4571 results about "Home appliance" patented technology

A home control and automation system and method. The system generally includes one or more wireless remote controls, a plurality of appliances (including network enabled appliances and traditional legacy appliances in the exemplary system), associated control centric devices, and associated content centric devices. Various methods for control and operation of appliances in the networked home control and automation environment are disclosed. Specifically, methods are disclosed which enable advanced home control features such as location based control setup and operation, network enabled legacy appliances and system integration, save and recall capabilities for appliance and media states, generic command based appliance controls, dynamic/complex macro command generation, and Internet based control capabilities from remote locations are disclosed in conjunction with the system of the current invention.

Disclosed are what I call “Reconfigurable Tactile Control Displays” particularly suited for applications such as automobile instrument panels where large displays and controls are desirable to provide a wide range of information, with minimal driver distraction and the safe input of data to vehicle subsystems or for communication based activities. Preferred embodiments utilize rear projection displays with electro-optically sensed controls and offer, at low cost, a maximum of reconfigurability to different car lines, drivers, and tasks. Also disclosed are novel implementations for military vehicles, and other applications such as control of appliances, heating and other household functions which may share common control and display presentation with those used in the vehicle.

An integrated remote controller and a main set-top-box therefor, wherein the integrated remote controller performs communication with the main set-top-box of home network system through WLAN and provides appliance control signals to a corresponding appliances connected to the main set-top-box through wires or wirelessly. Every home networked household appliance can be controlled by one integrated remote controller through intuitive and easy user interface, irrespective of where a user is, whereby the user can easily control any appliance, check a control result in response to a control request right away, and check or control the status of appliances through a regular monitoring function. As a result, user mobility, convenience, and functionality can be maximized.

A control server, or similar central processor, manages the distribution of data (including audio and video), voice, and control signals among a plurality of system components connected via a wired and/or wireless communications network. The system components include audio/visual components (such as, televisions, monitors, PDAs, notepads, notebooks, MP3, portable stereo, etc.) as well as household appliances (such as, lighting, ovens, alarm clocks, etc.). A portable controller allows a user to access and control the system components from any location within a controlled residential and/or non-residential environment, including its surrounding areas. The portable controller includes a user and management interface that contains customized control screens for the system components. The control screens are stored in a hierarchical architecture that is searchable by region or component type.

Applications, systems and methods for securely and remotely operating a remote computer from a local computer over a network while providing seamless, firewall-compliant connectivity. Secure and remote operation includes authenticating at least one remote computer for connection to at least one computer over the network and/or at least one local computer for connection to at least one remote computer over the network; establishing a secure connection between the at least one local computer and the at least one remote computer over the network; and integrating a desktop of at least one remote computer on a display of at least one local computer. The connections may be made over a public network, as well as through multiple firewalls without loss of functionality. A method of accessing and using at least one remote computer from a local computer over a public network may include centrally authenticating, at a location having a public address, a first computer having a first, firewall protected private address; creating a first firewall compliant connection between a publicly addressed connection server and the first computer upon authentication of the first computer; establishing a second firewall compliant connection between the publicly addressed connection server and a second computer having a second firewall protected private address; establishing a private-to-public-to-private communications tunnel, wherein the connection server routes communications from the first computer through the first firewall compliant connection and the second firewall compliant connection to the second computer, and from the second computer through the second firewall compliant connection and the first firewall compliant connection to the first computer; and performing at least one further step selected from the group consisting of: integrating a file structure of accessible files accessed at the second or first computer, into a file structure contained at the first or second computer, respectively; at least one of integrating a desktop of the second computer on a display of the first computer and integrating a desktop of the first computer on a display of the second computer; and directly operating the second computer from the first computer or the first computer from the second computer, wherein the computer that is directly operated is selected from the group consisting of: home appliances, video equipment, audio equipment, printers, fax machines, office equipment, medical devices, vehicles, cameras, RFID equipment, laboratory equipment, manufacturing machinery, GPS equipment, and devices having one or more embedded microprocessors.

An energy controller (10) as a communication device for transmitting and receiving data by transmitting a signal for establishing transmission and reception of the data to network-connected home appliances (11a to 11c), the energy controller (10) including: a power saving control unit which determines a transmission period such that the transmission period during which the signal is transmitted is increased as a power value difference increases, which is a value obtained by subtracting the total power consumption value of a power consumption appliance from available power supply value to the power consumption appliance including the network-connected home appliances (11a to 11c); and wireless communication IF (22) for transmitting the signal containing the information indicating the transmission period to the network-connected home appliances (11a to 11c) in order to set the network-connected home appliances (11a to 11c) in an active state with a period according to the transmission period.

