ACTIVE IP CONTROL DEVICE
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of home automation. More
particularly, the present invention relates to a switching device for a home
appliance which is adapted to receive a precondition for operating the appliance connected to it wherein said precondition includes at least one
variable, wherein the values of said at least one precondition variable is
extracted from an Internet site.
Background of the Invention
The automation of home appliances has become wide spread in the recent
years. Various systems have been developed for enabling a user to remotely control appliances in a home, office, factory, etc. These systems
enable the user to control specific appliances while being physically
located within the home (by means of a remote control), or remotely by means of using conventional communication systems, such as the
telephone network, the Internet, the TV cables system, a computer network, etc. Hereinafter, the term "home" refers to any closed structure
in which one or more appliances are located, such as a residence home, office, factory, etc. Therefore, it should be noted that the term "appliance"
is not limited to any specific appliance type, and can relate essentially to any apparatus that is fed from an electrical source. Some of prior art home automation systems comprise a central unit which
is connected, on one hand, to said one or more conventional
communication systems (such as the Internet or the telephony network),
and, on the other hand, to the various controlled appliances within the
home. The user is provided with means for conventionally communicating
with said central unit, through which he can convey operational
commands to any selected appliance, or he can access the appliance in
order to determine its current status. In some prior art cases, the central
unit is designed to periodically, or upon event occurrence, communicate to
the user via said conventional communication systems, and transfer to
him a status message informing the present status of one or more of the
appliances connected to it. Some of said prior art central units are
connected to the various appliances via wires or over power lines, for
example, via XlO standard, others are connected in a wireless manner, for
example, via Bluetooth or Zigbee technology, and some others are adapted
for a mixed connection.
Another product for controlling a home appliance in a simple manner is
commonly known in the art as the "Power Switch", or in its commercial
name the "International Power Switch" device (hereinafter, the "Power
Switch Device", or briefly "the power switch"), and is disclosed, for
example, in WO 2005/043,362. The power switch device is essentially
connected in series with the electricity cable feeding the appliance, and contains a serial relay switch. The power switch device, which generally comprises a processing unit and is also connected to a computer network,
has a unique IP (Internet Protocol) address, enabling the user to remotely access the device directly via the Internet or via a local computer network,
and monitor or control said relay switch. In such a manner, the user can
remotely access the device and cause the relay switch to connect or
disconnect the main electricity feeding the appliance, or alternatively he can determine the status of the switch (which in turn indicates to the user
whether the appliance is operative or not). In some cases, the power switch device of the prior art is adapted to initiate communication with the user
periodically or upon event for informing him the status of the relay switch (and therefore also the status of the appliance). Some of such prior art
power switches enable control of a plurality of appliances, by including in
the power switch a plurality of IP addresses and relay switches, one for
each appliance. WO 2005/043,362 also suggests also communication
between one power switch and another. Furthermore, some of said power switches enable the user to define some preconditions, that when met,
activate or deactivate the device. Such preconditions may include, for
example, a time, or temperature. In the former case, the power switch
includes a clock. In the latter case, the power switch includes, or receives indications from a temperature sensor. A similar device is also disclosed in "ePowerSwitch Tools for Perl", http://www.fourmilab.ch/webtools/ePowerSwitch/, John Walker, November
2003. This device comprises a multiplicity of ports enabling a user to
locally or remotely control appliances connected to it. This device enables
remote controlling of the appliances via the Internet, using a TCP/IP
protocol.
Said prior art devices introduce several drawbacks. A first drawback evolves from cases in which the user cannot provide the complete
information for conditions for operation, as said conditions depend on
variables, the value of which are not available to him at the time of definition, for example, the weather information on the next day or the
traffic condition on the following morning. Although, when the time
progresses, the situation may change to the extent that the variable
values become available and the condition can be finally defined, but in that case, the user himself has to periodically monitor the variable values
availability, and to remotely access the device for making up the new
definition. The present invention suggests providing a device that operates
based on dynamically changed online information that might be present or
available at unknown time. The said functionality is achieved by providing
the device accessing and searching capabilities to Internet sites such as
web servers, databases, mail servers etc., which are sometimes maintained and updated by a third party, in order to find the value and
self-update the condition for operation.
