Method and system for interactive home monitoring
AssigneeAT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
InventorsJames W. Fan, Richard Kuo, Jennifer K. Lam
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and system for interactive home monitoring includes detecting a visitor arriving at a premises of a multimedia content distribution network (MCDN) client by an intercom unit installed at the premises. The intercom unit may be coupled to the MCDN client, which may be configured to wirelessly communicate with a user of the MCDN client. A captured image of the visitor may be used to determine if an identity of the visitor is known or unknown. Based on the identity, a communication channel between the visitor and the user may be established at the intercom unit. The intercom unit may further be configured to provide further information to the visitor based on the visitor identity.
Claims18
A home monitoring method, comprising:
- receiving encoded multimedia content corresponding to scheduled programming from an access network via a network adapter;
- decoding the multimedia content received from the access network to generate a decoded audio signal and a decoded video signal;
- receiving an image and audio of a visitor from an intercom unit via a wireless telemetry interface;
- determining, based on the image received and a collection of stored visitor profiles, a visitor status selected from:
- known or unknown;
- generating, based on the visitor status, a visitor prompt, wherein the visitor prompt indicates an identity of the visitor when the visitor status is known;
- responsive to determining that the visitor status is known, retrieving a visitor profile for the visitor;
- responsive to determining that the visitor status is unknown, adding, to the collection, a new visitor profile including the image and audio received and the visitor status;
- generating, based on the visitor profile, a visitor prompt appropriate for the visitor status, wherein the visitor prompt indicates an identity of the visitor when the visitor status is known;
- and
- establishing a communication connection between a network user and the visitor via the wireless telemetry interface.
A premises device, comprising:
- a processor;
- a network adapter;
- a wireless telemetry interface;
- and
- a computer readable memory, accessible to the processor, including processor executable instructions, which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
- receiving encoded multimedia content corresponding to scheduled programming from an access network via a network adapter;
- and
- decoding the multimedia content received from the access network to generate a decoded audio signal and a decoded video signal;
- detecting a visitor in proximity to a premises of a client based on an image and audio of the visitor received from an intercom unit via the wireless telemetry interface;
- receiving, from the intercom unit, an arrival indication initiated by the visitor;
- determining an identity of the visitor based on the image;
- and
- responsive to determining that the visitor status is known, retrieving a visitor profile for the visitor;
- responsive to determining that the visitor status is unknown, adding, to the collection, a new visitor profile including the image and audio received and the visitor status;
- generating, based on the visitor profile, a visitor prompt appropriate for the visitor status, wherein the visitor prompt indicates an identity of the visitor when the visitor status is known;
- establishing a communication connection between a network user and the visitor via the wireless telemetry interface.
A non-transitory computer readable medium, including processor executable instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations including:
- receiving encoded multimedia content corresponding to scheduled programming from an access network via a network adapter;
- and
- decoding the multimedia content received from the access network to generate a decoded audio signal and a decoded video signal;
- receiving, from an intercom unit, an image and audio of a visitor;
- determining, based on the image received and a collection of stored visitor profiles, a visitor status selected from:
- known or unknown;
- generating, based on the visitor status, a visitor prompt, wherein the visitor prompt indicates an identity of the visitor when the visitor status is known;
- responsive to determining that the visitor status is known, retrieving a visitor profile for the visitor;
- responsive to determining that the visitor status is unknown, adding, to the collection, a new visitor profile including the image and audio of the visitor and the visitor status;
- generating, based on the visitor profile, a visitor prompt appropriate for the visitor status, wherein the visitor prompt indicates an identity of the visitor when the visitor status is known;
- establishing a communication connection between a network user and the visitor via a wireless telemetry interface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.