U.S. patent application number 15/318870 was filed with the patent office on 2017-05-11 for adaptive control and management for electronic device.
The applicant listed for this patent is ABLE WORLD INTERNATIONAL LIMITED. Invention is credited to HO-CHEUNG CHEUNG, WAI-TUNG CHEUNG, SHIH-CHENG LAN, CHUN-HSIAO LIN.
Application Number | 20170131688 15/318870 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 55017056 |
Filed Date | 2017-05-11 |
United States Patent
Application |
20170131688 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
CHEUNG; WAI-TUNG ; et
al. |
May 11, 2017 |
ADAPTIVE CONTROL AND MANAGEMENT FOR ELECTRONIC DEVICE
Abstract
In a method of controlling and managing one or more electronic
devices, a projectable space instance is provided for a control
device to create a workspace, wherein an analyzing and controlling
tool, a data-monitoring tool and at least one unified tool for
driving at least one electronic device is selectively added to the
projectable space instance; and the projectable space instance is
parsed with a projector by the control device to automatically
generate a projected workspace corresponding to the workspace to be
created via the projectable space instance, wherein the
data-monitoring tool picks up a data information from the at least
one electronic device by way of the at least one unified tool, and
the analyzing and controlling tool analyzes the data information
and controls the at least one electronic device by way of the at
least one unified tool according to an analysis result.
Inventors: |
CHEUNG; WAI-TUNG; (Hong
Kong, HK) ; LIN; CHUN-HSIAO; (New Taipei City,
TW) ; LAN; SHIH-CHENG; (Taipei City, TW) ;
CHEUNG; HO-CHEUNG; (Hong Kong, HK) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
ABLE WORLD INTERNATIONAL LIMITED |
Virgin Islands, British |
|
VG |
|
|
Family ID: |
55017056 |
Appl. No.: |
15/318870 |
Filed: |
July 2, 2015 |
PCT Filed: |
July 2, 2015 |
PCT NO: |
PCT/CN2015/083162 |
371 Date: |
December 14, 2016 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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14577772 |
Dec 19, 2014 |
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15318870 |
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14325466 |
Jul 8, 2014 |
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14577772 |
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14324069 |
Jul 3, 2014 |
9134963 |
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14325466 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 9/451 20180201;
G06F 8/38 20130101; G06F 40/106 20200101; H04L 63/102 20130101;
G06F 8/35 20130101; G06F 8/34 20130101; H04L 67/12 20130101; G06F
21/31 20130101; G06F 8/20 20130101 |
International
Class: |
G05B 13/02 20060101
G05B013/02; G05B 19/042 20060101 G05B019/042 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Feb 5, 2015 |
CN |
201510060730.5 |
Claims
1. A method of controlling and managing an electronic device,
comprising: providing a projectable space instance for a control
device to create a workspace, wherein an analyzing and controlling
tool, a data-monitoring tool and at least one unified tool for
driving at least one electronic device is selectively added to the
projectable space instance; and parsing the projectable space
instance with a projector by the control device to automatically
generate a projected workspace corresponding to the workspace to be
created via the projectable space instance, wherein the
data-monitoring tool picks up a data information from the at least
one electronic device by way of the at least one unified tool, and
the analyzing and controlling tool analyzes the data information
and controls the at least one electronic device by way of the at
least one unified tool according to an analysis result.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one
unified tool includes at least one unified device driver generated
by unifying at least one device driver by way of a unifying
method.
3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the at least one device
driver is developed by way of a software development kit (SDK)
corresponding to the at least one electronic device.
4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the at least one
unified tool includes a plurality of unified device drivers
generated by unifying a plurality of device drivers for driving a
plurality of electronic devices, respectively, wherein the
plurality of device drivers are configured in the projected
workspace after being unified, so as to be compatible with one
another.
5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: storing the
data information accessed from the at least one electronic device
by the data-monitoring tool into a storage device to be accessed by
the analyzing and controlling tool for analysis.
6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the control device
controls and manages at least two different types of electronic
devices.
7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the at least two
different types of electronic devices are manufactured by different
manufacturers, exhibit different functions, or are manufactured by
different manufacturers and exhibit different functions.
8. The method according to claim 1, for controlling and managing a
home appliance system, a medical equipment system, a security
control system, a fire-fighting control system or a transportation
control system.
9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the control device is
selected from a computer, a home appliance, a handheld electronic
device, a wearable electronic device or a combination thereof.
10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the projectable space
instance is an object, an extensible markup language (XML)
document, or an instance instantiated with a structured language or
a structured protocol.
11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data-monitoring
tool is included in the analyzing and controlling tool; the
analyzing and controlling tool is included in the data-monitoring
tool; or the data-monitoring tool and the analyzing and controlling
tool are a common tool.
12. A control device for controlling and managing at least one
electronic device, comprising a projector for parsing a projectable
space instance to build a projected workspace corresponding to a
workspace to be created via the projectable space instance, wherein
an analyzing and controlling tool, a data-monitoring tool and at
least one unified tool for driving the at least one electronic
device are selectively added to the projectable space instance, and
when the projected workspace is built and working, the
data-monitoring tool accesses a data information from the at least
one electronic device by way of the at least one unified tool, and
the analyzing and controlling tool analyzes the data information
and controls the at least one electronic device by way of the at
least one unified tool according to an analysis result.
13. The control device according to claim 12, wherein the at least
one unified tool includes at least one unified device driver
generated by unifying at least one device driver by way of a
unifying method.
14. The control device according to claim 13, wherein the at least
one device driver is developed by way of a software development kit
(SDK) corresponding to the at least one electronic device.
15. The control device according to claim 13, wherein the at least
one unified tool includes a plurality of unified device drivers
generated by unifying a plurality of device drivers for driving a
plurality of electronic devices, respectively, wherein the
plurality of device drivers are configured in the projected
workspace after being unified, so as to be compatible with one
another.