The disclosed invention is generally in the field of control of appliances in the home, and in their networking and connectivity also with audio systems and internet sources and the integration of these elements in a connected manner. Preferred apparatus generally employs a video projection system and one or more TV cameras. Embodiments of the invention may be used to enhance the social interaction and enjoyment of persons in the kitchen and reduce the work of food preparation. The invention may be used in many rooms of the house, and contribute to the well being of seniors and others living therein.

A portable device-interoperable home network system includes a home server controls data transmission and reception of an internal network to which a plurality of home appliances are connected in a home. An image server outputs information regarding at least one image in the home to the home server. A portable device server receives the image information from the image server via the home server and transfers it to a portable electronic device. Therefore, a user can recognize a situation in the home through the portable electronic device from anywhere outside of the home, resulting in an increase in convenience of use.

Universal Video Computer Vision Input Virtual Space Mouse-Keyboard Control Panel Robot has computer system use video vision camera sensors, logical vision sensor programming as trainable computer vision seeing objects movements X, Y, Z dimensions' definitions to recognize users commands by their Hands gestures and/or enhance symbols, colors objects combination actions to virtually input data, and commands to operate computer, and machines. The robot has automatically calibrated working space into Space Mouse Zone, Space Keyboard zone, and Hand-Sign Languages Zone between user and itself. The robot automatically translate the receiving coordination users' hand gesture actions combinations on the customizable puzzle-cell positions of working space and mapping to its software mapping lists for each of the puzzle-cell position definition and calibrate these user hand and/or body gestures' virtual space actions into entering data and commands to computer meaningful computer, machine, home appliances operations.

A security device for a home network and a security configuration method thereof. The security device for the home network includes a user interface to send at least one request signal that includes a device register request signal to register a home appliance to the home network; a public key generator to generate a public key and a password used for security configuration of the home network; a home appliance interface to interface with the home appliance; and a controller to control the home appliance interface to transmit the public key and the password to the home appliance, and the controller to control to register the home appliance to the home network according to a service discovery protocol when the device register request signal is received from the user interface. Accordingly, the security configuration of the home network can be facilitated.

A smart controlling method applied to a smart home system for controlling a number of home appliances which may detect and act upon the approach of a user to the smart home. The smart home system learns the habits of a user from repeated inputs at repeated times by the same user to determine that a control command is a habit. When the user arrives at home or is discovered in proximity to the smart home, the smart home system calls a control command to control a relevant home appliance to execute certain operations. A smart gateway and a smart home system are also provided.

The invention relates to a household cooking appliance (1) comprising food-receiver (2) for receiving loose pieces of food (100), and heater means including generator means (3) for generating a flow of air (4), said household appliance being characterized in that the generator means (3) for generating the flow of air (4) include an air outlet (5) and an air inlet (6), the appliance (1) further comprising a screen (7) arranged relative to the air outlet (5) and to the air inlet (6) so that it forces the flow of air (4) to go around the screen (7) in order to reach the air inlet (6) from the food-receiver (2). Cooking appliances of the deep fryer type.

An improved home automation system is provided to facilitate senior care, as well as to facilitate care for individuals suffering from Alzheimer's disease or other dementias. A home control unit is provided that is connected to, and interfaces with, a combination of health equipment, smart home appliances, a smart medicine cabinet, a smart pantry, wearable sensors, motion detectors, video cameras, microphones, video monitors, speakers, smart thermostat, lighting, floor sensors, bed sensors, smoke detectors, glass breakage detectors, door sensors, and other perimeter sensors. A distributed computational architecture is provided having a CPU associated with each video camera and an associated proximate microphone and speaker, wherein speech detection and processing, and video processing, is performed by each such CPU in conjunction with its associated video camera, microphone, and speaker. Remote backup for such distributed speech processing is selectively provided by a remote server based upon confidence scopes generated by each such CPU. The distributed computational architecture is also utilized for video processing to facilitate peer-to-peer video conferencing communication using industry standard formats and to reduce latency and response times that would otherwise be encountered using remote servers.

Disclosed are an apparatus for distributing same/different digital broadcasting streams in a heterogeneous home network and a method thereof The apparatus includes a home gateway, and a home server, connected to the home gateway through Ethernet and also connected to a PC, a second IP STB, a 1394 STB, an HAS (Home Auto System) and an HDTV receiver, for outputting a ground-wave broadcast, a satellite broadcast and a cable broadcast to their HDTV receivers, respectively, through the second IP STB and the 1394 STB if the ground-wave broadcast, the satellite broadcast and the cable broadcast are received through coaxial cables, interworking with the HAS in order to control home appliances, and directly outputting the broadcast to the HDTV receiver through a built-in STB function. According to the apparatus, a user having a plurality of HDTV receivers at home can simultaneously view a plurality of HDTV broadcasts irrespective of the broadcasting systems when a plurality of heterogeneous home networks match through a home network matching device.