Hereinafter, the term "Internet site" refers to any type of server or device
holding various types of information and accessible by related Internet
protocol.
The term "condition" or "precondition" referred to herein, relates to one or
more equations, which comprise one or more variables. When values are substituted for each variable in the equations, and when the results of the equations are found to meet a condition represented by said one or more
equations, a specific operation, as also defined, is performed. As will become clearer hereinafter, according to the present invention, the value
of one or more of the condition variables is extracted from a content of an Internet site, or more specifically from a sentence or pattern that is
extracted from said Internet site.
A second drawback of the power switch or the home automation central unit of the prior art lies in the fact that their condition for operation can
depend only on inputs values from physical sensors that are either wired or wirelessly connected to them. The present invention provides the ability
to obtain input values from "virtual sensors", by actively accessing one or more Internet sites, and retrieving the values from them. The term "virtual sensors values" refers to any type of information value that can be retrieved from any Internet site, anywhere in the world.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an appliance
active control device which is capable of communicating directly to the
Internet.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide to the active
control device of the invention the capability of periodically, or every defined time, or by command, initiating access to Internet sites, for acquiring one or more of precondition variable values.
It is still an additional object of the present invention to provide an active
control device which is capable of monitoring the status of said one or
more variable values, acquiring the values of the same, calculating the result of said precondition by substituting said values, and when the precondition is found to be met, carrying any predefined operation of the
appliance.
It is still an object of the present invention to provide said Internet
connection from the device in a wireless manner, by using a wireless Internet infrastructure, thereby eliminating the need for cumbersome
wirings. It is still an object of the present invention to provide said novel
characteristics of the power control device, in addition to those
characteristics of the power switching device already known from the prior art.
It is still another object of the present invention to significantly expand the reservoir of variables that can be included within the precondition for
operation of the active control device.
It is still an additional object of the invention to enable the option of fully
embedding the active control device within the casing of various
appliances.
It is still another object of the present invention to enable applying the features of the control device of the invention to various appliances which
are normally controlled an IR based remote control.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the
description proceeds. Summary of the Invention
The present invention relates to an active control device for an appliance which comprises: (a) a condition module for containing a predefined
condition and a corresponding command for the operation of said
appliance, said predefined condition includes at least one variable, the value of which can be found at a predefined Internet site; (b) Internet searching program and Internet interface for periodically, or every defined event, or by command accessing said predefined Internet site, extracting
the value of said at least one variable, and providing the same to a logic
unit; (c) a logic unit for receiving said variable value, verifying whether
said condition is met, and in the affirmative case, issuing and conveying said corresponding appliance command.
Preferably, the active control device is embedded within the controlled
appliance, and said appliance command is conveyed to a controller of the
appliance.
Preferably, the active control device is a stand alone device, and the
appliance command is in a form of an IR signal, which is transmitted to
the appliance. Preferably, the active control device is a stand alone device, and the
appliance command controls a switch of the appliance, or a switch which
controls the main supply to the appliance.
Preferably, the switch is contained within the active control device casing.
Preferably, the the switch is contained within the appliance casing.
Preferably, the active control device is contained within a home
automation central unit.
Preferably, the active control device comprises a clock for enabling
determination of the rate or times of the Internet accessing.
Preferably, said clock is also used in providing values for date/time dependent variables of said predefined condition.
Preferably, the active control device further comprises a user interface for
enabling a user to provide said condition and predefined command, to
control the device or to receive a report regarding the status of the device
or appliance. Preferably, the user interface is used for enabling the user to access the
device via the Internet.
Preferably, the active control device further comprises a port enabling the
user to communicate with the user interface by means of another
apparatus thereby to locally access the active control device.
Preferably, the active control device further comprises one or more
sensors, the measurements of which being treated as variable values of
the predefined condition.
Preferably, the Internet interface is a wireless Internet interface,
accessing the Internet via a wireless Internet infrastructure.
Preferably, the switch is a normally closed switch.
Preferably, the switch is a normally open-ed switch.
