Apparatus for controlling an electrical device by remote control including a control device coupled to the electrical device by a wire connection for providing power to the electrical device, the control device having an actuator for adjusting the status of the electrical device and a radio frequency transmitter/receiver and antenna for adjusting the status of the electrical device in response to control information in a radio frequency signal. The transmitter/receiver receives the radio frequency signal via the antenna and transmits a status radio frequency signal with information regarding the status of the electrical device. A master control unit has at least one actuator and status indicator and a transmitter/receiver for transmitting a radio frequency signal having the control information therein to control the status of the electrical device and for receiving the status information from the control device. The status indicator indicates the status of the electrical device in response to the status information. A repeater receives the radio frequency signal from the master unit and transmits the control information to the control device and receives the status information from the control device and transmits it to the master unit.

Method and apparatus for controlling and determining the status of electrical devices from remote locations

An entertainment system has a personal computer as the heart of the system with a large screen VGA quality monitor as the display of choice The system has digital satellite broadcast reception, decompression and display capability with multiple radio frequency remote control devices which transmit self identifying signals and have power adjustment capabilities These capabilities are used to provide context sensitive groups of keys which may be defined to affect only selected applications running in a windowing environment In addition, the remote control devices combine television and VCR controls with standard personal computer keyboard controls A keyboard remote also integrates a touchpad which is food contamination resistant and may also be used for user verification Included in the system is the ability to recognize verbal communications in video signals and maintain a database of such text which is searchable to help identify desired programming in real time

Adjustable power remote control drive

Enterprise WLANs have made a dramatic shift towards centralized architectures in the recent past The reasons for such a change have been ease of management and better design of various control and security functions The data path of WLANs, however, continues to use the distributed, random-access model, as defined by the popular DCF mechanism of the 80211 standard While theoretical results indicate that a centrally scheduled data path can achieve higher efficiency than its distributed counterpart, the likely complexity of such a solution has inhibited practical consideration In this paper, we take a fresh, implementation and deployment oriented, view in understanding data path choices in enterprise WLANs We perform extensive measurements to characterize the impact of various design choices, like scheduling granularity on the performance of a centralized scheduler, and identify regions where such a centralized scheduler can provide the best gainsOur detailed evaluation with scheduling prototypes deployed on two different wireless testbeds indicates that DCF is quite robust in many scenarios, but centralization can play a unique role in 1) mitigating hidden terminals - scenarios which may occur infrequently, but become pain points when they do and 2) exploiting exposed terminals - scenarios which occur more frequently, and limit the potential of successful concurrent transmissions Motivated by these results, we design and implement CENTAUR - a hybrid data path for enterprise WLANs, that combines the simplicity and ease of DCF with a limited amount of centralized scheduling from a unique vantage point Our mechanisms do not require client cooperation and can support legacy 80211 clients

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CENTAUR: realizing the full potential of centralized wlans through a hybrid data path

A control system for allowing access to the use of home automation devices. The control system can include at least one home automation device. A biometric scanner can gather biometric data from a user. An automation controller can be in networked communication with the home automation device and the biometric scanner. The receive controller can process biometric data from the biometric scanner to enable access to the at least one home automation device.

Home automation security system and method

Exemplary systems and methods for provisioning wireless control of facilities systems are provided. A message is broadcast to a network that includes one or more control devices, which may be associated with one or more control points (e.g., lights in lighting systems). The control device responds with information concerning the control device and/or any associated control points. A scene including at least one specification for operation the control point is assigned to the control device. A corresponding scene command may be generated and sent to the control device. Provisioning may further include generating a visual display of the various control devices and associated control points (e.g., lights) in the facilities system.

Location-based provisioning of wireless control systems

A remote wireless load control system wherein the power supplied to a load can be varied from a remote location using a remote control device not electrically wired to the load. The load control system includes a transmitter and a receiver, each having a control actuator for adjusting the power supplied to the load. Control can be conferred upon either the transmitter or the receiver immediately upon manipulation of the control switch, with the adjustment in power level occurring substantially instantaneously upon manipulation of the control actuator. Transmission of load level information between transmitter and receiver is by digitally pulse-coded infrared signal.

Raphael K. T. Tang

Papers

Wireless control system

Transmitter for wireless light switching system