CONDITIONS

[001] The present invention relates to the intelligent management of indoor environmental conditions, in hotel rooms or the like. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus and a method to manage indoor conditions in hotel rooms or the like, as temperature, lighting, video surveillance, alarms, etc. in a personalized way through the interaction with a portable device.

[002] Lighting systems are known using motion and/or occupancy sensors triggering in the presence of a person inside a pre-set area, and switching off after a given pre-set time, in case of absence of persons in the pre-set area.

[003] Nonetheless, normally those systems manage lighting only, generally switching on and off a predetermined number of lighting elements around an individual inside a given area.

[004] With modern system, a number of conditions beyond lighting can be controlled.

[005] US 2016/0116343 discloses an adaptive threshold manipulation for movement detecting sensors in which the presence of a human or animal being is sensed by one or more sensors and the signals generated by the sensors are analysed by a processing unit which compares the said signals with a predefined threshold value. The result of the comparison triggers the interpretation of the signals of the sensors as revealing the presence of a human or animal being or of not being related to the presence of a human or animal being. The condition of presence of a human or animal being causes in turn that automatic actions changing the status of the environment are carried out, such as lighting up a light, regulating temperature activating alarms or any other possible action. This document furthermore provides also for a network connection of the automatically driven units with a personal portable or wearable device of the user. Executing control programs on the personal portable or wearable device the user may modify setting of the automatically controlled units for changing the conditions of the environment or may recall personal settings already set and saved in a memory.

[006] As it appears clearly from the description of the above document, the personal portable or wearable device is only used for recalling or modifying settings once the presence of a person has been detected by the sensors and as a consequence of the comparison of the signals of the sensors with the above-mentioned threshold.

[007] Furthermore, the above published document does not consider in any way how to manage the presence of two persons in an environment. Indeed, if the system and method as the one disclosed in US 2016/0116343, operates only by triggering already set actions to change the environment condition on which the user has not a direct influence which goes further to the mere revelation of its presence, the fact that in the environment there are present more than one person do not have any effect on the system itself.

On the other hand, in an embodiment in which further to the mere presence of a person, the person itself can be recognized and personal settings may be automatically loaded or the person is allowed to modify the settings in real time, then the interference with the presence of more than one person is a relevant problem which if improperly managed may lead to a unsatisfactory and not efficient functionality of the system. US 2016/0116343 ignores this problem completely.

[008] Aim of the present invention is providing a system setting environmental conditions making use of a portable device (smartphone, tablet, etc.), beacons and an application (app) allowing to set the preferences of the user and to implement them when the user enters into a hotel room for which preferences were set.

[009] This object is achieved by a method and an apparatus having the features of the independent claims. Advantageous embodiment and refinements are specified in the claims dependent thereon.

[0010] The system of the present invention comprises:

- at least a portable device (smartphone, tablet, wearable device, etc.) on which an application (app) is uploaded allowing to control a series of apparatuses;

- at least a radio-transmitting device (beacon) positioned in a hotel room; - at least an apparatus to be controlled (heating system, conditioning system, room lighting, electric motor of blinds and or curtains, apparatuses emitting music, television set, etc.) with is provided in combination with an hotel room

[0011] According to an embodiment of the present invention

each hotel room is provided with at least one beacon capable of detecting the approaching and the entrance of a user provided with a portable device uploaded with a suitable app.

Inside the hotel room there may be provided one or more of the following units: a temperature setting system (heating/cooling); a lighting system; an opening/closing system of curtains and/or blinds; a television set; a music playing system are typically present. When the customer enters into her/his room, through her/his app she/he can set room temperature, the switching on/off of lights, the status of opening/closing of curtain and/or blinds; television channel and volume; radio channel and volume. When said customer leaves her/his room, the temperature setting system is put on stand-by mode, while lighting, television set/music playing system are switched off. When said customer approaches her/his room, thanks to the interaction between beacon and portable device, the conditions of the hotel room can be brought back to the preferred setting chosen by said client.

[0012] In an embodiment, said customer sets all her/his preference when she/he enters her/his room for the first time.

[0013] In an alternative embodiment, said customer sets her/his preferences when she/he is booking her/his room, or anyway in a moment when she/he is not in her/his room.

[0014] In a further embodiment, the approaching of said customer to her/his room door triggers the opening of room door. Preferably, the opening is triggered when said customer is at a predetermined distance from said door, e.g. 50 cm.

[0015] A first advantage of the present invention is the possibility of setting the preferred conditions of a room, providing the user with a feeling of comfort.

[0016] A second advantage of the present invention consists in the sparing of energy, in that when the user leaves the room, all the apparatuses controlled by the system of the present invention can be switched off or at least put in a low-power stand-by modality.

[0017] A third advantage consists in the fact that the user can be recognized and the personally configured settings may be automatically loaded and applied by the units provided in combination with the room.

