Patent Application
20180184464
The present invention relates to systems and method used to pair electronic devices to cloud-based applications. Specifically, the invention relates to systems and methods which are capable of automatically pairing devices to cloud-based applications without user knowledge or input.
For any application provider, automatically connecting and controlling various “Internet of Things” (IoT) devices at runtime is mission critical. Once one is able to control different manufacturer IoT device interfaces, home automation (e.g., obtaining numerous IoT devices' data and controlling them) becomes easy.
The heart of any home automation system is the gateway. It is capable of connecting different IoT devices, such as home appliances, healthcare monitors, thermostat, smoke detector, motion, contact sensors, for home information collection (input and output), integration, and remote monitoring for proper actions. The gateway uses WiFi to transmit information through a home router to the Internet so that it can be connected to a Cloud-based application and be accessed remotely by any Internet device, such as a cellular phone or a computer. However, there is not a common interface applied to home automation to unify various IoT devices' interfaces, nor is there a gateway that is able to interpolate different command structures or data formats.
The reason for the lack of uniformity is obvious. Every home appliance or control device can be made by many different manufacturers and each manufacturer uses different data structures and interfaces for its devices. One solution suggests having a standard uniform format for interfaces. However, this would require all manufacturers to agree on a single format and adopt it in its devices. This is an unlikely scenario, though some giant information companies such as Google, Intel, and Microsoft may team up one day to work on such a uniform protocol.
Another possible solution suggests translating different IoT device interfaces in the gateway. China Unicom and Huawei use either embedding a SDK (software development kit) provided by a manufacturer in the gateway or offering a USB port on the gateway to allow a manufacture to provide executables in a USB card to conduct runtime translations. It effectively helps a manufacturer device connected at runtime. However, this approach lacks expansion, such as the ability to handle many different manufacturer devices at one home, which is all too common.
There are basically three options for connecting IoT devices to the Cloud. First, an IoT device can directly connect to the Cloud through the Internet using wired or wireless data transmission. For example, the IoT device may be a cellular phone, a home/business computer, or a communication system carried by a vehicle. In each case, the device directly connects to the Cloud using wired and/or wireless data transmissions. Second, an IoT device may use BLUETOOTH™ technology or ZigBee™ protocol to transmit to a gateway, which connects to a router using WiFi before the transmission reaches the Cloud through the Internet. This type of IoT device can be equipped with a WiFi transmitter that connects it to a router, then to the Cloud directly. For example, the IoT devices may be a group of gas meters or electric meters connected to apartment units and located in a central room in an apartment building. It can save significant costs to have Bluetooth™ or ZigBee™ transmit data through a gateway to the Cloud rather than paying roaming costs to connect to the Cloud separately.
A third option for connecting to the Cloud involves the use of sensors, such as those produced by a manufacturer for a solution provider. These sensors might be based on motion, contact, video, sound, or the type of sensor used in home appliances for home automation. These sensors use either Bluetooth™ or ZigBee™ to transmit data to a gateway. The gateway uses WiFi or a wired connection to a router which connect to the Cloud via the Internet. These devices are required to meet a standard defined by the gateway in order for the gateway to pair with the device (initialization) and transmit data to the Cloud. Alternatively, these IoT devices can pair with a cell phone (via an APP) as a gateway by Bluetooth™ to transmit to the Cloud separately (integrated in the Cloud level).
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) recently announced the release of Bluetooth 4.2, an update that makes it easier for various simple devices to talk directly to one another without using a hub like a cellular phone or computer as an intermediary. Such an improvement is limited due to the concern for privacy. That is, a Bluetooth device cannot simply connect to and track to an IoT device in or near a person's home unless permission is given by way of authorization to pair.
For solution providers, the difficulty is, as noted above, integrating various home IoT devices from different manufacturers and interfacing the devices without requiring any of the manufacturers to modify their devices. For IoT device manufacturers, easier pairing to a Bluetooth device with a gateway (including a Cellular phone APP) and improving the usability experience are equally important for market breakthrough, especially to those who were left behind the wave of new Internet and Information technology.
