1292 results about "Home environment" patented technology

A method of adding a device to an existing or new electrical or electronic automation or multimedia network. The invention facilitates adding a device to the network that can communicate using various protocols such as LonWorks, CEBus, X-10, etc. over media such as AC power line, IR, RF, twisted pair, optical fiber, etc. The method is a mechanism for adding a device to a system that can be used by an ordinary user of network capable electrical devices. The method comprises the steps an installer would perform including the handshaking that needs to occur between devices to accomplish the binding process. A Functional Profile for LonWorks networks is given as an example. This includes a Home Device profile that employs an automated explicit type messaging for all devices intended for use in a home environment. The invention includes adding to the device an install button and a visual indicator for status such as an LED. Alternatively, existing buttons and LEDs on the device may be used for installed and binding purposes. Other methods of binding can be employed by the use of wired or wireless handheld tools, remote controls, etc. Other interfaces and user feedback can be used such as touch screen, personal computers, cellular phones, PDAs, etc which can offer simple ‘virtual’ binding by the press of an icon versus the physical button on the device. The binding can be performed locally or remotely such as via LAN, WAN, Internet, etc.

A method and system of controlling devices with digitally stored content. Devices such as home electronic appliances, lighting systems, heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment, home security systems and home entertainment systems are controlled from a single, centralized device. A set top box (STB) stores scripts that include program content for controlling the operation of a plurality of these devices from the STB. A user of the STB selects the desired scripts, and the STB accesses the selected scripts from storage based on a triggering mechanism such as time, content, event, etc. The STB selectively controls operation of certain devices designated in the script. The method provides ease of control over multiple and diverse devices, applications and media within a user's own home environment, with more functionality and flexibility than currently available.

Systems and methods for controlling a climate control system of a smart-home environment that includes a plurality of smart devices are provided. One method includes detecting, with a hazard detector of the smart devices, a level of carbon monoxide (CO) at the hazard detector that exceeds a threshold CO level at a location of the hazard detector, determining, by one of the smart devices, that the climate control system includes a combustion based heat source, and in response to the detecting and the determination, transmitting, by a system controller of the climate control system, a first signal to turn off at least one aspect of the climate control system.

A home security and control system for monitoring and controlling an external environment such as a home environment comprising: an Internet browser connectable to an extranet; an extranet located external to the home environment and accessible via the Internet browser; a communications server located in the extranet and adapted to interconnect on demand with one of a series of connection gateways located in predetermined home environments; and a connection gateway located in the home environment adapted to control and / or monitor the operation of at least one security device in the home environment; wherein upon accessing a predetermined address by the Internet browser on the extranet, the communications server connects to a predetermined one of the connection gateways to control and / or monitor the operation of the security device. The extranet can ideally be implemented as a Virtual Private Network (VPN) across an Internet substrate.

A home automation protocol system provides a network consisting of a number of node devices, controllers, and servers for storing information about node device settings and scene settings in a home environment is provided. The node devices are controlled by the controllers, in that the node devices are set to create scenes, which are stored in a scene server, while the operational states of the node devices are stored in a status server. The status server and scene server may be provided as separate units. The home automation protocol network is controlled by sending commands to the devices and servers, and new devices and controllers are added or updated, and new scenes are programmed. The network protocol allows devices running different protocols to be incorporated into the network.

A method of adding a device to an existing or new electrical or electronic automation or multimedia network. The invention facilitates adding a device to the network that can communicate using various protocols such as LonWorks, CEBus, X-10, etc. over media such as AC power line, IR, RF, twisted pair, optical fiber, etc. The method is a mechanism for adding a device to a system that can be used by an ordinary user of network capable electrical devices. The method comprises the steps an installer would perform including the handshaking that needs to occur between devices to accomplish the binding process. A Functional Profile for LonWorks networks is given as an example. This includes a Home Device profile that employs an automated explicit type messaging for all devices intended for use in a home environment. The invention includes adding to the device an install button and a visual indicator for status such as an LED. Alternatively, existing buttons and LEDs on the device may be used for installed and binding purposes. Other methods of binding can be employed by the use of wired or wireless handheld tools, remote controls, etc. Other interfaces and user feedback can be used such as touch screen, personal computers, cellular phones, PDAs, etc which can offer simple ‘virtual’ binding by the press of an icon versus the physical button on the device. The binding can be performed locally or remotely such as via LAN, WAN, Internet, etc.

