Devices and methods for protecting unattended children in the home

• US 9,836,069 B1
• Filed: 03/31/2015
• Issued: 12/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Nelmes, Sierra Leigh, Le Guen, Sophie Solveig, Veron, Maxime, Guenette, Isabel, Sloo, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Dunn, Darrin
• Application Number:
  US14/675,642
• Time in Patent Office: 980 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2642 Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house

Abstract

A method performed at a computer system includes: receiving occupancy data for a room in a dwelling from one or more sensors in the room, the room including one or more unused electrical outlets and/or one or more electronically-controlled door handles; determining, based at least in part on the received occupancy data for the room, whether a predetermined child-protection condition is met; in accordance with a determination that the predetermined child-protection condition is met, disabling or sending instructions to disable at least one of the one or more unused electrical outlets and/or at least one of the one or more electronically-controlled door handles in the room.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions, which when executed by a computer system with one or more processors, cause the computer system to:

receive occupancy data for a room in a dwelling from one or more sensors in the room, the room including one or more of;

one or more unused electrical outlets, and one or more electronically-controlled door handles;

determine, based at least in part on the received occupancy data for the room, whether a predetermined child-protection condition is met; and

in accordance with a determination that the predetermined child-protection condition is met, disable or send instructions to disable one or more of;

at least one of the one or more unused electrical outlets, and at least one of the one or more electronically-controlled door handles;

after the disabling or the sending instructions to disable, receive a request to enable the disabled one or more of;

the at least one of the one or more unused electrical outlets, and the at least one of the one or more electronically-controlled door handles;

determine a type for the received enablement request;

in accordance with a determination that the received enablement request is a first type of enablement request;

enable the disabled one or more of;

the at least one of the one or more unused electrical outlets, and the at least one of the one or more electronically-controlled door handles, and

modify the predetermined child-protection condition; and

in accordance with a determination that the received enablement request is a second type of enablement request, distinct from the first type of enablement request;

enable the disabled one or more of;

the at least one of the one or more unused electrical outlets, and the at least one of the one or more electronically-controlled door handles, and

forgo modifying the predetermined child-protection condition.

2. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors in the room include one or more of:

a motion sensor, an optical sensor, an audio sensor, a touch sensor, and an ambient light sensor.

3. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the received occupancy data for the room include one or more of:

motion data, video data, audio data, and touch data.

4. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein determining, based at least in part on the received occupancy data for the room, whether the predetermined child-protection condition is met includes determining that a child is the lone occupant in the room for at least a threshold amount of time.

5. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein determining, based at least in part on the received occupancy data for the room, whether the predetermined child-protection condition is met includes determining that there are one or more children and no adults in the room for at least a threshold amount of time.

6. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein determining, based at least in part on the received occupancy data for the room, whether the predetermined child-protection condition is met includes determining that a child is moving towards an unused electrical outlet or an electronically-controlled door handle.

7. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein determining, based at least in part on the received occupancy data for the room, whether the predetermined child-protection condition is met includes determining that a child is less than a predetermined distance from an unused electrical outlet or an electronically-controlled door handle.

8. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein determining, based at least in part on the received occupancy data for the room, whether the predetermined child-protection condition is met includes determining that a child is touching an unused electrical outlet or an electronically-controlled door handle.

9. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein determining, based at least in part on the received occupancy data for the room, whether the predetermined child-protection condition is met includes one or more of:

determining that a child is the lone occupant in the room for at least a threshold amount of time,

determining that there are one or more children in the room and no adults for at least a threshold amount of time,

determining that a child is moving towards an unused electrical outlet or an electronically-controlled door handle,

determining that a child is less than a predetermined distance from an unused electrical outlet or an electronically-controlled door handle, and

determining that a child is touching an unused electrical outlet or an electronically-controlled door handle.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, including instructions, which when executed by the computer system, cause the computer system to:

determine, based at least in part on the received occupancy data for the room, whether a predetermined child-protection alert condition is met;

in accordance with a determination that the child-protection alert condition is met, present or send instructions to present a child-protection alert.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, including instructions, which when executed by the computer system, cause the computer system to:

after presenting or sending instructions to present the child-protection alert, receive a request to cancel the child-protection alert;

determine a type for the request to cancel the child-protection alert;

in accordance with a determination that the request to cancel the child-protection alert is a first type of cancellation request;

cancel the child-protection alert, and

modify the predetermined child-protection alert condition; and

in accordance with a determination that the request to cancel the child-protection alert is a second type of cancellation request, distinct from the first type of cancellation request;

cancel the child-protection alert without modifying the predetermined child-protection alert condition.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein a housing that contains the computer system also contains at least one of the one or more sensors in the room providing occupancy data.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the computer system is located in the dwelling at a separate location from the one or more sensors in the room.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the computer system is located in a smart home provider server system remote from the dwelling.

15. A computer system, comprising:

one or more processors;

memory; and

one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions for;

receiving occupancy data for a room in a dwelling from one or more sensors in the room, the room including one or more of;

one or more unused electrical outlets, and one or more electronically-controlled door handles;

determining, based at least in part on the received occupancy data for the room, whether a predetermined child-protection condition is met; and

in accordance with a determination that the predetermined child-protection condition is met, disabling or sending instructions to disable one or more of;

at least one of the one or more unused electrical outlets, and at least one of the one or more electronically-controlled door handles;

after the disabling or the sending instructions to disable, receiving a request to enable the disabled one or more of;

the at least one of the one or more unused electrical outlets, and the at least one of the one or more electronically-controlled door handles;

determining a type for the received enablement request;

in accordance with a determination that the received enablement request is a first type of enablement request;

enabling the disabled one or more of;

the at least one of the one or more unused electrical outlets, and the at least one of the one or more electronically-controlled door handles, and

modifying the predetermined child-protection condition; and

in accordance with a determination that the received enablement request is a second type of enablement request, distinct from the first type of enablement request;

enabling the disabled one or more of;

the at least one of the one or more unused electrical outlets, and the at least one of the one or more electronically-controlled door handles, and

forgoing modifying the predetermined child-protection condition.

16. A method, comprising:

at a computer system;

receiving occupancy data for a room in a dwelling from one or more sensors in the room, the room including one or more of;

one or more unused electrical outlets, and one or more electronically-controlled door handles;

determining, based at least in part on the received occupancy data for the room, whether a predetermined child-protection condition is met; and

in accordance with a determination that the predetermined child-protection condition is met, disabling or sending instructions to disable one or more of;

at least one of the one or more unused electrical outlets, and at least one of the one or more electronically-controlled door handles;

after the disabling or the sending instructions to disable, receiving a request to enable the disabled one or more of;

the at least one of the one or more unused electrical outlets, and the at least one of the one or more electronically-controlled door handles;

determining a type for the received enablement request;

in accordance with a determination that the received enablement request is a first type of enablement request;

enabling the disabled one or more of;

the at least one of the one or more unused electrical outlets, and the at least one of the one or more electronically-controlled door handles, and

modifying the predetermined child-protection condition; and

in accordance with a determination that the received enablement request is a second type of enablement request, distinct from the first type of enablement request;

enabling the disabled one or more of;

the at least one of the one or more unused electrical outlets, and the at least one of the one or more electronically-controlled door handles, and

forgoing modifying the predetermined child-protection condition.