SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RESTRICTING OPERATION OF A BATHING UNIT SYSTEM BASED ON USER TYPE

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to operating a bathing unit system in response to an access request submitted by a user for a bathing session, the bathing unit system including but not limited to, a swimming pool, a spa, a hot tub, and other recreational and therapeutic units for holding water. The present disclosure relates more specifically to operating the bathing unit system differently based on whether the user requesting the bathing session is a primary user type or a subsidiary user type.

BACKGROUND

A bathing unit system typically includes various bathing unit components such as a receptacle holding water, one or more pumps to circulate water in a circulation system comprising a plurality of conduits, one or more temperature change modules (e.g., heaters to increase the water temperature and coolers to decrease the water temperature), a filter system to filter the water and a control system for activating and managing the various components.

During a typical operation, a user can initiate a bathing session via a control panel. A control system of the bathing unit system then operates the various bathing unit components, including the one or more temperature change components, the one or more pumps and/or other bathing unit components, in order to create a desirable bathing session for a user. Activating bathing unit components (and in particular, the temperature change components) can consume significant amounts of energy, which can result in increased costs for the operating the bathing unit system as energy costs continue to rise. As such, it may be desirable to reduce the amount of time the bathing unit components are active in order to reduce energy consumption and cost.

Various different users may use a bathing unit system. Some users (such as children or guests) may not appreciate, or be impacted by, costs for operating or maintaining the bathing unit system. Further, bathing unit systems are typically located outside and in close proximity to neighbours. Some users may not operate the bathing unit system in a courteous manner or in a manner that complies with neighborhood rules (e.g., may project loud audio at inappropriate times) as they are not impacted by societal and legal costs for noncompliance. Further still, some users may in appropriately adjust critical settings associated with the bathing unit system due to lack of knowledge or expertise, which may affect the operation of the bathing unit system and/or may result in long-term damage to the bathing unit system. Further still, some users may not know how to safely operate the bathing unit system.

Against the background above, there is a need in the industry to provide improved methods and systems which can control, restrict and authorize access to the bathing unit system. This can allow the operation of the bathing unit system to be better controlled by a user that is actually affected by monetary costs for operating the bathing unit system, responsible for maintaining the bathing unit system, and socially/legally responsible for improper operation of the bathing unit system.

SUMMARY

Conventional control systems may not be able to differentiate between different users, or simply may restrict critical settings behind a lock screen or a passcode. However, certain “non-critical” settings, such as water temperature, may still significantly impact operating costs and safety. Additionally, it may be desirable to allow for more customized/personalized controls than a blanket restriction against certain settings. For example, permission may be granted for certain users (e.g., family members) and/or for certain situations (e.g., weekends or holidays), but not for other users (e.g., non-family guests) or certain situations (e.g., weekdays). Further, users may be disappointed or displeased when they become aware that certain operations have been restricted for them. Conventional systems fail to provide solutions that to restrict access to the bathing unit system which takes into account a user identity while operating in the background to implement restrictions in a more nuanced and less obvious manner.

In one embodiment, there is provided a method for restricting operation of a bathing unit system based on a specific user profile associated with a user of the bathing unit system. The specific user profile is one of a primary user type and a subsidiary user type. The method is implemented by at least one processor and comprises: receiving an access request from the user of the bathing unit system, the access request conveying operating details of a bathing session including at least a requested water temperature and a requested start time; and processing the specific user profile corresponding to the user of the bathing unit system to determine whether the specific user profile is the primary user type or the subsidiary user type. The method further comprises, in response to the specific user profile being the primary user type, performing a primary user access process comprising operating the bathing unit system based at least in part on the operating details. The method further comprises, in response to the specific user profile being the subsidiary user type, performing a subsidiary user access process comprising processing the operating details and one or more restriction criteria associated with the specific user profile and/or the subsidiary user type to determine whether the operating details conform to the one or more restriction criteria prior to operating the bathing unit system based the operating details and the one or more restriction criteria.

The subsidiary user access process may further comprise, in response to determining that the operating details conform to the one or more restriction criteria, operating the bathing unit system based on the operating details. The subsidiary user access process may further comprise, in response to determining that the operating details do not conform to the one or more restriction criteria: initiating a conforming modification process to modify the operating details to conform to the one or more restriction criteria; or initiating an access authorization process to obtain authorization for operating the bathing unit system based on the operating details.

The conforming modification process may comprise: displaying, via at least one user interface of at least one subsidiary user device associated with the user, conforming operating details generated based on the operating details and the one or more restriction criteria, wherein the conforming operating details may conform to the one or more restriction criteria; in response to receiving an acceptance of the conforming operating details from the at least one subsidiary user device, operating the bathing unit system based on the conforming operating details; and in response to receiving a rejection of the conforming operating details from the at least one subsidiary user device, cancelling the bathing session.

The access authorization process may comprise: transmitting an authorization request to at least one primary user device associated with at least one primary user, the at least one primary user associated with a user profile of the primary user type, wherein the authorization request may include the operating details; and in response to receiving an authorization response from the at least one primary user device, operating the bathing unit system based on the authorization response. The authorization response may comprise: an acceptance of the operating details; a cancellation of the bathing session; or modified operating details for the bathing session.

The access authorization process may further comprise, in response to not receiving any response from the at least one primary user device, automatically initiating the conforming modification process.

The modified operating details may include a modified water temperature different from the requested water temperature and/or a modified start time different from the requested start time.

The modified operating details may include at least one restriction on operation of one or more bathing unit components of the bathing unit system.

The one or more restriction criteria may comprise a control on a start time of the bathing session, an end time of the bathing session, a duration of the bathing session, a water temperature of the bathing session, use of at least one lighting component of the bathing unit system, use of at least one audio component of the bathing unit system, and use of at least one video display of the bathing unit system.

The primary user type may include a plurality of primary user types, the plurality of primary user types including one or more of: an owner user type identifying an owner of the bathing unit system, an administrator user type identifying a user of the bathing unit system with administrative permissions, and a primary family adult user type identifying a user of the bathing unit system that is an adult family member of the owner.

The subsidiary user type may include a plurality of subsidiary user types, the plurality of subsidiary user types including one or more of: a subsidiary adult family user type identifying a user of the bathing unit system that is an adult family member of a primary user of the bathing unit system, a subsidiary minor family user type identifying a user of the bathing unit system that is a minor family member of the primary user, a subsidiary guest user type identifying a user that is a short-term guest, and a subsidiary renter user type identifying a user that is a long-term renter.

Each subsidiary user type of the plurality of subsidiary user types is associated with a respective set of the one or more restriction criteria.

The method may further comprise: receiving user credentials corresponding to the user; and processing the user credentials to derive the specific user profile.

Receiving the user credentials may comprise receiving the user credentials via a credential menu. The credential menu may be displayed via at least one of a top-side control panel of the bathing unit system or a personal communication device associated with the user.

In some implementations, the subsidiary user access process may further comprise storing information conveying the access request on a computer readable storage medium to maintain a record of the access request made by the user of the subsidiary user type, wherein information stored on the computer readable storage medium may be made accessible by users of the primary user type using at least one primary user device.

In another embodiment, there is provided a system for restricting operation of a bathing unit system based on a specific user profile associated with a user of the bathing unit system. The system comprises at least one storage memory configured to store: user data comprising a plurality of user profiles including user profiles of a primary user type and user profiles of a subsidiary user type, and wherein the specific user profile is one of the plurality of user profiles; restriction data comprising one or more restriction criteria associated to the user profiles of the subsidiary user type. The system further comprises at least one processor in communication with the at least one storage memory and configured to: receive an access request from the user of the bathing unit system, the access request conveying operating details of a bathing session including at least a requested water temperature and a requested start time; and process the specific user profile to determine whether the specific user profile is the primary user type or the subsidiary user type. The at least one processor is further configured to, in response to the specific user profile being of the primary user type, perform a primary user access process comprising operating the bathing unit system based at least in part on the operating details. The at least one processor is further configured to, in response to the specific user profile being of the subsidiary user type, perform a subsidiary user access process comprising processing the operating details and the one or more restriction criteria associated with the specific user profile and/or the subsidiary user type to determine whether the operating details conform to the one or more restriction criteria prior to operating the bathing unit system based the operating details and the one or more restriction criteria.

The at least one processor may be configured to perform the subsidiary user access process by being configured to, in response to determining that the operating details conform to the one or more restriction criteria, operate the bathing unit system based on the operating details. The at least one processor may be further configured to perform the subsidiary user access process by being configured to, in response to determining that the operating details do not conform to the one or more restriction criteria: initiate a conforming modification process to modify the operating details to conform to the one or more restriction criteria; or initiate an access authorization process to obtain authorization for operating the bathing unit system based on the operating details.

The at least one processor may be configured to perform the conforming modification process by being configured to: display, via at least one user interface of at least one subsidiary user device associated with the user, conforming operating details generated based on the operating details and the one or more restriction criteria, wherein the conforming operating details may conform to the one or more restriction criteria; in response to receiving an acceptance of the conforming operating details from the at least one subsidiary user device, operate the bathing unit system based on the conforming operating details; and in response to receiving a rejection of the conforming operating details from the at least one subsidiary user device, cancel the bathing session.

The at least one processor may be configured to perform the access authorization process by being configured to: transmit an authorization request to at least one primary user device associated with at least one primary user, the at least one primary user associated with a user profile of the primary user type, wherein the authorization request may include the operating details; and in response to receiving an authorization response from the at least one primary user device, operate the bathing unit system based on the authorization response. The authorization response may comprise: an acceptance of the operating details; a cancellation of the bathing session; or modified operating details for the bathing session.

The at least one processor may be further configured to, in response to not receiving any response from the at least one primary user device, automatically initiate the conforming modification process.

The one or more restriction criteria may comprise a control on a start time of the bathing session, an end time of the bathing session, a duration of the bathing session, a water temperature of the bathing session, use of at least one lighting component of the bathing unit system, use of at least one audio component of the bathing unit system, and use of at least one video display of the bathing unit system.

The primary user type may include a plurality of primary user types, the plurality of primary user types including one or more of: an owner user type identifying an owner of the bathing unit system, an administrator user type identifying a user of the bathing unit system with administrative permissions, and a primary family adult user type identifying a user of the bathing unit system that is an adult family member of the owner.

The subsidiary user type may include a plurality of subsidiary user types, the plurality of subsidiary user types including one or more of: a subsidiary adult family user type identifying a user of the bathing unit system that is an adult family member of a primary user of the bathing unit system, a subsidiary minor family user type identifying a user of the bathing unit system that is a minor family member of the primary user, a subsidiary guest user type identifying a user that is a short-term guest, and a subsidiary renter user type identifying a user that is a long-term renter.

Each subsidiary user type of the plurality of subsidiary user types may be associated with a respective set of the one or more restriction criteria.

In some implementations, the subsidiary user access process may further comprise storing information conveying the access request in the at least one storage memory to maintain a record of the access request made by the user of the subsidiary user type, wherein information stored in the at least one storage memory is accessible by users of the primary user type using at least one primary user device.

In another embodiment, there is provided a computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to receive an access request from a user of a bathing unit system. The access request conveys operating details of a bathing session including at least a requested water temperature and a requested start time. The user is associated with a specific user profile being one of a primary user type and a subsidiary user type. The computer-executable instructions further cause the at least one processor to process the specific user profile to determine whether the specific user profile is the primary user type or the subsidiary user type. The computer-executable instructions further cause the at least one processor to, in response to the specific user profile being the primary user type, perform a primary user access process comprising operating the bathing unit system based at least in part on the operating details. The computer-executable instructions further cause the at least one processor to, in response to the specific user profile being the subsidiary user type, perform a subsidiary user access process comprising process the operating details and one or more restriction criteria associated with the specific user profile and/or the subsidiary user type to determine whether the operating details conform to the one or more restriction criteria prior to operating the bathing unit system based the operating details and the one or more restriction criteria.

In another embodiment, there is provided a method for restricting operation of a bathing unit system based on a specific user profile associated with a user of the bathing unit system, the specific user profile being one of a primary user type and a subsidiary user type. The method is implemented by at least one processor and comprises: processing the specific user profile to determine whether the specific user profile is the primary user type or the subsidiary user type; in response to determining that the specific user profile is the primary user type, displaying a primary control interface for the bathing unit system on at least one device, the primary control interface providing the user with primary operational controls for controlling the bathing unit system; and in response to determining that the specific user profile is the subsidiary user type, displaying a subsidiary control interface for the bathing unit system on the at least one device, the subsidiary control interface providing the user with subsidiary operational controls for controlling the bathing unit system. The subsidiary operational controls are different from the primary operational controls and are associated with one or more restriction criteria.

The method may further comprise, in response to receiving an access request via the subsidiary control interface, the access request conveying operating details of a bathing session including at least a requested target temperature and a requested start time, operating the bathing unit system based on operating details and the one or more restriction criteria.

The one or more restriction criteria may comprise a control on a start time of a bathing session, an end time of the bathing session, a duration of the bathing session, a water temperature of the bathing session, use of at least one lighting component of the bathing unit system, use of at least one audio component of the bathing unit system, and use of at least one video display of the bathing unit system.

The method may further comprise: receiving user credentials corresponding to the user; and processing the user credentials to derive the specific user profile.

Receiving the user credentials may comprise receiving the user credentials via a credential menu displayed on the at least one device.

In some implementations, the method may further comprising in response to the processing of the specific user profile failing to identify the specific user profile as being either the primary user type or the subsidiary user type, initiating an error handling process including at least one of (i) at least temporarily preventing use of the bathing unit system by the user; and (ii) assigning at least one the primary user type and the subsidiary user type to the user profile.

The at least one device may comprise a top-side control panel of the bathing unit system.

The at least one device may comprise a personal user communication device associated with the user.

In accordance with another aspect, a method is provided for restricting operation of a bathing unit system based on a specific user profile associated with a user of the bathing unit system, the specific user profile being one of a primary user type and a subsidiary user type. The method is implemented by at least one processor and comprises:

• • receiving an access request from the user of the bathing unit system;
  • processing the specific user profile corresponding to the user of the bathing unit system to determine whether the specific user profile is the primary user type or the subsidiary user type;
  • in response to the specific user profile being the primary user type, performing a primary user access process comprising operating the bathing unit system based at least in part on operating details provided by the user; and
  • in response to the specific user profile being the subsidiary user type, performing a subsidiary user access process comprising:
    • transmitting an authorization request to at least one primary user device associated with at least one primary user, the at least one primary user associated with a user profile of the primary user type; and
    • in response to receiving an authorization response from the at least one primary user device, operating the bathing unit system based on the authorization response and one or more restriction criteria corresponding to the subsidiary user type.

In some implementations, the access request may convey the operating details of the bathing session including at least a requested water temperature and a requested start time.

In some implementations, performing the primary user access process may comprise operating the bathing unit system based at least in part on the operating details.

In some implementations, the authorization response may convey at least one of (i) an acceptance for operating the bathing unit system; (ii) a rejection for operating the bathing unit system; and (iii) one or more modified operating details for operating the bathing unit system.

In some implementations, when the authorization response conveys the acceptance for operating the bathing unit system, operating the bathing unit system based on the authorization response and one or more restriction criteria corresponding to the subsidiary user type may include (i) receiving operating details for a bathing session from the user; and (ii) determining whether the operating details conform to the one or more restriction criteria prior to operating the bathing unit system.

In some implementations, when the authorization response conveys a rejection to operate the bathing unit system, the method may comprise issuing a notification to at least one device associated with the user of the bathing unit system conveying the rejection. In specific practical implementation, the at least one device may be a top-side control panel of the bathing unit system and/or a personal user communication device associated with the user.

In accordance with another aspect, a system is provided for restricting operation of a bathing unit system based on a specific user profile associated with a user of the bathing unit system. The system comprises at least one storage memory configured to store: (i) user data comprising a plurality of user profiles including user profiles of a primary user type and user profiles of a subsidiary user type, and wherein the specific user profile is one of the plurality of user profiles; and (ii) restriction data comprising one or more restriction criteria associated to the user profiles of the subsidiary user type. The system also comprises at least one processor in communication with the at least one storage memory and configured to:

• • receive an access request from the user of the bathing unit system;
  • process the specific user profile to determine whether the specific user profile is the primary user type or the subsidiary user type;
  • in response to the specific user profile being the primary user type, performing a primary user access process comprising operating the bathing unit system based at least in part on operating details provided by the user; and
  • in response to the specific user profile being the subsidiary user type, performing a subsidiary user access process comprising:
    • transmitting an authorization request to at least one primary user device associated with at least one primary user, the at least one primary user associated with a user profile of the primary user type; and
    • in response to receiving an authorization response from the at least one primary user device, operating the bathing unit system based on the authorization response and one or more restriction criteria corresponding to the subsidiary user type.

In accordance with another aspect, a method is provided for restricting operation of a bathing unit system. The method is implemented by at least one processor and comprises:

• • receiving an access request from the user of the bathing unit system including a user identifier;
  • processing a user database to identify a user profile corresponding to the user of the bathing unit system at least in part based on the user identifier;
  • in response to a failure to identify any user profile corresponding to the user of the bathing unit system in the database, initiating an error handling process including at least one of (i) at least temporarily preventing use of the bathing unit system by the user; and (ii) creating a new user profile for the user of the database and assigning at least one a primary user type and a subsidiary user type to the new user profile.

