Method and apparatus for monitoring and processing sensor data from an electrical outlet

• US 10,536,361 B2
• Filed: 01/08/2013
• Issued: 01/14/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ubiquiti Inc.
• Original Assignee: Ubiquiti Inc.
• Inventors: Frei, Randall W., Cheng, Linker, Pera, Robert J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Trost, IV, William G
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cadorna, Christopher P
• Application Number:
  US13/736,879
• Publication Number:
  US 20140006506A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,562 Days
• Field of Search: 709204
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/10 Program control for peripheral devices G06F13/14 - G06F13/42 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/01 characterised by the transmission medium
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2809 indicating that an appliance service is present in a home automation network monitoring functionality H04L43/0817; discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services, H04L67/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/281 indicating a format for calling an appliance service function in a home automation network for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2818 from a device located outside both the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; arrangements for transmitting signals characterised by the use of a wireless eletrical link G08C17/00; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with remote control systems H04M11/007
• 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 41/024 using relational databases for representation of network management data, e.g. managing via structured query language [SQL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/065 related to network devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/256 NAT traversal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2575 using address mapping retrieval, e.g. simple traversal of user datagram protocol through session traversal utilities for NAT [STUN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5061 Pools of addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 : involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 : Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/289 : Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 : Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 : Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/10 : Technologies improving the efficiency by using switched-mode power supplies [SMPS], i.e. efficient power electronics conversion e.g. power factor correction or reduction of losses in power supplies or efficient standby modes
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 : Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A load-monitoring interfacing device obtains and processes sensor data from an electrical load. The interfacing device can include at least one power outlet to provide power to a corresponding electrical load. During operation, the interfacing device can obtain sensor data from a local power outlet coupled to an electrical load, such that the sensor data can indicate an electrical measurement associated with the electrical load. The interfacing device selects a rule to process based on the obtained sensor data, and processes the rule to determine whether to perform an action. If the rule'"'"'s condition is satisfied, the interfacing device proceeds to processing the rule'"'"'s action description to perform the action, such as to enable or disable a power outlet, or to perform any other pre-defined action.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

storing in a rule repository, by an interfacing device, a plurality of rules specified by a user and received from a controller, wherein the interfacing device comprises at least a power outlet for providing power to an electrical load and a power-output controller configured to monitor an amount of power provided by the power outlet, and wherein a respective rule includes an action description for performing an action and a compound logic condition for performing the action;

obtaining, by the interfacing device, sensor data from the power-output controller, wherein the sensor data indicates an electrical measurement associated with the electrical load;

detecting a rule-triggering event based on the obtained sensor data, wherein the rule-triggering event triggers at least two rules having conflict action descriptions;

selecting a first rule from the at least two rules based on an order specified by the user;

in response to determining that processing the selected first rule requires additional sensor data, identifying a remote interfacing device that generates the additional sensor data, wherein the remote interfacing device comprises at least one or more connection terminals for coupling to one or more physical devices that provide the additional sensor data;

subscribing to the additional sensor data from the identified remote interfacing device;

receiving the additional sensor data from the identified remote interfacing device;

determining that the selected first rule'"'"'s condition is satisfied based on electrical measurement associated with the electrical load and the additional sensor data from the remote interfacing devices;

processing, by the interfacing device, the selected first rule to execute the first rule'"'"'s action description;

determining an updated state of the interfacing device based on the execution of the first rule'"'"'s action description; and

processing a second rule from the at least two rules based on the order specified by the user to execute the second rule'"'"'s action description.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the compound logic condition comprises one or more of:

a power state for the corresponding electrical load or the second electrical load;

a current measurement; and

a voltage measurement.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the action includes one or more of:

activating a power outlet;

deactivating a power outlet;

modulating a voltage provided by an outlet;

modulating an amount of current provided by a power outlet;

sending an email message to a predetermined recipient;

creating a system alert;

generating an event for an event log; and

computing a data value based in part on the received sensor data.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the sensor data satisfies a data-subscription request from a second remote interfacing device; and

sending the sensor data to the second remote interfacing device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the data-subscription request indicates one or more of:

a minimum threshold value for the sensor data;

a maximum threshold value for the sensor data;

a time duration since a previous piece of sensor data was provided to the second remote interfacing device; and

a difference threshold between the obtained sensor data and a previous piece of sensor data that was provided to the second remote interfacing device.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein sending the data to the second remote interfacing device involves sending the data via an established peer-to-peer network connection associated with the second remote interfacing device.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the established network connection is established using one or more of:

a WebSockets protocol;

a communication channel via the Session-Traversal Utilities for NAT (STUN) protocol; and

a Comet protocol.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein a request for establishing the network connection using the WebSocket protocol includes at least one of:

a WebSocket handshake request to upgrade a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) session to a WebSocket session; and