A centralized service discovery process performed in a data or telecommunications network collects a list of services available to user terminal equipment connected to a network based on user-specific data (e.g., the user's identification and preferences, the location and capabilities of the user terminal equipment). The list of services is then communicated to the user. The list of services may include home environment (HE) services the user is authorized to receive by a home network, and value-added services being offered to the user by the home network, a visited network, or third party service platforms. Both application and bearer services may further be collected in the list of available services. The service discovery process can be integrated in wireless and wireline networks, or implemented in a stand-alone service enabler.

In an embodiment, a method determines one or more sources of carbon monoxide (CO) in a smart-home environment that includes a plurality of smart devices that have at least measurement and communication capabilities. The method includes measuring a level of CO in the smart-home environment to generate a CO measurement, and providing the CO measurement and one or more current characteristics of the smart-home environment, from one or more of the smart devices to an analyzing device. The method further includes evaluating, by the analyzing device and with the CO measurement and the current characteristics of the smart-home environment, a set of CO correlation scenarios that attribute generation of CO to a corresponding one of a set of specific sources, and selecting one or more of the specific sources as the most likely source of the CO, by aggregating results of the correlation scenarios.

A sensor device integrates ZigBee® technology into power switch device to provide monitoring and control of power usage, as well as operational control of connected devices. The sensor device uses a power line communication (PLC) network to transfer collected data and to provide remote control capability to connected appliances. The sensor device, in conjunction with a master switch device, a communication enabled switching device, and the power switch device, provides an integrated home environment for communication, streaming media, monitoring, and remote control of power usage, as well as remote operational monitoring and control of connected appliances in the home.

This document discloses systems and methods for enabling viewers to control and manage programming and to control external consumer electronic devices through the use of a STB or other device. This invention provides command information that is embedded into an EPG signal and transmitted from a headend or transmission facility through a distribution network to the end user. By way of example, the program data includes volume, lighting, internet or environmental tag information for controlling external devices, such as a surround sound entertainment system, home environment system, personal computer, etc. A set top box or other properly configured consumer electronics device either receives data from the external device to effect programming or transmits data to the external device to optimize the viewing experience or to supplement information produced by the EPG.

A network system installed within a residence provides digital media and simulates a user environment. State devices located throughout a residence generate state data indicative of operation. A state device may be a digital media adapter to allow a non-IP enabled device to receive and play digital media. A server communicates with the state devices to deliver digital media content and to receive state data. The server includes simulation applications that generate a simulated model of the home environment and predict likely events. The server conveys commands to the state devices to take actions to improve the environment for users.

A data management method and system allows user centric, secured management and sharing of user information such as e-commerce data (including login details, credit card information etc.), policies and preferences set by a user in a networked home environment. A technique to encrypt and decrypt the user data is utilized, while physically storing the encrypted version of the data on a gateway device in the home rather than an online service / entity. It is in a user's best interest to manage the user's private information on the user side such that a user has absolute control over what, where the user's information flows.

The invention relates to the technical field of smart monitoring, in particular to a smart home monitoring system based on a home service robot. The smart home monitoring system comprises a remote monitoring terminal, a wireless sensing control device and the home service robot. The remote control terminal is in communication with the home service robot through a network and controls the home service robot to conduct all-dimensional video monitoring. The wireless sensing control device is in interaction with the home service robot and is in charge of monitoring and collecting various home environment data and reporting the data to the remote monitoring terminal. The home service robot comprises a core control device, a chassis moving device and a sensing execution device, and the core control device is connected with the chassis moving device and the sensing execution device respectively through CAN buses to acquire the moving state of the robot, sense outside environment information, control moving of the chassis moving device, and control and monitor home appliances. Through the home service robot, regular inspection to the home environment and targeted monitoring over an abnormal target area are achieved, and remote monitoring is achieved.

The invention belongs to the field of robotics, and specifically relates to a small highly intellective household service robot. The robot is composed of moving / executing / sensing hardware module and intellective operating software module. The hardware module and software module set up a closed-loop control through visual information and other sensor information, have personification control characteristic, and can imitate the ability of human to complete task. The robot can supply service in complex home environment due to small size and power consumption. The invention physically separates complex intellective operating software functions with small moving / executing / sensing platform of household service robot and qualifies the robot with the abilities of machine vision, audition, highly intellective planning and function extension, which make the robot can complete highly intelli-gentification ground cleaning work; control many kinds of household appliances according to oral command of the host; and transport small household utensils such as compote, tea, slipper, and garbage can according to oral command.

