Soon you may plan a long vacation, attend late-night parties, or engage in any critical work while leaving your home at big brother’s disposal. The big brother administers your home security, lighting systems, smart devices, thermostats system, and many other household activities.
This all could happen in reality as Google is developing a big brother system that can be deployed at your home.
The system includes multiple sensors spread all across the home. These sensors include passive infrared (PIR) sensor, GPS receivers, accelerometers, microphones, optical sensors and vapour sensors. The sensors send the sensed data via a network interface to a central policy manager, which manages all the policies set by various household users.
Household users can also set goals with the big brother system. Each member of the household creates their own personalized goals. For example, the big brother system can be configured to conserve power when nobody is at home. Users can also set specific goals such as “Spend less time on electronic devices” or “Use 5% less energy each month for the next 3 months.” Similarly, the system can be used to detect the presence of undesirable activities involving poisonous compounds, alcohol, and tobacco.
The system sends alerts or warnings to users when a relevant activity or an event occurs. For example, it may send an alert to respective users if they are spending more time on electronic devices.
The system will most likely be a part of Google’s Nest product line.
Publication number: US 20160260320
Patent Title: Smart-home household policy implementations for facilitating occupant progress toward a goal
Publication date: 8 Sep 2016
Filing date: 5 Mar 2015
Inventors: Anthony M. Fadell; Yoky Matsuoka; David Sloo; Maxime Veron;
Original Assignee: Google Inc.