JP2012256090A - Information processor, information processing method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce a processing load for controlling an external device.SOLUTION: An apparatus start unit 206 performs control for starting an external device of a control target. A network monitoring unit 205 receives information which includes identification information on an external device and is distributed from the external device connected to a network at its startup. A device identifier comparison unit 203 determines whether the identification information on the external device included in the received information and identification information on the external device of the control target match with each other. When it is determined that the both identification information do not match with each other, the network monitoring unit 205 does not acquire control information for controlling the external device.

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for controlling an external device via a network.

  In recent years, attention has been focused on standard communication standards such as UPnP (Universal Plug And Play), which connects multiple devices and information appliances via a home network, and shares and uses content data such as images, videos, and audio. Has been. Such devices and information home appliances also have a function of accepting an activation request via a network when in a power-off state or a sleep mode state, such as a Wakeup On Lan function (hereinafter referred to as a WOL function). Therefore, a user desires to use a service provided in cooperation with a network device by remotely starting a device in a power-off state or a sleep mode connected to a home network or a network device such as an information home appliance. .

  Here, a technique is known in which a UPnP device in a power-off state or a sleep mode state is discovered and activated using, for example, a WOL function (see Non-Patent Document 1). Accordingly, the user can remotely activate a power-off state or a sleep mode state device or information home appliance connected to the home network, and comfortably use the service provided by the device or the information home appliance in cooperation with each other. it can.

  Patent Document 1 discloses a technology in which a control terminal transmits a Ping via a network and activates a device using a WOL function when there is no response. Patent Document 2 discloses a technology for acquiring UPnP device information and service information of an unstarted UPnP device from a proxy server and starting the UPnP device.

JP 2009-157713 A JP 2006-260425 A

UPnP Low Power Architecture For UPnPTM Version 1.0

  However, in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, even if the device is activated by the WOL function and the activation of the device can be confirmed, it is not known whether the software application that operates in the device has been activated. On the other hand, in the technology disclosed in Patent Document 2, the UPnP control device acquires UPnP device information and service information before starting the controlled UPnP device and service, and starts the controlled UPnP device and service. Thereafter, it receives a startup message (Join) distributed in a multicast on the network, acquires UPnP device information and service information, and checks whether the UPnP device and service have been started by collating with the information acquired before starting. I have confirmed. However, UPnP devices that are connected to the network and provide services regularly distribute start messages by multicast. In addition, a plurality of UPnP devices and services may be activated, and a plurality of UPnP device and service activation messages may be multicast distributed over the network. That is, in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 2, UPnP device information and service information are used to specify a UPnP device and service to be controlled, and therefore, a startup message for UPnP devices and services that are not controlled is received. There is. As described above, the technique disclosed in Patent Document 2 has a problem that unnecessary UPnP device information and service information may be acquired, and the processing load of the UPnP control device increases.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to reduce the processing load when controlling an external device.

  An information processing apparatus according to the present invention is an information processing apparatus capable of controlling an external device via a network, and is connected to the network and an activation unit that performs control for activating the external device to be controlled. Receiving means for receiving information including identification information of the external device transmitted from the external device at startup, identification information of the external device included in the information received by the receiving means, and the control target Determination means for determining whether or not the identification information of the external device matches, and when the determination means determines that the identification information of both does not match, control information for controlling the external device is provided. It is characterized by not acquiring.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the processing load when controlling an external device.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the communication system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the functional structure and hardware constitutions of a starting request | requirement terminal. It is a figure which shows the example of the SSDP message multicast-transmitted from a starting object apparatus to a network. It is a sequence chart which shows the process example of the communication system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a sequence chart which shows the other process example of the communication system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process of a starting request | requirement terminal.

  DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments to which the invention is applied will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  First, an embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention. As illustrated in FIG. 1, in the communication system according to the present embodiment, the activation request terminal 20, the activation target device 30, and the monitoring terminal 40 are connected via a network 10 so that they can communicate with each other. Examples of the network 10 include a wired LAN, a wireless LAN, Bluetooth, or a combination thereof.

  The activation target device 30 is a network device compliant with UPnP DA (Device Architecture) and LP (UPnP Low Power Service). In addition, the activation target device 30 can transition to the activation state by an activation request from the outside when in the power-off state or the sleep mode state. Here, the activated state means a state other than the power-off state and the sleep mode state, and in a broader sense, hardware provided for the service provided by the activation target device 30 operates to provide the service. The state that is. In this embodiment, the WOL (Wakeup On LAN) function is used as means for setting the start target device 30 to the start state, but means other than the WOL function may be used.

