HYBRID POWER LINE/WIRELESS APPLIANCE AUTOMATION SYSTEM, DEVICE, AND POWER MONITORING METHOD UTILZING THE SAME

摘要

The present invention discloses a hybrid power line/wireless appliance automation system for interfacing between at least one electric power distribution circuit and at least one electronic device, a power line communication device, and a power monitoring method using the same. Each power line communication device can be communicatively interconnected via power line communication and/or wireless communication. A threshold value of each power line communication device is dynamically adjusted by a host device via wired or wireless connection, so as to determine whether to continuously supply or turn off power to an electronic device coupled to the power line communication device. The present invention may be implemented/integrated to existing household electric power network without the need for additional physical data network infrastructure/lines, therefore is suitable to be applied in an intelligent home management system.

主权项

1. A hybrid power line/wireless appliance automation system for interfacing between at least one electric power distribution circuit and at least one electronic device to enable management of the at least one electronic device, including:
a plurality of power line communication devices adapted in the at least one electric power distribution circuit, each power line communication device capable of interfacing the at least one electronic device and comprising:
a power line communication module capable of interconversion between data signal and power line signal, adapted to selectively receive and transmit power line signal through the at least one electric power distribution circuit,a wireless communication module capable of interconversion between data signal and wireless signal, adapted to selectively receive and transmit wireless signal,a monitoring module for detecting at least one operational parameter of the power line communication device,a processing module in electrical connection with the power line communication module, the wireless communication module, and the monitoring module, capable of converting the at least one parameter to the data signal and determining whether the at least one parameter exceeds a threshold value, configured to generate a control signal when the at least one parameter exceeds the threshold value,a power management module in electrical connection with the processing module, adapted to receive electrical power from the at least one electric power distribution circuit and selectively supply power to the at least one electronic device according to the control signal; and a host device communicatively coupled to at least one of the plurality of power line communication devices, configured to dynamically adjust the threshold value for each of the power line communication devices according to the at least one operational parameter thereof by receiving the power line signal or the wireless signal transmitted there-from.