WO2015121662A1

WO2015121662A1 - Remote control system for electrical appliances

Info

Publication number: WO2015121662A1
Application number: PCT/GB2015/050403
Authority: WO
Inventors: Patrick Gerard HOWLEY
Original assignee: Howley Patrick Gerard
Priority date: 2014-02-17
Filing date: 2015-02-13
Publication date: 2015-08-20
Also published as: GB2523167A; GB201402746D0

Abstract

A control system for remote control of an electrical appliance has a control unit (1) and at least one remote unit (2), the control unit having a WAN interface (5) for receiving user input, and a LAN interface (6) to communicate with the remote unit. The remote unit has an appliance interface (7) for coupling to the electrical appliance, the appliance interface having an electrical power supply output to the electrical appliance. The system controls the electrical appliance through the appliance interface according to the user input, by emulating a control protocol recognised by the electrical appliance, such as an infra red IR remote control protocol, or a sequence of changes in power supply. This can enable a wider range of appliances to be controlled remotely with more consolidation of power supplies and interfaces and with lower power consumption.

Description

REMOTE CONTROL SYSTEM FOR ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES

Technical Field

The present invention relates to control systems for remote control of an electrical appliance, to corresponding methods of control, to corresponding programs, and to control units and remote units for such control systems.

Background

It is known to provide remote control of household electrical appliances such as heating or lighting or video recording, by providing an internet connection coupled to control each appliance. Each different appliance will typically recognise a different control protocol, and therefore it becomes more complex and expensive to provide and maintain remote control of many different new and existing electrical appliances. Summary

Embodiments of the invention can provide improved apparatus or methods or computer programs. According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a control system for remote control of an electrical appliance, the control system comprising at least one control unit and at least one remote unit, the control unit having a WAN interface for receiving user input via the WAN, and having a LAN interface, the remote unit having a LAN interface and having at least one appliance interface for coupling to the electrical appliance, and arranged to feedback status information to the control unit. The appliance interface has a controllable electrical power supply output controllable according to the user input, and the control unit of the control system is arranged to control the electrical appliance through the electrical power supply output of the appliance interface according to the user input, by emulating a control protocol recognised by the electrical appliance and sending a representation of the control protocol over the LAN to the remote unit, wherein the control protocol is a two-way protocol, being dependent on the status information fed back from the appliance.

Another aspect of the invention provides a method of using a remote control system for controlling an electrical appliance, the control system comprising at least one control unit and at least one remote unit, the control unit having a WAN interface for receiving user input via the WAN, and having a LAN interface, the remote unit having a LAN interface and having at least one appliance interface for coupling to the electrical appliance, the appliance interface having an electrical power supply output controllable according to the user input. The method has steps of receiving user input over the WAN, receiving at the control unit status information fed back from the remote unit, emulating at the control unit a control protocol recognised by the electrical appliance, the control protocol being a two-way protocol which depends on the status information fed back from the appliance, and outputting the emulation from the control unit over the LAN to the appliance interface to control the controllable electrical power supply output to the electrical appliance to control the electrical appliance.

Another aspect provides a control system for remote control of an electrical appliance, the control system comprising at least one control unit and at least one remote unit, the control unit having a WAN interface for receiving user input via the WAN, and having a LAN interface, the remote unit having a LAN interface and having at least one appliance interface for coupling to the electrical appliance, the appliance interface having an electrical power supply output controllable according to the user input. The control unit of the control system is arranged derive status information about the electrical appliance, and to control the electrical appliance through the electrical power supply output of the appliance interface according to the user input, by using a control protocol recognised by the electrical appliance, the control protocol depending on the status information, and the control unit being arranged to send a representation of the control protocol over the LAN to the remote unit.

Another aspect provides a control system for remote control of electrical appliances, the control system comprising: at least one control unit and at least one remote unit, the control unit having a WAN interface for receiving user input via the WAN, and having a LAN interface, the remote unit having a LAN interface and having at least one appliance interface for coupling to the electrical appliances, and arranged to feedback status information to the control unit, the appliance interface having a control signal output controllable according to the user input. The control unit of the control system is arranged to control the electrical appliance through the control signal output of the appliance interface according to the user input, by emulating a control protocol recognised by the electrical appliance and outputting a representation of the control protocol over the LAN to the remote unit, to control the control signal output, wherein the control protocol is a two- way protocol being dependent on the status information fed back from the appliance, the control unit also being arranged to store indications of disposition and status of the electrical appliances, and to make the indications user visible. According to a another aspect of the invention, there is provided a control system for remote control of an electrical appliance, the control system comprising: at least one control unit and at least one remote unit, the control unit having a WAN interface for receiving user input via the WAN, and having a LAN interface, the remote unit having a LAN interface and having at least one appliance interface for coupling to the electrical appliance, the appliance interface having an electrical power supply output, and the control system being arranged to control the electrical appliance through the appliance interface according to the user input, by emulating a control protocol recognised by the electrical appliance. This can enable a wider range of existing electrical appliances to be controlled remotely with more consolidation to reduce a number of power supplies and interfaces and enable more comprehensive control with less complexity and lower power consumption.

