Method of operating one or more controllable devices in dependence upon commands received from a plurality of mobile devices and system controller thereof

• US 8,732,753 B2
• Filed: 08/12/2011
• Issued: 05/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Guest-tek Interactive Entertainment Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Guest-tek Interactive Entertainment Ltd.
• Inventors: Warrick, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Pendleton, Brian T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Saint Cyr, Jean D
• Application Number:
  US13/208,441
• Publication Number:
  US 20110298596A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,012 Days
• Field of Search: 725/39
• US Class Current: 725/39
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/305 by remotely controlling device operation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6236 between heterogeneous systems
• 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 12/282 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 12/2821 Avoiding conflicts related to the use of home appliances cryptographic protocols H04L9/00; protocols for network security H04L63/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2143 located in a single building, e.g. hotel, hospital or museum arrangements specially adapted for plural spots in a confined site in broadcast systems H04H20/63; adaptations for transmission by electric cable for domestic distribution in television systems H04N7/106
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41265 having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/414 Specialised client platforms, e.g. receiver in car or embedded in a mobile appliance
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42206 characterized by hardware details

Abstract

A system controller for operating one or more controllable devices in dependence upon commands received from a mobile device includes a first communication interface for receiving a command from the mobile device and a second communication interface for receiving a message from a controllable device. One or more processors are configured to determine whether the mobile device that sent the command is authorized to operate a target controllable device to which the command pertains, and generate a command identifier for identifying the command, and send an instruction corresponding to the command and including the command identifier to the target controllable device when the mobile device is authorized to operate the target controllable device. The system controller replies to a pending command identified by a particular command identifier with a response indicating transaction complete when the message from the controllable device acknowledges the particular command identifier.

Claims

1. A method of operating one or more controllable devices in dependence upon commands received from a plurality of mobile devices, the method comprising:

receiving at a system controller a plurality of commands sent from the mobile devices, wherein each command is a request portion of a request-response transaction, and received commands for which the system controller has yet to send back a response are hereinafter referred to as pending commands;

determining by the system controller whether a mobile device from which a pending command was received is authorized to operate a target controllable device to which the pending command pertains by looking up in a database to determine which controllable devices are permitted to be operated by the mobile device;

replying by the system controller to the mobile device with a response indicating authentication failure when the mobile device is not authorized to control the target controllable device;

when the mobile device is authorized to operate the target controllable device, generating a command identifier that uniquely identifies the pending command from all other pending commands awaiting a response from the system controller, sending both an instruction for carrying out the pending command along with the command identifier of the pending command from the system controller to the target controllable device, and starting timing by the system controller a status time duration;

in response to receiving at the system controller a message acknowledging the command identifier of the pending command from one of the controllable devices before the status time duration exceeds a predetermined threshold time duration, replying by the system controller to the mobile device from which the pending command was received with a response indicating transaction complete; and

when the system controller does not receive any message acknowledging the command identifier of the pending command from any of the controllable devices before the status time duration exceeds the predetermined threshold time duration, replying by the system controller to the mobile device from which the pending command was received with a response indicating transaction timeout.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the instruction to the target controllable device using a one-way communication that has no guarantee of delivery.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the instruction to the target controllable device utilizing a communication selected from the group consisting of user datagram packet (UDP), internet protocol (IP) multicast, transmission control protocol (TCP), infrared transmission, and RF transmission.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the pending command is a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request received at the system controller via a connection opened with the mobile device;

the response indicating transaction complete is an HTTP response sent from the system controller to the mobile device via the connection; and

the system controller holds the connection open until after sending the HTTP response indicating transaction complete.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising including in the HTTP response indicating transaction complete an indication of success or failure according to the message from the one of the controllable devices.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising including in the HTTP response indicating transaction complete status information received in the message from the one of the controllable devices.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

creating a command process at the system controller having a unique process identifier upon receiving the HTTP request;

forwarding information of the HTTP request and the process identifier from the command process to a control application running on the system controller and then suspending the command process;

sending the instruction to the target controllable device by the control application and including in the instruction the command identifier being the process identifier;

un-suspending a particular command process having a particular process identifier identified by the acknowledged command identifier when the system controller receives the message acknowledging the command identifier from the one of the controllable devices; and

returning the HTTP response indicating transaction complete by the particular command process to the mobile device after the particular command process has been un-suspended.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the target controllable device from a predetermined plurality of media devices located in guest rooms of a hotel by the system controller according to identification information included in the pending command.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform the method of claim 1.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more controllable devices are located at a hospitality location and the mobile devices are operated by guests of the hospitality location.

