Abstract:
A system functions to recommend equipment expansions, additions and/or substitutions; interconnections; supplemental capabilities; features; etc. based upon a knowledge of a consumer&#39;s existing audio and/or visual system configuration.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATION INFORMATION 
       [0001]    This application claims the benefit of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/118,682, filed on May 31, 2011, which application, in turn, claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/350,565, filed Jun. 2, 2010, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/452,680, filed Mar. 15 2011. The disclosure within each of these applications is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    Personal communication, productivity, and entertainment devices such as cellular phones, PDAs, portable email devices, tablet computers, e-books, hand-held games, portable media players, etc. (all referred to hereafter as “smart devices”) are known to include features such as graphical user interfaces on color touch screens, Bluetooth and/or WiFi capability, etc. Increasingly, such smart devices also incorporate support for ancillary applications (hereafter referred to as “apps”) for example calendars, email, maps and navigation, etc. Such ancillary applications may be pre-installed in a smart device or may be made available for download by a consumer. 
         [0003]    Portable controlling devices capable of commanding the operation of multiple consumer appliances of different type and/or manufacture, such as universal remote controls, and the features and functions offered by such devices are also well known in the art. Sophisticated implementations of these devices incorporate technologies such as color touch screens, wireless home network compatibility, user configurable graphical user interfaces, slave relay stations positioned to control appliances not situated in line of sight of the controlling device, etc. In some cases such controlling device functionality may be offered in the form of an app for installation on a existing smart device, said app comprising a GUI to be used in conjunction with supplemental hardware and/or firmware, built-in or external to the smart device, suitable for the generation of appliance command signals. In other cases, such controlling devices may be self-contained units specific to that purpose such as for example Nevo® brand products from Universal Electronics Inc., or Harmony® brand products from Logitech Inc. 
         [0004]    Regardless of the exact manner in which universal controlling device functionality is implemented, in general such devices or apps may require configuration or “set up” prior to use, i.e., an appropriate set of command data from within a library of command data sets must be associated with each of the specific appliances to be controlled, for example by entry of data that serves to identify each intended target appliance by its make, and/or model, and/or type; by testing various command formats sequentially, via command transmissions, until an appliance response is observed; by sampling signals of original equipment remote controls; etc.; all as known in the art. Since systems and methods for setting up universal controlling devices to command the operation of specific home appliances are well-known, these will not be described in greater detail herein. Nevertheless, for additional information pertaining to setup procedures, the reader may turn, for example, to U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,959,810, 5,872,562, 7,093,003, 7,653,212, or 7,612,685 all of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. 
         [0005]    As will be described in detail hereafter, once such controlling device setup has been successfully performed, information regarding a consumer&#39;s appliance configuration gathered thereby may be advantageously used to provide additional services to the consumer, such as advice in the selection of additions or replacements to an existing equipment configuration, recommendations for preferred interconnections, etc. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0006]    This invention relates generally to the configuration of home appliance systems, and in particular to methods for recommending equipment expansions, additions and/or substitutions; interconnections; supplemental capabilities; features; etc. based upon a knowledge of a consumer&#39;s current equipment configuration. 
         [0007]    To this end, in an exemplary embodiment a smart device based application may offer, for example, a home appliance recommendation feature. Such a smart device application may draw upon locally-stored equipment configuration information, for example setup data gathered by a co-resident smart device remote control app; or may access a network server to which configuration data has previously been uploaded by a separate universal controlling device and/or otherwise supplied by a user of such a universal controlling device, for example as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,093,003, 7,743,012, or 7,612,685 all of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Based upon knowledge of what home appliances currently comprise a consumer&#39;s audio-visual “AV” system, such a smart device application may utilize a local or a server based application to obtain recommendations for upgrades and/or additions to the consumer&#39;s home appliance system configuration(s). These recommendations may be based on the known capabilities of the consumer&#39;s home appliances, what home appliances others have purchased in the past together with the consumer&#39;s home appliances, and/or what additional home appliances other consumers with similar equipment have configured for use in their systems. 
