Automated heat radiator controlled by human presence sensor

Abstract

Controlling a smart thermostatic radiator valve 1 (TRV). The TRV and a smart human sensor 2 are connected wirelessly to a remote terminal whereby they may send and receive signals with a cloud resource 10. The sensor determines an occupancy state of an environment in which the TRV and sensor are situated, triggering a push notification on the remote terminal to issue a command to turn on or off the radiator according to settings on a mobile app 6 associated with the smart human sensor. This triggers a webhook message to the cloud resources to turn on or off the TRV based on the notification on the remote terminal; decoding the webhook message on the cloud resources; checking on additional requirements to be fulfilled on the cloud resources; and generating a command to turn on or off the target TRV from the cloud resources based on which particular TRV is affected. A smart temperature sensor 3 may also be used to affect the TRV. A computer implemented method and computer program are also claimed.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD In a first aspect, the present disclosure is directed at a method for controlling a smart thermostatic radiator valve using external smart human presence sensor and external smart temperature sensor, comprising the features of the preamble to claim 1 and 2. In another aspect, the present disclosure is directed at a computer implemented method on a remote terminal, comprising the features of the preamble to claim 5 and 6, for enabling the automation. BACKGROUND Plumbed or water-based heat radiators are widely used for providing central space heating in residential house or commercial buildings. Typically, a heating boiler heats a liquid such as water which is then circulated through a heat radiator to heat up a particular area inside the house or building. However, the existing traditional thermostatic radiator valve associated with the heat radiators will only be controlled manually by hands, users at home need to turn off a particular heat radiator inside a room manually if they don’t want to waste energy and money heating an unoccupied area, this always leads to inefficient energy usage and causing both waste of energy and money. With the development of wireless network technologies and Internet of Things (loT) devices, although the traditional thermostatic radiator valve can be replaced by a smart thermostatic radiator valve with Internet connectivity such that the radiator valve can be turned on or off using mobile device more conveniently, the operation of the radiator will still depend on the user having certain interaction with the mobile device or some kinds of predefined schedule, but not on the necessity or the actual needs based on the real situation. In order to increase the efficiency of heat energy consumption and avoid wasting energy, the present invention proposes to automate the operation of the smart thermostatic radiator valve by interconnecting other smart sensors through advanced loT technologies so that the smart thermostatic radiator valve can be turned on to provide space heating when necessary but will be turned off when no longer required based on the real time environmental conditions, through automation without any human intervention. OBJECT OF THE INVENTION An object of the present disclosure is to provide a remote terminal, and a method for controlling a smart thermostatic radiator valve by integrating external smart human sensor and external smart temperature sensor through cloud resources, such that the operation of the smart thermostatic radiator valve can be automated through the detection of human presence and the measured level of ambient temperature of the particular area space without any human intervention, which can lead to effective use of energy, reduce household energy bills and help to minimize carbon emission as a whole. There is no need for the household to invest substantially for replacing all their existing heat radiators by cutting-edge radiators with advanced technology in order to benefit from the loT technology, it requires only the replacement of the traditional thermostatic radiator valve by smart thermostatic radiator valve, together with the installation of external smart sensors and remote terminal, so that automation can be set up over all the existing heat radiators inside the house or building for energy and money saving purpose. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A method as defined in claims 1 and 2, together with a computer implemented method on a remote terminal as defined in claims 5 and 6 are invented to integrate the smart thermostatic radiator valve, the smart human sensor and optionally the smart temperature sensor for automating the smart thermostatic radiator valve. The method as defined in claims 1 and 2, is comprising connecting the smart thermostatic radiator valve to a remote terminal wirelessly through Wifi with Internet connectivity such that the smart thermostatic radiator valve is configured to send signal to and receive signals from one or more cloud resources, so that both the associated mobile App and the cloud resources can retrieve the current status of the smart thermostatic radiator valve. The method is also comprising connecting the smart human sensor to the remote terminal wirelessly through Wifi with Internet connectivity such that the smart human sensor is configured to send signal to and receive signals from one or more cloud resources, so that both the associated mobile App