Notification device interaction Number:7,412,505 from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) owispatent

Title: Notification device interaction

Abstract: Devices and methods are disclosed for establishing device interaction among electronic devices of a device environment and a notification device interfaced with the user. Notification devices allow the user to communicate directly with the device environment, such as by entering information in a mobile phone that has a wireless connection to the environment. A device of the environment has a first transmitter and receiver for communicating with other devices, such as a notification device within the environment. In the instance where a notification device is located remotely, the device of the environment may also include a second transmitter and receiver for communicating with the remotely located notification device through a remote communications transport. A memory stores interaction rules and translation rules, and a processor implements the interaction rules and translation rules to establish interaction with the notification device. Methods may involve detecting a change of state at a device and then communicating with the notification device in accordance with the interaction rules and translation rules thereafter. Methods may also involve directing a message from a notification device to a device of the environment, such as through the remote communication transport, and then communicating from the device of the environment to additional devices.

Patent Number: 7,412,505 Issued on 08/12/2008 to Slemmer,   et al.

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Inventors:	Slemmer; John B. (Dunwoody, GA), Olsson; Stefan (Birmingham, AL), Kreiner; Barrett (Norcross, GA), Jarboe; Andre (Stone Mountain, GA), Kleinfelter; Kevin (Atlanta, GA)
Assignee:	AT&T Delaware Intellecual Property, Inc. (Wilmington, DE)
Appl. No.:	11/353,868
Filed:	February 14, 2006

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Related U.S. Patent Documents

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	Application Number	Filing Date	Patent Number	Issue Date
	10177628	Jun., 2002	7039698

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Current U.S. Class:	709/223 ; 706/47
Current International Class:	G06F 15/16 (20060101); G06F 15/173 (20060101); G06F 15/18 (20060101)

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Primary Examiner: Holmes; Michael B
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Merchant & Gould

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Parent Case Text

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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/177,628, entitled "Notification Device Interaction," filed on Jun. 18, 2002 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,039,698 and assigned to the same assignee as this application. The aforementioned patent application is expressly incorporated herein, in its entirety, by reference.

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Claims

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What is claimed is:

1. An aggregator for facilitating communications between electronic devices in an environment comprising: means for communicating with a plurality of electronic devices in the environment; means for translating at least one communication transport for use by the plurality of electronic devices; means for learning interaction rules configured to observe a plurality of state changes in a plurality of electronic devices and to associate ones of the plurality of state changes that occur over a small interval of time; means for referencing and applying interaction rules for use in controlling the plurality of electronic devices; and means for instructing the plurality of electronic devices to perform at least one activity.

2. The aggregator of claim 1 further comprising means for storing interaction rules for the plurality of electronic devices.

3. The aggregator of claim 1, wherein the interaction rules are complex interaction rules.

4. The aggregator of claim 1, wherein when more than one activity is performed, the activities are performed serially.

5. The aggregator of claim 1, wherein when more than one activity is performed, the activities are performed in parallel.

6. The aggregator of claim 1, wherein the means for instructing includes means for sending a message to the plurality of electronic devices to perform the at least one activities automatically.

7. The aggregator of claim 1 further comprising means for communicating with at least one notification device within a user defined environment.

8. The aggregator of claim 7, further comprising means for accepting user input to specify a hierarchy of communications with the at least one notification device.

9. The aggregator of claim 7 further comprising means for referencing translation rules for determining how the at least one notification devices should be contacted.

10. The aggregator of claim 1 further comprising means for detecting identification of the plurality of electronic devices.

11. A computer-readable medium which stores a set of instructions which when executed performs a method for facilitating communications between a plurality of electronic devices in an environment, the method executed by the set of instructions comprising: communicating with plurality of electronic devices in the environment; translating at least one communication transport for use by the plurality of electronic devices; learning interaction rules configured to observe a plurality of state changes in a plurality of electronic devices and to associate ones of the state changes that occur over a small interval of time; referencing and applying interaction rules for use in controlling the plurality of electronic devices; and instructing the plurality of electronic devices to perform at least one activity.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 further comprising storing interaction rules for the plurality of electronic devices.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein instructing the plurality of electronic devices to perform at least one activity includes sending a message to the plurality of electronic devices to perform the at least one activity automatically.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 further comprising communicating with at least one notification devices within a user defined environment.