The invention provides an improved VFH algorithm-based positioning and obstacle avoidance method and robot. According to the improved VFH algorithm-based positioning and obstacle avoidance method and robot, on the basis of an improved vector field histogram method and a scan matching algorithm, environmental information is acquired by the adoption of a laser range-finder sensor, and the pose error brought by speedometer is amended by the adoption of the polar coordinate scan matching algorithm. After robot positioning is finished, environmental information is rasterized, an obstacle is expanded according to the relationship between the robot and the obstacle and considering the sensing uncertainty of a movable robot and the real size of the robot, an original polar coordinate histogram is built, the free walking area and the obstacle avoidance area are acquired, a binary polar coordinate histogram is acquired through the definition of two threshold values, a shielding polar coordinate histogram is built through estimating the movement trail of the movable robot, and finally, the cost function is introduced to determine the best movement direction of the robot so as to solve the problem of shielding route planning of the movable robot in a home environment.

The invention discloses a mobile robot obstacle avoidance navigation method and system. The method includes the following steps that: a global map of a home environment is established; the starting point and destination of the movement of a robot are set; the movement path of the robot is planned according to the A* algorithm; the position of a obstacle is marked in the global map; the movement path of the robot is re-planned according to the A* algorithm; the robot is controlled to move according to the planned path; and the robot arrives at the destination and stops moving. With the mobile robot obstacle avoidance navigation method and system of the invention adopted, unknown environment can be detected, so that the information of unknown obstacles can be obtained, and the estimation function is adopted to plan the shortest and most economical path, and therefore, the equipment cost of the obstacle avoidance navigation of the robot can be decreased; the position and movement attitude of the robot can be monitored in real time, and the walking attitude of the robot can be adjusted and controlled in real time, and the accuracy and effectiveness of the obstacle avoidance navigation of the robot can be ensured.

Methods and arrangements for replacing segments or portions of a media file that was received via adaptive streaming or other transfer mechanism, to obtain a media file for local storage and further playback as if it came from a download. This maximizes the experience of both instant viewing and delayed viewing, and additionally provides a capability to extend the viewing experience to in-home streaming and copying to other devices. Accordingly, there is provided herein a capability to take advantage of adaptive streaming to provide a highly reliable mechanism for consumers to view media in real-time transmission, and also to obtain a resultant, locally stored media file of high quality. There is further provided herein a capability to obtain complete copies of media at different quality levels. Moreover, embodiments of the present invention facilitate adaptive streaming and copying within the home environment.

The invention discloses a smart home voice control system combined with a video channel and a control method thereof. The system comprises a gesture detection module, a human face detection module, a recognition system module, a command judgment module and a command display and confirmation module which are sequentially connected. The recognition system module comprises a lip language part and a voice part, wherein the lip language part comprises a human face tracking and positioning module, a lip language video input module and a lip language recognition module which are sequentially connected; and the voice part comprises a voice input module and a voice recognition module which are sequentially connected. By detecting control gestures and recognizing human faces and lip language information to supplement the recognized voice information, the accuracy of control commands is improved and the feasibility of using voices to control a smart home is increased. The smart home voice control system combined with the video channel has very strong interference resistance, can be widely used for various complex environment modes and is particularly suitable for the situation of high noise because of a great number of people in home environments.

A method and apparatus for detecting seizures with motor manifestations including detecting EMG signals, isolating from the EMG signals spectral data for a plurality of frequency bands, and calculating a T-squared value there from. The T-squared values may be detected in real time, such as in a patient's home environment, and the T-squared data may be compared to a threshold T-squared value to determine whether an alarm is sent.

A home automation protocol system provides a network consisting of a number of node devices, controllers, and servers for storing information about node device settings and scene settings in a home environment is provided. The node devices are controlled by the controllers, in that the node devices are set to create scenes, which are stored in a scene server, while the operational states of the node devices are stored in a status server. The status server and scene server may be provided as separate units. The home automation protocol network is controlled by sending commands to the devices and servers, and new devices and controllers are added or updated, and new scenes are programmed. The network protocol allows devices running different protocols to be incorporated into the network.

Handheld medical diagnostic instrument that provides high time-resolution pulse waveforms associated with multiple parameters including blood pressure measurements, blood oxygen saturation levels, electrocardiograph (ECG) measurements, and temperature measurements. The device stores and analyzes the pulse waveforms simultaneously obtained from all tests, and thereby allows an unusually detailed view into the functioning of the user's cardiovascular heart-lung system. The device is designed for use by unskilled or semi-skilled users, thus enabling sophisticated cardiovascular measurements to be obtained in a home environment. Data from the device can be analyzed onboard, with local computerized devices, and with remote server based systems. The remote server may be configured to analyze this data according to various algorithms chosen by the physician to be most appropriate to that patient's particular medical condition (e.g. COPD patient algorithms). The server may be further configured to automatically provide alerts and drug recommendations.