Preferably, the active control device further communicates a data signal to
another active control device.
Preferably, said data is a value of a variable which a part of the condition
of the said another active device. Preferably, said data signal is a command to said another device.
Preferably, the active control device further receives or acquires the status
of the controlled appliance.
Preferably, the active control device further acquires the status of the
controlled switch.
Preferably, the active control device further initiates communication of status reports of the device and/or appliance to the user over conventional
communication channels.
Preferably, an event is a specific predefined time.
Brief Description of the Drawings
In the drawings:
Fig. 1 illustrates the general structure of a power switching device according to the prior art;
Fig. 2 illustrates the general structure of a control device according
to the present invention;
Fig. 3 generally illustrates the inputs/outputs of the device; and - Figs. 4a to 4g show several typical embodiments of the device of the present invention.
Detailed Description of Preferred Embodiments
The present invention relates to an active IP control device, which will
also be referred to hereinafter briefly as "the control device" or the "active
control device". For the sake of brevity, the disclosure herein will mainly concentrate on the novel characteristics of the control device of the invention, and will ignore at least some characteristics of switching
devices, such as the "International Power Switch", or the ePowerSwitch, that are known from the prior art, some of which were discussed above. It should be apparent that embodiments of the active control device of the
invention may, or may not include all the characteristics known from the
prior art, in addition to said novel characteristics of the invention.
Fig. 1 shows power switching device 1 according to the prior art. The device comprises a switch 2, such as a relay which is located in series with
the main supply 6-6' feeding the appliance 3. The user can access the
device via the communication network 4, which may be, for example, an
Internet interface, or a communication interface for communicating with another computer, or with another similar power switching device (not
shown). Switch 2 may be defined by the user to be a normally closed or a normally opened switch. Upon accessing the device by means of the communication network 4 the user can define a condition for the operation of the device, can convey commands to the device, such as to "close", "open", or "toggle" switch 2, or he can inquire the status of switch 2. The condition which is defined by the user may depend in this prior art device
on one or more sensors 5. The sensors may include, for example,
temperature sensors, current sensors, etc.
Generally, for enabling communication with the device via a computer
network or the Internet, the device receives a unique IP address. The user
communicates with the device 1 by addressing said unique IP address. As said, the prior art teaches also the option of several switching devices that
are located within one casing, each possessing its unique IP address.
Fig. 2 illustrates the structure of an active control device 101 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The active device 101 controls
the state of switch 102, or it can output a suitable operation command 123
to an appliance (the appliance is not shown). More particularly, the device
changes the state of switch 102, or it issues a suitable command, provided
that a predefined condition 105 is met. The condition and also a
corresponding command is fed into the condition module 105 of the device
by the user by means of User Interface (UI) 104, either locally (via port 157) by means of PC (or similar) 120, or remotely via the Internet and channel 131 (a-c). As will be further elaborated hereinafter, the user can use the UI 120 also for other purposes, for example for determining the
status of the device, for setting up the device, etc. either by means of PC 120 or via the Internet. The controlled switch 102 may be, for example, a
relay switch, and this switch may control electricity supply to an electrical
apparatus, or an electricity line within an apparatus. For example, switch
102 may control the voltage supply to a motor, it may be an ON/OFF controlled switch of HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning)
apparatus, or it may be a switch controlling a state of a dimmer, etc. The command 123 can be, for example, a command for turning ON the TV in
Channel 33, a command for turning ON the microwave oven, etc.
