Scent delivery system scheduling

• US 9,460,404 B2
• Filed: 07/10/2013
• Issued: 10/04/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Scentair Technologies, LLC
• Original Assignee: Scentair Technologies, LLC
• Inventors: Chandler, John Thurston, Morton, Chad Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): Ali, Mohammad
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kabir, Saad M
• Application Number:
  US13/939,165
• Publication Number:
  US 20150019041A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,182 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A45D 34/02 Scent flasks, e.g. with evaporator
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 2209/11 Apparatus for controlling air treatment
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 2209/111 Sensor means, e.g. motion, brightness, scent, contaminant sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 2209/132 Piezo or ultrasonic elements for dispensing
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 2209/16 Connections to a HVAC unit
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 9/035 emanating multiple odours
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 9/125 emanating multiple odours
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 9/14 using sprayed or atomised substances including air-liquid contact processes
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2021/0016 by the smell sense
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/3561 local, e.g. within room or hospital
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/3584 using modem, internet or bluetooth
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/3592 using telemetric means, e.g. radio or optical transmission
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/502 User interfaces, e.g. screens or keyboards
• CPC Class Codes: B05B 12/02 for controlling time, or sequence, of delivery
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0426 Programming the control sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/25419 Scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 7/0629 characterised by the type of regulator means
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06314 Calendaring for a resource
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

A method for controlling one or more scent delivery units includes maintaining one or more scheduled events, maintaining one or more scheduled anti-events, and generating, based on the one or more scheduled events and the one or more scheduled anti-events, command data to be communicated to the one or more scent delivery units to control their activation and deactivation. Generating the command data includes identifying a conflicting period of time during which control specified by the one or more scheduled events differs from control specified by the one or more scheduled anti-events and also includes generating command data that gives priority to control specified by the one or more scheduled anti-events. Control for the one or more scent delivery units during the conflicting period of time is in accordance with control logic of the one or more scheduled anti-events and not the one or more scheduled events.

Claims

1. A method for controlling one or more scent delivery devices, the method comprising:

providing one or more networked scent delivery devices;

maintaining one or more scheduled events, each scheduled event being associated with control logic that identifies the one or more networked scent delivery devices to be activated during a first time period, the first time period being defined by an activation start time and an activation end time;

maintaining one or more scheduled anti-events, each scheduled anti-event being associated with control logic that identifies the one or more networked scent delivery devices to be deactivated during a second time period, the second time period being defined by a deactivation start time and a deactivation end time; and

generating, based on the one or more scheduled events and the one or more scheduled anti-events, command data to be communicated to the one or more networked scent delivery devices to control activation and deactivation of the one or more networked scent delivery devices,

wherein generating the command data includes;

identifying a conflicting period of time between the one or more scheduled events and the one or more scheduled anti-events, wherein the conflicting period of time indicates a period of time during which the control logic that identifies the one or more networked scent delivery devices to be activated conflicts with the control logic that identifies the one or more networked scent delivery devices to be deactivated, and

generating command data that gives priority to control specified by the one or more scheduled anti-events, control for the one or more networked scent delivery devices being in accordance with the control logic of the one or more scheduled anti-events during the conflicting period of time and not in accordance with the control logic of the one or more scheduled events during the conflicting period of time,

wherein generating command data that gives priority to control specified by the one or more scheduled anti-events comprises generating command data that maintains priority of the control specified by the one or more anti-events over any additional conflicting scheduled events subsequently added to the scenting schedule.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating command data that gives priority to control specified by the one or more scheduled anti-events includes generating command data that disregards the control logic that identifies the one or more networked scent delivery devices to be activated during the conflicting period of time.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising, based upon subsequent removal of the one or more anti-events, generating additional command data solely based on the one or more scheduled events.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the command data comprises generating command data that gives priority to control specified by a manual activation request over control specified by the one or more scheduled anti-events.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the command data comprises generating command data that gives priority to control specified by the one or more scheduled anti-events over control specified by a manual activation request.

