Abstract:
Systems and methods in which utility outlets present images of a premises to the occupant of the premises. The images are presented to the occupant when there is an alarm condition. The images provided by the utility outlets are easily accessible to the occupant of the premises because utility outlets are pervasive in most buildings.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/956,279, entitled “UTILITY OUTLETS CAPABLE OF PRESENTING IMAGES” and filed Aug. 16, 2007, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. The present application is related to co-pending, and commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/094,743, Attorney Docket No. 74268/P005US/10506911, entitled “HYBRID FIBER/CONDUCTOR INTEGRATED COMMUNICATION NETWORKS;” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/512,742, Attorney Docket No. 74268/P008US/10606747, entitled “HYBRID FIBER/CONDUCTOR INTEGRATED COMMUNICATION NETWORKS;” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/683,304, Attorney Docket No. 74268/P012US/10609934, entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR LINKING UTILITY CONTROL DEVICES;” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/683,327, Attorney Docket No. 74268/P013US/10609935, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INFRASTRUCTURE REPORTING;” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/683,298, Attorney Docket No. 74268/P014US/10614006, entitled “LIGHT SWITCH USED AS A COMMUNICATION DEVICE;” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/683,308, Attorney Docket No. 74268/P015US/10614005, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PREMISES MONITORING USING WEIGHT DETECTION;” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/923,176, Attorney Docket No. 74268/P015CP1/10704955, entitled “SELF LEARNING AUTOMATION SYSTEM;” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/683,326, Attorney Docket No. 74268/P016US/10614296, entitled “ANTICIPATORY UTILITY CONTROL DEVICE;” U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, Attorney Docket No. 74268/P016CP1/10704956, entitled “ANOMALY-BASED PREMISE CONTROL;” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/683,335, Attorney Docket No. 74268/P017US/10614295, entitled “PLUG AND PLAY UTILITY CONTROL MODULES;” U.S. Patent Application No. 60/956,279, Attorney Docket No. 74268/V022.0/10712693, entitled “UTILITY OUTLETS CAPABLE OF PRESENTING IMAGES;” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/683,354, Attorney Docket No. 74268/P025US/10704959, entitled “LIGHT SWITCH POWER SUPPLY;” U.S. Patent Application No. 60/956,314, Attorney Docket No. 74268/V026.0/10712694, entitled “UTILITY OUTLETS AS A SECURITY SYSTEM;” U.S. Patent Application No. 60/940,010, Attorney Docket No. 74268/V027.0/10706725, entitled “LIGHT SWITCH AS A SECURITY HUB;” U.S. Patent Application No. 60/940,015, Attorney Docket No. 74268/V028.0/10706810, entitled “UTILITY OUTLETS AS REMOTE CONTROL REPEATERS;” U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, Attorney Docket No. 74268/P029US/10704963, entitled “TEMPERATURE DETECTIONS AND CALCULATIONS OUTLETS,” the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference. 
     
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0002]    The current application relates to utility outlets and, more specifically, to the use of utility outlets to capture and create images for display to an occupant of a premises. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    A high proportion of premises today are fitted with alarm systems. Typically, when an alarm system goes off, there is some indication by the system as to where the alarm was triggered. This indication is usually provided by one or two panels which shows a number lit up which corresponds to the area where the alarm was triggered. Most occupants of a premises, however, would like to know who or what triggered the alarm, in addition to where it was triggered. Current alarm systems, however, do not provide, to the user, information about the cause of the alarm. Further, the panels that currently provide information to the occupan, as to where the alarm was triggered are located in few places and usually in only one or two places in the premises. There is a need, therefore, to provide to occupants of a premises more information than just where an alarm was triggered and, further, to provide this information to all locations where the occupant may be located within the premises. 
       BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0004]    The present invention is directed to products, systems and methods for providing an occupant of a premises with images of the cause of an alarm condition within the premises. Because utility outlets are pervasive in most modern premises, it is opportune to use utility outlets as a means of capturing and communicating, to the occupant, the cause of an alarm condition within the premises. 
         [0005]    The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the invention that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages of the invention will be described hereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the invention. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conception and specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. The novel features which are believed to be characteristic of the invention, both as to its organization and method of operation, together with further objects and advantages will be better understood from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, that each of the figures is provided for the purpose of illustration and description only and is not intended as a definition of the limits of the present invention. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0006]    For a more complete understanding of the present invention, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: 
           [0007]      FIG. 1  is one embodiment of the current invention showing a block diagram of a utility outlet. 