Another aspect of the invention provides a method of using a remote control system, the control system comprising: at least one control unit and at least one remote unit, the control unit having a WAN interface for receiving user input via the WAN, and having a LAN interface, the remote unit having a LAN interface and having at least one appliance interface for coupling to the electrical appliance, the appliance interface having an electrical power supply output, and the method having the steps of: receiving user input over the WAN, and emulating a control protocol used by the electrical appliance, and outputting the emulation to the appliance interface for output to the electrical appliance to control the electrical appliance.

Another aspect of the invention provides a computer program having instructions which when executed by a computer to cause the computer to carry out the method set out above.

Another aspect provides a control unit for use in the control system. Another aspect provides a remote unit for use in the control system. Any additional features can be added to any of the aspects, and some such additional features are described and some set out in dependent claims. Numerous other variations and modifications can be made without departing from the claims of the present invention. Therefore, it should be clearly understood that the form of the present invention is illustrative only and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.

Brief Description of the Drawings

How the present invention may be put into effect will now be described by way of example with reference to the appended drawings, in which:

Figure 1 shows a schematic view of a control system according to an embodiment,

Figure 2 shows some operational steps of the embodiment of Figure 1 or other embodiments,

Figures 3 to 6 show views of further embodiments,

Figure 7 shows a schematic view of a remote unit according to an embodiment,

Figure 8 shows a schematic view of a control unit according to an embodiment,

Figure 9 shows a schematic view of another embodiment for a range of different electrical appliances,

Figure 10 shows operational steps according to another embodiment, and

Figure 1 1 shows operational steps according to another embodiment using stored indications of disposition and status.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be described with respect to particular embodiments and with reference to drawings but note that the invention is not limited to features described, but only by the claims. The drawings described are only schematic and are non-limiting. In the drawings, the size of some of the elements may be exaggerated and not drawn to scale for illustrative purposes. Definitions:

Where the term "comprising" is used in the present description and claims, it does not exclude other elements or steps and should not be interpreted as being restricted to the means listed thereafter. Where an indefinite or definite article is used when referring to a singular noun e.g. "a" or "an", "the", this includes a plural of that noun unless something else is specifically stated.

References to programs or software can encompass any type of programs in any language executable directly or indirectly on any computer.

References to computer or processor are intended to encompass any kind of processing hardware which can be implemented in any kind of logic or analog circuitry, integrated to any degree, and not limited to general purpose processors, digital signal processors, ASICs, FPGAs, discrete components or logic and so on, and are intended to encompass implementations using multiple processors which may be integrated together, or co-located or distributed at different locations for example.

References to electrical appliances are intended to encompass any kind of appliance relying on an electrical supply and which can be controlled remotely, including but not limited to household appliances, office equipment, lighting systems, heating or cooling systems, sound vision or multimedia presentation or storage systems and so on, and also including industrial equipment for manufacture or process control. References to a WAN are intended to encompass any kind of wide area network operating over a range wider than the LAN, for example at ranges over 1 km, or over 10km.

References to a LAN are intended to encompass any kind of local area network operating over ranges within 1 km, or within a single building or single office or single commercial or business premises.

Figures 1 and 2, control system according to an embodiment

Figure 1 shows a schematic view of a control system according to an embodiment of the invention. Electrical appliances are coupled to a remote unit 2, and the remote unit is coupled to a control unit 1 using any kind of local area network LAN 10, for example a conventional Wi-Fi Meshed Zigbee or Bluetooth, other RF link protocols or power line communications PLC network. Remote control of the electrical appliances is achieved according to user input from a user input device 3 such as a computer or smart phone coupled to the control unit over any kind of WAN 4, for example over the public internet. The control unit has a LAN interface 6 and a WAN interface 5. The system is also provided with an appliance control protocol emulator 8 for emulating a control protocol recognised by each of the electrical appliances, and normally only capable of being controlled locally, for example by hand or within the same room, and not from outside the building, or via a WAN. Such a control protocol can involve for example a sequence of changes to a power supply, or a sequence of control signals to the electrical appliance, to achieve a desired control according to the user input and in some cases according to other inputs such as sensor inputs. Examples of the control protocol to be emulated are IR input sequences for remote control of a TV or air conditioning unit, or garage door, or an access security system. Other examples can include control protocols for lighting control such as dimming by altering a pulse width modulation or a voltage level, or other modulation of a power supply, or by means of a stream of data over a wired or wireless connection, and colour control of lighting by altering a voltage level, sending a data stream, or following a sequence of voltage changes recognised by the lighting device to cause it to cycle through predetermined lighting states for example. Other examples can be based on RF links such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth or power line communications, or other standardised or proprietary wired or local wireless links. In some cases the control protocol can be a two way protocol, including information fed back from the appliance to the emulator, such as status, sensing inputs or acknowledgements and so on. As shown the emulator is located in the control unit, though in principle it can be located anywhere convenient and accessible by the system, for example in the remote unit.