The invention relates to an intelligent cooking system capable of recognizing the geographic position of a user and judging the preference of the user. The intelligent cooking system comprises an intelligent cooking device, a cloud side server and an intelligent terminal. The cloud side server obtains the IP address of the intelligent cooking device and forms the recognition information with the geographic position. The cloud side server obtains the characteristic information of the intelligent cooking device and forms use habit records of the user according to the characteristic information. The cloud side server forms the recommend information according to the recognition information or the use habit records and sends the recommend information to the intelligent terminal. According to the intelligent cooking system, the full-automatic cooking is achieved through the optimal scheme best meeting the current requirements of the user, the scientific, reasonable, appropriate and healthy cooking service scheme conforming to the user characteristics is provided for the user comprehensively on the aspects of geographical characteristics, use habits and the like, a cloud side service platform with power functions is formed, an energy-saving, environment-friendly, green and healthy home environment is created, and life quality of people is greatly improved.

The invention relates to an implementing method for a home control system based on a network and the cloud technology. The implementing method for the home control system includes the following steps that (1), a sensing and control terminal, a sensor network of Things and internet protocol conversion device and a service processing and cloud computing platform are arranged and sequentially connected; (2), after the three devices are connected, corresponding modules including the control module, the sensing module and the instruction sending and receiving module are arranged in the sensing and control terminal; (3), a protocol conversion module is installed on the sensor network of Things and internet protocol conversion device; (4), a connection managing module, an instruction receiving and recognizing module, an instruction generating and sending module and a service processing module are arranged in the service processing and cloud computing platform. The implementing method can conveniently and fast help a user to remotely control corresponding facilities at home through a smartphone, the 3G and the broadband network commonly used by people, and is committed itself to creating an intelligent, environmentally friendly and safe home environment for the user.

Embodiments of the invention may be used to provide an authentication and key agreement protocol that is more robust against base station, replay and other attacks compared to previously known systems. The nonce-based authentication and key agreement protocol provides security against such attacks while avoiding the problems that arise in systems that use sequence number counters on the home environment and mobile station-sides. In an embodiment, a nonce that is transmitted from the user to the home environment through the serving network, as well as subsequent values for the nonce that are derived from the initial nonce, are used as indices for authentication vectors.

The invention provides a comprehensive utilizing system and method of an intelligent home service rule. The system comprises a service rule accessing module, a service rule setting module, a service rule sharing module, a service rule conversion module and a service rule executing module, wherein the service rule accessing module is used for providing functions of storing, indexing or searching a service rule template and a service rule example; the service rule setting module is used for the intelligent home user to generate the service rule template through man-machine interactive interface configuration; the service rule sharing module is used for providing sharing of the service rule template, wherein the sharing mode is issuing, exchange, uploading and downloading or importing or exporting; the service rule conversion module is used for converting the manually set or shared service rule template into the service rule example; the service rule executing module is used for triggering executing movement in the service rule example when the intelligent home environment satisfies all triggering conditions in the service rule example and recording the movement name and movement parameters. The system and method provided by the invention can be used for improving the universality and convenience of the existing intelligent home system and are convenient for the user to set a service rule.

Techniques are described for enabling authentication and / or key agreement between communications network stations and service networks. The techniques described include the negotiation and use of a cryptographic primitive shared between a service network and a home environment of a station. The techniques described also feature a key usage indicator, such as a sequence number, maintained by the service network and a station. Comparison of the key usage indicators can, for example, permit efficient authentication of the service network.

Systems and techniques are provided for dynamic volume adjustment. A signal including a detected distance to a person may be received from a proximity sensor of a smart home environment. A volume adjustment for a speaker of the smart home environment may be generated based on the detected distance to the person and a sound level associated with the detected distance to the person. The volume of the speaker may be adjusted based on the volume adjustment. A signal from a sensor of the smart home environment indicating that the sensor has been tripped may be received. The proximity sensor may be triggered based on the received signal indicating the sensor has been tripped to detect a distance to the person to generate the detected distance. An alarm may be sounded through the speaker.

The invention discloses a multimedia intelligent home network based on Zigbee. The multimedia intelligent home network comprises an intelligent home gateway, Zigbee terminals and a multimedia sensing node. The intelligent home gateway, which is connected with the plurality of Zigbee terminals through a Zigbee network, includes a Zigbee wireless communication module and an ARM microprocessor, wherein the Zigbee wireless communication module is connected with the ARM microprocessor. According to the invention, a Zigbee technology is used as a design standard of a physical layer and a network layer; many kinds of sensor nodes are set in a home environment, wherein the sensor nodes includes multimedia senor nodes, and a home gateway is also established; therefore, an objective of monitoring and controlling of an intelligent home device can be realized and an intelligent home control system that is capable of being accessed to mobile equipment through an Internet is constructed.