Patent Application
20180373401
The present invention relates generally to devices configured to regulate operation of one or more of mechanical, electrical, and electronic systems in relation to temperature and, more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a method of and system for controlling operation of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) and refrigeration systems and uploading electronic media for viewing on a display of a programmable intelligent thermostat.
A thermostat is generally considered to be a device that regulates operation of mechanical, electrical, or electronic systems in relation to temperature. Thermostats are particularly prevalent in heating/cooling systems to deliver a set temperature result. A traditional thermostat display typically demonstrates current temperature settings, desired temperature settings, current time, and the like. However, traditional thermostats do not demonstrate additional information that users may be interested in. For example, users may have to look or step outside to get an indication of outside weather conditions. In addition, traditional thermostats lack an easy-to-use and intuitive user interface.
A system includes a plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats positioned within at least one of a first home environment and a second home environment, a plurality of communication devices configured to operate an electronic media sharing application, and at least one server configured to communicate with the plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats and the plurality of communication devices via a wireless network. A user initiates the electronic media sharing application on at least one of the plurality of communication devices. A touch-screen display of the at least one communication device demonstrates the plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats positioned within the first and second home environments and at least one user-selected electronic media is simultaneously uploaded to at least one of the plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats responsive to a user selection of a region on the touch-screen display.
A method includes positioning a plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats within a first home environment and a second home environment, operating an electronic media sharing application on at least one of a plurality of communication devices, and initiating by a user, the electronic media sharing application on at least one of the plurality of communication devices. The method further includes demonstrating, on a touch-screen display of the at least one of the plurality of communication devices, the plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats positioned within the first and second home environments and simultaneously uploading at least one user-selected electronic media to at least one of the plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats responsive to a user selection of a region on the touch-screen display.
A system includes a plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats positioned within at least one of a first home environment and a second home environment, a plurality of communication devices configured to operate an electronic media sharing application, and at least one server configured to communicate with the plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats and the plurality of communication devices via a wireless network. A user initiates the electronic media sharing application on at least one of the plurality of communication devices. A touch-screen display of the at least one communication device demonstrates the plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats positioned within the first and second home environments and at least one electronic image tagged by the user on social media websites is simultaneously uploaded to at least one of the plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats responsive to a user selection of a region on the touch-screen display.
Embodiment(s) of the invention will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying Drawings. The invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiment(s) set forth herein. The invention should only be considered limited by the claims as they now exist and the equivalents thereof.
In a typical embodiment, the plurality of networking devices 104(a), 104(b) serve as networking equipment that, for example, routes/forwards traffic between two or more networks or sub-networks and/or provides access to a network. For example, the plurality of networking devices 104(a). 104(b) allow the plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats 102, 103, 107 to communicate with the at least one server or cloud-computing system 114 via the network 106. In a typical embodiment, the plurality of networking devices 104(a), 104(b) can include, for example, routers, switches, bridges, hubs, wireless access points, gateways, a combination of same, and/or the like. In a typical embodiment, the plurality of networking devices 104(a). 104(b) are further configured to communicate with home communication equipment such as, for example, home routers, wireless hubs, access points, and the like. In a typical embodiment, the at least one server or cloud-computing system 114 may be associated with a manufacturer, a support entity, a service provider, and the like. The at least one server or cloud-computing system 114 is configured to communicate with other entities such as, for example, maintenance contractors 116, weather forecasting agencies 118, and the like.
The smart home environment system 100 allows users to contact customer support using, for example, the programmable intelligent thermostats 102, 103, 107. Additionally, the smart home environment system 100 allows software updates to be routinely sent from the at least one server or cloud-computing system 114 to at least one of the plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats 102, 103, 107 and other HVAC system components such as, for example, outdoor-unit control board, furnace control board, and the like. Furthermore, the smart home environment system 100 allows maintenance contractors 116 to periodically send HVAC system maintenance reminders, HVAC system service special, and other notifications to the programmable intelligent thermostats 102, 103, 107 via the at least one server or cloud-computing system 114. In addition, via the smart home environment system 100, the at least one server or cloud-computing system 114 forwards current and predicted weather information to the programmable intelligent thermostats 102, 103, 107.
