Token-based personalization of smart appliances

• US 7,933,968 B1
• Filed: 06/20/2000
• Issued: 04/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Zimmerman, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Shingles; Kristie D
• Application Number:
  US09/597,196
• Time in Patent Office: 3,962 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709219-221, 709/229, 709/222, 715/735, 715/744, 715/747, 725/39, 725/46, 725/47
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 5/145 Applications of charge pumps; Boosted voltage circuits; Clamp circuits therefor G11C5/141 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0809 Plug-and-play configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4131 home appliance, e.g. lighting, air conditioning system, metering devices home automation data switching networks exchanging configuration information on appliance services H04L12/2807
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4415 using biometric characteristics of the user, e.g. by voice recognition or fingerprint scanning cryptography using biological data H04L9/3231; authentication in networks using biometric H04L63/0861
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4661 Deriving a combined profile for a plurality of end-users of the same client, e.g. for family members within a home user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306

Abstract

A radio frequency identification (RFID) token is used with appliances to access profile data to personalize the appliance. Each token contains a pointer to a relay location on a network with a further pointer indicating a profile location where user-profile data is stored. When a user wants to use an appliance, he/she places the token near the appliance and the appliance accesses the data from the site indicated (pointed to) by the relay location. The profile location may contain many different types of data such as speed dial lists, media preferences, preferred product classifications, etc. The appliance could obtain just the information it required, for example if the database were XML-tagged, by filtering out irrelevant content and personalize itself accordingly. When multiple users wish to use a single appliance, for example a television, each may place his/her token near the appliance and the appliance may then combine relevant profile data accordingly to develop a single composite profile to use to personalize the appliance.

Claims

1. A method of controlling the operation of an appliance, the method comprising:

receiving, at the appliance, first access data from memory of a first remote device, the first access data providing network access to first configuration data corresponding to a first set of user preferences on an external network;

receiving at the appliance at least a portion of the first configuration data via the network access;

configuring the appliance to a first configuration in accordance with the at least a portion of the first configuration data;

receiving, at the appliance, second access data to the appliance from a memory of a second remote device, the second access data providing network access to second configuration data corresponding to a second set of user preferences on the external network;

receiving at the appliance at least a portion of the second configuration data via the network access; and

reconfiguring the appliance to a second configuration in accordance with the at least a portion of the second configuration data,

wherein;

receiving the at least the portion of the first configuration data includes;

receiving first relay data responsive to an external network server identified in the first access data, and

receiving the at least a portion of the first configuration data made accessible via the network access by the first relay data; and

receiving the at least the portion of the second configuration data includes;

receiving second relay data responsive to an external network server identified in the second access data, and

receiving the at least a portion of the second configuration data made accessible via the network access by the second relay data,

and wherein reconfiguring the appliance includes creating a composite of the portion of the first configuration data and the portion of the second configuration data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the first remote device and the second remote device corresponds to a portable device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the first and second remote devices corresponds to a radio frequency identification device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein delivering the first and second access data includes co-locating the radio frequency identification device with the appliance.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first configuration data includes configuration data relating to the appliance and configuration data relating to another type of appliance.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first access data includes a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) associated with a relay server.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the second access data includes an other Uniform Resource Locator (URL) associated with an other relay server.

8. A method of controlling the operation of an appliance, the method comprising:

receiving, at the appliance, first access data from memory of a first remote device, the first access data providing network access to first configuration data corresponding to a first set of user preferences on an external network;

receiving at the appliance at least a portion of the first configuration data via the network access;

configuring the appliance to a first configuration in accordance with the at least a portion of the first configuration data;

receiving, at the appliance, second access data to the appliance from a memory of a second remote device, the second access data providing network access to second configuration data corresponding to a second set of user preferences on the external network;

receiving at the appliance at least a portion of the second configuration data via the network access; and

reconfiguring the appliance to a second configuration in accordance with the at least a portion of the second configuration data,

wherein;

receiving the at least the portion of the first configuration data includes;

receiving first relay data responsive to an external network server identified in the first access data, and

receiving the at least a portion of the first configuration data made accessible via the network access by the first relay data; and

receiving the at least the portion of the second configuration data includes;

receiving second relay data responsive to an external network server identified in the second access data, and

receiving the at least a portion of the second configuration data made accessible via the network access by the second relay data,

wherein each of the first and second remote devices corresponds to a radio frequency identification device,

wherein delivering the first and second access data includes co-locating the radio frequency identification device with the appliance,

and wherein the method further comprises;

reconfiguring the appliance to the first configuration after removal of the second remote device from a vicinity of the appliance.

9. The method of claim 8, further including measuring a time duration after the removal of the second remote device, and wherein reconfiguring the appliance to the first configuration occurs when the time duration exceeds a predefined persistence period.