Home animation apparatus and methods

• US 9,860,077 B2
• Filed: 09/17/2014
• Issued: 01/02/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Brain Corporation
• Original Assignee: Brain Corporation
• Inventors: Laurent, Patryk, Petre, Csaba, Izhikevich, Eugene M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bendidi, Rachid
• Application Number:
  US14/489,353
• Publication Number:
  US 20160075034A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,203 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2642 Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/40411 Robot assists human in non-industrial environment like home or office
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 2300/03 Application domotique, e.g. for house automation, bus connected switches, sensors, loads or intelligent wiring
• 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: Y02B 70/30 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for improving the carbon footprint of the management of residential or tertiary loads, i.e. smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the buildings sector, including also the last stages of power distribution and the control, monitoring or operating management systems at local level
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/20 End-user application control systems

Abstract

Computerized appliances may be operated by users remotely. A learning controller apparatus may be operated to determine association between a user indication and an action by the appliance. The user indications, e.g., gestures, posture changes, audio signals may trigger an event associated with the controller. The event may be linked to a plurality of instructions configured to communicate a command to the appliance. The learning apparatus may receive sensory input conveying information about robot'"'"'s state and environment (context). The sensory input may be used to determine the user indications. During operation, upon determine the indication using sensory input, the controller may cause execution of the respective instructions in order to trigger action by the appliance. Device animation methodology may enable users to operate computerized appliances using gestures, voice commands, posture changes, and/or other customized control elements.

Claims

1. A home animation apparatus, comprising:

a sensor interface configured to receive one or more sensor inputs;

a user interface configured to receive one or more user indications; and

a processing component in communication with the sensor interface and the user interface, the processing component configured to;

determine an action by a user of the home animation apparatus based on analysis of the one or more sensor inputs;

associate a context with the determined action by the user; and

based on an occurrence of the one or more user indications being provided by the user contemporaneous with the action by the user, assign an action tag, the action tag configured to enable provision of a control instruction to a home appliance device when a subsequent user action associated with the context is detected.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the user interface comprises a touch activated interface; and

the one or more user indications comprise a button touch of the touch activated interface by the user.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the user interface comprises a pressure wave sensing component; and

the one or more user indications comprise an arbitrary voice phrase.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein:

the sensor interface comprises a camera;

the one or more sensor inputs comprise a plurality of images provided by the camera; and

the action by the user comprises a gesture that is determined by the processing component based on an analysis of at least one image of the plurality of images.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a data interface to a controller apparatus in data communication with the home appliance device;

wherein the controller apparatus is configured to, based on a receipt of the action tag, execute a program code, the execution of the program code configured to cause the provision of the control instruction to the home appliance device.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the program code is configured based on a user input via a computerized input interface.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein:

the control instruction is configured to cause the home appliance device to execute an action; and

the subsequent detection of the user action associated with the context is configured to cause an automatic provision of the action tag to the controller apparatus via the data interface.

8. A method of operating a home automation controller of a computerized appliance, the method comprising:

interfacing to a computerized appliance;

analyzing one or more sensor inputs;

determining an action of a first user based on the analysis of the one or more sensor inputs, the determining of the action being associated with a context; and

based on an existing association between the context associated with the determined action of the first user and a command, automatically providing the command to a fixture upon detecting of the context;

wherein the existing association between the action of the first user and the command is a result of developing a new association between the context associated with the action of the first user and the command, the command being received from another user while the first user performs the action at the same time during the developing of the new association.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein:

the determining of the action of the first user comprises determining an opening of a book by the first user; and

the command is configured to turn on the fixture.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the fixture comprises a light fixture disposed remote from the home automation controller.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

remotely controlling the light fixture via one or more signal carrier transmissions;

wherein the interfacing to the computerized appliance comprises interfacing via a wireless interface configured to produce the one or more signal carrier transmissions.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the one or more sensor inputs comprise a sequence of images provided by a camera; and

the analyzing of the one or more sensor inputs comprises comparing at least two images of the sequence of images.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage apparatus comprising a plurality of instructions configured to, when executed by a processor apparatus, cause a computerized home animation apparatus to:

analyze a plurality of sensory inputs;

determine a user action, the determination of the user action being associated with the analysis of the plurality of sensory inputs;

associate a context with the determined user action;

assign a composite action tag based on an existing correlation between the context associated with the user action and a separate user command, the assigned composite action tag being configured to provide a control instruction; and

when a subsequent user action associated with the context is detected without the separate user command, automatically provide the control instruction to a home appliance via the assigned composite action tag;

wherein the existing correlation between the user action and the separate user command has been created as a result of a plurality of training sessions, the plurality of training sessions comprising;

a first training session comprising an association between (i) a first determination of the user action and (ii) a first detection of the separate user command; and

a second training session comprising an association between (i) a second determination of the user action and (ii) a second detection of the separate user command.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage apparatus of claim 13, wherein:

a user interface is configured to receive the user command by touch; and

the user command comprises a physical activation of the user interface by a user.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage apparatus of claim 14, wherein:

a camera is configured to receive the plurality of sensory inputs, the plurality of sensory inputs being a plurality of images captured by the camera; and

the user action comprises a gesture detectable based on an analysis of at least image one of the plurality of images.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage apparatus of claim 13, wherein:

a user interface is configured to receive the user command by pressure wave; and

the user command comprises an arbitrary voice phrase.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage apparatus of claim 13, wherein the subsequent user action comprises a user input via a computerized input interface.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage apparatus of claim 13, wherein the control instruction is configured to cause the home appliance to execute an action.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage apparatus of claim 13, wherein:

the determination of the user action comprises a determination that a user opened a book; and

the user command is configured to activate the home appliance.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage apparatus of claim 13, wherein the home appliance comprises a light fixture disposed remotely from the home animation apparatus.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable storage apparatus of claim 20, wherein the light fixture is configured to be remotely controlled via one or more signal carrier transmissions via a wireless interface.