Abstract:
A state of a system having a plurality of appliances is controlled by using a device discovery process to establish a listing of each of the plurality of appliances in the system. The listing of each of the plurality of appliances is then used, with reference to a command and/or protoctol database, to configure a software agent to exchange communications, via a one or more communication channels, with each of the plurality of appliances. An action triggering state of at least one of the plurality of appliances is associated with an action. The action is performed when it is determined that a current state of the at least one of the plurality of appliances corresponds to the action triggering state.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
       [0001]    Increasingly, the modern home or business may be populated by a variety of “smart” devices. Such devices may include, for example, various items of home entertainment equipment such as TVs, AV receivers, cable set top boxes, etc.; intelligent thermostats; lighting control systems; personal activity tracking devices; household and kitchen appliances; security and alarm systems; as well as personal computers, tablets, smartphones, and the like. While such devices are increasingly capable of wireless communication, there is often little or no provision for sharing of information amongst the various devices and systems, or for synergistic cooperation between these devices. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0002]    The following generally describes smart systems that may be found in a home or business environment, and more particularly systems and methods for facilitating aggregation and synergistic use of the operational and status data which may be gathered from the various smart devices forming such a system. To this end an exemplary software agent capable of communication with the various devices forming a system may aggregate, store, and analyze status and functional data available from such devices. Various actions may be initiated by the software agent based on this analysis, for example proactive thermostat adjustments, security system setting changes, etc. 
         [0003]    A better understanding of the objects, advantages, features, properties and relationships of the claimed 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 claimed invention may be employed. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0004]    For a better understanding of the various aspects of the systems and methods described hereinafter, reference may be had to the attached drawings in which: 
           [0005]      FIG. 1  illustrates an exemplary system in which the teachings of the subject disclosure may be utilized; 
           [0006]      FIG. 2  illustrates a block diagram of a computing device platform upon which an exemplary software agent in keeping with the teachings of the subject disclosure may be implemented; 
           [0007]      FIG. 3  illustrates an exemplary series of steps which may be performed to initially configure an exemplary software agent; and 
           [0008]      FIG. 4  illustrates an exemplary series of steps which may be performed by an exemplary software agent upon receipt of device or system status change data. 
       
    
    
       [0009]    It will be appreciated that for clarity of illustration, the size of some of the illustrative elements in the above listed Figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements, i.e. the elements illustrated in the Figures are not necessarily drawn to scale. 
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0010]    With reference to  FIG. 1 , an exemplary system of devices in a household may include without limitation a smart thermostat  104 , one or more personal activity monitors  106 , a security system base station  108 , a lighting controller  110 , one or more tablet computers  112 , one or more smart phones  114 , a personal computer  116 , one or more kitchen appliances such as refrigerator  118 , one or more smoke and/or carbon monoxide detectors  120 ; a robotic vacuum cleaner  122 , and various entertainment appliances such as for example cable STB  124  and TV  126 . In the exemplary system, these devices may be equipped to communicate wirelessly, for example via an RF signal such as contemplated by RF4CE, Zwave, Bluetooth, etc.; ultrasonic signal; visible light; etc., as appropriate for the control of each particular appliance, for example or over a WiFi network  100 , in order to report status, alarms, fault conditions, etc., and in some cases to receive operational commands. As will be understood, other proprietary wireless or wired networks may also be present, for example between an alarm system base station and its various sensors, between smoke detectors situated at multiple locations in the household, between an HVAC system and its smart temperature sensors, between a cable STB and its headend, etc. The exemplary WiFi network may be managed by a router and wireless access point  102 , via which access to the Internet  140  and remote servers  142 , 144  may also be made available to those devices equipped with appropriate software. 
         [0000]    However, while the illustrated devices may all be capable of wireless signaling, they may not support full intercommunication amongst themselves. For example, thermostat  104  and personal activity monitor  106  may only be adapted to communicate with specific manufacturer-supplied apps resident on smart phone  112 , alarm base station  108  may only be adapted to communicate with a cloud-based central monitoring facility maintained by the alarm system vendor, etc. It will also be appreciated that the system may provide indirect communication between the wireless access point  102  and desired target appliance via a relay device which is responsive to wireless communications and which may support a plurality of RF protocols and which may communicate to a desired appliance which may contain a software agent. 
