System and method for providing customized connected device functionality and for operating a connected device via an alternate object

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10559194-B2
Application number	US-201815961443-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 24, 2018
Priority date	Feb 23, 2018
Publication date	Feb 11, 2020
Grant date	Feb 11, 2020

Abstract

A system and method in a mobile device for controlling a connected device is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving an image; processing the image to identify at least a first image attribute where the first image attribute includes an image feature or an image object; accessing a database of connected devices, each connected device in the database being identified by a linked image and being associated with device metadata describing at least a device type of the connected device; comparing the first image attribute with the linked images corresponding to the connected devices stored in the database; identifying a first connected device having a linked image matching the first image attribute; and in response to the identifying, providing a user interface configured to control the first connected device, the user interface including a control function corresponding to the device type of the first connected device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method in a mobile device for controlling a connected device, comprising:
receiving, at the mobile device, an image of an alternate object, wherein the alternate object is different from the connected device for controlling and is linked to the connected device according to a user's registering;
processing, at the mobile device, the image of the alternate object to identify at least a first image attribute, the first image attribute comprising an image feature or an image object;
accessing, by the mobile device, a database of connected devices, each connected device in the database being identified by a linked image and being associated with device metadata describing at least a device type of the connected device;
comparing the first image attribute with linked images corresponding to the connected devices stored in the database;
identifying a first connected device by a linked image among the linked images stored in the database that has an image attribute matching the first image attribute; and
in response to the identifying, providing, at the mobile device, a user interface configured to control the first connected device, the user interface comprising a control function corresponding to the device type of the first connected device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving, at the mobile device, the image comprises:
activating, at the mobile device, a control application; and
detecting, at the control application on the mobile device, the image.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
accessing the database of connected devices comprises accessing the database of connected devices including a first set of connected devices, each connected device in the first set of connected devices being identified by a linked image of the respective connected device itself; and
identifying the first connected device comprises identifying the first connected device having a linked image matching the first image attribute, the first image attribute being associated with the first connected device.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
accessing the database of connected devices comprises accessing the database of connected devices including a second set of alternate devices, each alternate device in the second set of alternate devices being different from the connected device for controlling and linked to a respective connected device according to the user's registering and being identified by a linked image of the alternate object; and
identifying the first connected device comprises identifying a first alternate device having a linked image matching the first image attribute and retrieving the linked connected device of the first alternate device as the first connected device.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
activating, at the mobile device, a control application;
receiving, at the control application on the mobile device, an image of a connected device;
processing, at the mobile device, the image to identify at least a second image attribute, the second image attribute comprising an image feature or an image object;
receiving, at the mobile device, device metadata associated with the connected device;
registering, using the mobile device, the connected device using the second image attribute as the linked image and the device metadata; and
storing, at the database, the connected device identified by the linked image and being associated with the device metadata.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
activating, at the mobile device, a control application;
receiving, at the control application on the mobile device, an image of an alternate device, wherein the alternate device is different from the connected device for controlling and linked to a respective connected device according to the user's registering;
processing, at the mobile device, the image to identify at least a third image attribute, the third image attribute comprising an image feature or an image object;
receiving, at the mobile device, device metadata associated with the alternate device;
registering, using the mobile device, the alternate device using the third image attribute as the linked image and the device metadata;
storing, at the database, the alternate device identified by the linked image and being associated with the device metadata;
providing the list of connected devices from the database;
receiving, at the mobile device, a selection of a connected device; and
storing, at the database, linking data of the alternate device linking the selected connected device to the alternate device.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein accessing the database of connected devices comprises:
storing the database on the mobile device; and
accessing the database from the mobile device.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein accessing the database of connected devices comprises:
storing the database on a hub installed in an environment and associated with one or more connected devices in the environment; and
accessing the database on the hub through a local area network.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein accessing the database of connected devices comprises:
storing the database on a remote server; and
accessing the database on the remote server through a data network.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein processing the image to identify at least a first image attribute comprises:
processing the image to identify plurality of objects in the image; and
receiving, on the mobile device, a selection of one of the plurality of objects to be processed to identify the first image attribute.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein processing the image to identify at least a first image attribute comprises:
processing the image to identify a foreground object as the first image attribute or processing the image to identify a foreground object with a given background image as the first image attribute.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein processing the image to identify at least a first image attribute comprises processing the image to identify a face image of a human as the first image attribute, and the method further comprises:
accessing, by the mobile device, a second database of registered users, each user being identified by a linked face image and being associated with usage data for one or more connected devices;
identifying a first registered user having a linked face image matching the face image identified in the image;
in response to the identifying, providing, at the mobile device, a second user interface including a list of most frequently used connected devices associated with the first registered user; and
in response to receiving an input selecting a second connected device on the second user interface, providing, at the mobile device, the user interface configured to control the second connected device, the user interface comprising a control function corresponding to the device type of the second connected device.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, at the mobile device, a geolocation of the mobile device;
accessing, by the mobile device, the database of connected devices, each connected device being associated with a geolocation and usage data;
in response to the determining, providing, at the mobile device, a third user interface including a list of connected devices associated with the geolocation; and
in response to receiving an input selecting a third connected device on the third user interface, providing, at the mobile device, the user interface configured to control the third connected device, the user interface comprising a control function corresponding to the d

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Jiang Long
• Ma Tao
• Zhu Julie

Classifications

• G06V40/172

  Classification, e.g. identification · CPC title

• G06V10/462

  Salient features, e.g. scale invariant feature transforms [SIFT] · CPC title

• G06V10/764

  using classification, e.g. of video objects · CPC title

• H04W4/02

  Services making use of location information · CPC title

• H04L67/306

  User profiles · CPC title