[0018] A fourth advantage is the possibility of mediating and solving the conflicts that may arise in case two persons with different preferred settings are in the same room at the same moment.

[0019] Further advantages and properties of the present invention are disclosed in the following description, in which exemplary embodiments of the present invention are explained in detail based on the drawings:

Figure 1 Scheme of an embodiment of the invention;

Figure 2 Simplified overall scheme of the example of Figure 1;

Figure 3 Simplified scheme of a further embodiment wherein configuration data are in the portable device;

Figure 4 Simplified scheme of a further embodiment, wherein configuration data are in a remote unit with which the portable device is enabled to connect;

Figure 5 Scheme of an embodiment of the present invention suitable for use when a plurality of users are present in the same controlled room;

Figure 6 Flow diagram of an example of the method according to the present invention.

[0020] In the following description, as portable device some embodiments of the portable device associated to each user will be described. Said examples must not be considered limitative.

[0021] In a first preferred embodiment, the portable device is a portable cellular phone of known type (smartphone), provided with:

- ability to connect to a communication network according to Bluetooth® or IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) standard, to receive and transmit signals from and to the radio- transmitting and radio-receiving device;

- a specific program (app) suitable for the interaction with the systems to be controlled (temperature, lighting, blinds/curtains, TV set, music playing set etc.). [0022] In a second embodiment, the portable device can be a wearable device, e.g. a wrist band, provided with:

- connection to a communication network according to IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) or through a 2/3/4G data connection;

- ability to connect according to Bluetooth® standard, or according to IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) standard, in order to receive the signals of the radio-transmitting device;

- a specific program (app) suitable for the interaction with the system to be controlled; in this case the app works on the wearable device itself.

[0023] In a preferred embodiment, the radio-transmitting device is a commercial electronic module known as beacon. A Bluetooth® beacon transmits with a predetermined periodicity a 2,4 GHz radio signal according to the Bluetooth® standard, containing a unique identifier for each device in a codified way according to the Bluetooth® standard. Analogously, a Wi-Fi beacon transmits with a pre-determined periodicity a radio signal according to the IEEE 802.11 standard, containing a unique identifier for each device in a codified way according to IEEE 802.11 standard.

[0024] With reference to Figure 1, a portable device 4 of a user 3 receives the radio signal emitted by a radio-transmitting device 8, and through a specific program, wherein the criteria of indoor setting are set, connects to the apparatuses overall indicated with 2, obliging them to receive data, and transmitting a request of activation of said apparatuses, e.g. air conditioning, heating system, lighting system, obscuring system, television set, radio set, opening and closing of doors and windows, whose conditions were previously set.

[0025] In the example of Figure 1, 5 indicates a control unit of the plant/apparatuses and 6 indicates the actuators providing the plant/apparatuses functions, which are controlled by control unit 5 on the basis of the configuration data associated with a user identifier which is located on the portable device, and which is communicated to the system for the enablement of control of apparatuses through personal configuration data, already saved and therefore simply recalled, or set at the moment.

[0026] The recognition of the user can be performed in different ways, e.g. through a query of the portable device by the radio-transmitting device, which therefore takes an active role of recognition; or the portable device receives the identifier from the radio- transmitting unit, signalling the presence of a configurable plant/apparatus, or for which configuration data can be imported according to the present system. In this second case, once the presence of the radio-transmitting device 8 is detected, the portable device connects to a communication interface of the configuration data, or recalls configuration data located in the control unit, thanks to a previous input and saving in a memory of the same control unit 5.

[0027] The control unit can be a dedicated control unit for each plant unit/apparatus, or a control unit common to all the plants/apparatuses, working on the traditional control unit that are further provided with interface units with the centralized control unit.

[0028] Other alternatives are described in Figures 3 and 4.

[0029] With reference to Figure 3, the system comprises at least a (not illustrated) plant/apparatus, which is controlled by a control unit 5, which according to the configuration is a control unit dedicated to said plant/apparatus, or is a common central unit for all the present plants/apparatuses and making part of the system.

[0030] In the illustrated example, the control unit 5 is connected to the radio- transmitting unit 8, capable of detecting the identifier of the portable device 4 of user 3. The control unit 5 receives the identifier. A verifying unit 105 of the identifier enables a processing unit 205 of configuration data to recall, from a memory 305 located in the control unit 5, the personalized configuration data corresponding to the verified identity. Therefore, the processing unit 205 of configuration data performs the implementation steps of said data in the apparatus/es controlled by the control unit 5 itself.

[0031] The portable device 4 performs an application loaded on the device itself, which makes available an independent communication interface 104 between control unit 5 and portable device 4 as indicated by arrow 10. This communication interface allows the user to modify configuration data or to integrate configuration data for other plants/apparatuses or other configuration actions.