All features of embodiments which are described in this disclosure and are not mutually exclusive can be combined with one another. Elements of one embodiment can be utilized in the other embodiments without further mention. Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying Drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A detailed description of the embodiments of the present invention is provided herein below, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a bathing unit system in accordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a controller of the bathing unit system of FIG. 1 showing elements involved in operating one or more bathing unit components of the bathing unit system in accordance with one embodiment;

FIGS. 3A-3D are schematic representations of data stores in a storage memory the controller of FIG. 2 in accordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a control panel, a control server, primary user devices and subsidiary user devices in communication with the controller of FIG. 2 in accordance with one embodiment;

FIGS. 5A and 5B are schematic representations of a restriction criteria menu for adding a set of one or more restriction criteria to a restriction data store of the restriction data store of FIG. 3D in accordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a schematic representation of a login page for receiving user credentials and which is displayed on the subsidiary user device and/or the primary user device of FIG. 4 in accordance with one embodiment;

FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate a flowchart of an operation based on user type process executed using one or more of the controller, the control panel, the control server, the subsidiary user device and/or the primary user device of FIG. 4 in accordance with one embodiment;

FIGS. 8A and 8B are schematic representations of an add scheduled bathing session menu and an initiate impromptu bathing session menu for adding/initiating a bathing session having operating details and which are displayed on the subsidiary user device and/or the primary user device of FIG. 4 in accordance with one embodiment;

FIGS. 9A and 9B are schematic representations of an authorization request transmitted to, and displayed on, the primary user device of FIG. 4 in accordance with one embodiment;

FIGS. 10A and 10B are schematic representations of an authorization response transmitted to, and displayed on, the subsidiary user device of FIG. 4 in accordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 11 is a schematic representation of an automated conforming modification notification message transmitted to, and displayed on, the subsidiary user device of FIG. 4 in accordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 12 illustrates a flowchart of a display based on user type process executed using one or more of the controller, the control panel, the control server, the subsidiary user device and/or the primary user device of FIG. 4 in accordance with one embodiment; and

FIGS. 13A and 13B are schematic representations of restricted versions of the add scheduled bathing session menu and the initiate impromptu bathing session menu of FIGS. 8A and 8B in accordance with one embodiment.

In the drawings, the embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way of examples. It is to be expressly understood that the description and drawings are only for the purpose of illustration and are an aid for understanding. They are not intended to be a definition of the limits of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The description below is directed to specific implementations and uses of embodiments of the invention in the context of bathing unit system. The phrase “bathing unit system” as used herein include without limitation spas/swim-spas, whirlpools, hot tubs, bath tubs, therapeutic baths and swimming pools and any other type of unit having a receptacle for holding water. Moreover, while specific embodiments have been described for use in the context of bathing unit systems, one skilled in the art will appreciate that, in view of the present description, alterative embodiments may be configured for use in any system including a body of water which can be operated for enjoyment, where multiple users who may use this system, but where costs associated with operating and maintaining the system is a responsibility of only one (or few) of those multiple users.

Bathing Unit System 100

One embodiment of a bathing unit system 100 installed at a field location 101 is shown in FIG. 1. The bathing unit system 100 includes a receptacle 102 for holding water 103. The receptacle 102 includes a plurality of water inlets 120 (three are shown in FIG. 1) which will typically be connected to respective jets and a plurality of water outlets 122 (two are shown in FIG. 1) of the receptacle 102. The bathing unit system 100 further includes a circulation system 104 including a plurality of conduits 124 for removing water from and returning water to the receptacle 102 through the water inlets 120 and the water outlets 122. One skilled in the art will appreciate that practical implementations of the bathing unit system 100 may include additional or fewer water inlets 120, additional or fewer water outlets 122, different configuration of conduits 124 in the circulation system 104 interconnecting the water inlets 120 and the water outlets 122 then those shown in FIG. 1, etc.

Bathing Unit Components

The bathing unit system 100 also includes a set of bathing unit components. In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the set of bathing unit components includes at least one filter 108, at least one pump 106, at least one temperature change component 110, at least one sensor 160, at least one audio component 170, at least one lighting component 172, at least one visual display 174, and a control system 118 in communication with these bathing unit components. In other embodiments, the bathing unit system 100 may include additional, fewer or alternative bathing unit components associated with the bathing unit system 100, such as at least one air blower for generating air bubbles in the receptacle 102, at least one diverter component for diverting water towards one particular water inlet 120, etc.

The filter 108 may generally function to filter solids and other debris from the water 103. In the embodiment shown, only a single filter 108 positioned in the circulation system 104 before the other bathing unit components is shown. In other embodiments, the bathing unit system 100 may include more than one filter 108, and may, e.g., include smaller filters associated with the with the at least one pump 106 and the at least one temperature change component 110. The filter 108 may be a powered filter which draws energy from a power source 116 during operation.

The at least one pump 106 may generally function to circulate the water 103 from the receptacle 102 through the water outlets 122, through the circulation system 104 and back into the receptacle 102 through the water inlets 120. In the embodiment shown, the at least one pump 106 includes a first pump 130 and a second pump 132. In other embodiments, the bathing unit system 100 may include more additional or fewer pumps 106.

The first pump 130 may be a powered pump including a motor (not shown) which draws energy from a power source 116. The first pump 130 may comprise a variable speed pump and may be operate in, for example, a low mode where the motor of the first pump 130 draws a low amount of power from the power source 116 to operate at a corresponding low speed, a standard mode drawing a standard amount of power to operate at a standard speed, and a high mode drawing a high amount of power to operate at a high speed. Alternatively, the first pump 130 may be a percentage modulated pump and the motor may operate anywhere between 0% and 100% of a maximum speed, and may correspondingly draw anywhere between 0% and 100% of a maximum amount of power from the power source 116. The second pump 132 may also be a powered pump including respective motors (not shown) which draw energy from the power source 116. In the embodiment shown, the second pump 132 may be a variable speed pump similar to the first pump 130 described above. In other embodiments, the second pump 132 may instead comprise a single speed pump or a dual speed pump and, in operation, may only include on mode (first speed and/or second speed) where the corresponding motor draws a fixed amount of power from and an off mode drawing no (or negligible) power.

The at least one temperature change component 110 may generally function to change a temperature of the water 103 flowing through the circulation system 104 and within the receptacle 102 by inputting thermal energy therein or by removing thermal energy therefrom. In the embodiment shown, the at least one temperature change component 110 may include a primary heater 150 generally configured to heat the water 103, a primary cooler 152 generally configured to cool the water 103 and a combined auxiliary heater/cooler 154 generally configured to assist the primary heater 150 and/or the primary cooler 152 as applicable. In other embodiments, the bathing unit system 100 may include additional, fewer or alternative temperature change components 110.

The primary heater 150 may be an electrical heater including a heating element which draws power from the power source 116. The primary heater 150 may be operable in, for example, a low mode where the heating element draws a low amount of power from the power source 116 to generate a correspondingly low amount of thermal energy, a standard mode drawing a standard amount of power to generate a corresponding standard amount of thermal energy, and a high mode drawing a high amount of power to generate a correspondingly high amount of thermal energy. Alternatively, the primary heater 150 may be a percentage modulated heater, and the heating element may operate anywhere between 0% and 100% of a maximum heating capacity, and may draw anywhere between 0% and 100% of a maximum amount of power from the power source 116. Alternatively, or in addition, one or more pumps may include a respective heater built into the wet portion of the pump. In such alternative embodiment, each built-in heater can be activated independently from the other heaters, and activation or deactivation of each heater in different pumps will generate different amounts of thermal energy. It is understood that such built-in heaters can also be modulated to generate a plurality of amount of thermal energy as described above in the primary heater.

The primary cooler 152 may be a thermoelectric cooling element which draws energy from the power source 116 to transfer heat from one surface of the primary cooler 152 (e.g., a cold surface) to another surface of the primary cooler 152 (e.g., a hot surface). Similar to the primary heater 150, the primary cooler 152 may be operable in, for example, a low mode, a standard mode and a high mode, operable to generate different amounts of cooling and drawing correspondingly different amounts of power from the power source 116. It is understood that the primary cooler can be operated using different mechanisms such as using a Peltier element, chiller systems, a cooling tower, a closed loop system and a heat pump using refrigerant. As was the case above with respect to the primary heater, one or more pumps may include a respective cooler built into the wet portion of the pump. In such alternative embodiment, each built-in cooler can be activated independently from the other coolers, wherein activation or deactivation of each of the different cooler in different pumps will generate different cooling effects. Alternatively, similar to the primary heater 150, the primary cooler 152 may also have a percentage modulated operation.

The auxiliary heater/cooler 154 may be a heat transfer module such as a heat pump which draws power from the power source 116 to transfer thermal energy from one area (e.g., cool area) to another area (e.g., hot area). Similar to the primary heater 150, the auxiliary heater/cooler 154 may also be operable in, for example, a low mode, a standard and a high mode, operable to generate different amounts of heating/cooling (as applicable) and drawing correspondingly different amounts of power from the power source 116. Alternatively, again

similar to the primary heater 150, the auxiliary heater/cooler 154 may also have a percentage modulated operation. The auxiliary heater/cooler 154 may draw less energy from the power source 116 when compared to either the primary heater 150 or the primary cooler 152.

The at least one sensor 160 may generally function to sense different aspects of the bathing unit system 100. In the embodiment shown, the at least one sensor 160 comprises a receptacle temperature sensor configured to measure a temperature of the water 103 within the receptacle 102. In other embodiments, the at least one sensor 160 may comprise an inline temperature sensor configured to sense a temperature of the water 103 before or after it passes through the at least one temperature change component 110, an ambient temperature sensor configured to sense an ambient temperature of the environment around the bathing unit system 100. In other embodiments, the at least one sensor 160 may include additional and/or alternative sensors which sense attributes of the water 103 within the bathing unit system different from water temperature, and may include, e.g., a depth sensor, water level sensor, a flow sensor, a pH sensor, an ORP sensor, a turbidity sensor, etc. In yet other embodiments, the at least one sensor 160 may further include additional and/or alternative sensors which sense environmental factors other than ambient temperature, and may include e.g., a humidity sensor, a light sensor, a windspeed sensor, precipitation sensor, etc.

The lighting component 172 may include at least one light located in or around the receptacle 102, and may generally function to light the water 103 within the receptacle 102 or the area around the bathing unit system 100 for ambience. The lighting component 172 may be powered by the power source 116 and may be controlled to operate in different operational settings. For example, the lighting component 172 may be turned on and off, may have different colour settings, may have different brightness settings, and/or may be controlled through different sequences of colour and brightness settings over different periods of time (e.g., an ambience sequence).

The audio component 170 may be located in or around the receptacle 102, and may be a speaker generally configured to provide audio to users within the receptacle 102 or the area around the bathing unit system 100 for ambience. Some embodiments of the bathing unit system 100 may not include the audio component 170. The audio component 170 may be powered by the power source 116 and may be controlled to operate in different operational settings. For example, the audio component 170 may be turned on and off, may have different volume settings, may be controlled to stream or project different types of audio data, and/or stream or project different types of audio data over a period of time (e.g., an ambience setting).

The visual display 174 may generally be located in the area around the bathing unit system 100, and may generally function to display video and provide audio to users within the receptacle 102 or the area around the bathing unit system 100 for ambience. Some embodiments of the bathing unit system 100 may not include the visual display 174. The at least one visual display 174 may be powered by the power source 116 and may be controlled to operate in different operational settings. For example, the at least one visual display 174 may be turned on and off, may have different volume settings, may have different brightness settings, may be controlled to stream or present different types of multimedia data, and/or stream or present different types of multimedia data over a period of time (e.g., an ambience setting).

At Least One Insulating Component 114

Still referring to FIG. 1, as described above, the bathing unit system 100 includes at least one insulating component 114. The at least one insulating component 114 generally function to maintain thermal energy in the water 103 held in the receptacle 102. Thermal properties and thermal property indicators of the bathing unit system 100 (e.g., a κ constant representing a rate of temperature change of the water 103 in the receptacle 102 when no further thermal energy is inputted into the water 103, a thermal conductivity H of the bathing unit system 100 and/or a thermal resistance Θ of the bathing unit system 100) may depend significantly on a quality and condition of the at least one insulating component 114. The at least one insulating component 114 may include a cover, cabinet insulation and receptacle insulation (not shown). In other embodiments, the at least one insulating component 114 may include fewer, additional or alternative insulating components.

The cover may comprise a cover foam encased in a covering, and which forms a cover seal with around a perimeter of the receptacle 102. An insulating capacity of the cover may be proportional to (a) a material, density, and thickness of the cover foam, (b) a material of the covering, (c) a current condition of the cover foam (e.g., whether the cover foam is wet, frozen, etc.), and/or (d) a current condition of the covering (e.g., whether the covering has any cracks or tears). As the cover functions to cover the opening of the receptacle 102 (from which a majority of the thermal energy in the water 103 can escape), a large portion of the total insulative capacity of the at least one insulating component 114 may be due to the insulative capacity of the cover and the integrity of a seal formed by the cover seal.

The cabinet insulation may be placed around the receptacle 102 within the spa cabinet. An insulation capacity of the cabinet insulation may be proportional to at least (a) a material, density and thickness of the cabinet insulation, (b) a placement of the cabinet insulation (e.g., placing the cabinet insulation on a surface of the receptacle 102 and/or on a surface of the spa cabinet), (c) a material of the spa cabinet, (d) a condition of the cabinet insulation (e.g., again whether the cabinet insulation is wet, frozen, etc.), and (e) a condition of the spa cabinet (e.g., whether the spa cabinet is fully enclosed or has an cracks or openings).

Control System 118

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, the bathing unit system 100 includes the control system 118 in communication with the different bathing unit components described above and the power source 116. The control system 118 is generally configured to activate and deactivate the different bathing unit components to control the bathing unit system 100 to initiate bathing sessions for different users as described below. The control system 118 is also generally configured to receive parameters from the different bathing unit components noted above and to execute different processes to operate bathing sessions and display control interfaces for different users as described below. In the embodiment shown, the control system 118 includes a controller 180, a control server 182, and a control panel 188. In other embodiments, the control system 118 may include only the controller 180, only the control server 182 or only the control panel 188. The controller 180 and some embodiments of the control panel 188 may be located physically near (e.g., at the same field location 101) the bathing unit system 100. In contrast, the control server 182 and some embodiments of the control panel 188 may be located physically separate (e.g., in a different building from) the bathing unit system 100. In some implementations, the controller 180, the control server 182, and/or the control panel 188 may collaborate with each other to implement different processes, or different parts of the processes, described in the present disclosure. Typically, the controller will activate and deactivate the different bathing unit components by selectively connecting the components to the power source. Alternatively, the different bathing unit components such pumps, heater, cooler, audio devices and lighting devices can have a permanent power source connected to them and the controller can activate and deactivate the component via a control signal, a suitable wired communication protocol or any suitable wireless communication protocol.

Controller 180

Referring specifically to FIG. 2, the controller 180 includes at least one local processor 190, a storage memory 192, a program memory 194 and a I/O interface 196, all in communication with the local processor 190. Other embodiments of the controller 180 may include fewer, additional or alternative components. Additionally, although only a single local processor 190, single storage memory 192, single program memory 194 and single I/O interface 196 are shown in FIG. 2, other embodiments of the controller 180 may include more than one of each of these components. For example, the controller 180 may include at least one first processor positioned topside of the receptacle 102 (e.g., forming a part of the control panel 188) configured to perform some of the functions of the controller 180 and at least one second processor positioned within the spa cabinet configured to perform other functions of the controller 180. As another example, the controller 180 may include the at least one first processor positioned topside of the receptacle 102 configured to perform some functions of the controller 180, and two different processors (e.g., a spa pack and a separate central processor) positioned within the spa cabinet configured to perform some other functions of the controller 180. It is understood that portions of the storage memory 192 may be located in different physical storage mediums, and that one or more portions of the program memory 194 may be located in the control panel and/or the control server.

I/O Interface 196

The I/O interface 196 includes an interface for the local processor 190 to communicate commands to, and receive information from, the bathing unit components (e.g., the pump 106, the filter 108, the temperature change component 110, the sensor 160, the lighting component 172, the audio component 170, and the visual display 174). In the embodiment shown, the local processor 190 may communicate with the bathing unit components via a wired connection; in other embodiments, the local processor 190 may also communicate with the bathing unit components over a wireless network 181 (e.g., a wireless network such as a Wi-Fi network, a Bluetooth network, a radio frequency network or a cellular network).

The I/O interface 196 may further include a communication module which generally enables the local processor 190 to communicate with (a) a remote processor 200 (shown in FIG. 4) of the control server 182 over the network 181, (b) at least one primary user device 184 (two primary user devices 184A and 184B are shown in FIG. 4) associated with a user having a user profile of a primary type over the network 181, (c) at least one subsidiary user device 185 (three subsidiary user devices 185A, 185B and 185C are shown in FIG. 4) associated with a user having a user profile of a subsidiary type over the network 181, (d) at least one external system (not shown) associated with at least one external system separate from the bathing unit system 100 over the network 181, and/or (d) the control panel 188 of the bathing unit system 100. The I/O interface 196 may also enable the controller 180 to supply power from the power source 116 to the different bathing unit components, and optionally also to the control panel 188 in some embodiments. The I/O interface 196 may include any communication interface which enables the local processor 190 to perform the functions as described above and below, including specialized or standard I/O interface technologies such as channel, port-mapped, asynchronous for example.