           [0008]      FIG. 2  illustrates how a plurality of utility outlets are used to effect one embodiment of the current invention. 
           [0009]      FIG. 3  illustrates one embodiment of the current invention in the form of a flow chart. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0010]      FIG. 1  is one embodiment of the current invention showing a block diagram of a utility outlet  10 . Utility outlet  10  has a housing  101  that contains terminals  102  for connecting a device to a power supply. A receiver  105  is located within housing  101  for receiving an alarm condition signal and signals of images. Utility outlet  10  may also include, within housing  101 , a camera  103  and/or an image projector  104 . The camera  103  is capable of capturing an image of the surroundings in which utility outlet  10  is located. The camera  103  may be activated to capture an image by a signal received by receiver  105 . Image projector  104  can project an image to a user in proximity to utility outlet  10  as a result of an image signal received by receiver  105 . Utility outlet  10  may also include a central processing unit  106  with memory  107 . 
         [0011]      FIG. 2  illustrates how a plurality of utility outlets are used to effect one embodiment of the current invention. In  FIG. 2 , a building  201  is equipped with an alarm system  212 . Alarm system  212  is capable of operating as but not limited to a fire alarm, a burglar alarm, a weather related alarm, a terrorist threat alarm and a chemical release alarm. Utility outlet  202  includes a camera and is positioned in a location to take images of area  203 . Area  203  is in the vicinity of door  206 . The images taken by utility outlet  202  are transmitted to CPU  204 . CPU  204  processes these images and sends data of these images to utility outlet  205 . CPU  204  may, if desired, store the images. Utility outlet  205  has a receiver capable of receiving data of the images. Additionally, utility outlet  205  has a projector capable of projecting an image of the received data. The projector may be, but is not limited to, a liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor and a digital light processing (DLP) monitor. 
         [0012]    An example of how the system would operate is as follows. If someone enters building  201  through door  206 , alarm system  212  will detect this and send a signal to CPU  204 , In turn, CPU  204  sends a signal to utility outlet  202  to capture an image of area  203  because an image of area  203  is likely to contain the image of the person in room  207  who caused the alarm by entering through door  206 . Utility outlet  202  then sends a signal of the captured image to CPU  204 . CPU  204  then sends a signal of the image to utility outlet  205 . Utility outlet  205  renders the image of area  203  on the projector located in utility outlet  205 . Thus, an occupant of room  210  will be able to see who triggered the alarm system in area  203 . 
         [0013]    In another embodiment of the current invention, the signal image data from utility outlet  202  is sent to CPU  204 . CPU  204  then sends a corresponding signal to utility outlets  205 ,  208  and  209 . In this embodiment, utility outlets  205 ,  208  and  209  contain laser emitters. CPU  204  coordinates the emission of the laser beams from utility outlets  205 ,  208  and  209  to create a holographic image of area  203  on projector  211 . Projector  211  may be any suitable device capable of rendering a holographic image such as a DLP or a digital micro-mirror device (DMD). Utility outlets  205 ,  208  and  209  are positioned to facilitate the creation of the holographic image on projector  211 . The utility outlets could be chosen from a combination of a power socket, an electrical switch and a permanently mounted light socket. 
         [0014]      FIG. 3  shows one embodiment of the current invention illustrated by a flow chart  30 . In process  301 , the system asks whether the alarm system has been triggered. If the alarm system has not been triggered then the system does nothing. If the alarm system has been triggered, in process  302 , the system receives information of the location where the alarm has been triggered. Then, in process  303 , the system activates utility outlets in proximity to the identified location to capture images of the identified location. In process  304 , captured images are transmitted to utility outlets in proximity to a user. The utility outlets in proximity to the user then projects the captured images for viewing by the user in process  305 . The user, if satisfied that the cause of the alarm is not a threat, will deactivate the system. If not, the user will continue to monitor the images being presented by the utility outlets. Thus, process  306  asks whether the user has deactivated the system. If the system has not been deactivated, the system continues to send images to be viewed by the user in process  303 . If the system has been deactivated then the system stops sending images in process  304 . 
         [0015]    Although the present invention and its advantages have been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, the scope of the present application is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments of the process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, means, methods and steps described in the specification. As one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate from the disclosure of the present invention, processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps, presently existing or later to be developed that perform substantially the same function or achieve substantially the same result as the corresponding embodiments described herein may be utilized according to the present invention. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to include within their scope such processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps.