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US 8,914,159 B2Granted
Apparatus and method for controlling power
AssigneeSony Corporation
InventorsPhilip Marivoet, Yoeri Apts, Alfred Spiessens, Christopher Rutherford, Chris Minnoy, Hamish Guthrie
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of controlling power to a plurality of devices on an energy network, wherein each device has an identifier which uniquely identifies the device on the network, the method comprising: forming a group of devices from said plurality of devices; and controlling the power of other devices in said group in accordance with the state of the power supplied to a first device in said group.
Claims17
A method of controlling power to a plurality of devices, comprising:
- forming a group of devices from said plurality of devices, the group of devices being arranged in use to be in communication with an energy network and having an identifier which uniquely identifies the device on the network;
- assigning a first device in the group of devices as a master device, and other devices in the group of devices excluding the first device as slave devices;
- controlling the power supplied from the energy network to the other devices assigned as the slave devices in accordance with a state of the power supplied from the energy network to the first device assigned as the master device by sending control signals over the energy network by circuitry;
- sending a power off command or a standby mode command to the other devices assigned as the slave devices when the power supplied from the energy network to the first device is switched off;
- and
- changing an assignment as the master device from the first device to one of the other devices in the group at a predetermined time of a day, a month or a year.
3 more elements
A non-transitory computer readable medium including executable instructions, which when executed by a computer cause a computer to execute a method of controlling power to a plurality of devices, the method comprising:
- forming a group of devices from said plurality of devices, the group of devices being arranged in use to be in communication with an energy network and having an identifier which uniquely identifies the device on the network;
- assigning a first device in the group of devices as a master device, and other devices in the group of devices excluding the first device as slave devices;
- controlling the power supplied from the energy network to the other devices assigned as the slave devices in accordance with a state of the power supplied from the energy network to the first device assigned as the master device by sending control signals over the energy network;
- sending a power off command or a standby mode command to the other devices assigned as the slave devices when the power supplied from the energy network to the first device is switched off;
- and
- changing an assignment as the master device from the first device to one of the other devices in the group at a predetermined time of a day, a month or a year.
3 more elements
An apparatus for controlling power to a plurality of devices on an energy network, the apparatus comprising:
- circuitry configured to
- form a group of devices from said plurality of devices wherein each device has an identifier allocated thereto which uniquely identifies the device on the network;
- assign a first device in the group of devices as a master device, and other devices in the group of devices excluding the first device as slave devices;
- control the power supplied from the energy network to the other devices assigned as the slave devices in accordance with a state of the power supplied from the energy network to the first device assigned as the master device by sending control signals over the energy network;
- send a power off command or a standby mode command to the other devices assigned as the slave devices when the power supplied from the energy network to the first device is switched off;
- and
- change an assignment as the master device from the first device to one of the other devices in the group at a predetermined time of a day, a month or a year.
4 more elements
A system comprising:
- an apparatus for controlling power to a plurality of devices on an energy network, the apparatus comprising:
- circuitry configured to
- form a group of devices from said plurality of devices wherein each device has an identifier allocated thereto which uniquely identifies the device on the network;
- assign a first device in the group of devices as a master device, and other devices in the group of devices excluding the first device as slave devices;
- control the power supplied from the energy network to the other devices assigned as the slave devices in accordance with a state of the power supplied from the energy network to the first device assigned as the master device by sending control signals over the energy network;
- send a power off command or a standby mode command to the other devices assigned as the slave devices when the power supplied from the energy network to the first device is switched off;
- and
- change an assignment as the master device from the first device to one of the other devices in the group at a predetermined time of a day, a month or a year;
- and
- a plurality of devices coupled to the apparatus.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.