and the cloud resources can retrieve the current status of the smart human sensor. Optionally the method can also comprise connecting the smart temperature sensor to the remote terminal wirelessly through Wifi with Internet connectivity such that the smart temperature sensor is configured to send signal to and receive signals from one or more cloud resources, so that both the associated mobile App and the cloud resources can retrieve the current status of the smart temperature sensor. With the above connections in place, the method works by detecting the occupancy state of the environment in which the smart thermostatic radiator valve and the smart human sensor are situated, in which the occupancy state is determined by the smart human sensor and optionally the method further comprises detecting the ambient temperature of the environment in which the smart thermostatic radiator valve and the smart temperature sensor are situated, in which the ambient temperature is determined by the smart temperature sensor. The method further comprises triggering a push notification on the associated mobile App of the smart human sensor to issue a message to turn on or off the smart thermostatic radiator valve according to push notification rules on the mobile App associated with the smart human sensor, in which the push notification rules can be created based on user requirements. Optionally the method further comprises triggering a push notification on the associated mobile App of the smart temperature sensor to issue a message to turn on or off the smart thermostatic radiator valve according to push notification rules on the mobile App associated with the smart temperature sensor, in which the push notification rules can be created based on user requirements. Once the push notification has been triggered on the related mobile App running on the remote terminal, a corresponding webhook message will be triggered to the cloud resources by the cloud service agent App running on the remote terminal. After the cloud resources received the webhook messages, decoding on the message will be performed in order to identify which user will be affected, which particular smart thermostatic radiator valve of the user will be affected, the cause leading to the action and the target action to be taken. Moreover, during the processing of the received webhook message, the cloud resources handler can perform further checking on additional requirements to be fulfilled before making the final decision on the action to be performed on the particular smart thermostatic radiator valve, for example, querying on the current status of the particular smart thermostatic radiator valve for further judgement. Finally, a command to turn on or off the radiator valve will be sent to the particular smart thermostatic radiator valve according to configured decision logic. The computer implemented method on a remote terminal as defined in claims 5 and 6 will be acting as the central hub in which all smart devices will be connected to for the integrated solution. The remote terminal is a physical handheld device configured to have Internet connectivity through standard Wifi connection. On the device, the associated mobile App of the smart thermostatic radiator valve, the smart human sensor and optionally the smart temperature sensor are installed separately. In addition, the device is installed with a cloud service agent app which is configured to send webhook message to the cloud resources handler based on the push notifications triggered on the mobile App associated with the smart human sensor, or optionally associated with the smart temperature sensor. The triggered webhook message will include the necessary information and the action to be performed on the target smart thermostatic radiator valve. Moreover, the device is also installed with a push notification cleanup agent configured to remove any push notification on the mobile App associated with the smart human sensor, or optionally associated with the smart temperature sensor after generation, such that every triggered push notification will be perceived as new one. The mobile App associated with the smart human sensor is configured to trigger push notifications on the app according to the occupancy state determined by the smart human sensor, or optionally the mobile App associated with the smart temperature sensor is also configured to trigger push notifications on the mobile App according to the ambient room temperature level determined by the smart temperature sensor. With the above configuration, the remote terminal is characterized in that it will send webhook message to the cloud resources handler based on the triggered push notification on the specific mobile App running on the remote terminal, such that the real-time environmental information or the action to be taken can be sent to the cloud resource for further processing. With the defined method and the computer implemented method on the remote terminal in place, the operation of the smart thermostatic radiator valve can be automated easily with user defined rules that can be easily customized to meet customer needs. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 shows schematically the components involved in the preferred embodiment. Fig. 2 shows the flow chart of the application process running on the remote terminal involved in the invention. Fig. 3 shows the flow chart of the application process running on the cloud resources handler involved in the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Fig. 1 shows schematically the components involved in the invention, and how each component is interconnected to each other. Furthermore an inventive method of controlling one or more smart thermostatic radiator valves (1) will be described. For automation of each plumbed or water-based heat radiator at your home, there will be a set of smart devices, comprising the smart thermostatic radiator valve (1), the smart human sensor (2), and the smart temperature sensor (3), wherein the smart thermostatic radiator valve (1) is controlling the on / off state of that particular heat radiator, wherein the smart human sensor (2) is used to detect if there is any presence of human in the environment in which the smart thermostatic radiator valve (1) and the smart human sensor (2) are situated, while the occupancy state is determined by the smart human sensor (2), wherein the smart temperature sensor (3) is used to detect the ambient temperature of the environment in which the smart thermostatic radiator valve (I) and the smart temperature sensor (3) are situated, in which the ambient temperature is determined by the smart temperature sensor (3). The smart thermostatic radiator valve (1), the smart human sensor (2) and the smart temperature sensor (3) can be manufactured by different product suppliers, but they are chosen such that in one embodiment, they are compatible to IFTTT cloud resources (10) for interconnection. In this preferred embodiment, the smart human sensor (2) and the smart temperature sensor (3) are chosen under the same brand name such that the same mobile App can be used for providing simpler user interface, in which mobile App (6) and mobile App(7) are referring the same mobile App. With this preferred embodiment, the remote terminal (4) is an Android tablet which the smart thermostatic radiator valve (1) is connected to wirelessly through Wifi connection with Internet connectivity by installing the associated mobile App (5) on the Android tablet such that both the associated mobile App (5) and the cloud resources (10) can retrieve the current status of the smart thermostatic radiator valve (1), while the smart thermostatic radiator valve (1) is configured to send signal to and receive signals from IFTTT cloud resource (10). Moreover, the smart human sensor (2) is connected to the same Android tablet wirelessly through Wifi connection by installing the associated mobile App (6) on the Android tablet such that both the associated mobile App (6) and the cloud resources (10) can retrieve the current status of the smart human sensor (2), while the smart human sensor (2) is configured to send signal to and receive signals from IFTTT cloud resource (10). The smart temperature sensor (3) is also configured to connect to the same Android tablet wirelessly through Wifi connection by installing associated mobile App (7) on the Android tablet such that both the associated mobile App (7) and the cloud resources (10) can retrieve the current status of the smart temperature sensor (3), while the smart temperature sensor (3) is configured to send signal to and receive signals from IFTTT cloud resource (10). With this preferred embodiment, the Android tablet is installed with the IFTTT client agent App which serves as the cloud service agent app (8) to be configured to send webhook message to the cloud resources handler (11) based on the push notifications triggered on the mobile App (6) associated with the smart human sensor (2), or based on the push notifications triggered on the mobile App (7) associated with the smart temperature sensor (3), although mobile App (6) and mobile App (7) are referring to the same mobile App in this preferred embodiment. Moreover, the Android tablet is also installed with the MacroDroid App which serves as the push notification cleanup agent (9) configured to remove any push notification on the mobile App (6) associated with the smart human sensor (2), or configured to remove any push notification on the mobile App (7) associated with the smart temperature sensor (3) after generation, such that every triggered push notification will be perceived as new. With this preferred embodiment, as the mobile App used for monitoring the real-time status of the smart human sensor (2) and the smart temperature sensor (3) is the same, the criteria for triggering the push notification in order to take specific action on the particular smart thermostatic radiator valve (1) can be embedded in the same push notification rule which can be customized more easily to meet user’s need. A typical first push notification rule is to send out a push notification message to turn off the radiator valve inside the room when there is no human presence inside the room no matter what the ambient temperature is, and another second push notification rule is to send out a push notification message to turn on the radiator inside the room when there is human presence inside the room and the ambient temperature is below a specified temperature. Shown in Fig.2 is the flow chart of the application process running on the remote terminal. When the first push notification rule condition is fulfilled in the decision process (200), a push notification message which embeds the target smart thermostatic radiator valve information, the fulfilled condition and the target action will be triggered on the mobile App (5) according to the process (210), and perceived by the IFTTT client App on the device, this will in turn generate a webhook message to the IFTTT cloud resource handler (11) according to the process (220), in which the webhook