Storage Memory 192

Referring now to FIGS. 2 and 3A-3D, the storage memory 192 stores information retrieved or generated by the local processor 190 and may generally function as an information or data store. In the embodiment shown, the storage memory 192 may include a user data store 210, an external data store 213, an internal data store 216, and a restrictions data store 217. In other embodiments, the storage memory 192 may include fewer, additional or alternative data stores, and may further include, for example, a historical data store for storing historical data associated with a historical bathing session which have occurred in the past.

User Data Store 210

The user data store 210 may store user data associated with different users of a particular bathing unit system 100, and may specific store a user profile associated with the different users. More specifically, a user data entry in the user data store 210 corresponding to a particular user may represent the user profile of that particular user The user profile may identify the user and classify the user as one of a plurality of primary user types or one of a plurality of subsidiary user types.

The primary user type may identify a primary user of the bathing unit system 100. The primary user may be a user that is responsible for paying operational costs associated with using the bathing unit system 100 and for maintenance associated with the bathing unit system 100. The primary user may also be responsible for actions taken by a subsidiary user when the subsidiary user is using the bathing unit system 100, such as when the subsidiary user is a minor child or when the subsidiary user is a short-term guest or long-term renter that might disturb neighbours. The plurality of primary user types may include one or more of: (a) an owner user type identifying an owner of the bathing unit system 100; (b) an administrator user type identifying a user with administrative permissions (e.g., administrative permissions granted by the owner); (c) a primary family adult user type identifying a user that is an adult family member of the owner (e.g., spouse, parent, sibling or adult child, etc.); (d) a standard primary user type that may be automatically pre-set by a manufacturer of the bathing unit system 100; etc.

The subsidiary user type may identify a subsidiary user of the bathing unit system 100. The subsidiary user may be a user that is allowed to use the bathing unit system 100, but is not responsible for paying the operational costs associated with use thereof, or for maintenance thereof. The plurality of subsidiary user types may include one or more of: (a) a subsidiary adult family user type identifying a user that is an adult family member (e.g., spouse, parent, sibling, cousin, or adult child, etc. of a primary user and/or the owner); (b) a subsidiary minor family user type identifying a user that is a minor family member (e.g., minor child, minor niece or nephew, minor grandchild, etc. of a primary user and/or the owner); (c) a subsidiary guest user type identifying a user that is a short-term guest (e.g., invited guest, short-term rental guest, etc.); (d) a subsidiary renter user type identifying a user that is a long-term renter; (e) a standard subsidiary user type that may be automatically preset by the manufacturer of the bathing unit system 100; etc.

As a more specific example, referring to FIG. 3A, one embodiment of the user data store 210 includes four entries 600, 602, 603 and 604. Other embodiments of the user data store 210 may include additional, fewer, or alternative entries, based on the user data actually stored and received by the control system 118. For example, those skilled in the art will appreciate that entries may be added to the user data store 210 as additional users are added manually by a user (e.g., via a user interface of the control panel 188 and/or a user interface of the user devices 184 and 185). Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that entries may be deleted from the user data store 210 in response to user input (e.g., via the user interfaces of the control panel 188 and/or the user devices 184 and 185).

Those skilled in the art will further appreciate that entries may be automatically deleted from the user data store 210 after expiration of an expiry period from a time stored in a user data date field 610 (described below) associated with the entries. The expiry period for user data entries may be any period of time after which the likelihood that the user will use the bathing unit system 100 decreases. For example, the expiry period may be 36 months, 48 months, etc. The expiry period may also be pre-set for certain users or certain user types based on how long associated users are allowed to access the bathing unit system 100. For example, for subsidiary guest users, the expiry date may correspond to the length of their short-term stay; similarly, for subsidiary renter users, the expiry date may correspond to the length of their long-term rental.

The entries 600, 602, 603 and 604 may each be associated with different fields. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3A, these fields include:

• • (a) the user data date field 610 storing a date and/or a time associated with a particular user data entry stored in the user data store 210. This date and/or time may correspond to when the user data entry was initially created. In some embodiments, this date and/or time may also correspond to when a user associated with the user data entry last submitted an access request to use the bathing unit system 100. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3A, entries 600 and 602 are associated with a date of “Nov. 1, 2020” (e.g., which may correspond to a purchase date of the bathing unit system 100), entry 603 is associated with a date of “Nov. 30, 2021” (e.g., which may correspond to a date that the user associated with the entry 603 was allowed to independently use the bathing unit system 100), and entry 604 is associated with a date of “Oct. 30, 2024” (e.g., which may correspond to a rental start date of the user associated with the entry 604).
  • (b) a user identifier field 612 storing a unique identifier associated with a particular user data entry. The value stored in the user identifier field 612 may be used to identify and retrieve the particular user data entry (e.g., to identify and retrieve a particular user profile). In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3A, entry 600 is associated with a first user named John Smith and having a user identifier of “John Smith,” entry 602 is associated with a second user named Jane Smith and having a user identifier of “Jane Smith,” entry 603 is associated with a third user named Jack Smith and having a user of the fire of “Jack Smith,” and entry 604 is associated with the generic rental user and has a user identifier of “Renter.” Those skilled in the art will appreciate that different ways of indicating a unique identifier may be possible, including using a computer-readable alphanumeric identifier rather than using the human readable identifiers described above.
  • (c) a user type field 614 storing a user type associated with a particular user data entry. The values stored in the user type field 614 may identify one of the plurality of primary user types and/or one of the plurality of secondary user types. As such, the user type field 614 may be used to determine whether a particular user is the primary user or the subsidiary user, and also to determine a specific primary user type or a specific subsidiary user type if and as applicable. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3A, entry 600 is associated with a user type of “primary owner user,” entry 602 is associated with “primary family adult user,” entry 603 is associated with “subsidiary family minor user,” and entry 604 is associated with “subsidiary renter user.”
  • (d) a username field 615 and a password field 617 (collectively forming a user credentials 616), storing user credentials associated with a particular user data entry. The user credentials may be used to in order to determine that a particular current user of the bathing unit system 100 is associated with a particular user profile stored in the user data store 210. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3A, entry 600 is associated with a username of “john_smith” and “password_john,” entry 602 is associated with “jane_smith” and “password_jane,” entry 603 is associated with “jack_smith” and “password_jack,” and entry 604 is associated with “guest_1” and “password_guest1.”

The above fields and values in FIG. 3A are provided as examples only. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that alternative embodiments of the user data store 210 may include additional, fewer, or alternative fields associated with each entry, and additional, fewer or alternative values associated with each such field. For example, some embodiments may include a first field for identifying the primary user type versus the secondary user type and a second field for identifying the specific primary user type and the specific secondary user type, rather than the combined user type field 614 above.

External Data Store 213

The external data store 213 may persistently or permanently store external data retrieved from an external system. As used herein, the phrase “external system” generally means any system separate from the bathing unit system 100 (e.g., any system separate from the receptacle 102), the bathing unit components (e.g., the circulation system 104, the pump 106, the filter 108, the temperature component 110, the sensor 160, the insulating component 114, the lighting component 172, the audio component 170, the visual display 174), and the control system 118 (e.g., the controller 180, the control server 182 and the control panel 188)). Correspondingly, as used herein, the phrase “external data” generally means data received from the external system separate from the bathing unit system 100, although some exceptions are possible (e.g. ambient environment data retrieved from the at least one sensor 160 which senses environmental factors such as ambient temperature, humidity, light, wind speed, precipitation, etc.). In some embodiments, the external system may include the user devices 184 and 185 associated with a user of the bathing unit system 100. In other embodiments, the external system may be the external systems associated with external service providers. The external service providers may be, for example, a weather service provider, an energy service provider on an energy grid, a calendar service provider, a location positioning service provider, a news service provider, etc.

The external data may comprise ambient environment data at the field location 101, including one or more of current weather condition data for a current time, current ambient temperature data for the current time, forecasted weather condition data for a future date/time and/or forecasted ambient temperature data for a future date/time. The weather condition data may comprise one or more of: (i) a description of weather condition (e.g., sunny, cloudy, rain, snow, etc.); (ii) an amount of precipitation (e.g., 0 mm, 5 mm, 10 mm); (iii) air pressure; (iv) humidity; (v) wind speed; (vi) wind direction; (vii) UV index; etc. The ambient temperature data may comprise one or more of: (i) ambient temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit; (ii) an indicator that the ambient temperature was above or below a threshold (e.g., above, at, below); (iii) ambient temperature categories (e.g., very hot, hot, slightly hot, very warm, warm, slightly warm, slightly cold, cold, very cold, etc.); etc. This ambient environment data may be retrieved by the control system 118 (e.g., the local processor 190 of the controller 180 and/or the control processor 200 of the control server 182) from at least one weather service provider (e.g., The Weather Channel™) over the network 181, such as from an external system associated with the weather service provider. This ambient environment data may also be retrieved by the control system 118 from a weather application installed on the user devices 184 and 185 or the control panel 188. In some other embodiments, the ambient environment data may also be retrieved from the at least one sensor 160 which senses the environmental factors as described above.

The external data may also comprise energy cost data related to energy costs for operating the bathing unit system 100. The energy cost data may comprise electrical costs in embodiments where the power source 116 supplies electrical power, oil costs in embodiments where the power source 116 is an oil-based boiler, gas costs in embodiments where the power source 116 is a gas-based boiler, etc. The energy cost data may comprise one or more of (i) an energy cost rate (e.g., per kilowatt hour: $/kWh); (ii) energy cost tiers for different times of day, including, times of day associated with off-peak (e.g., 7 AM-4 PM, 9 PM-11 PM), on-peak (e.g., 4 PM-9 PM) and overnight (e.g., 11 PM-7 AM); (iii) energy cost tiers associated with different times of the year, including times of the year associated with high cost (e.g., winter months) versus times of the year associated with low-cost (e.g., summer months); (iv) dynamic pricing data, etc. This energy cost data be retrieved by the control system 118 from at least one energy service provider (e.g., BC Hydro®) on an energy grid over the network 181, such as from an external system associated with an energy service provider. This energy cost data may also be retrieved by the control system 118 from an energy management application installed on the user devices 184 and 185 or the control panel 188. In some embodiments, the energy cost data may be relatively stable over a period of time and manually inputted by a user (e.g., via the user interface of the user device 184 and 185 and/or the control panel 188) and stored in a storage memory in communication with the control system 118 (e.g., the storage memory 192 of the controller 180, a storage memory 202 of the control server 182, a storage memory associated with the user device 184 and/or a storage memory associated with the control panel 188).

The external data may also include user location data conveying a current or future location of a user. The user location data may include: (i) a distance indicator of a distance of a user relative to the field location 101 of the bathing unit system 100 (e.g., at, proximate, distant); (ii) an exact coordinate location of a user; (iii) a current or last known location of a user; (iv) an estimated future location of a user; etc. The user location data may be retrieved from a receiver on the user device 184 or 185 in combination with a global positioning system (GPS) or a local positioning system (LPS) application installed on the user device 184 or 185. The receiver of the user device 184 or 185 may comprise a GPS receiver configured to receive a GPS signal from a GPS satellite. The receiver of the user device 184 or 185 may also comprise a LPS receiver (e.g., infrared (IR) receiver, ultra-wideband (UWB) receiver, radio frequency (RF) receiver, ultrasound receiver, Bluetooth receiver, etc.) configured to receive a LPS signal (e.g., IR signals, UWB signals, RF signals, ultrasound signals, Bluetooth signals) from a separate localization device. The localization device may be located at the field location 101 to detect the presence of the user device 184 or 185 at or near the field location 101.

As a more specific example, referring to FIG. 3B, one embodiment of the external data store 213 includes entries 640, 641, 642, and 643. Other embodiments of the external data store 213 may include additional, fewer, or alternative entries, based on the external data actually received or retrieved by the control system 118. For example, those skilled in the art will appreciate that entries may be automatically added to the external data store 213 as the external data is retrieved from the user device 184 and 185 and/or the external systems. Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that entries may be automatically deleted from the external data store 213 after expiration of an expiry period from a date/time stored in an external data date/time field 650 (described below) associated with the entries. The expiry period associated with an external data entry may be any period of time after which the relevancy of the associated external data entry decreases, and may be 6 months, 12 months, 24 months, 36 months, 48 months, etc.

Each entry 640, 641, 642, and 643 in the external data store 213 may be associated with different fields. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3B, these fields include:

• • (a) the external data date/time field 650 storing a date and/or a time associated with a particular entry of external data stored in the external data store 213. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3B, each of entries 640, 641, 642, and 643 are associated with a date and time of “Oct. 20, 2024; Sunday; 5:30 PM.” The external data date/time field 650 may store a date or time during which the associated external data entry is valid and applicable.
  • (b) an external data type field 652 storing a type of external data associated with a particular entry of the external data. The values stored in the external data type field 650 may be used to differentiate between different types of external data, including the weather condition data, the ambient temperature data, and the energy cost data, etc. For example, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3B, entry 640 is associated with a data type of “weather condition data,” entry 641 is associated with “ambient temperature data,” entry 642 is associated with “energy cost rate,” and entry 643 is associated with “energy cost tier.”
  • (c) an external data value field 654 storing a value of external data associated with a particular entry of the external data. For example, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3B, entry 640 may be associated with a value of “clear,” entry 641 may be associated with “19° C.,” entry 642 may be associated with “$0.5/kWh,” and entry 643 may be associated with “off-peak,” generally indicating that these values are valid for the date/time stored in the external data date/time field 650. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that different ways of indicating data values for different types of external data are possible as described above.

The above fields and values in FIG. 3B are provided as examples only. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that alternative embodiments of the external data store 213 may include additional, fewer, or alternative fields associated with each external data entry, and additional, fewer or alternative values associated with each such field. For example, some embodiments may include a combined energy cost rate and energy cost tier data type rather than the separate energy cost rate and energy cost tier entries 642 and 643. Some embodiments may also include an indication of whether a weather condition value of a particular weather condition entry 640 or an ambient temperature value of a particular ambient temperature entry 641 is a current value or a forecasted value, and may include a degree of confidence associated with any forecasted values.

Internal Data Store 216

The internal data store 216 may persistently or permanently store internal data related to the bathing unit system 100. As used herein, the phrase “internal data” generally describes features, and in particular thermal properties, power consumption and/or thermal energy input, associated with the different bathing unit components of the bathing unit system 100. The internal data may be used (or alone or in combination with the external data) to determine operating costs for a specific bathing session and to determine whether a bathing session requested by the user conforms with one or more restriction criteria.

In some embodiments, the internal data may comprise thermal property indicator data related to a thermal property indicator of the bathing unit system 100. The thermal property indicator may be a metric indicative of an ability of the bathing unit system 100 to conduct (or inversely, resist/insulate) thermal energy (in particular thermal energy inputted into the water 103 in the receptacle 102 by the temperature change component 110 and/or the pump 106). In some embodiments described herein, the phrase “thermal property indicator” may refer to the k constant, a thermal conductivity H of the bathing unit system 100 and/or an inverse thermal resistance Θ of the bathing unit system 100. The thermal property indicators of the bathing unit system 100 may be primarily correlated to an insulative capacity (e.g., correlated to condition) of the at least one insulating component 114.

In some embodiments, the internal data may also comprise power consumption data describing power consumption of different bathing unit components when operating in different modes. The power consumption data may include a power consumption model generated for each bathing unit component. For example, the power consumption data may include: (i) a power consumption model for a particular temperature change component 110 (e.g., the primary heater 150, the primary cooler 152, and/or the auxiliary heater/cooler 154) modelling an amount of power drawn from the power source 116 when operating in the low mode, the standard mode and the high mode as described above; and/or (ii) a power consumption model for a particular pump 106 (e.g., the first pump 130 and/or the second pump 132) modelling an amount of power drawn from the power source 116 when operating in the low mode, the standard mode and the high mode as described above.

In other embodiments, the internal data may further comprise thermal energy input data generally describing different amounts of thermal energy inputted by different bathing unit components into the water 103 when operating in their corresponding different modes. The thermal energy input data may be based on a thermal energy input model generated for each bathing unit component. For example, the thermal energy input data may comprise: (i) a thermal energy input model for a particular temperature change component 110 (e.g., the primary heater 150, the primary cooler 152, and/or the auxiliary heater/cooler 154) modelling an amount of thermal energy inputted into the water 103 when operating in the low mode, the standard mode and the high mode as described above; and/or (ii) a thermal energy model for a particular pump 106 (e.g., the first pump 130 and/or the second pump 132) modelling an amount of thermal energy inputted into the water 103 when operating in the low mode, the standard mode and the high mode as described above.

Different ways of calculating the thermal property indicators of the bathing unit system 100, generating the power consumption models of different bathing unit components, and generating the thermal energy input models of different bathing unit components is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/745,455, titled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DETERMINING AND MONITORING THERMAL PROPERTIES OF A BATHING UNIT SYSTEM AND FOR USING SAME TO CONTROL THE BATHING UNIT SYSTEM,” filed Jun. 17, 2024, the content of which is incorporated by reference herein.

