Patents by Inventor Hung-Ren Lai

Hung-Ren Lai has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 8346713
    Abstract: A method and a system for recognizing power consumption behaviors of electric appliances in a loop are provided. When a variation value of a power consumption information of the loop exceeds a threshold, a current value of the power consumption information is served as a main loop factor value of the loop, and a similar combinative factor value close to the main loop factor value is looked up in a behavior-factor mapping table. If the similar combinative factor value is not found, the main loop factor value corresponding to a new power consumption behavior is obtained according to the variation value of the power consumption information to reconstruct the behavior-factor mapping table. After obtaining the similar combinative factor value from the behavior-factor mapping table, a current electric appliance power consumption behavior of the loop is determined according to a power consumption behavior combination corresponding to the similar combinative factor value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2013
    Assignee: Institute for Information Industry
    Inventors: Chi-Cheng Chuang, Ray-I Chang, Hung-Ren Lai
  • Patent number: 8237586
    Abstract: A method and a system for recognizing the statuses of electric appliances are provided. In the present method, a loop is taking as a unit for recognition, and a power consumption factor sensor which is capable of measuring a single power consumption factor is used such that the current status of each electric appliance in the loop can be recognized by comparing the probability distribution of the power consumption factor. Since it is not needed to dispose an extra measuring device on each electric appliance, the cost of recognizing the statuses of the electric appliances is significantly reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2012
    Assignee: Institute for Information Industry
    Inventors: Chi-Cheng Chuang, Ray-I Chang, Hung-Ren Lai
  • Patent number: 8160826
    Abstract: A method and a system for estimating use time of electric appliances are provided. In the present method, all time points corresponding to an appliance power on event or an appliance power off event are obtained according to a value-time curve of at least one electric characteristic. A characteristic value of each of the time points is calculated according to the value-time curve, so as to pair the time points corresponding to the appliance power off event with the time points corresponding to the appliance power on event appropriately. After the pairing process is accomplished, the use time of each of the electric appliances can be calculated by the paired time points and thereby the power consumption of the electric appliances can be figured out.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2012
    Assignee: Institute for Information Industry
    Inventors: Hung-Ren Lai, Chi-Tai Cheng
  • Patent number: 7994938
    Abstract: A method and an apparatus for deciding a traveling direction in a space are provided. After receiving a starting signal from a mobile apparatus, a network node of a network apparatus generates a request signal and sends it to a processing apparatus. Then the processing apparatus decides the traveling direction and sends a direction signal comprising the traveling direction to the nearest network node to instruct a moving apparatus to move. The method, and apparatus are more convenient and more cost-effective system than those in the prior art.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2011
    Assignee: Institute for Information Industry
    Inventor: Hung-Ren Lai
  • Patent number: 7961760
    Abstract: A method and a system for network synchronization are provided. In this method, when a node attempts to join a network, a parent node is searched from all other nodes already joined the network per specific time interval. If the parent node can be found, sync-information sent by the parent node is received by the node so as to synchronize with the parent node and enter a working mode. When a sleeping instruction sent by the parent node is received, or a timer determines that a network ending time is reached according to the sync-information, the node switches to a sleeping mode. However, when the timer determines that a network wakeup time is reached according to the sync-information, the node attempts to join the network again. All nodes in the network can work and sleep simultaneously so as to extend the lifetime of the battery.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2011
    Assignee: Institute for Information Industry
    Inventors: Hsueh-Han Lu, Hung-Ren Lai
  • Publication number: 20110121988
    Abstract: A method and a system for recognizing the statuses of electric appliances are provided. In the present method, a loop is taking as a unit for recognition, and a power consumption factor sensor which is capable of measuring a single power consumption factor is used such that the current status of each electric appliance in the loop can be recognized by comparing the probability distribution of the power consumption factor. Since it is not needed to dispose an extra measuring device on each electric appliance, the cost of recognizing the statuses of the electric appliances is significantly reduced.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 4, 2009
