JP2005157544A - Electric equipment control device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electric equipment control device that easily downloads a program for equipment control without requiring a user's special operation even for equipment controlled by a program nonexistent in program storing means. <P>SOLUTION: The electric equipment control device 10 acquires equipment identification information from first communication means 21 to establish communication with electric equipment 11, then searches for a corresponding electric equipment control program, and if the corresponding program is not found, sends the acquired equipment identification information to a server 12 and downloads a new program. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an electric device control apparatus that downloads a control program for an electric device necessary for an Internet home appliance to be used from a server through an outside network and controls the electric device using the downloaded control program. is there.

  Conventionally, this kind of electrical equipment control device controls the electrical equipment from a server that holds the latest version of the program when the contents of the control program for the electrical equipment are changed due to version upgrade etc. The program of the Internet home appliance system is downloaded to the apparatus and the program is rewritten (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

FIG. 9 shows a conventional electric equipment control device described in Patent Document 1. In FIG. As shown in FIG. 9, the electric device control device 10, the electric device 11, and the server 12 are configured. The electric device control device 10 is connected by the first communication unit 21, and the server 12 is connected by the second communication unit 22. Has been. Then, the electrical device control apparatus 10 downloads a download processing unit 101 that downloads a control program for the electrical device from the server 12 via the second communication unit 22, and a program for controlling the electrical device that is downloaded from the server 12. The program storage means 102 to be stored and the program execution means 103 for executing a plurality of control programs stored in the program storage means 102 are configured.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-304477

  However, in the conventional configuration, the server 12 updates the program to the electric device control apparatus 10 only when the contents of the program stored in advance in the program storage unit 102 are changed due to version upgrade or the like. Therefore, there is a problem that the program cannot be updated for devices controlled by a program that is not stored in the program storage unit 102 in advance.

  In addition, when another electrical device is released after the electrical device control device is released, it is not necessary to replace the electrical device control device when connecting the device to the electrical device control device and networking. It was necessary to update the program by not performing the operation or downloading the necessary program to the server.

  The present invention solves the above-described conventional problems, and even if a device that is controlled by a program that does not exist in advance in the program storage unit 102 is present in the server, the program can be easily downloaded. It is an object of the present invention to provide an electric device control apparatus that can perform the above-described operation.

  Also, by downloading in conjunction with the registration process, which is indispensable in order for the electrical equipment and the electrical equipment control device to form a network and become communicable, the necessary program can be downloaded without the user having to perform any troublesome operations. It is an object of the present invention to provide an electric equipment control device that can be downloaded individually.

  In order to solve the above-described conventional problems, an electrical equipment control device according to the present invention acquires equipment identification information from an electrical equipment and enables communication with the electrical equipment, and the equipment registration information is obtained by the equipment registration means. And a program search unit for searching for a control program for the electric device that controls the device when acquired, and the program search unit from the server when the control program for the electric device cannot be searched from the device identification information. It comprises download processing means for downloading a control program for the electric device, program storage means for storing the control program for the electric device, and program execution means for executing the control program stored in the program storage means. It is what I did.

  As a result, even if the device registration process can acquire the device identification information in the device registration unit for a device controlled by a program not previously stored in the program storage unit, the user does not have to perform a special operation. The target program can be acquired.

  The electrical equipment control apparatus of the present invention can easily download a program for controlling the equipment without requiring a user's special operation even for equipment controlled by a program that does not exist in advance in the program storage means. .

  According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided device registration means for acquiring device identification information from an electric device and enabling communication with the electric device, and control of the electric device for controlling the device when the device registration information is acquired by the device registration means. A program search means for searching for a program for use, and when the program search means does not search for a control program for the electric device from the device identification information, the device identification information acquired by the server is transmitted to the server. An electric equipment control apparatus comprising: a download processing means for downloading a control program for the electronic equipment; a program storage means for storing the control program for the electric equipment; and a program execution means for executing the control program stored in the program storage means. Is stored in advance in the program storage means. It is possible that the user easily added without performing any special operation for no program.

