JP2002271505A - Mobile information terminal equipment with remote control function, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide mobile information terminal equipment that can operate remotely controllable electrical device in a unified way. SOLUTION: The mobile information terminal equipment 100 with a remote control function is provided with a communication section 103, that acquires information desired by a user with respect to an electrical device via a network using information acquired by the communication section 103, a control section 106 that generates a control signal for a video 500 which is to be an object of remote control, and a remote control signal transmission section 104 that transmits the control signal generated by the control section 106 to the video 500.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a portable information terminal device with a remote control function and a program, and more particularly to a portable information terminal device with a remote control function and a program that can access a network and remotely control an electric device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, several technologies have been developed for a device for performing remote control using a portable information terminal device. For example, JP-A-2000-1
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 81298 discloses a method of remotely controlling a plurality of external devices with one portable information terminal device. Here, a technique is disclosed in which a portable information terminal device receives setting information from an external device to be remotely controlled and uses the received information to remotely control the external device. According to this technique, remote control of a plurality of different external devices can be performed in a similar manner, and remote control of a plurality of external devices can be realized by one portable information terminal device.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-181298 discloses a technique for remotely controlling a copying machine using a portable information terminal device.

[0004]

However, the prior art has the following problems. That is, JP 200
0-181298 and JP-A-2000-181298
The remote control operation by the portable information terminal device disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 10-112 is performed in a local range. Therefore, the portable information terminal device can only perform a remote control operation based on fixed information.

Therefore, for example, in a conventional portable information terminal device, remote control using new information cannot be performed every time, as in the case of making a recording reservation of a video tape recorder. That is, conventionally,
As a recording reservation method of a video tape recorder, it is necessary to manually input the date and start and end times of a program to be recorded, and thus the operation is complicated.

[0006] In particular, the electric equipment which can be controlled by a remote controller has a remote controller for each electric equipment, and the method of operating these remote controllers is different from each other. A friendly operation was desired.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a portable information terminal device capable of operating a remote controllable electric device in a unified manner.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, a portable information terminal device with a remote control function according to claim 1 obtains, via a network, information desired by a user regarding electric equipment. Means, a control signal generating means for generating a control signal to an electric device to be remotely controlled using information obtained by the obtaining means, and a control signal generated by the control signal generating means to the electric device. And transmitting means for transmitting.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the portable information terminal device with a remote control function according to the first aspect, the acquisition unit accesses the host computer via a network. By doing so, the information desired by the user is obtained from an information service center that provides various types of information on the electric device to be remote-controlled.

A portable information terminal with a remote control function according to a third aspect of the present invention is the portable information terminal with a remote control function according to the first aspect, wherein the control signal generating means is built in the apparatus. Receiving a control signal generated by the control signal generation program, and generating a control signal to an electric device to be subjected to the remote control.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the portable information terminal device with a remote control function according to the first aspect, the transmitting means is an infrared light emitting element and the control signal Is transmitted from the infrared light emitting element to the electric device to be remote controlled.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a program for remotely controlling a portable information terminal device via a network by using an acquisition unit for acquiring information desired by a user with respect to an electric device, A control signal generation unit for generating a control signal for an electric device to be controlled and a transmission unit for transmitting the control signal generated by the control signal generation unit to the electric device.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration of a portable information terminal device with a remote control function according to the present invention. Portable information terminal device 100
Is a display unit 101, an input unit 102, a communication unit 103
, A remote control signal transmission unit 104, and a storage unit 105
And a control unit 106. Here, each component will be described.

The display unit 101 is a portable information terminal device 100.
Display an operation menu and information desired by the user. The display unit 101 is realized by, for example, a PHS or a liquid crystal screen of a mobile phone. The input unit 102 is a portable information terminal device 10
Input operation information to 0. The input unit 102 is, for example,
This is realized by an input key of a PHS or a mobile phone.

The communication unit 103 transmits and receives information to and from a host computer described below via a communication network. The remote control signal transmission unit 104 transmits and receives a control signal to and from a local electric device. Remote control signal transmitting section 104 is, for example, portable information terminal apparatus 100
This is realized by the infrared light emitting element attached to the.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of attachment of the infrared light emitting element of the portable information terminal device 100. FIG. 1 shows an example in which a mobile phone is adopted as the mobile information terminal device 100. Note that a mobile phone with an i-mode (registered trademark) function, which has been widely used in recent years, can be used. This makes it very easy to access the network.

The storage unit 105 stores programs and data. The storage unit 105 is configured by a magnetic or optical storage medium. The program stored in the storage unit 105 is a program that embodies a display function, an information input / output control function, a communication control function, a control signal generation function for a remote control target, and an infrared signal transmission control function of the portable information terminal device 100. No. Also, the storage unit 105
The data stored in the storage area includes operation menu display data and information data obtained via a network.

The control unit 106 loads a control program for realizing the present system and operation menu data stored in the storage unit 105, and executes the control program. Accordingly, the control unit 106 controls the display unit 101 to display the corresponding display information, input / output control of user desired information, and the communication unit 10.
3 can realize transmission / reception control and control signal transmission control to a remote control target.

Next, an outline of the operation performed by the portable information terminal device 100 having the remote control function will be described. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an outline of an operation by the portable information terminal device of the present invention. In the following, using a mobile phone with an i-mode function (mobile information terminal device 100), program information data desired by the user is downloaded through a network, and a recording reservation control signal is collectively sent to a video tape recorder based on the information. The following describes an example of performing a recording reservation operation of a video tape recorder (hereinafter, simply referred to as a video), which has been cumbersome, by sending a video recording.