As a more specific example, referring to FIG. 3C, the internal data store 216 includes entries 660, 661 and 662. Other embodiments of the internal data store 216 may include additional, fewer, or alternative entries. For example, those skilled in the art will appreciate that entries may be automatically added to the internal data store 216 as the internal data is generated or calculated by the control system 118 and/or received by the I/O interface 196 externally (e.g., upon installation of the bathing unit system 100, or upon replacement of the bathing unit component and configuration thereof). Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that entries may be automatically deleted from the internal data store 216 after expiration of the expiry period from a date time stored in an internal data date/time field 670 (described below) associated with the entries. The expiry period associated with a internal data entry may be any period of time after which the relevancy of the associated internal data entry decreases.

Each entry 660, 661 and 662 in the internal data store 216 may be associated with different fields. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3C, these different fields include:

• • (a) the internal data date/time field 670 storing a date and time associated with a particular entry of the internal data stored in the internal data store 216. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3C, each of entries 660, 661 and 662 are associated with a date and time of “Nov. 1, 2020.” The internal data date/time field 670 may store a date or time during which the associated entry of the internal data is valid and applicable. The date and time may correspond to a date/time that the bathing unit system 100 or a certain bathing unit component was initially purchased, or a date/time at which the internal data was calculated and/or recalculated by the control system 118.
  • (b) an internal data type field 672 storing a type of internal data associated with a particular entry of internal data. The values stored in the internal data type field 672 may be used to differentiate different types of internal data, including the thermal property indicator data, the power consumption model of a particular bathing unit component, and/or the thermal energy model of a particular bathing unit component. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3C, entry 660 is associated with the internal data type of “thermal property indicator data,” entry 661 is associated with “primary heater 1 power consumption model,” entry 662 is associated with “aux heater/cooler 3 power consumption model.”
  • (c) an internal data value field 674 storing a value of internal data associated with a particular entry of internal data. For example, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3C, entry 660 may be associated with a thermal property indicator value of “H=0.01 W/mK,” entry 661 may be associated with “7 kW: standard mode; 8 kW: high mode; 5 kW: low mode,” and entry 662 may be associated with “4 kW: standard mode; 5 kW: high mode; 2 kW: low mode.” Those skilled in the art will appreciate that different ways of indicating data values for different types of internal data are possible as described above. In addition, while the specific example presented here contemplates the user of a heater module, the person skilled the art will appreciate in view of the present disclosure that similar information may be stored in connection with a cooler module for bathing unit systems including such a module.

The above fields and values are provided as examples only. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that alternative embodiments of the internal data store 216 may include additional, fewer, or alternative fields associated with each entry, and additional, fewer or alternative values associated with each field. For example, some embodiments may include separate entries for the power consumption when operating the primary heater 150 in the standard mode versus high mode versus low mode rather than combining the power consumption of all modes into a single entry 661. As an additional example, some embodiments may include separate fields for identity of the bathing unit component and internal data type, rather than combining both into the single internal data type field 672.

Restriction Data Store 217

The restriction data store 217 may store data associated with different internal and external restrictions for operating details associated with a bathing session. Generally, the restriction data is associated with user profiles of a specific subsidiary user type (e.g., identifies the values stored in the user type field 614 of a user data entry in the user data store 210) to indicate restrictions associated with users of that specific subsidiary user type and may allow the control system 118 to modulate bathing sessions added or initiated by users of that specific subsidiary user type or to display different user interfaces for users of that specific subsidiary user type. In other words, different subsidiary user types may be associated with different restriction data. However, in other embodiments, the restriction data may also be associated with specific user profiles (e.g., identifies the values stored in the user identifier field 612 of a user data entry in the user data store 210) to indicate restrictions associated with that particular user. In other words, different specific users may be associated with different restriction data. In yet other embodiments, the restriction data may also be associated with users of a particular primary user type to indicate restrictions associated with users of that particular primary user. This generally allows the control system 118 to modulate control of the bathing unit system 100 for different users. For example, for cost sensitivity associated with family users may be lower than when compared to renter or guest users.

The restriction data may comprise one or more restriction criteria associated with acceptable operating costs for conducting a bathing session added or initiated by a user of a specific subsidiary user type or by a specific user. The acceptable operating costs may be based on a cost sensitivity of a primary user that is responsible for paying the operating costs, rather than a current user initiating or adding a specific bathing session. For example, the restriction criteria associated with operating costs may include one or more of: (i) a maximum energy cost rate (e.g., $/kWh); (ii) a maximum energy cost tier (e.g., on-peak, off-peak, overnight); (iii) a maximum energy mode (e.g., performance mode, standard mode, economical mode, etc.); (iv) maximum total energy costs (e.g., for a particular bathing session, or for another period of time such as a particular day, particular week, a particular month, particular year, etc.); etc.

The restriction data may further comprise one or more restriction criteria associated with an acceptable start and end times for conducting a bathing session added or initiated by a user of a specific subsidiary user type or by a specific user. For example, the restriction criteria associated with start and end times may comprise one or more of: (i) a specific numerical time (e.g., past 9 PM, etc.); (ii) time category (e.g., morning, afternoon, evening); (iii) time in relation to a schedule of a user (e.g., busy, free, school, work, home, gym, etc., either of the user adding or initiating bathing session or of a primary user setting the restriction criteria as described below); (iv) a specific day of the year (e.g., January 1); (v) a day of the week (e.g., Fridays); (vi) date category (e.g., weekday, weekend, holiday, school year, summer holiday, winter holiday, etc.); etc. The restriction data may further comprise one or more restriction criteria associated with an acceptable duration for conducting a bathing session added or initiated by a user of a specific subsidiary user type or by a specific user. For example, the restriction criteria associated with duration may comprise one or more of: (i) a numerical amount of minutes (e.g., 60 minutes, 94 minutes, etc.); (ii) a numerical amount of seconds (e.g., 3600 seconds, 5640 seconds, etc.); (iii) a numerical amount of hours (e.g., 1 h, 1.6 h, etc.); etc. The acceptable start and end times and the acceptable duration may be based on the cost sensitivity of the primary user (e.g., restricting use during on-peak energy cost hours or preventing bathing sessions with long durations. These restrictions may also be based on rules associated with the field location 101 that the primary user is required to comply with (e.g., restricting use during quiet hours set by a municipality, homeowners association, or strata board) or rules set within a family (e.g., restricting use during weekdays during the school year, restricting use while parents are away).

The restriction data may comprise one or more restriction criteria associated with acceptable ambient environments for conducting a bathing session added or initiated by a user of a specific subsidiary user type or by a specific user. The restrictions on ambient environment may be based on the safety considerations for using the bathing unit system 100, such as restricting use during inclement weather. For example, the restriction criteria associated with ambient environment may comprise one or more of: (i) ambient temperature at the field location 101 in Celsius or Fahrenheit; (ii) an indicator that the ambient temperature at the field location 101 was above or below a threshold; (iv) ambient temperature categories (e.g., very hot, hot, slightly hot, very warm, warm, slightly warm, slightly cold, cold, very cold, etc.); (v) a description of weather condition (e.g., sunny, cloudy, rain, snow, etc.); (vi) an amount of precipitation (e.g., 0 mm, 5 mm, 10 mm); (vii) air pressure; (viii) humidity; (ix) wind speed; (x) wind direction; (xi) UV index; etc.

The restriction data may comprise one or more restriction criteria associated with acceptable operational details for conducting a bathing session added or initiated by a user of a specific subsidiary user type or by a specific user. For example, the restriction criteria associated with operational details may comprise one or more of: (i) water temperature of the water 103 in the receptacle 102 in Fahrenheit or Celsius; (ii) mean or average water temperature for a specific bathing session; (iii) water temperature above or below a threshold (e.g., above, and, below, etc.); (iv) use and brightness of the lighting component 172 and/or the visual display 174; (v) use and volume of the visual display 174 and/or the audio component 170; etc. Those skilled in the art will recognize that various restriction criteria associated with various ambient settings are possible. Different ambience settings and different operational modes thereof are described in related U.S. Pat. No. 10,235,033B2, titled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING AMBIANCE SETTINGS IN A BATHING SYSTEM,” filed Aug. 3, 2016; related U.S. Pat. No. 9,442,639B2, titled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING AMBIANCE SETTINGS IN A BATHING SYSTEM,” filed Dec. 13, 2013; and related U.S. Pat. No. 8,644,960B2, titled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING AMBIENCE SETTINGS IN A BATHING SYSTEM,” filed Oct. 22, 2010, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein. For example, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the restriction criteria associated with operational settings may include restriction criteria associated with ambient settings may include restrictions on pump settings and/or speeds, air blower settings and/or speeds, massage sequences, etc. The restrictions on operational details may be based on safety considerations when using the bathing unit system 100 (e.g., restricting use of unsafe water temperatures). These restriction criteria may also be based on cost sensitivity of the primary user (e.g., restricting use of high water temperatures during on-peak hours, restricting use of bathing components excessively, etc.). These restriction criteria may also be based on rules set for the field location 101 or set within the family as described above (e.g., restricting the use of loud volumes or bright lights during quiet hours).

The restriction data may comprise one or more restriction criteria associated with acceptable location settings of a primary user when conducting a bath session added or initiated by a user of a specific subsidiary user type or by a specific user. For example, the restriction criteria associated with location settings may comprise one or more of: (i) a current location of a user of the primary owner user type; (ii) a current location of a user of the primary family user type; (iii) a current location of any user of the primary user type; etc. These restriction criteria may be based on the safety considerations (e.g., restricting use without adult supervision for minor users).

In some embodiments, in addition to being associated with a specific subsidiary user type and/or a specific user, the restriction data may be further delineated based on other characteristics. For example, some restriction data may be associated with a particular time, time category, date or date category (e.g., restriction criteria only applicable for weekends, or only applicable for weekday evenings). Other restriction data may be associated with a particular ambient environment (e.g., restriction criteria only applicable for ambient temperatures below 5° C.). Yet other restriction data may be associated with a particular energy cost (e.g., restriction criteria only applicable when the energy cost rate is above $3/kWh or when the energy cost tier is “on-peak”).

As a more specific example, referring to FIG. 3D, the restriction data store 217 includes entries 680, 682, 684 and 686. Other embodiments of the restriction data store 217 may include additional, fewer, or alternative entries, based on the restriction data actually stored and received by the control system 118. For example, those skilled in the art will appreciate that entries may be added to the restriction data store 217 as additional users or additional subsidiary user types are added (e.g., via a user interface of the control panel 188 and/or a user interface of the user devices 184 and 185). Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that entries may be deleted from the restriction data store 217 in response to user input (e.g., via the user interfaces of the control panel 188 and/or the user devices 184 and 185). Those skilled in the art will further appreciate that entries may be automatically deleted from the restriction data store 217 after expiration of an expiry period from a time stored in a restriction data date field 690 (described below) associated with the entries. The expiry period for restriction data entries may be any period of time after which the likelihood that the associated user or the associated subsidiary user type will use the bathing unit system 100 decreases or after which user data entries of the associated user or the associated subsidiary user type are deleted from the user data store 210.

The entries 680, 682, 684 and 686 may each be associated with different fields. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3D, these fields include:

• • (a) a restriction date field 690 storing a date and time associated with a particular entry of the restriction data stored in the restriction data store 217. This date and/or time may correspond to when the restriction data entry was initially created (e.g., by a primary user as described below). In other embodiments, this date and time may also correspond to when the restrictions in the restriction data entry are valid. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3D, entry 680 is associated with a date of “Oct. 19, 2024” (e.g., which may correspond to the rental start date of a subsidiary renter user), entry 682 is associated with a date of “Nov. 30, 2020” (e.g., which may correspond to when the bathing unit system 100 was first used by a guest), entry 684 is associated with a date of “Oct. 20, 2020” (e.g., which may correspond to when the bathing unit system 100 was initially installed at the field location 101), and entry 686 is associated with a date of “Nov. 30, 2021” (e.g., which may correspond to when a specific user associated with the entry 686 was allowed to independently use the bathing unit system 100).
  • (b) a user/user type field 692 storing the specific user or the specific subsidiary user type which is associated with the particular entry of the restriction data. The value stored in the user/user type field 692 may be used to identify user data entries (e.g., to identify a particular user profiles) with which the restriction data entry is associated and for which the restriction criteria should be applied.
  • The values stored in the user/user type field 692 may be a user identifier stored in the user identifier field 612 of a user data entry, in which case the restriction data entry is associated with a specific user. In the example shown in FIG. 3D, entry 686 identifies “Jack Smith,” which will identify the specific user profile associated with Jack Smith (i.e., user data entry 603 in the user data store 210).
  • The value stored in the user/user type field 692 may be a user type stored in the user type field 614 of a user data entry, in which case the restriction data entry is associated with a specific user type. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3D, entry 680 identifies “subsidiary renter user type,” which will identify the specific user profile associated with the Renter (i.e., entry 604 in the user data store 210); entry 682 identifies “subsidiary guest user type”; and entry 684 identifies “subsidiary user type,” which may be a umbrella user type identifying all user profiles associated a subsidiary user type, including both the specific user profile associated with Jack Smith and with the renter (i.e., entry 603 and 604 in the user data store 210).
  • (c) a set of restrictions field 694 storing one or more restriction criteria for the specific user or the specific subsidiary user type identified in the user/user type field 692. The restriction criteria may be of the various different types noted above and may be, for example, restriction criteria associated with acceptable operating costs, acceptable start and end times, acceptable duration, acceptable ambient environments, acceptable operational settings (e.g., water temperature). A cost sensitivity profile, namely a type and a value of preference energy cost data. For example, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3D, entry 680 is associated with “maximum energy mode: economical; maximum energy cost rate: $1/kWh; maximum energy cost tier: off-peak; maximum duration: 120 minutes; maximum audio volume: 50%”; entry 682 is associated with “maximum energy cost rate: $3/kWh; maximum energy cost tier: on-peak; maximum audio volume: 50%”; entry 684 is associated with “maximum water temperature: 41° C.; minimum ambient temperature: −5° C.; restricted weather conditions: thunderstorm, precipitation >10 mm/h,” entry 686 is associated with “maximum energy cost rate: $2/kWh; maximum energy cost tier: on-peak; maximum audio volume: 25%; restricted days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday; restricted time: any start or end time after 10 PM.”

The above fields and values are provided as examples only. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that alternative embodiments of the restriction data store 217 may include additional, fewer, or alternative fields associated with each entry and additional, fewer or alternative values associated with each field. For example, some embodiments may include an entry for each of the different types of restriction data forming the set of restriction criteria, rather than combining the entire set version criteria into the single set of restrictions field 692. Other embodiments may include a separate data type and data value fields, rather than the combined data type and value in the single set of restrictions field 692.

Program Memory 194

The program memory 194 stores various blocks of code (alternatively called processor-executable instructions and/or computer-executable instructions), for directing the local processor 190 to perform various processes, such as a user type operation process 500, different operating modes of the bathing unit system 100, and user type display process 550, as described below. The program memory 194 may also store database management system computer-executable instructions for managing the data stores in the storage memory 192, including the user data store 210, the external data store 213, the internal data store 216, and the restriction data store 217. In other embodiments, the program memory 194 may store fewer, additional or alternative computer-executable instructions directing the local processor 190 to execute additional or alternative processes.

The storage memory 192 and the program memory 194 may each be implemented as one or a combination of a non-transitory computer-readable medium and/or non-transitory machine-readable medium such as a hard disk drive, a flash memory, a read-only memory, a compact disk, a digital versatile disk, a cache, a random-access memory and/or any other storage device or storage disk in which information is stored for any duration (e.g., for extended time periods, permanently, for brief instances, for temporarily buffering, and/or for caching thereof). The expression “non-transitory computer-readable medium” or “non-transitory machine-readable medium” as used herein is defined to include any type of computer-readable storage device and/or storage disk and to exclude propagating signals and to exclude transmission media.

Local Processor 190

The local processor 190 is generally configured to execute instructions stored in the program memory 194 (including the user type operation process 500, the different operating modes of the bathing unit system 100, and the user type display process 550 as described below), to retrieve information from, and store information into, the data stores (including the user data store 210, the external data store 213, the internal data store 216 and the preference data store 215) of the storage memory 192 and to receive information and transmit commands and power to, the bathing unit system components, the power source 116, the control panel 188, the control server 182, the user device 184, and/or the external system 186 if and as applicable over the I/O interface 196.

Control Server 182

Referring to FIG. 4, the control server 182 includes the control processor 200, the storage memory 202, a program memory 204 and an I/O interface 206, all in communication with the control processor 200. Other embodiments of the control server 182 may include fewer, additional or alternative components. Additionally, although only a single control processor 200, single storage memory 202, single program memory 204 and single I/O interface 206 is shown in FIG. 4, other embodiments of the control server 182 may include more than one of each of these components. For example, the control server 182 may include at least one first remote control server hosted at a first data center configured to perform some functions of the control server 182 and at least one second remote control server hosted at a second data center configured to perform some other functions of the control server 182.

The I/O interface 206 includes an interface for the control processor 200 to communicate commands to, and receive information from: (a) the local processor 190 of the controller 180 over the network 181; (b) the primary user device 184 over the network 181; (c) the subsidiary user device 185 over the network 181 and/or (d) the external systems associated with external service providers (e.g., the weather service provider, the energy service provider, the location service provider etc.) over the network 181. In some embodiments, the I/O interface 206 may also include an interface for the control processor 200 to communicate directly with the bathing unit components (e.g., the pump 106, the filter 108, the temperature change component 110, the sensor 160, the lighting component 172, the

audio component 170, and the video display 174), the power source 116, and/or the control panel 188 via the network 181. The I/O interface 206 may include any communication interface which enables the control processor 200 to perform the functions as described above and below.