16. The control device according to claim 12, further comprising a
storage device for storing the data information accessed from the
at least one electronic device by the data-monitoring tool, and
accessible by the analyzing and controlling tool for analysis of
the data information.
17. The control device according to claim 12, wherein the control
device controls and manages at least two different types of
electronic devices.
18. The control device according to claim 17, wherein the at least
two different types of electronic devices are manufactured by
different manufacturers, exhibit different functions, or are
manufactured by different manufacturers and exhibit different
functions.
19. The control device according to claim 12, wherein the
data-monitoring tool is included in the analyzing and controlling
tool; the analyzing and controlling tool is included in the
data-monitoring tool; or the data-monitoring tool and the analyzing
and controlling tool are a common tool.
20. The control device according to claim 12, for controlling and
managing a home appliance system, a medical equipment system, a
security control system, a fire-fighting control system or a
transportation control system.
Description
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The present invention relates to a control method, and
particularly to a method of adaptively controlling and managing one
or more electronic devices by way of a workspace. The present
invention also relates to a control device for adaptively
controlling and managing one or more electronic devices.
BACKGROUND
[0002] As information and communications technology improves every
day, building an informationized, digitized, human-centered and
facilitative smart life has become a trend in the future.
Meanwhile, home appliances that are parts of our daily lives would
become keys to digital homes and smart lives for sure. Hence, the
development of intelligentized home appliances would be one of the
mainstreams in industry.
[0003] Smart home appliances generally refer to consumer
electronics and home appliances with ability to link to internet,
including wide area service network, local area home network, or
any other suitable network. Home appliances interconnected via
internet and integrated as a system can be used to build up digital
homes and smart lives.
[0004] For integrating and communicating home appliances with one
another, different types of home appliances, home appliances
produced by different designers or manufacturers and/or home
appliances performing different functions are linked through a
unified communication protocol. For example, Qualcomm Technologies,
Inc. (hereinafter "Qualcomm") has developed a communication chip
based on the AllJoyn open software architecture. Home appliances
installed with the communication chip are then able to communicate
and interact with one another through the AllJoyn platform.
[0005] Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a scheme showing
conventional communication among home appliances installed with
AllJoyn communication chips. As shown in FIG. 1, AllJoyn
communication chips 111 and 121 developed based on the AllJoyn open
software architecture are installed in a first electronic device 11
(such as a first illuminating light) and a second electronic device
12 (such as a second illuminating light), respectively. Meanwhile,
a first device driver 131 for driving the first electronic device
11, a second device driver 132 for driving the second electronic
device 12, and means 133 for controlling and managing the first
electronic device 11 and the second electronic device 12, e.g. a
software program, are installed in a control device 13 (such as a
computer). Since the first device driver 131, the second device
driver 132 and the control and management means 133 all comply with
the AllJoyn protocol, the first electronic device 11 driven by the
first device driver 131 and the second electronic device 12 driven
by the second device driver 132 can successfully communicate with
each other via the control and management means 133. In other
words, through the first device driver 131, second device driver
132 and control and management means 133, the first electronic
device 11 and the second electronic device 12 are interoperable to
achieve cooperative and interactive objectives. In addition,
several corporations including Microsoft, Philips and Sony have
established another communication protocol, Digital Living Network
Alliance (DLNA), for communication and interaction among home
appliances. Green Energy & Environment Research Laboratories of
Industrial Technology Research Institute (Taiwan) further provides
a SAANet control protocol available to home appliance
manufacturers.
[0006] Please refer to FIG. 2, which is a scheme showing
conventional communication among home appliances installed with
different communication chips executing different communication
protocols. As shown in FIG. 2, a first electronic device 11 (such
as a first illuminating light) is installed with an AllJoyn
communication chip 111 developed based on the AllJoyn open software
architecture. A third electronic device 16 (such as a third
illuminating light) is installed with a DLNA communication chip 161
developed based on the DLNA communication protocol. A fourth
electronic device 14 (such as a fourth illuminating light) is
installed with a SAANet communication chip 141 developed based on
the SAANet control protocol. Meanwhile, a first device driver 151,
a third device driver 152 and a fourth device driver 153 are
installed in a control device 15 (such as a computer), wherein the
first device driver 151 developed based on the AllJoyn open
software architecture supports the first electronic device 11, the
third device driver 152 developed based on the DLNA communication
protocol supports the third electronic device 16, and the fourth
device driver 153 developed based on the SAANet control protocol
supports the fourth electronic device 14.
[0007] Since the first device driver 151, the third device driver
152 and the fourth device driver 153 do not work under a common
communication protocol, the first electronic device 11, the third
electronic device 16 and the fourth electronic device 14 cannot
successfully interact and communicate with one another.
Furthermore, since home appliance manufacturers may be in a
competitive relationship to one another, it might be hard to
coordinate the home appliance manufacturers to accept a common
communication protocol or use a common communication chip under
consideration of commercial profits.
[0008] FIG. 3 schematically shows how a conventional communication
method makes the communication and interaction among home
appliances installed with different communication chips and
executing different communication protocols possible. As shown in
FIG. 3, an interface 154 developed and designed by any of the
manufacturers of the home appliance, the manufacturer of the
control device, or a third party is installed in a control device
15' as a communication medium among the first device driver 151,
the third device driver 152 and the fourth device driver 153.
