US 11,637,901 B2Granted

Electrical panel for identifying devices connected to a smart plug

AssigneeSense Labs, Inc.

InventorsGhinwa Fakhri Choueiter, Jonah Wyman Petri

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Abstract

An electrical panel or an electrical meter may provide improved functionality by interacting with a smart plug. A smart plug may provide a smart-plug power monitoring signal that includes information about power consumption of devices connected to the smart plug. The smart-plug power monitoring signal may be used in conjunction with power monitoring signals from the electrical mains of the building for providing information about the operation of devices in the building. For example, the power monitoring signals may be used to (i) determine the main of the house that provides power to the smart plug, (ii) identify devices receiving power from the smart plug, (iii) improve the accuracy of identifying device state changes, and (iv) train mathematical models for identifying devices and device state changes.

Claims20

Dependent claims

An electrical panel comprising:

a sensor for measuring an electrical property of a first electrical main, wherein the first electrical main provides power to one or more devices in a building;
a network interface;
and
at least one processor configured to:
establish a network connection with a smart plug, wherein the smart plug provides power to the one or more devices;
receive a smart-plug power monitoring signal via the network connection, wherein the smart-plug power monitoring signal indicates an amount of power provided by the smart plug to the one or more devices;
obtain a first-main power monitoring signal using measurements from the sensor;
identify a smart-plug power event in the smart-plug power monitoring signal, wherein the smart-plug power event corresponds to an event time;
determine that a first-main power event in the first-main power monitoring signal corresponds to the smart-plug power event using the event time;
determine that the first-main power event corresponds to a first device by processing the first-main power event with a plurality of power models;
and
determine that the first device is connected to the smart plug using the determination that the first-main power event corresponds to the first device.

9 more elements

A system for determining that a first device is connected to a smart plug, the system comprising:

an electrical panel comprising at least one processor and at least one memory, the electrical meter configured to:
establish a network connection with the smart plug, wherein the smart plug provides power to one or more devices;
receive a smart-plug power monitoring signal via the network connection, wherein the smart-plug power monitoring signal indicates an amount of power provided by the smart plug to the one or more devices;
obtain a first-main power monitoring signal using measurements from a sensor that measures an electrical property of a first electrical main of a building;
identify a smart-plug power event in the smart-plug power monitoring signal, wherein the smart-plug power event corresponds to an event time;
determine that a first-main power event in the first-main power monitoring signal corresponds to the smart-plug power event using the event time;
determine that the first-main power event corresponds to the first device by processing the first-main power event with a plurality of power models;
and
determine that the first device is connected to the smart plug using the determination that the first-main power event corresponds to the first device.

6 more elements

A computer-implemented method, implemented by an electrical meter, for determining that a first device is connected to a smart plug, the computer-implemented method comprising:

establishing a network connection with the smart plug, wherein the smart plug provides power to one or more devices;
receiving a smart-plug power monitoring signal via the network connection, wherein the smart-plug power monitoring signal indicates an amount of power provided by the smart plug to the one or more devices;
obtaining a first-main power monitoring signal using measurements from a sensor that measures an electrical property of a first electrical main of a building;
identifying a smart-plug power event in the smart-plug power monitoring signal, wherein the smart-plug power event corresponds to an event time;
determining that a first-main power event in the first-main power monitoring signal corresponds to the smart-plug power event using the event time;
determining that the first-main power event corresponds to the first device by processing the first-main power event with a plurality of power models;
and
determining that the first device is connected to the smart plug using the determination that the first-main power event corresponds to the first device.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 17/509,960Filed 25 Oct 2021 · continuation
Priority: 2 Oct 2018
Published: US 2022/0044156 A110 Feb 2022
Granted: 25 Apr 2023
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification35 codes

H04L 67/125
Specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or…:…
G01R 22/063
Details of electronic electricity meters: related to remote communication
G01R 22/10
By electronic methods: using digital techniques
G05B 19/042
Program control other than numerical control, i.e. in sequence controllers or logic controllers: using digital processors

Family

Application62/740,201Us provisional application · filed 2 Oct 2018
Application16/179,567Parent of this continuation · filed 2 Nov 2018
Application17/106,949Parent of this continuation · filed 30 Nov 2020
US 10,878,343 B2Parent of this continuation · filed 29 Dec 2020
US 2022/0044156 A1Pre-grant publication · published 10 Feb 2022
US 11,182,699 B2Parent of this continuation
US 2020/0107085 A1Published application
US 2021/0081845 A1Published application
US 11,637,901 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.