The disclosed system creates a way to allow different home automation devices to automatically connect to a gateway. It can be accomplished by combining a home gateway with cloud-based software applications which assists the gateway to scan and connect to nearby IoT devices. It is capable of converting different data structures and instruction formats to XML/Jason format (a data-interexchange format) which is easy for a Cloud application to parse.
The present system is capable of pairing Bluetooth IoT devices to a home gateway without using a hub like a cellular phone or a computer as an intermediary. The system also provides a common API for the Cloud application to facilitate obtaining data and controlling IoT devices without knowing the manufacturer or data format of the device. The disclosed system will benefit those who lack the knowledge of how to pair a device to a smart phone, and it will simplify the operation to connect Bluetooth devices in a house, specifically those devices which are disconnected by being powered off or switched off by others. The system will also prevent situations where multiple devices require many cellular phone Apps to pair. It is important to solution providers to not worry about interfaces between IoT devices and Cloud applications. Use of a common API makes it unnecessary for manufacturers to modify the interface in order to integrate with a specific Cloud application, and the reverse is also true with respect to Cloud applications not modifying the interface to suit specific devices.
The disclosed system offers a gateway which makes it easy for nearby IoT devices to connect without the traditional pairing process and it provides Jason format common interfaces to the Cloud so that manufacturers do not need to modify original device interfaces (data and structural format) for a specific gateway and a Cloud-based application.
Until the invention of the present application, these and other problems in the prior art went either unnoticed or unsolved by those skilled in the art. The present invention provides both a system and method for automatically and effectively pairing IoT devices to Cloud-based applications without sacrificing privacy.
There is disclosed herein an improved system which avoids the disadvantages of prior devices while affording additional benefits and operating advantages.
This invention address a method makes a gateway able to automatically connect various IoT devices with local network protocol such as Bluetooth and Zig-bee at runtime without use of traditional efforts in so-called pairing the device.
Generally speaking, the disclosed system for automatically pairing an electronic device to a gateway to allow control and operation of the device through a cloud-based application, comprises any number of electronic devices, each having an associated unique identification code, a cloud-based information platform having an IP address, and a gateway.
In specific embodiments of the system, the information platform generates and updates a first device table listing unique identification codes for registered electronic devices, and the gateway comprises a sensor for detecting a broadcast from the electronic device, a code scanner for reading unique identification codes, memory having a second device table of registered electronic devices and the IP address of the information platform, and software for operating the sensor and scanner, wherein the gateway electronically connects to the cloud-based information platform using the stored IP address of the information platform.
In other specific embodiments, the gateway scans the unique identification code associated with the electronic device it sends the unique identification code to the information platform which compares the unique identification code associated with the electronic device against unique identification codes listed on the first device table and, if a match is found, returns additional information on the electronic device to the gateway which automatically pairs to the electronic device when it is powered on.
Another feature of the system may include a router, wherein the gateway connects to the router using WiFi and the router connects to the information platform via the Internet.
Preferably, the electronic devices can be controlled from cloud-based applications when paired with the gateway.
The disclosed method for automatically pairing electronic devices to cloud-based applications, comprises the steps of registering a plurality of electronic devices to a cloud-based information platform, assigning each registered electronic device a unique identification, creating a first device table on the information platform listing the unique identification of each of the plurality of registered electronic devices, scanning from the gateway to detect a signal broadcast from a local electronic device capable of pairing with the gateway, wherein the signal broadcast comprises a first unique identification, sending the first unique identification from the gateway to the information platform, comparing the first unique identification against unique identifications of registered electronic devices listed on the device table stored on the information platform, sending information about pairing with the local electronic device only if the first unique identification matches a unique identification of a registered electronic device, and automatically pairing the gateway with the local electronic device having a first unique identification which matches a unique identification listed on the stored device table when the electronic device is powered on.
In specific embodiments, the method further comprises the steps of periodically updating the device table at the information platform with additional registered devices and creating a second device table on the gateway comprising information about local electronic devices which match registered electronic devices on the information platform.