a Sec-WebSocket-Key token from a network device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein establishing the network connection using the WebSocket protocol further involves:

storing the Sec-WebSocket-Key in association with the network device;

generating a Sec-WebSocket-Accept token for the interfacing device based on the Sec-WebSocket-Key; and

sending to the interfacing device a response which acknowledges a persistent WebSocket communication channel, wherein the response includes at least the Sec-WebSocket-Accept token for the interfacing device.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein establishing the network connection using the STUN protocol involves:

receiving a binding request that indicates network-addressing information for a network device, wherein the network-addressing information includes at least one or more of a network address and a port number; and

storing the network-addressing information in association with the network device.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein establishing the network connection using the Comet protocol involves:

receiving a long-polling request from a network device;

determining network-addressing information for the network device based on the long-polling request, wherein the network-addressing information includes at least one or more of a network address and a port number; and

storing the network-addressing information in association with the network device.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising adjusting a color of a light-emitting diode (LED) indicator located on the interfacing device based on one or more of:

determining that the interfacing device is in a factory-default mode;

determining that the interfacing device is provisioned by a network controller which monitors or controls one or more interfacing devices; and

determining that the interfacing device is being monitored by the network controller.

33. The method of claim 1:

wherein the sensor data indicates a measured physical value;

wherein the rule'"'"'s condition depends on the measured physical value; and

wherein obtaining the sensor data further involves;

obtaining a model identifier of the electrical load;

determining, based on the model identifier, a type of data value associated with the electrical load; and

analyzing the electrical measurement, based on the type of data value, to determine the measured physical value.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the type of data value indicates calibration information associated with the electrical load.

35. The method of claim 33, wherein the measured physical value includes one or more of:

a time value;

a temperature;

a humidity level;

a detected motion;

an open or closed state of a door or window;

an ambient light level; and

a moisture level.

36. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending the sensor data indicating the electrical measurement to the controller;

obtaining, by the controller, a map that covers a geographic area associated with at least the interfacing device; and

presenting, by the controller, a device-monitoring user interface that displays the map, and represents the interfacing device and sensor data over the map.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a processor of an interfacing device that comprises at least a power outlet for providing power to an electrical load and a power-output controller configured to monitor an amount of power provided by the power outlet, cause the processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

storing in a rule repository a plurality of rules specified by a user and received from a controller, wherein a respective rule includes an action description for performing an action and a compound logic condition for performing the action;

obtaining sensor data from the power-output controller, wherein the sensor data indicates an electrical measurement associated with the electrical load;

detecting a rule-triggering event based on the obtained sensor data, wherein the rule-triggering event triggers at least two rules having conflict action descriptions;

selecting a first rule from the at least two rules based on an order specified by the user;

in response to determining that processing the selected first rule requires additional sensor data, identifying a remote interfacing device that generates the additional sensor data, wherein the remote interfacing device comprises at least one or more connection terminals for coupling to one or more physical devices that provide the additional sensor data;

subscribing to the additional sensor data from the identified remote interfacing device;

receiving the additional sensor data from the identified remote interfacing device;

determining that the first rule'"'"'s condition is satisfied based on electrical measurement associated with the electrical load and the additional sensor data from the remote interfacing devices;

processing the selected first rule to execute the first rule'"'"'s action description;

determining an updated state of the interfacing device based on the execution of the first rule'"'"'s action description; and

processing a second rule from the at least two rules based on the order specified by the user to execute the second rule'"'"'s action description.

14. The storage medium of claim 13, wherein the compound logic condition comprises one or more of:

a power state for the corresponding electrical load or the second electrical load;

a current measurement; and

a voltage measurement.

15. The storage medium of claim 13, wherein the action includes one or more of:

activating a power outlet;

deactivating a power outlet;

modulating a voltage provided by an outlet;

modulating an amount of current provided by a power outlet;

sending an email message to a predetermined recipient;

creating a system alert;

generating an event for an event log; and

computing a data value based in part on the received sensor data.

16. The storage medium of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises:

determining that the sensor data satisfies a data-subscription request from a second remote interfacing device; and

sending the sensor data to the second remote interfacing device.

17. The storage medium of claim 16, wherein the data-subscription request indicates one or more of:

a minimum threshold value for the sensor data;

a maximum threshold value for the sensor data;

a time duration since a previous piece of sensor data was provided to the second remote interfacing device; and

a difference threshold between the obtained sensor data and a previous piece of sensor data that was provided to the second remote interfacing device.

18. The storage medium of claim 16, wherein sending the data to the second remote interfacing device involves sending the data via an established peer-to-peer network connection associated with the second remote interfacing device.

