Patent Grant
9819910
The present invention generally relates to a smart system controlling the smart house, office and smart car powered by a standard light bulb socket and fluorescent socket.
The development of the technology for a system to control the smart house and the smart office is advancing.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,528,954 discloses a smart bulb where a processor can control current for different hue and color. U.S. Pat. No. 7,901,116 discloses data interface to the AC power line via light bulb socket, while U.S. Pat. No. 5,186,659 discloses a light bulb adapter.
In one aspect, a smart system includes a connector plug that fits into a bulb socket; a system that include a processor to control the smart system; at least one of a receiver and a transmitter coupled to the processor for receiving or transmitting data.
In another aspect, a smart system includes a connector plug that fits into bulb socket or fluorescent socket; a processor to control the smart system; and at least one of a receiver and a transmitter coupled to the processor for receiving or transmitting data, and at least one of function or circuit to convert AC power to DC power.
In yet another aspect, a smart system includes a connector plug that fits into bulb socket or fluorescent socket; a processor to control the smart system; at least one of a receiver and a transmitter coupled to the processor for receiving or transmitting data; at least one of function or circuit to convert AC power to DC power; and at least one of function is a camera to capture image.
In yet another aspect, a smart system includes a connector plug that fits into bulb socket or fluorescent socket; a processor to control the smart system including light, alarms, communication, camera; at least one of a receiver and a transmitter coupled to the processor for receiving or transmitting data; at least one of the transceiver is communicating through power line; at least one of expandable socket which can connect to other device, the socket could be light socket; other socket (port) is USB.
In another aspect, a smart system includes a connector plug that fits into bulb socket or fluorescent socket; at least one of a receiver and a transmitter is for power line communication; at least one bulb or one bulb socket is for lighting.
In yet another aspect, a smart system includes a connector plug that fits into bulb socket or fluorescent socket; at least one of a receiver and a transmitter is for power line communication; at least one bulb or one bulb socket for lighting, and at least a camera to capture picture.
In yet another aspect, a smart system includes a connector plug that fits into bulb socket or fluorescent socket; at least one of a receiver and a transmitter is for power line communication.
In yet another aspect, a smart system includes a connector plug that fits into bulb socket or fluorescent socket; at least one of a receiver and a transmitter is for power line communication; and at least one of a receiver and a transmitter is for WiFi to support wireless communication.
In yet another aspect, a smart system includes a connector plug that fits into bulb socket or fluorescent socket; and at least one bulb or one bulb socket for lighting; and a camera to capture image (including audio); and a processor to analyze image (including audio) or a controller sends to other device to analyze image (including audio); and a module detects motion and sends information to processor or controller. The result could be use as a signal for recording or power on/off control of partial of the smart system.
In yet another aspect, a facility with a plurality of smart systems, each smart system has a connector plug that fits into bulb socket or fluorescent socket, the system including a smart “device” is a master of a group of smart system, to control the slave smart system and a slave smart system that provides feedback data to master smart “device”, wherein each smart system has at least one of a receiver and a transmitter coupled to the processor for receiving or transmitting data. The master smart device may be a smart system, a server, a PC, a tablet or a smart phone or a group of above devices.
Implementations of the above aspect may include one or more of the following. The bulb socket could be E12, E14, E26, E27, E28, E39, E40, B22, G4, G9, Gu10, K9, T8, T12 or various type of connectors. A camera device can capture image or video. The wireless device can support blue tooth, WiFi, ibeacon, infrared, 3G, LTE among others. A power line communication device can provide communication through the power line. A GPS can be used to tell the location of the system. A storage device can store configuration data, history event, image or video data. An extendable plug socket can be provided for lights. A USB, mini USB plug socket can be provided to allow access to USB peripherals. The system can include sensor such as carbon monoxide detector, smoke detector, and motion detector, thermal sensor, infrared sensor, among others. The system can capture images of the building to guide robot or robots to clean up house and floor. The system can capture images and detect the intruder and send message through the transceiver. The system can capture images and detect people falling down or getting sick and send message through the transceiver. The system can include audio in/out function. The receiver and transmitter support one or more of: Bluetooth, WiFi, WiMax, Zigbee, iBeacon, infrared, 3G, 4G, 5G, LTE communication, and power line communication.