         [0011]    More particularly, the software agent may comprise programming instructions which, when executed on an appliance, such as the exemplary computing-capable device  200  illustrated in  FIG. 2 , may perform the steps and functions of the methods described herein. Computing-capable device  200  may comprise a central processor  201  coupled to a memory system  202  which memory system may comprise one or more of RAM memory, ROM memory  206  and non-volatile memory  208 . As will be appreciated, some or all of the elements of memory system  202  may take the form of a chip, a hard disk, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, FLASH memory, and/or the like, and all or portion of the elements of memory system  202  may be physically incorporated within the same IC chip as the central processor  201  and, as such, memory system  202  is shown separately in  FIG. 2  only for the sake of clarity. Computing-capable device  200  may further comprise, as required for a particular purpose, one or more wireless communication interfaces  210 , for example WiFi, Bluetooth, or the like; one or more wired communication interfaces  212 , for example, Ethernet, USB, or the like; a display interface  214  for output to one or more of a LED, LCD, computer monitor, TV, etc.; and a user input interface  216 , for connection to for example a keypad, touchscreen, pointing device, remote control, or the like. Once again, in some embodiments all or portion of interfaces  210  through  216  may be physically incorporated within the same IC chip as the central processor  201  and, as such, are shown separately in  FIG. 2  only for the sake of clarity. Further, as will become apparent hereafter, in certain embodiments user interface functionality  214 , 216  may be embodied in a physically separate device, for example smart phone  114  or PC  116  and accessed wirelessly by a software agent resident in computing-capable device  200 . 
         [0012]    For the purposes of this invention, computing-capable device  200  may comprise a separate standalone unit provisioned specifically to provide a platform for the software agent programming, or alternatively, computing-capable device  200  providing the platform for the software agent programming may comprise all or part of an appliance, for example a cable STB  124 , smart phone  114 , PC  116 , or even server  142 . It is also contemplated that in some embodiments software agent functionality may be divided amongst multiple computing-capable devices, for example data capture may be performed locally by a device such as STB  124 , and analysis of such captured data may performed remotely by server  142 . Accordingly, in the descriptions that follow it will be understood that the physical platform upon which the disclosed software agent functionality is resident may comprise any of the above forms, or any other convenient configuration, as appropriate for a particular embodiment. 
         [0013]    Turning now to  FIG. 3 , an exemplary software agent for aggregation of the overall status of the system of  FIG. 1  may be initialized upon installation on a suitable computing device, as follows. After startup  300 , at step  302  the software agent may perform device discovery in order to establish a listing of all responsive devices in the system. Such discovery may comprise polling devices on a network, for example WiFi network  100  or any other network, wired or wireless, which may be present in the environment and accessible to the software agent; communicating with a universal remote control or remote control app and/or associated database to ascertain which controllable devices the remote control has been configured to communicate with; soliciting input from a user; etc., all as may be appropriate to a particular configuration. Such discovery may also include comparing retrieved device characteristics to a database of such characteristics in order to uniquely identify devices, for example as described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,812,629 “System and Method for Configuring the Remote Control Functionality of a Portable Device” and/or pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/148,444 “Using HDMI-CEC to Identify a Codeset,” both of common ownership and incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. 
         [0014]    As devices are identified, the exemplary software agent may further reference a command and/or protocol database, local and/or remote, e.g. on server  142  or  144 , in order to configure itself to effectively communicate with the discovered devices. 
         [0015]    After discovery is complete, at step  304  the software agent may present a user with a listing of all discovered devices and at step  306  allow the user to select those devices which are to participate in status aggregation. Once the participating devices have been identified, at step  308  user input may be solicited to define a series of event/response parameters. In this context, an event/response parameter may comprise the association of a particular system status with an action which is to be taken by the software agent upon the system entering into that status. For convenience, in some embodiments certain event responses may be pre-programmed by default, for example responses to arrival or departure of a user, detection of an intruder, etc. After user entry, and if necessary editing of default responses, is complete, at step  310  the software agent may build a database of event/response parameters for use as will be described hereafter. Finally, at step  312  the software agent may ascertain the current status of all configured devices in the system in order to build and populate a system status database, after which at step  314  the software agent enters normal active status as will now be described in conjunction with  FIG. 4 . 
