US 2,005,046,584 · Filed 2004-09-13
The Wireless House Remote That Arrived Before Smartphones
Imagine controlling your house's lights, locks, and temperature from your phone or PDA — decades before the smart home became a thing. This patent describes a wireless system where a portable device like a cell phone sends commands to a control unit connected to various systems in a building or vehicle, letting you manage everything remotely.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a wireless remote-control system for buildings or vehicles where a portable transmitter (like a phone or PDA) sends signals to a receiver connected to a central processor. That processor interprets the signals and generates commands to control different systems in the asset — lighting, locks, climate control, and similar functions. What's protected is the architecture itself: the combination of a mobile transmitter, a fixed receiver, a processor that translates commands, and the linked systems that respond to those commands.
Why it matters
This patent represents an early vision of what would become the smart home and connected vehicle industry. Filed in 2004, it anticipated the demand for wireless, mobile control of building and vehicle systems at a time when such integration was uncommon. The patent's broad approach to asset control — treating any system in a home or trailer as controllable via wireless signal — laid conceptual groundwork for the distributed control systems that dominate today's IoT and automotive markets.
Real-world use
Every time you unlock your car from across a parking lot using your key fob, or control your home's thermostat from your smartphone, you're using the same basic principle this patent protects: a wireless signal traveling from your pocket to a receiver that commands systems inside the asset.
Original USPTO abstract
System and method for wirelessly controlling systems in an asset, such as a house or trailer, in which a movable device, such as a PDA, cellular telephone or vehicle, includes a transmitter arranged to transmit signals, and a control unit is arranged on or in connection with the asset and includes a receiver which communicates with the transmitter and a processor coupled to the receiver and which generates different command signals based on signals generated by the transmitter and received by the receiver. Each system is arranged on or in connection with the asset and coupled to the control unit and is responsive to command signals from the processor to perform a function relating to or affecting the asset.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 2,005,046,584
- Filing date
- 2004-09-13
- Grant date
- Application — not yet granted
- Assignee
- Breed David S.
- Inventor(s)
- BREED DAVID S.
- CPC class
- B60C11/24
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