Programmable smart thermostat

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016209072-A1
Application number	US-201514711938-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 14, 2015
Priority date	Jan 19, 2015
Publication date	Jul 21, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A thermostat includes a front housing, a rear housing interoperably coupled to the front housing, at least one sensor integrated with the front housing, a display integrated with the front housing, and processing circuitry interoperably coupled to the at least one sensor and the display. The processing circuitry is configured to periodically activate the at least one sensor, receive data from the at least one sensor and determine, from the received data, whether movement has occurred. Responsive to a determination that the movement has occurred, determine whether the movement is by a human and responsive to a determination that the movement was not by the human, adjust display attributes.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A thermostat comprising:
a front housing; a rear housing interoperably coupled to the front housing; at least one sensor integrated with the front housing; a display integrated with the front housing; processing circuitry interoperably coupled to the at least one sensor and the display and configured to:
periodically activate the at least one sensor;
receive data from the at least one sensor;
determine, from the received data, whether movement has occurred;
responsive to a determination that the movement has occurred, determine whether the movement is by a human; and
responsive to a determination that the movement was not by the human, adjust display attributes.

2 . The thermostat of claim 1 , wherein, responsive to a determination that the movement was not by the human, the processing circuitry is configured to lower display brightness.

3 . The thermostat of claim 1 , wherein, responsive to a determination that the movement was not by the human, the processing circuitry is configured to power off the display.

4 . The thermostat of claim 1 , wherein the at least one sensor is configured to perform at least one of room lighting determination, distance determination, facial detection, voice recognition, and occupancy detection.

5 . The thermostat of claim 1 , the at least one sensor comprises a video camera that is configured to perform facial recognition.

6 . The thermostat of claim 1 , wherein, responsive to a determination that no movement has occurred, the processing circuitry is configured to adjust the display attributes.

7 . The thermostat of claim 1 , wherein, responsive to a determination that the movement was by the human, the display attributes remain unchanged.

8 . The thermostat of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
determine, from the received data, if an occupant is in close proximity to the thermostat; and responsive to a determination that the occupant is in close proximity to the thermostat, initiate “wake-up” of the display prior to the occupant touching the display.

9 . The thermostat of claim 8 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to manage display contents based on proximity of the occupant to the thermostat.

10 . The thermostat of claim 1 , wherein the display is a touch-screen display configured to display at least one of indoor temperature, temperature-adjustment scale, current date, current time, indoor humidity, and location.

11 . The thermostat of claim 1 , wherein the display is a touch-screen display that is configured to operate as a user interface.

12 . The thermostat of claim 1 , wherein the display is configured to demonstrate, in addition to numeric representations of indoor and outdoor temperature, an animation mimicking current outside weather conditions.

13 . The thermostat of claim 1 , wherein, responsive to a determination that the movement was not by the human, the processing circuitry is configured to control settings of the thermostat.

14 . The thermostat of claim 1 , wherein, responsive to a determination that the movement was not by the human, the processing circuitry is configured to automatically power off the thermostat.

15 . The thermostat of claim 1 , wherein, responsive to a determination that the movement was not by the human, the processing circuitry is configured to automatically adjust at least one of heating and cooling.

16 . The thermostat of claim 1 , wherein the display attributes comprise at least one of a color level, a contrast level, a saturation level, a hue level, and a brightness level of the display.

17 . A method of controlling operations of a thermostat, the method comprising:
coupling a front housing with a rear housing; integrating at least one sensor with the front housing; integrating a display with the front housing; interoperably coupling a processing circuitry to the at least one sensor and the display; periodically activating, by the processing circuitry, the at least one sensor; receiving, by the processing circuitry, data from the at least one sensor; determining, by the processing circuitry from the received data, whether movement has occurred; responsive to a determination that the movement has occurred, determining by the processing circuitry, whether the movement is by a human; and responsive to a determination that the movement was not by the human, adjusting, by the processing circuitry, display attributes.

18 . The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
responsive to a determination that the movement was not due to a human, lowering, by the processing circuitry, display brightness.

19 . The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
responsive to a determination that the movement was not by the human, powering off, by the processing circuitry, the display.

20 . The method of claim 17 , comprising:
performing, by the at least one sensor, at least one of room lighting determination, distance determination, facial detection, voice recognition, and occupancy detection.

21 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the display attributes comprise at least one of a color level, a contrast level, a saturation level, a hue level, and a brightness level of the display.

22 . The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
determining via the processing circuitry, from the received data, if an occupant is in close proximity to the thermostat; and responsive to a determination that the occupant is in close proximity to the thermostat, initiating, via the processing circuitry, a “wake-up” of the display prior to the occupant touching the display.

Assignees

• Lennox Ind Inc

Inventors

• Golden Kyle
• Castillo Daniel
• Mowery Keith
• Charavda Jayprakash
• Amoros Melissa
• Khiani Sunil K
• Lazar Steve

Classifications

• F24F11/52

  Indication arrangements, e.g. displays · CPC title

• F24F11/62

  characterised by the type of control or by internal processing, e.g. using fuzzy logic, adaptive control or estimation of values · CPC title

• F24F2130/10

  Weather information or forecasts · CPC title

• G05B2219/25168

  Domotique, access through internet protocols · CPC title

• G05B19/0426

  Programming the control sequence · CPC title