    Publication date: May 26, 2011
    Applicant: INSTITUTE FOR INFORMATION INDUSTRY
    Inventors: Chi-Cheng Chuang, Ray-I Chang, Hung-Ren Lai
  • Publication number: 20110125703
    Abstract: A method and a system for recognizing power consumption behaviors of electric appliances in a loop are provided. When a variation value of a power consumption information of the loop exceeds a threshold, a current value of the power consumption information is served as a main loop factor value of the loop, and a similar combinative factor value close to the main loop factor value is looked up in a behavior-factor mapping table. If the similar combinative factor value is not found, the main loop factor value corresponding to a new power consumption behavior is obtained according to the variation value of the power consumption information to reconstruct the behavior-factor mapping table. After obtaining the similar combinative factor value from the behavior-factor mapping table, a current electric appliance power consumption behavior of the loop is determined according to a power consumption behavior combination corresponding to the similar combinative factor value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 7, 2009
    Publication date: May 26, 2011
    Applicant: INSTITUTE FOR INFORMATION INDUSTRY
    Inventors: Chi-Cheng Chuang, Ray-I Chang, Hung-Ren Lai
  • Publication number: 20110119002
    Abstract: A method and a system for estimating use time of electric appliances are provided. In the present method, all time points corresponding to an appliance power on event or an appliance power off event are obtained according to a value-time curve of at least one electric characteristic. A characteristic value of each of the time points is calculated according to the value-time curve, so as to pair the time points corresponding to the appliance power off event with the time points corresponding to the appliance power on event appropriately. After the pairing process is accomplished, the use time of each of the electric appliances can be calculated by the paired time points and thereby the power consumption of the electric appliances can be figured out.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 7, 2009
    Publication date: May 19, 2011
    Applicant: INSTITUTE FOR INFORMATION INDUSTRY
    Inventors: Hung-Ren Lai, Chi-Tai Cheng
  • Publication number: 20100124240
    Abstract: A method and a system for network synchronization are provided. In this method, when a node attempts to join a network, a parent node is searched from all other nodes already joined the network per specific time interval. If the parent node can be found, sync-information sent by the parent node is received by the node so as to synchronize with the parent node and enter a working mode. When a sleeping instruction sent by the parent node is received, or a timer determines that a network ending time is reached according to the sync-information, the node switches to a sleeping mode. However, when the timer determines that a network wakeup time is reached according to the sync-information, the node attempts to join the network again. All nodes in the network can work and sleep simultaneously so as to extend the lifetime of the battery.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 16, 2008
    Publication date: May 20, 2010
    Applicant: INSTITUTE FOR INFORMATION INDUSTRY
    Inventors: Hsueh-Han Lu, Hung-Ren Lai
  • Publication number: 20090129300
    Abstract: A method and an apparatus for deciding a traveling direction in a space are provided. After receiving a starting signal from a mobile apparatus, a network node of a network apparatus generates a request signal and sends it to a processing apparatus. Then the processing apparatus decides the traveling direction and sends a direction signal comprising the traveling direction to the nearest network node to instruct a moving apparatus to move. The method, and apparatus are more convenient and more cost-effective system than those in the prior art.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 20, 2007
    Publication date: May 21, 2009
    Applicant: INSTITUTE FOR INFORMATION INDUSTRY
    Inventor: Hung-Ren Lai
  • Publication number: 20080123554
    Abstract: A deploying apparatus, a method, and a computer readable medium thereof for deploying a network in a space are provided. The method generates a plurality of grid points in the space and then disposes a first network node having a first effective connection range on one of the grid points. After that the following rule can be repeated: if a new network node is required to be disposed, it has to be disposed on a grid point that covered by at least one of the effective connection ranges of the previous disposed network nodes. In addition, an effective connection range of the new network node has to cover one of the previous disposed network nodes. By using the technique, the network can be deployed rapidly without heavy calculation. Furthermore, when the setting of the space changes or when the number of the network nodes changes, the technique does not have to deploy the whole network in the space again. It only has to adjust the deployment of part of the network in the space.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 27, 2007
    Publication date: May 29, 2008
    Applicant: INSTITUTE FOR INFORMATION INDUSTRY
    Inventors: Cheng-Hsien Ku, Hung-Ren Lai