Systems and methods for controlling home and commercial environments including one touch and intuitive functionality

• US 9,507,327 B2
• Filed: 04/20/2012
• Issued: 11/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/20/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Liaison Home Automation, LLC
• Original Assignee: Liaison Home Automation, LLC
• Inventors: Layton, William Kent
• Primary Examiner(s): BARNES-BULLOCK, CRYSTAL JOY
• Application Number:
  US13/452,289
• Publication Number:
  US 20130282180A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,684 Days
• Field of Search: 700/275
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2642 Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32085 Layout of factory, facility, cell, production system planning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00001 characterised by the display of information or by user interaction, e.g. supervisory control and data acquisition systems [SCADA] or graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 90/20 Smart grids as enabling technology in buildings sector smart grids supporting the management or operation of end-user stationary applications in general, or like technologies with no associated climate change mitigation effect Y04S20/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/40 Display of information, e.g. of data or controls
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/00 Management or operation of end-user stationary applications or the last stages of power distribution; Controlling, monitoring or operating thereof

Abstract

To provide an improved system for home environment control, in one embodiment, a system for controlling a living environment includes a computing device having a touch screen input system, the computing device including an interface. The interface includes a graphical representation of the living environment. The interface provides for control of a plurality of systems distributed in the living environment. The plurality of environmental systems is distributed in a plurality of rooms that make up the living environment. The interface is configured to activate a portion of the plurality of environmental systems upon a single touch command of a user received by the interface via the touch screen input system of the computing device.

Claims

1. A system for controlling a living environment, the system comprising:

a computing device having a touch screen input system;

the computing device including an interface, the interface including a graphical representation of a living environment to be controlled, where said living environment consists of a plurality of zones depicted in said graphical representation;

the interface providing for control of more than one type of environmental system distributed within the living environment and for control of a plurality of environmental systems distributed in the living environment;

one type of environmental system distributed within the living environment comprising a lighting system and a plurality of said environmental systems distributed in said plurality of zones comprising multiple lighting devices;

the interface configured to activate the environmental systems within a specific zone in the living environment upon touch commands of a user received by the interface via the touch screen input system of the computing device corresponding to said zone depicted in said graphical representation, wherein said interface is configured to cause the touched zone to glow based on it being activated; and

the interface configured to display a closer view of a specific zone depicted in said graphical representation in response to a press and hold command of a user received by the interface via the touch screen input system of the computing device corresponding to said zone depicted in said graphical representation.

2. The system of claim 1 where one or more of the plurality of environmental systems activated via a touch command are interrelated in their function.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the closer view of the specific zone contains a detailed view of environmental systems within the specific zone in response to the press and hold command.

4. The system of claim 1 where the computing device communicates wirelessly with at least one of the plurality of environmental systems.

5. The system of claim 1 where the interface is configured to provide control of individual systems of the plurality of environmental systems in the specific zone when the closer view of the specific zone is displayed.

6. The system of claim 1 where the types of environmental systems are selected from a list consisting of lighting systems, home theater systems, climate control systems, irrigation systems, blinds systems, security systems, and combinations thereof.

7. A system for controlling a living environment, the system comprising:

a computing device having an interface;

the computing device communicating wirelessly with a plurality of home systems;

the plurality of home systems selected from a group consisting of lighting systems, home theater systems, climate control systems, irrigation systems, blinds systems, and security systems;

the interface receiving touch based commands through the computing device;

the interface providing and displaying a plan view of a home or commercial environment to be controlled, said plan view depicting a plurality of rooms in said home or commercial environment and a portion of the surrounding exterior landscape;

the interface configured to actuate one or more of said plurality of home systems in a room-wide system when the depiction of a room on the plan view is touched and to cause the touched room to glow based on it being actuated;

the interface configured to actuate one or more of said plurality of home systems in at least a portion of said exterior landscape of said home or commercial environment when the depiction of said portion of said exterior landscape on the plan view is touched and to cause the depiction of said touched portion of said exterior landscape to glow;

the room-wide system being deployed in the room, the room-wide system included within one of the plurality of home systems;

the room-wide system including more than one separately deployed and interconnected device; and

the interface configured to display an enlarged view of one of the rooms depicted in said plan view in response to a press and hold command of a user received by the interface via the touch screen input system of the computing device corresponding to said room depicted in said plan view.

8. A method of controlling a living environment, the method comprising:

creating a graphical representation of a living environment;

creating a plurality of versions of the graphical representation of the living environment providing for highlighting of particular zones of the graphical representation of the living environment with different colors to correspond with different states of activation;

loading the plurality of versions of the graphical representation on a touch screen interface computing device;

interconnecting a plurality of home systems with the graphical representation;

receiving a touch based command at the touch screen interface computing device, the touch based command being a single touch on a symbolic zone depicted in the graphical representation that corresponds with an actual zone of the living environment; and

activating a portion of a first home system of the plurality of home systems, the portion of the first home system being in the actual zone;

causing the symbolic zone to glow a particular color responsive to the touch based command;

receiving a touch based command at the touch screen interface computing device, the touch based command being a press and hold command on a symbolic zone depicted in the graphical representation that corresponds with an actual zone of the living environment; and

displaying a zoomed version of the symbolic zone in response to the press and hold command.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

communicating with the portion of the first home system through a wireless interface.

10. The method of claim 9 where the plurality of home systems include lighting systems, home theater systems, climate control systems, irrigation systems, blinds systems, and security systems.

11. The method of claim 10 where the first home system is a lighting system.

12. The method of claim 11 where the portion of the first home system includes more than one lighting device.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a first selection of a menu button;

displaying a menu of environmental controls reflective of the plurality of home systems;

receiving a second selection of one of the menu of environmental controls; and

displaying the graphical representation of the living environment related to the one of the menus of environmental controls.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a touch based command at the touch screen interface computing device, the touch based command being a single selection of a single lighting device of the more than one lighting devices displayed in the zoomed version of the symbolic zone; and

activating the single lighting device.

15. The method of claim 14 where the single lighting device is not displayed in the graphical representation of a living environment.