The storage memory 202 stores information received or generated by the control processor 200 and may generally function as an information or data store. In the embodiment shown, the storage memory 202 may store a corresponding remote version (not shown) of the user data store 210, the external data store 213, the internal data store 216 and the restriction data store 217 described above. In other embodiments, the storage memory 202 may include fewer, additional or alternative data stores.

The program memory 204 stores various blocks of code (alternatively called processor-executable instructions and/or computer-executable instructions), for directing the control processor 200 to perform various processes, such as a remote version (not shown) or a portion of the user type operation process 500, the different operating modes of the bathing unit system 100, and the user type display process 550 as described below. The control processor 200 may perform such various processes in addition to, as a redundancy for, or as an alternative to, the local processor 190 of the controller 180. In this regard, the control processor 200 may have greater processing power and processing speed when compared to the local processor 190 and may perform certain steps of the various processes faster than the local processor 190. The program memory 204 may also store database management system computer-executable instructions for managing the data stores in the storage memory 202. In other embodiments, the program memory 204 may store fewer, additional or alternative computer-executable instructions directing the control processor 200 to execute additional or alternative processes.

The storage memory 202 and the program memory 204 may each be implemented as one or a combination of a non-transitory computer-readable medium and/or non-transitory machine-readable medium such as a hard disk drive, a flash memory, a read-only memory, a compact disk, a digital versatile disk, a cache, a random-access memory and/or any other storage device or storage disk in which information is stored for any duration (e.g., for extended time periods, permanently, for brief instances, for temporarily buffering, and/or for caching thereof).

The control processor 200 is generally configured to execute instructions stored in the program memory 204 (including the user type operation process 500, the different operating modes of the bathing unit system 100, and the user type display process 550 as described below), to retrieve information from, and store information into, the data stores (including the user data store 210, the external data store 213, the internal data store 216, and the restriction data store 217), and to receive information from, and transmit commands to, the controller 180, the user device 184, the external systems 186, the control panel 188 and/or the bathing unit components through the I/O interface 206 if and as applicable.

Control Panel 188

Referring to FIGS. 1, 2 and 4, in some embodiments, the control panel 188 may comprise a topside control panel generally configured to transmit commands to, and receive information from, the controller 180 over the wired connection. Examples of a topside control panel include various embodiments described in the related U.S. application Ser. No. 17/515703, titled “TOPSIDE CONTROL PANEL AND TOPSIDE CONTROL PANEL SYSTEM FOR BATHING UNIT SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATING THE SAME”, filed on Nov. 1, 2021 and related U.S. Pat. No. 10,353,499 , titled “TOPSIDE CONTROL PANEL FOR BATHING UNIT SYSTEM”, filed on Mar. 19, 2018, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein. In other embodiments, the control panel 188 may comprise a user device (e.g., similar to the primary user device 184 or the subsidiary user device 185 described below) having a bathing unit system control application installed thereon for facilitating transmission of commands to, and receipt of information from, the controller 180

Over the Network 181

The control panel 188 may include: (a) a processor for performing the operations of the control panel 188 (e.g., by executing instructions stored in a program memory of the control panel 188); (b) the program memory configured to store instructions which may be executed in order to implement various functionality of the control panel 188, including user interface codes which cause different pages, menus and notification messages described below (e.g., a restriction criteria menu 700 (shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B), a login page 800 (shown in FIG. 6), an add scheduled bathing session menu 306 (shown in FIG. 8A), an initiate impromptu bathing session menu 402 (shown in FIG. 8B), an authorization request 530 (shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B), different authorization responses 570 and 540 (shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B), a conforming modification notification message 560 (shown in FIG. 11), a restricted add scheduled bathing session menu 306′ (shown in FIG. 13A) and a restricted initiate impromptu bathing session menu 402′ (shown in FIG. 13B)) to be displayed on the user interface of the control panel 188; (c) a storage memory configured to store data in order to implement various functionality of the control panel 188; (d) a network interface (e.g., a transmitter/receiver with an antenna or a network interface card or a port) for communicating with the controller 180, the control server 182, the external system, the primary user device 184 and the subsidiary user device 185 if and as applicable; and (c) the user interface (e.g., keypad, the display screen, touchscreen, rotary input device) for receiving user input interacting with, and for displaying information regarding the bathing unit system 100, including via the different pages, menus and notification messages described below.

Power Source 116

As described above, the controller 180 may be operable to supply power from the power source 116 to the different bathing unit components. The at least one power source 116 may supply any conventional power service suitable for residential or commercial use. For example, the power source 116 may supply 240 volts (V) AC to the controller 180 via a service wiring 117 (shown in FIG. 1). In other embodiments, the power source 116 may instead supply 120 V AC to the controller 180 via the service wiring 117. In yet other embodiments, the power source 116 may supply 120 V and 240 V AC to the controller 180 via the service wiring 117. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other voltage supply values or voltage supply combinations are possible. For example, the voltage supply values may be different depending on geographical location. Additionally, other embodiments of the bathing unit system 100 may include other types of power sources 116, such as a stored electrical power source (e.g., battery), generated electrical power source (e.g., solar panel or wind/water turbine), a natural gas power source, an oil-based power source, etc. Further still, other embodiments of the bathing unit system 100 may include more than one power source 116, an individual power source 116 for each bathing unit component, or a power source 116 which is shared by more than one bathing unit component (but not by all bathing unit components) of a particular bathing unit system 100.

After receipt of the power from the at least one power source 116, the controller 180 may distribute the power to the different bathing unit components to operate the different bathing unit components according to different operational modes, and to operate the bathing unit system 100 according to the operating schedule and/or the modified operating schedule as described below.

Primary User Device 184 and Subsidiary User Device 185

Referring to FIGS. 1, 2 and 4, the primary user device 184 may be any communication device which can be associated with a user having a user profile (e.g. user data entries stored in the user data store 210) of the primary user type (e.g., the owner user type, the administrator user type, the primary family adult user type, the standard primary user type, etc.). The subsidiary user device 185 may be any communication device which is associated with a user having a user profile of the subsidiary user type (e.g., the subsidiary adult family user type, the subsidiary minor family user type, the subsidiary guest user type, the subsidiary renter user type, the standard subsidiary user type, etc.) The primary user device 184 and/or the subsidiary user device 185 may comprise, for example, a mobile phone, or a tablet, or a laptop, or a personal computer, a smart watch, a wearable device etc., associated with the corresponding user. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, two primary user devices 184, specifically a mobile phone 184A and a laptop 184B associated with an owner user are shown; in other embodiments, the primary user devices 184A and 184B may be associated with different primary users or different types of primary users and/or the control system 118 may communicate with additional or fewer primary user devices 184. The embodiment shown also includes three subsidiary user devices, specifically a first mobile phone 185A associated with a subsidiary minor family user, a second mobile phone 185B associated with a subsidiary renter user, and a third mobile phone 185C associated with a subsidiary adult family user; in other embodiments, the subsidiary user devices 185A, 185B and 185C associated with a same subsidiary user or different types of subsidiary users and/or the control system 118 may communicate with additional or fewer subsidiary user devices 185.

The primary user device 184 and/or the subsidiary user device 185 may include: (a) a processor for performing the operations of the primary user device 184 and/or the subsidiary user device 185 (e.g., by executing instructions stored in a program memory thereof); (b) the program memory configured to store instructions which may be executed in order to implement various functionality of the primary user device 184 and/or the subsidiary user device 185, including user interface codes which cause different pages, menus and notification messages described below (e.g., the restriction criteria menu 700 (shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B), the login page 800 (shown in FIG. 6), the add scheduled bathing session menu 306 (shown in FIG. 8A), the initiate impromptu bathing session menu 402 (shown in FIG. 8B), the authorization request 530 (shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B), the different authorization responses 570 and 540 (shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B), the conforming modification notification message 560 (shown in FIG. 11), the restricted add scheduled bathing session menu 306′ (shown in FIG. 13A) and the restricted initiate impromptu bathing session menu 402′ (shown in FIG. 13B)) to be displayed on the user interface of the primary user device 184 and/or the subsidiary user device 185; (c) the storage memory configured to store data in order to implement various functionality of the primary user device 184 and/or the subsidiary user device 185; (d) a network interface (e.g., a transmitter/receiver with an antenna or a network interface card or a port) for communicating with the controller 180, the control server 182, the external system 186, and/or the control panel 188 if and as applicable; and (c) the user interface (e.g., keyboard, the display screen, and/or touchscreen) for receiving user input and for displaying information regarding the bathing unit system 100, including via the different pages, menus and notification messages described below.

In some embodiments, the primary user device 184 and/or the subsidiary user device 185 may comprise an external system separate from the bathing unit system 100 and may store or enable retrieval of the external data. For example, the external data may be retrieved from software applications stored on the program and storage memories of the user device 184 and executed by the processor of the primary user device 184 and/or the subsidiary user device 185. For example, the external data may include one or more of: (i) the weather condition data and/or the ambient temperature data which may be retrieved from the weather application installed on the primary user device 184 and/or the subsidiary user device 185; (ii) the energy cost data which may be retrieved from an energy management application installed on the primary user device 184 and/or the subsidiary user device 185; and (iii) the user location data which may be retrieved at least in part based on data from a position receiver on the primary user device 184 and/or the subsidiary user device 185. In other embodiments, the primary user device 184 and/or the subsidiary user device 185 may facilitate retrieval of the external data from a separate external system associated with a service provider (e.g., the weather service provider, the energy service provider, or the location service provider), and the primary user device 184 and/or the subsidiary user device 185 may operate as an intermediary between the external system and the control system 118.

In some embodiments, the primary user device 184 and/or the subsidiary user device 185 may comprise the control panel 188 (or a portion of the control panel 188). For example, the primary user device 184 and/or the subsidiary user device 185 may include the bathing unit system control application installed thereon, which may facilitate transmission commands to, and receive information from, the controller 180 and/or directly to the bathing unit components over the network 181.

Operational Modes of the Bathing Unit System 100

The control system 118 may generally be configured to operate the bathing unit system 100 in a plurality of different operational modes including at least a standby mode 250, a temperature change mode 252, a use mode 254 and a maintain mode 256.

Standby Mode 250

During the standby mode 250, the bathing unit system 100 may not being used by a user and is also not being prepared for use by a user, and may be primarily operated by the control system 118 to filter the water 103, sanitize and otherwise maintain cleanliness of the water 103, prevent the water 103 from freezing in the conduits 124, etc. For example, the controller 180 may operate the pump 106 (causing the component to draw power from the power source 116) to circulate the water 103 throughout the circulation system 104 for filtration thereof and to maintain flow through the conduits 124 using the operate bathing unit system in standby mode 250 described below. For example, standby mode 250 may include computer-executable instructions which direct the control system 118 to: (a) operate the first pump 130 in the low mode and the second pump 132 in the on mode for one minute, and (b) operate the first pump 130 in the low mode and the second pump 132 in the off mode for 58 minutes. The standby mode 250 may be repeated anywhere between 2-10 times a day and may specifically be repeated 4 times a day. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various embodiments of the standby mode 250 may include additional, alternative or fewer computer-executable instructions to operate the at least one pump 106 differently than that described above.

During a lifetime of a typical bathing unit system 100, the bathing unit system 100 may be in standby mode 250 more than 90% of the time.

Temperature Change Mode 252

During the temperature change mode 252, the bathing unit system 100 is being prepared for use by the user, and is primarily operated by the control system 118 to reach a target water temperature by a target start time for use by the user. For example, the control system 118 may operate the pump 106 and the temperature change component 110 (causing these components to draw power from the at least one power source 116) to heat the water 103 to a target water temperature by a target start time based on operational details of a particular bathing session.

For example, the temperature change mode 252 may include computer-executable instructions which direct the control system 118 to receive temperature signals from the receptacle temperature sensor 160 representing a current water temperature of the water 103 held in the receptacle 102. The control system 118 may then determine or receive a target water temperature of the water 103 and/or a target start time at which the bathing unit system 100 is required to reach the target bathing temperature. For example, the control system 118 may receive the target water temperature and the target start time point from user input (e.g., via the add scheduled bathing session menu 306 (shown in FIG. 8A), the initiate impromptu bathing session menu 402 (shown in FIG. 8B), the authorization request 530 (shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B), the restricted add scheduled bathing session menu 306′ (shown in FIG. 13A) and the restricted initiate impromptu bathing session menu 402′ (shown in FIG. 13B)), which may be received via the user interface of the primary user device 184, the subsidiary user device 185 and/or the control panel 188. The control system 118 may also automatically determine the target water temperature and the target start time based on the restriction criteria in the restriction data store 217 as described below. The temperature change mode 252 may then direct the control system 118 to operate one or more of the pump 106 and the temperature change component 110 based the target water temperatures, the target start time, the internal data (e.g., the thermal property indicator data, the power consumption models, and the thermal energy input models), the external data (e.g., current ambient temperature, current and future energy cost data) and the restriction criteria to reach the target water temperature at the target start time. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various embodiments of the temperature change mode 252 may include additional, alternative or fewer computer-executable instructions to operate the pump 106 and the temperature change component 110 differently than that described above.

During a lifetime of a typical bathing unit system 100, operating the bathing unit system 100 in the temperature change mode 252 may draw the most power from the power source 116 when compared to operating the bathing unit system 100 in the standby mode 250, the use mode 254 or the maintain mode 256 (or any other mode). Accordingly, the temperature change mode 252 may be associated with the highest energy costs.

Use Mode 254

During the use mode 254, the bathing unit system 100 may be being used by the user and may be primarily operated by the control system 118 to provide the user with a desirable experience during a bathing session. For example, during the use mode 254, the control system 118 may operate the pump 106 and the air blower to generate a desired message sequence, and may operate the lighting component 172 and the audio component 170 to generate a desired lighting and sound environment, both based on user input (e.g., via the add scheduled bathing session menu 306 (shown in FIG. 8A), the initiate impromptu bathing session menu 402 (shown in FIG. 8B), the authorization request 530 (shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B), the restricted add scheduled bathing session menu 306′ (shown in FIG. 13A) and the restricted initiate impromptu bathing session menu 406′ (shown in FIG. 13B)). During the use mode 254, the control system 118 may also operate temperature change component 110 to maintain the water 103 at the target water temperature, and operate other components of the bathing unit components to maintain a desired ambience. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various embodiments of the use mode 254 may include additional, alternative or fewer computer-executable instructions to operate the various bathing components during a specific bathing session as described above and below.

Maintain Mode 256

During the maintain mode 256, the bathing unit system 100 may be maintained at or proximate a future target water temperature (of a future bathing session) prior to a future start time of the future bathing session. For example, when bathing sessions are scheduled close to each other (as described below), it may be more energy-efficient and/or cost-efficient to maintain the water 103 proximate the target temperature rather than to allow the water 103 to cool down to a standby water temperature (e.g., the standby mode 250) and then to heat up again to the target water temperature (e.g., the temperature change mode 252).

During the maintain mode 256, the control system 118 may operate the temperature change component 110 to maintain the current water temperature with a certain range (e.g., ±1° C., ±2.5° C., ±5° C., ±10° C., etc.) of the future target water temperature. Maintaining a current water temperature may require less thermal energy input when compared to heating to a target water temperature during the temperature change mode 252. Accordingly, the maintain mode 256 may involve heating using the auxiliary heater/cooler 154 rather than the primary heater 150, heating using the primary heater 150 in the low mode rather than the high mode, and/or heating using the primary heater 150 for a shorter duration. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other embodiments of the maintain mode 256 may include additional, alternative or fewer computer-executable instructions to maintain the current water temperature within a certain range of the future target water temperature as described above and below.

Restriction Criteria Menu 700

Referring now to FIGS. 5A and 5B in combination with the restriction data store 217 shown in FIG. 3D, the set of restriction criteria associated with a specific user or a specific subsidiary user type and stored as a restriction data entry in the restriction data store 217 may be generated based on user input via a restriction criteria menu 700 associated with the bathing unit system 100. The restriction criteria menu 700 may be displayed via the user interface (e.g., display screen) associated with the primary user device 184 and/or the user interface (e.g., display screen, keypad) associated with the control panel 188 (after a primary user, or any user with appropriate permissions, is verified via their user credentials as described below). In the embodiment shown, restriction criteria menus 700A (shown in FIGS. 5A) and 700B (shown in FIG. 5B) is displayed on a display screen of the primary user device 184A (mobile phone associated with the owner user).

