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Environmental sensing with a doorbell at a smart-home

  • US 9,960,929 B2
  • Filed: 12/31/2014
  • Issued: 05/01/2018
  • Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2012
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method for controlling a smart environment that comprises a plurality of smart devices at a smart-home environment that comprises a structure, the method comprising:

  • obtaining, at a computing system from a first smart device of the plurality of smart devices that is positioned at least partially outside the structure, a condition of a first phenomenon outside the structure detected by the first smart device, wherein the first phenomenon comprises a purity of the air outside the structure;

    obtaining, at the computing system from a second smart device of the plurality of smart devices that is positioned at least partially inside the structure, a condition of a second phenomenon inside the structure detected by the second smart device, wherein the second phenomenon comprises a purity of the air inside the structure;

    analyzing, with the computing system, the detected condition of the first phenomenon obtained from the first smart device in combination with the detected condition of the second phenomenon obtained from the second smart device; and

    automatically adjusting the functionality of at least one smart device of the plurality of smart devices using the computing system based on the analyzing, wherein;

    the purity of the air outside the structure comprises a characteristic from the following characteristics;

    the level of particulate in the air outside the structure;

    the level of pollen in the air outside the structure;

    the level of mold in the air outside the structure;

    the level of dust in the air outside the structure; and

    the level of any volatile organic compound (“

    VOC”

    ) in the air outside the structure;

    the at least one smart device comprises a device operative to affect a heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (“

    HVAC”

    ) system of the smart-home environment;

    the adjusting is operative to open a vent of the HVAC system when the purity of the air outside the structure is greater than the purity of the air inside the structure; and

    the adjusting is operative to close a vent of the HVAC system when the purity of the air inside the structure is greater than the purity of the air outside the structure.

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