[0032] Figure 4 shows an embodiment of the example of Figure 3, wherein configuration data are contained in a memory 204 located in the portable device.

[0033] It is worth noting that the connection of the portable device to the systems to be controlled can occur according three modalities: a) Direct connection to single plants/apparatuses;

b) Connection to a plurality of remote units, connected to Internet, each controlling a type of plant/apparatus (e.g. a remote unit controlling room temperature, another remote unit controls the lighting system);

c) Connection to a remote unit interfacing with all the plants/apparatuses, always through Internet (cloud).

[0034] The options chosen by the user are saved in the app in the portable device 4, and can be modified distributing an updating of the app itself. It is worth noting that the app performed by the portable device manages all the apparatuses, the functions of control and command being concentrated in the single portable devices and not in the apparatuses themselves, whose only active function is transmitting the identifier and the optional additional information to the portable device 4, and receiving the commands or the configuring information to be transmitted to the adjusting and control unit/s 5 which implement the data to the corresponding apparatus/es through the processing unit 205.

[0035] In an alternative embodiment, the options chosen by the user are saved on a cloud, and the user accesses the cloud and can modify her/his settings with log-in details.

[0036] According to an embodiment, the radio-frequency device 8 comprises a port for inputting configuring data of a control processor of the radio-transmitting device, i.e. of the beacon exploiting a radio connection channel typically present in beacon devices. The port for inputting the setting parameters of the radio-transmitting device is in this case improperly exploited for transmitting to the control processor of the radio-transmitting device control commands of the adjusting and control device of the apparatuses, in said processor being loaded a communication program to the control unit 205 of the control unit 5 of command signals generated in the portable device 4 and received by the radio- transmitting device 8. To this aim, the processor of the portable device 4 comprises at least an output port towards the radio-transmitting device 8 and/or the control unit/s 5.

[0037] In particular, with Bluetooth® beacons, said solution has the advantage of not requesting a traditional transmitting/receiving section, therefore with relatively heavy hardware and software. The present solution exploits instead an already present connection port, dedicated to receiving configuration signals of the beacon by an external device, which with a specific software allows to receive and re-transmit through an output port command signals generated by and external device.

[0038] The sundry plants/apparatuses (system for temperature setting; lighting system; system for opening/closing blinds/curtains; TV set; music playing system; PC; printers; sprinkler system, intruder alert) can be cable-connected with a MODBUS, BAC ET or PROFINET protocol to a local control unit which can be remote-controlled.

[0039] Figure 2 shows a schematic example of the system according to the present invention. 20 indicates a delimited environment like a hotel room, a room of an apartment or similar. 21 indicates the control unit of an implant for opening and closing windows and doors 121, which can be independently controlled. 22 indicates the control unit of a heating or conditioning system, having different thermal exchange apparatuses 122, which are independently activated and deactivated. 23 indicates a control unit of a lighting system having different point lights 123, which are independently activated and deactivated. 24 and dotted lines indicate the control unit of one or more of any further plants/apparatuses, comprising actuators 124, which can be activated and deactivated together or independently from each other.

[0040] The radio-transmitting device 8 detects the portable device 4, or vice-versa, and the functions of auto configuration of plants through recall and application of configuration data previously set by the user 3 are activated according to one or more of the above-described embodiments. Such embodiments can coexist and be implemented in at least one or part of the present plants, therefore some plants are controlled according to a modality and others according to one or more of the further above-described modalities.

[0041] Figure 5 schematically shows an example of the system which is implemented when three or more persons provided each with their own portable device 4, enabled for configuring one or more plants/apparatuses enter into communication with the system, e.g. entering into a room as illustrated in Figure 2.

[0042] In this case, different logics can be adopted, with respect to the single pre-set individual choices, according to a pre-set scheme, e.g. giving priorities, or threshold values that cannot anyway be exceeded. According to an embodiment such values correspond with standard settings according to existing rules as for minimum lighting conditions, temperature conditions and other settings. [0043] For instance, if two or more persons with different individual preferences are in the same room, lighting and conditioning can be set to intermediate values between the preferences of the single persons. Alternatively, if several persons are in the same room, e.g. identified as a meeting room, further working modes can be activated (e.g. meeting room opens shutters, switches on lights and air conditioning is started).

[0044] With reference to Figure 5, each user 3 is identified with a personal identifier ID(1), ID(2), ... ,ID(N), and is provided with a portable device 4 which, in addition to having memorized the identifier, memorized in 204 also the personalized configuration data for each different user, and possibly a weight 304 determining a priority criterion, which can be pre-set and allowed by a system administrator, on the basis of particular conditions of the user her/himself. Such conditions can vary: e.g. a condition of different hierarchical classification of the users, or healthcare reasons or medical reasons or according to age or any other criterion. The weights can also be differentiated through the typology of the implant to be controlled, as the effects of control can be sensitive for the user in relation to some kinds of plants/apparatuses, e.g. conditioning or heating, or be absolutely irrelevant.

