Granted Patent B2

US 8,396,604 · App. 13/364,706 · Granted Mar 12, 2013

Inventors: Kevin R. Imes (Austin, TX); James Hollister (Round Rock, TX); John Frederick Cottrell (Austin, TX)

Assignee: Allure Energy, Inc.

Abstract

Claims (39)

1. A method comprising: determining a plurality of zones associated with a site using an application hosted by a mobile device, wherein the plurality of zones include a first zone defined by the site and a second zone defined by a boundary determined at a distance away from the site; detecting a current location of the mobile device using the application hosted by the mobile device; displaying a graphical user interface (GUI) within a display screen of the mobile device including a map presenting graphics corresponding to the site and the first and second zones and the current location of the mobile device with respect to the first and second zones; and initiating and altering an operating condition of a network device located at the site in response to detecting the mobile device changing zones outside of the boundary.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the current location of the mobile device is detected by determining a GPS coordinate of the mobile device.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the current location of the mobile device is detected by determining an IP address of a local WIFI network.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

displaying an icon within the GUI configured to present the operating condition of the network device located at the site.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the network device located at the site is a thermostat and the operating condition presented by the icon is a current temperature set-point.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

displaying a distance selector within the GUI;

detecting a distance setting of the distance selector;

determining the boundary of the second zone at a distance away from the site equal to the distance setting; and

displaying the boundary of the second zone using the distance setting of the distance selector.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the distance selector is a tumbler enabling user to scroll and select one of several distance values each representing a distance relative to the site.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

resizing the map to a new map scale in response to detecting the distance setting of the distance selector.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the new map scale is a predetermined value greater than or equal to the distance setting of the distance selector.

10. A method of managing energy use of a network device with a mobile device having a display screen comprising:

detecting a location of the network device;

associating a site location with the location of the network device;

determining a plurality of zones about the site location;

detecting a current location of the mobile device relative to the plurality of zones,

determining when the mobile device changes between the zones in response to detecting the current location of the mobile device;

altering the operating condition of the network device in response to detecting the mobile device changing zones;

displaying a graphical user interface (GUI) within the display screen of the mobile device including a map presenting the site location and the plurality of zones disposed about the site location; and

displaying a graphic within the map presenting the current location of the mobile device with respect to the plurality of zones.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the plurality of zones includes a first zone having first distance defining a boundary of the first zone and a second zone having a second distance defining a boundary of the second zone.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

displaying a graphic presenting the first zone and the boundary of the first zone within the map; and

displaying a graphic presenting the second zone and the boundary of the second zone within the map.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

displaying a distance selector within the GUI presenting selectable distance values;

altering the first distance and the second distance in response to selection of the selectable distance values to automatically scale the boundary of the first zone and the boundary of the second zone; and

automatically scaling the map in response to scaling the boundary of the first zone and the boundary of the second zone and displaying a graphic within the map presenting the current location of the mobile device to simultaneously present the boundary of the first zone and the boundary of the second zone and the graphic presenting the current location of the mobile device within the display screen of the mobile device.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the distance selector is a tumbler enabling user to scroll and select one of several selectable distance values each representing a distance relative to the site.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein the current location of the mobile device is detected by determining a GPS coordinate of the mobile device.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein the current location of the mobile device is detected by determining an IP address of a local WIFI network.

17. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

detecting an operating condition of the network device; and

displaying an application icon within the graphical user interface (GUI) configured to present the operating condition of the network device.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the network device is a thermostat and the operating condition presented by the icon is a current temperature set-point.

Assignments (4)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (14)