Home automation having user privacy protections

Abstract

An acoustic sensor is positioned in an environment and configured to generate a data stream responsive to acoustic energy in the environment. A controller is configured to receive the data stream. The controller is further configured to analyze the data stream to determine ambient acoustic signals. The controller is further configured to generate an ambient acoustic template based on the determined ambient acoustic signals. The controller is further configured to apply the ambient acoustic template to the data stream so that the ambient acoustic signals are suppressed in the data stream. The controller is further configured to analyze the data stream after the ambient acoustic signals are suppressed in order to determine if the acoustic energy in the environment includes acoustic energy of human snoring. The controller is further configured to issue a control signal to a second controller in order to engage a home automation device.

1 . A system comprising:
 a sensor positioned in an environment and configured to generate a data stream responsive to acoustic energy in the environment;   a controller having control circuitry comprising short-term and long-term storage, wherein the controller is communicably coupled to the sensor and configured to:
 access environmental data related to user interaction with the system over a predetermined time which was collected via the control circuitry and stored in long term storage; 
 determine a use pattern, based on an aggregation of the collected environmental data in long term storage, wherein the use pattern is related to the user interaction with the system; 
 receive, in the short-term storage, the data stream from the sensor; 
 compare, using the control circuitry, the data stream from the sensor to the use pattern; 
 identify the data stream as relevant based on the comparison of the data stream from the sensor to the use pattern; 
 analyze the data stream, responsive to the determination that the data stream is relevant, to determine ambient acoustic signals that are in the environment; 
 reduce the ambient acoustic signals from the data stream to generate a suppressed acoustic signal; 
 store the suppressed acoustic signal in the long-term storage; 
 analyze the suppressed acoustic signal to determine if the acoustic energy in the environment includes acoustic energy of human snoring; and 
 responsive to determining if the acoustic energy in the environment includes acoustic energy of snoring, generate one or more control signals to engage a home automation device. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein to analyze the data stream to determine ambient acoustic signals that are in the environment; and reduce the ambient acoustic signals from the data stream to generate the suppressed acoustic signal, the controller is configured to:
 segment the data stream into frames;   perform a statistical analysis of multiple frames based on one or more parameters of properties of the frames, wherein the one or more parameters is frame energy; and   generate a template based on the statistical analysis.   
     
     
         3 . (canceled) 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the statistical analysis of multiple frames based on one or more parameters of properties of the frames comprises combining magnitude spectrums of low-energy frames among a plurality of frames. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein combining magnitude spectrums of low-energy frames among a plurality of frames comprises selecting N frames for combination based on the N frames having the N-lowest energy values. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein combining magnitude spectrums of low-energy frames among a plurality of frames comprises selecting frames for combination based on the selected frames having an energy value below a threshold value. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the statistical analysis of multiple frames based on one or more parameters of properties of the frames comprises:
 identifying a subset of frames free from acoustic energy from speech; and   combining magnitude spectrums of the subset of frames identified as free from acoustic energy from speech.   
     
     
         8 . (canceled) 
     
     
         9 . (canceled) 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the data stream is subject to a filter to reduce an acoustic component generated by speech, and wherein audio presentation of the data stream subjected contains no intelligible speech sounds. 
     
     
         11 . (canceled) 
     
     
         12 . (canceled) 
     
     
         13 . A system comprising:
 a sensor positioned in an environment and configured to generate a data stream responsive to acoustic energy in the environment;   a controller having control circuitry comprising short-term and long-term storage, wherein the controller is communicably coupled the sensor and configured to:
 receive the data stream from the sensor; 
 retrieve, from long-term storage, a predetermined use pattern comprising at least one environmental data indicating a time of bed presence or a time of sleep state related to a user of the system; 
 compare, using control circuitry, a time that the data stream was generated with the use pattern; 
 determine that the data stream is relevant based on the time the data stream was generated being during one of the time of bed presence or the time of sleep state of the predetermined use pattern; 
 process the data stream, responsive to the determination that the data stream is relevant, to reduce acoustic components generated by speech; 
 apply encryption to the data stream to create an encrypted data stream; and 
 transmit the encrypted data stream to a remote storage or a cloud database. 
   
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13 , the controller further configured to:
 determine, from the data stream after the data stream has been processed, presence of snore and an intensity of snore.   
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein to apply encryption to the data stream to create an encrypted data stream, the controller is further configured to apply compression to the data stream from the sensor. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein to process the data stream to reduce acoustic components generated by speech, the controller is configured to apply a band pass filter with a frequency range selected from a group consisting of: 100 to 800 Hz, 100 to 400 Hz, and 0 to 800 Hz. 
     
     
         17 . (canceled) 
     
     
         18 . (canceled) 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the use pattern includes at least one environmental data indicating a time of bed presence or a time of sleep state for the user of the system, and wherein the predetermined period of time is one week. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 19 , wherein to compare the data stream from the sensor to the use pattern and determine that the data stream is relevant based on the comparison, the controller is configured to:
 analyze the data stream for a time in which the data stream was generated;   determine whether the data stream was generated during at least one of the time of sleep state, or the time of bed presence included in the use pattern; and   identify the data stream as relevant in response to determining that the data stream was generated during the time of sleep state, or the time of bed presence included in the use pattern.   
     
     
         21 . The system of  claim 19 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
 receive, in the short-term storage, a subsequent data stream from the sensor;   analyze the subsequent data stream for a time in which the subsequent data stream was generated;   compare, using the control circuitry, the time of the subsequent data stream from the sensor to the use pattern;   determine that the time of the subsequent data stream is not the time of bed presence and a time of sleep state for the user of the system; and   determine that the subsequent data stream is not relevant based on the determination.   
     
     
         22 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein responsive to the determination that the subsequent data stream is not relevant, the controller is configured to refrain from analysis of the subsequent data stream. 
     
     
         23 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
 receive a subsequent data stream from the sensor; and   determine a time that the subsequent data stream was generated.   
     
     
         24 . The system of  claim 23 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
 retrieve, from long-term storage, the predetermined use pattern comprising at least one environmental data indicating the time of bed presence or the time of sleep state related to the user in the environment;   compare, using control circuitry, the time that the subsequent data stream was generated with the predetermined use pattern; and   determine that the data stream is not relevant based on the time the subsequent data stream was generated being not the time of bed presence and not the time of sleep state of the predetermined use pattern.   
     
     
         25 . The system of  claim 24 , wherein responsive to the determination that the subsequent data stream is not relevant, the controller is configured to refrain from analysis of the subsequent data stream.