15. A computer-readable medium which stores a set of instructions which when executed performs a method for facilitating communications between plurality of electronic devices in a user defined environment, the method executed by the set of instructions comprising: communicating with at least one notification device in the user defined environment, wherein translation rules are referenced for determining how the at least one notification device should be contacted; communicating with a plurality of electronic devices in the user defined environment; translating at least one communication transport for use by the plurality of electronic devices; learning interaction rules configured to observe a plurality of state changes in a plurality of electronic devices and to associate ones of the state changes that occur over a small interval of time; referencing and applying interaction rules for use in controlling the plurality of electronic devices; and instructing the plurality of electronic devices to perform at least one activities.

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Description

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TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to interaction of a device with a user. More specifically, the present invention relates to communication between devices located within a device environment and a notification device interfaced with the user.

BACKGROUND

Electronic devices such as household appliances, audio-video equipment, computers, and telephones operate within a given environment such as the home of a user. However, these devices function independently of one another. The user must initiate actions on the devices to cause the devices to change to a particular state of operation to thereby perform a function desired by the user.

Often, the state of one or more of the electronic devices is related to the state of one or more other electronic devices within the same environment. For example, a user may be watching television (TV) when the telephone rings. The user wishes to answer the call, but to effectively communicate with the caller, the user must mute the television so that sound from the TV does not interfere with the telephone conversation. Every time a telephone call is to be answered while the user watches TV, the user must again repeat the muting process. For each call, once the user hangs up the phone, the TV must be manually unmuted so that the user can once again listen to the TV program being watched.

The TV--telephone scenario discussed above is only one example. There is an undeterminable number of these scenarios and devices involved within a given environment. In each scenario the devices do not communicate with one another and do not coordinate activities, and as a result the user is overly burdened. The number of electronic devices for a household is continually increasing, and the resulting burden on the user to manually coordinate states of the devices for given scenarios is increasing as well.

To address this problem, devices can be configured with communication abilities so that they can communicate with one another when one or more devices experience a user driven state change. The communication allows devices to coordinate activities within the device environment to lessen the burden on the user. In certain scenarios, the user needs to be in contact with the device environment. For example, the user may want to know what activity is occurring among devices of the environment, such as learning that the curling iron was inadvertently left on when the user left home.

Therefore, there is a need for interaction of electronic devices within an environment with notification devices interfaced with the user to allow the user to remain in contact with the device environment.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present invention provide communications capabilities to the device environment to allow communication between notification devices interfaced with the user and the other devices of the environment. Notification devices allow the user to directly communicate with the device environment, such as by dialing numbers or speaking on a telephone. For example, communication may occur between a device of the environment and the user's mobile phone which is an illustrative notification device. The devices of the environment may alert the user through the notification device that a particular state of one or more devices within the device environment are noteworthy. Likewise, the user may communicate back to the device environment through the notification device to specify that a particular device should acquire a particular state.

A device within the environment utilizes a first transmitter and receiver that enable communication with other devices such as the notification devices through a particular transport. Alternatively, a second transmitter and receiver may be included in a device to enable communication with a notification device interfaced with the user. The notification device may be included in the device environment by proximity or by explicit definition by the user, and wireless transports such as infrared or radio frequency as well as wired connections and many other transports are available for use by the notification devices of a particular environment. A communication transport can be of similar forms such as a telephone line, a wireless transport such as cellular, or a network connection such as Ethernet.

The devices of the environment have memory for maintaining interaction rules that the devices obey to communicate with the notification devices of the user. Translation rules for translating messages between the device environment and the notification devices may be stored in the memory. A processor is included to employ the logic necessary to execute the interaction rules and, if necessary, the translation rules to establish communication with devices of the environment and the notification device of the user.

The logical operations of the processor that involve implementing the interaction rules and translation rules are embodied in methods. The methods specify how a particular device or group of devices communicate to a notification device. One embodiment of a method involves detecting a change of state at a first device and in response to detecting the change of state, referencing rules of device interaction that govern communication between the first device and a notification device that may or may not be located remotely from the local proximity of the device environment. The rules of device interaction provide an association between the detected change of state of the first device, the notification device that is communicated with in response, and the content of the communication to the notification device. Rules of translation may be provided to indicate instructions for conveying information to the notification device if it is not included in the device environment by proximity. In such a case, communication with the remote notification device occurs according to the rules of device interaction and the rules of translation in response to detecting the change of state.