The remote unit is typically co-located with the corresponding electrical appliance, for example so that it can be coupled to a power supply input of the electrical appliance or be coupled to a control signal input, such as a socket, or be within range of an IR or RFWi-Fi receiver, such as Zigbee, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, on the electrical appliance. It has a LAN interface 6 and an appliance interface 7, the appliance interface having a power supply 9 which can be fed to the electrical appliance or appliances. Optionally this can be controllable under the control of the user input and the emulator. Two remote units are shown coupled to the LAN, there can be many more, for many different electrical appliances. This can enable a control "grid" within a building for example, and can enable more comprehensive and coordinated control to be implemented at less cost and complexity, to control a variety of different types of electrical appliance, either individually or in groups. Figure 2 shows some operational steps of the embodiment of Figure 1 or other embodiments. At step 100 user input is received at the control unit to control a selected electrical appliance 99, or a group of appliances. At step 105 the control unit identifies which remote unit is coupled to the indicated electrical appliance or group of appliances. The control unit also identifies which control protocol recognised by that electrical appliance or group of electrical appliances. At step 1 10 the emulator carries out the emulation to carry out the desired control. This can be carried out at the control unit or at the remote unit for example, and may involve looking up information in a store of control protocols, and generating a sequence of power control changes, or generating a sequence of control signals. If carried out at the control unit, then this emulation in the form of a sequence for example, can be passed to the identified remote unit over the LAN. Emulation at the control unit can enable the intelligence and thus processing resources to be concentrated in the control unit, which can be more efficient and easier to maintain, and enables the remote units to be simpler. As there may be a multitude of remote units, this simplification is likely to be more cost effective than a corresponding simplification of the control unit.

At step 1 15 the emulation is sent to the appliance interface of the remote unit so that the sequence can be output to the electrical appliance. In the case that the emulation is a sequence of power supply control changes, the appliance interface makes use of the controllable power supply, otherwise the appliance interface may output control signals to the electrical appliance, or in some cases both power and control signals.

At step 1 17 there is a step of executing the sequence of control signals or power variations in the correct physical format acceptable to the appliance and receiving any feedback signals for decoding and transmission back to the user.

Compared to a conventional remote control without an emulator, more complex types of appliances can be controlled and more different types of existing electrical appliance can be controlled. This enables more complete automation and control using one control system, with less complexity than trying to integrate together different control systems for each different type of electrical appliance. By combining this with a controllable power supply in the appliance interface in the remote unit, again more different types of appliance can be controlled, without needing the additional complexity of providing different types of remote unit. This also enables more complete automation and control for a given complexity of the control system, and in particular enables power consumption savings to be achieved since there may be fewer separate power supply and interface devices, and in operation the electrical apparatus can in many cases be powered down rather than spending long periods in a standby mode awaiting commands. Furthermore, such consolidation of power supply control with remote control of function, can in some cases facilitate making the control aware of the power status and lead to more efficient control.

Figures 3 to 6, further embodiments

Figure 3 shows a further embodiment similar to that of Figure 1 and corresponding reference numerals have been used as appropriate. In Figure 3 the appliance interface has a control signal transmitter 20 for sending the emulated control signals to the electrical appliance. This could be implemented for example by a conventional IR remote control transmitter, or an optical transmitter or an RF transmitter using a Zigbee, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi standard, or a wireline connection, depending on what the electrical appliance recognises. Figure 4 shows a further embodiment similar to that of Figure 1 and corresponding reference numerals have been used as appropriate. In Figure 4 the remote unit has a sensor interface 25 which is for coupling to a sensor 12. Inputs from the sensor can be fed back to the control unit via the LAN, and used as an additional input in the control of electrical appliances, or fed back directly to the user. Examples of such sensors can include temperature sensors, for use with a heating system, or movement sensors or video cameras for use with a security system. The coupling to the remote unit can be implemented by a wireless link such as a Zigbee, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi link, or via the LAN 10. The input from the sensor may be part of the control protocol being emulated by the emulator, in which case the sensor input is fed to the emulator. The sensor interface is shown sharing the same remote unit as an appliance interface for controlling an appliance, but this is not essential, in some cases the sensor interface could be part of a separate remote unit, as shown in Figure 9 described below.

