Multi-user geofencing for building automation

• US 9,900,174 B2
• Filed: 03/06/2015
• Issued: 02/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ademco Inc. (Resideo Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Gamberini, Rudolph
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wang, Zhipeng
• Application Number:
  US14/640,984
• Publication Number:
  US 20160261424A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,082 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2825 Reporting to a device located outside the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with telemetering systems H04M11/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/33 for indoor environments, e.g. buildings

Abstract

A building automation server includes a memory, a communication interface and a controller that is coupled to the memory and the communication interface. The memory is for storing a database comprising a plurality of user accounts, wherein each user account includes an associated building location of a building, an associated geofence defined relative to the building location, and one or more group member ID'"'"'s, wherein each of the one or more group member ID'"'"'s is associated with a corresponding mobile device with location services, and each user account identifies a geofence status for each of the one or more group member ID'"'"'s, where the geofence status indicates whether the corresponding mobile device for each of the one or more group member ID is within the geofence associated with the user account or outside of the geofence.

Claims

1. A building automation server comprising:

a memory for storing a database comprising a plurality of user accounts each corresponding to a different building, wherein each user account includes an associated building location of the corresponding building, an associated geofence defined relative to the building location, and a plurality of group member ID'"'"'s, wherein each of the plurality of group member ID'"'"'s is associated with a corresponding mobile device with location services, and each user account identifies a geofence status for each of the plurality of group member ID'"'"'s, where the geofence status indicates whether the corresponding mobile device for each of the plurality of group member ID is within the geofence associated with the user account or outside of the geofence;

a communication interface;

a controller coupled to the memory and the communication interface, the controller configured to receive via the communication interface geofence crossing notifications issued by the mobile devices that correspond to the plurality of group member ID'"'"'s as those mobile devices cross the geofence that is associated with the user account;

the controller is further configured to update the geofence status for each of the plurality of group member ID'"'"'s in the memory using the geofence crossing notifications;

the controller is further configured to recognize when the geofence status of all of the plurality of group member ID'"'"'s of a user account are outside of the geofence that is associated with the user account, and interprets the building that is associated with the user account as being unoccupied, and recognize when the geofence status of at least one of the plurality of group member ID'"'"'s of the user account is inside of the geofence that is associated with the user account, and interprets the building that is associated with the user account as occupied or soon be occupied;

the controller is further configured notify a building controller of the building associated with the user account via the communication interface that the building has become unoccupied when the controller interprets the building that is associated with the user account as being unoccupied, wherein in response, the building controller is configured to change at least one building control parameter to an unoccupied setting, and control the building associated with the user account in accordance with the unoccupied setting; and

the controller is further configured to notify the building controller of the building associated with the user account via the communication interface that the building has become occupied or will soon to be occupied when the controller interprets the building that is associated with the user account as being occupied or soon to be occupied, wherein in response, the building controller is configured to change at least one building control parameter to an occupied setting, and control the building associated with the user account in accordance with the occupied setting.

2. The building automation server of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to receive a request from one or more mobile devices of one or more group member ID'"'"'s of a user account to assign a disable status to one or more group member ID'"'"'s of the corresponding user account, wherein the controller is configured to not consider the geofence status of group member ID'"'"'s that have the disabled status when determining whether the corresponding building is occupied or not occupied.

3. The building automation server of claim 2, wherein the controller is configured to receive a request from a first group member ID to assign a disable status to the first group member ID.

4. The building automation server of claim 2, wherein the controller is configured to receive a request from a first group member ID of a first user account to assign a disable status to a second group member ID of the first user account.

5. The building automation server of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to track an activity status of each of the plurality of group member ID'"'"'s, wherein the activity status includes an active status and an inactive status, and wherein:

if the activity status of a group member ID is active, the controller is configured to update the geofence status for that group member ID in the memory using geofence crossing notifications issued by the mobile device that correspond to that group member ID; and

if the activity status of a group member ID is inactive, the controller is configured to not update the geofence status for that group member ID in the memory using geofence crossing notifications issued by the mobile device that correspond to that group member ID.

6. The building automation server of claim 5, wherein the controller is further configured to automatically assign the inactive status to a group member ID if no geofence crossing notification from the mobile device that correspond to that group member ID is detected over a predetermined length of time.

7. The building automation server of claim 6, wherein the controller is further configured to automatically assign an active status to a group member ID that has an inactive status if a geofence crossing notification issued by the mobile device that correspond to that group member ID is detected.

8. The building automation server of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to associate more than one mobile device with a group member ID.

9. The building automation server of claim 1, wherein if more than one mobile device associated with a group member ID have location services, the controller is configured to use the last received geofence crossing notification when identifying the geofence status for that group member ID.

10. The building automation server of claim 8, wherein the more than one mobile device comprises a smartphone and a tablet, and wherein the controller is further configured to recognize geofence crossing notifications issued by the smart phone but does not recognize geofence crossing notifications issued by the tablet.

11. The building automation server of claim 10, wherein the controller is configured to accept set point changes via the smartphone and tablet.

12. The building automation server of claim 1, wherein if a mobile device that corresponds to a group member ID does not have location services available when crossing the geofence associated with the corresponding user account, but the location services of the mobile device subsequently become available later, the controller is configured to receive a current position of the mobile device relative to the geofence and update the geofence status for that group member ID accordingly.

