ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,242,232, issued on March 4, was assigned to DISTECH CONTROLS INC. (Brossard, Canada).

"Inference server and environment controller for inferring via a neural network one or more commands for controlling an appliance" was invented by Francois Gervais (Lachine, Canada), Carlo Masciovecchio (St-Isidore-de-Laparairie, Canada) and Dominique Laplante (St-Dominique, Canada).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Inference server and environment controller for inferring one or more commands for controlling an appliance. The environment controller receives at least one environmental characteristic value (for example, at least one of a current temperature,...