JP2002217922A - Household network equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To hold display data in common between household equipment which mutual communication connection. SOLUTION: The display data can be held between household equipment 3, for instance because a microwave oven 3C receives a display data from, such as a refrigerator 3A, selects and displays on a display device only the necessary data which the oven is able to display from among the received display data. Status information, which shows status of the household equipment 3, are displayed on the display device of each household equipment, therefore, the magnetic oven 3C receives display data corresponding to the status information (operating status, information regarding food in the refrigerator) which shows refrigerator status from the refrigerator 3A, and displays the data on the display device of the oven. Then user can monitors the food information of the refrigerator 3A installed remotely, and adjust menu, using the holding food material by confirming the display contents of the nearest oven 3C.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a home network device capable of connecting a plurality of home appliances such as a microwave oven and a refrigerator to a network and sharing data by communication.

[0002]

[Background Art and Problems to be Solved by the Invention]
In conventional home appliances such as microwave ovens and refrigerators (hereinafter referred to as “home appliances”), functions of data sharing and communication between the home appliances are provided by fixed HA (home automation) terminals. The method used the home bus used. In this method, mutual home electric appliances are not linked to each other, but only rely on operations by an external controller. For this reason, the applicant proposed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-171489 a method for realizing data communication between devices having a relatively small data amount, such as home electric appliances, by using a data communication method. I have. However, no effective proposal has been made on a method of sharing image data between a network having a low communication speed or a device having a low information processing capability.

[0003] H as used in the Internet
It is possible to share display data using TML (Hyper Text Mark-Up Language), but it is necessary to equip each home appliance with a browser to enable analysis display according to HTML in addition to large communication volume. There is a problem that costs are high. On the other hand, when data communication in a unique format is used, it becomes difficult to standardize between home appliances. Therefore, it has been difficult to realize display data sharing due to standardization and performance restrictions between home appliances.

[0004] It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a home network device that enables display data to be shared between home appliances connected to each other by communication.

[0005]

According to one aspect of the present invention, in a home network device in which a plurality of home appliances are interconnected via a communication path, any one of the home appliances may be any one of the home appliances. A display unit, display data receiving means for receiving display data displayed on the display unit of the other home appliance, and data which can be displayed by the display data among the display data received by the display data receiving means. And selectable data display means for displaying the displayable data selected by the displayable data selection means on its own display unit.

In this home network device, any home appliance receives display data from another home appliance,
Since only the data that can be displayed by the user is selected from the received display data and displayed on the display unit, the display data can be shared between the home electric appliances.

[0007] In the above-mentioned home network device, the display section displays status information indicating the status of the corresponding home electric appliance.

[0008] Therefore, an arbitrary home electric appliance receives display data corresponding to the status information indicating the state from another home electric appliance and displays it on the display unit, so that the user can display the nearest arbitrary home electric appliance. By confirming the display contents in the section, it is possible to monitor the status of other home electric appliances installed remotely.

In the above-described home network device, the optional home appliance further includes a request transmission unit for transmitting the request for the display data to the other home appliance using specific information for specifying necessary data; A specific display data receiving unit that receives the display data including the data specified by the specific information transmitted from the transmitting unit from the other home electric appliance; and a display unit that receives the display data received by the specific display data receiving unit. Specific data display means for displaying the data on the display unit.

In the above-described home network device, the required data is data that can be displayed by the user.

Therefore, the arbitrary home appliance transmits a display data request using the specific information to the other home appliance, so that the other home appliance can display only the necessary display data specified by the specific information or the home appliance itself. Only displayable data can be received and displayed on its own display unit.

[0012] Therefore, since only necessary data among display data or only data that can be displayed by itself is transmitted from the other home appliance to the arbitrary home appliance, communication traffic can be reduced.

[0013] In the above-mentioned home network apparatus, the required data is text data or numerical data indicating the status information.

Therefore, since only the text data or the numerical data for indicating the status information of the display data is transmitted from the other home appliance to the arbitrary home appliance, communication traffic can be reduced. Also, since any home appliance only needs to display text data or numerical data,
The status of other home appliances can be immediately notified.

In the above-described home network device, the relay device further includes a relay device connected to the communication path for relaying communication between the home appliances, and the relay device receives the display data from the other home devices. Relay-side receiving means, the display data received by the relay-side receiving means, data conversion means for converting the display data into data that can be displayed on the arbitrary home appliance, and the display data converted by the data conversion means And a conversion data transmitting unit that transmits the converted data. The arbitrary home electric appliance further includes a converted data display unit that receives the display data transmitted by the converted data transmitting unit and displays the display data on the display unit.