         [0008]    In some embodiments, such a smart device application may also be optionally linked to a social networking account such as Facebook in order to obtain feedback and opinions from a consumer&#39;s friends regarding, for example, the consumer&#39;s AV system setup and/or the proposed system upgrade/addition recommendations. 
         [0009]    Consumers wishing to explore how they may upgrade their current home appliances may thus avail themselves of a service provider&#39;s, manufacturer&#39;s, and/or vendor&#39;s expertise based, for example, upon a database derived from configuration data obtained from other consumers with similar system configurations, from retailers of home appliances (e.g., what home appliances have been purchased together by consumers in the past, been configured together, etc.) and the like. 
         [0010]    The subject system may function, by way of example, by requiring a consumer to register with a provider of remote control or product advisory services, e.g., a service that allows a consumer to provide information for configuring a remote control to command operations of one or more home appliances and which captures demographic data thereby—such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,046,161 which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In certain embodiments the consumer may optionally supply to the provider of remote control or product advisory services a social network account that is to be associated with the consumer. The system may then use the home appliance information provided by the consumer, e.g., information indicative of the home appliances as used to configure the consumer&#39;s remote control to command operations of such home appliances and/or as generally provided for the purpose of seeking recommendations, to thereby determine what home appliances, services, etc. to recommend to the consumer. Generally, the recommended appliances would be upgrades to, complementary to and/or compatible with the home appliances that are currently owned by the consumer as indicated by this provided data. As noted, the determination as to what home appliances to be recommended may consider information captured by the provider of remote control services (e.g., information indicative of the AV system configurations of others), information captured by retailers, etc. In addition to providing the consumer with the recommendations so generated, the system additionally functions in a manner that allows the consumer to publish the recommendations to friends in their social network to thereby receive additional feedback from such friends. 
         [0011]    In another aspect of the invention, consumers may utilize the smart device application to assist in making purchase decisions and/or comparing advertised products by, for example, entering brand and model number information into a smart device for submission to a network server which may dispense advice regarding compatibility and/or functionality of the contemplated equipment with that consumer&#39;s current appliance configuration. 
         [0012]    A better understanding of the objects, advantages, features, properties and relationships of the invention will be obtained from the following detailed description and accompanying drawings which set forth illustrative embodiments and which are indicative of the various ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0013]    For a better understanding of the various aspects of the invention, reference may be had to preferred embodiments shown in the attached drawings in which: 
           [0014]      FIGS. 1 a  and 1 b    illustrate exemplary systems in which a product recommendation app according to the instant invention may be utilized; 
           [0015]      FIG. 2  illustrates, in flowchart form, the operation of an exemplary product recommendation app; 
           [0016]      FIGS. 3  thru  6  illustrate smart device screen displays during the operation of an exemplary product recommendation app; 
           [0017]      FIG. 7  illustrates, in flowchart form, an exemplary product recommendation algorithm; 
           [0018]      FIG. 8  illustrates a product feature database which may be used in conjunction with the algorithm of  FIG. 7 ; and 
           [0019]      FIG. 9  illustrates an exemplary Facebook page soliciting friends&#39; opinions regarding a recommended product. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0020]    The following describes systems and methods for making recommendations to a consumer concerning additions and modifications to an existing system of electronic consumer appliances. By way of example,  FIGS. 1 a  and 1 b    illustrate an exemplary system  100  wherein a smart device  102  may be used to acquire recommendations regarding a consumer&#39;s system of controllable appliances such as a TV  104 , set top box (STB)  106 , AV receiver  108 , DVD player  110 , etc. While illustrated in the context of a home entertainment system comprising a TV, STB, DVD player and AV receiver, it is to be understood that controllable appliances may include, but need not be limited to, televisions, VCRs, DVRs, DVD players, cable or satellite converter set-top boxes (“STBs”), amplifiers, AV receivers, CD players, game consoles, home lighting, drapery, fans, HVAC systems, thermostats, personal computers, etc. In the illustrative example of  FIG. 1 a   , a smart device  102  includes a both a product recommendation app and a resident universal remote control app, which apps may be provisioned separately or in combination as a package as appropriate for a particular embodiment. The universal remote control app serves to adapt smart device  102  to command the operation of the illustrated appliances while the product recommendation app serves to advise a user of smart device  102  regarding suitable additions or substitutions to equipment configuration  100  as will be described in detail hereafter. Appliance commands may be issued in the form of infrared signals  112  as illustrated, or in any suitable format, e.g., via an RF signal such as contemplated by RF4CE, Zigbee, Bluetooth, etc.; ultrasonic signal; visible light; etc. as appropriate for the control of each particular appliance. In the example of  FIG. 1 a    these command signals may be issued directly by smart device  102  using, for example, the technology described in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/043,915 or alternatively may be issued by a relay device (not illustrated) which is in wireless communication with smart device  100  using, for example, the technology described in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/071,661, both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. In addition, smart device  102  may be capable of communicating with a server  124  via, for example a WiFi or cellular wireless access point  120  and a wide area network  122  such as the Internet or PSTN. Server  124  may support a database  126  comprising downloadable command codes and data, equipment setup configurations, appliance datasheet and compatibility information, recommendation database, etc. as required for a particular embodiment. 
         [0021]    As illustrated in  FIG. 1 b   , in an alternative configuration appliance control functionality may reside in a physically separate device such as a universal remote control  130 . Remote control  130  may be configurable via a PC  132 , standalone or in conjunction with a server-based database  126 , using any convenient wired or wireless connection  134  as is well known in the art. In alternative embodiments remote control  130  may communicate directly with server  142  via a wireless link (not illustrated) and access point  120 . In the examples of both  FIGS. 1 a  and 1 b    however, appliance setup data, i.e., type, brand, and model information, equipment configuration, etc., that is gathered during setup and programming of a universal controlling device may be made available to a product recommendation app resident in smart device  102 , either directly from the controlling device  130  or from the smart device  102  accessing a server  124  to which such data has been previously provided by the controlling device  130 . 
         [0022]    With reference now to the flowchart of  FIG. 2  and accompanying illustrative screen displays of  FIGS. 3 through 6 , an exemplary product recommendation app, e.g., an application implemented via computer-executable instructions stored on one or more non-transient, physically embodied storage media of one or more devices such as a server, smart device, and/or the like, may, upon initialization at step  202  request that a user enter a login name  302  and password  304  which may be used to identify a particular user and their current equipment configurations. In some embodiments, this user identity may correspond to a user account which has already been created elsewhere, for example created on server  124  in connection with configuring a PC-editable remote control  130 , while in other embodiments this user account identity may be unique to the product recommendation function, in which latter case a first time user may be required to register and create an account, for example by activating a “Register” icon as illustrated at  308 . In either case, a user may also be able to request that the login screen be bypassed in the future, for example as illustrated by check box  306 . 
         [0023]    In addition, as part of the login process a user may be offered an opportunity to link to a Social networking account such as for example, without limitation, Facebook as illustrated at  310 . Selecting “Yes”  312  may take the user to a screen (not illustrated) wherein the desired Facebook account information is entered. Where the user already has a Facebook account linked to the account, at step  204  screen  310  may be substituted by a display (not illustrated) indicating whether or not here are unread friend comments pending at Facebook. If there are, at the request of the user these comments  502  may be displayed as illustrated in the exemplary computer screen  500  of  FIG. 5 . 