Accordingly, the first electronic device 11, the third electronic
device 16 and the fourth electronic device 14 can communicate and
interact with one another successfully. Unfortunately, there would
always be new communication protocols developed for new or existing
home appliances in the future. The new communication protocols
might be unable to communicate with one other or with the existing
ones. Under this circumstance, the interface 154 installed in the
control device 15' might need to be updated frequently, and thus a
burden would be rendered. Once the interface 154 cannot be updated
any longer due to a variety of reasons, home appliances using
communication chips developed based on new communication protocols
would be unable to communicate and interact with other home
appliances. This might cause problems in use. Therefore, an
operating environment which is so flexible that a new communication
protocol can be added to the control device easily and compatibly,
and any undesired communication protocol can be removed from the
control device at any time, is required.
[0009] Furthermore, subsequent to the popularity of intelligent
home appliances, how to provide efficient and intelligent services
for home members to further improve quality of lives would be next
aim to be achieved. For example, there are generally a number of
illuminating lights in a building. Under the trend of energy
saving, it is preferably that the lights can be adaptively turned
on and/or turned off according to the pedestrian traffic passing
therethrough. However, since lights are generally distributed broad
in a variety of regions, where the pedestrian traffic conditions
are quite different and variable, it is impractical to specifically
design each light to be turned on and/or off according to a preset
pattern.
SUMMARY
[0010] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide
a method of controlling and managing one or more electronic devices
such as home appliances. The control and management method is
human-oriented and meets the lifestyles and habits of users.
[0011] The present invention also provides a control device for
executing the control and management method. The device drivers for
driving the electronic devices can be selectively configured as
desired by the users. The device drivers are compatible to one
another in the present control device. The electronic devices
controlled by the present control device can automatically and
adaptively operate depending on practical requirements in a less
complicated and less labor-consuming way.
[0012] In an aspect, the present invention provides a method of
controlling and managing an electronic devices, which comprises:
providing a projectable space instance for a control device to
create a workspace, wherein an analyzing and controlling tool, a
data-monitoring tool and at least one unified tool for driving at
least one electronic device is selectively added to the projectable
space instance; and parsing the projectable space instance with a
projector by the control device to automatically generate a
projected workspace corresponding to the workspace to be created
via the projectable space instance, wherein the data-monitoring
tool accesses a data information from the at least one electronic
device by way of the at least one unified tool, and the analyzing
and controlling tool analyzes the data information and controls the
at least one electronic device by way of the at least one unified
tool according to an analysis result.
[0013] In another aspect, the present invention provides a control
device for controlling and managing at least one electronic device,
which comprises a projector for parsing a projectable space
instance to build a projected workspace corresponding to a
workspace to be created via the projectable space instance, wherein
an analyzing and controlling tool, a data-monitoring tool and at
least one unified tool for driving the at least one electronic
device are selectively added to the projectable space instance, and
when the projected workspace is built and working, the
data-monitoring tool accesses a data information from the at least
one electronic device by way of the at least one unified tool, and
the analyzing and controlling tool analyzes the data information
and controls the at least one electronic device by way of the at
least one unified tool according to an analysis result.
[0014] In an embodiment, the at least one unified tool includes at
least one unified device driver generated by unifying at least one
device driver by way of a unifying method.
[0015] In an embodiment, the at least one device driver is
developed by way of a software development kit (SDK) corresponding
to the at least one electronic device.
[0016] In an embodiment, the at least one unified tool includes a
plurality of unified device drivers generated by unifying a
plurality of device drivers for driving a plurality of electronic
devices, respectively, wherein the plurality of device drivers are
configured in the projected workspace after being unified, so as to
be compatible with one another.
[0017] In an embodiment, the method further comprises: storing the
data information accessed from the at least one electronic device
by the data-monitoring tool into a storage device to be accessed by
the analyzing and controlling tool for analysis.
[0018] In an embodiment, the control device controls and manages at
least two different types of electronic devices.
[0019] In an embodiment, the at least two different types of
electronic devices are manufactured by different manufacturers,
exhibit different functions, or are manufactured by different
manufacturers and exhibit different functions.
[0020] In an embodiment, the method is adapted for controlling and
managing a home appliance system, a medical equipment system, a
security control system, a fire-fighting control system or a
transportation control system.
[0021] In an embodiment, the control device is selected from a
computer, a home appliance, a handheld electronic device, a
wearable electronic device or a combination thereof.
[0022] In an embodiment, the projectable space instance is an
object, an extensible markup language (XML) document, or an
instance instantiated with a structured language or a structured
protocol.
[0023] In an embodiment, the data-monitoring tool is included in
the analyzing and controlling tool; the analyzing and controlling
tool is included in the data-monitoring tool; or the
data-monitoring tool and the analyzing and controlling tool are a
common tool.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0024] The above objects and advantages of the present invention
will become more readily apparent to those ordinarily skilled in
the art after reviewing the following detailed description and
accompanying drawings, in which:
[0025] FIG. 1 is a scheme showing a conventional method of
communication among home appliances installed with AllJoyn
communication chips;
[0026] FIG. 2 is a scheme showing another conventional method of
communication among home appliances installed with different
communication chips executing different communication
protocols;
[0027] FIG. 3 is a scheme showing a further conventional method of
communication among home appliances installed with different
communication chips and executing different communication
protocols;
[0028] FIG. 4 is a scheme showing a unifying method, which is
applicable to the present invention for controlling and managing
one or more electronic devices;
[0029] FIG. 5 is a scheme illustrating implementation of a personal
workspace with a unified script used as an intermediate
language;
[0030] FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram exemplifying allocation
of unified matters in a personal workspace, which is applicable to
the present invention for controlling and managing one or more
electronic devices;
[0031] FIGS. 7, 8A and 8B are schematic diagrams exemplifying
creation of a projected workspace, which is applicable to the
present invention for controlling and managing one or more
electronic devices;
[0032] FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram exemplifying the relationship
between a projectable space instance and a projected workspace
applicable to the present invention for controlling and managing
one or more electronic devices;
[0033] FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a method of controlling
and managing one or more electronic devices according to the
present invention;
[0034] FIGS. 11 and 12 are schematic diagrams illustrating a
control and management method according to an embodiment of the
present invention, wherein a projected workspace is created to
conduct control and management among electronic devices;
[0035] FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram exemplifying the relationship
between a projectable space instance and a projected workspace
involved in the method illustrated in FIGS. 11 and 12; and
[0036] FIG. 14 is a scheme illustrating the interaction of the
projected workspace in the control device with the first electronic
device and the second electronic device for control and management
according to an embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0037] The present invention can be readily appreciated by
referring to the following descriptions, including the following
glossary of terms and the concluding examples. It is to be noted
that some patent publication numbers or patent application numbers
are cited throughout the specification, and the entire disclosures
thereof are to be incorporated herein for reference.