Another embodiment of a method involves directing a message from a notification device to a first device of the environment, and the message specifies an instruction for a second device of the environment. The first device may be configured to translate messages between remote communication transports of a remote notification device and transports of the devices of the environment. The first device receives the message from the remote notification device over the remote communications transport and translates the received message at the first device to adapt the message for transmission over the transport of the second device. The first device communicates the instruction of the message to the second device over the transport of the second device. The second device then implements the instruction to cause a change of state at the second device as desired by the user interface with the notification device.

The various aspects of the present invention may be more clearly understood and appreciated from a review of the following detailed description of the disclosed embodiments and by reference to the drawings and claims.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a device environment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the major components of an embodiment of an interactive device.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary operational flow of an interactive device communicating with other devices of the environment.

FIG. 4 is an exemplary operational flow of communication between interactive devices involving a message broadcast to all devices of the environment.

FIG. 5 is an exemplary operational flow of communication between interactive devices involving a message directed to a specific device of the environment.

FIG. 6 is an exemplary operational flow of communication between interactive devices involving a request and a response to the request.

FIG. 7 is an exemplary operational flow of rule acquisition of an interactive device.

FIG. 8 is an exemplary operational flow of rule acquisition of an interactive device involving learning by a device receiving a state change after a state change of another device.

FIG. 9 is an exemplary operational flow of rule acquisition of an interactive device involving learning by a device receiving a state change before a state change of another device.

FIG. 10 is an exemplary operational flow of rule acquisition of an interactive device involving a request for rules to a device and a subsequent response.

FIG. 11 is an exemplary operational flow of content control among interactive devices.

FIG. 12 is an exemplary operational flow of media rights sharing among interactive devices.

FIG. 13 is a diagram of a device environment that illustrates the complexity that occurs in relation to interactivity among an increasing number of devices.

FIG. 14 is a diagram of a device environment including an embodiment of an aggregator that also illustrates the major components of the aggregator.

FIG. 15 is a diagram of an embodiment of an aggregator illustrating the components for translating among multiple communication transports.

FIG. 16 is an exemplary operational flow of device interaction involving an aggregator.

FIG. 17 is an exemplary operational flow of device interaction involving an aggregator that learns interaction rules and translates among multiple communication transports.

FIG. 18 is a diagram of a device environment interacting with notification devices interfaced with a user.

FIG. 19 is an exemplary operational flow of interaction from a device environment to a remote notification device through a remote communication transport.

FIG. 20 is an exemplary operational flow of interaction from a remote notification device to a device environment through a remote communication transport.

FIG. 21 is a diagram of an embodiment of a device for providing a display of information about a device environment.

FIG. 22 is an exemplary screenshot of the device of FIG. 21 that illustrates a device menu and a learn mode menu.

FIG. 23 is an exemplary screenshot of the device of FIG. 21 that illustrates a learn mode allowing the user to select function representations on the screen to associate functions of devices.

FIG. 24 is an exemplary screenshot of the device of FIG. 21 that illustrates a learn mode allowing the user to select functions on devices that are to be associated.

FIG. 25 is an exemplary screenshot of the device of FIG. 21 that illustrates a rule display mode for visually conveying the stored rules to a user.

FIG. 26 is an exemplary operational flow of a learn mode where the user selects functions on the devices that are to be associated.

FIG. 27 is an exemplary operational flow of a device information display mode.

FIG. 28 is an exemplary operational flow of a learn mode where the user selects function representations on a display screen to associate functions of devices.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Interaction among devices of an environment permit the devices to perform automatic changes of state without requiring the user to individually control each device. Through recognition of patterns of user behavior, interactive devices can associate the various user driven events from one device to the next to effectively create interaction rules. Application of these interaction rules allow the devices to implement the state changes automatically through communication of events between the devices.

A device environment is shown in FIG. 1 and is representative of a small area such as within a single household. However, a device environment may expand beyond a single area through networking of devices among various areas. This simplified device environment 100 shows three devices for exemplary purposes, but any number of devices may be present within a given environment 100. The devices of the environment 100 are devices that customarily appear within the particular type of environment. For example, in a household the devices would include but not be limited to typical household devices such as a television, VCR, DVD, stereo, toaster, microwave oven, stove, oven, washing machine, dryer, and telephone. These devices are adapted to become interactive as is discussed below.