         [0024]    Once login is complete, at step  206  the current equipment configuration data associated with that user account may be retrieved by the product recommendation app in preparation for the steps which are to follow. As will be appreciated, such configuration data may be stored locally on smart device  102 , on a local PC  132 , on a remote server  124 , or a combination thereof as appropriate for a particular embodiment. Next, at step  208  the user is offered a choice of a product recommendation or a product compatibility check, as illustrated at screen  320 . In this context, a product recommendation comprises a review of the items in a user&#39;s current equipment configuration with the objective of generally suggesting improvements and/or additions to the user&#39;s current equipment configuration; while a compatibly check comprises a review of a particular user-specified product which is not currently part of an equipment configuration, with the objective of determining if this item is compatible with the existing equipment as currently configured. As illustrated by checkboxes  326 , a user may be provided with an opportunity to further limit these reviews to only certain appliances or functionalities, for example audio or video appliances or functionalities as illustrated (or both, if more than one box is checked.) 
         [0025]    Considering first the product recommendation mode, at step  210  the existing equipment configuration may be retrieved and displayed to the user as illustrated for example at screen  400 . Once a user has verified that the retrieved configuration is correct, for example by selecting “Start”  402 , the listed configuration may be reviewed for adequacy and compatibility. In this regard, it will be appreciated that the steps comprising the review algorithm may be performed locally on the smart device, performed remotely at an associated server, or a combination thereof as appropriate for a particular embodiment. Similarly, it will be understood that data indicative of the current equipment configuration and data used for reference during the review process may be either locally resident on the smart device or hosted by a server, in any convenient combination. 
         [0026]    In determining the adequacy of an existing configuration an exemplary review algorithm may, for instance when applied to the illustrative AV system configuration  100 , consider factors such as:
       Ability to support currently available (and/or future) formats, e.g., HDTV, Blu-ray DVD, DTS audio, 3DTV, etc.;   Ability to support currently available (and/or future) content delivery methods, e.g., on-line video and audio streaming services, IPTV, HD radio, etc.;   Ability to support currently available (and/or future) connectivity, e.g., HDMI, WiFi and/or Ethernet capability, USB and SD card interfaces, etc.;   Energy efficiency;   Inconsistencies in the existing configuration, e.g., an HD DVR or Blu-ray player connected to an SD TV.       
 
         [0032]    Once any inadequacies or inconsistencies have been identified, at step  212  recommended improvements may be determined and presented to the user, for example as illustrated in screen shot  410 . In this regard, factors that may be considered in identifying suggested replacements or additions to the equipment configuration may include:
       Features and capabilities necessary to rectify the identified inadequacies;   Support for nascent technologies (i.e., future proofing);   Cost of proposed units, which factor may be influenced by the price brackets represented by the existing items of equipment;   Dimensions;   Operational compatibility, e.g., support for CEC, EDID, RF4CE, etc.;   Reliability and/or user satisfaction ratings;   Purchase statistics derived from a user&#39;s peer group, i.e., other consumers with similar equipment configurations and/or demographics.       
 
         [0040]    In this regard, in certain embodiments, user-specified filtering parameters may also be applied during this identification process, for example upper limits on price and/or dimensions, brand preference, etc. Input of such parameters may be solicited from a user at the start of the recommendation process (i.e., in conjunction with steps  210  and  212 ), or may be provided during initial installation and setup of the product recommendation app, as appropriate. 
         [0041]    In addition, in certain embodiments where a database of device command code sets is available for reference, for example where the product recommendation app is provided by or hosted by a manufacturer of universal controlling devices such as controlling device  130  or of universal remote control apps for smart devices, the suitability of an appliance&#39;s command set may also be taken into account, for example:
       Availability of so-called “discrete” power and input selection commands in support of activity macros;   Preferred method of command transmission, e.g., if a majority of the other appliances in the existing configuration support non-line-of-sight command transmissions, such as for example the RF4CE protocol, preference may be given to replacement devices which are compatible with that command protocol;   Possible conflicts in command code format with appliances already present in the existing configuration; etc.       
