Smart workstation method and system
AssigneeSteelcase Inc.
InventorsDarrin Sculley, Bo Anderson, Rachel Anne Neiman, Brandon Buckingham
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method establishing control of affordances at a workstation. The method includes the steps of storing affordance preferences in a database for a plurality of portable affordance settings that may be present at a workstation, detecting a subset of affordances present within a first zone associated with the workstation, for each detected affordance in the subset, identifying an affordance setting in the database indicating a user preference, and automatically controlling settings of at least each of the detected affordances in the subset to match the user preferences for the detected affordances.
Claims23
A workstation system including a plurality of affordances that are controllable via a portable computing device that runs a workstation control application, each affordance including at least one activator for controlling affordance settings, the workstation system comprising:
- a location detector for detecting the portable computing device within a first zone at a workstation;
- a transceiver establishing a communication link to the portable computing device when the portable computing device is located within the first zone;
- and
- at least a first display interface independent of the portable computing device that displays a user interface upon the link being established, the interface for controlling the workstation control application on the portable computing device.
The workstation of 1 wherein the portable computing device drives the first display interface to present the user interface.
A workstation system including a plurality of affordances that are controllable via a portable computing device that runs a workstation control application, each affordance including at least one activator for controlling affordance settings, the workstation system comprising:
- a location detector for detecting the portable computing device within a first zone at a workstation;
- a transceiver establishing a communication link to the portable computing device when the portable computing device is located within the first zone;
- and
- at least a first display interface located at the workstation and independent of the portable computing device;
- wherein, upon establishment of the communication link, the portable computing device controls the at least a first display to present a user interface for controlling the workstation control application on the portable computing device.
A workstation system comprising:
- an affordance subset including a plurality of affordances located within a workstation space wherein the affordance subset may include any combination of a multitude of different affordances and wherein the affordance subset may be different at different times, the affordance subset controllable via a portable computing device that runs a workstation control application, each affordance including at least one activator for controlling affordance settings,
- a location detector for detecting the portable computing device within a first zone at a workstation;
- a transceiver establishing a communication link to the portable computing device when the portable computing device is located within the first zone;
- at least a first display interface located at the workstation and independent of the portable computing device;
- a sensor for detecting and identifying the affordance subset at the workstation;
- and
- a memory device storing user preferences for affordances at the workstation;
- wherein, upon establishment of the communication link, the portable computing device controls the at least a first display to present a user interface for controlling the workstation control application on the portable computing device and identifies the affordance subset at the workstation and automatically controls the subset settings per the user preferences.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.