Each device communicates with the other devices of the environment 100 in this example. A first device 102 communicates with a second device 104 through a bi-directional communication path 108. The first device 102 communicates with a third device 106 through a bi-directional communication path 110, and the second device 104 communicates with the third device 106 through a bi-directional communication path 112. The communication paths may be wired, wireless, or optical connections and may utilize any of the well-known physical transmission methods for communicating among devices in a relatively small relationship to one another.

The communication method used between two devices makes up a communication transport. For example, two devices may utilize the Bluetooth transport, standard infrared transport where line of sight is maintained, a UHF or VHF transport, and/or many others. Networked areas forming an environment can utilize LAN technology such as Ethernet, WAN technology such as frame relay, and the Internet. Multiple transports may be present in any single environment. As discussed below with reference to FIGS. 15 and 17, a particular device such as an aggregator may be equipped to translate messages from one communication transport to another. Aggregators are discussed generally and in more detail below.

The details of the devices 102, 104, and 106 are shown in more detail in FIG. 2. An interactive device 200 includes a processor 206 that communicates with various resources through a data bus 214. The processor 206 may execute software stored in a memory 208 or may utilize hardwired digital logic to perform logical operations discussed below to bring about the device interaction. The processor 206 communicates with the memory 208 to apply interaction rules that govern the communications. Interaction rules specify when a particular communication should occur, the recipients of the communication, and the information to be conveyed through the communication. Memory 208 may include electronic storage such as RAM and ROM, and/or magnetic or optical storage as well.

The processor 206 communicates with a transmitter 212 and a receiver 210 to physically communicate with the other devices of the environment. The transmitter and receiver pairs discussed herein for the various embodiments may be separate or incorporated as a transceiver. When an interaction rule specifies that a communication from device 200 should occur, the processor 206 controls the transmitter 212 to cause it to send a message. The message may take various forms discussed below depending upon the intended recipients. The receiver 210 receives messages directed to the device 200. The communications among devices may be configured so that each device to receive a message has identification data included in the message so that the processor 206 determines whether a message is relevant to the device 200 based on whether particular identification data is present.

Alternatively, other schemes may be used to communicate wherein a physical parameter of the receiver 210 controls whether a device 200 receives the message as one intended for it to be received. Examples of such physical parameters include the particular frequency at which a signal is transmitted, a particular time slot during which the message is transmitted, or the particular type of communication transport being used. The transmitter and receiver may be of various forms such as a modem, an Ethernet network card, a wireless transmitter and receiver, and/or any combination of the various forms.

The processor 206 also interacts with the intended functionality of the device 200. The device 200 includes components 202 that provide the unique function of the device 200. If the device 200 is a television 214, then the components 202 include the circuitry necessary to provide the television function. One skilled in the art will recognize that the processor 206 can be separate and distinct from the processing capabilities of the components 202 or alternatively, may be wholly or in-part incorporated into the processing capabilities of the components 202. The components 202 of many devices have digital logic such as an on-board processor of a television 214, CD player 216, stereo system 218, dryer 220, or telephone 222.

The processor 206 can control the operations of the components to cause state changes of the device 200. For example, the processor 206 can cause the channel to change on the television or cause the oven to preheat to a particular temperature. Thus, the processor 206 can reference interaction rules stored in memory 208 in relation to communications received through receiver 210 to determine whether a state change is necessary or can receive state change instructions through receiver 210 and implement the requested state change.

Additionally, the device 200 includes a sensor 204 for providing state change information to the processor 206 about the device 200. The sensor 204 may be either a physical sensor such as a transducer for detecting motion or a thermocouple for detecting temperature, or the sensor 204 may be a logical sensor. The logical sensor may be a programmed function of processor 206 or the processor of components 202 or may be hardwired logic. A logical sensor may be separate and distinct from the processor 206 and/or the digital logic of components 202 and communicate through the bus 214, or it may be incorporated wholly or in part in either the processor 206 of the processor of the components 202. The logical sensor 204 acts as an interface to the digital logic of the components 202 for detecting the logical state of a component, such as a particular input that is active on a stereo, or a particular channel being displayed on a television.

The processor 206 receives input from the sensor 204 to determine a current state of the components 202 and thereby determine when a change of state of the device 200 occurs. As discussed below, changes of state are used to learn interaction rules and implement the rules once they have been learned. Implementing interaction rules involves controlling changes of state at device 200 and/or transmitting change of state information about device 200 to other devices or transmitting change of state instructions to other devices.

