A wireless media player and a related system and methodology are provided. One aspect of the wireless media player system pertains to a virtual connector system, apparatus, and method for the automatic establishment of wireless connectivity with other electronic devices. In one embodiment, the media player device displays one of the stored display content, communicates configuration information with at least one target device via a proximity wireless link, establishes a communication link with the at least one target device in accordance with the configuration information communicated via the proximity wireless link and transmits a content which corresponds to the display content being displayed on the display unit at a time of establishing the proximity wireless link to the at least one target device over the established communication link.

A wearable device and a controlling method thereof, and a system for controlling a smart home. The wearable device comprises: a hand gesture identifying module, for by characteristic data to be identified of a wearer that is collected by a sensor, identifying out a current hand gesture action of the wearer; an appliance configuring module, for according to acquired information of each of household electrical appliances, establishing and saving correspondence relations between controlling commands of each of the household electrical appliances and corresponding hand gesture actions; and upon receiving the hand gesture action, looking up the household electrical appliance and the controlling command that match the hand gesture action by using the correspondence relations, generating a controlling message according to the matched information; a wirelessly connecting module, for receiving the controlling message and wirelessly sending the controlling message to a smart home controlling server.

A slave relay station is adapted to serve and/or host pages comprising a simplified graphic user interface (GUI) encoded in a widely recognized format such as, for example, HTML or WML. The GUI embodies activatable links corresponding to control functions for configured appliances. A wireless phone or other device with network access and the capability to process and present such pages, for example via a Web browser, may then be utilized to effect control of such appliances by simply navigating to the network address of the slave relay station, obtaining an appropriate GUI page, and interacting with the links.

A method for controlling a smart home using a smart watch is disclosed. The method includes: detecting whether the smart watch has entered a sensing range of the smart home; detecting, after the smart watch has entered the sensing range of the smart home, whether the smart watch has established a wireless connection with the smart home; turning on, after the smart watch has established the wireless connection with the smart home, a smart-home-control function of the smart watch; and while controlling the smart home using the smart-home-control function, recognizing hand gestures of the user using the smart watch and controlling the smart home through the wireless connection to switch current working state of the smart home based on the recognized hand gestures of the user.

An information processing apparatus according to the present disclosure includes a controller configured to execute acquiring operation information for a network-connected home appliance that is home electronic equipment which is provided in a dwelling house, and is configured to be accessible to a prescribed network and is capable of being controlled via the network, making an estimation as to entering/exiting of a vehicle utilized by a user of the dwelling house into/from a parking lot associated with the dwelling house on the basis of the operation information for the network-connected home appliance in the dwelling house, and issuing, to a management apparatus that manages entering/exiting of the vehicle, an enter/exit instruction for causing the vehicle to enter or exit if entering/exiting of the vehicle into/from the parking lot is estimated.

This application is directed to a home monitoring and control system including a doorbell installed at a door of a home. The doorbell has a button configured to, upon being touched, depressed or activated, wirelessly initiate a first communication to indicate presence of a person at the door. The doorbell also has a camera configured to capture video data within a field of view, and a processor configured to cause a communication component to enable the first communication and wirelessly stream via a remote server the video data captured by the camera to a monitoring device associated with an occupant of the home. A rechargeable battery is coupled to a housing wire and configured to be charged via the housing wire, and the doorbell is configured to charge and discharge the rechargeable battery based on power usage of the doorbell.

A device and a method for controlling a device using a real-time image are provided. The method includes: receiving an image captured by an image capturing device connected to a network to display the image in real-time; searching for the device that is connected to the network and is controllable; designating, within the image, a setting zone corresponding to the device; receiving a user input; and controlling the device selected according to the user input. A location of the setting zone within the image may be updated according to a change in the image. The user may receive immediate visual feedback on how the devices are being controlled. The user may control a device displayed on the screen on which the real-time indoor image is displayed without having to navigate through different sub-menus for different devices.

A computer implemented method in a smart home system is provided. The method comprises defining, by sensing an indoor position of a wearable electronic device comprising an indoor positioning module, an area in a real-world indoor environment, and attributing a rule to the defined area, the rule comprising one or more settings to be applied to one or more electronic devices upon a user being detected in the defined area.

An apparatus may control the power delivered from an AC power source to an electrical load, and may comprise a controllably conductive device. The apparatus may also comprise a controller that may be operatively coupled to a control input of the controllably conductive device. The apparatus may also include a first wireless communication circuit operable to communicate via a first protocol and to join a first wireless communication network operable to communicate via the first protocol. The first wireless communication circuit may be in communication with the controller. The controller may be operative to determine a first condition for communicating via the first protocol. The controller may also be operable to control the first wireless communication circuit to join the first wireless communication network upon the first condition being satisfied.

A home automation (HA) system may include, within a senior living facility, a cloud server, HA operation devices and HA user interface devices for respective users. Each HA user interface device may wirelessly communicate with the HA operation devices and the cloud server. HA hub devices may provide communications for the HA user interface devices, the HA operation devices, and the cloud server. A caregiver interface device may cooperate with the cloud server to display contextual information for a respective user. The cloud server may cooperate with the caregiver interface device to determine when the caregiver interface device is within a room in the senior living facility associated with the respective user, and when so, determine a current operation of a given HA operation device, determine the contextual information based upon the current operation of the given HA operation device, and communicate the contextual information to the caregiver interface device.