         [0016]    As will be appreciated, an exemplary system status database may include not only the operational status of all the devices participating in the system, but also other pertinent data such as user location within or outside the home (determined for example from smart phone  114  (using image capturing, use sensing, device proximity or the like), sensed presence of activity monitor  106 , security system data, image capture date, etc.); date, day of week, and time of day; current weather conditions and forecast (obtained for example from Internet server  144 ); times and durations of discounted energy pricing; etc. 
         [0017]    Turning to  FIG. 4 , at step  402  the actions of an exemplary software agent during normal operation may comprise periodic communication with the devices present in the system in order to track changes in the status of those devices. As will be appreciated, such communication may be software agent or device initiated, i.e., polled or interrupt driven, or a combination thereof, as appropriate for a particular system. Upon completion of communication, at step  404  the software agent may determine if any changes in system status have occurred. If not, the periodic communication of step  402  may be repeated. If however a change in system status is detected, at step  406  the exemplary system status database may be updated to reflect the new system status value(s). Thereafter, at steps  408  and  410  the updated system status may be compared to the system status entries stored in the event/response database. If no matches are found, the periodic communication of step  402  is repeated. If however a match is found, at step  412 , the action associated with that status event may be performed. Thereafter, at step  414 , the software agent may determine if further entries in the event/response database match the current status. If so, step  412  is repeated, if not, the periodic communication of step  402  may be repeated. 
         [0018]    Examples of actions which may be initiated in this manner by an exemplary software agent may include, without limitation: 
         [0019]    Receipt of a communication from a GPS-enabled smartphone  114  may indicate that a user is approaching home. An exemplary associated event/response parameter may cause a software agent to issue a command to thermostat  104  to exit energy-saving mode. Further, depending on the season and time of day, the exemplary software agent may additionally issue command(s) to lighting controller  110  to turn on one or more lights. 
         [0020]    Receipt of a communication from security system base station  108  may indicate that an intruder has been detected. An exemplary event/response parameter may cause a software agent to issue command(s) to lighting controller  110  to turn both exterior and interior lights on at full brightness. 
         [0021]    Status received from one or more personal activity monitor(s)  106  indicate that all occupants of the home are asleep. An exemplary event/response parameter may cause a software agent to issue commands to TV  126  to power off that device if that device is still powered on; to change thermostat  104  setting to night eco mode; to cause lighting controller  110  to turn off any remaining lights downstairs, and to request security system  108  to enable downstairs motion sensors. 
         [0022]    In a similar manner, if the reported status from an exemplary personal activity monitor  106  changes from “asleep” to “awake”, an exemplary event/response parameter may cause a software agent to issue a command(s) to security system  108  to disable interior motion sensors. 
         [0023]    The exemplary software agent of this invention may also act as a conduit to efficiently route device messages to a user in a timely and convenient manner. For example, when a battery-powered alarm system sensor reports a low battery state to security system base station  108 , a battery purchase requirement may be forwarded by the exemplary software agent to smart phone  114  for entry into a location based reminder system such as for example Google now. Similarly, an “over temperature” status from refrigerator  118  or a “bag full” status from automatic vacuum cleaner  122  may cause an exemplary software agent to forward appropriate messages to smartphone  114  or tablet  116 , or even cause a message to be displayed on TV  126 , depending on the current location of a user as determined by, for example smart phone  114  or personal activity monitor  106 . 
         [0024]    As will be appreciated, many further event/response scenarios may be supported by the above described exemplary software agent and alternate embodiments thereof. Accordingly, it should be understood that the above scenarios and use cases are presented by way of example only, without limitation. 
         [0025]    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 exemplary methods are presented above in the context of a home system, it will be appreciate that the principles disclosed herein may be broadly applied to, for example, offices, factories, theaters, department stores, shopping malls, airports, etc. 
         [0026]    Further, while described in the context of functional modules and illustrated using block diagram format, 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. 
         [0027]    All patents cited within this document are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.