Patent Application
20220187667
Electrochromic (EC) devices are in present use in electrically tintable windows in both commercial and residential buildings. Typical installations of an EC window system in a building involve both components and wiring, for power and control of window tinting. There is an ongoing need in the art for technological solutions that improve system installation efficiency and reduce total installed system cost, and also for technological solutions that improve the user experience in terms of ease of use, user intuition, user interface, and satisfaction of use. It is in this environment that present embodiments arise.
The described embodiments and the advantages thereof may best be understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. These drawings in no way limit any changes in form and detail that may be made to the described embodiments by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the described embodiments.
A modular smart windows system described herein solves various technological problems in areas of system installation efficiency improvement, total installed system cost reduction, and improvement of ease of use and user satisfaction. Various embodiments have various components that can be in various combinations for a specific system installation, so that installation time and cost can be tailored to a specific installed smart windows system embodiment. Through customization of a specific system installation, ease of use and user satisfaction may be improved. Examples of both functional and physical aspects of various components are described herein, and variations thereof are readily devised in keeping with these teachings. System considerations are described below, in the form of technological goals achieved by various embodiments, followed by examples of system components and installations.
Generally, tint drivers and driver cables are the largest electronics cost contributors, as to both component cost and installation time and cost. A more distributed installation topology can reduce costs and complexity. Also, it costs less to install commodity power cables over long runs in comparison to custom driver cables, the cost of which accumulates for installation and for large systems can be considerable. A single power cable run can supply power for multiple drivers, reducing installation cost. And, a more distributed installation topology can reduce space requirements for cabinets.
Combining products used in repetitive scenarios can reduce costs. As a specific solution, combining two tint drivers and a tint selector costs less than individual products (e.g., multiple separate components and associated component installation and wiring installation to connect them). There is thus a lower installation cost for a combination product vs. 2+ individual products.
A tint selector next to windows provides a more intuitive experience for the user. Office workers are accustomed to pulling the shades, not getting out an app (e.g., on a computer or smart phone). A tint selector at the window will simplify users needing manual control (vs. using an app). A powered tint selector that wakes up as a user approaches will improve the user experience and perception of the product and system. The above considerations are expressed in various features, components and system embodiments described below, which have technological solutions to various technological problems.
A gateway 110 communicates wirelessly, e.g., through dashed-line paths 122, with the drivers 102 and also communicates through connection to the cloud 112 (e.g., a network, and more specifically the global communication network known as the Internet). Other connections through the cloud 112 are to cloud computing resources 114 and cloud storage resources 116, for cloud-based contribution to operation of the smart windows system 100. In embodiments that support or integrate with other platforms, there are other connections through the cloud 112 to one or more other platforms 118, each with specialized driver 120. The driver 120 is specific to the platform 118, and exposes the capabilities of the site. It should be appreciated that the gateway 110 is not necessarily required in all system embodiments, and some system versions may operate with local distributed intelligence but without cloud computing and/or cloud storage.
The various embodiments of driver 302, 304 in
Three different faces are shown on interchangeable interfaces 306 in the middle of the drawing, as examples of different versions or types of interchangeable interface 306. Each interchangeable interface 306 receives power from the power supply 310 through the driver 304 to which the interchangeable interface 306 is attached, for example through a connector. One interchangeable interface 306, on the left, has an air quality sensor (or more than one), a proximity detector, a light level detector, and a light cover. For example, the proximity detector could be implemented with an infrared detector, ultrasonic detector, motion detector, capacitance sensor, or in more sophisticated versions with a camera and image recognition or image classification, etc.
One interchangeable interface 306, in the middle of the three, has buttons and indicia for “tint”, “clear”, “top”, “bottom” and “auto”, e.g., as a keypad. As an example operating scenario, a user could press “top” to select the upper of two smart windows (or “bottom” to select the lower smart window), then press “tint” to tint that selected window (or “clear” to clear that selected window). Or, press “auto” for an automatic tint function, e.g., based on operation through cloud computing resources 114 and cloud storage resources 116, based on local light sensing, time of day, etc., or based on distributed control combining local and cloud-based computing.