 
         [0045]    By way of further example and without limitation, a product recommendation method and associated database are illustrated in  FIGS. 7 and 8 . Turning to  FIG. 7 , at step  702  first a determination is made as to which product features are mandatory. These may include for example support for formats necessary for compatibility with other existing equipment in a user&#39;s configuration (e.g., HDTV compatibility), regional requirements (supply voltage, DVD region, PAL vs NTSC, etc.), user-supplied filtering parameters such as maximum price or dimensions, etc. Next, at step  704  a product selection database may be scanned and those entries which satisfy the mandatory requirements selected as entries that are eligible for further examination. With reference to  FIG. 8 , an exemplary product recommendation database  800  may comprise a series of product records  810 , each record in turn comprising a series of feature definition entries  812 , each feature definition entry comprising a series of fields  802  through  808 . Field  802  may be a feature reference or type (e.g. HD capable, HDMI input, reliability rating, user survey rating, etc.), field  804  may contain an indicator as to whether this feature is available on that particular product, field  806  may contain any parameter associated with that feature (e.g., screen resolution, number of inputs, etc.), and field  808  may comprise a rating value, e.g., between zero to ten, representative of the completeness or functionality of that particular feature as implemented within that product, or in the case of survey results, etc., a value representing a relative ranking within that appliance&#39;s peer group. For a feature which is absent, rating value entry  808  may be zero. As will be appreciated, though illustrated for convenience as a unified data set, in practice the data values corresponding to the fields of database  800  may be distributed across multiple locations, for example any or all of the fields  802  through  808  may comprise a pointer to a data value located elsewhere, such as a manufacturer&#39;s website, a product rating organization&#39;s report database, etc. In the illustrative example, any or all of the contents of fields  802  through  806  for each product maintained in the database may be examined during the initial selection process of step  704 . 
         [0046]    Once a set of qualifying products has been selected, at step  706  a weighing factor may be assigned to each of the remaining non-mandatory features based on that feature&#39;s relative importance to the known equipment configuration in which it is to be used. In some embodiments, some or all of such weighing factors may also be user-adjustable according to personal preferences, e.g., cost. After weighing factors are established, at step  708  a first product record from the set of eligible records is retrieved, and at steps  712 ,  714  and  716  a product score may be accumulated, calculated in the illustrative example as the sum of the products of each participating feature&#39;s rating  808  and the weighing factor established in step  706 . Thereafter, at step  718  the total score for that product may be saved, and at steps  720  and  722  the process repeated until all eligible products have been scored. Upon completion of score calculations, at step  724  the highest scoring product may be returned as a recommendation and the process is complete. 
         [0047]    Once suggested replacement or add-on items have been thus identified, these may be displayed to the user of the smart device, for example as illustrated  410 . Returning to  FIG. 2 , at step  214  the user may be presented with an opportunity to display additional information regarding the recommended appliances, for example via activation of an icon  412  as illustrated. Selection of one of the icons  412  may result in the display illustrated at screen  420 . This display may include a summary  422  of the features of the recommended appliance together with icons representing possible next actions by the user, for example: Posting the recommendation to a user&#39;s Facebook or other social networking account for comment using icon  424 , comparison of the recommended item to the appliance it is to replace in the current configuration (if any) using icon  426 , obtaining purchase information using icon  428 , or returning to screen  410  to review other recommended appliances (if any) using icon  430 . As illustrated in  FIG. 9 , selection of icon  424  at step  222  may result in the posting at step  224  of information  902  regarding the recommended appliance to that user&#39;s Facebook page  900 . Selection of icon  428  may result in a display at step  226  as illustrated at screen  510 , comprising a listing  512  of links to merchants selling the recommended item. As will be appreciated, such merchant information may be obtained via use of known web-scraping technologies, may be provided by the merchants themselves (e.g., via an affiliates agreement), or the like. 
