Aggregating sensor data for environment conditions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11067718-B1
Application number	US-201816008554-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jun 14, 2018
Priority date	Jun 14, 2018
Publication date	Jul 20, 2021
Grant date	Jul 20, 2021

Abstract

Described are systems, methods, and apparatus that gathers environment condition data from different sensors at various locations within an area, aggregates the environment condition data to produce aggregated environment condition scores for the area and provides the aggregated environment condition scores to different locations within the area. While sensor data from a single sensor/device, such as a camera may provide low quality environment information, by collecting and aggregating information from multiple sensors and/or locations in the area, highly accurate aggregated environment condition scores for environment conditions may be realized. The aggregated environment condition scores may be provided to various locations within the area as representative of the environment condition at that point in time within the area, regardless of whether those locations have sensors. The aggregated environment condition scores may be used by other devices at those locations to automate one or more actions, such as adjusting lighting conditions, closing garage doors, adjusting window blind positions, etc.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
receiving, at a first device at a first location within an area, a first image data generated by a first camera at the first location;
processing, at the first device, the first image data to determine a first portion of the first image data represents a first outdoor area;
processing, at the first device, the first portion of the first image data to determine a first outdoor light level score representative of a first outdoor ambient light level at the first location;
determining, at the first device and using the first outdoor light level score, a first location outdoor light score representative of a first outdoor light level at the first location;
sending, from the first device to a management system executing on a remote computing resource, the first location outdoor light score;
receiving, at a second device at a second location within the area, second image data generated by a second camera at the second location;
processing, at the second device, the second image data to determine a second portion of the second image data represents a second outdoor area;
processing, at the second device, the second portion of the second image data to determine a second outdoor light level score representative of a second outdoor light level at the second location;
determining, at the second device and using the second outdoor light level light score, a second location outdoor light score representative of a second outdoor ambient light level at the second location;
sending, from the second device to the management system, the second location outdoor light score;
generating, at the management system, an aggregated outdoor light score for the area using the first location outdoor light score and the second location outdoor light score;
sending to a third device at a third location within the area, the aggregated outdoor light score; and
in response to the aggregated outdoor light score, causing, at the third device, an autonomous action to be executed that includes altering an illumination level of a light at the third location.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein causing the autonomous action to be executed further includes at least one of: turning on the light at the third location, turning off the light at the third location, dimming the light at the third location, brightening the light at the third location, raising a window blind at the third location, lowering a window blind at the third location, raising a garage door at the third location, or lowering the garage door at the third location.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein:
processing, at the first device, the first image data to determine the first portion of the first image data represents the first outdoor area, further includes:
processing the first image data using an image processing algorithm to determine a plurality of pixels included in the first image data representative of the first outdoor area; and

processing, at the first device, the first portion of the first image data to determine the first outdoor light level score, further includes:
determining the first outdoor light level score based at least in part on pixel values of the plurality of pixels.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, at the first device, third image data generated by a third camera at the first location;
processing, at the first device, the third image data to generate a third outdoor light level score representative of a third outdoor ambient light level at the first location; and
wherein determining, at the first device, the first location outdoor light score further includes:
averaging the first outdoor light level score and the second outdoor light level score to produce the first location outdoor light score.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, at the third device, a user preference of a light level at the third location; and
wherein causing the autonomous action to be executed that includes altering the illumination level of the light at the third location, further includes:
determining a desired light level of the light at the third location based at least in part on the aggregated light score and the user preference.

6. A system, comprising:
a first device at a first location within an area;
a second device at a second location within the area;
a third device at a third location within the area;
a management system, including:
one or more processors; and
a memory coupled to the one or more processors and storing program instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to at least:
receive, from the first device, a first environment data;
receive, from the second device, a second environment data;
assign a first weighting value to the first environment data based at least in part on a first distance between the third location and the first location;
assign a second weighting value to the second environment data based at least in part on a second distance between the third location and the second location;
generate an aggregated environment condition score representative of an environment condition at the third location based at least in part on a combination of the first environment data weighted according to the first weighting value and the second environment data weighted according to the second weighting value; and
send, to the third device at the third location, the aggregated environment condition score;

wherein the third device is configured to at least:
receive, the aggregated environment condition score;
use the aggregated environment condition score as an input to determine that an autonomous action is to be performed; and
in response to a determination that the autonomous action is to be performed, cause the autonomous action to be performed, wherein the autonomous action includes altering an illumination level of a light at the third location.

7. The computing system of claim 6 , wherein environment data is not received from the third location.

8. The computing system of claim 6 , wherein the program instructions further cause the one or more processors to at least:
determine, based at least in part on the first environment data and the second environment data, a confidence score for the first device indicating an accuracy of the first device; and
wherein the program instructions that when executed by the one or more processors to generate an aggregated environment condition score, further include instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to at least:
assign a third weighting value to at least the first environment data based at least in part on the confidence score.

9. The computing system of claim 8 , wherein the confidence score is further based at least in part on a comparison of the first environment data and a baseline environment data received from a third party.

10. The computing system of claim 6 , wherein the first environment data includes at least one of a numerical environment data score or an image of the first location.

11. The computing system of claim 6 , wherein the first environment data indicates at least one of an illumination level, a temperature level, a humidity level, a raining determination, a snowing determination, a wind speed, a wind direction, or a barometric level.

12. The computing system of claim 6 , wherein the program instructions further cause the one or more processors to at least:
assign a third weighting value to the first

Assignees

• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Brett Charles Edwin Ashton
• Basak Aniruddha
• Chen Zeya
• Hillenmeyer Sara Parker
• Peng Lizhen
• Jiang Yunfeng
• Welbourne William Evan
• Patel Jay
• Eberhardt Sven

Classifications

• G01W2001/006

  Main server receiving weather information from several sub-stations · CPC title

• G01W1/02 Primary

  Instruments for indicating weather conditions by measuring two or more variables, e.g. humidity, pressure, temperature, cloud cover or wind speed (G01W1/10 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04W4/38

  for collecting sensor information · CPC title