JP2009217671A - Control device and its control method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a control device and its control method capable of easily inspecting an operation history of an electrical household appliance. <P>SOLUTION: Operational state change information received by a gateway section from each household electrical appliance is transmitted to an RSS generation section 44, and converted into an RSS file. The converted operational state change information in RSS format on the each household electric appliance is opened by a Web server 46. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a control device and a method for controlling a home electric appliance connected via a wired or wireless network.

  In recent years, a system that allows centralized control of home appliances, housing equipment, and the like has appeared. For example, in the system disclosed in Patent Document 1, a home appliance or a home equipment (hereinafter collectively referred to as “home appliance”) is connected to a control device for centralized control wirelessly or by wire, and a server The home appliances can be controlled from the screen of a personal computer or the like by communicating between the control device and the control device.

Also, a network home appliance system has been proposed that can control the operation of a plurality of home appliances in a simple and quick manner according to the situation of daily life, instead of individually controlling a plurality of home appliances. (For example, refer to Patent Documents 1 and 2).
JP 2004-21325 A JP 2006-350819 A

  In the network home appliance system as described above, the operation history of each home appliance, for example, when the electric pot was used, when the visitor was, etc. Service providers that provide network home appliance systems provide users.

  Even with such a providing method, there is a problem that the service providing side has to create a dedicated information page, which increases the load.

  Further, there is a problem that the user side needs to install and use a dedicated application for browsing the operation history of the home appliance on the personal computer.

  In addition, there is a problem that it is difficult to determine at a glance where the newly arrived information comes from the list of these histories because it depends on the date information. For example, when the user has already browsed the history up to where, the service provider has to manage where it is newly arrived, which increases the load.

  Therefore, in view of the above problems, the present invention provides a control apparatus and method for easily browsing the history of operation of home appliances.

  The present invention provides a control device connected to a plurality of home appliances via a home network, communicating with each of the home appliances, and receiving information relating to an operating state change of each of the home appliances; Based on the information on the change in the operating state of the home appliance, a storage unit that stores the history of the change in the operating state of each home appliance, the conversion unit that converts the history of the change in the operating state of the home appliance into an RSS format, and the RSS And an output unit that outputs a history of changes in the operating state of each home appliance in the format.

  According to the present invention, since the operation history of the home appliance is output in the RFS format, the user can easily browse the operation history of the home appliance.

  Hereinafter, a network home appliance system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

(1) Configuration of Network Home Appliance System FIG. 1 shows an outline of the overall configuration of a network home appliance system. The configuration inside a house or condominium (hereinafter collectively referred to as “house”) 1 and the configuration outside the house related thereto. It is.

  A home gateway 2 is provided in the house 1, and various home electric appliances 3 to 7 are connected to be able to communicate with each other via an ECHONET (registered trademark) and UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) network.

  ECHONET is a standard mainly for white goods such as refrigerators, washing machines, microwave ovens and air conditioners, and sensors, and defines communication protocols, control commands and control data.

  UPnP is a trademark of UIC (UPnP Implementers Corporation), which basically defines a communication protocol, and control commands and control data are determined for each industry. For example, home router settings are defined in each industry, such as UPnP-IGD and AV device control UPnP-AV.

  In this embodiment, ECHONET home appliances 3 to 7 are connected to the ECHONET network. According to the ECHONET standard, ECHONET communication is performed, for example, on power line communication or infrared communication. Further, IP (Internet Protocol) is virtually regarded as a communication medium, and it can operate on the IP communication layer. As an actual communication medium below the IP layer, Bluetooth (registered trademark), Ethernet (registered trademark), wireless LAN, or the like is used. ECHONET is also used for power line communication.

  A UPnP control point is connected to the UPnP network. The UPnP control point is a control device that acquires information from a UPnP device and issues a control command to the UPnP device. The UPnP control point is, for example, the remote control 30 of the digital television 9. UPnP operates on the IP layer, for example.

(1-1) Household appliances 3-7
The home appliances 3 to 7 include residential equipment in addition to general home appliances used in the home. Here, for example, an air conditioner 3, an illumination lamp 4, a refrigerator 5, a floor heater 6, a hot water heater 7, etc., but also an IH cooking heater, a washing machine, a microwave oven, a rice cooker, an audio device, a television, a video deck, etc. Various things are applicable.

