Unified Home Automation Dashboard for Cross-Brand Device Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users face difficulties in controlling and coordinating network-enabled home automation devices from different manufacturers using a single interface, leading to fragmented control and reduced adoption due to the need for multiple applications and webpages.
Innovation Solution
A unified dashboard interface system that allows users to monitor and control multiple home automation devices from various manufacturers, featuring customizable tiles, timeline scheduling, and gesture-based interactions, enabling unified control and coordination across different devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If users control home automation devices from different manufacturers using multiple applications and webpages, then each device can be controlled according to its specific protocol, but the system complexity increases and ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a gateway device as an intermediary between the user interface and home automation devices from different manufacturers. The gateway translates various device protocols into a unified communication format, enabling single-interface control while maintaining compatibility with diverse devices. This mediator approach resolves the contradiction by adding translation capability without requiring users to learn multiple applications.
Solution Approach 2:
The control system is designed with universal functionality to support multiple device types and manufacturers through a single unified interface. The system implements protocol translation and abstraction layers that enable one application to control diverse devices, eliminating the need for multiple manufacturer-specific applications while maintaining broad device compatibility.
2Ease of operation
If a unified interface is implemented to control multiple devices, then ease of operation improves, but device complexity increases due to protocol translation requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The system architecture is segmented into distinct functional layers: a simplified user interface layer, a protocol translation layer in the gateway, and device-specific protocol layers. This segmentation isolates complexity within the gateway's translation functionality while keeping the user interface simple and clean, resolving the contradiction by compartmentalizing complexity away from the user-facing components.
3Adaptability or versatility
If coordination between multiple devices is implemented, then system functionality improves, but control complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the coordination logic into the gateway device, which centralizes the intelligence required for coordinating multiple devices. By combining protocol translation and coordination functions in a single gateway, the system enables complex coordinated actions between devices while keeping the user interface simple and the individual device logic minimal.
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure describes computer-implemented techniques that enable users to control and coordinate a set of network-enabled home automation devices. Users may generate, customize, and share home automation device dashboards. These dashboards may include user interface elements, such as tiles, that users may use to determine that status of home automation devices and send commands to the home automation devices. In some examples, users may use timeline-based user interfaces to schedule actions to be performed by home automation devices.