Figure 5 shows some operational steps of the embodiment of Figure 4 or other embodiments. As in Figure 2, at step 100, user input is received at the control unit to control a selected electrical appliance, or a group of appliances. At step 105 the control unit identifies which remote unit is coupled to the indicated electrical appliance or group of appliances. The control unit also identifies which control protocol recognised by that electrical appliance or group of electrical appliances. At step 130 sensor input is received from the remote unit, or directly from the sensor if appropriate, for use by the control protocol. At step 135 the emulator carries out the emulation to carry out the desired control according to the user input and according to the sensor input. This may involve looking up information in a store of control protocols, and generating a sequence of power control changes, or generating a sequence of control signals as described above. At step 1 15 the emulation is sent to the appliance interface of the remote unit so that the sequence can be output to the electrical appliance. Step 1 17 corresponds to that shown in figure 2, described above. Figure 6 shows a further embodiment similar to that of Figure 1 and corresponding reference numerals have been used as appropriate. In Figure 4 the remote unit has an auxiliary power input 310, which is coupled to receive power from the electrical appliance if the electrical appliance has an emergency power supply 30. This may be for example a battery backup for emergency lighting or for an alarm system for use in the event of a power cut. By coupling this to the auxiliary power input of the remote unit, it may enable the remote unit to continue to function even if its own power supply is cut.

Figure 7, remote unit

Figure 7 shows a schematic view of a remote unit 2 according to an embodiment, for use in the control system. The remote unit has a power supply 9, optionally this is controllable as described above, and a LAN interface in the form of an RF part 46 for a Wi-Fi or Zigbee or meshed RF link. A processor and memory 47 is provided, which has stored programs 49 or modules for controlling the controllable power supply to implement the emulated control protocol, and for controlling the LAN interface in the form of the Wi-Fi or other RF link to receive the emulation from the control unit, and if appropriate to feedback any acknowledgements and status information to the control unit.

Figure 8, control unit

Figure 8 shows a schematic view of a control unit 1 according to an embodiment, for use in the control system. The control unit has a LAN interface in the form of an RF part 46 for a Wi-Fi or other RF link. A processor and memory 47 is provided, which has an interface to the WAN, and has stored programs 58 or modules for carrying out the emulation for controlling the electrical appliances remotely, and for managing multiple remote units and multiple electrical appliances and sensors if appropriate. Figure 9, embodiment showing different electrical appliances for a home or office building Figure 9 shows a schematic view of a control system according to a further embodiment similar to that of Figure 1 and corresponding reference numerals have been used as appropriate. In Figure 9 a number of different electrical appliances are shown by way of example, it is not essential that all of these are included in an implementation. Internal parts of the remote units and the control unit are not shown for the sake of clarity. A heating appliance 91 is shown coupled to a remote unit, and this may be grouped with a temperature sensor 90 coupled to another remote unit, since the heating appliance may be in a boiler room or anywhere away from the space being heated, where the temperature sensor is likely to be located. Lighting appliances 92 are shown, with a lighting sensor 93, coupled to the same remote unit since these may well be in the same location. Other sensors may also be used to control the lighting such as security sensors, to enable the lighting to be dimmed or switched off when no one is in the room or in the building.

A PIR security sensor 98 coupled to a remote unit is shown for detecting intruders or detecting movement, and this may be used for controlling an alarm or controlling lighting or heating or controlling access. Likewise a video camera 94 is shown coupled to a remote unit, and may be used for similar purposes. A printer 95 is shown coupled to its own remote unit. This remote unit may be coupled only to the power supply of the printer, to enable remote control of the power input to the printer, to enable it to be switched off completely under remote control, to save power used when it is in a standby mode. An electrically driven curtain 96 or blind can be provided, and remotely controlled, either by an IR control protocol, or in some cases by means of controlling the power supply to be on or off for defined periods, to cause opening or closing of the curtain or blind. Similarly an electrically driven gate 97 is shown coupled to a remote unit. Again this can be remotely controlled, either by an IR control protocol, or in some cases by means of controlling the power supply to be on or off for defined periods, to cause opening or closing of the gate. As this may be located at a distance from the building, a Wi-Fi or other RF repeater 86 is shown, to extend the LAN to reach the electrically driven gate. Other appliances can be envisaged including display screens, washing and drying appliances, monitoring instrumentation, office equipment, exercise equipment, swimming pool equipment and so on for home or office use. For commercial premises, further appliances can be considered such as process equipment, manufacturing equipment, retail equipment, and so on. References to use in buildings can include portable buildings and mobile structures such as ships and oil rigs.