[0038] In the embodiments described below, the present invention is
described by way of examples and characteristic illustrations, but
is not to be limited to the examples and characteristic
illustrations. The term "information source" used herein indicates
a symbolic sequence of useful information that can be specifically
interpreted as, but not limited to, a message for organizing and
labeling data. The information source includes a website (such as
internet service), intranet, software, electronic book, database
and other media of information (such as storage media of
non-transitory computer or storage media of mobile device). The
term "original information" used herein indicates, but is not
limited to, a file, web page, database row, policy, rule or any
information accessible from corresponding machine or server. The
term "tool" used herein indicates, but is not limited to, a
utility, widget, agent, application, service or any executable
element accessible from corresponding machine or server.
[0039] Further, the "original information" and the "original tool"
are embodiments of the "original matter" in the present invention.
By way of a unifying method, multiple "original matters" from the
same or different "information sources" are modeled into multiple
"unified matters". The resulting "unified matters" existing in the
same working environment are then compatible with one another and
capable of conducting cooperative task. Moreover, the "unified
tool" and the "unified information unit" are embodiments of the
"unified matter" in the present invention. The term "matterizer"
used herein indicates a component, device or program code for
unifying the "original matter".
[0040] In a preferred embodiment, the unifying method mentioned
above includes steps of reorganizing at least one original
information obtained from at least one of the multiple information
sources based on a unified data structure, thereby modeling the
original information into a unified information unit; and/or
reorganizing at least one original tool obtained from at least one
of the multiple information sources based on another unified data
structure, thereby modeling the original tool into a unified tool.
The unified data structure and the another unified data structure
may be the same or different. The unifying method can be
implemented with a matterizer.
[0041] Please refer to FIG. 4, which is a scheme showing a unifying
method, which is applicable to the present invention for
controlling and managing one or more electronic devices. As shown
in FIG. 4, a matterizer 992 reorganizes an attribute and an
associated link of an original matter 991 based on a unified data
model 993, thereby modeling the original matter 991 into a unified
matter 994. The resulting basic attribute of the unified matter 994
then includes a type and a link of the original matter 991.
[0042] In this embodiment, the original matter 991 could be, but is
not limited to an original information and/or an original tool. In
the above mentioned unifying method, if the attribute accessible
from the original information complies with the attribute
requirement of the unified information unit, the unified
information unit can be directly generated through the matterizer
992. On the other hand, if the attribute accessible from the
original information does not comply with the attribute requirement
of the unified information unit, a process of logically
reorganizing the attribute and the associated link of the original
information to redefine the original information is needed, in
order to transform the original information into a new original
information with an attribute consistent to the attribute
requirement of the unified information unit. Under this
circumstance, the unified information unit is indirectly
generated.
[0043] Furthermore, the unified tool is directly generated through
the matterizer 992 when the original tool is compatible with the
working environment of the workspace; and an adapter and/or a
software development kit (SDK) for driving the original tool would
be required as a medium for generating the unified tool, i.e.
indirectly, when the original tool is incompatible with the working
environment of the workspace. In other words, the adapter is used
to provide an interface implementation to fit the working
environment.
[0044] The details of the embodiments of unifying method, the
monitoring of the unified matters and the operation of the
matterizer according to the present invention can be understood
with reference to, but not limited to, the U.S. patent application
Ser. No. 14/324,069, entitled "A METHOD OF UNIFYING INFORMATION AND
TOOL FROM A PLURALITY OF INFORMATION SOURCES" as well as the China
Patent Application No. 201410768564.X, which claims the benefit of
priority to the U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/324,069 and is
entitled "A method of unifying information and tool from a
plurality of information sources and computer product and device
using the method", which are assigned to the same assignee. The
entire disclosures of the co-pending patent applications are
incorporated herein for reference, and would not be redundantly
described. Furthermore, those skilled in the art may make
equivalent modifications according to practical requirements.
[0045] Hereinafter, two more examples of unifying methods
applicable to the present invention are given as follows. The first
one is an information unifying method applied to Garmin satellite
navigation. Similar to above-mentioned unifying method, a unified
point information (regarded as the unified information unit of the
present invention) corresponding to an original point information
(regarded as the original information of the present invention) is
obtained after a unifying process is performed on the original
point information by executing the Point of Interest (POI) function
of Garmin satellite navigation. The second one is a tool unifying
method applied to an Android system. An Android system is an open
source mobile operating system based on Linux. In general,
application programs (regarded as the original tool of the present
invention) of Android systems are written in Java. Therefore,
application programs (regarded as the original tool of the present
invention) written in Java can be modeled into unified applications
(regarded as the unified tool of the present invention) compatible
with the Android system. The resulting unified application programs
corresponding to the application programs written in Java are then
executable in the Android system.
[0046] The workspace described herein is a space where at least one
matterizer, at least one information and/or at least one tool can
interact with one another and/or execute specified tasks. The at
least one information and/or at least one tool can be, but is not
limited to be, imported into the workspace through the at least one
matterizer. Information importers 9881, 9882 and 9883 to be
described later with reference to FIG. 5 are exemplified
embodiments of the matterizer. The unified script described herein
is an intermediate language for implementing the workspace, and the
at least one matterizer, the at least one information and/or the at
least one tool are provided, for example built-in or plugged-in, to
the workspace by way of the unified script.
