Method and system to automatically identify electrical devices
OwnerJonathan E. Horne, Jun Zhang +3inventors
InventorsJonathan E. Horne, Jun Zhang, Chunjie Duan, Pawel Osiczko, Georgiy Pekhteryev
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Abstract
Systems and methods provide for the transmission of identification information from an electronic device through its power cable. The device can be outfitted with a power cable that has an electronically encoded identifier that it can transmit. A power-strip can includes a separate receiver for each available outlet that can read the power-cable's electronic identifier when it is plugged in. Optionally, the identification information and the location of the power cable can be transmitted to a server or other device.
Claims12
A system for identifying a power consuming device comprising:
- a power plug having at least two prongs for receiving electrical power from an outlet, the power plug including an optical transmitter and a processor, the processor being configured to cause the optical transmitter to transmit an identification code for the power plug;
- and
- a power receptacle having at least two sockets corresponding to the at least two prongs for delivering electrical power to the power plug, the power receptacle including an optical receiver, wherein the optical receiver is located so that when the prongs are engaged with the sockets, the optical receiver may receive transmissions from the optical transmitter;
- wherein when the prongs are electrically connected to the sockets, power is supplied to the processor and optical transmitter and the optical transmitter transmits the identification code to the optical receiver.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.