US 12,253,543 B1
Plug-in energy sensor
Cameron Dean Whitehouse, Seattle, WA (US); Matthew Liang Chaboud, San Francisco, CA (US); Joseph A. Cullen, Issaquah, WA (US); and Arielle Rachel Bertman, Seattle, WA (US)
Assigned to Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA (US)
Filed by Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA (US)
Filed on Jun. 28, 2018, as Appl. No. 16/021,735.
Int. Cl. G01R 15/12 (2006.01); G01R 21/00 (2006.01); H01R 13/66 (2006.01)
CPC G01R 15/12 (2013.01) [G01R 21/00 (2013.01); H01R 13/6683 (2013.01)] 26 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system, comprising:
a plug-in energy sensor, including:
an electrical prong insertable into an electrical outlet of an electrical circuit at a location;
a communication component;
a first processor; and
a first memory coupled to the first processor and storing first program instructions that, when executed by the first processor cause the first processor to at least:
process voltage data received via the electrical prong;
detect a change in a voltage represented by the voltage data;
in response to the change, introduce, by the plug-in energy sensor, a load voltage into the electrical circuit;
while the load voltage is introduced into the electrical circuit, generate signature data representative of the change in the voltage over a period of time; and
send, via the communication component, at least the signature data; and
a remote computing system, including:
a second processor; and
a second memory storing second program instructions that, when executed by the second processor cause the second processor to at least:
receive the signature data;
compare the signature data to a plurality of stored signature data to determine a device type associated with the signature data; and
determine, based at least in part on the signature data, an amount of energy consumed by the device type during the period of time.