# Patents

> By David Bingham · https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/patents/
> Work by David Bingham.

David Bingham is a named inventor on 26 inventions, filed as 51 applications, 33 of which were granted. An invention is counted once however many times it was filed; an application is one filing with one patent office, shown under its grant's number where it was granted. He is a named inventor, not an owner, of all of them.

Status is stated only where verified; "Granted" alone means the grant's current standing has not been checked. "Confirmed by" states how his name on each application was confirmed.

## GE Digital — Software for people who keep industrial machines running

3 inventions · 2015 – 2016

3 inventions from San Ramon, 2015 to 2016: a status grid for a control room, the case structure behind Asset Performance Management, and a design patent on 1 timeline component. [Proposed: These are the ones I would show first, because they are about how people and machines reason together, which is still the question I work on.]

### Method and apparatus for providing a graphical display associated with a case

2015 · Application

Asset Performance Management. When a sensor on a turbine flags something wrong, the system opens a case and keeps 3 things together on 1 screen: the evidence, the analyst's reading of it, and the recommended action. The person at the plant sees why they are being asked to do something before they do it, and the analyst can later find what they relied on. [Proposed: I ran the research, personas and prototyping behind this, and it is the earliest place the grounding & explainability thinking in my later work was written down, 2015.]

Co-inventors: David Sean Farrell.

- Drawing: FIG. 3, WO2017048218A1 — the case data structure: evidence, interpretation (impact, urgency), recommendation, rating (explanation, provider), permission, case history, widgets.
- Drawing: FIG. 4, WO2017048218A1 — the same structure bound to a rendered widget strip; criticality field driving the display.
- Drawing: FIG. 1, WO2017048218A1 — central monitoring centre, data centre and operating site as three separate places; expert and doer apart.

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [WO2017048218A1](https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2017048218A1/en) | Sep 2015 | — | Published application | Office index |

Continued in: [Asset Performance Management](https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/work/asset-performance-management/) (2014–2015), [KBOps](https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/work/kb-ops/) (2022).

### Display screen with graphical user interface

2015 · Granted

A design patent on 1 interface component, the timeline that shows a case's history. 5 kinds of event sit along a line, handoffs, comments, maintenance, alerts & readings, and the line ends in a mark for resolution. [Proposed: Of the 26 inventions this is the one where the screen itself is the invention, which is why it matters most to me as a designer.]

Co-inventors: David Sean Farrell, Christopher James Lyons, Ricardo Lucas Bastos Breder.

- Drawing: FIG. 5, USD786299S1 — the complete component: five event types on a rule, captioned TIMELINE, the run terminating in a resolution mark.

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [USD786299S1](https://patents.google.com/patent/USD786299S1/en) | Aug 2015 | May 2017 | Granted | Read from the document |

### Monitoring and reporting of industrial equipment status

2016 · Granted, active

A control room watching hundreds of turbines and engines needs to know which are running, which are down, and why, at a glance. This lays equipment status out as a grid of hours by months, totals uptime and the hours nobody can account for, and specifies what every hover and click shows for every state a machine can be in. [Proposed: The interaction matrix in its figures is the kind of specification I write for build teams, and this is the only filing in the set that puts one on the public record.]

Co-inventors: Christopher James Lyons, Waqas Javed, Ricardo Lucas Bastos Breder.

- Drawing: FIG. 4, US10209706B2 — interaction states crossed against equipment states; tooltip and drop-down behaviour specified per cell.
- Drawing: FIG. 2, US10209706B2 — equipment status as an hour-by-month grid, with uptime and unaccounted-hours summaries.

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US10209706B2](https://patents.google.com/patent/US10209706B2/en) | Jan 2016 | Feb 2019 | Granted, active to 2036 | Read from the document |
| [US11016476B2](https://patents.google.com/patent/US11016476B2/en) | Feb 2019 | May 2021 | Granted, lapsed | Read from the document |
| [EP3196724B1](https://patents.google.com/patent/EP3196724B1/en) | Jan 2017 | Nov 2023 | Granted, active to 2037 | Read from the document |

## GE Appliances — Home energy and the smart grid

23 inventions · 2008 – 2011

23 inventions from Louisville, 2008 to 2012, on a connected home that could hear its utility, make and store its own power, and show a family where the money was going. They are grouped by what each one did for the household. [Proposed: I was the first interaction designer at GE Appliances and ran design for the Home Energy program; most of the screens in these filings came through my team.]

