Patent attributes
Example techniques involve a control hierarchy for a “smart” home having smart appliances and related devices, such as wireless illumination devices, home-automation devices (e.g., thermostats, door locks, etc.), and audio playback devices, among others. An example home includes various rooms in which smart devices might be located. Under the example control hierarchy described herein and referred to as “home graph,” a name of a room (e.g., “Kitchen”) may represent a smart device (or smart devices) within that room. In other words, from the perspective of a user, the smart devices within a room are that room. This hierarchy permits a user to refer to a smart device within a given room by way of the name of the room when controlling smart devices within the home using a voice user interface (VUI) or graphical user interface (GUI).