Figure 10, embodiment

Figure 10 shows some operational steps of an embodiment, including a step 100 of receiving user input to control a selected electrical appliance. At step 210, the control unit receives status information fed back from the electrical appliance, or from many electrical appliances. At step 220 there is a step of emulating at the control unit a control protocol recognised by the selected electrical appliance, the control protocol being a two way protocol recognised by the electrical appliance and being dependent on the status information. The status information can be for example a current state within a cycle of possible states of the electrical appliance. This can enable the control protocol to determine how many states to cycle through to reach a new state desired by a user. For example a lighting device such as an LED light may recognise a 0-10V dimming protocol, where the light level is set by an applied voltage on a control line input. If the user wanted the lights to be dimmer, the control system would need to send a voltage level to the 0-10V interface, but would not know what level to send unless it already knew what level was previously set. In another example, a light may recognise a request to reduce or increase the dimming level by a predetermined sequence such as a number of brief changes of supply voltage level. Thus to reach a desired dimming level requires knowledge of the present status in terms of a present dimming level. In some cases a colour output of the lighting device can be controlled in a similar way. At step 230 the emulation results in an output from the control unit over the LAN to the appliance interface for output to that electrical appliance to control the electrical appliance by providing controlled power supply outputs or control signals acceptable to the electrical appliance. This can be implemented in various ways as would be apparent to those skilled in the art. Such power variations can include any ways of modulating the power supply, or changing the levels in any sequence, changing current, voltage, power, frequency, pulse shape, pulse height, pulse count and so on, recognisable by the electrical appliance. Examples of such power variations according to a control protocol include pulse dimming, phase cut dimming, pulse width modulation - for dimming and for colour control.

Figure 1 1 , embodiment using stored indications of disposition and status Figure 1 1 shows some operational steps of another embodiment, using a stored indication of disposition and status. At step 212, the control unit receives status information fed back from the electrical appliance, or from many electrical appliances, and/or inferred from past control actions. Such inferring may rely on keeping a record of such past control actions, or their effects on the status. By deriving the status in this way, this can reduce or avoid the need for the feedback, thus reducing feedback communications overhead or enabling compatibility with devices which can't provide such feedback, or can't provide sufficient of such feedback. The control protocol which uses such derived status is still regarded as a two-way protocol because the inferred status is effectively a substitute for the feedback. The feedback can be periodic or only when requested for example.

At step 213 there is a step of storing indications of disposition and status of the electrical appliances. This could be stored at the control unit or elsewhere (for example in cloud storage or at remote units, or on a user's computer), provided it is accessible by the control unit. The disposition can be in various forms, for example an identifier of which remote unit the electrical appliance is coupled to, and in some cases an identifier of which appliance interface of the remote unit for example. In some cases the disposition could include an identifier of which room of a house or building, or other location information such as GPS coordinates.

At step 215 there is an optional step of making the stored indications visible to the user. This can help make the user interface more user friendly. For example the user might be presented with status in terms of which appliances are on, which lights are dimmed, which appliances are on a timed program, which are failed, which are in a standby mode, which appliances could be controlled to reduce power consumption and so on. The presentation to the user can be in some graphical form showing a topology or location of the various appliances.

There is a step 100 of receiving user input to control a selected electrical appliance, which can take place at any time. At step 225 there is the step of emulating at the control unit a control protocol recognised by the selected electrical appliance, the control protocol being a two way protocol recognised by the electrical appliance and being dependent on the stored status information. At step 230 the emulation results in an output from the control unit over the LAN to the appliance interface for output to that electrical appliance to control the electrical appliance according to the user input by providing controlled power supply outputs or control signals acceptable to the electrical appliance.

Control and operation features

Such control systems can enable remote control of a multitude of electrically powered appliances within or near a building or office through a single gateway. The programs in the control unit can manage the appliances individually or in groups. Users and developers can in some cases add or create or adapt apps to manage the appliances. Communications between parts of the control system can be kept secure from public access, and can operate "off internet". A hierarchy of levels of authority can be implemented in the control unit, for use by different users, to enable some functions to be reserved and others to be accessible to more users. This is facilitated by providing the emulation of control protocols in a centralised location so that the authorisation can be implemented directly. The system can be programmable with adaptive control protocols to enable use with legacy installed appliances and a wide range of different types of appliances with a minimum of different interfaces.

Consequences of some of the described additional features

Energy savings can be achieved by effectively consolidating power supply control and functional control into a minimum number of remote units, by effectively absorbing functions and interfaces into a grid of standardised parts compared to conventional practice. Installation, maintenance and upgrading may all be facilitated compared to conventional more complex combinations of different control systems associated with each different type of electrical appliance.