[0047] In an embodiment, the above-mentioned at least one
information is a unified information unit which is generated after
at least one original information obtained from at least one
information source is unified. The above-mentioned at least one
tool is a unified tool which is generated after at least one
original tool obtained from at least one information source is
unified. Any user could add, build or plug any unified information
unit he needs and/or unified tool he needs from corresponding
information sources into a personal workspace according to
practical needs. In other words, the workspace can be a
user-oriented personal workspace.
[0048] Please refer to FIG. 5 and FIG. 6. FIG. 5 schematically
illustrates an implementation concept of using the unified script
as an intermediate language for implementing the workspace, and
FIG. 6 schematically illustrates an exemplified configuration of a
personal workspace. As shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, a unified
information unit 985' corresponding to an original information 985
in the Dropbox 982, a first unified tool 986' corresponding to a
compatible original tool 986 in the cloud storage 983 and a second
unified tool 987' corresponding to an incompatible original tool
987 in a server 984 are selectively combined into a personal
workspace 981 by a user. This can be accomplished by compiling a
unified script 980 and configuring an information importer 9881 of
Dropbox 982, an information importer 9882 of the cloud storage 983
and an information importer 9883 of the server 984 according to the
unified script 980. Accordingly, the original information 985 in
the Dropbox 982 can be unified into the unified information unit
985' and then imported into the personal workspace 981. For example
without limitation, the unified script 980 is defined as an
intermediate language for implementing the workspace, and the
information importer 9882 is a matterizer of Dropbox.
[0049] As shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, the original tool saved in
the cloud storage 983 is a compatible original tool 986 which is
compatible with the component architecture of the unified tool of
the personal workspace 981. The first unified tool 986'
corresponding to the compatible original tool 986 is directly
provided to the personal workspace 981 through the information
importer 9882 of the unified script 980.
[0050] On the other hand, the original tool saved in the server 984
is the incompatible original tool 987 which is incompatible with
the component architecture of the unified tool of the personal
workspace 981. Then the second unified tool 987' corresponding to
the incompatible original tool 987 is indirectly provided to the
personal workspace 981 through a compatible adaptor 989 and the
information importer 9883 of the unified script 980.
[0051] FIG. 6 further shows that the unified information unit 985',
the first unified tool 986' and the second unified tool 987' are
flexibly configured and arranged, e.g. grouped or placed, by the
user in a specified region of the personal workspace 981 according
to practical needs. Afterwards, the user may use the unified tool
to do what he wants to do, for example, to access and control the
corresponding unified information unit by way of operations between
the unified tool and the unified information unit, such as clicking
or dragging.
[0052] The specific descriptions of using the unified script as the
intermediate language for implementing the workspace and
selectively combining unified information unit and unified tool
from corresponding information sources into the personal workspace
to perform tasks according to practical needs, as mentioned in the
embodiments, can also be referred to a co-pending U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 14/325,466, entitled "A method of combining
unified matters in personal workspace", as well as the China Patent
Application No. 201410796528.4, which claims the benefit of
priority to the U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 14/324,069 and
14/325,466 and is entitled "A method of combining unified matters
in a personal workspace and computer product and device using the
method", which are assigned to the same assignee, and will not be
redundantly described herein.
[0053] The personal workspace mentioned above is just an embodiment
of the workspace, and the workspace adapted to be used in the
present invention is not limited thereto. For instance, a unified
script which is regarded as the intermediate language for
implementing the workspace can be edited in advance so as to render
a workspace built in a matterizer, information and/or tool.
Furthermore, the workspace is not limited to a private workspace,
but can be provided for cooperative work among multiple users at
the same or different time according to practical needs.
Furthermore, the workspace can be projected to any electronic
device with computing capability by way of a workspace-projecting
method so that a user may use the projected workspace on that
electronic device.
[0054] In an embodiment, the workspace-projecting method includes
acquiring a projectable space instance which is instantiated from a
unified script through a URI (uniform resource identifier). The
unified script is defined to configure a matterizer, information
and/or tool to model a workspace, as described above, and the
projectable space instance is used for building a projected
workspace corresponding to the workspace to provide an interface
for operating the matterizer, information and/or tool. The
workspace-projecting method further includes using a projector to
parse the projectable space instance and build a working
environment to configure the matterizer, information and/or tool,
in order to execute the projected workspace. Then the user may
interact with the projected workspace.
[0055] In the workspace-projecting method, the projector can be
acquired from a remote data station, a projectable space instance
or a preloaded application program, and loaded to an engine where a
compatible working environment is provided for executing the
projector. The engine includes, but is not limited to, a JavaScript
engine, a Windows application, and/or a Linux application program.
Furthermore, the unified script can be declared by a DTD (Document
Type Definition), an XML Schema, a structured language or a
structured protocol, but is not limited thereto. The projectable
space instance can be, but is not limited to, an object, an XML
document, or an instance which is instantiated with the structured
language or the structured protocol.
[0056] Furthermore, the workspace-projecting method will be
illustrated in more detail by way of some embodiments. Please refer
to FIG. 7, FIG. 8A, FIG. 8B and FIG. 9. FIG. 7 schematically
illustrates an initial state before the workspace-projecting method
is performed. FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B schematically illustrates the
progresses of the workspace-projecting method. FIG. 9 schematically
shows the relationship between a projectable space instance as
shown in FIG. 7 and a projected workspace as shown in FIG. 8B. As
shown in FIG. 5, a first electronic device 971 and a second
electronic device 972 can be interconnected to each other, for
example, through the internet. Furthermore, the projectable space
instance 973 is saved in the first electronic device 971, and a
built-in projector 974 is saved in the second electronic device
972.