Additionally, the method may comprise the step of translating information from the electronic device to create a common API as well as the step of transmitting the common API to cloud-based applications. Preferably, a common API is created for each registered device and stored at the information platform.
These and other aspects of the invention may be understood more readily from the following description and the appended drawings.
For the purpose of facilitating an understanding of the subject matter sought to be protected, there are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, embodiments thereof, from an inspection of which, when considered in connection with the following description, the subject matter sought to be protected, its construction and operation, and many of its advantages should be readily understood and appreciated.
While this invention is susceptible of embodiments in many different forms, there is shown in the drawings and will herein be described in detail at least one preferred embodiment of the invention with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the principles of the invention and is not intended to limit the broad aspect of the invention to any specific embodiment illustrated.
Referring to
Current smart home systems, which are connected to by several Bluetooth or Zig-Bee devices, require a common interface for each device, and a manual pairing process. The devices are connected to the gateway so that data can be acquired, information can be transmitted, and then the devices can be controlled from a distance. The gateway becomes the center of the smart home system.
The disclosed system is a combined hardware and software solution to provide a gateway which allows connection to a Cloud-based Information Platform. The platform provides a list of potential devices around a home and offers Cloud-based applications a XML/Jason like common API. In short, the system provides a “smart” gateway by adding the Information Platform (see
In a preferred embodiment, the gateway uses WiFi to reach a home router and connect to the Internet. The gateway also connects to a Cloud-based Information Platform when powered on by using an embedded IP address in the gateway. With the Information Platform connected to the gateway, the gateway becomes programmable including the ability to (1) detect nearby Bluetooth capable IoT devices, (2) pair to any detected capable devices, and (3) offer common APIs to a Cloud application so that the Cloud application does not have to directly engage with the Bluetooth device manufacturer for the integration of the data or instruction format.
In detail, the Information Platform connected to the gateway provides a device lookup table in which previously registered Bluetooth devices (assigned by a solution provider which defines the scope of the gateway) are placed, including a device name, a MAC address, and a device UID.
The device lookup table is built through a process whereby a manufacturer registers a Bluetooth device using the Information Platform 20. An important purpose of the process is to have the Information Platform 20 translate private data and instruction structure format to a XML/Jason format, as illustrated in
The registration process is fundamental to the present system and method. During registration, the manufacturer provides information on the command structure and data format of the device to allow the gateway to interpolate at runtime. It is only after completing registration of a device that a manufacturer will obtain a device unique identification (UID) assigned by the Information Platform (such UID can be provided by the manufacturer, so long as it is unique to a device). During the manufacturer packaging procedure, the device name, MAC address, and the device UID should be burned into the Bluetooth device. The unique code, which is preferably 2D barcode 38, is then generated into which the device name, MAC address, and the devices UID are placed. The 2D barcode 38 should be posted on a surface of the device packaging and/or on a device manual.
In use, when a new IoT device 14 is purchased or otherwise obtained by a user, the gateway 12 being equipped with a camera (not shown) is able to scan the 2D barcode 38 on device packaging, a device manual, or the like. The gateway 12 obtains the Bluetooth device information and waits for the device to be powered on. When the device is powered on, it will broadcast its name and MAC address, as the logic illustrates in
If the device name and MAC address do not match any entries in the device lookup table 30, the gateway 12 sends the device name and MAC address to a cellular phone 15 (
The matter set forth in the foregoing description and accompanying drawings is offered by way of illustration only and not as a limitation. While particular embodiments have been shown and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made without departing from the broader aspects of applicants' contribution. The actual scope of the protection sought is intended to be defined in the following claims when viewed in their proper perspective based on the prior art.
This application claims the filing priority of Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/439,540, titled “Method of Pairing Bluetooth/Zig-bee Devices to a Home Gateway without Using an Intermediary Hub and Output Common Data Format APIs to Cloud based Applications,” filed on Dec. 28, 2016. The '540 application is hereby incorporated by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62439540 | Dec 2016 | US |
