of calculating includes determining priorities that the context information occupy in a plurality of priority items respectively based on previously set reference priority information or the stored information;

and adding up the determined priorities and outputting the added-up result as a priority value of the context information corresponding to the added-up result.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the step of determining the priority includes, when the at least two priority values are the same, requesting user'"'"'s intervention, receiving user selection information which represents a priority of context information respectively corresponding to the at least two priority values, and determining the priority of the at least two contexts based on the user selection information and the priority values.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the step of determining the service priority includes

calculating priority values respectively corresponding to the at least two services which conflict each other;

and

comparing the priority values and determining the priority of the at least two services according to the comparison result.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the step of calculating includes

determining priorities that the at least two service occupy in a plurality of priority items respectively based on previously set reference priority information;

and

adding up the determined priorities and outputting the added-up result as a priority value of a corresponding service.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the step of determining the priority includes, when the at least two priority values are the same, requesting users intervention, receiving user selection information which represents a priority of context information respectively corresponding to the at least two priority values, and determining a priority of the at least two contexts based on the user selection information and the priority values.

26. The method of claim 23, further comprising, requesting user'"'"'s intervention and receiving user selection information which represents specification of substitution device of the devices to be driven when the devices to be driven do not exist.