One interchangeable interface 306, on the right, has a slider as a tint selector. The slider could be implemented as a physical knob and electromechanical, optical or electronic sensing of knob and slider position, or as a touchpad for finger touching sliding action and detection, etc. Further embodiments of a tint selector are shown in
In further embodiments, one, many or all of the interchangeable interfaces 306 are removable and independently operable as remote controls, for example handheld controllers. A removable interface could have a replaceable battery, or a rechargeable battery and suitable electronics for battery operation as a handheld remote control. If rechargeable, suitable electronics uses power from the power supply 310 via the driver 304 to recharge a rechargeable battery in the interchangeable interface when docked, i.e., attached to a respective driver 304. For example handheld controller remote usage, one embodiment of interchangeable interface 306 could communicate wirelessly, through radio frequency or infrared connection to a respective driver 304. A directional version could support selection of, pairing with or other driver-specific communication linkage, so that a user could pick up one of the handheld controllers and select one of the drivers 304, then optionally select one or both of the two electrochromic devices 308 to which the driver 304 is connected, and a tint selection.
The example interchangeable interface 404 in
On the right of the drawing, a wider embodiment of an interchangeable interface has a face panel 706 and housing 708 with electronics, together forming a wall pad (or “WallPad”) point of control (POC). On the left side of the face panel 706, there are buttons and indicia for “upper row”, “lower row”, “West wall”, “North wall”, and “skylight”. On the right side of the face panel 706 there is a touchpad slider. The embodiment on the left allows for tint control of a smart window, a pair of smart windows or other designated one or set of smart windows. The embodiment on the right allows for selection of a smart window or group of smart windows, and setting of tint thereof, and may be attached (in assembled form) to a driver that is mounted on or in a wall.
With reference to
In an action 902, the system determines tint selection through a first interchangeable interface that is attached to a first tint driver. The first tint driver is one of multiple tint drivers in the system. Each tint driver can have an interchangeable interface attached, or not, in various configurations, and there are multiple types of interchangeable interfaces available. For example, interchangeable interfaces could be dimensioned and arranged to fit any or all of the tint drivers in the system, or there could be multiple sizes of interchangeable interfaces with each size fitting one size of tint driver, with multiple different sized tint drivers.
In an action 904, the system supplies power to the tint drivers. For example, a power supply is connected, through wiring, to the tint drivers. The power supply provides sufficient power for computing in the tint drivers, the user interfaces, system communication, and for the tint drivers to drive electrochromic devices.
In an action 906, the system supplies power through the first tint driver to the first interchangeable interface. Other tint drivers with attached interchangeable interfaces similarly supply power. In various embodiments, the power supply supplies power to the tint drivers, e.g., through wiring, and each interchangeable interface receives power through the respective tint driver to which the interchangeable interface is attached, e.g., through a connector.
In an action 908, two electrochromic devices are driven by the first tint driver, according to tint selection. This could include driving the two electrochromic devices to the same tint level, or selecting one electrochromic device and driving that one to the selected tint level. Other tint drivers in the system function similarly, with each tint driver having capability of driving two electrochromic devices to the same or differing tint levels according to tint selection in various embodiments. It would also be possible to mix tint drivers that can drive one, or other numbers of electrochromic devices, in modular system variations.
Detailed illustrative embodiments are disclosed herein. However, specific functional details disclosed herein are merely representative for purposes of describing embodiments. Embodiments may, however, be embodied in many alternate forms and should not be construed as limited to only the embodiments set forth herein.
It should be understood that although the terms first, second, etc. may be used herein to describe various steps or calculations, these steps or calculations should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one step or calculation from another. For example, a first calculation could be termed a second calculation, and, similarly, a second step could be termed a first step, without departing from the scope of this disclosure. As used herein, the term “and/or” and the “/” symbol includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”, “comprising”, “includes”, and/or “including”, when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. Therefore, the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting.
It should also be noted that in some alternative implementations, the functions/acts noted may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two figures shown in succession may in fact be executed substantially concurrently or may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality/acts involved.