  According to a second aspect of the invention, in particular, the electric equipment control device according to the first aspect of the invention comprises a program management table storage means, and the program search means based on the program management table is for controlling electric equipment corresponding to equipment type information. Since the program is searched and it is determined whether to download the program from the server, the determination can be easily made.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in particular, if the electric device control apparatus according to the first or second aspect of the present invention is provided with a notifying unit and notifies that the downloaded program is executed by the program executing unit, the program adding process is normally performed. The user can be informed that this has been done.

  In a fourth aspect of the electrical device control device according to any one of the first to third aspects, the device identification information includes at least a type code of the electrical device, a manufacturer code indicating a manufacturer, and a product. By using the product code, the device registered device can be specified, so that a program for each product and for each product can be downloaded.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the electronic device control device according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, wherein the download processing means includes the data size and version of the program in addition to the control program for the electric device before downloading the program. By acquiring the program-specific information including, for example, it is possible to confirm whether or not the download has been performed normally by comparing the size of the data acquired after downloading the program with the acquired data size.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is a possibility that the electric equipment control device according to the fifth aspect of the present invention compares the result of the free capacity calculating means for calculating the free capacity of the program storage means with the result of the program specific information and the free capacity calculating means. A confirmation unit; and a control program deletion unit that deletes a part of the control program for the electrical device stored in the program storage unit when the storage possibility confirmation unit determines that the storage is impossible. Thus, since an area for storing a control program for a new electric device in the program storage means can be detected before downloading the program, a download failure can be prevented.

  7th invention is a program which implement | achieves at least one part of the function of any one electric equipment control apparatus of 1st-6th with a computer. Since it is a program, hardware resources such as a CPU (microcomputer), RAM, ROM, storage device, I / O, etc., electrical information equipment, a computer, a server, etc. cooperate to at least one of the Internet home appliance system of the present invention. The part can be easily realized. Also, program distribution and installation can be simplified by recording on a recording medium or distributing a program using a communication line.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an internet home appliance system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, the network home appliance system includes an electric device control device 10, an electric device 11, and a server 12. The electrical device control apparatus 10 is connected to the electrical device 11 via the first communication means 21 and is connected to the server 12 via the second communication means 22.

  It is assumed that the electric device 11 holds device identification information for identifying the device. This device identification information includes at least a device type code for specifying the name of an electric device (for example, an air conditioner, a washing machine, or a refrigerator), a manufacturer code indicating the manufacturer of the device, and a product code for specifying the product name. And

  The server 12 is assumed to hold a program for controlling the electrical device 11.

  The electrical device control apparatus 10 includes a device registration unit 111 that acquires the device identification information to enable communication with the electrical device 11 via the first communication unit 21, and a device identification acquired by the device registration unit 111. The program search means 112 for searching for a program for controlling the device from the information, and the device identification information acquired by the server 12 when the program search means 112 cannot search for the control program for the electric device 11 from the device identification information. Download processing means 101 for transmitting and downloading the program; program storage means 102 for storing the program; program execution means 103 for executing the plurality of programs stored in the program storage means 102; and current program storage means 102 Programs stored in Program management table storage means 113 for storing a program management table indicating whether to control the device, and notification means 114 for notifying the user that a series of program download and execution operations (hereinafter referred to as installation) has been completed are provided. Yes.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a system configuration. Specifically, as the first communication means 21 described above, the electrical equipment 11 (for example, a refrigerator, a microwave oven) and the electrical equipment control device 10 in the same house are wirelessly used as a medium. The wireless communication units 201 and 202 are provided in the electric device 11 and the electric device control apparatus 10 respectively. Further, as the second communication means 22, the electric device control apparatus 10 and the remote server 12 outside the home use the Internet or a communication line as a route. The display screen of the notification unit 114 is the liquid crystal display panel 203, and a speaker or the like may be used together.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation flow for downloading a control program for the electric device 11 of the electric device control apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 3, in order to communicate with the electrical device 11, the electrical device control apparatus 10 acquires device identification information from the electrical device 11 by the device registration unit 111 via the first communication unit 21 (S 301). Next, the program search means 112 reads the program management table from the program management table storage means 113 and searches for the program based on it.