[0057] In this embodiment, a unified script 980 is declared by the
DTD (Document Type Definition) for configuring at least one
information importer, at least one unified information and/or at
least one unified tool to model a workspace. The information
importer is an embodiment of the matterizer. Moreover, the
projectable space instance 973 is an object which is instantiated
with XML. As shown in FIG. 9, the projectable space instance 973 is
used for building the projected workspace 976 corresponding to the
workspace. Besides, the information importer, the unified
information and/or the unified tool is allowed to be added in or
removed from the projectable space instance 973. The
above-mentioned descriptions will be illustrated in more details as
follows.
[0058] Furthermore, the projector 974 of the second electronic
device 972 will establish a working environment 975 on the second
electronic device 972 for executing the projected workspace 976,
and the projector 974 provides a microkernel 977 (see FIG. 9) to
the working environment 975 for equipping at least one information
importer, at least one unified information and/or at least one
unified tool which is/are going to be added to the projected
workspace 976. When the second electronic device 972 acquires the
projectable space instance 973 saved in the first electronic device
971 through a URI, the projector 974 of the second electronic
device 972 starts to parse the projectable space instance 973, as
shown in FIG. 8A. After the projectable space instance 973 is
parsed by the projector 974, the projected workspace 976 is created
in the working environment 975 according to parsed contents of the
projectable space instance 973, as shown in FIG. 8B. Accordingly, a
user of the second electronic device 972 can interact with the
projected workspace 976 through the second electronic device 972 to
perform related tasks.
[0059] The relationships between above mentioned unified script
980, the projectable space instance 973 and the projected workspace
976 will be illustrated in more detailed by way of a practical
condition as shown in FIG. 9. As shown in FIG. 9, a workspace which
can be projected and is capable of accessing jpg format image files
and gif format image files saved in a specified internet space is
created for making the image files visible to a user. In this
example, the unified script 980 is declared by the Document Type
Definition (DTD), and the projectable space instance 973 is
instantiated with XML.
[0060] Moreover, the information importer and the unified tool will
be added into the projectable space instance 973, and the
information importer is used to import at least one unified
information unit corresponding to original information into the
projected workspace 976. In this example, the information importer
is a Dropbox importer (the information of the Dropbox importer is
exemplified in the dashed line frame 9761 of FIG. 9). The original
information are jpg format image file 9791, jpg format image file
9792 and gif format image file 9793 stored in Dropbox 979, and the
unified information units are unified jpg format image file 9791',
unified jpg format image file 9792' and unified gif format image
file 9793'. The unified tool is an image viewer (the information of
the unified tool is exemplified in the dashed line frame 9762 of
FIG. 9) used for accessing image files which are imported into the
projected workspace 976.
[0061] As mentioned previously, the projected workspace 976 is
created after the projectable space instance 973 is parsed by the
projector 974 of the second electronic device 972. In this example,
the Dropbox importer 9761' (corresponding to the dashed line frame
9761) and the image viewer 9762' (corresponding to the dashed line
frame 9762) are configured in the projected workspace 976. The
Dropbox importer 9761' unifies and imports the jpg format image
file 9791, the jpg format image file 9792 and the gif format image
file 9793 from Dropbox 979 into the projected workspace 976. Then
the unified jpg format image file 9791', the unified jpg format
image file 9792' and the unified gif format image file 9793'
corresponding to the jpg format image file 9791, the jpg format
image file 9792 and the gif format image file 9793, respectively,
are present in the projected workspace 976. When the user of the
second electronic device 972 manipulates any of the unified image
files 9791', 9792' and 9793' by way of any suitable means, e.g.
clicking on the icon representing one of the unified images files
9791', 9792' and 9793', or dragging and dropping the icon
representing one of the image files 9791', 9792' and 9793' to the
image viewer 9762', the image viewer 9762' will access contents of
the corresponding unified image file 9791', 9792' or 9793' to
present the unified image file 9791', 9792' or 9793' in front of
the user. The information importer 9761' and the image viewer 9762'
mentioned above may be equipped by the microkernel 977.
[0062] It is to be noted that the URI of the projectable space
instance 973 may be a HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) URI or a
FTP (file transfer protocol) URI. When the first electronic device
971 and the second electronic device 972 are integrated into one
device, the URI of the projectable space instance 973 can also be a
local file URI. The URI of the projectable space instance 973 is
not limited to the above-mentioned types. The projectable space
instance 973 can be accessed by not only an original editor, but
also an authorized user or an authorized electronic device. For
instance, the authorized user may, but is not limited to, acquire
the projectable space instance 973 through the URI by using an
authorized user account and password.
[0063] A related art disclosed in patent application Ser. No.
14/577,772, entitled "METHOD OF PROJECTING A WORKSPACE AND SYSTEM
USING THE SAME" and assigned to the same assignee, as well as the
China Patent Application No. 201410814138.5, which claims the
benefit of priority to the U.S. patent application Ser. Nos.
14/324,069, 14/325,466 and 14/577,772 and is entitled "Method of
projecting a workspace and system using the same", are applicable
to embodiments of the present invention. The disclosure of the
co-pending patent applications are incorporated herein for
reference.
[0064] It is to be noted that the workspace-projecting method
described above is only one of the examples for projecting a
workspace to any electronic device with computing capability. Those
who are skilled in the art may make variations and modifications to
the workspace-projecting method described above depending on
practical requirements.