In embodiments where the control protocol comprises a sequence of changes to the electrical power supply output to the electrical appliance, this extends the range of different types of electrical appliance and can help avoid the additional hardware and complexity of managing a separate control signal output.

In embodiments where there is a control signal output to the electrical appliance, and the control protocol comprises changes to the control signals, this enables separate control of power supply and appliance functions, which in some cases can be coordinated with each other. In some embodiments, the appliance interface is arranged to receive information from the electrical appliance, and the control protocol is a two way protocol depending on such information received from the electrical appliance. This can enable more complex control, or more reliable control, for example, and can enable use with a wider range of electrical appliances.

In embodiments in which the control unit is arranged to carry out the emulation and to send a representation of the control protocol over the LAN to the remote unit, this helps centralise the intelligence in the control system.

In embodiments having at least one sensor coupled to communicate sensing inputs at least to the control unit, and the control system being arranged to carry out the control of the electrical appliance also according to the sensing inputs, again the range of different types of electrical appliance can be extended and the control can be more comprehensive.

In embodiments having an auxiliary power input for receiving electrical power from the electrical appliance for powering the remote unit, the resilience and reliability of the system can be enhanced. Lighting control examples

An example of a control system for controlling lighting devices according to another embodiment has one or more nodes attached to lighting or sensor devices. The nodes can be connected by a LAN in the form of wireless (RF/Zigbee or meshed RF) links to a hub. The hub can provide local processor control of node functions and connectivity to other hubs as well as to a user via a WAN interface in the form of a Wi-Fi intranet coupled to a browser based Internet interface for user control functions. The user interface can show a map of the device space represented by icons in a browser field which can be arbitrarily designated to user named zones (such as reception or drawing office etc.) The device space representation can provide an intuitive and easily constructed mechanism for user interaction with lighting, surveillance and other building systems. It can reside across multiple of the hub processors and can be made arbitrarily large to accommodate the largest of lighting estates. The device space can be managed by a configuration control application, enabling system administration to set up and reconfigure the lighting network. The user control application (typically an app on an Internet connected device) can provide an intuitive and easy to manipulate interface for the building occupants to interact with the control system. The nodes are typically located local to lighting devices and can be configured to either provide a controlled power supply to the light and/or provide control signals to match the lighting control interface (eg. 0-10V, PWM etc.) - effectively acting both as a local controller and a protocol converter. In addition, or alternatively, the node, or each node, can collect information from occupancy or daylight sensors and pass this back to the hub where lighting groups can be managed accordingly.

More details of the hub structure and functions now follow. The hub provides a platform for configuration and control of the control system. It can communicate with users via a User control App over the intra/internet communications system; with the administration via a configuration control application; and with nodes via the RF communications system. In hardware terms, the hub can contain a Wi-Fi /Ethernet subsystem, an RF (potentially Zigbee or RF mesh) subsystem; a processor unit and memory; and a power supply. Functions of the hub include supporting the device and status map - which is the core data base describing the node disposition and the attachments to the control system. The interconnection and grouping of the lamps and sensors is established by a configuration control application making changes to the Device and Status map.

User control of lighting is established by a user control App on a connected internet capable device making changes to the status of nodes controlling lighting attachments and also by activating more complex control sequences (scenarios) set up by the administration through the configurations control application. The hub can have a clock and can initiate Scenarios autonomously. The hub has bidirectional communications with nodes and can initiate Scenarios based on node feedback (from sensors for example). The hub, through a Zigbee RF link, can address local Zigbee compatible lights directly without node intervention.

Regarding communications, the hub can support for example both Cat 5 Ethernet and Wi- Fi connection to the local intranet - and hence if enabled, the internet, to provide WAN connectivity. Both user control and configuration control can be effected over this channel. The hub connects to its nodes via bidirectional RF links. The network can be meshed to improve connection integrity and provide confirmation of action responses to all commands. As an option, the hub can communicate using the open Zigbee protocol. The hub supports access security which is seamless via the user control App and will establish levels of access for both user and configuration control. Both RF/Zigbee and Wi-Fi can use private encoding/encryption to maintain security of the system.

The hub can be designed to control a minimum load of 40 nodes or 80 controllable devices or sensors and to accept simultaneous command inputs from 10 users for example, by having a capability to stack commands in order of priority based on an algorithm. For user App commands, there is a maximum latency of 500ms from hub receipt of command to node confirmation. This can help prevent the user trying to reassert the command before the system has had time to implement it. Regarding scalability, the base size of a hub (above) is large enough to manage a typical domestic house and sets the minimum scale. For larger networks, the hub is scalable in two ways: by an increase in memory, processor and communications capacity of the single Hub; and by the networking of a number of hubs to provide coverage of a wide area or complex facility. In larger installations of either type, the user control App works seamlessly across the hubs allowing any node to addressed and its attached devices to be managed.