  These home appliances 3 to 7 include interfaces 3a to 7a for performing Bluetooth (registered trademark) communication, respectively, and can communicate with each other by forming a piconet via the Bluetooth interface 2a connected to the home gateway 2. It has a configuration. In the state shown in the figure, for example, the air conditioner 3 and the illuminating lamp 4 are representatively one, but since it is generally provided in a plurality of rooms in the house 1, a plurality of them are actually provided. . And when these household appliances 3-7 receive a control command from the home gateway 2, they are comprised so that the drive control according to the control command may be performed.

(1-2) ASP server 11
An ASP (Application Service Provider) server 11 is provided with a database 12 and is configured to store information corresponding to a large number of houses 1. The ASP server 11 functions as a control unit, and is installed by a seller or a service provider for the home appliances 3 to 7 and the like, and various services related to the home appliances 3 to 7 are provided via the Internet 10. It is for providing to the user.

  The database 12 includes a user information database and a home appliance application database that holds control application software for the home appliances 3 to 7.

  Specifically, in the user information database, for example, user information such as a login ID and password to the ASP server 11 and settings of the home gateway 2 such as a network address (MAC address) of the home gateway 2 as information received by user registration. Information, setting information such as network addresses, types, and model names of home appliances 3 to 7 connected to the home gateway 2 is stored.

  The home appliance application database stores control application software that allows the home appliances 3 to 7 in the house 1 to be remotely controlled even when the home gateway 2 cannot be operated such as outside the house 1. For example, this can be realized by accessing the ASP server 11 from the mobile phone 13 and downloading the control application software. In the above case, the mobile phone network 15 is connected to the Internet 10 via the relay server 14, and the ASP server 11 and the home gateway 2 can be accessed from the mobile phone 13 via the base station 16.

(2) Configuration of Home Security System Next, the configuration of the home security system installed in the house 1 will be briefly described.

  An electric lock 18 is provided on the entrance door 17 provided on the outer portion 1 a of the house 1, and is connected to an interphone 19 provided inside the house 1. The intercom 19 is connected to the home gateway 2 via the JEM-A terminal 2d. Also, a door phone 20 is provided at the entrance, and is connected to an interphone 19 that functions as a control device of the home security system.

  In the house 1, the intercom 19 can make a call with the visitor at the entrance and the door phone 20. In addition, the interphone 19 is provided with various sensors 21a to 21c and the like in a window of the house 1 or a place where a person is expected to enter. When an intruder from the outside is detected, the interphone 19 is provided. This can be judged automatically by a control device and can be automatically notified to the security company. In this case, as the sensors 21a to 21c, for example, it corresponds to various security such as a magnet switch installed in a door or a window, a crime prevention sensor such as a human body detection sensor, and a disaster prevention sensor such as a fire sensor or a gas leak sensor. Sensors are provided.

  The interphone 19 is provided with a function for performing exchanges with the door phone 20 described above, a monitoring function with the sensors 21a to 21c and the like, and in addition to this, an outing mode for monitoring when going out, etc. The function to cancel is provided.

  In the connection configuration of the interphone 19 and the home gateway 2, the interphone device 19 has a JEM-A terminal 19a, and is connected to the home gateway 2 through the JEM-A terminal 19a. This JEM-A terminal 19a is a control / monitoring interface for residential equipment, and has two control terminals for inputting control signals and two for outputting monitoring signals to the outside. It is configured with a monitoring terminal.

(3) Home gateway 2
Next, the home gateway 2 will be described with reference to FIGS.

(3-1) Overview The home gateway 2 is configured such that a personal computer 8 and a digital television 9 can be connected via the LAN interface 2b. The personal computer 8 and the digital television 9 function as operation means.

  The home gateway 2 is provided so as to be connectable to the Internet 10 via the modem 2c. An ASP server 11 connected to the Internet 10 can be accessed.

