System and method for home automation

• US 8,042,048 B2
• Filed: 11/17/2005
• Issued: 10/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: SBC Knowledge Ventures LP
• Inventors: Wilson, Brian B., Brown, Carlton L., Multach, Jeffrey, Hubscher, Mark B.
• Primary Examiner(s): TAN, ALVIN H
• Application Number:
  US11/281,995
• Publication Number:
  US 20070112939A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,161 Days
• Field of Search: 715/736, 700/17
• US Class Current: 715/736
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2807 Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving network analysis for automatically determining the actual topology of a network H04L41/12; hardware or software tools for network management using graphical user interfaces H04L41/22; address allocation H04L61/50
• 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: H04L 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805

Abstract

A home automation system and method are disclosed for configuring a device state including accessing a graphical user interface (GUI) in a database at a server, sending the GUI from the server to the client device, receiving an input from the client device at the server, configuring the device state in the database at the server in accordance with the input, and sending the configured device state from the server to the client device. The client device receives a device state for configuring home automation controllable devices.

Claims

1. A tangible machine readable medium containing a computer program comprising instructions that when executed by a computer, perform a method of configuring a device state of a home automation controllable device, the computer program comprising:

instructions to receive at an internet protocol television server, subscriber identity data and internet protocol television channel selection data input from a client device;

instructions to use the internet protocol television channel selection data to access nature of content data in an electronic program guide;

instructions to use the subscriber identity data and the nature of content data to access stored device state data wherein the stored device state data indicates a plurality of operational states comprising on, off, dimmer, variable power, volume and flicker associated with stored context data for the subscriber identity data and nature of content data; and

instructions to send the stored device state data from the internet protocol television server to the client device to configure the home automation controllable device loom of the plurality of operational states.

2. The medium of claim 1, wherein the nature of content data further comprises a program name and wherein the home automation controllable device further comprises one of a telephone, media server, security system, lighting, heating, ventilation, air conditioning thermostat, video systems, audio systems, window coverings, attic vent fans, automated doors, gates, locks, energy management system, automated fountain, water heaters, sprinklers, pools, spas, video cameras, automated appliances, water leakage, vehicle detection systems, hurricane shutters, security shutters, weather station, utility monitoring devices, automated fireplaces and automated ceiling fans.

3. The medium of claim 1, the computer program further comprising instructions to send the stored device state data associated with the stored context data for the subscriber identity data and the nature of content data to the client device for display during a commercial break.

4. The medium of claim 3, wherein the stored device state data further comprises refrigerator contents data.

5. The medium of claim 4, wherein the refrigerator contents data are input at a refrigerator.

6. The medium of claim 1, wherein the stored context data further comprises learned context data for the subscriber identity data and the nature of content data, wherein the learned context data comprises subscriber name, content name, date and time of day and device state for the plurality of home automation controllable devices.

7. The medium of claim 1, wherein the computer program further comprises:

instructions to receive an intrusion alert at the internet protocol television server from the client device for an internet protocol television subscriber in the internet protocol television server; and

instructions to send the intrusion alert to a plurality of internet protocol television client devices for other internet protocol television subscribers in houses neighboring a house for the client device.

8. The medium of claim 7, wherein the computer program further comprises:

instructions to override muting of a sound on a configured device state for the plurality of internet protocol television client devices in houses for the other protocol subscribers neighboring the client device.

9. A system for configuring a device state, the system comprising:

a database embedded in a non-transitory machine-readable medium for storing a device state for a home automation controllable device;

a server coupled to the database, the server comprising;

a first server interface to receive subscriber identity data and internet protocol television channel selection data input from a client device and use the channel selection data to access nature of content data in an electronic program guide for the channel selection data;

a second server interface to use the subscriber identity data and the nature of content data to access learned device state data associated with stored context data for the subscriber identity data and nature of content data wherein the learned device state data is stored device state data that indicates a plurality of operational states comprising on, off, dimmer, variable power, volume and flicker; and

a third server interface to send the learned device state data from the server to the client device for configuring the home automation controllable device to one of the plurality of operational states.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the home automation controllable device further comprises one of a telephone, media server, security system, lighting, heating, ventilation, air conditioning thermostat, video systems, audio systems, window coverings, attic vent fans, automated doors, gates, locks, energy management system, automated fountain, water heaters, sprinklers, pools, spas, video cameras, automated appliances, water leakage, vehicle detection systems, hurricane shutters, security shutters, weather station, utility monitoring devices, automated fireplaces and automated ceiling fans.

11. The system of claim 9, further comprising a fourth interface to send the stored device state data associated with the stored context data for the subscriber identity data and nature of content data to the client device for display during a commercial break.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the stored device state data further comprises refrigerator contents data sent to the client device to display the refrigerator contents data at the client device during the commercial break.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the refrigerator contents data are input at a refrigerator.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein a context data input further comprises a learned context data that comprises at least two of a scheduled video content time, event, and event participant.

15. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

a fourth server interface to receive an intrusion alert in an internet protocol television system from the client device in the internet protocol television system; and

a fifth server interface to send the intrusion alert to a plurality of internet protocol television client devices in houses neighboring the client device.

16. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

a sixth server interface to receive the learned context data from the client device ; and

a seventh server interface to send a global message to the client device based on the learned context data.

17. A tangible non-transitory machine readable medium having stored thereon a data structure for storing at a server, device state data for a home automation controllable device, the data structure comprising:

a device identifier field for indentifying the home automation controllable device in the device state data;

a channel selection field for storing data indicating channel selection data in the device state data;

a nature of content field for storing data indicating nature of content data accessed from an electronic program guide for the channel selection data;

a device mode field for storing an operational mode indicating a plurality of operational states comprising on, off, dimmer, variable power, volume and flicker for the home automation controllable device in accordance with content characterization data; and

a learned context field for storing learned context data for the device state data in accordance with the nature of content data and the subscriber identity data, wherein the context characterization data further comprises the nature of content data to configure a device state for the home automation controllable device to one of the plurality of operational states in accordance with the learned context data, subscriber data, and nature of content data.

18. The medium of claim 17, wherein the learned context data further comprises at least one of a scheduled content time data, video content characterization data, event data, and event participant data.

19. The medium of claim 17 wherein the data structure further comprises:

a business rule field for storing a business rule for application to the learned context data and an input.

20. A tangible machine readable medium containing a computer program comprising instructions that when executed by a computer, perform a method of configuring a device state of a home automation controllable device, the computer program comprising:

instructions to receive a graphical user interface from a server at a client device in an internet protocol television system;

instructions to send channel selection data to the server;

instructions to send a learned context data input indicating a plurality of operational states comprising on, off, dimmer, variable power, volume and flicker in accordance with subscriber identity data and content characterization for the channel selection data from the client device to the server for configuring a learned device state in a server database in accordance with the learned context data input, wherein the content characterization data further comprises nature of content data accessed in an electronic program guide for the channel selection data to configure the device state for the home automation controllable device in the database at the server in accordance with the learned context data input, subscriber identity data and nature of content data; and

instructions to receive the configured device state indicating one of the plurality of operational states from the server at the client device.

21. The medium of claim 20, wherein in the home automation controllable device further comprises one of a telephone, media server, security system, lighting, ventilation, air conditioning thermostat, video systems, audio systems, window coverings, attic vent fans, automated doors, gates, locks, energy management system, automated fountain, water heaters, sprinklers, pools, spas, video cameras, automated appliances, water leakage, vehicle detection systems, hurricane shutters, security shutters, weather station, utility monitoring devices, automated fireplaces and automated ceiling fans.

22. The medium of claim 20, wherein the learned context data input further comprises stored device state data associated with stored context data for the subscriber identity data and nature of content data for display during a commercial break in content data.

23. The medium of claim 22, wherein the stored device state data further comprises refrigerator contents data for display during a commercial break in content data.

24. The medium of claim 20, the computer program further comprising:

instructions to receive an intrusion alert from a neighboring internet protocol television client device for another internet protocol television subscriber in a neighboring house from the server at the client device.

25. The medium of claim 20, the computer program further comprising:

instructions to send the learned context data from the client device to the server database; and

instructions to receive a global message data at the client device based on the learned context data.

26. A system for configuring a device state of a home automation controllable device comprising:

a client device, the client device comprising;

a client processor comprising;

a first client processor interface to receive a graphical user interface from a server at the client device;

a second client processor interface to send learned context input data indicating operational states comprising on, off, dimmer, variable power, volume and flicker for the home automation controllable device, associated subscriber identity data and channel selection data from the client device to the server to configure device state data in a database at the server in accordance with the learned context input data and content characterization data for internet protocol television content data present on a channel indicated in the channel selection data, wherein the content characterization data further comprises nature of content data accessed in an electronic program guide for the channel selection data to configure a device state of the home automation controllable device in the database at the server in accordance with the learned context data input, subscriber identity data, nature of content data and internet protocol television content characterization data; and

a third client processor interface to receive the configured device state from the server at the client device, wherein the configured device state is used to configure the home automation controllable device to one of the plurality of operational states.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the home automation controllable device further comprises one of a telephone, media server, security system, lighting, heating, ventilation, air conditioning thermostat, video systems, audio systems, window coverings, attic vent fans, automated doors, gates, locks, energy management system, automated fountain, water heaters, sprinklers, pools, spas, video cameras, automated appliances, water leakage, vehicle detection systems, hurricane shutters, security shutters, weather station, utility monitoring devices, automated fireplaces and automated ceiling fans.

28. The system of claim 26, wherein the learned context data input further comprises refrigerator contents data for display during a commercial break during display of the IPTV content data.

29. The system of claim 26, wherein the graphical user interface further comprises an internet protocol television graphical user interface.

30. The system of claim 26, the system further comprising:

a fourth client processor interface to receive intrusion alert data in the internet protocol television system from the client device in the internet protocol television system; and

a fifth client processor interface to send the intrusion alert data to a plurality of client devices in houses for other Internet protocol television subscribers neighboring the client device.

31. The system of claim 26, a fifth processor interface to report the learned context to the database from the client device and receive a global message at the client device based on the reported context.