Advantages of the above systems may include one or more of the following. The system helps you to power your smart device by using the existing light socket. The system also saves your time to wire your power lines. It is a pluggable smart system to your existing light socket. The smart system includes the communication functions, computing, control functions and detecting functions. For expandable future use, the system can allow to connect to other device through USB and extendable socket. Beside the advantages of the pluggable system, the system can operate on images captured by the camera, including face recognition. If there are any intruders come in, the system can detect that it is a stranger coming to the property and will notify the owner through email, message, phone call or intercom device. The owner can decide when he wants to trigger alarm or not. It actually provides two ways of communication. The smart system also can trigger alarm without owner's intervention by programmable setting. The smart system also can light up with different colors and light up patterns of a group of light bulbs to welcome the owner. Moreover, it can trigger music or audio system to play songs or talk. Another advantage of the pluggable system into the existing bulb socket as compared to a wall outlet is that there is no line cord or no visible line cord—the device is simply plugged into the socket. Second, the light bulb socket connector can ensure it is tightly connected. Third, a light bulb socket is likely to be available in many places of the house and office. The user can install a lot of smart devices through the existing socket. Fourth, our smart system can integrate with a bulb or support an extendable socket for future extension. The user can choose the models needed and there is no need to connect to a bulb immediately.
Alternating current (AC) is used for power line transmission and for high power devices like appliances and lights. The characteristics of AC make it ideal for transmission over long lines and for delivering large amounts of power for relatively unregulated uses, such as generating heat and light. Lower power appliances and devices require the closely regulated control of direct current power (DC). As a normal house is supplied with AC, it must be converted to DC for many uses. The power from light socket original could be possible from AC power domain and the smart system is running in DC power domain. An AC to DC converter can be used to provide power to the electronics in the smart system. The smart system can also connect to DC power line without AC to DC converter, for example car system.
Light bulbs are usually inserted in lamp holder sockets which provide electrical connections to the lamp and support it in the lighting fixture. The use of sockets allows lamps to be safely and conveniently replaced (re-lamping) at the end of life, or to change power, color, lighting technology or etc. There are many different standards for these lamp holders, created by de facto and by various standards bodies. A general coding system is a letter or abbreviation followed by a number. Some miniature lamps have wire leads suitable for direct connection to wires; some reflector lamps have screw terminals for wire connections.
The construction of a lamp holder socket defines and limits its intended use. Ceramic insulation can withstand considerably higher operating temperatures than bakelite or other plastics. The electrical components and wires must be designed to carry the intended current plus a safety factor. The contact surface area, thickness and conductivity of the metal, connection methods and maximum operating temperature must all be considered in the design of a new socket. In addition, mechanical factors such as shape of the socket, fixture mounting and attachment, lamp support, ease of re-lamping and total cost of manufacture must be considered. Sockets designed for ordinary household and industrial use have much more design leeway than those used in precision applications.
The base must be located far enough from the filament that the metals with the lowest melting point will remain solid. Edison screw bases include:
Miniature E10 (Flashlight lamp)
Miniature E11
Candelabra E12
European E14
Intermediate E17
Medium E26/E27 (sizes are interchangeable)
3-Lite (modified medium or mogul socket with additional ring contact for 3-way lamps)
Mogul E40
Skirted (PAR-38)
The design architecture of USB is asymmetrical in its topology, consisting of a host, a multitude of downstream USB ports, and multiple peripheral devices connected in a tiered-star topology. Additional USB hubs may be included in the tiers, allowing branching into a tree structure with up to five tier levels. A USB host may implement multiple host controllers and each host controller may provide one or more USB ports. Up to 127 devices, including hub devices if present, may be connected to a single host controller. USB devices are linked in series through hubs. One hub—built into the host controller—is the root hub.
A physical USB device may consist of several logical sub-devices that are referred to as device functions. A single device may provide several functions, for example, a webcam (video device function) with a built-in microphone (audio device function). This kind of device is called a composite device. An alternative to this is compound device, in which the host assigns each logical device a distinctive address and all logical devices connect to a built-in hub that connects to the physical USB cable. USB endpoints actually reside on the connected device: the channels to the host are referred to as pipes, and USB device communication is based on pipes (logical channels). A pipe is a connection from the host controller to a logical entity, found on a device, and named an endpoint. Because pipes correspond 1-to-1 to endpoints, the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. A USB device could have up to 32 endpoints (16 IN, 16 OUT), though it's rare to have so many. An endpoint is defined and numbered by the device during initialization (the period after physical connection called “enumeration”) and so is relatively permanent, whereas a pipe may be opened and closed.