FIG. 3 shows the basic operational flow of the processor 206 for implementing device interaction to send a communication from device 200. A state change is detected at the device 200 as described above at detect operation 302 by the sensor 204. The state change may be a user driven event, such as a user turning the power on for the television, or an automatically occurring event such as an oven reaching a preheat temperature.

After detecting the change of state, the processor 206 references the rules of device interaction stored in the memory 208 to determine whether a communication is necessary, who should receive the communication, and the particular information to include at rule operation 304. The processor 206 performs a look-up of the state change that has been detected to find the interaction rule that is appropriate. The processor 206 then communicates according to the appropriate interaction rule by sending a message through transmitter 212 at communicate operation 306.

FIG. 4 shows an operational flow of a specific type of communication where a device 200 publishes its state change to all devices via a broadcast so that all devices receive the message. A broadcast to all devices is useful when devices are attempting to learn interaction rules by observing state change events occurring within the device environment 100 during a small interval of time.

The operational flow begins at detect operation 402 where the processor 206 realizes that sensor 204 has detected a change of state at device 200. The processor 206 then determines that a broadcast is appropriate at determine operation 404. The processor 206 may make this determination by referencing the rules of interaction to determine whether a broadcast is indicated. If learn modes are provided for the devices, as discussed below, then the processor 206 may recognize that it is operating within a learn mode where broadcasts of state change are required.

Once it is determined that a broadcast to all devices is appropriate, the processor 206 causes the broadcast to occur by triggering the transmitter 212 to send the message to all devices of the environment at broadcast operation 406. As discussed above, messages may be addressed to specific devices by manipulation of a transmission frequency, a time slot of the transmission, or by including recipient identification data in the transmission. The message contains an identification of the device 200 and the particular state change that has been detected.

The devices of the environment receive the message at receive operation 408. In this exemplary embodiment shown, the devices make a determination as to whether a reply is necessary at determine operation 410. Such a determination may be made by the devices by referencing their own interaction rules or determining that a learn mode is being implemented and a reply is necessary because they have also detected their own state change recently. When a reply is necessary, the one or more devices of the environment send a reply message addressed to the device 200 at send operation 412, and the device 200 receives the message through receiver 210 at receive operation 414.

FIG. 5 shows an operational flow where a message is directed to a specific device of the environment from the device 200. The processor 206 recognizes that the sensor 204 has detected a change of state of the device 200 at detect operation 502. The processor 206 then determines from the interaction rules that a second device is associated with the state change at determine operation 504. The second device may be a subscriber, which is a device that has noticed through a learning operation that it is related to the first device 200 through a particular state change event and that the first device should provide it an indication when the particular state change event occurs. Once it has been determined who should receive a message, the processor 206 triggers the transmitter 212 to direct a message to the second device at send operation 506, and the message includes a notification of the state change of the first device 200.

The processor 206 may employ additional logic when directing the message to the second device. The processor 206 may detect from the interaction rules in memory 208 whether the second device should change state in response to the detected change of state of the first device 200 at query operation 508. If so, then the processor 206 includes an instruction in the message to the second device at message operation 510 that specifies the change of state that should be automatically performed by the second device.

FIG. 6 shows an operational flow where a request is made and a response is thereafter provided. At detect operation 602, the processor 206 recognizes that the sensor 204 has detected a change of state of the device 200. The processor 206 then determines that a second device is associated with the state of change at determine operation 604. In this case, the processor 206 recognizes that a request to the second device is necessary, such as by reference to the interaction rules or due to some other reason such as a particular learn mode being implemented.

The processor 206 triggers the transmitter 212 to direct a request message to the second device at send operation 606. The request message can specify that the second device is to respond by transmitting particular data that the second device currently possesses in memory to the device 200. The second device receives the request message at receive operation 608. The second device prepares a response by obtaining the required information from its memory, sensor, or components. Such information includes interaction rules, its current state, its current capabilities, or those who have subscribed to it for state change events. Once the information is obtained, the second device sends the response including the information to the first device 200 at send operation 612.

FIG. 7 is an operational flow of a learning process of the device 200. The device 200 may learn interaction rules that it obeys by observing activity in the environment in relati