The restriction criteria menu 700 may present user selectable options corresponding to different restrictions for operating the bathing unit system 100. For example, the restriction criteria menu 700 may include input areas 702 for receiving user identifiers, user types, and restrictions to be associated with such users and/or user types. In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, input areas 702A of the restriction criteria menu 700A and input areas 702B of the restriction criteria menu 700B both include a user/user type input area 730. The user/user type input area 730 may allow a primary user to indicate which specific subsidiary user and/or which specific subsidiary user type should be associated with the restrictions.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, the user/user type input area 730 includes a user/user type selector 732 which allows a primary user to select both specific subsidiary users (e.g., using values stored in the user identifier field 612 of the user data store 210) and specific subsidiary user types (e.g., using values stored in the user type field 614 of the user data store 210). Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other ways of selecting specific users or specific user types are possible.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 5A, the user/user type selector 732 identifies “renter user type,” conveying that restriction criteria entered using the restriction criteria menu 700A should be associated with user data entries (e.g., user profiles) in the user data store 210 which store the “subsidiary renter user” in the user type field 614. In contrast, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 5B, the user/user type selector 732B identifies “all subsidiary user types,” indicating that restriction criteria entered using the restriction criteria menu 700B should be associated with user data entries (e.g., user profiles) which identify any subsidiary users in the user type field 614, including without limitation “subsidiary minor family users,” “subsidiary adult family users,” “subsidiary renter users,” “subsidiary guest users,” “standard subsidiary user,” etc.

Referring now specifically to FIG. 5A, the input areas 702A further include an energy cost restrictions 704, which may allow the primary user to indicate restrictions associated with energy cost data and other operating costs to be imposed on specific users or specific user types when using the bathing unit system 100. In the embodiment shown, the energy cost restrictions 704 includes: (a) a maximum energy mode field 706 which allows the primary user to input a maximum energy mode (e.g., economical, standard, performance) allowed for heating a bathing session requested by users of the subsidiary renter user type; (b) a maximum energy cost rate field 708, which allows the primary user to input a maximum energy rate amount (e.g., in $/kWh) allowed for heating a bathing session requested by users of the subsidiary renter user type; and (c) a maximum energy cost tier field 710, which allows the primary user to input a maximum energy cost tier (e.g., on-peak, off-peak) allowed for heating a bathing session requested by users of the subsidiary renter user type. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the energy cost restrictions 704 may include fewer, additional or alternative energy cost restrictions in other embodiments, including maximum energy total energy costs, etc.

The input areas 702A further include operating detail restrictions 720A, which may allow the primary user to indicate restrictions associated with operating details of a particular bathing session requested by specific users or specific user types. In the embodiment shown, the operating detail restrictions 720A restrict use primarily based on cost and include: (a) a maximum duration field 722, which allows the primary user to input a maximum duration allowed for a bathing session requested by users of the subsidiary renter user type; and (b) a maximum audio volume field 724, which allows the primary user to input a maximum volume allowed for the audio component 170 and/or the visual display 174 during a bathing session requested by users of the subsidiary renter user type. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the operating detail restrictions 720A may include fewer, additional or alternative operating detail restrictions in other embodiments, including maximum or minimum water temperature, use and brightness of the lighting components 172 and/or the visual display 174, type of audio which can be streamed via the visual display 174 and/or the audio components 170, restrictions on settings and/or speeds of the pump 106, restrictions and/or speeds on the air blower, restrictions on massage sequences, etc.

Referring now to FIG. 5B, the input areas 702B further include ambient environment restrictions 736, which may allow the primary user to indicate restrictions associated with the ambient environment at the field location 101 when a specific user or a specific user type is using the bathing unit system 100. In the embodiment shown, the ambient environment restrictions 736 restrict use primary due to safety and include: (a) a minimum ambient temperature field 738 which allows the primary user to input a minimum ambient temperature at the field location 101 below which use of the bathing unit system 100 is not allowed by any subsidiary users; and (b) restricted weather condition selectors 740 which allows the primary user to select weather conditions during which use of the bathing unit system 100 is not allowed by any subsidiary users. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the ambient environment restrictions 736 may include fewer, additional or alternative ambient environment restrictions in other embodiments, including, an amount of precipitation, air pressure, humidity, wind speed, UV index, etc.

The input areas 702B further include operating detail restrictions 720B which also restrict use primarily due to safety and include (a) maximum water temperature field 726 which allow the primary user to input a maximum water temperature allowed for a bathing session requested by any subsidiary users.

Referring to both FIGS. 5A and 5B, those skilled in the art will recognize that, in other embodiments, the input areas 702A and 702B may include additional, alternative, or fewer restrictions, based on the restrictions that the primary user actually wishes to impose on users of the “subsidiary renter user type” identified in the user/user type selector 732A or on users of the “subsidiary user type” identified in the user's letters a type selector 732B. Further, those skilled in the art will recognize that, in other embodiments, the fields in the input areas 702A and 702B may be further delineated based on other characteristics. For example, some restriction criteria may be associated with a particular time, time category, date or date category (e.g., research and criteria only applicable for weekends, only applicable for weekdays, only applicable for mornings, only applicable for evenings, etc.). Other restriction criteria may be associated with a particular ambient environment (e.g., restriction criteria only applicable for ambient temperatures below 5° C.). Yet other restriction data may be associated with a particular energy cost (e.g., restriction criteria only applicable when the energy cost rate is above $3/kWh or when the energy cost tier is “on-peak”).

Login Page 800

Referring now to FIG. 6 in combination with the user data store 210 shown in FIG. 3A, a particular user may authenticate themselves to the control system 118 (e.g., the local processor 190 of the controller 180 and/or the control processor 200 of the control server 182) as a user of the subsidiary user type or the primary user type. To do so, the user may provide user credentials (e.g., the corresponding username and password stored in the username field 615 and the password field 617 of the user data store 210) to the control system 118.

In some embodiments, the user credentials may be provided via user input via a login page 800 associated with the bathing unit system 100. The login page 800 may be displayed via the user interface (e.g., display screen, keypad) associated with the primary user device 184, the subsidiary user device 184 and/or the control panel 188. In the embodiment shown, restriction criteria menus 700A (shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B) is displayed on a display screen of the primary user device 184A (mobile cell phone associated with the owner user), the first subsidiary user device 185A (mobile cell phone associated with the subsidiary minor family user), the second subsidiary user device 185B (mobile cell phone associated with the subsidiary renter user), and/or the third subsidiary user device 185C (mobile cell phone associated with a subsidiary adult family user).

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, the login page 800 includes a username field 802 for receiving a username of a user (e.g., to determine whether there is a corresponding value in the username field 615 of a user data entry in the user data store 210), a password field 804 for receiving a password of a user (e.g., to determine whether there is a corresponding matching value in the password field 617 of the user data entry) and a confirm button 806 which may transmit the username and the password to the control system 118 in a user login request for verification thereof. For example, the control system 118 may search the user data store 210 to determine whether there is a user to entry storing the transmitted username in the username field 615 and the transmitted password in the password field 617. The control system 118 may then determine that the user submitting the user login request is the subsidiary user type or the primary user type based on the value stored in the user type field 614 of that retrieved user data entry.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that the user credentials may be provided via other forms of user input not via the login page 800 in other embodiments, such as via radio frequency identification (RFID), Bluetooth, face ID etc. . . . associated with the primary user device 184A and/or the subsidiary user device 185A, 185B, 185C, or any other user device (e.g., a smart watch, a wearable device) associated with the user seeking to authenticate themselves to the control system 118.

User Type Operation Process 500

Referring to now to FIGS. 7A and 7B, after the user authenticates themselves via the user credentials (potentially before user authentication in some embodiments), the control system 118 may initiate the user type operation process 500 in response to receiving operating details for a bathing session in an access request from the user at block 502. One embodiment of the user type operation process 500 is shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B. The user type operation process 500 may be performed by a combination of the local processor 190, the control processor 200, the processor of the primary user device 184, the subsidiary user device 185 and/or the processor of the control panel 188 executing processor-executable instructions and/or computer-executable instructions. The User type operation process 500 may generally direct the controller 180, the control server 182, the primary user device 184, the subsidiary user device 185 and/or the control panel 188 to determine whether the operating details of the bathing session included in the access request conform with one or more restriction criteria associated with the user submitting the access request (e.g., with that specific user or with a subsidiary user type associated with that specific user), and to provide different operation options in situations where the operating details do not conform with the one or more restriction criteria. In other embodiments, the User type operation process 500 may comprise instructions stored on other types of non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, such as a CD-ROM, a floppy disk, a hard drive, a DVD, a Blu-ray disk or another component associated with the controller 180, the control server 182, the primary user device 184, the subsidiary user device 185 and/or the control panel 188. In yet other embodiments, the User type operation process 500 and/or parts thereof may be executed entirely by the local processor 190, executed entirely by the control processor 200, executed entirely by the processor of the primary user device 184 or of the subsidiary user device 185, executed entirely by the processor of the control panel 188, and/or by a system other than those described above. Further, although the user type operation process 500 in accordance with one embodiment is described with reference to the flowchart illustrated in FIGS. 7A and 7B, other methods of implementing the user type operation process 500 may alternatively be used. For example, the order of execution of the blocks shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B may be altered, and/or some of the blocks described may be altered, eliminated, or combined.

In the embodiment shown, as described above, the user type operation process 500 may begin at block 502 in response to receiving operating details for the bathing session in an access request from the user. Referring now to FIGS. 8A and 8B, the operating details of the specific bathing session in the access request may be generated based on user input via the add scheduled session menu 306 (shown in FIG. 8A) and the initiate impromptu bathing session menu 402 (shown in FIG. 8B). The embodiment shown, both the add scheduled session menu 306 and the initiate impromptu bathing session menu 402 is displayed on a display screen of the primary user device 184A (mobile cell phone associated with the owner user), the first subsidiary user device 185A (mobile cell phone associated with the subsidiary minor family user), the second subsidiary user device 185B (mobile cell phone associated with the subsidiary renter user), or the third subsidiary user device 185C (mobile cell phone associated with a subsidiary adult family user).

Referring to FIG. 8A, the add scheduled bathing session menu 306 allows a user to input operating details 320 associated with a bathing session 342 of a scheduled type and to add the bathing session 342 to an operating schedule for the bathing unit system 100. As used herein, the phrase bathing session of the “scheduled type” generally means bathing sessions which are stored in a storage memory in communication with the control system 118 (e.g., the storage memory 192 of the controller 180, the storage memory 202 of the control server 182, the storage memory of the control panel 188 and/or the storage memory of the user device 184) as a part of an existing operating schedule. Further, bathing sessions 342 of the scheduled type are generally stored in the storage memory and/or are generally a part of the existing operating schedule in advance of a minimum delay period from their start time. In other words, bathing sessions 342 of the scheduled type are generally added at least the minimum delay period in advance of their start time 324. The minimum delay period may be pre-set (e.g., 6 hours before, 10 hours before, 12 hours before, etc.), or may be dynamically varied based on how much time the control system 118 needs to implement a specific bathing session 342 having a specific target water temperature 322. For example, lower proposed water temperatures may be associated with a shorter minimum delay period, higher proposed water temperatures or bigger differences between a current water temperature and the proposed water temperature may be associated with a longer minimum delay period.

For example, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 8A, the add scheduled bathing session menu 306 includes (i) a date selector 308 which allows a user to enter a scheduled date for the bathing session 342, which may be a specific date (e.g., (Oct. 20, 2024) or a recurring date (e.g., every Friday, every first of the month, etc.); (ii) a time selector 310 which allows the user to enter a scheduled time for the bathing session 342, including the start time 324 and an end time 326 (e.g., difference corresponding to a duration); (ii) a water temperature field 312 which allows the user to enter the target water temperature 322 for the bathing session 342; and (iv) ambience selection buttons 314 which allows the user to select different ambience settings for the bathing session 342, including different pump settings and/or speeds, different air blower settings and/or speeds, different massage sequences, different light settings, different audio settings, different visual settings, etc.

The add scheduled bathing session menu 306 also includes a confirm button 316. Upon user selection of the confirm button 316, the network interfaces of the primary user device 184, the subsidiary user device 185 and/or the control panel 188 may transmit an access request to the control system 118 indicating that the user would like to add a bathing session 342 of the scheduled type having specific operating details 320 to the operating schedule.

Referring to FIG. 8B, the initiate impromptu bathing session menu 402 may allow a user to input operating details 420 of a bathing session 442 of an impromptu type and to initiate the bathing session 442. As used herein, the phrase bathing session 442 of the “impromptu type” generally means bathing sessions 442 which are not a part of an existing operating schedule. Further, bathing sessions of the impromptu type are generally initiated within the minimum delay period from their start time. As described above the minimum delay

period may be pre-set (e.g., 6 hours before, 10 hours before, 12 hours before, etc.), or may be dynamically varied based on how much time the control system 118 needs to implement the bathing session 442 at a target water temperature 422 by a target start time 424.

For example, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 8B, the initiate impromptu bathing session menu 402 includes (i) a water temperature field 412 which allows the user to enter the target water temperature 422 for the bathing session 442; (ii) a start time field 414 which allows a user to enter a start time 424 of the bathing session 442; (iii) a duration field 417 which allows a user to enter a duration for the bathing session 442; and (iv) ambience selection buttons 418 which allow a user to select different ambience settings for the bathing session 442, including different pump settings and/or speeds, different air blower settings and/or speeds, different massage sequences, different light settings, different audio settings, different visual settings, etc. The start time field 414 allows the user to select a start time 424 of “immediately” at a current time, or to select a start time 424 with an initiation delay period from a current time (e.g., in 30 minutes, in one hour, in two hours, in three hours, etc.). The initiation delay period may be less than the minimum delay period described above. Further, the control system 118 may be operable to calculate an end time 426 (shown in FIGS. 9A, 9B, 10A, 10B and 11) for the bathing session 442 based on a combination of the start time 424 entered via the start time field 414 and the duration 427 entered via the duration field 417.

The initiate impromptu bathing session menu 402 also includes a confirm button 416. Upon user selection of the confirm button 416, the network interfaces of the primary user device 184, the subsidiary user device 185 and/or the control panel 188 may transmit an access request to the control system 118 indicating that the user would like to initiate a bathing session 442 of the impromptu type having the specific operating details 420.

In response to receiving the access request at start block 502, the user type operation process 500 may then continue to block 504. Block 504 may include computer-executable instructions directing the control system 118 (e.g., the local processor 190 of the controller 180, the remote processor 200 of the control server 182, and/or the processor of the control panel 188) to determine whether the access request is received from a user having a user profile associated with the primary user type or the subsidiary user type. As described above in association with the login page 800 (shown in FIG. 6), the control system 118 may search the user data store 210 to determine whether there the user entry associated with the user sending the access request is the subsidiary user type or the primary user type based on the value stored in the user type field 614 of that user data entry.

If it is determined at block 504 that the access request is received from a user having a user profile associated with the primary user type, the user type operation process 500 may then continue to block 506. Block 506 may include computer-executable instructions directing the control system 118 to operate the bathing unit system 100 based on to the operating details 320 or 420 received at block 502.

For example, block 502 may direct the control system 118 to control the bathing unit components based at least in part on the thermal property indicator data, the thermal energy input models, and the power consumption models stored in the internal data store 216 to reach the target water temperature 322 or 422 by a scheduled start time 324 or 424 or as soon as possible. For example, the thermal property indicator data may represent the κ constant, the thermal conductivity H and/or the inverse thermal resistance Θ of the bathing unit system 100. The thermal energy input models may represent an amount of thermal energy inputted into the water 103 when the different bathing unit components (e.g. the at least one temperature change component 110 and the at least one pump 106) are operated in different modes (e.g., the low mode, the standard mode and the high mode) as described above. The combination of the thermal property indicator data and the thermal energy input models can be used to determine how to operate the different bathing unit components in order to reach the target water temperature 322 or 422 by the scheduled start time 324 for the bathing session 342 of the scheduled type or as soon as possible (or within the initiation delay period) for the bathing session 442 of the impromptu type.

In other embodiments, block 502 may also direct the control system 118 to control the bathing unit components based at least in part on the power consumption models stored in the internal data store 216 and the energy cost data stored in the external data store 213 (and/or retrieved from the external systems such as the energy management application on the primary user device 184 or the subsidiary user device 185 or the external system of the energy service provider). For example, the power consumption models may represent an amount of power drawn from the power source 116 when the different bathing unit components (e.g. the temperature change component 110 and the pump 106) are operated in different modes (e.g., the low mode, the standard mode and the high mode) as described above. The energy cost data may represent costs associated with the amount of power drawn from the power source 116. The combination of the power consumption models and the energy cost data can be used to determine the operating cost for operating the different bathing unit components to reach the target water temperature 322 or 422 by the scheduled start time 324 or as soon as possible (e.g., within the initiation delay period).

The combination of the energy cost data, the thermal energy input models, and the power consumption models may be used to determine how to operate the bathing unit system 100 to minimize the operating costs associated with reaching the target water temperature 322 or 422 by the scheduled start time 324 or as soon as possible (e.g., within the initiation delay period). The energy cost data may convey how energy costs vary over time (e.g., times of day associated with off-peak, on-peak and overnight rates). The thermal energy input models may convey how different bathing unit components may be controlled differently in order to input a same amount of thermal energy into the water 103. Further, the power consumption models may further convey how operating the different bathing unit components in different modes may draw different amounts of power from the power source 116, and thus be associated with different energy costs. Thus, it may be possible to input the same amount of thermal energy by operating the auxiliary heater/cooler 154 for a longer duration and by operating the primary heater 150 for a shorter duration. However, this operation of the auxiliary heater/cooler 154 for the longer duration may be less expensive than operating the primary heater 150 for the shorter duration. Additionally or alternatively, it may be possible to input the same amount of thermal energy by operating the primary heater 150 in combination with the auxiliary heater/cooler 154 for a shorter duration and by operating the primary heater 150 alone for a longer duration. However, this operation of the auxiliary heater/cooler 154 for the shorter duration may also be less expensive than operating the primary heater 150 alone for the longer duration.