In the above-described home network device according to another aspect of the present invention, a plurality of home appliances and a relay device for relaying communication between the home appliances are connected to a communication path, and the plurality of home appliances are connected. Among the home appliances, a display unit, a home appliance side receiving unit that receives display data displayed on the display unit of the other home appliance, and the display data received by the home appliance side receiving unit. Receiving data display means for displaying the contents based on the display unit, the relay device, the relay receiving means for receiving the display data from the other home appliances, the display received by the relay receiving means Data conversion means for converting data into data that can be displayed on the optional home appliance; and conversion data for transmitting the display data converted by the data conversion means to the optional home appliance. And a data transmission means.

According to the above home network device,
When an arbitrary home appliance receives display data from another home appliance and displays it on its own display unit, the display data of the other home appliance is converted into data that can be displayed on the home appliance by the relay device. After that, it is received and displayed by any home appliance. Therefore, the display data of each home appliance can be shared between the home appliances as optimal data according to the display capability of each home appliance by the relay device.

Further, since it is not necessary to prepare such a data conversion function for each home appliance, the configuration of each home appliance can be simplified.

In the above-described home network device, the display unit displays status information indicating the status of the corresponding home appliance.

Therefore, the arbitrary home electric device receives display data corresponding to the status information indicating the state from the other home electric device and displays it on the display unit, so that the user can display the nearest arbitrary home electric device. By confirming the display contents in the section, it is possible to monitor the status of other home electric appliances installed remotely.

In the above-mentioned home network device, the data conversion means has a function of converting character data in the display data into image data.

In the above-mentioned home network apparatus, the data conversion means converts the image data in the display data according to the image data display capability of the arbitrary home electric appliance.

Therefore, despite the fact that the intended information is clearly transmitted in the display data when viewed and displayed as image data, the image display is not performed due to the difference in the screen size and resolution of the display device between the home appliances. Even in the case where it is not possible, the data conversion means of the relay device can perform display as image data corresponding to the display capability of any home electric device in which the data conversion function, particularly the image processing function, is executed in accordance with the display capability of each home electric device.

In the above-mentioned home network device, the data conversion means converts the moving image data in the display data into
Sampling is performed based on the image data display capability of the arbitrary home appliance and the data transfer rate via the communication path.

Therefore, when the display data is moving image data, the relay device performs sampling for thinning out the moving image data in accordance with the data transfer speed between the home electric appliances and the processing capability of the arbitrary home electric appliance, and performs arbitrary sampling. Sent to home appliances. Therefore, when it is impossible to display at the same throughput as that of other home appliances depending on the processing capability of the display device of any home appliance, or when the number of display data that can be transmitted is limited by the data transfer speed of the communication path Even in this case, the sampling function of the relay device can display moving image data on any home electric device without increasing unnecessary communication traffic.

When processing moving image data, each home appliance must have a simple playback function such as frame thinning and data conversion, but the data conversion means of the relay device collectively processes the moving image data. By doing so, any home electric appliance can perform simple moving image reproduction only with a normal data display function.

In the above-described home network device, the data conversion means includes, for a plurality of continuous image data for animation in the display data, a difference between adjacent image data and a display start position. The received data is converted into data, and the received data display means displays the image data for the animation based on the data including the difference and the display start position.

Therefore, the image data for animation in the display data received from the other home appliance is converted into data including the difference between the image data and the display start position by the data conversion means of the relay device, and the data is arbitrarily converted. When transmitted to the home electric appliance, the arbitrary electric home appliance expands and displays the image data using the received data including the difference between the image data and the display start position.

[0029] Therefore, it is possible to reduce the amount of data to be communicated and display a moving image with high quality. G
In the case of an IF animation-like moving image, the same pattern is repeatedly displayed, so that communication data can be reduced by the difference described above. Therefore, data can be displayed on any home appliance at the same or similar switching speed as the original animation display on other home appliances.

[0030] A communication method in a home network according to still another aspect of the present invention is applied to a home network in which a plurality of home appliances are connected to each other via a communication path. The home appliance has a display unit, the communication method, in the arbitrary home appliance, a display data receiving step of receiving display data displayed on the display unit of another arbitrary home appliance, the display Of the display data received by the data receiving step, a displayable data selection step of selecting data that can be displayed by the user, and the displayable data selected by the displayable data selection step to the display unit of the user. Displaying selected data.