  The home gateway 2 connects the UPnP network 32 and the ECHONET network 34 as shown in FIG. The gateway 15 converts the control command and control data according to the UPnP protocol received from the remote controller 30 as the UPnP control point, respectively, into the ECHONET protocol. Further, the home gateway 2 converts the response from the home appliance to this control command from the ECHONET protocol to the UPnP protocol and passes it to the remote controller 30.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the home gateway 2 includes a gateway unit 40, a control unit 42, an RSS generation unit 44, a Web server 46, a home appliance information management database 48, a collection target database 50, and an initialization unit 52. .

(3-2) Gateway unit 40
The gateway unit 40 has a function of connecting different home appliance networks of ECHONET and UPnP and understanding a home appliance communication protocol of the home appliance network. And the operation | movement change information from each household appliance is received.

(3-3) Control unit 42
The control unit 42 communicates with each home appliance to receive the operation change information, or transmits a request for transmission of the operation change information to the home appliance. If it is an ECHONET work, an operation change notification packet is transmitted, and if it is a UPnP network, a Notify message is received. Moreover, only the necessary information to be provided to the user is selected from the operation change information collected from each home appliance.

(3-4) RSS generation unit 44
The RSS generation unit 44 converts the operation change information from each home appliance into content that can be read by humans, and generates an RSS file.

  Here, “RSS” is an XML-based format in which metadata such as website headings and summaries is structured and described. It is mainly used to publish site update information. The text described in RSS can describe the title, address, heading, summary, update time, etc. of each page of the Web site. By using RSS texts, update information of a large number of websites can be efficiently grasped by a unified method.

  The first version 0.9 was developed in 1999 and is based on a comprehensive use RDF that describes content metadata. The next version 0.91 is a specification specialized for the distribution of site update information. The RSS 1.0 version, which is the next RDF-based specification, is a specification that allows advanced functions to be modularized and added. Currently, the 1.0 series (Rich Site Summary), which is a series of the RSS 1.0 version, and the 0.9-2.0 series (Really Simple Synchronization), which is the successor of the conventional 0.9 version, are two. Divided into systems. In this embodiment, either system of RSS may be used.

(3-5) Web server 46
The Web server 46 publishes the RSS file generated by the RSS generation unit 44 to the user on the Web.

(3-6) Home Appliance Information Management Database 48
The home appliance information management database 48 manages information on home appliances to be collected, and stores the type, network address, type, and name of the network to which the home appliance is connected as shown in FIG. is doing. The name is for distinguishing when there are a plurality of devices of the same type in the network, for example, and may be generated from information such as a manufacturer name, or may be freely input by the user.

(3-7) Collection target database 50
As shown in FIG. 4, the collection target database 50 stores which operation information has changed in the operation state of the home appliance, and presents this content to the user. For example, a network type, a type of home appliance, an identifier indicating an operation state to be collected, and information indicating whether the home appliance automatically notifies when the operation changes. In FIG. 4, white circles and X in the right column indicate whether or not automatic notification is made, white circles are automatically notified, and X does not perform automatic notification and the control unit 42 must make an inquiry. Is shown. Since what kind of information is presented to the user depends on the user's preference, the user can edit the information.

(3-8) Initialization unit 52
The initialization unit 52 functions when the home gateway 2 is activated, and communicates with home appliances connected to the home appliance network using procedures defined in each home appliance network, and the home appliance information management database 48 and Necessary information is stored in the collection target database 50.

(4) Operation state of home gateway 2 Next, the operation until the home gateway 2 acquires the operation change information from the home appliance and converts it into RSS will be described.

  First, by the operation of the initialization unit 52, when the home gateway 2 is activated, initial data is stored in the home appliance information management database 48 and the collection target database 50 as described above.

  Next, the control unit 42 refers to the collection target database 50 and acquires the operation state by communicating with the home appliance at regular intervals with respect to the state of the home appliance whose column of automatic notification from the home appliance is X. To do. Compared with the state when the acquired home appliance was last acquired or the initial state, if it has changed, it is regarded as an operation change, the operation change information, the date when the operation change information was received and The time is sent to the RSS generation unit 44.

  On the other hand, regarding the operation state of the home appliance in which the column of the automatic notification in the collection target database 50 is a white circle, the home appliance transmits the operation change information when the operation state is voluntarily changed. Therefore, the control unit 42 receives these operation change information. The operation change information includes a household appliance that is not a collection target, or a household appliance that is a collection target, but the state itself may not be a collection target. Only the operation state that is the household appliance and the collection target is selected and transmitted to the RSS generation unit 44.

