Home network of connected consumer devices

• US 9,246,767 B2
• Filed: 10/10/2014
• Issued: 01/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Procter & Gamble Company
• Original Assignee: The Procter & Gamble Company
• Inventors: Apte, Raj B., Hasenoehrl, Erik John, Paulson, Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): Lim, Krisna
• Application Number:
  US14/511,190
• Publication Number:
  US 20150026329A1
• Time in Patent Office: 473 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/28 characterised by path configuration, e.g. LAN [Local Area Networks] or WAN [Wide Area Networks] wireless communication networks H04W ; arrangements for dividing the transmission path H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2807 Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving network analysis for automatically determining the actual topology of a network H04L41/12; hardware or software tools for network management using graphical user interfaces H04L41/22; address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2841 Wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/14 Network analysis or design
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/33 for indoor environments, e.g. buildings
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A method of associating a function to a room within a home, includes forming a mesh network in the structure with a plurality of nodes, each node having a communication module, segmenting the nodes into rooms based upon the time of flight, obtaining an identity for at least one node in a room; and using the identity to assign a purpose to the room.

Claims

1. A method of associating a room purpose to a room within a home, the method comprising:

forming a mesh network in the home with a plurality of nodes, each node having a communication module capable of broadcasting a signal;

providing a computing device capable of receiving the signal from at least one of the plurality of nodes;

the computing device;

receiving and analyzing the signal from the at least one of the plurality of nodes;

segmenting the nodes into rooms based on the signal from the at least one of the plurality of nodes;

obtaining an identity for at least one node in a room; and

using the identity to assign a purpose to the room.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a time of flight between at least two of the plurality of nodes.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication module comprises at least one of a room-transparent communication module and a room-limited communication module.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein determining the time of flight comprises determining the time of flight for signals from the room-transparent communication module and/or the room-limited communication module.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the identity for at least one node in a room comprises accessing a database of identifiers using an identifier for the at least one node.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein obtaining the identity for at least one node in a room comprises accessing a second database using the identifier and refining the assigned purpose to the room.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the identity of the at least one node comprises one of a stock keeping unit, a network address, a bar code, and a presumed identity.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing a list of the nodes in each room based upon the segmenting.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the storing occurs in storage remote from the home on an external network.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the identity occurs on an external network.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein obtaining the identity comprises:

acquiring an identifier for the at least one node;

accessing a database populated by consumers; and

using information in the database to determine the purpose of the room.

12. A method of associating a purpose to a room within a home, comprising:

forming a mesh network in the home with a plurality of nodes, each node having a room-transparent communication module and a room-limited communication module;

determining a time of flight and signal strength for signals between nodes;

segmenting the nodes into rooms based upon the time of flight and signal strength;

obtaining an identity for at least one node in a room; and

using the identity to assign a purpose to the room based on one or more of a current room list, a historical room list, a current node function list, a historical node function list, current node location data, historical node location data, current sensor data, historical sensor data, user preference data, a external database of room functions, blueprints of the home, and external data related to the home.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein obtaining an identity for at least one node in a room comprises accessing a database of identifiers using an identifier for the at least one node.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the identity of the at least one node comprises one of a stock keeping unit, a network address, a bar code, and a presumed identity.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising storing a list of nodes in each room based upon the segmenting.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the storing occurs in storage remote from the home on an external network.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein obtaining the identity occurs on an external network.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein obtaining the identity comprises:

acquiring an identifier for the at least one node;

accessing a database populated by consumers; and

using information in the database to determine the purpose of the room.

19. An ad hoc wireless network in a home, comprising:

a plurality of nodes, each of the plurality of nodes being associated with a room; and

a database containing;

information about each of the plurality of nodes;

information about the rooms located in the home; and

information about the purpose of the rooms located in the home.

20. The ad hoc wireless network of claim 19, wherein the database resides on a node in the wireless ad hoc network or external to the ad hoc wireless network.