Facilitated use of heterogeneous home-automation edge components

• US 9,252,967 B2
• Filed: 09/01/2011
• Issued: 02/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Li, Adam H., Liu, Aixin, Nguyen, Djung
• Primary Examiner(s): Ali, Mohammad
• Assistant Examiner(s): Karim, Ziaul
• Application Number:
  US13/223,314
• Publication Number:
  US 20130060358A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,615 Days
• Field of Search: 700/1, 700/11, 700/19
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2642 Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house
• 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 12/2825 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 12/2829 involving user profiles according to which the execution of a home appliance functionality is automatically triggered

Abstract

A control circuit operably couples to a plurality of home-automation edge-component interfaces. This control circuit is configured to compatibly interact with a plurality of home-automation edge components where at least some of the plurality of home-automation edge components are operationally incompatible with one another.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

home-automation edge-component interfaces;

a hardware-based control circuit operably coupled to the home-automation edge-component interfaces,

wherein the control circuit is configured to compatibly interact with a plurality of home-automation edge components including at least a first home-automation edge-component interface that operates compatibly with a first class of home-automation edge components that comprise a first brand of home-automation edge components and a second home-automation edge-component interface that operates compatibly with a second class of home-automation edge components that comprise a second, different brand of home-automation edge components, wherein specific remotely-selectable operating states apart from communication protocol requirements of at least some of the home-automation edge components differs amongst otherwise-similar classes or types of home-automation edge components such that at least some home-automation edge components of the first class of home-automation edge components will have at least one non-communication protocol operating state that is not available to at least one categorically-similar home-automation edge component of the second class of home-automation edge components, such that the first class of home-automation edge components are operationally incompatible with the second class of home-automation edge components, and wherein the control circuit is configured to interact with the plurality of home-automation edge components, at least in part, by compatibly receiving sensor data from home-automation edge components that comprise sensors and compatibly instructing home-automation edge components that comprise actuators, and

wherein the home-automation edge components at least include a plurality and variety of installed appliances including at least one from a group comprising a home temperature control component, a liquid pumping component, and a movable barrier operator and at least one from a group comprising a laundry appliance and a kitchen appliance and a plurality and variety of non-permanently-deployed appliances including at least one from a group comprising a lighting component, a home-entertainment component, and a communication component.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the control circuit is configured to compatibly interact with the plurality of home-automation edge components by employing characterizing abstracts for the home-automation edge components.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the characterizing abstracts characterize the home-automation edge components with respect to a plurality of properties.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the plurality of properties include at least one of a group consisting of:

an identifier;

a generic component name;

a branded component name;

a functional descriptor;

a deployed location;

a manufacturer;

a vender;

a make;

a model.

5. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the control circuit is configured to employ the characterizing abstracts via a corresponding application programming interface that employs the characterizing abstracts.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the control circuit comprises a scene manager to implement predetermined automation scenes that employ incompatible groupings of the home-automation edge components.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the home-automation edge-component interfaces include at least one from a group consisting of:

a Z-Wave-compatible edge-component interface;

a ZigBee-compatible edge-component interface;

a Control4-compatible edge-component interface;

an Android@Home-compatible edge-component interface.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the home-automation edge component interfaces include at least two from a group consisting of:

a Z-Wave-compatible edge-component interface;

a ZigBee-compatible edge-component interface;

a Control4-compatible edge-component interface;

an Android@Home-compatible edge-component interface.