Artificial intelligence device for controlling external device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11748614-B2
Application number	US-201916562956-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 6, 2019
Priority date	Aug 2, 2019
Publication date	Sep 5, 2023
Grant date	Sep 5, 2023

Abstract

An artificial intelligence device for controlling an external device includes a display unit, and a processor configured to acquire a distance between the artificial intelligence device and a first external device, determine whether the acquired distance is less than a reference distance, display a first operation menu item for controlling the first external device on the display unit when the acquired distance is less than the reference distance, acquire situation information when the acquired distance is equal to or greater than the reference distance, determine a second external device as an object to be controlled based on the acquired situation information, and display a second operation menu item for controlling the determined second external device on the display unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An artificial intelligence device for controlling an external device, the artificial intelligence device comprising:
a short-range communication circuit;
a display unit; and
a processor configured to:
acquire distances between the artificial intelligence device and a plurality of external devices,
in response to one external device among the plurality of external devices being less than a reference distance away from the artificial intelligence device, display a first operation menu item for controlling the one external device on the display unit,
in response to all of the plurality of external devices being equal to or greater than the reference distance away from the artificial intelligence device, acquire first situation information including a position of a user and one or more device usage times of the user at the position, determine a first selected external device among the plurality of external devices based on the first situation information and display a second operation menu item for controlling the first selected external device on the display unit, and
in response to at least two external devices among the plurality of external devices being less than the reference distance away from the artificial intelligence device, acquire second situation information including the position of the user and device usage times of the at least two external devices by the user at the position, determine a second selected external device among the at least two external devices based on the second situation information, and display a third operation menu item for controlling the second selected external device on the display unit.

2. The artificial intelligence device of claim 1 , further comprising a memory configured to store a device-to-be-used inference model for determining a device to be controlled from situation information,
wherein the device-to-be-used inference model is an artificial neural network based model supervised-learned by a deep learning algorithm or a machine learning algorithm.

3. The artificial intelligence device of claim 2 , wherein a training data set used to train the device-to-be-used inference model includes the position of the user, a device usage time, and a type of an external device as labeling data.

4. The artificial intelligence device of claim 1 , further comprising a distance sensor configured to measure a distance between an external device and the artificial intelligence device.

5. The artificial intelligence device of claim 1 , further comprising a short-range wireless communication module,
wherein, when the first operation menu item is selected, the processor transmits a command for performing an operation corresponding to the selected operation menu item to the one external device through the short-range wireless communication module.

6. The artificial intelligence device of claim 1 , wherein the display unit:
displays a basic screen, and
switches the basic screen to an operation screen of the one external device including the first operation menu item when an acquired distance between the artificial intelligence device and the one external device is less than the reference distance.

7. The artificial intelligence device of claim 1 , further comprising a rotatable outer body surrounding the display unit,
wherein the processor selects the first operation menu item according to a rotation of the outer body.

8. The artificial intelligence device of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
in response to the artificial intelligence device being placed on the one external device, recognize the one external device through the short-range communication circuit and determine the one external device as a device to be controlled by the artificial intelligence device.

9. The artificial intelligence device of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
display a multi-operation screen including a first mode item and a second mode item,
in response to a selection of the first mode item, control four external devices according to a first set of predetermined values, and
in response to a selection of the second mode item, control the four external devices according to a second set of predetermined values,
wherein the first set of predetermined values is different than the second set of predetermined values.

10. A method of operating an artificial intelligence device for controlling an external device, the method comprising:
acquiring, by a processor in the artificial intelligence device, distances between the artificial intelligence device and a plurality of external devices;
in response to one external device among the plurality of external devices being less than a reference distance away from the artificial intelligence device, displaying a first operation menu item for controlling the one external device on a display unit of the artificial intelligence device;
in response to all of the plurality of external devices being equal to or greater than the reference distance away from the artificial intelligence device, acquiring, by the processor, first situation information including a position of a user and one or more device usage times of the user at the position, determining a first selected external device among the plurality of external devices based on the first situation information and displaying a second operation menu item for controlling the first selected external device on the display unit; and
in response to at least two external devices among the plurality of external devices being less than the reference distance away from the artificial intelligence device, acquiring, by the processor, second situation information including the position of the user and device usage times of the at least two external devices by the user at the position, determining a second selected external device among the at least two external devices based on the second situation information and displaying a third operation menu item for controlling the second selected external device on the display unit.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising storing a device-to-be-used inference model for determining a device to be controlled from situation information,
wherein the device-to-be-used inference model is an artificial neural network based model supervised-learned by a deep learning algorithm or a machine learning algorithm.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein a training data set used to train the device-to-be-used inference model includes the position of the user, a device usage time, and a type of the external device as labeling data.

13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising measuring a distance between an external device and the artificial intelligence device through a distance sensor.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising, when the first operation menu item is selected, transmitting a command for performing operation corresponding to the selected operation menu item to the one external device.

15. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
displaying a basic screen, and
switching the basic screen to an operation screen of the one external device including the first operation menu item when an acquired distance between the artificial intelligence device and the one external device is less than the reference distance.

16. The method of claim 10 ,
wherein the artificial intelligence device further includes a rotatable outer body surrounding the display unit, and
wherein the method further includes selecting the first operation menu item according to a rotation of the outer body.

Assignees

• Lg Electronics Inc

Inventors

• Kim Dongwook
• Kim Kunwoo
• Park Chala
• Lee Hojun

Classifications

• G06N3/0499

  Feedforward networks · CPC title

• G06N3/09

  Supervised learning · CPC title

• G06F3/14

  Digital output to display device {; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units} · CPC title

• H04W4/80

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title

• G06N3/08 Primary

  Learning methods · CPC title