message contains the identification information of the affected user, the particular smart thermostatic radiator valve (1) to be affected, the cause leading to the action and the action to be performed. As soon as the process (220) has been completed, the push notification on the mobile App will be removed by the push notification cleanup agent (9) according to the process (230). Under this first push notification rule triggering scenario, the target action is to turn off the smart thermostatic radiator valve (1) to be affected. Shown in Fig.3 is the flow chart of the application process running on the cloud resources handler (11), which serves to handle the webhook messages from the remote terminal. After the cloud resources handler (11) received the webhook message from the device according to the decision process (300), message decoding will be performed according to the process (310) for identifying necessary information, including which user to be affected by looking up for the user identifier, which particular smart thermostatic radiator valve (1) of the user to be affected by matching with the specified name of the smart thermostatic radiator valve (1), the cause leading to the action and the target action to be taken on the particular smart thermostatic radiator valve (1) by matching with the specified action to be performed in the webhook message. Moreover, optionally the cloud resources handler (11) can perform checking on additional requirements to be fulfilled by querying the current status of those connected smart devices according to the process (320) in order to make the final action to be performed on the target smart thermostatic radiator valve (1). In one embodiment without requirement for further checking, the action found in the decoded webhook message is assumed. Finally, a command to turn off the radiator valve will be sent to the target smart thermostatic radiator valve (1) by the cloud resource handler (11) according to the process (330) in order to turn off the associated heat radiator automatically without any user intervention. Similarly, when the second push notification rule condition is fulfilled in the decision process (200) on the remote terminal, a push notification which embeds the target smart thermostatic radiator valve information , the fulfilled condition and the target action will be triggered on the mobile App (6) according to the process (210) and perceived by the IFTTT client App on the device, this will in turn generate a webhook message to the IFTTT cloud resources handler (11) according to the process (220). But with this second push notification rule triggering scenario, the target action is to turn on the smart thermostatic radiator valve (1) to be affected. After the cloud resources handler (11) received the webhook message from the device according to the decision process (300), proper webhook message decoding and retrieving necessary information will be performed according to the process (310), with optional additional checking on the device status according to the process (320). In one embodiment without requirement for further checking, the action found in the decoded webhook message is assumed. Eventually a command to turn on the radiator valve according to the process (330) will be sent to the target smart thermostatic radiator valve (1) by the cloud resources handler (11) in order to turn on the associated heat radiator automatically without any user intervention. With these push notification rules configured on the mobile App associated with the smart human sensor (2) and the smart temperature sensor (3) for triggering related push notifications on the remote terminal (4), the target action can be translated to corresponding webhook message and sent to the cloud resources handler (11) for further processing, such that the ultimate action can be taken on the target smart thermostatic radiator valve (1) for automating the operation of the plumbed heat radiators.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a smart thermostatic radiator valve, wherein the method comprises:-connecting the smart thermostatic radiator valve to a remote terminal wirelessly through Wifi network with Internet connectivity, wherein the smart thermostatic radiator valve is configured to send signal to and receive signals from one or more cloud resources;-connecting a smart human sensor to the remote terminal wirelessly through Wifi network with Internet connectivity, wherein the smart human sensor is configured to send signal to and receive signals from one or more cloud resources;-detecting an occupancy state of an environment in which the smart thermostatic radiator valve and the smart human sensor are situated, wherein the occupancy state is determined by the smart human sensor;-triggering a push notification on the remote terminal to issue a command to turn on or off the smart thermostatic radiator according to push notification rule configured on the mobile app associated with the smart human sensor, wherein the push notification rule can be created based on user requirements;-triggering a webhook message to the cloud resources to turn on or off the smart thermostatic radiator valve based on the triggered push notification on the remote terminal;-decoding the webhook message on the cloud resources;-checking on additional requirements to be fulfilled on the cloud resources; and-generating a command to turn on or off the target smart thermostatic radiator valve from the cloud resources based on which particular smart thermostatic radiator valve is affected.

