Your iPhone, iPad, AirPods, and perhaps even your Mac may eventually fire up certain music or play a video based on where you’re at. The company has filed for a patent (number 20190028295) for “location-based device automation.”
It involves systems, methods, and computer program products for identifying a presence of mobile devices at a geographic location and determining an entertainment option to be played at the geographic location based on the identified devices and based on a user’s preset determinations.
Per the patent filing, automation modes (e.g., a home mode, an away mode, or a vacation mode) can be used to adjust automation settings for one or more devices. A particular automation mode can be selected to automate (e.g., adjust the settings) one or more devices using the configured automation settings for the particular automation mode.
An automation setting can indicate whether a particular device should be active or inactive. An automation setting can also indicate a particular setting for the particular device (e.g., a thermostat setting, a volume level, or a light dimming setting).
A user profile can be associated with a mobile device, and can be used to personalize automation of one or more devices. The user profile can be used to select a preferred automation mode and/or can personalize automation of individual devices based on preferences stored in the user profile. Automation modes for a particular geographic location can be configured differently based on a presence of multiple mobile devices that are associated with the particular geographic location.
Of course, Apple files for — and is granted — lots of patents by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Many are for inventions that never see the light of day. However, you never can tell which ones will materialize in a real product.