19. The storage medium of claim 18, wherein the established network connection is established using one or more of:

a WebSockets protocol;

a communication channel via the Session-Traversal Utilities for NAT (STUN) protocol; and

a Comet protocol.

20. The storage medium of claim 19, wherein a request for establishing the network connection using the WebSocket protocol includes at least one of:

a WebSocket handshake request to upgrade a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) session to a WebSocket session; and

a Sec-WebSocket-Key token from a network device.

21. The storage medium of claim 20, wherein establishing the network connection using the WebSocket protocol further involves:

storing the Sec-WebSocket-Key in association with the network device;

generating a Sec-WebSocket-Accept token for the interfacing device based on the Sec-WebSocket-Key; and

sending to the interfacing device a response which acknowledges the persistent WebSocket communication channel, wherein the response includes at least the Sec-WebSocket-Accept token for the interfacing device.

22. The storage medium of claim 19, wherein establishing the network connection using the STUN protocol involves:

receiving a binding request that indicates network-addressing information for a network device, wherein the network-addressing information includes at least one or more of a network address and a port number; and

storing the network-addressing information in association with the network device.

23. The storage medium of claim 19, wherein establishing the network connection using the Comet protocol involves:

receiving a long-polling request from a network device;

determining network-addressing information for the network device based on the long-polling request, wherein the network-addressing information includes at least one or more of a network address and a port number; and

storing the network-addressing information in association with the network device.

24. The storage medium of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises adjusting a color of a light-emitting diode (LED) indicator located on the interfacing device based on one or more of:

determining that the interfacing device is in a factory-default mode;

determining that the interfacing device is provisioned by a network controller which monitors or controls one or more interfacing devices; and

determining that the interfacing device is being monitored by the network controller.

25. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one power outlet for providing power to an electrical load and a power-output controller configured to monitor an amount of power provided by the power outlet;

a controller;

a rule repository storing a plurality of rules specified by a user and received from the controller, wherein a respective rule includes an action description for performing an action and a compound logic condition for performing the action;

a processing unit;

a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processing unit, cause the processing unit to implement;

a sensor-monitoring module to obtain sensor data from the power-output controller, wherein the sensor data indicates an electrical measurement associated with the electrical load; and

a rule-processing module to;

detect a rule-triggering event based on the obtained sensor data, wherein the rule-triggering event triggers at least two rules having conflict action descriptions;

select a first rule from the at least two rules based on an order specified by the user;

in response to determining that processing the selected first rule requires additional sensor data, identify a remote interfacing device that generates the additional sensor data, wherein the remote interfacing device comprises at least one or more connection terminals for coupling to one or more physical devices that provide the additional sensor data;

subscribe to the additional sensor data from the identified remote interfacing device;

receive the additional sensor data from the identified remote interfacing device;

determine that the selected first rule'"'"'s condition is satisfied based on electrical measurement associated with the electrical load and the additional sensor data from the remote interfacing devices;

process the selected first rule to execute the first rule'"'"'s action description;

determine an updated state of the interfacing device based on the execution of the first rule'"'"'s action description; and

process a second rule from the at least two rules based on the order specified by the user to execute the second rule'"'"'s action description.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the action includes one or more of:

activating a power outlet;

deactivating a power outlet;

modulating a voltage provided by an outlet;

modulating an amount of current provided by a power outlet;

sending an email message to a predetermined recipient;

creating a system alert;

generating an event for an event log; and

computing a data value based in part on the received sensor data.

27. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the processing unit further implements:

a communication module configured to communicate with one or more remote interfacing devices; and

a subscription-processing module to;

determine that the sensor data satisfies a data-subscription request from a second remote interfacing device; and

configure the communication module to send the sensor data to the second remote interfacing device.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the data-subscription request indicates one or more of:

a minimum threshold value for the sensor data;

a maximum threshold value for the sensor data;

a time duration since a previous piece of sensor data was provided to the second remote interfacing device; and

a difference threshold between the obtained sensor data and a previous piece of sensor data that was provided to the second remote interfacing device.

29. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein while sending the data to the second remote interfacing device, the communication module is further configured to sending the data via an established peer-to-peer network connection associated with the second remote interfacing device.

30. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the established network connection is established using one or more of:

a WebSockets protocol;

a communication channel via the Session-Traversal Utilities for NAT (STUN) protocol; and

a Comet protocol.

31. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein a request for establishing the network connection using the WebSocket protocol includes at least one of:

a WebSocket handshake request to upgrade a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) session to a WebSocket session; and

a Sec-WebSocket-Key token from a network device.

32. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein while establishing the network connection using the Comet protocol, the communication module is further configured to:

receive a long-polling request from a network device;

determine network-addressing information for the network device based on the long-polling request, wherein the network-addressing information includes at least one or more of a network address and a port number; and

store the network-addressing information in association with the network device.