11. A system controller for operating one or more controllable devices in dependence upon commands received from a plurality of mobile devices, the system controller comprising:

a first communication interface for communicating with the mobile devices, the first communication interface receiving a plurality of commands sent from the mobile devices, wherein each command is a request portion of a request-response transaction, and received commands for which the system controller has yet to send back a response are hereinafter referred to as pending commands;

a second communication interface for communicating with the one or more controllable device; and

one or more processors coupled to the first and second communication interfaces and configured to;

determine whether a mobile device from which a pending command was received is authorized to operate a target controllable device to which the pending command pertains by looking up in a database to determine which controllable devices are permitted to be operated by the mobile device;

reply to the mobile device with a response indicating authentication failure when the mobile device is not authorized to control the target controllable device;

when the mobile device is authorized to operate the target controllable device, generate a command identifier that uniquely identifies the pending command from all other pending commands awaiting a response from the system controller, send both an instruction for carrying out the pending command along with the command identifier of the pending command to the target controllable device, and start timing a status time duration;

in response to receiving a message from one of the controllable devices acknowledging the command identifier of the pending command before the status time duration exceeds a predetermined threshold time duration, reply to the mobile device from which the pending command was received with a response indicating transaction complete; and

when no message acknowledging the command identifier of the pending command is received from any of the controllable devices before the time duration exceeds the predetermined threshold time duration, reply to the mobile device from which the pending command was received with a response indicating transaction timeout.

12. The system controller of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to send the instruction to the target controllable device using a one-way communication that has no guarantee of delivery.

13. The system controller of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to send the instruction to the target controllable device utilizing a communication selected from the group consisting of user datagram packet (UDP), internet protocol (IP) multicast, transmission control protocol (TCP), infrared transmission, and RF transmission.

14. The system controller of claim 11, wherein:

the pending command is a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request received via a connection opened with the mobile device;

the response indicating transaction complete is an HTTP response sent to the mobile device via the connection; and

the one or more processors are further configured to hold the connection open until after sending the HTTP response indicating transaction complete.

15. The system controller of claim 14, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to include in the HTTP response indicating transaction complete an indication of success or failure according to the message from the one of the controllable devices.

16. The system controller of claim 14, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to include in the HTTP response indicating transaction complete status information included in the message from the one of the controllable devices.

17. The system controller of claim 14, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

create a command process having a unique process identifier upon receiving the HTTP request;

forward information of the HTTP request and the process identifier from the command process to a control application and then suspend the command process;

send the instruction to the target controllable device by the control application and include in the instruction the command identifier being the process identifier;

un-suspend a particular command process having a particular process identifier identified by the acknowledged command identifier when receiving the message acknowledging the command identifier from the one of the controllable devices; and

return the HTTP response indicating transaction complete by the particular command process to the mobile device after the particular request process has been un-suspended.

18. The system controller of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to select the target controllable device from a predetermined plurality of media devices located in guest rooms of a hotel according to identification information included in the pending command.

19. The system controller of claim 11, wherein the one or more controllable devices are located at a hospitality location and the mobile devices are operated by guests of the hospitality location.

20. A system controller for operating one or more controllable devices in dependence upon commands received from a plurality of mobile devices, the system controller comprising:

means for receiving a plurality of commands sent from the mobile devices, wherein each command is a request portion of a request-response transaction, and received commands for which the system controller has yet to send back a response are hereinafter referred to as pending commands;

means for determining whether a mobile device from which a pending command was received is authorized to operate a target controllable device to which the pending command pertains by looking up in a database to determine which controllable devices are permitted to be operated by the mobile device;

means for replying to the mobile device with a response indicating authentication failure when the mobile device is not authorized to control the target controllable device;

means for generating a command identifier that uniquely identifies the pending command from all other pending commands awaiting a response from the system controller when the mobile device is authorized to operate the target controllable device;

means for sending both an instruction for carrying out the pending command along with the command identifier of the pending command to the target controllable device when the mobile device is authorized to operate the target controllable device;

means for timing a status time duration after sending the instruction to the target controllable device;

means for replying to the mobile device from which the pending command was received with a response indicating transaction complete in response to receiving a message acknowledging the command identifier of the pending command from one of the controllable devices before the status time duration exceeds a predetermined threshold time duration; and

means for replying to the mobile device from which the pending command was received with a response indicating transaction timeout when no message acknowledging the command identifier of the pending command is received from any of the controllable devices before the status time duration exceeds the predetermined threshold time duration.