### One box, many networks

6 filings share 1 title and 1 week in February 2010. Together they describe the Home Energy Gateway, a small box that keeps the interface on the phone or laptop the family already owns, which is why it cost a fraction of the energy managers with built-in screens it replaced. The title is shown once; each row shows what its filing adds.

#### Low cost and flexible energy management system with a scheduling capability

2010 · Granted, active

You build the schedule on your phone or laptop, the gateway keeps it, and it reaches the water heater or dryer over whatever network that appliance happens to speak. The setup & pairing screens in its figures are a family's first 10 minutes with the system. [Proposed: I designed the onboarding flow shown here.]

- Drawing: FIG. 1, US8295990B2 — the gateway at the centre of a radial home network: meters, thermostats, appliances, phone.
- Drawing: FIGS. 4A–4D, US8295990B2 — orthographic and three-quarter views of the housing.
- Drawing: FIG. 4N, US8295990B2 — exploded internal assembly.
- Drawing: FIGS. 6–7, US8295990B2 — Home Energy Gateway onboarding: device naming, password, network join.
- Drawing: FIG. 10, US8295990B2 — appliance pairing: discovered devices, install codes, connected profile.

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US8295990B2](https://patents.google.com/patent/US8295990B2/en) | Jan 2011 | Oct 2012 | Granted, active to 2031 | Read from the document |
| [CA2752987C](https://patents.google.com/patent/CA2752987C/en) | Sep 2011 | Oct 2018 | Granted, active to 2031 | Office index |

#### Low cost and flexible energy management system

2010 · Granted, active

The gateway is a translator. Phone traffic comes in on 1 channel, is reformatted for the appliance network on another, and answers come back the same way, so devices that were never designed to meet can share a home. [Proposed: That is what let the product outlive 3 generations of hardware without being redesigned. Confirm the number before it ships.]

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US8621097B2](https://patents.google.com/patent/US8621097B2/en) | Jan 2011 | Dec 2013 | Granted, active to 2031 | Read from the document |
| [CA2752977C](https://patents.google.com/patent/CA2752977C/en) | Sep 2011 | Aug 2019 | Granted, active to 2031 | Family record |

#### Low cost and flexible energy management system and method for transmitting messages among a plurality of communication networks

2010 · Granted, active

The whole system in 1 claim: a network for the people in the house, a network for the utility, a network for the appliances, and the gateway passing messages among the 3.

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US8565928B2](https://patents.google.com/patent/US8565928B2/en) | Jan 2011 | Oct 2013 | Granted | Family record |
| [CA2752994C](https://patents.google.com/patent/CA2752994C/en) | Sep 2011 | Oct 2019 | Granted, active to 2031 | Office index |

#### Low cost and flexible energy management system configured in a unitary housing having a displayless configuration

2010 · Granted, active

The box on the wall has indicator lights and no screen, because the family already owns the screens it needs. The filing says why in plain terms: every energy manager on the market in 2010 forced one more display into a home that already had computers, phones & televisions, and cost a great deal for it. Setup, schedules & status live on the phone or laptop instead, which keeps the gateway cheap and lets the interface improve without touching the hardware. [Proposed: Putting the interface where people already are is a position I have held since, and this is the first time it became a patent.]

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US8775848B2](https://patents.google.com/patent/US8775848B2/en) | Jan 2011 | Jul 2014 | Granted, active to 2031 | Read from the document |
| [CA2752993C](https://patents.google.com/patent/CA2752993C/en) | Sep 2011 | Nov 2018 | Granted, active to 2031 | Office index |

#### Low cost and flexible energy management system defined in a single unitary housing

2010 · Granted, active

The same gateway as 1 small box that plugs straight into a wall outlet, computer, storage & power supply inside a single housing. The orthographic and exploded views in its figures are the product itself. [Proposed: I worked alongside industrial design on the enclosure; say so or cut.]