In some embodiments, block 506 may involve adding the specific bathing session 342 of the scheduled type based precisely on the operating details 320, or by initiating the specific bathing session 442 of the impromptu type based precisely on the operating details 420. However, in other embodiments, block 506 may also involve modulating the operating details 320 and 420 based on certain contextual data as described in related international (PCT) application entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MODIFYING AN OPERATING SCHEDULE BASED ON CONTEXTUAL DATA,” filed on filed on Nov. 8, 2024, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein, or based on certain user cost sensitivity as described in related international (PCT) application, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR OPERATING BATHING SESSIONS OF A SCHEDULED TYPE AND OF AN IMPROMPTU TYPE BASED ON A COST SENSITIVITY PROFILE,” filed on Nov. 8, 2024, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein. The user type operation process 500 may then end.

However, if it is determined at block 504 that the access request is received from a user having a user profile associated with the subsidiary user type, the user type operation process 500 may then continue to block 508. Block 508 may include computer-executable instructions directing the control system 118 (e.g., the local processor 190 of the controller 180, the remote processor 200 of the control server 182, and/or the processor of the control panel 188), the primary user device 184 and/or the subsidiary user device 185 to determine whether the operating details 320 or 420 conform with the one or more restriction criteria associated with the specific user or the subsidiary user type associated with the specific user.

For example, in some embodiments, block 508 may involve determining operating costs for operating the bathing session 342 or 442 based on the operating details 320 or 420. As a more specific example, block 508 may involve processing: (a) the operating details 320 or 420 of date, the scheduled start time 324, a current time, the permitted initiation delay period, the end time 326 or 426 (and corresponding duration 427), the target water temperature 322 or 422 and ambience settings associated with the specific bathing session 342 or 442; (b) a current water temperature of the water 103 within the receptacle 102; (c) external data stored in the external data store 213, such as the energy cost rate and the energy cost tier associated with the operating details 320 and 420 including the energy cost rate and the energy cost tier during the start time 324 and a period of time take to heat the water 103 from the standby temperature to the target water temperature 322 or 422 by the scheduled start time 324 or as soon as possible (e.g., within the initiation delay period); (d) the internal data stored in the internal data store 216, and in particular the power consumption models of the bathing unit components, the thermal energy input models of the bathing unit components, and the thermal property indicator of the bathing unit system 100. Different ways of calculating operating costs associated with a specific bathing session based on one or more of the thermal property indicators, the power consumption models and/or the thermal energy inputted models are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/745,455, titled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DETERMINING AND MONITORING THERMAL PROPERTIES OF A BATHING UNIT SYSTEM AND FOR USING SAME TO CONTROL THE BATHING UNIT SYSTEM,” filed Jun. 17, 2024, the contents of which is incorporated by reference herein.

Block 508 may then involve comparing the calculated operating costs and/or the operating details 320 or 420 against the one or more restriction criteria associated with the user profile of the specific user or with a subsidiary user type associated with a specific user to determine whether calculated operating costs and/or the operating details 320 or 420 conform with the one or more restriction criteria. Identifying non-conformity with the set of restriction criteria before adding a bathing session 342 of the scheduled type or initiating the session 442 of the impromptu type may prevent activating the bathing unit system 100 for a bathing session that should be restricted for the specific user. In this regard, block 508 may generate a “conforming” indicator indicating that the operating costs and/or the operating details 320 or 420 conform with the one or more restriction criteria and a “non-conforming” indicator indicating that the operating costs and/or the operating details 320 or 420 do not conform.

For example, in some embodiments, block 508 may retrieve the relevant one or more restriction criteria for the specific user by searching the restriction data store 217 for restriction data entries which identify (e.g., value in the user/user type field 692) one or more of (a) the user identifier of the user profile of the specific user (e.g., the value stored in the user identifier field 612) and (b) the user type of the user profile of the specific user (e.g., the value stored in the user type field 614). Block 508 may retrieve: both restriction data entries which identify (a) and which identify (b) above (e.g., restriction criteria associated with the specific user and restriction criteria associated with the subsidiary user type of the specific user); restriction data entries which identify only (a) above (e.g., only restriction criteria associated with the specific user); or restriction data entries which identify only (b) above (e.g., only restriction criteria associated with the subsidiary user type of the specific user).

Block 508 may then involve using a heuristic processing algorithm to determine whether the received operating details 320 or 420 and/or the calculated operating costs conform with the retrieved one or more restriction criteria. In some embodiments, the heuristic processing algorithm of block 508 may compare specific values associated with the received operating details 320 or 420 and/or the calculated operating costs with the retrieved one or more restriction criteria. For example, referring to FIG. 9A (described below), an access request from user Jack Smith may be for a bathing session 342 or 442 with operating details 320 or 420 indicating that it is has the start time 324 or 424 on Saturday, November 2, at 12 AM, the end time 326 or 426 at 2 AM, with audio ambience settings directed the streaming a “Party” playlist. Referring to FIG. 3D, the set of restriction criteria associated with the user Jack Smith (e.g., entry 686 in the restriction data store 217) indicate that the user Jack Smith is associated with one or more restriction criteria including a maximum audio volume of 25% and a restricted session start time of before 10 PM and a restricted end time of before 10 PM. The heuristic algorithm may compare operating details 320 or 420 of the requested start time 324 or 424 of 12 AM, the requested end time 326 or 426 of 2 AM and the requested audio ambience settings against the one or more restriction criteria of maximum audio volume and restricted session time and determine that the access request from user Jack Smith does not conform with the restriction criteria associated with the user Jack Smith.

As a further example, referring to FIG. 9B (described below), an access request from a rental user may be for a bathing session 342 or 442 with operating details 320 or 420 indicating that it is has the start time 324 or 424 on Saturday, November 2, at 7 PM, the end time 326 or 426 at 9 PM, with water temperature 322 or 422 of 46° C. and an ambient temperature 535 of −10 ° C. Referring to FIG. 3D, the set of restriction criteria associated with the rental user (e.g., entry 680 in the restriction data store 217) indicate that rental user are associated with a variety of different restrictions, but eventually none of which are contradictory with the operating details 320 or 420. However, the set of restriction criteria associated with all subsidiary users (e.g., entry 684 in the restriction data store 217) indicate that all subsidiary users are associated with one or more subsequent criteria including a maximum water temperature of 41° C. and a minimum ambient temperature of −5° C. The heuristic algorithm may compare operating details 320 or 420 of the requested water temperature 322 or 422 of 46° and the anticipated ambient temperature of −10° during the bathing session 342 or 442 against the one or more restriction criteria of maximum water temperature and minimum ambient temperature and determine that the access request from the rental user does not conform with the restriction criteria associated with all subsidiary users.

In other embodiments, block 508 involve inputting the received operating details 320 or 420 and/or the calculated operating costs and the retrieved one or more restriction criteria into an artificial intelligence model specifically trained to receive operating details 320 or 420 (and/or associated calculated operating costs) and restriction criteria as inputs and to generate the conformity indicator as an output. For example, a conformity determination model may be trained on a plurality of training operating details 320 or 420 (and/or associated calculated operating costs) associated with training set of restriction criteria and which are previously labelled with either “conforming” or “non-conforming” labels. Block 508 may then input pairs of the actual operating details 320 or 420 (and/or associated calculated operating costs) and the actual set of restriction criteria into the conformity determination model to generate either the “conforming” label or the “non-conforming” label associated with the pair. Alternatively, block 508 may utilize a generative language model (e.g., GPT-3, GPT-3.5, GPT-4, Claude, etc.) and may input the operating details 320 or 420 (and/or associated calculated operating costs) and the set of restriction criteria with a prompt to generate either the “conforming” indicator or the “non-conforming” indicator (e.g., “here are <operating details> and <energy cost data> associated with a specific bathing session 342; here is <set of restriction criteria> associated with the user X; determine whether the specific bathing session 342 conform with <set of restriction criteria> based on <operating details> and <energy cost data>.

In response to block 508 generating the conforming indicator that the received operating details 320 or 420 and/or the calculated operating costs conforms with the retrieved one or more restriction criteria, the user type operation process 500 may continue to block 506 above to operate the bathing session 342 or 442 according to the received operating details 320 or 420 as described above. The user type operation process 500 may then end.

However, in response to block 508 generating the non-conforming indicator that the received operating details 320 or 420 and/or the calculated operating costs do not conform with the retrieved one or more restriction criteria, the user type operation process 500 may then continue to direct the controller 180, the control server 182, the primary user device 184, the subsidiary user device 185 and/or the control panel 188 to perform (a) an access authorization process 511 to obtain authorization for operating the bathing unit system 100 based on the operating details 320 or 420 or to (b) an optional conforming modification process 521 (shown in FIG. 7B) in order to modify the operating details 320 or 420 to conform to the retrieved one or more restriction criteria.

Access Authorization Process 511

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 7A, the access authorization process 511 may begin at subblock 510. Subblock 510 may include computer-executable instructions for displaying, or otherwise communicating, the authorization request 530 to a primary user device 184. In some embodiments, the authorization request 530 may be communicated to a specific primary user, such as the owner user or a primary family adult user related to the subsidiary user submitting the access request as described above. In other embodiments, the authorization request 530 may be communicated to multiple primary users or to all primary users. In some embodiments, and for some specific users or some specific subsidiary user types, the authorization request 530 may be transmitted even when block 508 determines that the operating details 320 or 420 and/or calculated operational costs are conforming with the one or more restriction criteria. For example, the owner user may wish to monitor a particular renter user more carefully due to past behavior. Alternatively, the owner user may wish to monitor the use of all non-family users closely, but may not wish to receive unnecessary authorization requests from trusted family members.

The authorization request 530 may convey: (a) the subsidiary user submitting the access request; (b) the operating details 320 or 420 and/or the operating costs resulting in the non-conformity with the retrieved one or more restriction criteria; and (c) at least a portion of the retrieved one or more restriction criteria relevant for the non-conformity of the operating details 320 or 420 and/or the operating costs.

One embodiment of the authorization request 530A is shown in FIG. 9A. In the embodiment shown, the authorization request 530A is displayed on a display screen of the primary user device 184A (mobile phone associated with the owner user) and includes:

• • (a) subsidiary user identification 531 identifying the subsidiary user submitting the access request for the bathing session 342 or 442 that resulted in the authorization request 530. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 9A, the subsidiary user identification 531 includes a user identification field 532A identifying “Jack Smith.”
  • (b) operating details 320 or 420 of the specific bathing session 342 or 442. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 9A, the operating details 320 or 420 of the specific bathing session 342 or 442 include the start time 324 or 424 of 12 AM on Saturday, November 2, the end time 326 or 426 of 2 AM on Saturday, November 2, the audio ambience setting of “Party” playlist.
  • (c) at least a portion 536 of the retrieved one or more restriction criteria relevant for the non-conformity of the operating details 320 or 420 and/or the operating costs. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 9A, portion 536A is a text description of “The requested start and end time is during a restricted time. The requested audio is typically associated with 40-75% playback volume, which may be more than a maximum allowed volume.”

Another embodiment of the authorization request 530B is shown in FIG. 9B. In the embodiment shown, the authorization request 530B is also displayed on the display screen of the primary user device 184A and includes:

• • (a) the subsidiary user identification 531 identifying the subsidiary user submitting the access request for the bathing session 342 or 442 that resulted in the authorization request 530. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 9B, the subsidiary user identification 531 includes a user identification field 532B identifying “Renter.”
  • (b) operating details 320 or 420 of the specific bathing session 342 or 442. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 9B, the operating details 320 or 420 of the specific bathing session 342 or 442 include the target water temperature 322 or 422 of 46° C., the start time 324 or 424 of 7 PM on Saturday, November 2, the end time 326 or 426 of 9 PM on Saturday, November 2, and the ambient temperature 535 of −10 ° C.
  • (c) at least a portion 536 of the of the retrieved one or more restriction criteria relevant for the non-conformity of the operating details 320 or 420 and/or the operating costs. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 9B, portion 536B is a text description of “The requested water temperature is above the maximum water temperature and the ambient temperature is below the minimum ambient temperature.”

Referring back to FIG. 7A, the access authorization process 511 may then continue to subblock 512 which may include codes directing the control system 118, the primary user device 184 and/or the subsidiary user device 185 to determine whether the primary user has accepted, rejected or modified the bathing session 342 or 442 associated with the received operating details 320 or 420, such as directly via the authorization request 530.

If it is determined at subblock 512 that the primary user has accepted the bathing session 342 or 442 with the received operating details 320 or 420, such as by interacting with an authorize button 538 of the authorization request 530A or 530B, subblock 512 may generate an authorization response indicating an acceptance of the operating details 320 or 420 and transmit the authorization response to the control system 118. In some embodiments, the authorization response indicating the acceptance of the operating details 320 or 420 may not be transmitted to the subsidiary user device 185A, 185B or 185C associated with the subsidiary user initially submitting the access request. This may allow the subsidiary user to remain unaware that their use of the bathing unit system 100 is being monitored and/or restricted. In other embodiments, the authorization response indicating the acceptance of the operating details 320 or 420 may be transmitted to the subsidiary user device 185A, 185B or 185C for display. The user type operation process 500 may then continue to block 506, which may include computer-executable instructions for directing the control system 118 to operate the bathing unit components according to the received operating details 320 or 420 as described above. The user type operation process 500 may then end.

However, if it is determined at subblock 512 that the primary user has rejected the bathing session 342 or 442 with the received operating details 320 or 420, such as by interacting with a reject button 539 of the authorization request 530A or 530B, subblock 512 may generate an authorization response 570 indicating a cancellation of the bathing session 342 or 442 and transmit the authorization response to the control system 118. In some embodiments, the authorization response 570 indicating the cancellation of the bathing session 342 or 442 may be transmitted to the subsidiary user device 185A, 185B or 185C for display for the subsidiary user to be made aware of the reasons for cancellation of the bathing session 342 or 442. The authorization response 570 indicating cancellation of the bathing session 342 or 442 may convey: (a) the operating details 320 or 420 and/or the operating costs resulting in the non-conformity with the retrieved one or more restriction criteria; and (b) at least a portion of the retrieved one or more restriction criteria relevant for the non-conformity.

For example, referring to FIG. 10A, one embodiment of the authorization response 570 indicating the cancellation of the bathing session 342 or 442 is shown as displayed on a display screen of the second subsidiary user device 185B (mobile cell phone associated with the subsidiary renter user) and includes:

• • (a) operating details 320 or 420 of the specific bathing session 342 or 442. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 10A, the operating details 320 or 420 of the specific bathing session 342 or 442 include the target water temperature 322 or 422 of 46° C., the scheduled start time 324 or 424 of 7 PM on Saturday, November 2, and the scheduled end time 326 or 426 of 9 PM on Saturday, November 2.
  • (b) at least a portion 576 of the retrieved one or more restriction criteria relevant for the non-conformity of the operating details 320 or 420 and/or the operating costs. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 10A, portion 576 is a text description of “The water temperature is too hot for safe operation. The ambient temperature during this time will be too cold for safe operation.”

However, in other embodiments, the authorization response 570 indicating the cancellation of the bathing session 342 or 442 may not be transmitted to the subsidiary user device 185A, 185B or 185C, and the subsidiary user may simply be unable to operate the bathing unit system 100. The user type operation process 500 may then end without adding the bathing session 342 the scheduled type to the operating schedule or without initiating the bathing session 442 of the impromptu type.

In some embodiments, if it is determined at subblock 512 that primary user has rejected the bathing session 342 or 442, the user type operation process 500 may optionally proceed to the optional conforming modification process 521 (shown in FIG. 7B and described below) in order to automatically modify the operating details 320 or 420 to conform to the retrieved one or more restriction criteria, rather than to cancel the bathing session 342 or 442 altogether. This optional conforming modification process 521 may be used in situations where the primary user does not interact with the authorization requests 530A or 530B or does not provide any authorization response. In yet other embodiments (not shown), the primary user may opt to fully lock or otherwise disable all operations associated with bathing unit system 100 in response to the authorization request 530. In such situations, the control system 118 may shut off all bathing unit components and prevent any further use of the bathing unit system 100.

However, if it is determined at subblock 512 that the primary user has modified the operating details 320 or 420 to generate modified operating details 320′ or 420′ (shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B), such as via the authorization request 530A or 530B, subblock 512 may instead generate an authorization response with the modified operating details 320′ or 420′.

For example, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 9A, the bathing session 342 or 442 on the authorization request 530 may be selectable by the user (e.g., via the user interface of the primary user device 184 and/or the control panel 188) to modify the operating details 320 or 420 thereof in a manner similar to that described above in association with add scheduled bathing session menu 306 (shown in FIG. 8A) or the initiate impromptu bathing session menu 402 (shown in FIG. 8B). For example, the target water temperature 322 or 422 may be modified to enter a modified target water temperature(not shown, e.g., a lower temperature of 35° C.). Similarly, as another example and referring briefly to FIGS. 10A and 10B the scheduled start and end times 324, 424 and 326, 426 may be modified to enter a modified scheduled start and end time 324′, 424′ and 326′, 426′ (shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B, e.g., an earlier start time 324′ or 424′ of 7 PM and an earlier end time 326′ or 426′ of 9 PM on Friday, November 1).

