Appliance Network Binding at Point of Purchase
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Solution Overview
Problem
Binding appliance information to a user's network is complex and difficult for consumers to achieve, especially at the point of sale, due to the lack of efficient communication and data association between appliances and remote devices.
Innovation Solution
A system and method where a terminal at the point of purchase communicates with a remote server to receive and bind appliance identification information, associating it with user data and transmitting appliance data to a local computing device for download to the appliance after installation, facilitating the binding of appliance data to the user's network.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If network adapters are added to appliances to enable network connectivity, then appliance functionality and connectivity are improved, but the complexity of binding appliance information to the user's network increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs the network binding operation at the point of purchase before the appliance is installed at the customer's premises. The terminal device communicates with the server to bind appliance identification information to the user's network account during the purchase transaction, so that when the appliance is later installed and connected to the network, the binding is already complete and no additional configuration is needed by the consumer.
2Ease of operation
If binding is performed at the point of purchase, then consumer ease of operation is improved, but data transfer and binding infrastructure complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a server as an intermediary between the terminal device at the point of purchase and the user's network. The terminal device sends the appliance identification information to the server, which then performs the binding operation to associate the appliance with the user's network account. This intermediary approach simplifies the terminal device's functionality while enabling complex binding operations through centralized server processing.
3Reliability
If appliance data is stored and transferred through a remote server, then data security and management are improved, but network dependency and potential points of failure increase
Solution Approach 1:
The binding operation is performed in advance at the point of purchase, storing the association between appliance identification information and user network credentials on the server. This preliminary binding ensures that when the appliance is installed and connects to the network, the data transfer can proceed automatically using pre-established credentials, reducing the need for complex real-time authentication and network configuration during installation.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method of remotely binding appliance information to a user's network is provided. At a point-of-purchase, a terminal can communicate with a remote server over a network, such as the Internet, to provide appliance identification information to the server. The server can associate the identified appliance with user data associated with the user purchasing the appliance. The server can also identify appliance data stored at the server based on the appliance identification information. The server can then bind the appliance data to the user's network. For instance, a target object, such as a local computing device (e.g. a home energy manager or local network device such as a network terminal), associated with the user can be identified based on the user data and a path to provide the appliance data to the target object can be specified.