With the above embodiments in mind, it should be understood that the embodiments might employ various computer-implemented operations involving data stored in computer systems. These operations are those requiring physical manipulation of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. Further, the manipulations performed are often referred to in terms, such as producing, identifying, determining, or comparing. Any of the operations described herein that form part of the embodiments are useful machine operations. The embodiments also relate to a device or an apparatus for performing these operations. The apparatus can be specially constructed for the required purpose, or the apparatus can be a general-purpose computer selectively activated or configured by a computer program stored in the computer. In particular, various general-purpose machines can be used with computer programs written in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may be more convenient to construct a more specialized apparatus to perform the required operations.
A module, an application, a layer, an agent or other method-operable entity could be implemented as hardware, firmware, or a processor executing software, or combinations thereof. It should be appreciated that, where a software-based embodiment is disclosed herein, the software can be embodied in a physical machine such as a controller. For example, a controller could include a first module and a second module. A controller could be configured to perform various actions, e.g., of a method, an application, a layer or an agent.
The embodiments can also be embodied as computer readable code on a tangible non-transitory computer readable medium. The computer readable medium is any data storage device that can store data, which can be thereafter read by a computer system. Examples of the computer readable medium include hard drives, network attached storage (NAS), read-only memory, random-access memory, CD-ROMs, CD-Rs, CD-RWs, magnetic tapes, and other optical and non-optical data storage devices. The computer readable medium can also be distributed over a network coupled computer system so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion. Embodiments described herein may be practiced with various computer system configurations including hand-held devices, tablets, microprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers and the like. The embodiments can also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a wire-based or wireless network.
Although the method operations were described in a specific order, it should be understood that other operations may be performed in between described operations, described operations may be adjusted so that they occur at slightly different times or the described operations may be distributed in a system which allows the occurrence of the processing operations at various intervals associated with the processing.
In various embodiments, one or more portions of the methods and mechanisms described herein may form part of a cloud-computing environment. In such embodiments, resources may be provided over the Internet as services according to one or more various models. Such models may include Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). In IaaS, computer infrastructure is delivered as a service. In such a case, the computing equipment is generally owned and operated by the service provider. In the PaaS model, software tools and underlying equipment used by developers to develop software solutions may be provided as a service and hosted by the service provider. SaaS typically includes a service provider licensing software as a service on demand. The service provider may host the software, or may deploy the software to a customer for a given period of time. Numerous combinations of the above models are possible and are contemplated.
Various units, circuits, or other components may be described or claimed as “configured to” or “configurable to” perform a task or tasks. In such contexts, the phrase “configured to” or “configurable to” is used to connote structure by indicating that the units/circuits/components include structure (e.g., circuitry) that performs the task or tasks during operation. As such, the unit/circuit/component can be said to be configured to perform the task, or configurable to perform the task, even when the specified unit/circuit/component is not currently operational (e.g., is not on). The units/circuits/components used with the “configured to” or “configurable to” language include hardware—for example, circuits, memory storing program instructions executable to implement the operation, etc. Reciting that a unit/circuit/component is “configured to” perform one or more tasks, or is “configurable to” perform one or more tasks, is expressly intended not to invoke 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, for that unit/circuit/component. Additionally, “configured to” or “configurable to” can include generic structure (e.g., generic circuitry) that is manipulated by software and/or firmware (e.g., an FPGA or a general-purpose processor executing software) to operate in manner that is capable of performing the task(s) at issue. “Configured to” may also include adapting a manufacturing process (e.g., a semiconductor fabrication facility) to fabricate devices (e.g., integrated circuits) that are adapted to implement or perform one or more tasks. “Configurable to” is expressly intended not to apply to blank media, an unprogrammed processor or unprogrammed generic computer, or an unprogrammed programmable logic device, programmable gate array, or other unprogrammed device, unless accompanied by programmed media that confers the ability to the unprogrammed device to be configured to perform the disclosed function(s).
The foregoing description, for the purpose of explanation, has been described with reference to specific embodiments. However, the illustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the embodiments and its practical applications, to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the embodiments and various modifications as may be suited to the particular use contemplated. Accordingly, the present embodiments are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the invention is not to be limited to the details given herein, but may be modified within the scope and equivalents of the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63126241 | Dec 2020 | US | |
| 63146428 | Feb 2021 | US |