The host controller directs traffic flow to devices, so no USB device can transfer any data on the bus without an explicit request from the host controller. In USB 2.0, the host controller polls the bus for traffic, usually in a round-robin fashion. The throughput of each USB port is determined by the slower speed of either the USB port or the USB device connected to the port.
USB implements connections to storage devices using a set of standards called the USB mass storage device class (MSC or UMS). This was at first intended for traditional magnetic and optical drives and has been extended to support flash drives. It has also been extended to support a wide variety of novel devices as many systems can be controlled with the familiar metaphor of file manipulation within directories. The process of making a novel device look like a familiar device is also known as extension. [citation needed] The ability to boot a write-locked SD card with a USB adapter is particularly advantageous for maintaining the integrity and non-corruptible, pristine state of the booting medium.
The USB Battery Charging Specification Revision 1.1 (released in 2007) defines new types of USB ports, charging ports. As compared to standard downstream ports, where a portable device can only draw more than 100 mA current after digital negotiation with the host or hub, charging ports can supply currents between 500 mA and 1.5 A without digital negotiation. A charging port supplies up to 500 mA at 5 V, up to the rated current at 3.6 V or more, and drop its output voltage if the portable device attempts to draw more than the rated current. The charger port may shut down if the load is too high.
Two types of charging ports exist: charging downstream ports (CDP), supporting data transfers as well, and dedicated charging ports (DCP), without data support. A portable device can recognize the type of USB port; on a dedicated charging port, the D+ and D− pins are shorted with a resistance not exceeding 200 ohms, while charging downstream ports provide additional detection logic so their presence can be determined by attached devices.
With charging downstream ports, current passing through the thin ground wire may interfere with high-speed data signals; therefore, current draw may not exceed 900 mA during high-speed data transfer. A dedicated charge port may have a rated current between 500 and 1,500 mA. For all charging ports, there is maximum current of 5 A, as long as the connector can handle the current (standard USB 2.0 A-connectors are rated at 1.5 A).
Before the battery charging specification was defined, there was no standardized way for the portable device to inquire how much current was available. For example, Apple's iPod and iPhone chargers indicate the available current by voltages on the D− and D+ lines. When D+=D−=2.0 V, the device may pull up to 500 mA. When D+=2.0 V and D−=2.8 V, the device may pull up to 1 A of current. When D+=2.8 V and D−=2.0 V, the device may pull up to 2 A of current.
Dedicated charging ports can be found on USB power adapters that convert utility power or another power source (e.g., a car's electrical system) to run attached devices and battery packs. On a host (such as a laptop computer) with both standard and charging USB ports, the charging ports should be labeled as such.
To support simultaneous charge and data communication, even if the communication port does not support charging a demanding device, so-called accessory charging adapters (ACA) are introduced. By using an accessory charging adapter, a device providing a single USB port can be attached to both a charger, and another USB device at the same time. The USB Battery Charging Specification Revision 1.2 (released in 2010) makes clear that there are safety limits to the rated current at 5 A coming from USB 2.0. On the other hand, several changes are made and limits are increasing including allowing 1.5 A on charging downstream ports for unconfigured devices, allowing high speed communication while having a current up to 1.5 A, and allowing a maximum current of 5 A. Also, revision 1.2 removes support for USB ports type detection via resistive detection mechanisms.
Sleep-and-charge USB ports can be used to charge electronic devices even when the computer is switched off. Normally, when a computer is powered off, the USB ports are powered down. This prevents phones and other devices from being able to charge unless the computer is powered on. Sleep-and-charge USB ports remain powered even when the computer is off. On laptops, charging devices from the USB port when it is not being powered from AC drains the laptop battery faster; most laptops have a facility to stop charging if their own battery charge level gets too low. Desktop machines need to remain plugged into AC power for Sleep-and-charge to work.
Pseudo-code for one exemplary embodiment for facial recognition is as follows:
For an AC to DC converter, voltage to provide LED could be higher than 5 volts to increase the lumens. For the smart system, voltage can be lower than 5 volts. One embodiment allows AC convert to DC and moreover it converts to different levels of volts.
For motion sensor, it could control the power of camera or it actives other module to function. Different sensors can be used, for example:
The system can use combinations of different sensor technologies. Using combination of multiple sensing technologies into one detector can help to reduce false triggering.
