Apparatus and method for integration and setup of home automation
AssigneeQWEBL, Inc.
InventorsJeff M. Clark, Christopher P.L. MacGregor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A domotics system is disclosed for automatically discovering devices to add to or modify on a home automation system, configuring a home automation set top box and hardware devices/systems in the home, configuring the user interface of a control point to automatically and/or manually carry out a user's request/command to invoke the services of a device/system/subsystem, and preconfiguring the home automation system to invoke device and system services in response to an event specified by the user.
Claims25
A system for adding devices to a home automation system and creating a customized user interface for controlling the devices comprising:
- a device discovery module operable to search for and discover at least one device remote from the discovery module,
- wherein the discovery module is adapted to identify and store routing information for the discovered device;
- a configuration module operable to send a signal to a user device to notify a user about the presence of the discovered device, wherein the configuration module is operably coupled to the discovery module and remote from the user device, and
- in response to the notification signal, the configuration module is adapted to receive a user-description of the discovered device from the user device and store into a memory device a relation between the user-description and the routing information so that signals may be routed to the discovered device in response to a selection of the user-description;
- and
- wherein the configuration module is operable to generate a user interface for the user device that displays and receives selections for the user-description to control operations of the discovered device according to the relation.
A method for synchronizing and controlling devices in a home automation network comprising:
- an interface configuration module discovering one or more devices in a home automation network, wherein the module is remote from the one or more discovered devices;
- the interface configuration module presenting information representing the one or more discovered devices to a user device, wherein the module is remote from the user device;
- the interface configuration module receiving instructions from the user device assigning the one or more discovered devices into a group to synchronize their operations;
- the interface configuration module programming the user device to display a representation of the group of synchronized devices;
- and
- the interface configuration module programming the user device to send instructions controlling operations of the group of synchronized devices in response to a selection of the representation of the group of synchronized devices on the user device.
A method for setting up a home automation system comprising:
- an interface module electronically discovering a device in a home automation network, wherein the module is remote from the discovered device;
- the interface module identifying and storing information for controlling the discovered device into a memory device;
- the interface module sending data representing the discovered device to a user device and, in response, receiving a user's description of the discovered device from the user device, wherein the interface module is remote from the user device;
- and,
- the interface module storing the user's description of the discovered device into a memory device in relation to the information for controlling the discovered device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.