However, in significant difference from the prior art power switch devices (such as those disclosed in WO 2005/043,362), the predefined condition
105 according to the present invention includes at least one address 112 of
an Internet site, and at least one variable, whose value can be determined from within the content of said Internet site. The device 101 further
comprises a searching program 103, which can access the said one or more Internet sites using said at least one address 112, in order to determine
from its content, the value of said one or more variables forming said
condition 105. Said searching program is activated periodically using clock
109, or every defined time, or by a user command via UI 104, and when
activated, said searching program accesses said one or more Internet sites,
extracts there from a content (for example, a string of characters, numeric values, alphanumeric values, or full one or more HTML pages, etc.). Logic unit 111 receives both, the condition as defined, and the acquired content, and it performs analysis in order to determine whether the predefined condition is mdt or not. If it is determined by logic unit 111 that the
condition is not met, the logic unit does not output any signal. If, however,
it is found by the logic unit 111 that the condition is met, the logic unit
issues a control signal 123 that either changes the state of switch 102 (i.e., it performs closure or opening of switch 102 — see for example Figs. 4a-4e),
or it issues a suitable appliance command, as pre-defined, that is provided
to an appliance controller (said appliance controller is an electric circuit
within the appliance which, for example, in case of an air conditioner, is
capable of setting the temperature to 23°, or in case of a TV, is capable of switching it to channel 25 — see for example Fig. 4f). In still another
embodiment of the invention, the control signal 123 is an IR signal, which
is transmitted to the IE. sensor of the appliance, which is normally used by
the appliance conventional remote control to control the appliance. The form of the IR signal 123 in that case is identical to a selected one of the
conventional IR remote control signals for controlling the appliance (see
for example Fig. 4g).
Clock 109 may also be used for date/time dependent conditions that may
affect condition 105. As said, signal 123 changes the state of the controlled
appliance. Alternatively, the change of the state of switch 102, which for example, may be positioned in series with the voltage line 110-110' leading electricity to an appliance, or may a part of the appliance, causes a
corresponding change to the status or to the operation of the controlled
appliance. The device of the present invention includes an Internet
interface 107, which most preferably is a wireless type Internet interface,
and it connects to the Internet via said wireless interface 107. Of course,
the communication with the Internet is performed via a router, wireless
access point, or similar device (not shown). Preferably, the user is also
capable to inquire the status 128 of switch 102 (signal 128a) or of the
controlled appliance (signal 128b), whenever necessary, by using UI 104,
either via PG 120, or via the Internet. Furthermore, the user may set up
the device 101 to send a report to the user regarding the status of the
controlled appliance or switch 102, either periodically or when an event
occurs (such as when finding that the condition 105 is met).
The active control device 101 of the present invention is therefore
preferably embodied in three main forms as follows: (a) it may be a stand
alone device that controls a switch (such as in a form of a relay), whether
external to the device or internal, wherein the switch may, for example
control the main supply to an appliance; (b) it may be fully embedded
within the controlled appliance (and in that case, the commands that are
sent by the device to the appliance are compatible, as they both are
embedded by a same manufacturer); or (c) it may be a stand alone device
that controls an appliance by means of sending to it an IR signal, in a manner similar to the way by which a conventional IR remote control
controls the appliance. In this latter case, the active control device 101
may be "taught" to include the specific commands of the specific appliance
in a manner by which teaching of a universal remote control is made.
As mentioned, in one embodiment of the present invention, the control
device 101 is a stand alone device. Fig. 3 generally illustrates an
exemplary physical I/O structure of a stand alone active control device 101
which comprises: (a) one or more buttons 137 to change the status of the
device or to perform other actions on the device; (b) one or more sensors
133 such as temperature sensors, current sensors, movement sensors, etc.;
(c) antenna 120 for connecting to the wireless Internet infrastructure; (d)
one or more interface ports 157 such as RJ45, USB, etc. for setting up the
device and providing the condition to the condition module 105; (e) one or
more displays 139 such as LEDs, liquid crystal displays etc. for displaying
device status and other device variables; (f) Output signal 123 to the
controlled appliance and input appliance status signal 128b; and (g)
voltage line 110-110'.
As said, the active control device 101 of the present invention preferably
comprises a wireless Internet interface 107, which communicates with the
Internet via a wireless infrastructure (not shown) such as WiFi, WiMAX,
2.5G, 3G, etc. Such type of communication is well known, and widely used, and therefore will not be discussed herein in detail. The use of wireless
Internet communication eliminates the need for any physical network
wires and the need for a central unit to allow Internet control, and
therefore the device can be easily positioned almost anywhere within the
premises. Moreover, a plurality of active control devices, each having its
unique IP address, can be included in one casing, or alternatively one
active control device having a single IP address may be designed to control
several appliances.