2. The method for controlling a smart thermostatic radiator valve of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:-connecting a smart temperature sensor to the remote terminal wirelessly through Wifi with Internet connectivity, wherein the smart temperature sensor is configured to send signal to and receive signals from one or more cloud resources;-detecting the ambient temperature of an environment in which the smart thermostatic radiator valve and the smart temperature sensor are situated, wherein the ambient temperature is determined by the smart temperature sensor; and-triggering push notifications on the remote terminal according to push notification rule configured on the mobile app associated with the smart temperature sensor, wherein the push notification rule can be created based on user requirements.

3. The method of any of the previous claims, wherein decoding webhook message on the cloud resources comprises:-identifying which user to be affected by looking up for the user identifier in the webhook message;-identifying which particular smart thermostatic radiator valve of the user to be affected by matching with the specified name of the smart thermostatic radiator valve in the webhook message;-identifying the cause leading to the action as specified in the webhook message; and-identifying the target action to be taken on the particular smart thermostatic radiator valve by matching with the specified action to be performed in the webhook message.

4. The method of any of the previous claims, wherein checking on additional requirements to be fulfilled on the cloud resources comprises:-querying the current status of the smart devices wherein they have been in connection with the cloud resources ; and-making a final decision on the action to be performed on the smart thermostatic radiator valve.

5. A computer implemented method for triggering webhook message on the remote terminal, wherein the method comprises:-configuring a mobile app associated with the smart human sensor to trigger push notifications according to the occupancy state determined by the smart human sensor, wherein the mobile app has the capability for triggering push notifications by specifying different conditions related to the occupancy state;-configuring a cloud resource agent app which is associated with the cloud resource to send webhook message to the cloud resource in response to the push notification triggered on the mobile app associated with the smart human sensor; and-configuring a push notification cleanup agent to remove any push notification on the mobile app associated with the smart human sensor after generation.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the method further comprises:-configuring a mobile app associated with the smart temperature sensor to trigger push notifications according to the temperature determined by the smart temperature sensor, wherein the mobile app has the capability for triggering push notifications by specifying different conditions related to the temperature level;- configuring a cloud resource agent app which is associated with the cloud resource to send webhook message to the cloud resource based on the push notifications triggered on the mobile app associated with the smart temperature sensor; and-configuring a push notification cleanup agent to remove any push notification on the mobile app associated with the smart temperature sensor after generation.

7. The method of any of the previous claims, wherein the remote terminal is a mobile device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the mobile device is a mobile phone, a smartphone or a tablet computer.

9. A computer program product executable on a processor to perform the method of claims 5 or 6.AMENDMENTS TO THE CLAIMS HAVE BEEN FILED AS FOLLOWS:CLAIMS1. A method for controlling a smart thermostatic radiator valve, wherein the method comprises:-connecting the smart thermostatic radiator valve to a remote terminal through wireless network with Internet connectivity by using an mobile application, wherein the mobile application is a mobile operating system platform based application associated with the smart thermostatic radiator valve with a graphical user interface that is preinstalled or downloaded and installed on the remote terminal, wherein the smart thermostatic radiator valve is configured to send signal to and receive signals from a remote cloud service;-connecting a smart human sensor to the remote terminal through wireless network with Internet connectivity by using an mobile application, wherein the mobile application is a mobile operating system platform based application associated with the smart human sensor with a graphical user interface that is preinstalled or downloaded and installed on the remote terminal, wherein the smart human sensor is configured to send signal to and receive signals from the remote cloud service;-detecting an occupancy state of an environment in which the smart thermostatic radiator valve and the smart human sensor are situated, wherein the occupancy state is determined by the smart human sensor;-triggering a push notification on the remote terminal to issue a request to turn on or off the smart thermostatic radiator valve according to an automation rule configured on the mobile application associated with the smart human sensor, wherein the automation rule is created based on user requirements;-triggering a webhook message to a cloud service handler of the remote cloud service to turn on or off the smart thermostatic radiator valve based on different triggered push notifications on the remote terminal;-decoding the webhook message received by the cloud service handler on the remote cloud service; wherein the cloud service handler will handle the decoding process;-checking on additional requirements to be fulfilled by the smart thermostatic radiator valve; and-generating a command to turn on or off the target smart thermostatic radiator valve from the remote cloud service based on which particular smart thermostatic radiator valve is affected.