The present invention relates to information management systems for a home appliance, and more particularly, to an information management system for embodying communication between a home appliance and a wireless terminal and between the home appliance and an external service business operator server possible for providing information a user requires quickly and remote management of the home appliance.

The present invention is an integrated control system for use with various home appliances, such as washing machine, dryers, refrigerators, dishwashers, and the like. In a first embodiment of the present invention, the integrated controls are incorporated into a polycarbonate clear door panel, and incorporate proximity switches and controls to provide control and operation of the applicance. Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are optionally incorporated into a door handle for the appliance in an area out of sight such that only the light produced by the LEDs is seen and illuminates a handle for opening the door of the appliance. Additionally, opaque glass technology may be incorporated into one or more surfaces of the appliance which enables an opaque panel to become transparent to view the content of the interior of the appliance, such as a refrigerator.

The invention discloses an intelligent network burglar-proof door composed of a hardware system and a software system. The intelligent network burglar-proof door is mainly characterized in that a software control part comprises an underlying operation system, an application software system, a human face recognition system, a fingerprint recognition system, a touch screen control system, a local/ different-place storage system, an uninterruptible power supply management system, an extended interface system for controlling home appliances, a monitoring and alarming system for positioning and fortifying a multi-region zone PTZ (pan/tilt/zoom) electronic map, an access control system for controlling an unlocking motor, an intercom system capable of automatically responding, an H.264 video coding and decoding system, a 2.4G wireless video commutation system, a radio frequency communication system, a communication system for supporting TD/WCDMA (time division-wideband code division multiple access) and an Internet communication system. The intelligent network burglar-proof door checks information in real time or remotely backs up, improves data protection safety and intelligent and convenient maneuverability. The intelligent network burglar-proof door can widely serve as various burglar-proof doors, military guard burglar-proof doors, safety box doors and vehicle central door locks.

The invention relates to the technical field of smart monitoring, in particular to a smart home monitoring system based on a home service robot. The smart home monitoring system comprises a remote monitoring terminal, a wireless sensing control device and the home service robot. The remote control terminal is in communication with the home service robot through a network and controls the home service robot to conduct all-dimensional video monitoring. The wireless sensing control device is in interaction with the home service robot and is in charge of monitoring and collecting various home environment data and reporting the data to the remote monitoring terminal. The home service robot comprises a core control device, a chassis moving device and a sensing execution device, and the core control device is connected with the chassis moving device and the sensing execution device respectively through CAN buses to acquire the moving state of the robot, sense outside environment information, control moving of the chassis moving device, and control and monitor home appliances. Through the home service robot, regular inspection to the home environment and targeted monitoring over an abnormal target area are achieved, and remote monitoring is achieved.

An intuitive real spatial aiming-based system, and identification and communication methods using the intuitive real spatial aiming-based system. The intuitive real spatial aiming-based system includes aiming device, target devices and an indoor location-based service server. The aiming device includes a mobile computer or a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), which is provided with a first high-speed wireless communication means, a first location tracking sensor, and an electronic compass having a magneto resistive sensor for detecting a direction. The target devices each includes a fixed computer, a home appliance, a PDA, or a mobile communication terminal, which is selectively provided with second high-speed wireless communication means and a second location tracking sensor. The indoor location-based service server tracks the indoor locations and coordinates of the aiming device and the target devices in real time. To tolerate sensor's error, this patent presents an angle-based target region, a width-based target region, and a combination of the two regions.

The invention discloses a remote home appliance control system which comprises a control center server, a home gateway, a home appliance and a remote control terminal; the control center server comprises a server storage unit for storing list information and command information of the home appliance and route information of the home gateway, a server processing unit for resolving the command sent by the remote control terminal and address of the home gateway and generating a control command, and a server receiving unit for receiving and sending the information; the home gateway comprises a gateway storage unit for storing the information of the home appliance and a communication unit for carrying out communication between the control center server and the home appliance; the home appliance comprises a home appliance communication module which is communicated with the home gateway and has a unique serial number and a controller for controlling the home appliance to execute specific operation; and the remote control terminal comprises a terminal memorizer and a terminal communication unit.

A network household electric control system has a household electric appliance controlling ASP server installed as an external server (300) on the Internet. When household electric appliances (150) are to be controlled from an operation terminal (130) in the house of a customer through a home server (120), the GUI is transparently transmitted from an external server to the operation terminal and is displayed with the browser so that the household electric appliances are monitored and controlled through that GUI.

The invention includes the hardware devices composed of the pick-up head, the image interface and the processor, the time periodic image collection, the recognizing the direction of the person's eye gazing at as well as the non-contact intelligent control technique. In the said non-contact intelligent control technique, the direction of the person's eye gazing at is used as the control command or the auxiliary information. The invention can be applicable to home appliances, game machines, curing and nursing instruments or as the non-contact control devices for handicapped people etc. The gazing method can turn on or off some simple appliances such as air conditioners, 'waken' the robot or computer in the standby state. The gazing method also can indicate the user's intended control command.