According to the present invention, the user can also initiate access to the
active control device 101 via the Internet or by means of an external unit
120 in order to communicate with it. Said communication may include:
inquiring or setting the status of switch 102 or of the controlled appliance
(the appliance is not shown), providing the precondition to the condition
module 105, and setting up the device. Such external unit may be a PC, a
PDA, cellular phone, interactive TV, etc. The active device may therefore
support the following protocols: TCP/IP, SNMP, DHCP, PPP, HTTP,
HTTPS, POP3, SMTP, IMAP, TFTP, FTP, DNS, Telnet, SSH etc. In still
another option, the device 101 may initiate sending status reports to the
user in any conventional manner, such as email, SMS, etc.
Several embodiments of the stand alone control device of the present
invention, in that case the one which controls the status of switch 102, are shown in Figs. 4a to 4e. Fig. 4a shows a plug-in module embedded with an active control device 101 (not shown), having a connector 126 at the wall side for attachment to the main socket (not shown), and a socket 125 at
the front side for receiving the main feeding connector of an appliance (not
shown). The antenna 120 for communicating with the wireless Internet
infrastructure is also shown. It should be noted that the device may merely communicate with the Internet via a wireless infrastructure. The device preferably also includes a small on/off button 137, and LEDs 139
indicating the state of the active device. Fig. 4b shows a device 162
embedded with an active control device 101 (not shown) for connecting in series with a main power line. Figs. 4c and 4d show a wall electric socket
132 and a light switch 142 embedded with a built in active control device 101, only the antenna 120, state button 137, optional input/output USB
port 157, and LEDs 139 are shown. Fig. 4e shows a DIN rail 134
embedded with an active control device 101 (not shown). Fig. 4f
schematically and generally illustrates the structure of an appliance 200 in which the device of the present invention is embedded. The device
provides the command 123 to the appliance controller 201, and receives the appliance status, whenever necessary, via line 128b. Fig. 4g shows an
example for a control device, which controls an appliance via an IE, command. The device 101 comprises, as before, wireless internet antenna
120, interface port 157, a state button 137, state LED 139. The device further comprises an IR LED 167, which transmits a signal 123 in a form of IR to an appliance. As said, this signal is sent to the appliance in a same
format as a conventional remote control sends commands to the appliance.
It should be noted that not all the components of the device of Fig. 2 are
necessarily contained within a same casing. As also mentioned, there may
be some embodiments in which the electronics above the dotted line 124
(Fig. 2) are contained in one casing, and the switch 102 below line 124 is contained in another casing, preferably within the casing of the controlled
appliance. In that case, switch 102 may even be a part of the appliance
itself. Furthermore, there may be cases in which the device of the present
invention is embedded within a central control box of an automated home,
in a manner in which the device can control several appliances. In all said cases, as said, the device is fed with a preset condition and an Internet search engine is used for checking whether the condition is met.
The active control device 101 may also have the option of communicating a data signal to another similar IP control device 101. Said another device
may be local, or located remote from the device. Therefore, the communication to said other device 101 may be conducted by means of the
internet interface 107, or by means of short range communication such as
ZigBee, Z-Wave, XlO, etc (not shown in Fig. 2). The data which is communicated by a first control device 101 to a second control device 101 may be a value of a variable as determined by the first device, a status of the appliance controlled by said first device, or a command to said second
device (in said latter case the second device becomes in some sense a
controlled appliance of the first device).
In still another option, in order to enable easy access to IP addresses of
active control devices and to the IP address of the data sites in the
network, a DNS server may be used to keep addresses of control devices. Whenever necessary, the user may first contact that server to receive the address of a device or data site he needs, and he may use this information
to access the device directly (provided that the user has a proper security
credentials). In still another option, the server may also serve as a proxy
server or forward server, which maintains addresses of plurality of control
devices, receives communication from one device, and forwards the communication to another device whose IP address is unknown to the
sending device.