In other embodiments, the authorization request 530 may include fields, inputs, and selectors which can be used by a user to modify the portions 536A or 536B of the retrieved one or more restriction criteria to generate modified restriction criteria (not shown). For example, the portion 536A in the authorization request 530A indicating the maximum audio volume may be a field which can be selected by the primary user (e.g., via the user interface of the primary user device 184 and/or the control panel 188) and modified to enter a modified maximum audio volume (not shown, e.g., 75%). The modified maximum audio volume may be stored as a modification of the one or more restriction criteria associated with the specific user or with the subsidiary user type of the specific user (e.g., as a modification of entry 686 of the description data store 217).

In some embodiments, the authorization response 540 indicating the modification of the bathing session 342 or 442 may be transmitted to the subsidiary user device 185A, 185B or 185C for display for the subsidiary user to be made aware of the reasons for modification of the bathing session 342 or 442. The authorization response 540 indicating modification of the bathing session 342 or 442 may convey: (a) the original operating details 320 or 420 and/or the original operating costs resulting in the non-conformity with the retrieved one or more restriction criteria; (b) the modified operating details 320′ or 420′ permitted by the primary user; and (b) at least a portion of the retrieved one or more restriction criteria relevant for the non-conformity of the original operating details 320 or 420 and/or the operating costs. Optionally, the authorization response 540 may also prompt the subsidiary user to accept or reject the modified operating details 320′ or 420′.

For example, referring to FIG. 10B, one embodiment of the authorization response 540 indicating modification of the bathing session 342 or 442 is shown as displayed on a display screen of the first subsidiary user device 185A (mobile cell phone associated with the subsidiary minor family user) and includes:

• • (a) original operating details 320 or 420 of the original specific bathing session 342 or 442. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 10B, the original operating details 320 or 420 of the specific bathing session 342 or 442 include the target water temperature 322 or 422 of 39° C., the start time 324 or 424 of 12 AM on Saturday, November 2, and the end time 326 or 426 of 2 AM on Saturday, November 2.
  • (b) modified operating details 320′ or 420′ of the modified specific bathing session 342′ or 442′. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 10B, the modified operating details 320′ or 420′ include the original target water temperature 322 or 422 of 39° C., the modified start time 324′ or 424′ of 7 PM on Friday, November 1, and the modified end time 326′ or 426′ of 9 PM on Friday, November 1.
  • (c) at least a portion 546 of the retrieved one or more restriction criteria relevant for the non-conformity of the original operating details 320 or 420 and/or the original operating costs. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 10B, portion 546 is a text description of “The original session was scheduled during a restricted time.”

The access authorization process 511 may then continue to subblock 514, which may include computer-executable instructions for directing the control system 118 to operate the bathing unit components according to the modified operating details 320′ or 420′. This regard, subblock 514 may be similar to block 506 described above, except that it directs the control system 118 to operate the bathing unit components based on the modified operating details 320′ or 420′, rather than the original operating details 320 or 420. The user type operation process 500 may then end.

In some embodiments, prior to continuing to subblock 514, the access authorization process 511 may instead continue to optional subblock 518 first, where optional subblock 518 may include computer-executable instructions directing the control system 118 (e.g., the local processor 190 of the controller 180, the remote processor 200 of the control server 182, and/or the processor of the control panel 188), the primary user device 184 and/or the subsidiary user device 185 to determine whether the subsidiary user has approved of the modified operating details 320′ or 420′ before continuing to subblock 514 to operate based thereon.

In this regard, referring back to FIG. 10B, the authorization response 540 indicating modification of the bathing session 342 or 442 may also include a confirm button 548 and a reject button 549. Upon user selection of the confirm button 548 (e.g., via the user interface of the subsidiary user device 185 and/or the control panel 188), the subsidiary user device 185 and/or the control panel 188 may may transmit an indication to the control system 118 that the subsidiary user has accepted or agreed to the modified operating details 320′ or 420′. The user type operation process 500 then continues to subblock 514 as described above. However, upon user selection of the reject button 549, the subsidiary user device 185 and/or the control panel 188 may instead transmit an indication to the control system 118 that the subsidiary user has rejected the modified operating details 320′ or 420′. The user type operation process 500 may then end without initiating either the original bathing session 342 or 442 with the original operating details 320 or 420, nor the modified bathing session 342′ or 442′ with the modified operating details 320′ or 420′.

Optional Conforming Modification Process 521

As described above, in some embodiments, either in response (a) to block 508 generating the non-conforming indicator that the received operating details 320 or 420 and/or the calculated operating costs do not conform with the retrieved one or more restriction criteria or (b) to subblock 512 generating the authorization response indicating a cancellation of the bathing session 342 or 442 (or not generating any authorization response at all), the user type operation process 500 may perform the optional conforming modification process 521 instead.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 7B, the optional conforming modification process 521 may begin at optional subblock 520. Optional subblock 520 may include computer-executable instructions for directing the control system 118 (e.g., the local processor 190 of the controller 180, the remote processor 200 of the control server 182, and/or the processor of the control panel 188), the primary user device 184 and/or the subsidiary user device 185 to automatically generate conforming operating details 320″ or 420″ which conform with the one or more restriction criteria associated with the specific user or a subsidiary user type of the specific user. In other words, the conforming operating details 320″ or 420″ may generally include operating details which would conform with the retrieved one or more restriction criteria. For example, in a manner similar to block 502 above, optional subblock 520 may involve processing the retrieved one or more restriction criteria and the original operating details 320 or 420 via the heuristic processing algorithm, the conformity determination machine learning model and/or the generative language model in order to determine modifications which can be made to the original operating details 320 or 420 to conform to the restriction criteria and to generate the conforming operating details 320″ or 420″.

Optional subblock 520 may also include computer-executable instructions for displaying, or otherwise communicating, the conforming operating details 320″ or 420″ to a subsidiary user device 185, such as via a conforming modification notification message 560. The conforming modification notification message 560 may convey: (a) the original operating details 320 or 420 and/or the original operating costs resulting in the non-conformity with the retrieved one or more restriction criteria; (b) the conforming operating details 320″ or 420″ automatically generated based on the original operating details 320 or 420 and the retrieved one or more restriction criteria; and (c) at least a portion of the retrieved one or more restriction criteria relevant for the non-conformity of the original operating details 320 or 420 and/or the original operating costs. Optionally, the conforming modification notification message 560 may also prompt the subsidiary user to accept or reject the conforming operating details 320″ or 420″.

For example, referring to FIG. 11, one embodiment of the conforming modification notification message 560 is shown as displayed on a display screen of the first subsidiary user device 185A (mobile cell phone associated with the subsidiary minor family user) and includes:

• • (d) original operating details 320 or 420 of the original specific bathing session 342 or 442. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 11, the original operating details 320 or 420 of the specific bathing session 342 or 442 include the target water temperature 322 or 422 of 39° C., the start time 324 or 424 of 12 AM on Saturday, November 2, and the end time 326 or 426 of 2 AM on Saturday, November 2.
  • (e) conforming operating details 320″ or 420″ of the conforming bathing session 342″ or 442″ automatically generated by the control system 118, the primary user device 184 and/or the subsidiary user device 185. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 11, the conforming operating details 320″ or 420″ include the original target water temperature 322 or 422 of 39° C., the conforming start time 324″ or 424″ of 8 PM on Friday, November 1, and the conforming end time 326″ or 426″ of 9 PM on Friday, November 1.
  • (f) at least a portion 566 of the retrieved one or more restriction criteria relevant for the non-conformity of the original operating details 320 or 420 and/or the original operating costs. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 11, portion 566 is a text description of “The original session was scheduled during a restricted time.”

The optional conforming modification process 521 may then continue to subblock 524, which may include computer-executable instructions for directing the control system 118 to operate the bathing unit components according to the conforming operating details 320″ or 420″. This regard, subblock 524 may be similar to block 506 described above, except that it directs the control system 118 to operate the bathing unit components based on the conforming operating details 320″ or 420″, rather than the original operating details 320 or 420. The user type operation process 500 may then end.

In some embodiments, prior to continuing to subblock 524, the optional conforming modification process 521 may instead continue to optional subblock 522 first, where optional subblock 522 may include computer-executable instructions directing the control system 118 (e.g., the local processor 190 of the controller 180, the remote processor 200 of the control server 182, and/or the processor of the control panel 188), the primary user device 184 and/or the subsidiary user device 185 to determine whether the subsidiary user has approved of the conforming operating details 320″ or 420″ before continuing to subblock 524 to operate based thereon.

In this regard, referring back to FIG. 11, the conforming modification notification message 560 may also include a confirm button 568 and a reject button 569. Upon user selection of the confirm button 568 (e.g., via the user interface of the subsidiary user device 185 and/or the control panel 188), the subsidiary user device 185 and/or the control panel 188 may may transmit an indication to the control system 118 that the subsidiary user has accepted or agreed to the conforming operating details 320″ or 420″. The user type operation process 500 may then continue to subblock 524 as described above. However, upon user selection of the reject button 569, the subsidiary user device 185 and/or the control panel 188 may instead transmit an indication to the control system 118 that the subsidiary user has rejected the conforming operating details 320″ or 420″. The user type operation process 500 may then end without initiating either the original bathing session 342 or 442 with the original operating details 320 or 420, nor the conforming bathing session 342″ or 442″ with the conforming operating details 320″ or 420″.

User Type Display Process 550

Referring to now to FIG. 12, in some embodiments, the control system 118 may initiate the user type display process 550 in response to receiving the user credentials. One embodiment of the user type display process 550 is shown in FIG. 12. The user type display process 550 may be performed by a combination of the local processor 190, the control processor 200, the processor of the primary user device 184, the subsidiary user device 185 and/or the processor of the control panel 188 executing processor-executable instructions and/or computer-executable instructions. The user type display process 550 may generally direct the controller 180, the control server 182, the primary user device 184, the subsidiary user device 185 and/or the control panel 188 to display different control interfaces based on whether the user operating the bathing unit system 100 is the primary user type or the subsidiary user time. In other embodiments, the user type display process 550 may comprise instructions stored on other types of non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, such as a CD-ROM, a floppy disk, a hard drive, a DVD, a Blu-ray disk or another component associated with the controller 180, the control server 182, the primary user device 184, the subsidiary user device 185 and/or the control panel 188. In yet other embodiments, the user type display process 550 and/or parts thereof may be executed entirely by the local processor 190, executed entirely by the control processor 200, executed entirely by the processor of the primary user device 184 or of the subsidiary user device 185, executed entirely by the processor of the control panel 188, and/or by a system other than those described above. Further, although the user type display process 550 in accordance with one embodiment is described with reference to the flowchart illustrated in FIG. 12, other methods of implementing the user type display process 550 may alternatively be used. For example, the order of execution of the blocks shown in FIG. 12 may be altered, and/or some of the blocks described may be altered, eliminated, or combined.

In the embodiment shown, as described above, the user type display process 550 may begin at block 552 in response to receiving user credentials from a user. As described above in association with the login page 800 (shown in FIG. 6), the user credentials may be provided via user input via the login page 800 or other forms of user input such as RFID, proximity, Bluetooth, etc.

The user type display process 550 may continue to block 554, which may include computer-executable instructions directing the control system 118 (e.g., the local processor 190 of the controller 180, the remote processor 200 of the control server 182, and/or the processor of the control panel 188), the subsidiary user device 185 or the primary user device 184 to determine whether the user credentials are received from a user having a user profile associated with the primary user type or the subsidiary user type. For example, as described above in association with the login page 800 (shown in FIG. 6), the control system 118 may search the user data store 210 (shown in FIG. 3A) to determine whether the user entry associated with the user submitting the user credentials is the subsidiary user type or the primary user type based on the value stored in the user type field 614 of that user data entry as described above.

In response to determining, at block 502, that the user submitting the user credentials is of the primary user type, the user type display process 550 may then continue to block 556. Block 556 may include computer-executable codes directing primary user device 184 and/or the control panel 188 to display a primary control interface for controlling bathing unit components of the bathing unit system 100. The primary control interface may include primary operational controls which are not associated with any restrictions. More specifically, in some embodiments, the primary control interface may be the add scheduled session menu 306 (shown in FIG. 8A) and the initiate impromptu bathing session menu 402 (shown in FIG. 8B) with the ability to interact with all selectors and fields to set all operational settings associated with the bathing session 342 of the scheduled type or with the bathing session 442 of the impromptu type. For example, the primary control interface comprising the add scheduled session menu 306 may allow the primary user to interact with each of the date selector 308, the time selector 310, the water temperature field 312 and every single one of the ambient selection buttons 314 and all other selectors and fields for selecting different operational details of the bathing session 342. As a further example, the primary control interface comprising the initiate impromptu bathing session menu 402 may allow the primary user to interact with each of the water temperature field 412, the start time field 414, the duration field 417, and each of the ambient selection buttons 418 and all other selectors and fields for selecting different operational details of the bathing session 442.

In contrast, in response to determining, at block 552, that the user submitting the user credentials is of the subsidiary user type, the user type display process 550 may then continue to block 558. Block 558 may include computer-executable codes directing the subsidiary user device 185 and/or the control panel 188 to display a subsidiary control interface for controlling bathing unit components of the bathing unit system 100. The subsidiary control interface may include subsidiary operational controls which are associated with one or more restriction criteria. More specifically, in some embodiments, the subsidiary control interface may include a restricted add scheduled session menu 306′ (shown in FIG. 13A) and a restricted initiate impromptu bathing session menu 402′ (shown in FIG. 13B) with the ability to interact with some (but not all) of the selectors and fields to set some (but not all) operational settings associated with the bathing session 342 of the scheduled type or with the bathing session 442 of the impromptu type. For example, the subsidiary control interface comprising the restricted add scheduled session menu 306′ (shown in FIG. 13A) may prevent the subsidiary user from adjusting the water temperature 322 using the water temperature field 312, and may display a restricted water temperature field 312′ to prevent interaction with or control of the temperature change component 110; or may further prevent the subsidiary user from streaming audio via the audio component 170, and may display restricted ambience selection buttons 314′ (shown in FIG. 13A) to prevent interaction with the audio component 170. Similarly, the subsidiary control interface comprising the restricted initiate impromptu bathing session menu 402′ may prevent the subsidiary user from adjusting the water temperature 322 using the water temperature field 412, and may display a restricted water temperature field 412′ to prevent interaction with or control of the temperature change component 110; or may further prevent the subsidiary user from initiating a particular bathing session 442 immediately or more quickly and may display a restricted start time field 414′ which prevents entering of a faster start time 424.

The restrictions associated with the subsidiary control interface may be based on the one or more restriction criteria associated with the specific user submitting the user credentials at block 552 and/or the subsidiary user type of that specific user. For example, if the specific user or the subsidiary user type of the specific user is associated with restrictions on an acceptable start and end times for conducting a bathing session, the subsidiary control interface may display restrictions associated with, or prevent, setting of start times 324 or 424; if the specific user or the subsidiary user type is associated with restrictions on ambient environment, the subsidiary control interface may display restrictions based on external data received from the weather application on the subsidiary user device 185 and/or the external system associated with the weather service provider; if the specific user or the subsidiary user type is associated with acceptable operating costs, the subsidiary control interface may include restriction controls on any one of the water temperature 322 or 422, the start time 324 or 424, and/or the duration 427 based on external data associated with energy costs such as energy costs rates and energy cost tiers. Those skilled in the art will realize that additional restrictions

on the subsidiary control interface associated with corresponding additional restrictions are possible. The user type display process 550 may then end.

Conclusion

The person skill in the art will appreciate that many variations to the embodiments described in the present document art possible and will become apparent from a reading of the present document concurrently with the figures.

It will be understood by those of skill in the art that throughout the present specification, the term “a” used before a term encompasses embodiments containing one or more to what the term refers. It will also be understood by those of skill in the art that throughout the present specification, the term “comprising”, which is synonymous with “including,” “containing,” or “characterized by,” is inclusive or open-ended and does not exclude additional, un-recited elements or method steps. Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention pertains. In the case of conflict, the present document, including definitions will control.

As used in the present disclosure, the terms “around”, “about”, “substantially” or “approximately” shall generally mean within the error margin generally accepted in the art. Hence, numerical quantities given herein generally include such error margin such that the terms “around”, “about” “substantially” or “approximately” can be inferred if not expressly stated. For greater clarity, unless otherwise explicitly stated, the terms “around”, “about”, “substantially” and “approximately” means a proportion of at least about 60%, or at least about 70% or at least about 80%, or at least about 90%, at least about 95%, at least about 97% or at least about 99% or more, or any integer between 70% and 100%.

Note that the expression “at least one of A or B”, as used herein, is interchangeable with the expression “A and/or B”. It refers to a list in which you may select A or B or both A and B. Similarly, “at least one of A, B, or C”, as used herein, is interchangeable with “A and/or B and/or C” or “A, B, and/or C”. It refers to a list in which you may select: A or B or C, or both A and B, or both A and C, or both B and C, or all of A, B and C. The same principle applies for longer lists having a same format.

Although various embodiments of the invention have been described and illustrated, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the present description that numerous modifications and variations can be made. The scope of the invention is defined more particularly in the appended claims.