Touch Interface for Intuitive Home Environment Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Consumers face difficulties in controlling home systems intuitively and remotely, requiring complex and time-consuming individual control of multiple environmental systems within a living environment.
Innovation Solution
A touch screen-based system with a graphical interface that allows users to control various home systems, such as lighting, climate, and security, through a single touch command on a computing device, enabling room-wide activation and providing intuitive control of interconnected systems.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If individual control of multiple environmental systems is implemented, then control precision is improved, but operation complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the living environment into multiple controllable zones or rooms, each with its own set of environmental systems. Users can control systems individually within each zone while also having the option to control multiple zones simultaneously through the graphical interface, thus maintaining control precision without overwhelming operational complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The graphical user interface provides universal control capabilities that work across different types of environmental systems (lighting, climate, security, etc.) and different scales of control (individual devices, rooms, or entire living environments). This multi-functionality allows users to control systems at various levels of granularity without learning different control methods for each system type.
2Adaptability or versatility
If comprehensive control of all environmental systems is provided, then control capability is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system adds a spatial dimension to control by displaying environmental systems in a graphical representation of the living environment's layout. Users can interact with the interface by selecting specific areas or rooms on the graphical display, which then activates the relevant environmental systems in those areas. This spatial organization makes comprehensive control intuitive and easy to operate.
Solution Approach 2:
The system pre-organizes environmental systems by location and type within the graphical interface, so that when users want to control systems, the relevant controls are already presented in an organized manner based on the physical layout. This preliminary organization eliminates the need for users to search through all available controls and directly presents the relevant systems for the selected area.
3Ease of operation
If remote control functionality is added, then convenience is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses a communication network as an intermediary between the user's computing device and the environmental systems. The graphical interface on the remote computing device sends control commands through the network to the environmental control systems in the living environment. This intermediary approach enables remote control without requiring direct connection between the user and each individual system, thus managing complexity effectively.
Data Source
AI summary
To provide an improved system for home environment control, in one embodiment, a system for controlling a living environment includes a computing device having a touch screen input system, the computing device including an interface. The interface includes a graphical representation of the living environment. The interface provides for control of a plurality of systems distributed in the living environment. The plurality of environmental systems is distributed in a plurality of rooms that make up the living environment. The interface is configured to activate a portion of the plurality of environmental systems upon a single touch command of a user received by the interface via the touch screen input system of the computing device.