The present invention also relates to a method for operating a home appliance, which comprises the steps of:
a. Defining a condition for performing an action of an appliance,
wherein at least one variable value of this condition is located within a specific Internet site; b. Storing said condition at the location of the appliance; c. Providing an Internet accessing program at the location of the
appliance, said program being capable of accessing said specific Internet site and extracting the value of said one or more variables;
d. Periodically, or every defined event (which may be a specific time), or by command, activating said program to extract the values of
said one or more variables from said Internet site; and e. Each time said values are extracted, verifying whether the
condition is met, and in the affirmative case, performing said
defined action of the appliance.
Hereinafter, some of the operations and advantages of the device of the
present invention will be demonstrated by way of example, In the
following examples, it is shown how the active control device of the invention changes the status of a corresponding appliance. It should be
obvious that at a suitable time thereafter, the active control device may
return the appliance to its previous state, or to still another state.
EXAMPLE 1
In this example there exist two active control devices. Device 1 is located within a light switch in an office and device 2 is within a home automation
central unit which controls, among other appliances, the air conditioning
appliance at home. For optimizing comfort at home while saving energy, a user defines an event at device 1 that when the lights at the office is switched off (device 1 is defined to sense this event), device 2 is activated to begin tracking of the user location by contacting a tracking server which
maintains locations of subscribers (using their mobile phone or GPS). The distance from home is determined, and when the user is at a distance
which is less than e.g., 5km, device2 activates the air conditioning at home. In this case, the variable as defined in device 2 is the distance from home of the user (who is a subscriber of server of said tracking server),
and when the distance is less 5Km, device2 activates the ON-OFF switch
of the air conditioning appliance.
EXAMPLE 2
The device is embedded within an automatic watering apparatus of a
garden, and is defined to periodically query, at a forecast Internet data
site, whether rain is expected, for example, within the next 24 hours. If rain is not expected, the watering device operates normally. If, however, it is found that rain is expected shortly, the watering product is turned off to prevent the expected unnecessary watering.
EXAMPLE 3
The active control device is within a plug module. A domestic water
heating appliance is serially connected to the plug. The plug is set to
minimize energy consumption by doing the following: (a) since the user needs less water on work days, the heater will work for 3 hours on work
days, no matter the weather is. This is done by tracking of an online calendar to determine holidays and possibly also vacation days of the user,
(b) if it is determined that the present day is a holiday or a vacation day, the active control device checks the weather forecast at an Internet site for
the next day. The control device activates the water heating appliance for
5 hours in normal weather and 9 hours when cold weather is expected, (c) in order for the clock to be adjusted, time will be sampled and
synchronized from an Internet site. In this way, even after a blackout or no electricity, the clock remains always accurate.
EXAMPLE 4
The active control device is mounted within a plug module. The active
control device is serially connected to a wake-up product, and is defined to periodically check within a specific data site for the traffic in A20 highway.
The definition includes a set of two alerts; an earlier time for wake-up if the traffic is found to be "heavy", and a later wake-up time if the traffic is found to be "light" (or "normal"). The wake up product initiates sound accordingly.
EXAMPLE 5
The device is serially connected to a radio set, and is defined to search for the pattern "breaking news" in a news Internet site such as a RSS news feed. When such a pattern is determined at the site, the device turns on
the radio set.
EXAMPLE 6
The device is embedded within a HVAC product, and a condition is defined to turn the HVAC product ON at a specific time offset relative to the
landing time of a specific flight. The URL (address) of the airport site is
also defined. The device periodically accesses the airport site and extracts the time of landing of that flight. When the time of landing is determined
as "final", the HVAC product is turned ON at the appropriate time offset
such that the property owner can enjoy a convenient environment at his
place.
EXAMPLE 7
In this embodiment of the invention, the active control device is embedded
within a TV remote controller module. According to this example, when the device detects breaking news in a predefined data site, the device
sends an IR signal to the TV to display the news channel.
While some embodiments of the invention have been described by way of
illustration, it will be apparent that the invention can be put into practice
with many modifications, variations and adaptations, and with the use of
numerous equivalents or alternative solutions that are within the scope of persons skilled in the art, without departing from the spirit of the
invention or exceeding the scope of the claims.