A communication method in a home network according to still another aspect of the present invention is directed to a home network in which a plurality of home appliances and a relay device that relays communication between the home appliances are connected to a communication path. Applying, any one of the plurality of home appliances has a display unit, the communication method, in the arbitrary home appliance, display data displayed on the display unit of the other arbitrary home appliances A receiving data display step of displaying, on the display unit, a content based on the display data received by the household electrical device receiving step, wherein the relay device performs the display from the other home electrical device. A relay-side receiving step of receiving data, and the display data received by the relay-side receiving step can be displayed on the arbitrary home electric appliance Has a data conversion step of converting the over data, the converted data transmitting step of transmitting the display data converted by the data conversion step to the arbitrary home appliance.

[0032]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Each embodiment of the present invention has the following features. That is, since a complete standard does not exist in the data structure itself, a configuration is used in which data can be easily standardized in order to perform data communication using the data communication method disclosed in the above-mentioned prior application. Also, since the internal data format uses an extended markup language, data analysis is easy. By adding a tag analysis function and other processing functions according to these purposes, it becomes possible to share image data even with a low-function home appliance.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a connection between a home network and a home server according to each embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram of the home electric appliance according to each embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a system configuration diagram of the home server according to each embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, the home network device 1
The home server 2 is connected to a plurality of home appliances 3 such as a refrigerator 3A, a television (abbreviation of television) 3B, a microwave oven 3C, and other home appliances 3N via a home network. The home server 2 is connected to external contents 12 such as the Internet via an external network such as a telephone line. Home server 2
Has a function of transmitting / receiving data to / from each home appliance 3 and relaying communication between the home appliances 3.

Each home appliance 3 shown in FIG. 1 is configured as shown in FIG. The home electric appliance 3 includes a home electric information processing unit 31 including a microprocessor such as a CPU (abbreviation of a central processing unit), functions of the home electric appliance 3 itself, for example, a cooking function in a microwave oven, a refrigeration or a refrigerator in a refrigerator. A function execution unit 32 for realizing a refrigeration function and the like; an operation state of the home appliance by the function execution unit 32;
A display device 33 for displaying data indicating the state of the home electric appliance 3 such as information processing content or input content according to
It includes other peripheral devices 34 such as an input unit for performing data input and a network interface 35 for performing communication of the home appliance 3 using a home network under the control of the information processing unit 31. The network interface 35 realizes a communication function via the home network based on an execution program stored in a memory (not shown) of the information processing section 31 in advance. The information processing section 31 connects the other sections via a bus to centrally control and manage.

The home server 2 is configured as shown in FIG. The home server 2 includes a server information processing unit 21, a storage device 22 including a database 22DB, a home network server 23, a network I / F (abbreviation of interface) 24, other I / F 25, and other peripheral devices 2.
6 inclusive. The server information processing unit 21 includes a microprocessor such as a CPU, and controls and manages the entire operation of the home server 2. The storage device 22 stores a database 22DB, and stores data received from each home appliance 3 and an execution program for communicating with each home appliance 3. The contents of the database 22DB will be described later.

The home network server 23 has a server function of extracting and transmitting / receiving data based on an execution program stored in the storage device 22 in order to connect the other home electric appliances 3 and the home server 2 for communication. . The network I / F 24 connects and connects the external contents 12 and the home server 2 via an external network. The other I / F 25 is an interface for inputting and outputting signals to and from the outside, separately from the network connection. In addition, the peripheral devices 26 include peripheral devices such as a display unit that displays an operation status and an input unit that is externally operated to set an operation. The server information processing unit 21 connects other units via a bus, and performs centralized management and control.

FIG. 4 shows a data flow in the home network according to each embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the flow of data in the display data communication between the respective home appliances 3 in the home network includes a flow indicated by an arrow A for directly transmitting and receiving data between the home appliances 3.
When the data flow indicated by arrow A is adopted,
Home server 2 need not be connected. When the home server 2 is connected to the home network, the display data transmitted from the home electric appliance 3 on the transmitting side is indicated by an arrow B passed to the home electric appliance 3 on the receiving side via the home server 2. There is a flow. In addition, there is a flow indicated by an arrow C for periodically transmitting display data from the home server 2 to the home electric appliance 3 and performing an animation display on the home electric appliance 3.

Therefore, since the communication of the display data via the home network uses the communication paths indicated by the arrows A to C, when the communication is performed between the home electric appliances 3 having different display abilities, It is necessary to convert the display data according to the device. These communication methods and data conversion methods will be described below.