In a typical embodiment, the plurality of communication devices 108, 110, 112 operated by users are configured to control the programmable intelligent thermostat 102 remotely. A webpage or mobile application may be configured to receive information from the user operated plurality of communication devices 108, 110, 112 and control settings of, for example, the programmable intelligent thermostat 102. For example, the user can view temperature settings of the programmable intelligent thermostat 102 and modify the settings using the plurality of communication devices 108, 110, 112. In some embodiments, the plurality of communication devices 108, 110, 112 operated by users are configured to simultaneously upload electronic media to at least one of the plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats 102, 103, 107. In a typical embodiment, the plurality of communication devices 108, 110, 112 may be, for example, a personal computer (e.g., desktop or laptop), tablet computer, mobile device (e.g., personal digital assistant (PDA) or smart phone), and the like. In some embodiments, the plurality of communication devices 108, 110, 112 may function as an image repository where electronic media is stored. The at least one server or cloud-computing system 114 can be programmed to collect electronic media from the plurality of communication devices 108, 110, 112 and upload the electronic media to the plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats 102, 103, 107. In other embodiments, the image repository can be a network accessible image repository. The network accessible image repository may be a social media website such as, for example. Facebook®, Instagram®. Whatsapp®, and the like.
For purpose of this patent application, electronic media refers to a textual, graphical, audio, and/or a video file. An example of the electronic media is an electronic image or a video file. In some embodiments, the electronic media comprises static images. In other embodiments, the electronic media comprises dynamic images such as, for example, animated GIF. Flash animation, and the like.
In a typical embodiment, the display 208 may be any type of visual input/output configured to display one or more characters and/or receive input corresponding to one or more characters. In addition, the display 208 may be configured to display, for example, diagrams, images, words, characters, animations, and the like. The display 208 may further be configured to receive input corresponding to one or more diagrams, images, words, characters, and the like. In some embodiments, the display 208 may be, for example, a customizable color touch-screen display and may be configured to display respective representations of the keyboard (e.g., a virtual keyboard). In some embodiments, the display 208 may function as, for example, a user interface for receiving user inputs. For exemplary illustration, the programmable intelligent thermostat 102 as illustrated in
User input/output devices 244 are coupled to the processor 240. Examples of input/output devices 244 may include, for example, touchscreens, pointing trackballs, trackpads, and a variety of other input/output devices. Programs and data are stored on a mass storage device 246 coupled to the processor 240.
As an example and not by way of limitation, the mass storage device 246 may include a hard disk drive (HDD), a floppy disk drive, flash memory, an optical disc, a magneto-optical disc, magnetic tape, or a Universal Serial Bus (USB) drive or a combination of two or more of these. The mass storage device 246 may include removable or non-removable (or fixed) media, where appropriate. The mass storage device 246 may be internal or external to the programmable intelligent thermostat 102, where appropriate. In particular embodiments, the mass storage device 246 may be non-volatile, solid-state memory. In particular embodiments, the mass storage device 246 may include read-only memory (ROM). Where appropriate, this ROM may be mask-programmed ROM, programmable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), electrically alterable ROM (EAROM), or flash memory or a combination of two or more of these. The mass storage device 246 may take any suitable physical form and may comprise any suitable number or type of storage. The mass storage device 246 may include one or more storage control units facilitating communication between the processor 240 and the mass storage device 246, where appropriate.
The display 208 is coupled to the processor 240 by a controller 248. A system memory 250 is coupled to the processor 240 to provide the processor 240 with fast storage to facilitate execution by the processor 240. The system memory 250 may be any form of volatile or non-volatile memory including, without limitation, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, removable media, or any other suitable local or remote memory component or components. In particular embodiments, the system memory 250 may include random access memory (RAM). This RAM may be volatile memory, where appropriate. Where appropriate, this RAM may be dynamic RAM (DRAM) or static RAM (SRAM). Moreover, where appropriate, this RAM may be single-ported or multi-ported RAM, or any other suitable type of RAM or memory. The system memory 250 may store any suitable data or information, including software embedded in a computer readable medium, and/or encoded logic incorporated in hardware or otherwise stored (e.g., firmware). In particular embodiments, the system memory 250 may include main memory for storing instructions for the processor 240 to execute or data for the processor 240 to operate on.
The at least one sensor 210 is coupled to the processor 240 and provides information to the processor 240. The information may include data relative to, for example, room lighting determination, distance determination, facial detection, voice recognition, occupancy detection, and the like. The processing circuitry 209 also includes a communications interface 254. In a typical embodiment, the communications interface 254 may include hardware, encoded software, or both providing one or more interfaces for communication (such as, for example, packet-based communication) among any networks, any network devices, and/or any other computer systems. As an example and not by way of limitation, the communications interface 254 may include a network-interface controller (NIC) or network adapter for communicating with an Ethernet or other wire-based network and/or a wireless NIC (WNIC) or wireless adapter for communicating with a wireless network.
