A communication interface and a device control, management and monitoring system are provided to enable the networking of and communication between a multiple devices operating under different protocols. The communication interface may act as a translator or protocol converter that reformats transmissions from one protocol to another based on protocol compatibility between the recipient and transmitting devices. The device control and monitoring system may store predefined rules that are triggered when specified conditions associated with the networked devices are detected. The rules may specify an action to take such as transmitting a discount offer to a user or turning off a light. According to one or more arrangements, the communication interface may act as an intermediary between the networked devices and the device control system so that the device control system is not required to understand or be compatible with the various other protocols used by the networked devices.

There is described a building automation system comprising a control center and an adapter for providing integration of subsystems. The adapter facilitates communications between the control center and a subsystem of the building automation system. A subsystem library of the control center receives an object model associated with the subsystem from the user interface. An extraction tool of the control center generates output information based on the object model. The control center is mapped to the adapter, so that a thing description may be communicated there between. The thing description includes a description of instances hosted by the adapter and representing the object model. An auto discovery component of the control center creates instances of the object model based on the thing description and addresses properties of the object model. The building automation system utilizes the instances and the addresses to manage the subsystem associated with the object model.

This disclosure is directed to a universal interface for sensor devices. Applications executed in a device may interact with sensor devices via a universal interface. For example, the device may act as a gateway allowing Internet of Things (IoT) devices to interact with at least one resource external to the environment in which the IoT devices operate. The device may comprise at least memory circuitry to store at least a virtual file system and at least one application. The virtual file system may provide a programmatic interface through which at least one sensor device may be accessible to the at least one application. Processing circuitry in the device may execute an application from those stored within the memory circuitry. The application, when executed, may cause interconnect circuitry also in the device to at least one of transmit instructions to, or receive data from, a sensor device utilizing the virtual file system.

Embodiment described herein provide a system for authenticating an identity of a user. The system includes a first device, a second device, a user device, and a remote computing device. The first device, the second device, and the user device are connected to and operable to communicate over the first communications network. The user device is connected to and operable to communicate over a second communications network. The user device is configured to detect the first device or the second device when the first device or the second device is connected the first communications network, and to generate one or more signals related to the detection of the first device or the second device. The remote computing device is configured to receive the one or more signals from the user device and authenticate the identity of the user based on the one or more signals.

A load-controlling interfacing device obtains and processes event data, for example, from a touch-screen user interface and/or other devices, and that processes rules based on the event data to control an electrical load, such as a light fixture. During operation, when the interfacing device obtains event data, the interfacing device selects a rule to process based on the event data from the touch-screen user interface. If the interfacing device determines that the rule's condition is satisfied, the interfacing device can process the rule's action description to perform a corresponding action for controlling power to the electrical load.

Rule-based modeling for building control systems is described herein. One device includes a memory, a user, interface, and a processor configured to execute executable instructions stored in the memory to display, in a single view on the user interface, a listing of all components of a facility controlled by a building control system, display, in an additional view on the user interface, a number of rules for mapping the components of the facility to a common model of the building control system, map the components of the facility to the common model by applying the number of rules to the components of the facility, and display, in the additional view on the user interface, the components of the facility that have been mapped to the common model.

Methods, devices, systems, and means for video integration with a home assistant device are described herein. The home assistant device interacts with a person in a video stream by capturing, using a network-enabled outdoor video camera, a video stream of an outdoor location of a premises at which the person is present and analyzing the person appearing in the captured video stream to determine an identity of the person. Based on determining the identity of the person, the home assistant device announces a presence of the person that is outdoors and outputs instructions to the person.

Techniques are disclosed for generating device cluster capability information for a cluster of devices in a network environment. Capability information can specify capabilities of the devices in the cluster. A first user device can generate device capabilities for the first user device and obtain device capabilities for other devices in the cluster. The first user device can generate cluster capability information providing an intersection of the first set of device capabilities and device capabilities of the other user devices in the cluster. The first user device can obtain cluster capability information for other clusters in the network environment and receive a request from a service user device to perform a specific task. The first user device can transmit cluster capability information relating to a selected cluster that corresponds with the request.

A home device controller can publish state data indicating a state of each home device in its local network of home devices to a message bus of the distributed system, the message bus being accessed by each of a plurality of home device controllers in a distributed system of home device controllers. In doing so, the distributed system can mitigate or resolve fault conditions occurring with any of the home device controllers in the distributed system through a lease acquisition process that enables home device controllers to acquire the home devices from other home device controllers.

The present technology relates to an information processing device and an information processing method that enable output of information using a more optimal output modal.

Provided is an information processing device including a processing unit configured to perform processes of: acquiring apparatus information regarding an output modal for each electronic apparatus; selecting an electronic apparatus having an output modal that outputs information from among a plurality of electronic apparatuses on the basis of the acquired apparatus information; and outputting the information from an output modal of the selected electronic apparatus. The present technology can be applied to, for example, electronic apparatuses such as information apparatuses, video apparatuses, audio apparatuses, or household electrical appliances.