(Embodiment 1) In the first embodiment, a data communication and processing method in a case where it is desired to display display data of another home appliance 3 on a display device 33 in one home appliance 3 will be described. It is assumed that the display device 33 is composed of, for example, a liquid crystal display.

In a certain home electric appliance 3 connected to the home network, if it is desired to directly check the status of another home electric appliance 3 installed at a remote place, the state is displayed on the display device 33 of the other home electric appliance 3. It is possible to know the state of the other home electric appliance 3 based on the data of the state being performed. However, since the display capability is completely different depending on the home appliance 3,
When displaying the display data of another home electric device 3 on the home electric device 3, the same display cannot be performed. In the first embodiment, in such a case, in order to perform display using valid display data in a certain home electric appliance, the home electric appliance 3 that has requested display data transmission selects necessary data. The function is performed. Thereby, it is possible to display the optimum display data according to the home electric appliance 3 without the initial procedure.

In the first embodiment, the data flow indicated by arrow A in FIG. 4 is used. Here, a case where data communication is performed between the microwave oven 3C and the refrigerator 3A will be described as an example. The refrigerator 3A includes a display device 33.
It is assumed that the current operating state, information on food in the refrigerator, and the like are displayed on the display.

FIG. 5 is a processing flowchart according to the first embodiment of the present invention. When the other peripheral device 34 of the microwave oven 3C is operated and the user inputs that he / she wants to know the state of the refrigerator 3A, the home appliance information processing unit 31 of the microwave oven 3C starts the network interface 35.
A request for display data is transmitted to the refrigerator 3A via the server (S1).

Upon receiving the request, the home appliance information processing section 31 of the refrigerator 3A sends the display data displayed on the display device 33 to the requesting microwave oven 3C based on the extended markup language for controlling the equipment. Then, the specific display data is converted into text data using the tag information and transmitted to the microwave oven 3C via the network interface 35 and the home network (S10 to S12).

Microwave oven 3 that has requested display data
C receives the converted data (S3).

The home appliance information processing section 31 of the microwave oven 3C
Refrigerator 3A via network interface 35
May not be used as it is as data for display on the display device 33 as it is, that is, since the display capabilities may be different depending on the respective home appliances 3, the data for absorbing these differences in display capabilities may be used. Perform processing.

That is, when the display capability of the microwave oven 3C is lower than the display capability of the refrigerator 3A, undisplayable data is deleted from the received data, and only displayable data is acquired. Further, when data is displayed on the display device 33 smaller than the original home appliance 3 (refrigerator 3A) with respect to the screen size of the display device 33, it is necessary to adjust the size of the display font and the image size. Therefore, the data conversion function for the received data is executed by the home appliance information processing unit 31 to obtain the optimum display data corresponding to the microwave oven 3C, and this can be displayed on the display device 33. Becomes

More specifically, the home appliance information processing section 31 of the microwave oven 3C displays the data corresponding to the tag information on the display device 33 of the microwave oven 3C based on the tag information according to the extended markup language of the received data. The received data is parsed using a template or a style sheet to determine whether the data is possible (S4).

Then, based on the parsing result, it is determined whether there is image data that can be displayed, and if there is image data, a request for image data is transmitted to the refrigerator 3A (S
5).

The refrigerator 3A receives the request for the image data, and transmits the image data displayed on its own display device 33 to the microwave oven 3C in response to the request (S14). At this time, the image data is written according to a known image format.
The data is included and transmitted to the requesting microwave oven 3C as the same data block.

The home appliance information processing section 31 of the microwave oven 3C
Upon receiving the image data transmitted from the refrigerator 3A (S
6) Adjusting and displaying the received image data and other displayable data received in S3 as necessary based on the constraints of the display device 33, such as the display font (character font) and the image size. Display on the device 33 (S
7).

When the display data of the home electric appliance is communicated as described above, the display data is represented in the extended markup language, so that the display data can be managed by the tag information. Therefore, the home electric appliance 3 can select a data tag that can be displayed on the home electric appliance 3 from the received display data, and display only the data corresponding to the selected tag on the display device 33. Thereby, as described above, the display device 33 of the microwave oven 3C is used.
Since the information based on the display data of the remote refrigerator 3A can be displayed to know the operation state of the refrigerator 3A and the information on food in the refrigerator, menu preparation using stored food can be easily performed.