Examples of the node will now be described in more detail. It provides a link from the hub to the attached lighting and sensor devices. It has an RF communications subsystem, a processor with limited memory, analogue inputs for sensors and hard switches and other local peripheral devices, including any feedback link from the controlled light. The node may have or be (optionally) associated with an external power supply which controls the light (on/off/dim/colour). This is typically how the system manages legacy lighting systems. Functionally, the node usually only controls one light or one connected lighting system. It can be loaded with a protocol conversion program to enable interface to proprietary lighting power supplies (eg 1 -10V, Dali etc.). The node can receive sensor input from for example, occupancy or proximity sensors, light level sensors - for daylight harvesting, loop connect for hard switching, 1 -10V for hard dimming control etc. It has sufficient local processing to act autonomously for some functions such as daylight harvesting - under the supervision of the hub (setting the control parameters), and hard switching/ proximity switching, where speed of response is paramount. In these situations, the node communicates with the hub to update the status map retrospectively.

The configuration interface (CI) may reside in the hub, for smaller control systems or more commonly can be placed in an administration PC. Such a PC may also hold the device and status map for a large network with multiple Hubs. Functionally, the CI provides for example a graphical user interface allowing the device and status map to be manipulated within the configuration rules set up for that network. The CI presents a plan of the lighting estate - which in larger systems conforms to the geographical and dimensional layout of the building, utilising, where appropriate, the existing building plans. In small systems, the CI provides a constructed virtual plan to make sense of the lighting and zone definitions. The CI (when not residing in the hub) can provide backup and history (roll back) of changes to the configuration. The user interface (Ul) resides typically on portable internet connected devices (PID) as an App. It can, of course, also run on standard PCs, as an App or a desktop application. The Ul can be a client application using the device and status map as a thin server. It can therefore update its status from the live control system status (wherever that resides, typically in the hub). Functionally the Ul can set the status for all devices for which it has been given access. Some of the possible functions are as follows.

The Ul can provide a simple and intuitive mechanism for changing the state of the lighting devices (on/off, dim etc.). For more complex controls - scenarios; automation, the user can navigate around the lighting estate plan and create rules and scenarios within the scope of their access privileges. The user cannot add or delete devices or change their properties The User can initiate or override automated scenarios like daylight harvesting and to the extent of their access privileges, may alter the properties of those functions. Where there are hard interfaces such as switches and dimmer devices etc, users without a PID can activate and adjust local lighting using hard wired (to the local node) switches and dimming controls where these are provided. Such status changes are reported by the node to the hub for inclusion in the device and status map. Regarding security, each Ul can have a unique identifier and establish connection to the client server by a password protected handshake. The user only need confirm an access password once to the Ul App. In some examples the system can be attached to sensors such as occupancy sensors, daylight sensors, and sensors for detecting a state of hard interfaces mentioned above. The system can be coupled to surveillance devices such as intruder detectors, monitoring systems such as video surveillance, and alarm systems and security lighting.

Other embodiments and variations can be envisaged within the scope of the claims.

Claims

1 . A control system for remote control of an electrical appliance (91 ,92,94,95,96,97,99), the control system comprising:

at least one control unit (1 ) and at least one remote unit (2),

the control unit having a WAN interface (5) for receiving user input via the WAN (4), and having a LAN interface (6),

the remote unit having a LAN interface (6) and having at least one appliance interface (7) for coupling to the electrical appliance, and arranged to feedback status information to the control unit,

the appliance interface (7) having a controllable electrical power supply output (9) controllable according to the user input, and

the control unit of the control system being arranged to control the electrical appliance through the electrical power supply output of the appliance interface according to the user input, by emulating a control protocol recognised by the electrical appliance and outputting a representation of the control protocol over the LAN to the remote unit, to control the controllable electrical power supply output, wherein the control protocol is a two-way protocol being dependent on the status information fed back from the appliance.

2. The control system of claim 1 , the control protocol comprising a sequence of changes to the controllable electrical power supply output to the electrical appliance.

3. The control system of claim 1 or 2 and the appliance interface having a control signal output (20) to the electrical appliance, and the control protocol comprises changes to the control signals.

4. The control system of any of claims 1 to 3, the control system having at least one sensor (12, 90, 93, 98) coupled to communicate sensing inputs at least to the control unit, and the control system being arranged to carry out the control of the electrical appliance also according to the sensing inputs.

5. The control system of any preceding claim, the appliance interface being arranged to receive sensing input information from the electrical appliance, and the control protocol being a two way protocol depending on such sensing input information received from the electrical appliance.

