Patent Issued for Building Condition Sensor Monitoring And Control System (USPTO 10,581,629)

2020 MAR 16 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Hartford Fire Insurance Company (Hartford, Connecticut, United States) has been issued patent number 10,581,629, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Brandman, Michael Louis (Charlotte, NC); Feldman, Julia M. (West Hartford, CT); Marchetti, Richard J. (Plainville, CT); Ryen, Steinar (Glastonbury, CT).

This patent was filed on December 3, 2018 and was published online on March 16, 2020.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Building and home automation or so called smart home/building technology may include centralized control and monitoring of lighting, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, appliances, security, windows and doors and other systems, to provide improved safety, convenience, comfort, energy efficiency and security. The popularity of building and home automation has been increasing greatly in recent years due to the variety of sensors available and the much higher affordability and simplicity through smartphone and tablet access and connectivity.

“Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems can include temperature and humidity control with Internet-controlled thermostats that allow control of the building’s heating and air conditioning systems via smartphone. The system may automatically open and close windows to cool or warm the house or building. Automation products can be used for as home security monitoring, control of lighting or can include very complex interactions with other systems. Control systems can be used to switch lights based on a time cycle, or arranged to automatically go out or one when a room or building is unoccupied. Systems can also be used to automatically control window shades and draperies to make best use of natural light and provide privacy at night.

“A building and home automation system integrates various electronic and electrical devices in a structure with each other. Devices may be connected through a local wireless network to allow control by a personal computer, and may allow remote access from the internet or radio frequency based network via a smartphone or other portable mobile device. Through the integration of information technologies with the home or building environment, systems and appliances can communicate in an integrated manner which results in security, convenience, energy efficiency, and safety benefits to the occupant.

“Accordingly, it would be desirable to access so called smart home and building systems to provide data for the provision of additional services to the building or homeowner. For example, third party entities can leverage data from connected home devices to assess and mitigate risk, increase pricing sophistication, and offer new products, all of which help drive operational efficiency and top-line growth.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present invention in some embodiments relates to a dynamic building control system having a plurality of sensor units for detecting one or more conditions associated with one or more building components, the system, comprising: a plurality of sensor units electrically connected to one or more building components, the sensor units comprising at least one or more of ultraviolet (UV), infrared (IR), multi-spectrum infrared (MSIR), and visual flame imaging, wherein the sensor units detect a plurality of condition states within certain regions of a building structure, wherein the sensor units generate electronic signals corresponding to a plurality of sensed condition states within a building structure; a wireless network in communication with the sensor units; and an electronic control center, wherein the control center receives the electronic signals over the wireless network and transmits data related to the electronic signals to a remote server system, the remote server system augmenting the received data with one or more third party auxiliary data sources, the remote server system further associating the augmented data with one or more building properties in order to modify one or more stored parameters associated with the building properties.

“A sensor system having for detecting and mitigating one or more conditions associated with a connected home, the system, comprising a plurality of sensors coupled to one or more home components, wherein a plurality of the sensors sense one or more conditions within certain regions of the home; one or more control units electrically connected to the sensors, wherein at least one of control units generates an electronic signal corresponding to a condition of the home; and a control center connected to a remote server system, wherein the control center receives the electronic signal, and transmits data related to the electronic signal to a server system, the server system associating the received data with one or more indexed properties and applying a weighting factor to the received data for modifying a stored parameter associated with the one or more properties.

“The present invention in some embodiments is a control system having a plurality of sensor units for monitoring a building structure, the system, comprising a plurality of sensor units electrically connected to one or more building components, wherein a plurality of the sensor units monitor one or more conditions within the building structure; one or more control units electrically connected to the sensor units, wherein at least one of control units generates an electronic signal corresponding to a condition state; and a control center connected to a remote server system, wherein the control center receives the electronic signal, and transmits data related to the electronic signal to a remote server system, the remote server system associating the received data with one or more building properties and applying a weighting factor to the data based on the respective sensor unit for the one or more building structures to modify a stored parameter associated with the one or more properties, the control center transmitting one or more control signals to one or more control units, the transmitted signal controlling one or more building components to mitigate a condition state associated with the building structure.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A dynamic building control system for detecting one or more conditions associated with one or more building regions of a building property, comprising: a plurality of sensors configured to monitor the one or more building regions of the building property, wherein each of the plurality of sensors is configured to generate electronic signals corresponding to one or more sensed conditions of the one or more building regions; a plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices configured to control one or more building components; a wireless network in communication with the plurality of sensors and the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices; and an electronic control center in communication with a remote server system and a remote data system, wherein the electronic control center is configured to: receive, from the wireless network, initial electronic signals corresponding to the one or more sensed conditions of the one or more building regions; determine whether the initial electronic signals indicate a presence of a risk condition corresponding to the one or more building regions; responsive to a determination that the initial electronic signals indicate the presence of a risk condition, transmit via a communications interface device to a user computing device, a risk condition message indicating the presence of the risk condition; receive, by the communications interface device from the user computing device, instructions for generating control signals to control one or more of the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices to mitigate the risk condition; generate and transmit, via the wireless network to the one or more of the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices, the control signals to control the one or more of the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices to mitigate the risk condition; receive, after implementation of the control signals by the one or more of the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices, additional electronic signals from the plurality of sensors corresponding to the one or more sensed conditions of the one or more building regions; and transmit, via the communications interface device to the remote server system, additional activity data corresponding to the building control system including the electronic signals, the determination of the presence of the risk condition, the control signals to mitigate the risk condition, and the additional electronic signals; wherein the remote server system is configured to determine, based upon the additional activity data, whether the risk condition was mitigated by the implementation of the control signals, and responsive to a determination that the risk condition was not mitigated by the implementation of the control signals, modify one or more stored parameters associated with the building property.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the electronic control center being configured to transmit the risk condition message comprises the electronic control center being configured to transmit to the user computing device a user interface indicating the presence of the risk condition.

