US008892495 B2 (12) United States Patent (10) Patent No.: US 8,892.495 B2 Hoffberg et al. (45) Date of Patent: Nov. 18, 2014 (54) ADAPTIVE PATTERN RECOGNITION BASED (58) Field of Classification Search CONTROLLERAPPARATUS AND METHOD CPC ..................... F24F 11/0034; G05B 2219/2642 AND HUMAN-INTERFACE THEREFORE USPC ................... 706/11, 12, 14, 48: 700/276-278 See application file for complete search history. (71) Applicants: Steven M. Hoffberg, West Harrison, NY (US); Linda I. Hoffberg-Borghesani, (56) References Cited Acton, MA (US) U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS (72) Inventors: Steven M. Hoffberg, West Harrison, NY 312,516 A 2/1885 Schilling (US); Linda I. Hoffberg-Borghesani, 2,819,020 A 1/1958 Baer et al. Acton, MA (US) (Continued) (73) Assignee: Blanding Hovenweep, LLC, Las Vegas, FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS NV (US) CA 2009171 8, 1990 (*) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this CA 1298.387 3, 1992 patent is extended or adjusted under 35 (Continued) U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days. OTHER PUBLICATIONS (21) Appl. No.: 13/736,509 Green, Lee, “Thermo Tech: Here's a common sense guide to the new thinking thermostats'. Popular Mechanics, Oct. 1985, 155-159. (22) Filed: Jan. 8, 2013 (Continued) (65) Prior Publication Data Primary Examiner — Jeffrey A Gaffin US 2013/O147598A1 Jun. 13, 2013 Assistant Examiner — Benjamin Buss (74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm — Steven M. Hoffberg; Related U.S. Application Data Ostrolenk Faber LLP (60) Continuation of application No. 13/244,152, filed on (57) ABSTRACT Sep. 23, 2011, now Pat. No. 8,352,400, which is a A system and method of predicting items likely to appeal to a user, based on data received from a remote site. One or more (Continued) local systems are provided, along with a remote system, said (51) Int. C. local systems communicating with said remote system over a F24F II/00 (2006.01) network connection. Each local system maintains a set of G06F 7702 (2006.01) characterized items. A local processor predicts an appeal of G06N 7/06 (2006.01) an item to a user based on the comparison with the set of (52) U.S. C. characterized items with, e.g., userpreferences. The user may CPC ............ F24F II/0034 (2013.01); G06F 7/023 interact through graphical user interface. At least one user (2013.01); G06N 7/06 (2013.01); G05B preference predictive algorithm may be employed to present 2219/2642 (2013.01) items predicted to appeal to the user. 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