6. The control system of any preceding claim, the appliance interface also having an auxiliary power input (310) for receiving electrical power from the electrical appliance for powering the remote unit.

7. The control system of any preceding claim, the WAN comprising at least one of: a private intranet, a wireless or wired telephone network, and a public internet network, and the LAN comprises at least one of: a Wi-Fi network, a Zigbee network, a Bluetooth network, a powerline communications network, an in- building wireless network and an in-building wired network.

8. The control system of any preceding claim, the controllable power supply output being suitable for controlling lighting devices, to control at least one of: a dimming level, and a colour output.

9. The control system of any preceding claim, for use with a plurality of electrical appliances, and the control unit being arranged to store (213) indications of disposition and status of the electrical appliances

10. The control system of claim 9, the control unit being arranged to control (225) the electrical appliance based on the stored indication of status.

1 1 . The control system of claim 9 or 10, and configured to make (215) the stored indications user visible.

12. The control system of any of claims 9 to 1 1 , the control unit being arranged to infer (212) the status from past control actions.

13. The control system of any preceding claim, the control unit being configured to identify (105) which remote unit is coupled to the electrical appliance and to select, from a plurality of control protocols, which control protocol is recognised by that electrical appliance.

14. The control system of any preceding claim, the LAN interface of the control unit comprising a mixed mode LAN interface operable to work with at least two types of LAN.

15. A method of using a remote control system for controlling an electrical appliance (91 ,92,94,95,96,97,99), the control system comprising:

at least one control unit (1 ) and at least one remote unit (2),

the control unit having a WAN interface (5) for receiving user input via the WAN, and having a LAN interface (6),

the remote unit having a LAN interface (6) and having at least one appliance interface (7) for coupling to the electrical appliance,

the appliance interface having an electrical power supply output (9) controllable according to the user input, and the method having the steps of:

receiving (100) user input over the WAN,

receiving at the control unit status information fed back from the remote unit,

emulating (1 10) at the control unit a control protocol recognised by the electrical appliance, the control protocol being a two-way protocol which depends on the status information fed back from the appliance, and

outputting (1 15) the emulation from the control unit over the LAN to the appliance interface to control the controllable electrical power supply output to the electrical appliance to control the electrical appliance.

16. The method of claim 15, the control protocol comprising a sequence of changes to the electrical power supply output to the electrical appliance.

17. The method of claim 15 or 16 and the appliance interface having a control signal output to the electrical appliance, and the emulating of the control protocol comprises making changes to the control signals.

18. The method of any of claims 15 to 17, the appliance interface being arranged to receive sensing information from the electrical appliance, and the control protocol being a two way protocol depending on such sensing information received from the electrical appliance.

19. The method of any of claims 15 to 18, the control system having at least one sensor coupled to communicate sensing inputs at least to the control unit, and the step of controlling the electrical appliance being carried out also according to the sensing inputs.

20. The method of any of claims 1 5 to 19, the appliance interface also having an auxiliary power input, and the method having the step of receiving electrical power from the electrical appliance for powering the remote unit.

21 . A computer program having instructions which when executed by a computer cause the computer to carry out the method of any of claims 15 to 20.

22. A control unit for use in the control system of any of claims 1 to 14.

23. A remote unit for use in the control system of any of claims 1 to 14.

24. A control system for remote control of an electrical appliance (91 ,92,94,95,96,97,99), the control system comprising:

at least one control unit (1 ) and at least one remote unit (2),

the remote unit having a LAN interface (6) and having at least one appliance interface (7) for coupling to the electrical appliance, the appliance interface (7) having an electrical power supply output (9) controllable according to the user input and

the control unit of the control system being arranged derive status information about the electrical appliance, and

to control the electrical appliance through the electrical power supply output of the appliance interface according to the user input, by using a control protocol recognised by the electrical appliance, the control protocol depending on the status information, and the control unit being arranged to send a representation of the control protocol over the LAN to the remote unit.

25. A control system for remote control of electrical appliances (91 ,92,94,95,96,97,99), the control system comprising:

at least one control unit (1 ) and at least one remote unit (2),

the remote unit having a LAN interface (6) and having at least one appliance interface (7) for coupling to the electrical appliances, and arranged to feedback status information to the control unit,

the appliance interface (7) having a control signal output (20) controllable according to the user input, and

the control unit of the control system being arranged to control the electrical appliance through the control signal output of the appliance interface according to the user input, by emulating a control protocol recognised by the electrical appliance and outputting a representation of the control protocol over the LAN to the remote unit, to control the control signal output, wherein the control protocol is a two-way protocol being dependent on the status information fed back from the appliance,

the control unit also being arranged to store (213) indications of disposition and status of the electrical appliances, and to make the indications user visible.