1. A safety-determination information generating apparatus, comprising:
an equipment-use detecting unit that detects that an equipment used in a regular behavior in a daily life of the monitoring subject is used; and
a sending unit that sends equipment-use information representing the use of the equipment, which is detected by the equipment-use detecting unit, as safety-determination information to a remote monitoring apparatus, the safety-determination information being used to determine whether a monitoring subject is safe.
2. The safety-determination information generating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the equipment-use detecting unit detects that a toilet used for excretion by the monitoring subject is used.
3. The safety-determination information generating apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an enteringleaving detecting unit that detects that the monitoring subject entersleaves the living space, wherein
the equipment-use detecting unit detects that an equipment that is in a living space where the monitoring subject lives is used, and
the sending unit sends as the safety-determination information the equipment-use information and living-space enteringleaving information representing the enteringleaving the living space, which is detected by the leavingentering detecting unit, to the remote monitoring apparatus.
4. The safety-determination information generating apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an individual authenticating unit that identifies, about the detection performed by the equipment-use detecting unit, whether the detection is performed because the monitoring subject uses the equipment or the detection is performed because a person other than the monitoring subject uses the equipment, wherein
the sending unit sends as the safety-determination information the equipment-use information and identification result information representing a result of identification by the individual authenticating unit to the remote monitoring apparatus.
5. The safety-determination information generating apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising an individual authenticating unit that identifies, about the detection performed by the equipment-use detecting unit, whether the detection is performed because the monitoring subject uses the equipment or the detection is performed because a person other than the monitoring subject uses the equipment, and identifies, about the detection performed by the enteringleaving unit, whether the detection is performed because the monitoring subject entersleaves the living space or the detection is performed because a person other than the monitoring subject entersleaves the living space, wherein
the sending unit sends as the safety-determination information the equipment-use information, the living-space enteringleaving information, and identification result information representing a result of identification by the individual authenticating unit to the remote monitoring apparatus.
6. A safety confirmation system comprising:
a remote monitoring apparatus that monitors a monitoring subject; and
a safety-determination information generating apparatus that generates safety-determination information used to determine whether the monitoring subject is safe, and that sends the safety-determination information to the remote monitoring apparatus,
the safety-determination information generating apparatus including
an equipment-use detecting unit that detects that an equipment used in a regular behavior in a daily life of the monitoring subject is used; and
a sending unit that sends equipment-use information representing the use of the equipment, which is detected by the equipment-use detecting unit, as the safety-determination information to the remote monitoring apparatus,
the remote monitoring apparatus including
a receiving unit that receives the safety-determination information, which is sent by the sending unit; and
a display processing unit that displays on a display unit the safety-determination information, which is received by the receiving unit.
7. A safety confirmation system comprising:
a remote monitoring apparatus that monitors a monitoring subject; and
a safety-determination information generating apparatus that generates safety-determination information used to determine whether the monitoring subject is safe, and that sends the safety-determination information to the remote monitoring apparatus,
the safety-determination information generating apparatus including
an equipment-use detecting unit that detects that an equipment used in a regular behavior in a daily life of the monitoring subject is used; and
a sending unit that sends equipment-use information representing the use of the equipment, which is detected by the equipment-use detecting unit, as the safety-determination information to the remote monitoring apparatus,
the remote monitoring apparatus including
a receiving unit that receives the safety-determination information, which is sent by the sending unit;
a safety determining unit that determines whether the monitoring subject is safe on the basis of the safety-determination information, which is received by the receiving unit, and
a notifying unit that notifies, when the safety determining unit determines that an abnormality has happened concerning the monitoring subject, that an abnormality has happened concerning the monitoring subject.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A power transformation module of a thermostat, comprising:
a power harvesting mode; and
a characterization mode; and
wherein:
the power harvesting mode comprises:
pulling electrical power from a line carrying power for a load related to a thermostatic system; and
storing the electrical power from the line available for use by the thermostatic system; and
the characterization mode comprises:
providing an electrical power to the load;
measuring a waveform of the electrical power to the load in terms of magnitude and time to obtain a profile of the waveform;
obtaining a signature from the profile of the waveform to identify one or more components of the load; and
determining a condition of the one or more components from the signature.
2. The module of claim 1, further comprising obtaining installation configuration information corresponding to the thermostat related to the load to anticipate a general form of a waveform of the load to better identify the one or more components.
3. The module of claim 1, wherein:
the load is connected in series with the power transformation module; and
the power transformation module can be in a characterization mode or a power harvesting mode.
4. The module of claim 3, wherein the signature obtained by the characterization mode can indicate an identification of one or more components selected from a group consisting of a current interrupting wax coil valve, a hot surface igniter, high voltage spark ignition source, combustion blower, purge blower, and gas valves.
5. The module of claim 4, wherein the signature of an identified component can reveal one or more activities of one or more components, selected from a group consisting of light off main flame, flame out, no light off, and general operation.
6. The module of claim 5, wherein the activities of the one or more components that affect flame quality of a heating system controlled by the thermostat are improved by items from a group consisting of entering and exiting the power transformation and less aggressively harvesting power.
7. A mechanism for characterization of a load related to a thermostat, comprising:
an instrument for measuring load current versus time;
a plotter connected to the instrument for graphing a waveform of the load current versus time;
an analyzer connected to the plotter for analyzing the waveform to identify one or more components of the load; and
a diagnostics evaluator connected to the analyzer to determine a health of the one or more components.
8. The mechanism of claim 7, further comprising:
a connection between the instrument and a cloud; and
wherein the cloud comprises one or more items selected from a group consisting of analysis, signatures, extraction, diagnostics, general processing, monitoring, and storage.
9. The mechanism of claim 7, wherein:
the instrument for measuring load current versus time is an integral portion of a power transformation device; and
the instrument measures load current versus time when the power transformation is not harvesting power.
10. The mechanism of claim 7, wherein:
a load current versus time measurement reveals a sequence of activity by the one or more components;
the sequence of activity can exhibit whether an operation of the one or more components is normal; and
if the one or more components have non-normal operation, then the load current versus time is analyzed to determine a basis or cause of the non-normal operation.
11. The mechanism of claim 7, wherein:
a load current versus time measurement reveals what type of equipment is being monitored by the measurement according to a catalog or table of measurements, or signatures as indicated by the measurements, that are correlated with types of equipment;
revealing a type of equipment is a capability of a power transformation system that can instead divert energy from a load for at least partially operating a thermostat; and
a learning by the thermostat of the equipment enables the power transformation system to deal with an operation of a heating system relative to affecting flame quality.
12. A method of a characterization mode of a power transformation system comprising:
providing an electrical waveform of power to a load related to a thermostat;
measuring a profile of the electrical waveform in terms of magnitude and time;
analyzing the magnitude versus time; and
identifying one or more components of the load from analyzing the magnitude versus time of the current waveform.
13. The method of claim 12, further comprising inferring a signature of the current from analyzing the magnitude versus time of the current waveform.
14. The method of claim 12, further comprising sending the current waveform to a cloud for further analysis.
15. The method of claim 12, further comprising sending the current waveform to a cloud for diagnosis of any apparent malfunction of the one or more components.
16. The method of claim 12, wherein the current waveform is a current through a load of one or more components in a heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.
17. The method of claim 16, further comprising developing a characterization of equipment contributing to the load of a heating system.
18. The method of claim 12, further comprising inferring a scenario of equipment from an analysis of the magnitude and time of the current waveform.
19. The method of claim 12, further comprising:
diagnosing the one or more components of the load from analyzing the magnitude and time of the current waveform; and
wherein if there is an issue of the one or more components of the load, there are identifying the issue from the magnitude and time of the current waveform, and searching for a solution to resolve the issue.
20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:
providing a warning of a problem with the equipment from indications of a scenario; and
facilitating a call for service to fix the problem with the equipment.
21. The method of claim 20, wherein:
the problem is indicated by the current waveform as there being no light off of a flame of one or more components of a furnace; and
the warning of the problem is provided before an extended or complete failure of a light off of the flame occurs.