“3. The system of claim 2, wherein the user interface indicating the presence of the risk condition transmitted to the user computing device includes a selectable option for mitigating the risk condition; and wherein the electronic control center being configured to receive instructions for generating control signals to control one or more of the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices to mitigate the risk condition comprises the electronic control center being configured to receive, from the user computing device, selection of the selectable option on the user interface for mitigating the risk condition.

“4. The system of claim 1, wherein the user computing device comprises one of a smart phone or a tablet computing device.

“5. The system of claim 1, wherein the remote server system is configured to continually receive additional activity data from the electronic control center; and wherein the remote server system is further configured to determine a usage frequency of one of the plurality of sensors based upon the additional activity data and modify the one or more stored parameters associated with the building property based upon the determined usage frequency.

“6. The system of claim 5, wherein the one of the one or more of the plurality of sensors for which a usage frequency is determined comprises one of a remote fire sensor and leak detection sensor.

“7. The system of claim 5, wherein the remote server system is further configured to receive auxiliary data from third party monitoring services monitoring the building property; wherein the remote server system is further configured to modify the one or more stored parameters associated with the building property based upon the auxiliary data.

“8. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of sensors comprise at least one of a fire detector, a smoke detector, a CO2 detector, a water leak detector, an appliance monitor, an electronic lock sensor, a temperature sensor, a video monitor, a water usage monitor, a security system monitor, a leak detection system, a furnace monitor, a boiler monitor, an entry/exit sensor, a motion detector, a glass breakage sensor, an ultraviolet (UV) sensor, an infrared (IR) sensor, a multi-spectrum infrared (MSIR) sensor, and a visual flame imaging sensor.

“9. A system comprising: a communications interface device for transmitting and receiving data from an electronic control center networked with a plurality of sensors for detecting one or more conditions associated with one or more building regions of a building property, the data related to electronic signals generated by one or more of the plurality of sensors corresponding to one or more sensed conditions of the one or more building regions; a data storage device configured to store sensor data; and a server communicatively coupled to the communications interface device and the data storage device and configured to: receive, from the electronic control center via the communications interface device, initial activity data including initial electronic signals corresponding to the one or more sensed conditions of the one or more building regions; determine whether the initial activity data indicates a presence of a risk condition corresponding to the one or more building regions; responsive to a determination that the initial activity data indicates the presence of a risk condition, transmit via the communications interface device to a user computing device, a risk condition message indicating the presence of the risk condition; receive, by the communications interface device from the user computing device, instructions for generating control signals for controlling one or more of a plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices to mitigate the risk condition; transmit, via a wireless network to the electronic control center, the instructions for generating control signals to control the one or more of the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices to mitigate the risk condition, wherein the electronic control center is configured to generate and transmit the control signals to the one or more of the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices; receive, from the electronic control center after implementation of the control signals by the one or more of the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices, additional activity data including additional electronic signals from the plurality of sensors corresponding to the one or more sensed conditions of the one or more building regions; and determine, based upon the additional activity data, whether the risk condition was mitigated by the implementation of the control signals; and responsive to a determination that the risk condition was not mitigated by the implementation of the control signals, modify one or more stored parameters associated with the building property.

“10. The system of claim 9, wherein the server being configured to transmit the risk condition message to the user computing device comprises the server being configured to transmit to the user computing device a user interface indicating the presence of the risk condition.

“11. The system of claim 10, wherein the user interface indicating the presence of the risk condition transmitted to the user computing device includes a selectable option for mitigating the risk condition; and wherein the server being configured to receive, by the communications interface device from the user computing device, instructions for generation of control signals to control one or more of the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices to mitigate the risk condition comprises the server being configured to receive from the user computing device, selection of the selectable option on the user interface for mitigating the risk condition.

“12. The system of claim 9, wherein the server being configured to transmit the risk condition message to the user computing device comprises the server being configured to transmit instructions to the electronic control center to cause the electronic control center to transmit to the user computing device a user interface indicating the presence of the risk condition.

“13. The system of claim 12, wherein the user interface indicating the presence of the risk condition transmitted to the user computing device includes a selectable option for mitigating the risk condition; and wherein the server being configured to receive, by the communications interface device from the user computing device, instructions for generating control signals to control one or more of the plurality of electronic and electromechanical devices to mitigate the risk condition comprises the server being configured to receive from the user computing device via the electronic control center, selection of the selectable option on the user interface for mitigating the risk condition.

“14. The system of claim 9, wherein the user computing device comprises one of a smart phone or a tablet computing device.

“15. The system of claim 9, wherein the server is configured to continually receive, by the communications interface device, additional activity data from the electronic control center; and wherein the server is further configured to determine a usage frequency of one of the plurality of sensors based upon the additional activity data and modify the one or more stored parameters associated with the building property based upon the determined usage frequency.

“16. The system of claim 15, wherein the server is further configured to receive auxiliary data from third party monitoring services monitoring the building property; and wherein the server is further configured to modify the one or more stored parameters associated with the building property based upon the auxiliary data.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Brandman, Michael Louis; Feldman, Julia M.; Marchetti, Richard J.; Ryen, Steinar. Building Condition Sensor Monitoring And Control System. U.S. Patent Number 10,581,629, filed December 3, 2018, and published online on March 16, 2020. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,581,629.PN.&OS=PN/10,581,629RS=PN/10,581,629

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