[0065] Hereinafter, a method of controlling and managing one or
more electronic devices according to the present invention will be
described in more detail by way of embodiments with reference to
accompanying drawings. The electronic devices controlled by the
present control device can automatically and adaptively operate
depending on practical requirements in a less complicated and less
labor-consuming way. The one or more electronic devices may be
different electronic devices. The different electronic devices, for
example, may be the same type of electronic devices manufactured by
different manufacturers but exhibiting similar functions. They
could also be different types of electronic devices manufactured by
the same or different manufacturers and exhibiting different
functions. Although the controlling and managing method is adapted
to be used among intelligent home appliances, it is also applicable
to a medical equipment system, a security control system, a
fire-fighting control system, a transportation control system or
any other suitable system.
[0066] Please refer to FIG. 10, which is a flowchart illustrating a
method of controlling and managing one or more electronic devices
according to the present invention. The control and management
method includes Step P1: providing a projectable space instance for
a control device to create a workspace, wherein an analyzing and
controlling tool, a data-monitoring tool and at least one unified
tool for driving at least one electronic device is selectively
added to the projectable space instance; and P2: parsing the
projectable space instance with a projector by the control device
to automatically generate a projected workspace corresponding to
the workspace to be created via the projectable space instance,
wherein the data-monitoring tool accesses a data information from
the at least one electronic device by way of the at least one
unified tool, and the analyzing and controlling tool analyzes the
data information and controls the at least one electronic device by
way of the at least one unified tool according to an analysis
result.
[0067] The projectable space instance is configured, for example by
a user, in accordance with a desired control and management design
to be executed by the control device, and will be illustrated in
more detail later.
[0068] Please refer to FIG. 11 through FIG. 13. FIG. 11
schematically illustrating an initial state before a projected
workspace is built. FIG. 12 schematically illustrates the progress
of generating a projected workspace. FIG. 13 schematically shows
the relationship between a projectable space instance as shown in
FIGS. 11 and 12 and a projected workspace as shown in FIG. 13.
[0069] As shown in FIG. 11, there are a first electronic device 21,
a second electronic device 22, a configuring device 23, a control
device 24 and a storage device 25 in an environment, and
interconnected via, for example, the internet. A first
communication chip 211 developed based on a first communication
protocol and a second communication chip 221 developed based on a
second communication protocol are installed in the first electronic
device 21 and the second electronic device 22, respectively. The
first communication protocol and the second communication protocol
could be the same or different. The control device 24 is, for
example but not limited to, a computer, a home appliance, a
handheld electronic device or a wearable electronic device. The
first communication chip 211 is developed based on, for example but
not limited to, AllJoyn open software architecture and the second
communication chip 221 is developed based on, for example but not
limited to, a communication protocol of DLNA.
[0070] According to the present invention, the first electronic
device 21 and the second electronic device 22 can execute a task,
as desired by a user 8, under the control and management of the
control device 24. Initially, a projectable space instance 31 is
installed in the configuring device 23, for example but not limited
to, a computer, and the projectable space instance 31 is created
and compiled according to practical needs of the user 8. The user 8
may selectively add an analyzing and controlling tool 42, a
data-monitoring tool 43 and a plurality of unified tools 41
respectively corresponding to the first electronic device 21 and
the second electronic device 22 to the projectable space instance
31. In addition, the user 8 may compile a control rule 44 of the
control device 24. When the projectable space instance 31 is loaded
into the control device 24 via, for example but not limited to, a
uniform resource identifier (URI), the control device 24 parses the
projectable space instance 31 and builds a projected workspace 32
accordingly. Meanwhile, the data-monitoring tool 43 accesses data
information from the first electronic device 21 and the second
electronic device 22 and stores it into the storage device 25 so
that the analyzing and controlling tool 42 can access the data
information from the storage device 25. Then the first electronic
device 21 and the second electronic device 22 can be controlled
according to the analysis result.
[0071] More specifically, the projected workspace 32 is built by
way of a projector 241 included in the control device 24. The
projector 241 builds a working environment 2411 required for the
operation of the projected workspace 32 in the control device 24.
The projector 241 also provides a microkernel 2412 corresponding to
the workspace for equipping and launching the control and
management tool 42, the data-monitoring tool 43 and the unified
tools 41 compiled in the projectable space instance 31. When the
control device 24 loads the projectable space instance 31 thereinto
from the configuring device 23, the projector 241 parses the
projectable space instance 31, and then the projected workspace 32
is built in the working environment 2411 according to parsed
contents of the projectable space instance 31. Accordingly, the
data-monitoring tool 43 can access data information from the first
electronic device 21 and the second electronic device 22 according
to the control rule 44, and transmits the data information to the
storage device 25 to be stored. The analyzing and controlling tool
42 can access the data information from the storage device 25 for
analysis, and control and manage the first electronic device 21 and
the second electronic device 22 according to the analysis result.
The projector 241 can be built in the control device 24.
Alternatively, the projector 241 can also be loaded from an
external storage device (not shown in the figures) via
internet.
[0072] In this embodiment, the unified tools 41 includes a unified
first device driver 411 generated by unifying a first device driver
by way of a unifying method and a unified second device driver 412
generated by unifying a second device driver by way of the unifying
method. The first device driver and the second device driver are
respectively corresponding to the first electronic device 21 and
the second electronic device 22, and the projectable space instance
31 is an object which is instantiated with XML. As shown in FIG.
13, the relationship between the projectable space instance 31 and
the projected workspace 32 are shown, and the correspondence is
indicated with dash lines. In this embodiment, the first device
driver and the second device driver are developed by way of, for
example but not limited to, software development kits (SDK)
respectively corresponding to the first electronic device 21 and
the second electronic device 22, and held in a specified storage
device linkable to the internet.
