US 10,209,281 B2Granted

Monitoring power status

AssigneeGoogle Inc.

InventorMatt Dibb

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Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on storage devices, for detecting the power status of an electrical device. In one aspect, an apparatus includes a device that comprises a radio transmitter and a sensor configured to detect the power status of the device. The power status may include information that is indicative of whether the device is powered on or off. The apparatus may also include a processor and a data storage device storing a device identifier associated with the device, and instructions that are operable, when executed by a processor, to cause the processor to perform operations. The operations may include receiving data indicating the power status of the device detected by the sensor, receiving a request for the power status of the device, and transmitting, using the radio transmitter, the device identifier associated with the device and the power status associated with the device.

Claims17

Dependent claims

An appliance comprising:

an electrical plug housing, the electrical plug housing further comprising:
a radio transmitter;
a sensor configured to (i) detect the power status of the appliance, wherein the sensor is configured to detect an existence of an electrical current flowing through at least a portion of the appliance and, (ii) responsive to a detection of an existence of an electrical current flowing through at least a portion of the appliance, generate information that is indicative of whether the appliance is powered on or off;
one or more processors;
and
one or more data storage devices storing (i) an appliance identifier associated with the appliance, (ii) information describing a particular appliance classification type, wherein the particular appliance classification type indicates whether the appliance is either an appliance that should be left powered on or is an appliance that should be left powered off, and (iii) instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more processors, to cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
periodically obtaining, by the one or more processors and from the sensor, the information generated by the sensor that is indicative of whether the appliance is powered on or off;
receiving, using the radio transmitter, a request, that originates from a mobile application of a user device, for the power status of the appliance;
and
in response to receiving the request for the power status of the appliance that originates from the mobile application of the user device, transmitting, using the radio transmitter, (i) the appliance identifier associated with the appliance, (ii) the information describing the particular appliance classification type, and (iii) the power status associated with the appliance as indicated by at least a portion of the information that was generated by the sensor and obtained by the one or more processors.

7 more elements

A method comprising:

detecting the power status of an appliance using a sensor, wherein detecting the power status of the appliance includes, determining, by the sensor, whether an electrical current flowing through at least a portion of the appliance has been detected;
responsive to the detection of an electrical current flowing through at least a portion of the appliance, generating, by the sensor, information that is indicative of whether the appliance is powered on or off;
storing, on one or more storage devices, (i) an appliance identifier associated with the appliance, (ii) information describing a particular appliance classification type, wherein the particular appliance classification type indicates whether the appliance is either an appliance that should be left powered on or is an appliance that should be left powered off;
receiving, using a radio transmitter, a request, that originates from a mobile application of a user device, for the power status of the appliance;
in response to receiving the request for the power status of the appliance that originates from the mobile application of the user device, accessing, using one or more processors, the storage device to retrieve (i) the appliance identifier associated with the appliance, (ii) the information describing the particular appliance classification type, and (iii) the power status associated with the appliance as indicated by the information that was generated by the sensor and obtained by the one or more processors;
and
transmitting, using the radio transmitter, (i) the appliance identifier associated with the appliance, (ii) the information describing the particular appliance classification type, and (iii) the power status associated with the appliance as indicated by at least a portion of the information that was generated by the sensor and obtained by the one or more processors,
wherein the radio transmitter, the sensor, the one or more storage devices, and the one or more processors are each housed within an electrical plug of the appliance.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.