A rover determines a destination and periodically checks the location of the rover against one or more active alert thresholds. One alert threshold is the boundary of an alert area surrounding a destination. The rover sends an alert to a service center alerts a designated party of an impending arrival of the rover at the destination when the rover is within an alert area surrounding the destination. The service center can also alert a designated party when the rover leaves an alert area surrounding a location. The alerts can be communicated via an automated telephone message, a pager message, an e-mail message, or any other means of communication. The alerts can be used for deliveries by directing an alert to a customer expecting a delivery or to a site expecting a vehicle for loading or unloading. In a private context, the alerts can automatically activate systems such as a home appliances or systems in anticipation of a resident's arrival.

The invention relates to a manganese-based composite oxide catalyst for catalytically decomposing ozone, and a preparation method of the catalyst. The catalyst comprises manganese oxide and at least one transition metal oxide. The preparation method is a homogeneous precipitation method or a hydrothermal synthesis method. The manganese-based composite oxide catalyst adopts innocuous and non-poisonous materials, prepares a manganese-based composite oxide catalyst with high catalytic activity, good wet resistance and high catalytic deposition content by the simple and easy method, so that the catalyst is suitable for catalytically decomposing ozone produced in water or air treatment and modern industry and home appliance.

Provided is a smart home appliance. The smart home appliance includes: a voice input unit collecting a voice; a voice recognition unit recognizing a text corresponding to the voice collected through the voice input unit; a capturing unit collecting an image for detecting a user's visage or face; a memory unit mapping the text recognized by the voice recognition unit and a setting function and storing the mapped information; and a control unit determining whether to perform a voice recognition service on the basis of at least one information of image information collected by the capturing unit and voice information collected by the voice input unit.

A mobile terminal includes a wireless communication unit for collecting external information or transmitting recommended operation information to a home appliance, and a controller for generating the recommended operation information for the home appliance based on the collected external information. The mobile terminal may provide customized recommended operation information for each home appliance without separately including a device for controlling one or more home appliances provided in a home.

A home network system and a method for operating the same configured to be capable of recovering system and user data of a home server by allowing a user to press a recovery button when the home server cannot recover from a functional error of the home server. Initial system data of the home server, controlling and managing a home network connected to a plurality of home appliances, is automatically stored in an internal database as backup data. Data updated in the home server is periodically transmitted to a portal server connected to the home server through the Internet. Therefore, data, damaged due to a functional error of the home server, can be automatically recovered by using the backup data stored in the portal server.

A network system of a home appliance configured to set up a network of the home appliance by using a terminal, and a network set-up method of the same, after converting a home appliance having built with a WIFI module into an AP to enable the terminal to be connected to an AP home appliance, the information stored at the terminal is transmitted to the AP home appliance, and thus the WIFI may be set up without a separate manipulation of a user at the time of setting up the WIFI of the home appliance without adding an input/output apparatus such as a display apparatus or an interface, the set-up value of the AP, the device information, and the device authentication key may be changed, and thus is safer from hack attacks, an AP is not needed to be provided, and thus a cost-related advantage may be obtained.

A smart controlling method applied to a smart home system for controlling a number of home appliances of the smart home system is able to learn the habits of the user in relation to the home appliances, deeming a control operation a habit when a certain controlling command is repeated for more than a predetermined number of times in a predetermined period. When the current certain condition value matches one of the habit certain conditions, the smart home system calls the corresponding habit controlling command to control the relative home appliance to execute the habitual operation. A smart gateway and a smart home system are also provided.

The invention discloses a control device and method of an intelligent home appliance. The control device of the intelligent home appliance comprises an acquisition module, a search module and a control module, wherein the acquisition module is used for acquiring physical characteristic parameters, detected by an external detection device, of a user, the search module is used for searching for environmental parameters matched with the physical characteristic parameters acquired by the acquisition module according to the physical characteristic parameters acquired by the acquisition module, physical characteristic parameter ranges pre-stored in a cloud server, environmental parameters pre-stored in the cloud server and the corresponding relation between the physical characteristic parameter ranges and the environmental parameters, and the control module is used for controlling the intelligent home appliance to execute operations according to the environmental parameters found by the search module. According to the technical scheme, the problem that home control in the prior art is not intelligent, not accurate and not timely is solved; by searching for the environmental parameters matched with the physical characteristic parameters of the user according to the physical characteristic parameters of the user and dynamically controlling the working state of the intelligent home appliance, fine adjustment and scientific management are achieved, and good user experience is achieved.