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US9218631B2](https://patents.google.com/patent/US9218631B2/en) | Jan 2011 | Dec 2015 | Granted | Office index |
| [CA2753003C](https://patents.google.com/patent/CA2753003C/en) | Sep 2011 | Nov 2018 | Granted, active to 2031 | Office index |

#### Low cost and flexible energy management system providing user control arrangement in a plurality of modes

2010 · Granted, active

The gateway can be switched between jobs: energy management, home automation & security, or a display mode with large type and stronger colors for someone with poor eyesight. The filing even imagines a bathroom scale reporting through it. [Proposed: The large-type mode is the earliest accessibility provision in any of my filings.]

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US8977731B2](https://patents.google.com/patent/US8977731B2/en) | Jan 2011 | Mar 2015 | Granted | Office index |
| [CA2752946C](https://patents.google.com/patent/CA2752946C/en) | Sep 2011 | Nov 2018 | Granted, active to 2031 | Office index |

### Where it started, 2008

The first filing, and the one taken to the most countries.

#### Demand side management module

2008 · Granted, active

The first filing, from 2008. A snap-in module lets a refrigerator or dryer listen to whichever utility serves the house, and when the utility signals a peak the appliance drops to a low or lowest energy mode on its own. The family buys 1 appliance and it works with any utility, and the gauge & calculator on the refrigerator door show what each setting costs per year. [Proposed: This came in my first year as the first interaction designer at GE Appliances, and the door screens in its figures were the first smart-grid interfaces I designed.]

Co-inventors: Eric K. Watson, John K. Besore, Michael Thomas Beyerle, Darin Franks, Byron Guernsey, Darko Ilickovic, Mallika Ravindra Patel, Brian Michael Schork.

- Drawing: FIG. 15, US8355826B2 — refrigerator door display with the energy gauge bar, annotated with what each level means.
- Drawing: FIG. 19, US8355826B2 — energy calculator screen: kWh/year, CO2 tons, cost per year against current settings.
- Drawing: FIG. 13, US8355826B2 — time-of-use schedule as a week grid, peak hours hatched, set by stylus on the dispenser screen.

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US8355826B2](https://patents.google.com/patent/US8355826B2/en) | Sep 2009 | Jan 2013 | Granted, active to 2031 | Read from the document |
| [US8626347B2](https://patents.google.com/patent/US8626347B2/en) | Dec 2012 | Jan 2014 | Granted | Office index |
| [WO2010031024A1](https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2010031024A1/en) | Sep 2009 | — | Application, ceased | Read from the document |
| [CA2723060C](https://patents.google.com/patent/CA2723060C/en) | Sep 2009 | Aug 2018 | Granted, active to 2029 | Office index |
| [AU2009290585B2](https://patents.google.com/patent/AU2009290585B2/en) | Sep 2009 | Jan 2016 | Granted, active to 2029 | Family record |

### When the house makes its own power

Solar, batteries & generators, and a household that sells energy as well as buying it.

#### Energy smart system

2010 · Granted, lapsed

One system watching everything in the house that uses, makes or stores energy: each appliance, the solar panels, the battery, the meter for the whole home. A single application serves both the family and the utility from the same data, and gives the household an energy profile, a carbon footprint, and suggestions for what to change next. [Proposed: This is the system view the rest of the GE Appliances filings sit inside.]

Co-inventors: Natarajan Venkatakrishnan, Kevin Farrelly Nolan, David Joseph Najewicz.

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US8560133B2](https://patents.google.com/patent/US8560133B2/en) | Sep 2010 | Oct 2013 | Granted, lapsed | Family record |
| [US9218632B2](https://patents.google.com/patent/US9218632B2/en) | Sep 2013 | Dec 2015 | Granted, lapsed | Office index |
| [CA2753809A1](https://patents.google.com/patent/CA2753809A1/en) | Sep 2011 | — | Application, discontinued | Office index |

#### Energy manager with minimum use energy profile

2010 · Granted, active

On a hot afternoon the solar panels make the most power at the same hour the utility pays the most for it. During that peak the house drops to a minimum-use profile the family has set, so as much of its own generation as possible is sold back at the premium rate.

Co-inventors: Joseph Mark Brian, Michael Thomas Beyerle, Jay Andrew Broniak.

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US8930037B2](https://patents.google.com/patent/US8930037B2/en) | Oct 2010 | Jan 2015 | Granted | Office index |
| [CA2753067C](https://patents.google.com/patent/CA2753067C/en) | Sep 2011 | Sep 2020 | Granted, active to 2031 | Office index |

#### Manage whole home appliances/loads to a peak energy consumption

2011 · Granted

The family sets a ceiling for the whole house and ranks their appliances. When demand would cross the ceiling the system turns things down in their order, not its own.

