Consumer electronic registration, control and support concierge device and method

摘要

We disclose a concierge device that can be configured to register, control and support a consumer device. It can alternatively or redundantly connect to a home management bridge and/or cloud-based management servers. It can accept menus that allow a single concierge device to provide a wide range of functions for various consumer devices. The concierge device allows the user in a single action to initiate a support session, automatically identifying the consumer device. The concierge device can be configured for voice or video support calls. The concierge device in conjunction with a home management bridge or gateway can manage on boarding of components of an automated home, such as switches and lamps. Implementations of the concierge device that include a display can show supplemental information, such as advertising, optionally in coordination with media being played on a consumer device coupled in communication with the concierge device.

主权项

1. A method of on boarding both a control device and a controlled device, the method including:
receiving a first enrollment signal sent by a first controllable device via a two way wireless channel used by the first controllable device to receive command strings, wherein the enrollment signal includes a device identifier that identifies the first controllable device; registering the first controllable device with a cloud based service and using its device identifier to determine from a cloud based or cached database its controllable functions and corresponding command strings to control the controllable functions; receiving a second enrollment signal sent by a second control device with a device identifier that identifies the second control device; registering the second control device with a cloud based service and using its device identifier to determine from a cloud based or cached database control commands that it produces in response to user operation; receiving a dedication command and responsively configuring a combination of the first controllable device, a handheld concierge device, a control gateway, and the second control device so that user operation of the second control device is dedicated to controlling at least some of the controllable functions by causing the command strings to be sent to the first controllable device when the user operates the second control device; configuring the handheld concierge device to replicate controls provided by the second control device and to send the command strings to the first controllable device, responsive to user control input at the handheld concierge device; wherein
the command strings are sent from the second control device to the first controllable device via the handheld concierge device following user operation of the second control device, orthe command strings are sent from the second control device to the first controllable device by the control gateway, which is a separate physical device from the handheld concierge device.