  FIG. 4 shows a configuration diagram of the program management table. As shown in FIG. 4, a program ID that uniquely indicates a program for controlling the device from the device type code, manufacturer code, and product code is listed in the table. The program search means 112 searches for a program ID corresponding to the program management table and the acquired device identification information and searches for the presence or absence of a program for controlling the acquired electric device 11 (S302).

  In the present embodiment, the case where there is no desired program will be discussed. If the desired program is not found, the download processing unit 101 transmits the device identification information acquired by the device registration unit 111 to the server 12 via the second communication unit 22 (S303). When the server 12 acquires the device identification information, the URL storing the control program for the electrical device 11 corresponding to the identification information and the URL to the file (program specific information file) storing the unique information of the program are stored. The download processing means 101 acquires the two URLs (S304). If there is no control program for the electrical device 11 corresponding to the electrical device 11 having the device identification information acquired at present, the URL transmitted from the server 12 is a NULL code so that the electrical device control apparatus You may make it inform.

  Next, the download processing unit 101 downloads the program specific information file via the second communication unit 22 based on the URL to the program specific information file. FIG. 5 shows an example of the program specific information file. As shown in FIG. 5, the file has a program ID (“1342” in FIG. 5) uniquely indicating the program, a version of the program (“01” in FIG. 5), and a data size (3. 17)), and comments (“*** application” in FIG. 5) are written in commas. The download processing unit 101 decomposes information using a comma as a mark and acquires each information. This makes it possible to grasp the data size of the program to be acquired.

  Returning to FIG. 3, after acquiring the program specific file, this time, the target program is downloaded via the second communication means 22 based on the URL to the target program, and the downloaded target program is stored in the program storage means 102 ( S305). The electric device control apparatus 10 compares the data size of the program from the program specific information file acquired in S304 with the size of the program actually acquired in S305, and checks whether the program has been downloaded correctly (S306). If they match, it indicates that the download has been completed normally. In this case, the program execution means 103 executes the acquired program (S308).

  When the execution (installation) of the program is completed, the user can be notified that the processing has been completed normally by notifying the user by image display by the notification means 114. An example of image display is shown in FIG. In addition, it may be easier to understand by notifying with sound using a speaker according to the image.

  The control program for the electric equipment 11 activated by the program execution means 103 reads the program management table from the program management table storage means 113, writes its own information and the information of the equipment it controls, and updates the program management table. Then (S310), the program management table matches the program stored in the program storage means 102.

  If the former does not match the latter, it means that the download has failed, so the notification means 114 notifies the user with an image or the like (S311). Alternatively, the download may be performed again.

  As described above, when the device identification information is acquired because the electric device control apparatus 10 and the electric device 11 are in a communicable state, the control program for the electric device that controls the target device is acquired from the server 12. Will be able to. As a result, the user can easily obtain a control program for the electrical device 11 that the user wants to use.

(Embodiment 2)
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating functions of the network home appliance system and the network home appliance system according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

  As a modification of the Internet home appliance system shown in the first embodiment, the free capacity calculating means 115 for calculating the free capacity of the program storage means 102, the program specific information and the free capacity calculating means 115 with respect to the functional configuration diagram of FIG. When the storage possibility confirmation unit 116 for comparing the results of the above and the storage possibility confirmation unit 116 determines that the storage is impossible, a part of the control program for the electric device 11 stored in the program storage unit 102 is stored. Control program deletion means 117 to be deleted is added.

