Systems and methods for detecting and using occupant location in a building management system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9918180-B2
Application number	US-201414263639-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 28, 2014
Priority date	Apr 28, 2014
Publication date	Mar 13, 2018
Grant date	Mar 13, 2018

Abstract

Systems and methods for using occupant location in a building management system are provided. A plurality of wireless emitters are provided at various locations in a building. Each of the wireless emitters broadcasts a different emitter identifier. Mobile devices in the building run an application which causes the mobile devices to detect and report, to the building management system, an emitter identifier associated with a nearby wireless emitter. The building management system uses the reported emitter identifier to determine a building zone in which the mobile device is located. The building management system provides information to the mobile device based on the location of the mobile device in the building. In some embodiments, the information includes a user interface for monitoring and/or controlling the building zone in which the mobile device is located.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for providing a location-based user interface to a mobile device in a building management system, the method comprising:
providing a plurality of wireless emitters in a building, wherein each of the wireless emitters is located at a different position in the building and is associated with a different emitter identifier;
receiving, at a processing circuit of the building management system, a request for a user interface for presentation on a mobile device, the request comprising an emitter identifier associated with one of the plurality of wireless emitters detected by the mobile device;
determining, at the processing circuit, a distance of the mobile device from building equipment based at least in part on the emitter identifier;
determining, at the processing circuit, whether the distance of the mobile device from the building equipment is greater than a minimum safety distance;
determining, at the processing circuit, whether the distance of the mobile device from the building equipment is less than a maximum safety distance;
selecting, by the processing circuit, a user interface for a building zone associated with the emitter identifier, wherein the selecting comprises selecting the user interface from multiple different user interfaces for the building zone based on the distance of the mobile device form the building equipment by:
selecting a first user interface in response to determining that the distance of the mobile device from the building equipment is greater than the minimum safety distance and less than the maximum safety distance, the first user interface comprising information relating to an environmental condition of the building zone and a control option for controlling the building equipment; or
selecting a second user interface in response to determining that the distance of the mobile device from the building equipment is less than the minimum safety distance or greater than the maximum safety distance, wherein the second user interface comprises the information relating to the environmental condition of the building zone without the control option for controlling the building equipment; and
providing the selected user interface to the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting the user interface for the building zone associated with the emitter identifier comprises:
using the emitter identifier to determine a building zone in which the mobile device is located; and
selecting the user interface associated with the building zone in which the mobile device is located.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mobile device actively detects a wireless signal from one or more of the plurality of wireless emitters, the wireless signal comprising the emitter identifier;
wherein the request for the user interface is made by an application executing on the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selected user interface comprises other control options for controlling a variable state or condition of the building zone associated with the emitter identifier.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting the user interface for the building zone comprises selecting the user interface from a plurality of user interfaces each associated with different building zones.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request for a user interface further comprises a user identifier, wherein the user identifier is associated with a permission level.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying whether the building equipment is in the building zone associated with the emitter identifier;
wherein the user interface comprises an equipment maintenance history for the building equipment in the building zone associated with the emitter identifier.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting further comprises:
using the emitter identifier to determine whether the mobile device is located in a same building zone in which a particular piece of machinery is located; and
selecting a user interface which allows control over the piece of machinery based on a result of the determination.

Assignees

• Johnson Controls Tech Co

Inventors

• Ribbich Joseph R
• Jilek John S
• Petersen Dana S
• Bykowski Ryan J

Classifications

• H04W4/001 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W4/043

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W4/50 Primary

  Service provisioning or reconfiguring · CPC title

• H04W4/021

  Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences · CPC title

• H04W4/33

  for indoor environments, e.g. buildings · CPC title