(Embodiment 2) Next, Embodiment 2 will be described. In the second embodiment, the data flow indicated by arrow A in FIG. 4 is used. In the present embodiment, the method described in the first embodiment is improved. That is, in the first embodiment, unnecessary data is transmitted and received, that is, the display device 33 of the home electric appliance 3 which has requested display data.
Since data that cannot be displayed is also transmitted and received, the load on data transmission and reception in the home network becomes unnecessarily high. Therefore, in the second embodiment, such an inconvenience is solved by requesting only the data required by the home electric appliance 3 which has requested the display data.

According to the second embodiment, when a display data transmission request is received in order to share display data with a minimum amount of communication data between It has a function of limiting the type of data to be transmitted depending on the display capability of the device 3. As a result, communication traffic can be reduced.

Specifically, the home electric appliance 3 informs the other home electric appliance 3 of its display capability in the initial procedure, thereby eliminating unnecessary data transmission (data transmission that cannot be displayed) at the time of display data transmission. As a result, data communication time can be reduced.

Here, a case where data communication is performed between the microwave oven 3C and the refrigerator 3A will be described as an example.

FIG. 6 is a processing flowchart according to the second embodiment. The microwave oven 3C requests the refrigerator 3C to transmit display data (S20). At this time, the requesting microwave oven 3C requests a format of data that can be displayed by itself using the template or data with a style sheet described in the device control extended markup language. The data with a template or a style sheet indicates a data format of display data requested to be displayed or displayed in the microwave oven 3C.

The refrigerator 3A that has received the request processes the display data based on the received template or style sheet of the device control extended markup language and transmits the processing result data to the microwave oven 3C (S25 to S2).
7). For example, when it is determined that text or numerical data of a character string is required as a result of processing according to the template or the style sheet, the data is transmitted to the microwave oven 3C as text data.

The microwave oven 3C receives the data transmitted from the refrigerator 3A, adjusts the data as necessary based on the constraints of its own display device 33, for example, the size of the display font and the image size, and Display device 33
(S21, S23).

As described above, by providing the refrigerator 3A on the transmission side with the data filter function according to the template or style sheet of the microwave oven 3C of the receiving end shown in step S26, image data is displayed on the microwave oven 3C, for example. If not, image data is not included in the required data format indicated by the template or the style sheet, so that data in the image data format can be prevented from being transmitted to the microwave oven 3C.

Thus, unnecessary data transmission / reception between the home electric appliances 3 is avoided. Therefore, an increase in traffic related to the home network can be prevented, and the communication time for sharing display data between the home electric appliances 3 can be reduced.

In this case, the type of required data in the display data is the type of data that can be displayed on the requesting home electric appliance 3, but is not limited to this.

(Embodiment 3) In Embodiment 3, the data flow indicated by the arrow A shown in FIG. 4 is employed.

In the first and second embodiments, basically, the home electric appliance 3 on the receiving side is configured so that the data displayed on the home electric appliance 3 on the transmitting side can be displayed as it is or simply. I was In such a configuration, in order to give priority to the configuration of the display screen in the display device 33, there is a coordinate relationship of the display data, which may be a large constraint condition regarding display.

In the third embodiment, by ignoring the correlation between the display positions (coordinate relationships), the data shaping function (see S7 and S23) at the time of data display can be simplified. Hereinafter, this method will be described.

The data shaping function replaces a portion depending on the size of the display device 33 of the home electric appliance 3 which is displaying the data with the display device 3 of the home electric appliance 3 which displays this data.
The main function is to adjust the size to 3. Therefore, it is necessary to perform complicated processing such as changing the font size of the display data to a size that fits on the display screen 33. However, here, the purpose is not to reproduce the original display on the home electric appliance 3 of the transmission source,
Since the main purpose is to notify the state of the home electric appliance 3 of the transmission source, the home electric appliance 3 of the reception source may notify the state by text data.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, when the display data requesting home electric appliance 3 requests display data,
It has a data shaping function of requesting only text or numerical data relating to the status display, and outputting the received data as a message in bullets so as to fit within the screen size of the display device 33. Thus, the configuration of the home electric appliance 3 can be simplified, the processing time for display data can be reduced, and the status of the other home electric appliances 3 can be promptly notified. In addition, the processing load on each home appliance 3 and, consequently, the processing load on the home network can be reduced.

(Embodiment 4) In Embodiment 4, the data flow indicated by the arrow B shown in FIG. 4 is employed.

FIG. 7 is a processing flowchart according to the fourth embodiment. In the above-described display method, it is necessary to provide the data shaping function to either or both of the home appliance 3 on the data transmission side and the reception side. In addition, since it is necessary to know the difference in display capabilities of the respective home appliances 3, it is necessary to perform communication for exchanging these information before data communication. For this reason, the CPU of the home electric appliance information processing unit 31 requires an arithmetic processing capability that is higher than the functions required for the respective home electric appliances 3, and also requires unnecessary communication time for information exchange.