Co-inventors: Michael Thomas Beyerle, Jay Andrew Broniak, Joseph Mark Brian.

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US20120053741A1](https://patents.google.com/patent/US20120053741A1/en) | Mar 2011 | — | Application, discontinued | Read from the document |
| [US9292031B2](https://patents.google.com/patent/US9292031B2/en) | Aug 2013 | Mar 2016 | Granted | Office index |

#### Household energy management system and method for one or more appliances and a power generator

2010 · Granted, active

When the grid goes down and the generator starts, the system keeps the load under what the generator can supply. It switches off whatever the family has marked as non-essential rather than letting the whole house trip.

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US9246332B2](https://patents.google.com/patent/US9246332B2/en) | Oct 2010 | Jan 2016 | Granted | Office index |
| [CA2753025C](https://patents.google.com/patent/CA2753025C/en) | Sep 2011 | Oct 2018 | Granted, active to 2031 | Office index |

#### Energy management system incorporating a gas powered generator

2010 · Application

A standby generator usually tells you its fuel, battery & service state on a panel out by the garage. This puts those readings on the same home screen as everything else, so you know it will start before you need it to.

Co-inventors: Joseph Mark Brian, Michael Beyerle, Jay Broniak.

- Drawing: FIG. 3, US20120065797A1 — a photographic halftone: the generator itself paired with the in-home display.

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US20120065797A1](https://patents.google.com/patent/US20120065797A1/en) | Oct 2010 | — | Published application | Office index |
| [CA2755712A1](https://patents.google.com/patent/CA2755712A1/en) | Oct 2011 | — | Application, discontinued | Read from the document |

### Hot water

Hot water is the biggest load in a house that can wait an hour, which is why 5 filings are about it.

#### Hot water heater with an integrated flow meter

2010 · Application

A water heater that measures its own hot and cold flow and reports it to the home network, so the family can see how much hot water they use, what it costs to heat, and how this week compares with last.

- Drawing: FIG. 1, US20120054123A1 — hourly hot water usage plotted against energy rate across the day, with cumulative overlay.

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US20120054123A1](https://patents.google.com/patent/US20120054123A1/en) | Sep 2010 | — | Published application | Office index |
| [CA2753026A1](https://patents.google.com/patent/CA2753026A1/en) | Sep 2011 | — | Application, discontinued | Office index |
| [AU2011226796A1](https://patents.google.com/patent/AU2011226796A1/en) | Sep 2011 | — | Published application | Office index |

#### Hot water heater scheduler

2010 · Application

Most water heaters hold 50 gallons at temperature all day for 2 showers in the morning. This one takes a weekly schedule from its control panel, lets the water cool when nobody needs it, heats ahead of demand, and has vacation & high-demand keys for the exceptions.

- Drawing: FIG. 2, US20120060771A1 — water heater control panel: temperature, hybrid mode, day selectors, vacation and high-demand keys.

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US20120060771A1](https://patents.google.com/patent/US20120060771A1/en) | Oct 2010 | — | Published application | Office index |
| [CA2753803A1](https://patents.google.com/patent/CA2753803A1/en) | Sep 2011 | — | Application, discontinued | Office index |

#### Self-programming water heater

2011 · Granted

The scheduler without the scheduling. The heater learns when the house actually draws hot water and programs itself around it, so the saving happens without anyone opening a settings screen.

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US8867908B2](https://patents.google.com/patent/US8867908B2/en) | Aug 2011 | Oct 2014 | Granted | Office index |

#### Home energy management system incorporating a pool pump

2011 · Granted

A pool pump runs for hours a day and does not care which hours. This brings it into the home system with a schedule that avoids peak rates, and a screen that shows the utility's state and lets the owner override it.

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US8467908B2](https://patents.google.com/patent/US8467908B2/en) | Jan 2011 | Jun 2013 | Granted | Office index |

#### Energy manager — water leak detection

2010 · Granted, active

A flow meter on the main line, read by the home controller, totals how much water the house is using and compares it with what it should be. If something is running that should not be, it tells the family and can close the shutoff valve from wherever they are. [Proposed: The filing opens with a line I still agree with: a leaky pipe always happens at the worst possible moment.]

