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

• US 9,584,848 B2
• Filed: 05/12/2014
• Issued: 02/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Guest-tek Interactive Entertainment Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Guest-tek Interactive Entertainment Ltd.
• Inventors: Warrick, Peter S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pendleton, Brian T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Saint Cyr, Jean D
• Application Number:
  US14/275,189
• Publication Number:
  US 20140250470A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,023 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 mobile device by a system controller, the method comprising:

opening a stateful connection between the mobile device and the system controller;

receiving at the system controller a first command sent from the mobile device via the stateful connection;

in response to the first command, holding the stateful connection in an open state by the system controller without immediately responding;

determining, by the system controller, a target controllable device to which the first command pertains;

generating a command identifier for identifying the first command from other commands received from the mobile device, wherein the command identifier is a unique identifier that uniquely identifies the first command from the other commands;

sending both an instruction for carrying out the first command along with the command identifier from the system controller to the target controllable device;

receiving a message from one of the controllable devices acknowledging the command identifier; and

replying to the first command by sending a response indicating transaction complete from the system controller to the mobile device via the stateful connection after the system controller receives the message acknowledging the command identifier, wherein the system controller holds the stateful connection open until after sending the response.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the stateful connection is a transmission control protocol (TCP) connection;

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

the response is an HTTP response sent from the system controller via the transmission control protocol (TCP) connection; and

the system controller holds the transmission control protocol (TCP) connection with the mobile device that sent the HTTP request open until after sending the HTTP response.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising including in the HTTP response an indication of success or failure according to the message from the one of the controllable devices.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising including in the HTTP response status information received in the message from the one of the controllable devices.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising when the system controller does not receive the message acknowledging the command identifier within a predetermined time duration, replying to the first command with an alternative HTTP response indicating transaction timeout.

6. The method of claim 2, 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 command identifier when the system controller receives the message acknowledging the command identifier; and

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

7. 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 first command.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising replying to the first command with an alternative response indicating authentication failure when the mobile device that sent the first command is not authorized to control the target controllable device.

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.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the message acknowledging the command identifier from the target controllable device.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the message acknowledging the command identifier from a different one of the controllable devices other than the target controllable device.

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

a first communication interface for receiving the commands from the mobile device;

a second communication interface for receiving messages from the one or more controllable devices; and

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

open a stateful connection between the mobile device and the system controller;

receive a first command sent from the mobile device via the stateful connection;

in response to the first command, hold the stateful connection in an open state by the system controller without immediately responding;

determine a target controllable device to which the first command device pertains;

generate a command identifier for identifying the first command from other commands received from the mobile device, wherein the command identifier is a unique identifier that uniquely identifies the first command from the other commands;

send both an instruction for carrying out the first command along with the command identifier to the target controllable device;

receive a message from one of the controllable devices acknowledging the command identifier; and

reply to the first command by sending to the mobile device a response indicating transaction complete via the stateful connection after receiving the message acknowledging the command identifier, wherein the system controller holds the stateful connection open until after sending the response.

11. The system controller of claim 10, wherein:

the stateful connection is a transmission control protocol (TCP) connection;

the first command is a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request received via the transmission control protocol (TCP) connection opened with the mobile device;

the response is an HTTP response sent via the transmission control protocol (TCP) connection; and

the one or more processors are further configured to hold the transmission control protocol (TCP) connection open until after sending the HTTP response.

12. The system controller of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to include in the HTTP response an indication of success or failure according to the message from the controllable device.

13. The system controller of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to include in the HTTP response status information included in the message from the controllable device.

14. The system controller of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to reply to the first command with an alternative HTTP response indicating transaction timeout when the second communication interface does not receive the message acknowledging the command identifier within a predetermined time duration.

15. The system controller of claim 11, 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 request 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 command identifier when the message from the controllable device acknowledges the command identifier; and

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

16. The system controller of claim 10, 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 first command.

19. The system controller of claim 10, wherein the one or more processors receive the message acknowledging the command identifier from the target controllable device.

20. The system controller of claim 10, wherein the one or more processors receive the message acknowledging the command identifier from a different one of the controllable devices other than the target controllable device.