Depending on the embodiment, the communications interface 254 may be any type of interface suitable for any type of network for which the programmable intelligent thermostat 102 is used. As an example and not by way of limitation, the programmable intelligent thermostat 102 can include (or communicate with) an ad-hoc network, a personal area network (PAN), a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), or one or more portions of the Internet or a combination of two or more of these. One or more portions of one or more of these networks may be wired or wireless. As an example, the programmable intelligent thermostat 102 can include (or communicate with) a wireless PAN (WPAN) (such as, for example, a BLUETOOTH WPAN), a WI-FI network, a WI-MAX network, an LTE network, an LTE-A network, a cellular telephone network (such as, for example, a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network), or any other suitable wireless network or a combination of two or more of these. By way of further example, the communications interface 254 can utilize communication via various other types of wireless communication such as infrared (IR) communication, radio frequency (RF) communication, communication via direct electrical connections, etc. In general, the processing circuitry 209 may include any suitable communications interface 254 for any one or more of these networks, where appropriate.
In a typical embodiment, the processor 240 may be a microprocessor, controller, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and/or encoded logic operable to execute, either alone or in conjunction with other components, (e.g., the system memory 250). Such functionality may include providing various features discussed herein. In particular embodiments, the processor 240 may include hardware for executing instructions. As an example and not by way of limitation, to execute instructions, the processor 240 may retrieve (or fetch) instructions from an internal register, an internal cache, the system memory 250, or the mass storage device 246; decode and execute them; and then write one or more results to an internal register, an internal cache, the system memory 250, or the mass storage device 246.
Thermostat displays have the capability of displaying electronic images as a screen saver when no user activity is sensed for a certain period of time. Traditionally, in a home having a plurality of thermostats, a user is required to individually perform steps to upload electronic images to each one of the plurality of thermostats making the process cumbersome. However, traditional method and systems do not have the capability of simultaneously uploading electronic images to multiple thermostats. In a typical embodiment, the exemplary method and system is capable of simultaneously uploading electronic images to multiple thermostats such as, for example, the plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats 102, 103, and 107. In a typical embodiment, the exemplary methods and system can be facilitated utilizing mobile applications that can be installed on the plurality of communication devices 108, 110, 112. A mobile application includes a graphical user interface (GUI) on a display 109, 111, 113 of the plurality of communication devices 108, 110, 112. The mobile application can be programmed to perform various functions such as, for example, controlling operation of at least one of the plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats 102, 103, 107, uploading electronic images to at least one of the plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats 102, 103, 107, and the like.
In a typical embodiment, the electronic images that are uploaded from the at least one server or cloud-computing system 114 may be displayed on the display 208 as a background image (i.e. wallpaper image), an image on only part of the display 208, as a sequence of slide show images, a screensaver image, a scrolling text line image, and/or any other suitable image as desired. The electronic images may include still images, video images, text images, computer generated images, flash player images, or any other suitable image or image sequence, as desired. The electronic images may be in a JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, PNG, WMF, PCX, MPEG, SWF (Adobe Flash), SCR (Windows™ Screen Saver Format), or any other suitable format. The display 208 is configured to automatically convert the electronic images to screen resolution and appropriate display format.
When a user opens the exemplary mobile application on at least one of the plurality of communication devices 108, 110, 112, the user is shown various options for uploading electronic images as shown in
In some embodiments, the electronic images to be uploaded to at least one of the plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats 406, 408, 410, 412 are user selected. The user selected electronic images may be uploaded to the controller 248 from the at least one server or cloud-computing system 114, and the controller 248 may display the electronic images on the display 208. In other embodiments, the at least one server or cloud-computing system 114 is configured to upload electronic images from the user's social media accounts such as, for example, Facebook®. Instagram®, Whatsapp®, and the like. In particular, electronic images that have been tagged by the user to be uploaded to at least one of the plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats 406, 408, 410, 412 are uploaded to the controller 248 by the at least one server or cloud-computing system 114. In other embodiments, the user sends the electronic images via electronic mail (E-mail) with instructions to upload the electronic images to at least one of the plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats 406, 408, 410, 412. In other embodiments, the plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats 406, 408, 410, 412 include a universal serial bus interface (USB) for uploading the electronic images.