2. The method for controlling a smart thermostatic radiator valve of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:-connecting a smart temperature sensor to the remote terminal through wireless network with Internet connectivity by using an mobile application, wherein the mobile application is a mobile operating system platform based application associated with the smart temperaturesensor with a graphical user interface that is preinstalled or downloaded and installed on the remote terminal, wherein the smart temperature sensor is configured to send signal to and receive signals from the remote cloud service;-detecting the ambient temperature of an environment in which the smart thermostatic radiator valve and the smart temperature sensor are situated, wherein the ambient temperature is determined by the smart temperature sensor; and-triggering push notifications on the remote terminal to issue a request to turn on or off the smart thermostatic radiator valve according to an automation rule configured on the mobile application associated with the smart temperature sensor, wherein the automation rule is created based on user requirements.

3. The method of any of the previous claims, wherein triggering the webhook message to the cloud service handler of the remote cloud service comprises sending an HTTP request according to an associated URL address of the cloud service handler and a set of associated parameters; wherein the set of associated parameters comprises:-an user identifier associated with a particular user to be affected;-a specified name of a target particular smart thermostatic radiator valve to be controlled registered under the particular user;-a target action to be taken on the target particular smart thermostatic radiator value; and-a reason leading to the target action to be taken on the target particular smart thermostatic radiator valve.

4. The method of any of the previous claims, wherein decoding the webhook message received by a cloud service handler on the remote cloud service comprises:-identifying which user to be affected by looking up for the user identifier in the webhook message;-identifying which particular smart thermostatic radiator valve of the user to be affected by looking up the specified name of the smart thermostatic radiator valve in the webhook message;-identifying the target action to be taken on the target particular smart thermostatic radiator valve by looking up the target action to be performed in the webhook message.-identifying the reason leading to the target action as specified in the webhook message; and5. The method of any of the previous claims, wherein checking on additional requirements to be fulfilled by the smart thermostatic radiator valve comprises:-querying the current status of the target particular smart thermostatic radiator valve in connection with the remote cloud service; and-validating the current status of the target particular smart thermostatic radiator valve against a specified status; and-making a final decision on the action to be performed on the target particular smart thermostatic radiator valve.

6. The method for controlling the smart thermostatic radiator valve of claim 1, wherein triggering the webhook message to the remote cloud service to turn on or off the smart thermostatic radiator valve, is characterized by-configuring the mobile application associated with the smart human sensor to trigger push notifications according to the occupancy state determined by the smart human sensor, wherein the mobile application has the capability for triggering push notifications by specifying different conditions related to the occupancy state;-configuring a cloud service agent app which is associated with the remote cloud service to send the webhook message to the remote cloud service in response to the push notification triggered by the mobile application associated with the smart human sensor; and-configuring a push notification cleanup agent to remove any push notification on the remote terminal generated by the mobile application associated with the smart human sensor after processed.

7. The method for controlling the smart thermostatic radiator valve of claim 1, wherein triggering the webhook message to the remote cloud service to turn on or off the smart thermostatic radiator valve, is further characterized by-configuring the mobile application associated with the smart temperature sensor to trigger push notifications according to the temperature determined by the smart temperature sensor, wherein the mobile application has the capability for triggering push notifications by specifying different conditions related to the temperature level;-configuring the cloud service agent app which is associated with the remote cloud service to send the webhook message to the cloud service based on the push notifications triggered by the mobile application associated with the smart temperature sensor; and-configuring the push notification cleanup agent to remove any push notification on the remote terminal generated by the mobile application associated with the smart temperature sensor after processed.

8. The method of any of the previous claims, wherein the remote terminal is a mobile device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the mobile device is a mobile phone, a smartphone or a tablet computer.

10. A computer program product executable on a processor to perform the method of claim 1

Images