[0073] Please refer to FIG. 14, which is a scheme illustrating the
interaction of the projected workspace in the control device with
the first electronic device and the second electronic device for
group control and management according to an embodiment of the
present invention. In this embodiment, the unified first device
driver 411, the unified second device driver 412, the analyzing and
controlling tool 42, and the data-monitoring tool 43 configured
into the projected workspace 32 during the creation of the
projected workspace 32 are unified ones. The unified first device
driver 411 can communicate with the first communication chip 211 of
the first electronic device 21 via the first communication
protocol, and the unified second device driver 412 can communicate
with the second communication chip 221 of the second electronic
device 22 via the second communication protocol. Since all the
unified first device driver 411, the unified second device driver
412, the analyzing and controlling tool 42, and the data-monitoring
tool 43 have been unified before they are configured into the
projected workspace 32, the unified first device driver 411, the
unified second device driver 412, the analyzing and controlling
tool 42, and the data-monitoring tool 43 are compatible and able to
communicate with one another. Therefore, the data-monitoring tool
43 can access data information from the first electronic device 21
and data information from the second electronic device 22 via the
unified first device driver 411 and the unified second device
driver 412, respectively. The data information is then transmitted
to the storage device 25 to be saved. Also by way of the unified
first device driver 411 and the unified second device driver 412,
the analyzing and controlling tool 42 can control the first
electronic device 21 and the second electronic device 22 after
analyzing the data information saved in the storage device 25.
[0074] Hereinafter, examples are given to illustrate the control
and management method according to the present invention. For
example, the first electronic device 21 and the second electronic
device 22 are a first light and a second light installed in public
area of a building and equipped with human sensors for detecting
whether anybody is entering or leaving the associated area. The
user 8 may compile the projectable space instance 31 for the
energy-saving purpose to add the unified first device driver 411
corresponding to the first electronic device 21, the unified second
device driver 412 corresponding to the second electronic device 22,
the analyzing and controlling tool 42, and the data-monitoring tool
43 into the projectable space instance 31. Accordingly, when the
projected workspace 32 is built in the control device 24, the
data-monitoring tool 43 can access the sensed data from the first
electronic device 21 and the second electronic device 22, and
transmit the sensed data to the storage device 25 to be saved. For
example, the first light sensor detects a first count of people
passing a first region, where the first light is installed, in a
first specified time period, and the second light sensor detects a
second count of people passing a second region, where the second
light is installed, in a second specified time period. The sensed
data is transmitted to be stored in the storage device 25. The
analyzing and controlling tool 42 then analyzes the sensed data
saved in the storage device 25 to realize the pedestrian traffic
conditions associated with the first light and the second light,
respectively. According to the analysis result, i.e. the pedestrian
traffic conditions, the first light and the second light can be
independently or interactively controlled by the analyzing and
controlling tool 42 by way of a suitable control rule.
[0075] In a specific example, the building is an office building.
Since the analyzing and controlling tool 42 realizes that the
pedestrian traffic in the first region, where the first light 21 is
installed, is heavier in off-work hours, the analyzing and
controlling tool 42 controls the first light to illuminate with
higher brightness. On the contrary, the analyzing and controlling
tool 42 realizes that the pedestrian traffic in the first region is
less heavier in the midnight, so the analyzing and controlling tool
42 controls the first light 21 to illuminate with lower brightness,
or controls the first light 21 to be turned on only when detecting
someone is passing. The second light 22 can be controlled in a
similar way or according to another control rule.
[0076] Likewise, all the lights in the building can be controlled
and managed independently or interactively. Accordingly, an
energy-saving effect can be achieved without any specific design
for each light. Therefore, the present invention is advantageous in
saving laboring, compared with the prior art.
[0077] In a second example, the first electronic device 21 is an
acoustic sensor near a sofa in the living room, and the second
electronic device 22 is a speaker set including five speakers
distributed around the living room. The user 8 may use the control
device 24 according to the present invention to perform sound
localization of the speaker set automatically with high precision.
Since it would have the best surrounding sound effect when the user
8 is sitting on the sofa, the user 8 may compile the projectable
space instance 31 to add the analyzing and controlling tool 42, and
the data-monitoring tool 43, the unified device driver
corresponding to the acoustic sensor, the unified device drivers
respectively corresponding to the speakers of the speaker set into
the projectable space instance. Therefore, the data-monitoring tool
43 can pick up the sensed data, e.g. multi-directional audio data,
from the acoustic sensor after the projected workspace 32 is built
in the control device 24, and transmit the sensed data to the
storage device 25 to be saved. The analyzing and controlling tool
42 then analyzes the sensed data stored in the storage device 25 in
order to control speakers of the speaker set to determine which one
or ones of the speakers should be volume up and which one or ones
should be volume down. By using the present control device 24, it
is possible for one who is not professional may design his own
stereophonic sound.
[0078] It is understood that in the present method, the analyzing
algorithm adopted by the analyzing and controlling tool 42 can be
selected based on practical requirements. Currently available
algorithms concerning data mining may also be used, which are not
to be redundantly described herein.
[0079] According to the above descriptions, it is understood that
the present invention provides a method of controlling and managing
one or more home appliances adopting different communication
protocols or communication chips. The electronic devices can be
automatically operated depending on practical needs so as to
alleviate the burdens of complicated designs or manual laboring.
The quality of lives can be improved.
[0080] The above-mentioned embodiments can be varied or modified
according to practical needs. For instance, the control device and
the configuring device can be integrated into one unit.
Furthermore, the data-monitoring tool is included in the analyzing
and controlling tool; the analyzing and controlling tool is
included in the data-monitoring tool; or the data-monitoring tool
and the analyzing and controlling tool are a common tool. The
storage device may also be disposed in the control device.
[0081] While the invention has been described in terms of what is
presently considered to be the most practical and preferred
embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention needs not be
limited to the disclosed embodiments. On the contrary, it is
intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements
included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims which
are to be accorded with the broadest interpretation so as to
encompass all such modifications and similar structures.
* * * * *