Method and system for interactive home monitoring

• US 8,923,919 B2
• Filed: 06/02/2014
• Issued: 12/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Fan, James W., Kuo, Richard, Lam, Jennifer K.
• Primary Examiner(s): DEAN, RAYMOND S
• Application Number:
  US14/293,524
• Publication Number:
  US 20140282752A1
• Time in Patent Office: 211 Days
• Field of Search: 455/556.1, 340/539.11, 340/539.14, 340/539.23, 340/541
• US Class Current: 455/556.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/025 Door telephones adapted for television H04N7/186
• 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 21/6181 involving transmission via a mobile phone network arrangements for providing broadcast or conference services to substation in data switching networks in combination with wireless systems H04L12/189; wireless uplink channel access H04W74/004
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/10 Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-On-Call services

Abstract

A method and system for interactive home monitoring includes detecting a visitor arriving at a premises of a multimedia content distribution network (MCDN) client by an intercom unit installed at the premises. The intercom unit may be coupled to the MCDN client, which may be configured to wirelessly communicate with a user of the MCDN client. A captured image of the visitor may be used to determine if an identity of the visitor is known or unknown. Based on the identity, a communication channel between the visitor and the user may be established at the intercom unit. The intercom unit may further be configured to provide further information to the visitor based on the visitor identity.

Claims

1. A home monitoring method, comprising:

responsive to receiving multimedia content corresponding to scheduled programming from an access network via a network adapter, processing the multimedia content to generate a native format audio signal and a native format video signal;

responsive to receiving an image and audio of a visitor from an intercom unit via a wireless telemetry interface, determining, based on the image received, a visitor status selected from;

known; and

unknown;

responsive to determining that the visitor status is known, retrieving a visitor profile for the visitor from a stored collection of visitor profiles;

responsive to determining that the visitor status is unknown, adding, to the collection of visitor profiles, a new visitor profile including the image and audio received and the visitor status;

generating, based on the visitor profile, a visitor prompt appropriate for the visitor status, wherein the visitor prompt indicates an identity of the visitor when the visitor status is known; and

establishing a communication connection between a network user and the visitor via the wireless telemetry interface.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a request from the visitor for premises information; and

responsive to the request, outputting premises information via the intercom unit, based on the visitor status.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the intercom unit is configured to output multimedia content, including at least one of:

audio content, video content, images, and text.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing the communication connection includes a cellular telephone connection.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing the communication connection includes an Internet protocol connection.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using the communication connection to perform at least one of;

notifying the network user that the visitor was detected;

sending the image to the network user;

sending the visitor status to the network user;

communicating bidirectionally between the visitor and the network user;

communicating via audio;

communicating via video;

communicating via text; and

receiving instructions from the network user for interfacing with the visitor.

7. A premises device, comprising:

a processor;

a network adapter;

a wireless telemetry interface; and

a computer readable memory, accessible to the processor, including processor executable instructions, which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

responsive to receiving multimedia content corresponding to scheduled programming from an access network via the network adapter, processing the multimedia content to generate a native format audio signal and a native format video signal;

responsive to receiving an image and audio of a visitor from an intercom unit via the wireless telemetry interface, determining, based on the image received, a visitor status selected from;

known; and

unknown;

responsive to determining that the visitor status is known, retrieving a visitor profile for the visitor from a stored collection of visitor profiles;

responsive to determining that the visitor status is unknown, adding, to the collection of visitor profiles, a new visitor profile including the image and audio received and the visitor status;

generating, based on the visitor profile, a visitor prompt appropriate for the visitor status, wherein the visitor prompt indicates an identity of the visitor when the visitor status is known; and

establishing a communication connection between a network user and the visitor via the wireless telemetry interface.

8. The device of claim 7, wherein the wireless telemetry interface includes a cellular telephony interface and further wherein the cellular telephony interface is provided by a cellular telephone device coupled to the processor.

9. The device of claim 7, wherein the operations include:

receiving the multimedia content via the wireless telemetry interface responsive to detecting that content is unavailable from the access network via the network adapter.

10. The device of claim 7, wherein the intercom link includes at least one of:

a wireless link, an optical link, and a wireline link.

11. The device of claim 7, further comprising:

a network connection to a home security monitor;

wherein the operations include;

receiving, from the home security monitor, sensor information from a security sensor installed at the premises; and

forwarding the sensor information to the network user.

12. The device of claim 11, wherein the operations include:

receiving, from the network user, control information to control an actuator installed at the premises;

forwarding the control information to the home security monitor;

receiving, from the home security monitor, actuator information indicating a state of the actuator; and

forwarding the actuator information to the network user.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium, including processor executable instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations including:

responsive to receiving multimedia content corresponding to scheduled programming from an access network via a network adapter, processing the multimedia content to generate a native format audio signal and a native format video signal;

responsive to receiving an image and audio of a visitor from an intercom unit via a wireless telemetry interface, determining, based on the image received, a visitor status selected from;

known; and

unknown;

responsive to determining that the visitor status is known, retrieving a visitor profile for the visitor from a stored collection of visitor profiles;

responsive to determining that the visitor status is unknown, adding, to the collection of visitor profiles, a new visitor profile including the image and audio received and the visitor status;

generating, based on the visitor profile, a visitor prompt appropriate for the visitor status, wherein the visitor prompt indicates an identity of the visitor when the visitor status is known; and

establishing a communication connection between a network user and the visitor via the wireless telemetry interface.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the operations include:

detecting a request from the visitor for premises information; and

responsive to the request, outputting premises information via the intercom unit, based on the visitor status.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the intercom unit is configured to output multimedia content, including at least one of:

audio content, video content, images, and text.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein establishing the communication connection includes a cellular telephone connection.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein establishing the communication connection includes an Internet protocol connection.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the operations include:

performing, via the communication connection, at least one operation selected from;

notifying the network user that the visitor was detected;

sending the image to the network user;

sending the visitor status to the network user;

communicating bidirectionally between the visitor and the network user;

communicating via audio;

communicating via video;

communicating via text; and

receiving instructions from the network user for interfacing with the visitor.