At step 510, the user performs a selection to upload electronic media to at least one programmable intelligent thermostat. In a typical embodiment, the user selection is performed via a GUI 400 that is displayed on a display of at least one of the plurality of communication devices 108, 110, 112. The GUI 400 displays previously registered home environments and the plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats within the previously registered home environments. For example, a plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats 406, 408 are positioned within a first home environment 402 and a plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats 410 and 412 are positioned within a second home environment 404. When a user swipes or taps on an region 414 outside of the first and second home environments 402, 404, the entire region 414 is highlighted to indicate that the electronic images will be simultaneously transmitted to all of the plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats 406, 408, 410, 412 simultaneously using a single swipe or tap. When a user swipes or taps on a region 415 inside of the first home environment 402 and outside of the plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats 406, 408, the entire first home environment 402 is highlighted to indicate that the electronic images will be transmitted simultaneously to all of the plurality of programmable intelligent thermostats 406, 408 within the first home environment 402 using a single swipe or tap. When a user swipes or taps on a programmable intelligent thermostats, only the selected programmable intelligent thermostat 412 is highlighted to indicate that the electronic images will only be transmitted to the selected programmable intelligent thermostat 412 using a single swipe or tap. At step 512, the electronic media is uploaded based upon the user selection. At step 514, the process 500 ends.
For purposes of this patent application, the term computer-readable storage medium encompasses one or more tangible computer-readable storage media possessing structures. As an example and not by way of limitation, a computer-readable storage medium may include a semiconductor-based or other integrated circuit (IC) (such as, for example, a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application-specific IC (ASIC)), a hard disk, an HDD, a hybrid hard drive (HHD), an optical disc, an optical disc drive (ODD), a magneto-optical disc, a magneto-optical drive, a floppy disk, a floppy disk drive (FDD), magnetic tape, a holographic storage medium, a solid-state drive (SSD), a RAM-drive, a SECURE DIGITAL card, a SECURE DIGITAL drive, a flash memory card, a flash memory drive, or any other suitable tangible computer-readable storage medium or a combination of two or more of these, where appropriate.
Particular embodiments may include one or more computer-readable storage media implementing any suitable storage. In particular embodiments, a computer-readable storage medium implements one or more portions of the processor 240, one or more portions of the system memory 250, one or more portions of the mass storage device 246, or a combination of these, where appropriate. In particular embodiments, a computer-readable storage medium implements RAM or ROM. In particular embodiments, a computer-readable storage medium implements volatile or persistent memory. In particular embodiments, one or more computer-readable storage media embody encoded software.
In this patent application, reference to encoded software may encompass one or more applications, bytecode, one or more computer programs, one or more executables, one or more instructions, logic, machine code, one or more scripts, or source code, and vice versa, where appropriate, that have been stored or encoded in a computer-readable storage medium. In particular embodiments, encoded software includes one or more application programming interfaces (APIs) stored or encoded in a computer-readable storage medium. Particular embodiments may use any suitable encoded software written or otherwise expressed in any suitable programming language or combination of programming languages stored or encoded in any suitable type or number of computer-readable storage media. In particular embodiments, encoded software may be expressed as source code or object code. In particular embodiments, encoded software is expressed in a higher-level programming language, such as, for example, C, Python, Java, or a suitable extension thereof. In particular embodiments, encoded software is expressed in a lower-level programming language, such as assembly language (or machine code). In particular embodiments, encoded software is expressed in JAVA. In particular embodiments, encoded software is expressed in Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML). JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), or other suitable markup language.
Depending on the embodiment, certain acts, events, or functions of any of the algorithms described herein can be performed in a different sequence, can be added, merged, or left out altogether (e.g., not all described acts or events are necessary for the practice of the algorithms). Moreover, in certain embodiments, acts or events can be performed concurrently, e.g., through multi-threaded processing, interrupt processing, or multiple processors or processor cores or on other parallel architectures, rather than sequentially. Although certain computer-implemented tasks are described as being performed by a particular entity, other embodiments are possible in which these tasks are performed by a different entity.
Conditional language used herein, such as, among others, “can,” “might,” “may,” “e.g.,” and the like, unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certain embodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certain features, elements and/or states. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features, elements and/or states are in any way required for one or more embodiments or that one or more embodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without author input or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or states are included or are to be performed in any particular embodiment.
While the above detailed description has shown, described, and pointed out novel features as applied to various embodiments, it will be understood that various omissions, substitutions, and changes in the form and details of the devices or algorithms illustrated can be made without departing from the spirit of the disclosure. As will be recognized, the processes described herein can be embodied within a form that does not provide all of the features and benefits set forth herein, as some features can be used or practiced separately from others. The scope of protection is defined by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.