A digital camera can be used to capture image to identify the intruders or any dangerous events happens. For more advanced application, the camera could capture the images with depth information to reconstruct 3D images. the camera could help and provide guidance to Robot for cleaning up a house. It can also apply to face recognition when camera capture images, the processor can try to analyze the image with existing database to identify the name of the people. If it is a stranger, the system can capture the image and trigger alarm or send image to the owner.
An audio module can serve as door bell when guest come to your house. It combines with the outdoor security camera to talk to people who is inside the house to ask permission to come to your house like an intercom device.
A power line communication (PLC) is provided to transfer image to cloud or a smart phone when WiFi is weak in accessible. For example, if the WiFi signal is not strong enough, PLC helps to transfer image to network router or switch. The most useful application is using as a security camera. It sends the images through a power line and eventually connects to internet when there is an event like detecting someone or big animal coming to the house. The smart system brings a Power line communication and wireless function to the smart house or smart office. It saves the work to connect ethernet from a place to place. Especially for an office, originally you connect ethernet at the corner of cubic board. For the wireless service, you might connect it through attic. It really cost a lot when you restructure your cubic area. You might need to reroute the ethernet. In our invention, the PLC provides a new way to save the work.
For an iBeacon application, the smart system can serve as in a mall to give the map guidance or send the advertisement to people's smart phone when people walk nearby.
For gyroscope and accelerometer helps to trigger alarm when earthquake is coming or building structure is tilting.
For other application, the smart system can serve as smoke and carbon dioxide detector.
For CO detector can detect colorless, tasteless and odorless gas. The CO gas is a highly toxic inhalant and attaches to the hemoglobin with an affinity 200× stronger than oxygen, producing inadequate amounts of oxygen traveling through the body. For Smoke detector is a device to detect smoke. In North America, CO and Smoke detector are required in building and houses. In our system, the system is equipped with an internal rechargeable battery backup that recharges when the detector is receiving AC power.
The system can also allow users to adjust the hue and brightness through WiFi or bluetooth in a smart phone. In one embodiment, the system uses Artificial Intelligence to detect motion of objects and detect any people are still in the room. If people is sitting to watch TV, the smart system can identify people are in the room and make the adjustment on the brightness. If people are leaving, it adjusts light to power saving mode or even turn it off. If people come to the room, there are at least two different modes. One mode is for people just walk through and bypass.
The light will be turn on to certain level as walking through mode. The other mode is people coming to the room and staying at that room. The brightness level can be set as different level. Once these settings are done, the smart system can operate automatically. There could be another application that the light listen to the music and give different pattern according to the mood of the music. The light can also turn into other pattern when the intruder comes or emergent event happens.
The smart system can work independently. It can also work together and send information to other smart device through transceiver. For the complicate calculation, smart system can send information to cloud and cloud can gather information of each smart system and give the feedback or send control information back to smart system.
The smart system can have different functions or different set of modules; they can work as master and slave mode. A few of smart system serve as a master of a group of smart systems. It can be programmable or fixed function in the hardware.
They also can work in synergy with other smart system with different functions. Some of smart systems can serve as security light, some of smart systems can serve as green energy light and some of the smart systems have Artificial intelligence to recognize people. They can work together to form a big smart home system.
The system may be implemented in hardware, firmware or software, or a combination of the three. Preferably the invention is implemented in a computer program executed on a programmable computer having a processor, a data storage system, volatile and non-volatile memory and/or storage elements, at least one input device and at least one output device.
By way of example, a block diagram of a computer to support the system is discussed next in
Each computer program is tangibly stored in a machine-readable storage media or device (e.g., program memory or magnetic disk) readable by a general or special purpose programmable computer, for configuring and controlling operation of a computer when the storage media or device is read by the computer to perform the procedures described herein. The inventive system may also be considered to be embodied in a computer-readable storage medium, configured with a computer program, where the storage medium so configured causes a computer to operate in a specific and predefined manner to perform the functions described herein.
The system has been described herein in considerable detail in order to comply with the patent statutes and to provide those skilled in the art with the information needed to apply the novel principles and to construct and use such specialized components as are required. However, it is to be understood that the invention can be carried out by specifically different equipment and devices, and that various modifications, both as to the equipment details and operating procedures, can be accomplished without departing from the scope of the invention itself.
Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device or system and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the meters and bounds of the appended claims.
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| Number | Date | Country | |
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| 20150373307 A1 | Dec 2015 | US |