13. The building automation server of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to grant an ADMIN status to one or more of the group member ID'"'"'s for each of the plurality of user accounts, and wherein the group member ID(s) that have the ADMIN status have additional rights relative to group member ID(s) that do not have the ADMIN status.

14. The building automation server of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to grant a USER status to one or more of the group member ID'"'"'s and optionally assign a GUEST status to one or more of the group member ID'"'"'s, wherein the group member ID(s) that have been assigned the GUEST status have less rights relative to group member ID(s) that have been assigned the USER status.

15. The building automation server of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to send one of the mobile devices a request to temporarily turn on GPS functionality within the mobile device and to return a GPS location to the controller.

16. The building automation server of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to receive an indication from one or more of the mobile devices a current location of the mobile device not in response to the mobile device crossing the geofence that is associated with the corresponding user account.

17. A building automation server comprising:

a memory for storing a database comprising a plurality of user accounts each corresponding to a different building, wherein each user account includes an associated building location of the corresponding building, an associated geofence defined relative to the building location, and a plurality of group member ID'"'"'s, wherein each of the plurality of group member ID'"'"'s is associated with a corresponding mobile device with location services, and each user account identifies a geofence status for each of the plurality of group member ID'"'"'s, where the geofence status indicates whether the corresponding mobile device for each of the plurality of group member ID is within the geofence associated with the user account or outside of the geofence;

a communication interface;

a controller coupled to the memory and the communication interface, the controller configured to receive via the communication interface indications issued by the mobile devices of the geofence status of the mobile devices, and thus the geofence status of the plurality of corresponding group member ID'"'"'s;

the controller is further configured to recognize when the geofence status of all of the plurality of group member ID'"'"'s of a user account are outside of the geofence that is associated with the user account, and interprets the building that is associated with the user account as being unoccupied, and recognize when the geofence status of at least one of the plurality of group member ID'"'"'s of the user account is inside of the geofence that is associated with the user account, and interprets the building that is associated with the user account as occupied or soon be occupied;

the controller is further configured notify a building controller of the building associated with the user account via the communication interface that the building has become unoccupied when the controller interprets the building that is associated with the user account as being unoccupied, wherein in response, the building controller is configured to change at least one building control parameter to an unoccupied setting, and control the building associated with the user account in accordance with the unoccupied setting; and

the controller is further configured to notify the building controller of the building associated with the user account via the communication interface that the building has become occupied or will soon to be occupied when the controller interprets the building that is associated with the user account as being occupied or soon to be occupied, wherein in response, the building controller is configured to change at least one building control parameter to an occupied setting, and control the building associated with the user account in accordance with the occupied setting.

18. A method comprising:

establishing communication between a mobile device and a building automation server, wherein the mobile device includes location services and a mobile device identifier, the building automation server references a database that comprises a plurality of user accounts each corresponding to a different building, wherein each user account includes an associated building location of the corresponding building, an associated geofence defined relative to the building location, and a plurality of group member ID'"'"'s, wherein each of the plurality of group member ID'"'"'s is associated with a corresponding mobile device identifier, and each user account identifies a geofence status for each of the plurality of group member ID'"'"'s, where the geofence status indicates whether the corresponding mobile device for each of the plurality of group member ID is within the geofence associated with the user account or outside of the geofence;

associating the mobile device identifier of the mobile device with a corresponding group member ID of a corresponding one of the plurality of user accounts in the database of building automation server;

storing in the mobile device the geofence that is associated with the building that corresponds to the corresponding one of the plurality of user accounts, the geofence having an inside and an outside; and

sending a geofence crossing notification from the mobile device to the building automation server when the location services of the mobile device indicates that the mobile device has crossed the geofence stored in the mobile device and whether the crossing was from the inside of the geofence to the outside or from the outside of the geofence to the inside

based on the received geofence crossing notification, the building automation server updating the geofence status of the group member ID that corresponds to the mobile device, and recognizing when the geofence status of all of the plurality of group member ID'"'"'s of the corresponding one of the plurality of user accounts are outside of the geofence associated with the corresponding one of the plurality of user accounts, and interpreting the building that is associated with the corresponding one of the plurality of user accounts as being unoccupied, and recognizing when the geofence status of at least one of the plurality of group member ID'"'"'s of the corresponding one of the plurality of user accounts is inside of the geofence that is associated with the corresponding one of the plurality of user accounts, and interpreting the building that is associated with the corresponding one of the plurality of user accounts as occupied or soon be occupied; and

wherein in response to a detected change in the occupancy status of the building that is associated with the corresponding one of the plurality of user accounts, the building automation server sending one or more control signals to a building controller of the building that corresponding to the corresponding one of the plurality of user accounts, and in response, the building controller changing at least one building control parameter and controlling the building in accordance with the changed at least one building control parameter.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

accepting a geofence disable input via a user interface of the mobile device, and in response to accepting the geofence disable input, sending an instruction to the building automation server that the mobile device has a disabled status and should no longer be considered for geofencing.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

accepting an geofence enable input via a user interface of the mobile device, and in response to accepting the geofence enable input, sending an instruction to the building automation server that the mobile device has an enabled status and should be considered for geofencing.

21. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

accepting a set point change via a user interface of the mobile device, and in response to accepting the set point change, sending an instruction to the building automation server to change a set point of the building controller.

22. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

upon activation of the location services of the mobile device, establishing communication between the mobile device and the building automation server and sending an indication of a current location of the mobile device to the building automation server.