Smart remote control system

A smart remote control system, comprising:

• a plurality of gateway devices, each of which is configured to be coupled to at least one appliance;
• and
• a central management device which is configured to communicate with said gateway devices, and to store plural pieces of account data and plural pieces of administrator authority data that have been linked to at least some of the pieces of account data, and that are respectively associated with said gateway devices, each of the pieces of administrator authority data specifying authority given to an account associated with a linked one of the pieces of account data regarding access to the at least one appliance coupled to the respective one of said gateway devices, said central management device including a processor to execute:
• an authority management module configured to be accessible by an electronic device after a registered account corresponding to one of the pieces of account data that is linked to one of the pieces of administrator authority data has logged in to said central management device via the electronic device, said authority management module including
• a user addition unit configured to be operable to select another one of the pieces of account data when the registered account is logged in to said central management device;
• an authority creation unit configured to, in response to selection of said another one of the pieces of account data, create for said another one of the pieces of account data a piece of user authority data that specifies authority, which is given to another registered account associated with said another one of the pieces of account data regarding access to the at least one appliance coupled to one of said gateway devices that is associated with said one of the pieces of account data and which is different from the authority specified by the pieces of administrator authority data, and generate a bar code to be provided to the electronic device for display thereby;
• and
• an authority linking unit configured to, when being accessed by another electronic device after said another electronic device scans the bar code and said another registered account corresponding to said another one of the pieces of account data has logged in to said central management device via said another electronic device, link the piece of user authority data with said another one of the pieces of account data, and
• an account management module configured to send said another one of the pieces of account data and the piece of user authority data to said one of said gateway devices for storage therein;
• wherein each of said gateway devices includes a gateway processor to execute:
• a gateway database configured to store said one of the pieces of account data that is associated with said gateway device, and one of the piece of user authority data and the pieces of administrator authority data that has been linked to said one of the pieces of account data that is associated with said gateway device;
• and
• an appliance control module configured to,
• when a registered account corresponding to said one of the pieces of account data that is associated with said gateway device has logged in to said gateway device via an electronic device, control a degree of access to the at least one appliance coupled to said gateway device the electronic device is allowed according to said one of the piece of user authority data and the pieces of administrator authority data, and
• forward an operation state message received from the at least one appliance to said central management device,
• wherein said central management device further includes:
• a central database configured to store the pieces of account data, the pieces of administrator authority data and the piece of user authority data;
• and
• said processor to execute a gateway addition module including
• a gateway linking unit,
• wherein said gateway linking unit is configured to, when activated, create, for said one of the pieces of account data that the registered account having logged in to said central management device corresponds to, a piece of administrator authority data that corresponds to said another gateway device, and link the piece of administrator authority data thus created with said one of the pieces of account data that the registered account having logged in to said central management device corresponds to and the piece of gateway identity data of said another gateway device,
• wherein said account management module of said central management device includes:
• a synchronization unit for execution by said processor, said synchronization unit configured to,
• after said gateway linking unit links the piece of administrator authority data thus created with said one of the pieces of account data that the registered account having logged in to said central management device corresponds to and the piece of gateway identity data of said another gateway device, store the piece of administrator authority data thus created in said central database of said central management device and send the piece of administrator authority data thus created to said another gateway device for storage in said gateway database of said another gateway device, and
• after said authority linking unit links the piece of user authority data with said another one of the pieces of account data, store the piece of user authority data in said central database of said central management device and send the piece of user authority data to said one of said gateway devices for storage in said gateway database of said one of said gateway devices,
• wherein said appliance control module of each of said gateway devices is further configured to,
• when a registered account corresponding to said one of the pieces of account data stored in said gateway database of said gateway device has logged in to said gateway device via an electronic device, attempt to retrieve, from said gateway database, one of the piece of user authority data and the pieces of administrator authority data that is linked with said one of the pieces of account data the registered account corresponds to,
• when it is determined that said one of the piece of user authority data and the pieces of administrator authority data that is linked with said one of the pieces of account data the registered account corresponds to is not retrievable from said gateway database, enable an update module to communicate with said synchronization unit of said central management device, and to request said synchronization unit to attempt to synchronize data related to authority between said gateway database and said central database according to one of the piece of user authority data and the pieces of administrator authority data that is stored in said central database, that is linked to said one of the pieces of account data the registered account corresponds to and that is associated with said gateway device, and subsequently attempt to retrieve said one of the piece of user authority data and the pieces of administrator authority data from said gateway database, and
• wherein said appliance control module is further configured to, when the subsequent attempt to retrieve said one of the piece of user authority data and the pieces of administrator authority data from said gateway database fails, activate a login module to force the registered account to log out from said gateway device, and delete said one of the pieces of account data the registered account corresponds to from said gateway database.