  The RSS generation unit 44 receives the operation change information and the date / time from the control unit 42. Then, referring to the home appliance information management database 48, the contents of the change in the operation state represented by the address and numerical value of the home appliance included in the operation change information are expressed by the name and characters of the home appliance that are easily understood by the user. Convert to the contents of the change in the represented operating state. An RSS as shown in FIG. 5 is generated and output to the Web server 46 based on the obtained name of the home appliance, the content of the change in the operation state, and the date and time information when the change in the operation state occurs.

  Next, the Web server 46 uses the general application such as an RSS reader as shown in FIG. 7 for the published RSS operation change information, and the user logs the operation history of the home appliance to a mobile phone or personal computer. You can browse at.

(5) Effects As described above, in the present embodiment, the user recognizes the name of the household electrical appliance based on the RSS that the user can see and understand, the contents of the change in the operation state, and the date and time when the change in the operation state occurs, by using the mobile phone or the personal computer. Can do.

  In addition, since the Web server 46 is used for this disclosure, there is no need for a service company providing a network home appliance system to provide a special service for disclosure.

(Second Embodiment)
A network home appliance system according to the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  In the first embodiment, all devices are provided in the home gateway 2, but in this embodiment, they are distributed and arranged as shown in FIG.

  That is, from the gateway device 54 having the gateway unit 40, the control unit 42, the home appliance information management database 48, the home gateway 2 having the collection target database 50, the RSS generation unit 44, the Web server 46, and the server 50 having the home appliance information management database 48. Become. The initialization unit 52 is provided in each device 54, 56, 2.

  Among them, the gateway device 54 and the home gateway 2 are arranged in the house, and the server 56 is arranged outside the house.

  In addition, since the home appliance information management database 48 needs to have operation change information shared by the home gateway 2 and the server 56, each initialization unit 52 transmits and receives the data at the time of activation, and performs a unified operation.

  According to the present embodiment, even if the processing capability of each device on the premises is small, a large amount of operating state change information history can be held by the server 56, so that the user can perform RSS as in the first embodiment. Thus, it is possible to know the history of changes in the operating state of each home appliance.

It is a block diagram of the network household appliance system of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram of a home gateway. It is a table which shows the contents of a household appliance information management database. It is a figure which shows the table stored in the collection object database. It is the content of RSS produced | generated by the RSS production | generation part. It is a display screen when a user browses with a mobile phone. It is a block diagram of the network household appliance system of 2nd Embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

1 Home Gateway 40 Gateway Unit 42 Control Unit 44 RSS Generation Unit 46 Web Server 48 Home Appliance Information Management Database 50 Collection Target Database 52 Initialization Unit

Claims (4)

In a control device connected to a plurality of home appliances via a home network,
A communication unit that communicates with each of the home appliances and receives information regarding an operation state change of each of the home appliances;
Based on the information on the operating state change of each home appliance, a storage unit that stores the history of the operating state change of each home appliance,
A conversion unit that converts the history of changes in the operating state of the home appliances into RSS format;
An output unit that outputs a history of changes in the operating state of each household electrical appliance in the RSS format;
Control device. The output unit is a Web server;
The control device according to claim 1. In a control method in a control device connected to a plurality of home appliances via a home network,
A communication step of communicating with each of the home appliances and receiving information about an operating state change of each of the home appliances by a computer;
A storage step of storing a history of changes in the operating state of each household electrical appliance by the computer, based on information related to changes in the operating state of each household electrical appliance;
A conversion step of converting a history of changes in the operating state of the home appliance into an RSS format by the computer;
An output step of outputting a history of changes in the operating state of the home appliances in the RSS format by the computer;
Control device. In a control program in a control device connected to a plurality of home appliances via a home network,
A communication function that communicates with each of the home appliances and receives information regarding an operation state change of each of the home appliances;
A storage function for storing a history of changes in the operating state of each household electrical appliance based on information related to changes in the operating state of each household electrical appliance;
A conversion function for converting the history of changes in the operating state of the home appliances into RSS format;
An output function for outputting a history of changes in the operating state of each household electrical appliance in the RSS format;
A control program that implements

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