[0045] In the illustrated embodiment, a control unit 5 comprises different sections which can comprise specific software run by generic hardware, or a combination of dedicated hardware and software or dedicated hardware alone. Once each single user is identified, her/his relative weight is acquired in 405, as well as the personal configurations of each user in 505. Such configuration values are further compared with average values of configuration, according to commonly accepted standards or imposed through law or according to configuration averages calculated on configuration values used over time. This is indicated by the dotted box 605. This comparison aims to define statistical weights of configuration values of the single users, which are function of the difference, or distance of said personal values from said values of memorized standard media. E.g., the greater the difference, the more punitive is the statistical weight applied to a datum of personal configuration, in order to avoid extreme set ups out of a common logic for people.

[0046] In 705 a processor calculates according to an algorithm of average or minimization of a cost function the configuration values as function of personalized configuration values and of weights, both of the personal weights of users, and of statistical ones. Finally, the control unit 5 implements in 805 said values in plants/ apparatuses.

[0047] According to an embodiment, the calculation of configuration values can occur also through expert algorithms capable of learning, like e.g. classification algorithms or predictive algorithms like neural networks or similar.

[0048] An example of the method according to the present invention comprises the following steps:

a) Setting of individual preferences (temperature, lighting, etc.) in an app uploaded on a portable device (smartphone, tablet, wearable device, etc.)

b) Approaching and entrance of the user into a room provided with a radio-transmitting device;

c) The approaching and entrance of the user triggers the plants/apparatuses controlled by the app to provide the conditions previously set;

d) The set conditions (temperature, lighting, volume, etc.) are maintained as long as said user remains in the room, as detected by the interaction between the radio- transmitting device and the portable device;

e) When the user leaves the room, the apparatuses are switched off (e.g. lights, TV set, music playing apparatus or switched on (e.g. intruder alert) or brought to a stand-by condition (e.g. from the preferred temperature of 23°C to a stand-by temperature of 18°C).

[0049] Figure 6 shows a flow diagram of the method steps according to a non- limitative embodiment of the present invention.

[0050] The step 600 is the start step, occurring when a portable device 4 and a radio- transmitting device enter into communication according to one of the above-described modalities.

[0051] After verifying the authorizations of the portable device 4 at step 601, in the following step 602 whether for the identified and authorized user already memorized configurations are present is verified. In case of negative answer a procedure of configuration data input is started, which occurs on the portable device or through the portable unit as communication unit connected with a remote server of system management.

[0052] The input procedure comprises the steps 604 of data input, control of the completion of data input 605 and memorization 606 of the data inputted in a memory located in the portable device 4 and/or in the remote unit according to the operative modalities chosen among the above-described ones.

[0053] Once the configuration data are present, the system verifies at step 607 that no personalized data of other users are present. If the user is alone, the step 608 of implementation of the personalized configurations occurs.

[0054] In the presence of other users enabled to the personalized control of the plants/apparatuses, the steps 609 of acquisition of configuration data and weight of the other users, the step 610 of possible control of the personal configuration data of each user with standard values or averages of said values, and the step 611 of calculation of statistical weights as described with reference to Figure 5 are performed. Finally at step 612 the configuration values, or the configuration data calculated on the basis of the personal data, of the personal weights and of the statistical weights are defined. These are then implemented at step 608.

[0055] It is worth noting that each user can be enabled to configure in a personalized way even only one or some of the configurable plants/apparatuses, so that, in the case of a plurality of users, the interference conditions among the sundry personalized conditions that the system has to manage can be limited even only to some of the controllable apparatuses.

[0056] The illustrated scheme is not limitative, the step flow can be varied and some steps can be omitted and/or replaced by other steps having similar or different effect.

[0057] A very interesting possibility allowed by the present invention is the recording of a log of all person who enter in a given hotel room, e.g. maid, maintenance staff, other guests. If the door can be opened only when a person is carrying a portable device, the identity of the person carrying the device can be recorded in a log, so that the identity of various persons in the room can be recognized. The customer, temporary owner of the given hotel room, can see that someone entered her/his room, and know that that person is a member of hotel staff or even a friend/colleague staying in a nearby hotel room. The entry of a person who is not in a list of authorised persons may trigger an alarm. plants/apparatuses to be controlled

user

portable device

control unit

actuators

radio-transmitting device (beacon)

control unit of a plant for opening and closing doors and windows control unit of thermal exchange units

control unit of a lighting system

control unit of further plants

identifier

plant for opening doors and windows

thermal exchange units

lighting system

further plants

configuration data

processing unit

weight

memory