6. A scent delivery system, comprising:

one or more networked scent delivery devices; and

one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, if executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising;

maintaining one or more scheduled events, each scheduled event being associated with control logic that identifies the one or more networked scent delivery devices to be activated during a first time period, the first time period being defined by an activation start time and an activation end time,

maintaining one or more scheduled anti-events, each scheduled anti-event being associated with control logic that identifies the networked one or more scent delivery devices to be deactivated during a second time period, the second time period being defined by a deactivation start time and a deactivation end time, and

generating, based on the one or more scheduled events and the one or more scheduled anti-events, command data to be communicated to the one or more networked scent delivery devices to control activation and deactivation of the one or more scent delivery devices,

wherein generating the command data includes;

identifying a conflicting period of time between the one or more scheduled events and the one or more scheduled anti-events, wherein the conflicting period of time indicates a period of time during which the control logic that identifies the one or more networked scent delivery devices to be activated conflicts with the control logic that identifies the one or more networked scent delivery devices to be deactivated, and

generating command data that gives priority to control specified by the one or more scheduled anti-events, control for the one or more networked scent delivery devices being in accordance with the control logic of the one or more scheduled anti-events during the conflicting period of time and not in accordance with the control logic of the one or more scheduled events during the conflicting period of time,

wherein the one or more storage devices storing instructions for generating the command data comprises one or more storage devices storing instructions for generating command data that maintains priority of the control specified by the one or more anti-events over any additional conflicting scheduled events subsequently added to the scenting schedule.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the one or more storage devices storing instructions for generating the command data comprises one or more storage devices storing instructions for generating command data that disregards the control logic that identifies the one or more networked scent delivery devices to be activated.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the one or more storage devices further store instructions for generating, based upon subsequent removal of the one or more anti-events, additional command data solely based on the one or more scheduled events.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the one or more storage devices storing instructions for generating the command data comprises one or more storage devices storing instructions for generating command data that gives priority to control specified by a manual activation request over control specified by the one or more scheduled anti-events.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein the one or more storage devices storing instructions for generating the command data comprises one or more storage devices storing instructions for generating command data that gives priority to control specified by the one or more scheduled anti-events over control specified by a manual activation request.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing software comprising instructions executable by one or more computers, which, upon such execution, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

providing one or more networked scent delivery devices;

maintaining one or more scheduled events, each scheduled event being associated with control logic that identifies the one or more networked scent delivery devices to be activated during a first time period, the first time period being defined by an activation start time and an activation end time;

maintaining one or more scheduled anti-events, each scheduled anti-event being associated with control logic that identifies the one or more networked scent delivery devices to be deactivated during a second time period, the second time period being defined by a deactivation start time and a deactivation end time; and

generating, based on the one or more scheduled events and the one or more scheduled anti-events, command data to be communicated to the one or more networked scent delivery devices to control activation and deactivation of the one or more networked scent delivery devices,

wherein generating the command data includes;

identifying a conflicting period of time between the one or more scheduled events and the one or more scheduled anti-events, wherein the conflicting period of time indicates a period of time during which the control logic that identifies the one or more networked scent delivery devices to be activated conflicts with the control logic that identifies the one or more networked scent delivery devices to be deactivated, and

generating command data that gives priority to control specified by the one or more scheduled anti-events, control for the one or more networked scent delivery devices being in accordance with the control logic of the one or more scheduled anti-events during the conflicting period of time and not in accordance with the control logic of the one or more scheduled events during the conflicting period of time,

wherein the operations further comprise generating command data that maintains priority of the control specified by the one or more anti-events over any additional conflicting scheduled events subsequently added to the scenting schedule.

12. The medium of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise generating command data that disregards the control logic that identifies the one or more networked scent delivery devices to be activated during the conflicting period of time.

13. The medium of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise, based upon subsequent removal of the one or more anti-events, generating additional command data solely based on the one or more scheduled events.

14. The medium of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise generating command data that gives priority to control specified by a manual activation request over control specified by the one or more scheduled anti-events.

15. The medium of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise generating command data that gives priority to control specified by the one or more scheduled anti-events over control specified by a manual activation request.