Therefore, each home appliance 3 is connected to a network and a home server 2 for managing the network.
If such a management function exists, the above-described problem can be solved by using the management function. Generally, it is highly likely that a management function having a high processing capability is used. Therefore, a process of converting the screen size by the format conversion of the display data and deleting data when there is data that cannot be displayed as described above. The function is provided as a management function of the home server 2.

Hereinafter, a case where data communication is performed between the microwave oven 3C and the refrigerator 3A via the home server 2 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Here, the database 22DB of the home server 2 is used.
Home appliance 3 connected to the home network
It is assumed that the data of the above-described template or style sheet is registered in advance corresponding to each of.

First, the microwave oven 3C tries to know the state of the refrigerator 3A. A request for display data of the refrigerator 3A is transmitted to the home server 2 (S35).

Home server 2 responds to the reception of the display data request for refrigerator 3A from microwave oven 3C,
A request for display data is transmitted to refrigerator 3A (S3
0 and S31).

When refrigerator 3A receives the display data request from home server 2, it transmits the data displayed on display device 33 to home server 2, so that home server 2 receives the data ( S38, S39, S
32).

The home server 2 parses the received data in accordance with the above-described template corresponding to the requesting electric appliance 3 previously stored in the database 22DB, and stores the parsed data in the requesting microwave oven. It transmits to 3C (S33, S34).

The microwave oven 3C receives the data transmitted from the home server 2 and displays the data on the display device 33 (S36, S37).

Therefore, the home server 2 has a function of absorbing a difference in data display capability between the home electric appliances 3, and data communication between the home electric appliances 3 is performed via the home server 2. By executing this function, the additional processing function in each home appliance 3 can be deleted, and each home appliance 3 can be configured simply and at low cost.

Although it is assumed that template or style sheet data is registered in the database 22DB in advance, the home server 2 transmits the corresponding template or style sheet data from each home appliance 3 at the first communication. May be received and stored in the database 22DB and stored, and in the subsequent communication, the data of the stored corresponding template or style sheet may be used.

(Fifth Embodiment) In the fifth embodiment, the data flow indicated by the arrow B shown in FIG. 4 is employed.

As described above, since the data transmitted between the home electric appliances 3 adopts the form of the extended markup language, the font size is changed to remove the image data by using normal data conversion. Although a method can be used, in this case, by using the high processing function of the home server 2 connected to the home network, data conversion can be performed by executing a parser program using a template or a style sheet. Also, home server 2
Has an image data conversion function of character data, so that optimal data can be displayed.

More specifically, since a normal XML parser can be used for the data conversion function of the home server 2, it is only necessary to create a style sheet for each home electric appliance 3, and it is not necessary to create an extra conversion program. Becomes

This means that if the home server 2 has a template or a style sheet for each home appliance 3 in the database 22DB, a data conversion corresponding to the template or the style sheet is prepared for each home appliance 3 individually. Even if it is not, it can be executed by only one parser program shared by the home electric appliance 3. In addition, since the parser program can share an XML (Extensible Markup language) parser program, there is no need to create an extra program.

(Embodiment 6) In Embodiment 6, the data flow indicated by the arrow B shown in FIG. 4 is employed.

In the display method described above, some data to be displayed cannot be understood only by character display,
For example, there is data such as image data or moving image data. In the case of such data, if the data can be converted and displayed according to the display capability of the home electric appliance 3 which has requested the display data, a further expression function can be added for information transmission.

When only the display size is different and the display gradation is the same, conversion and the like can be easily performed. However, if the display gradation is different, image processing such as dither processing can be performed. It must be converted to a display format that is easy to see. For this purpose, a high processing capability is required as image processing, but it is not realistic to implement these functions in the actual home electric appliance 3 because the cost is high.

Therefore, as shown in the fifth embodiment, if the home server 2 is connected to the home network, these necessary image processing functions are provided by the home server 2.
By preparing and relaying the display data transmitted between the home electric appliances 3 using the function and relaying the display data, the high-definition image data of the moving image data can be obtained without any functional improvement in each home electric appliance 3. Handling becomes easy.

(Embodiment 7) In the present embodiment 7, the data flow indicated by the arrow B shown in FIG. 4 is employed.