  Since the program installation process flow in the second embodiment is a modification of the process flow in the first embodiment, the changes will be described. FIG. 8 is a flowchart of the changed portion, and enters between (S305) and (S306) in FIG.

  Next, the processing flow will be described, but description of the same parts as those in the first embodiment will be omitted. When the program specific information file is acquired based on the URL to the program specific information file in FIG. 3 (S305) and the size of the acquired program is grasped, the free space calculation means 115 is stored in the program storage means 102. The data size is checked and the free space is calculated (S305a). The storage capacity confirmation unit 116 compares the free space calculated in (S305a) with the program size acquired in (S305). (S305b) If the free space is insufficient, the program stored in the program storage unit 102 Is deleted (S305c). As for this deletion method, a list of programs stored on the screen may be displayed and selected by the user, or the program deleted by the control program deletion unit 117 depending on the version information or the frequency of use of the program may be selected by the user. It is also possible to adopt a method of deleting when the user's consent is obtained.

  As described above, if the program is downloaded while checking the free space, it is possible to prevent the capacity of the program storage unit 102 from being exceeded.

  As described above, the electrical equipment control device according to the present invention downloads a control program for electrical equipment newly connected to the home network without requiring any special operation of the user, and downloads the new electrical equipment to the electrical equipment control device. It is possible to control from the home appliance server via the network outside the home, and control the electrical equipment using the downloaded control program. It is useful as an electrical equipment control device.

Functional configuration diagram according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention System configuration diagram according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention Flowchart in Embodiment 1 of the present invention Configuration diagram of a program management table in Embodiment 1 of the present invention The file structure figure of the program specific information file in Embodiment 1 of this invention Program installation completion notification screen in Embodiment 1 of the present invention Functional configuration diagram according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention Flowchart in Embodiment 2 of the present invention Functional configuration diagram of a conventional home appliance control system

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Electrical equipment control apparatus 11 Electrical equipment 12 Server 21 1st communication means 22 2nd communication means 101 Download processing means 102 Program storage means 103 Program execution means 111 Equipment registration means 112 Program search means 113 Program management table storage means 114 Notification Means 115: Free capacity calculating means 116: Storage possibility confirmation means 117: Control program deleting means 201: Wireless communication unit 202: Wireless communication unit 203 Liquid crystal display panel

Claims (7)

A device registration unit that acquires device identification information from an electric device and enables communication with the electric device, and a program for searching for a control program for the electric device that controls the device when the device identification information is acquired by the device registration unit When the electric device control program cannot be searched from the device identification information by the search unit and the program search unit, the acquired device identification information is transmitted to the server and the electric device control program is downloaded. An electric device comprising: download processing means; program storage means for storing a control program for the electric equipment; and program execution means for executing a control program stored in the program storage means Control device. The electrical equipment control device includes a program management table storage means, and the program search means searches for a control program for the target electrical equipment based on a table stored in the program management table storage means. The electrical equipment control apparatus according to 1. The electrical equipment control device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the electrical equipment control device includes notification means, and when the execution of the program downloaded by the program execution means is completed, the notification means notifies the download completion. 4. The electric device control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the device identification information is at least a type code of an electric device, a manufacturer code indicating a manufacturer, and a product code indicating a product name. The download processing means acquires program-specific information including a program data size and version information before acquiring a control program for an electrical device. Electric equipment control device. The electrical equipment control device includes: free capacity calculating means for calculating the free capacity of the program storage means; storage possibility confirmation means for comparing the program specific information with the result of the free capacity calculation means; and the storage possibility confirmation means. 6. The electric program according to claim 5, further comprising: a control program deleting unit that deletes a part of the control program for the electric device stored in the program storage unit when it is determined that the storage is impossible. Equipment control device. The program which implement | achieves at least one part of the function of the electric equipment control apparatus of any one of Claims 1-6 with a computer.

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