Co-inventors: Jay Andrew Broniak, Michael Thomas Beyerle, Joseph Mark Brian.

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US9019120B2](https://patents.google.com/patent/US9019120B2/en) | Nov 2010 | Apr 2015 | Granted | Office index |
| [CA2756341C](https://patents.google.com/patent/CA2756341C/en) | Oct 2011 | Nov 2019 | Granted, active to 2031 | Office index |

### Seeing where the energy goes

The screens. [Proposed: Closest to what I do.]

#### User interface for monitoring resource consumption

2011 · Granted

Pick a start and an end time and see what each appliance, and each job an appliance does, contributed to the house's electricity, gas or water. Consumption by task rather than by meter, so a family can see what a load of laundry costs.

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US8769426B2](https://patents.google.com/patent/US8769426B2/en) | Sep 2011 | Jul 2014 | Granted | Office index |

#### User interface for determining resource consumption

2011 · Application

A separate invention from the one above, though the titles differ by 1 word. This one answers a question after the fact: between these 2 dates, how much did the dryer use? Pick the range, pick the appliance, read the number.

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US20130073059A1](https://patents.google.com/patent/US20130073059A1/en) | Sep 2011 | — | Published application | Office index |

#### Home energy management screensaver

2009 · Application

When the family computer sits idle it becomes the home's energy display, cycling through live electricity, water & gas use and what each is costing right now. Nobody has to log in or go looking; the information is on the screen they walk past. [Proposed: My first filing on ambient display, from 2009, and the thinking carried straight into the control room work at GE Digital 6 years later.]

Co-inventors: Jay Andrew Broniak, Natarajan Venkatakrishnan, Joseph Mark Brian, Byron K. Guernsey.

- Drawing: FIG. 3, US20110154269A1 — Eco Home dashboard: analog kW gauge, thermostat card, weather card, tab bar.
- Drawing: FIG. 4, US20110154269A1 — real-time consumption chart with period and unit selectors.
- Drawing: FIG. 5, US20110154269A1 — seven-day forecast view inside the same shell.

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US20110154269A1](https://patents.google.com/patent/US20110154269A1/en) | Dec 2009 | — | Published application | Office index |
| [CA2722629A1](https://patents.google.com/patent/CA2722629A1/en) | Nov 2010 | — | Application, discontinued | Read from the document |

#### Home energy manager system

2010 · Application

The home energy manager as a whole: every appliance reports its own consumption, a meter reports the house total, and a controller passes the utility's price & demand signals to the appliances, which decide locally how to respond.

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US20120053739A1](https://patents.google.com/patent/US20120053739A1/en) | Sep 2010 | — | Published application | Office index |

#### Device and method for energy management in a household

2011 · Granted

Pairing an appliance to the home network without typing a security key. The radio is plugged into the phone or laptop first, which binds it, then into the appliance, so the connection is secure and the setup is physical: plug in here, then plug in there.

Co-inventors: Michael Francis Finch, Henry Nader Kobraei, Elliott Dean Koehler.

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US9083537B2](https://patents.google.com/patent/US9083537B2/en) | Oct 2011 | Jul 2015 | Granted | Read from the document |

### Hearing it

1 filing, where years of work on sound in interfaces produced a patent.

#### Critical peak pricing audio alert

2010 · Application

A price change from the utility usually arrives as a text at 4 in the morning. This one is a sound: when electricity is about to get expensive, the appliances that already have speakers chirp from several rooms, in time for someone to act. [Proposed: Sound as an interface runs from my student work for blind users, through the Kentucky School for the Blind and the Georgia Tech sonification lab, and this is where that line of work produced a patent.]

| Application | Filed | Granted | Status | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [US20120050037A1](https://patents.google.com/patent/US20120050037A1/en) | Sep 2010 | — | Published application | Office index |
| [CA2754512A1](https://patents.google.com/patent/CA2754512A1/en) | Sep 2011 | — | Application, discontinued | Office index |

- **AI:** 4, Drafted. Categories and order of importance by me; invention descriptions drafted by AI from each filing; the record compiled with AI from patent-office searches and checked against the filings. The tiers: https://studiobing.com/davidbingham/writing/#ai