When moving image data is processed in the home server 2 by the display method described above, if real-time processing cannot be performed between frames, data to be processed will be accumulated in order.

The original purpose of the present invention is to provide a home appliance 3
To display the desired display data of the other home appliance 3,
Since the state of the desired home electric appliance 3 is to be confirmed, it is sufficient if the state can be simply confirmed. for that reason,
The home server 2 automatically controls the home electric appliances 3 according to the data processing speed and the communication speed of the home network.
A simple moving picture reproduction system is configured after sampling moving picture data transferred between them to secure an optimal data amount.

In such a moving image reproducing system, the home appliance 3 and the home server 2 on the transmitting side and the home server 2
It is assumed that response-type communication is performed between the home appliance 3 and the receiving-side home electric appliance 3, and unnecessary data communication is not performed. Here, the response-type communication is a basic method in which the home appliance 3 transmits data by transmitting an “ACK” response to the other home appliance 3 when a frame can be displayed based on the received data. is there.

FIG. 8 is a processing flowchart according to Embodiment 7 of the present invention. A procedure in which the microwave oven 3C receives and displays the moving image data displayed on the refrigerator 3A via the home server 2 according to the flowchart of FIG. 8 will be described.

First, when the microwave oven 3C transmits a request for display data on the refrigerator 3A to the home server 2, the home server 2 receives the request and
A data request for one frame of the display data of the moving image is transmitted to C (S56, S50, S51).

Upon receiving a data request for one frame from home server 2, refrigerator 3C transmits data for one frame to home server 2, and after transmitting, determines whether or not all frame data has been transmitted. (S60-S6
2). If the result of the determination is that transmission has been completed, a series of processing ends; otherwise, the processing of S60 to S62 is repeated for the next frame data from the home server 2.

Upon receiving one frame data from refrigerator 3A, home server 2 performs predetermined data conversion processing on the received data, transmits the data to microwave oven 3C, and determines whether or not data reception from refrigerator 3A has been completed. (S52 to S55). If the result of the determination is that reception has been completed, a series of processing ends, but otherwise, the processing of S51 to S55 is repeated for the next frame data from the refrigerator 3A.

When the microwave oven 3C receives one frame of data transmitted from the home server 2, it displays the data on the display device 33, and then determines whether or not the data reception from the home server 2 has been completed (S57 to S57). S59). If the result of the determination is that reception has been completed, a series of processing ends. Otherwise, the processing of S57 to S59 is repeated for the next frame data from the refrigerator 3A via the home server 2.

According to the above-described procedure, the home server 2 can calculate a rough communication speed by the first data communication for receiving the data request from the microwave oven 3C. The frame data is received and processed from the refrigerator 3A on the transmission side at each time when the time is adjusted, and transmitted to the microwave oven 3C on the reception side.
At this time, if the home server 2 cannot transfer the data completely, it can absorb the processing delay by delaying the reception of the original image data by the time corresponding to one frame. In the home electric appliance 3, simple moving image reproduction can be performed.

(Eighth Embodiment) In the eighth embodiment, the data flow of arrows B and C shown in FIG. 4 is employed.

In the display device 33 according to the seventh embodiment, the moving image data transmitted and displayed is basically different data for each frame. Need to receive.

However, since the moving image data used in the home appliance 3 is a GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) animation combining a plurality of patterns of image data, the requesting home appliance 3 forms a moving image. Once the image data of all the patterns has been received, there is no need to receive any further data from the transmission source home electric appliance 3. In addition, since the data is animated, the difference in data between frames is limited to only a part of the frame data.

Therefore, when transmitting the moving image data in the home electric appliance 3, it is not necessary to transmit all the data. The number of corrected data is reduced, and high-speed data display is possible.

Therefore, by providing the home server 2 with a function of storing data for animation and a function of extracting a difference area corresponding to a difference between data, the home appliance 3 can provide a high-quality and high-speed data display function. it can.

Specifically, the GIF animation merely displays a limited number of patterns of image data in a predetermined order. Therefore, the home server 2 uses the data storage function for animation and the difference area extraction function corresponding to the difference between the data, and uses the received data from the home electric appliance 3 of the transmission source to restrict a limited number of patterns for the GIF animation. If the data can be acquired and stored, thereafter, the stored several patterns of image data are transmitted to the requesting home electric appliance 3. After that, the home appliance 3
When the content of the display screen is changed, the limited image data for the GIF animation may be similarly acquired and stored for the changed image data.

The embodiments disclosed this time are to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the present invention is defined by the terms of the claims, rather than the description above, and is intended to include any modifications within the scope and meaning equivalent to the terms of the claims.

[0104]

According to the present invention, an arbitrary home appliance receives display data from another home appliance, selects only data that can be displayed by itself from among the received display data, and displays it on the display unit. Display data can be shared between home appliances. In addition, since the display unit displays state information indicating the state of the corresponding home appliance, any home appliance receives display data corresponding to the state information indicating the state from another home appliance. Can be displayed on the display,
The user can monitor the state of other remotely located home electric appliances by checking the display content of the display unit of the nearest arbitrary home electric appliance.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a connection between a home network and a home server according to each embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram of the home electric appliance according to each embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a system configuration diagram of a home server according to each embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a data flow in a home network according to each embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a processing flowchart according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a processing flowchart according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a processing flowchart according to the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a processing flowchart according to Embodiment 7 of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 home network device, 2 home server, 3
Home appliances, 12 external contents, 21 server information processing unit, 22 storage device, 23 home network server, 24 network I / F, 25 other I / F,
26 Other peripheral devices, 31 Home appliance information processing unit, 32
Function execution unit, 33 display device, 34 other peripheral devices,
35 Network interface.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H04Q 9/00 321 H04Q 9/00 321E F term (Reference) 5K032 AA09 BA01 BA14 DA01 DA08 DB22 EA03 5K033 AA09 BA01 BA13 DA01 DA06 DA13 DB14 EA03 5K048 BA03 BA12 DC04 DC07 EB07 EB15 FB05 5K101 KK11 LL01

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. A home network device in which a plurality of home appliances are interconnected via a communication path, wherein any one of the home appliances includes a display unit and the other of the other home appliances. Display data receiving means for receiving display data to be displayed on a display unit; displayable data selecting means for selecting data which can be displayed by itself among the display data received by the display data receiving means; A selection data display means for displaying the displayable data selected by the possible data selection means on the display unit of the home network apparatus. 2. The display unit displays status information indicating a status of a corresponding home electric appliance.
The home network device according to claim 1. 3. The request transmission means for transmitting a request for the display data to the other home appliance using specific information for specifying necessary data, wherein the request is transmitted by the request transmission means. The display data consisting of the data specified by the specific information, the specific display data receiving means for receiving from the other home appliance, the display data received by the specific display data receiving means to the display unit of its own 3. The home network device according to claim 1, further comprising a specific data display unit for displaying. 4. The home network device according to claim 3, wherein the necessary data is data that can be displayed by the user. 5. The home network device according to claim 3, wherein the necessary data is text data or numerical data indicating the status information. 6. A relay device connected to the communication path for relaying communication between the home appliances, wherein the relay device includes: a relay receiving unit configured to receive the display data from the other home appliance. A data conversion unit that converts the display data received by the relay-side reception unit into data that can be displayed by the arbitrary home electric appliance; and a conversion data transmission unit that transmits the display data converted by the data conversion unit. The said arbitrary home appliance further has the conversion data display means which receives the said display data transmitted by the said conversion data transmission means, and displays on the said display part. A home network device according to claim 1. 7. A home network device in which a plurality of home appliances and a relay device for relaying communication between the home appliances are connected to a communication path, wherein any one of the plurality of home appliances is A display unit; a home appliance receiving unit that receives display data displayed on the display unit of the other home appliance; and a content based on the display data received by the home appliance receiving unit is displayed on the display unit. A relay data receiving unit, wherein the relay device receives the display data from the other home appliance, and displays the display data received by the relay receiving unit on the arbitrary home appliance. Data conversion means for converting the display data into data that can be converted, and conversion data transmission means for transmitting the display data converted by the data conversion means to the arbitrary home electric appliance. A home network device. 8. The display unit, wherein status information indicating a status of the corresponding home electric appliance is displayed.
The home network device according to claim 7. 9. The home network device according to claim 7, wherein said data conversion means has a function of converting character data in said display data into image data. 10. The household device according to claim 7, wherein said data conversion means converts image data in said display data in accordance with an image data display capability of said arbitrary home electric appliance. Network device. 11. The data conversion means, wherein the moving image data in the display data is sampled based on an image data display capability of the arbitrary home appliance and a data transfer speed through the communication path. A home network device according to any one of claims 7 to 10. 12. The data conversion means converts a plurality of continuous image data for animation in the display data into data including a difference between adjacent image data and a display start position, 8. The received data display unit displays image data for the animation based on data including the difference and the display start position.
12. The home network device according to any one of claims 11 to 11.