         [0048]    Considering now the product compatibility or “shopping companion” mode, a consumer may wish to use the smart device app of the current invention to verify the compatibility of a particular electronic appliance with their existing configuration, based upon for example an advertisement, a recommendation from a friend or a salesperson, a store display, etc. In such cases, after initiating the product recommendation app as described previously, at step  208  the compatibility check mode  324  may be selected. Initially, at step  216  a listing of the user&#39;s currently configured electronic appliances may be displayed as illustrated at screen  600  of  FIG. 6 . In the exemplary embodiment, the user may be afforded an opportunity to remove from that configuration any device which is to be replaced by the new appliance under consideration, for example by selecting a box to be “unchecked” as illustrated at  602 , thereby removing that appliance from the compatibility check process which is to follow. After completing any such input, a user may confirm the remaining equipment configuration and proceed to step  218  by selecting a “next” icon  604 . At step  218 , the user may be prompted to identify the type, brand, and model of appliance under consideration, as represented by fields  612  of screen  610 . As will be appreciated, such identification may be by selection from a drop-down list, direct text entry with or without auto-complete, etc., as appropriate. In addition, the system may automatically indentify the appliance under consideration from an uploaded photograph of the appliance under consideration, its packaging, or the like; from a captured product code associated with the appliance under consideration such as for example a UPC barcode, an RFID tag, or the like; etc. Once entry of such identification information is complete, a user may initiate a compatibility check by once again selecting “next”  614 . 
         [0049]    At step  220 , a compatibility check algorithm may be performed. The factors considered in this process may be similar to those previously enumerated above, but excluding for example cost and dimensions since these are no longer variables. In addition, the compatibility check may incorporate further steps such as verifying that a sufficient number of suitable connections and input/output ports are available to allow optimal integration of the proposed appliance, etc. Once compatibility checking is complete, at step  220  the result may be displayed to the user as illustrated at screen  620 . An exemplary display may include a summary  622  of the salient points considered in determining compatibility. Some embodiments may include an option for the display of additional information screens containing, for example, recommended interconnection schemes and methods, etc., which in the illustrative example may be accessible via icon  624 . In addition, options for posting to Facebook  424  and locating a merchant  428  may be offered as previously described. 
         [0050]    While various concepts have been described in detail, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications and alternatives to those concepts could be developed in light of the overall teachings of the disclosure. For example, while the user interface portion of the illustrative product recommendation system and method described takes the form of a smart device app, it will be appreciated that other embodiments are possible, for example in the form of a PC or Web tablet application, either locally resident or server-based. Additionally, while the databases used for storing setup and configuration information, command code sets, and product feature/function reference may for simplicity be illustrated herein as co-located on a single Web server, it will be appreciated that individual data sets may be located across a multiplicity of servers as long as all are accessible to the product recommendation application. Accordingly, it will be appreciated that the method described herein could be implemented in general as computer-executable software associated with one or more network servers, i.e., a hardware platform, with the software being stored on a computer-readable media embodied in a physical device such as a hard disk drive, memory card, and the like. 
         [0051]    Further, while described in the context of functional modules and illustrated using flowcharts and/or block diagrams, it is to be understood that, unless otherwise stated to the contrary, one or more of the described functions and/or features may be integrated in a single physical device and/or a software module, or one or more functions and/or features may be implemented in separate physical devices or software modules. It will also be appreciated that a detailed discussion of the actual implementation of each module is not necessary for an enabling understanding of the invention. Rather, the actual implementation of such modules would be well within the routine skill of an engineer, given the disclosure herein of the attributes, functionality, and inter-relationship of the various functional modules in the system. Therefore, a person skilled in the art, applying ordinary skill, will be able to practice the invention set forth in the claims without undue experimentation. It will be additionally appreciated that the particular concepts disclosed are meant to be illustrative only and not limiting as to the scope of the invention which is to be given the full breadth of the appended claims and any equivalents thereof. 
         [0052]    All patents and patent applications cited within this document are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.