The portable information terminal device 100 is connected to a communication network 200. The communication network 200 is composed of each base station 201 and a communication control base station 202.
The portable information terminal device 100 transmits and receives data to and from the host computer 300 via the communication network 200. The host computer 300 connects to the communication control base station 202 via a dedicated line and also connects to the information service center 400.

The information service center 400 receives a request from the user input by the portable information terminal device 100, and transmits user-desired information data to the portable information terminal device 100 via the communication network 200. Get the expected information data. The desired information data (expected information data) is, for example, “XX month X
X-day TV program information ".

The user uses the portable information terminal device 100 to select a program to be recorded from the received program information, and uses the portable information terminal device 100 to send a recording reservation command for the specified program to the video 500. I do. At this time, the portable information terminal device 100
Is controlled to convert the designated program information out of the program information received from the PC into an infrared control signal and to transmit the infrared control signal to the video 500 to be remotely controlled.

That is, the user operates the portable information terminal 1
The program information can be requested from 00, and the program can be reserved from the received program information.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of the operation panel of the portable information terminal device 100. First, the portable information terminal device 100 is in a state of waiting for selection of an operation menu,
The operation panel has a screen configuration as in screen display example 1. The operation menu is a menu of information that can be obtained from the communication network 200 by the portable information terminal device 100. Here, a case will be described in which "1" is key-input to select "1 TV program guide".

By pressing one key, the operation screen changes as shown in a screen display example 2. When the user wants to view the TV program table of “August 31”, “0831” is instructed as indicated on the operation screen.
The operation screen changes as in screen display example 3 by inputting # ”, and a request to download the TV program guide on August 31 is transmitted from the communication unit 103 to the host computer 300.

After a while, the host computer 30
The television program information is transmitted from 0, and this program information is temporarily stored in the storage unit 105. This TV program information is information in block units for each program. Each program is identified by a channel, a start and end time.

When the program information desired by the user is downloaded, the operation screen is as shown in a screen display example 4. When the user wants to view the TV program guide from “21:00”, he inputs “2100 #” as a key on the operation screen. The operation screen changes as in screen display example 5 by key input. When the user wants to view the TV program table of "4 channels", he inputs "4 #" as indicated on the operation screen. By the key input, on the operation screen, the TV program information from “August 31, 4 channel 21:00” is displayed in units of programs as in the screen display example 6.

When the user wants to make a recording reservation for the displayed program, he or she inputs “1” as a key and “August 31 4 channel 2
1:00 to 21:54 ″ by an infrared control signal generation program built in the portable information terminal device 100,
The signal is converted into an infrared control signal, and further transmitted to the video 500 by an infrared light emitting element. Further, when the user wants to view the programs before and after the program displayed on the operation screen, the user inputs “3” and “2” by keys. When the user wants to end the operation, the user inputs “4” as a key, and the operation screen returns to the screen display example 1 by this input, and the storage unit 1 of the portable information terminal device 100
The TV program information temporarily stored in 05 is deleted.

The portable information terminal device 100 can be used in various modes other than video recording reservation. For example,
An application that creates recipes desired by the user by downloading recipe information data of the dishes published on a Web page on the Internet via a network, generating a control signal for a microwave oven, and transmitting the control signal to the microwave oven. Is also conceivable.

Further, when the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-181298 is applied to perform a relatively complicated operation such as a fax destination shortening registration, the user can use the portable telephone. Download the execution program for each function of the copier on the copier manufacturer's website via the network and enter the destination fax number on the mobile phone using the downloaded fax destination shortening registration function execution program Can perform a series of registration operations.

[0031]

As described above, the portable information terminal device according to the present invention includes a remote controllable electric device,
Can be operated unifiedly. That is, the portable information terminal device of the present invention is capable of accessing a network, and has a function of generating a control signal and transmitting a control signal to an electric device to be remotely controlled by information obtained from the network. Therefore, it will be easy to control electrical equipment with new information.

Further, by providing the portable information terminal device having access to the network with the remote control function, the operation of the electric equipment becomes easier and easier.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration of a portable information terminal device with a remote control function of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of attachment of an infrared light emitting element of the portable information terminal device.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an outline of an operation performed by the portable information terminal device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of an operation panel of the portable information terminal device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 portable information terminal device 101 display unit 102 input unit 103 communication unit 104 remote control signal transmission unit 105 storage unit 106 control unit 200 communication network 201 each base station 202 communication control base station 300 host computer 400 information service center 500 video

Claims (5)

[Claims] An acquisition unit for acquiring, via a network, information desired by a user about an electric device, and a control for generating a control signal to an electric device to be remotely controlled using the information acquired by the acquisition unit. A portable information terminal device with a remote control function, comprising: signal generation means; and transmission means for transmitting a control signal generated by the control signal generation means to the electric device. 2. The obtaining means obtains information desired by the user from an information service center that provides various types of information on the electric equipment to be remotely controlled by accessing a host computer via a network. The portable information terminal device with a remote control function according to claim 1, wherein 3. The control signal generating means generates a control signal to an electric device to be subjected to the remote control under the control of a control signal generating program built in the device. Item 2. A portable information terminal device with a remote control function according to Item 1. 4. The transmitting means is an infrared light emitting element,
2. The portable information terminal device with a remote control function according to claim 1, wherein the control signal is transmitted from the infrared light emitting element to an electric device to be remotely controlled. 5. A portable information terminal device, comprising: an acquisition unit for acquiring, via a network, information desired by a user with respect to an electric device; A program for functioning as control signal generating means for generating a control signal, and transmitting means for transmitting the control signal generated by the control signal generating means to the electric device.