  The monitoring terminal 40 is an information processing apparatus that monitors the state of the activation target device 30 in accordance with the proxy function of LP. The monitoring terminal 40 also monitors an SSDP (simple service discovery protocol) message that is multicast-transmitted on the network 10. By monitoring the SSDP message, the monitoring terminal 40 can grasp the state of the activation target device 30 such as the power-off state or the sleep mode state.

  The monitoring terminal 40 provides information related to the activation target device 30 connected to the network 10 in response to a request from the activation request terminal 20. In addition, the monitoring terminal 40 has a function of setting the activation target device 30 in the power-off state or the sleep mode state to the activation state, and sends an activation request to the activation target device 30 in response to the activation instruction from the activation request terminal 20. To send.

  The monitoring terminal 40 transmits an activation request to the activation target device 30 in response to the activation instruction from the activation request terminal 20, but when the activation request terminal 20 can activate the activation target device 30, The activation request terminal 20 directly transmits an activation request to the activation target device 30. After the activation request terminal 20 transmits the activation request directly to the activation target device 30 or issues an activation instruction to the monitoring terminal 40, it is determined whether the activation target device 30 has transitioned to the activation state. Monitor. Note that the activation request terminal 20 and the monitoring terminal 40 are configured as application examples of the information processing apparatus. The activation target device 30 has a configuration that is an application example of an external device to be controlled.

  Next, the functional configuration and hardware configuration of the activation request terminal 20 will be described with reference to FIG. That is, FIG. 2A shows a functional configuration of the activation request terminal 20, and FIG. 2B shows a hardware configuration of the activation request terminal 20.

  As shown in FIG. 2A, the activation request terminal 20 includes an input control unit 201, a display control unit 202, a device identifier comparison unit 203, a device information holding unit 204, a network monitoring unit 205, and a device activation unit 206. Prepare. The input control unit 201 receives a selection operation of the activation target device 30 to be activated from the displayed list of activation target devices 30. The selection operation of the activation target device 30 to be activated is accepted by an input device such as a selection button and a keyboard provided in the activation request terminal 20 or an external connection device connected via the network 10. Done through. The display control unit 202 displays a list, device information, and the like of the activation target device 30 and the monitoring terminal 40 on an output device such as an LCD mounted on the activation request terminal 20 or a display connected to the outside.

  The device identifier comparison unit 203 compares the UUID included in the device information acquired from the monitoring terminal 40 with the UUID included in the SSDP message acquired by the network monitoring unit 205 described later. The device information holding unit 204 holds device information acquired from the monitoring terminal 40. The network monitoring unit 205 monitors the SSDP message multicasted on the network 10 and analyzes the received SSDP message. The device activation unit 206 transmits an activation request to the activation target device 30 using the WOL function based on the MAC address included in the device information acquired from the monitoring terminal 40 or the activation target for the monitoring terminal 40. An activation instruction for the device 30 is transmitted.

  In FIG. 2B, the CPU 210 comprehensively controls each device connected to the system bus 217. The ROM 212 or the storage device 215 stores a basic input / output system (BIOS), which is a control program for the CPU 210, and an operating system program, such as the processing program shown in FIG.

  The RAM 211 functions as a main memory and work area for the CPU 210. The storage device 215 functions as an external memory. The CPU 210 implements various operations by loading a program necessary for execution of processing into the RAM 211 and executing the program. The I / F device 216 is connected to a wireless communication line or a wired communication line, and controls communication with the outside. The input device 213 inputs information according to a user operation. The output device 214 is an image output device such as a display.

  2A, the input control unit 201, the display control unit 202, the device identifier comparison unit 203, the network monitoring unit 205, and the device activation unit 206 are loaded by the CPU 210 into the RAM 211 from the ROM 212 or the like. It is a functional structure obtained by executing. The device information holding unit 204 has a configuration corresponding to a partial storage area of the RAM 211, for example. Similarly, the activation target device 30 and the monitoring terminal 40 also have the hardware configuration shown in FIG.

  In the present embodiment, the activation request terminal 20 and the monitoring terminal 40 are physically different terminals, but the functions of these terminals may be provided in one apparatus. As described above, the target to be activated may be a physical device (hardware), an application (software) in the device (hardware), or a combination thereof. Also good. That is, in the present embodiment, at least one of hardware and software can be set as a startup target. For example, the activation state when the activation target is only an application (software) is a state other than a state where the application is terminated and a state where the application is stopped.

  Next, the SSDP message multicast-transmitted from the activation target device 30 to the network 10 will be described with reference to FIG. The Alive message 300, which is an example of the SSDP message shown in FIG. 3, is basically a message transmitted when the activation target device 30 is connected to the network 10, and after the activation target device 30 is activated. This message is sent periodically. 3, 301 (ssdp: alive) in FIG. 3 means that the activation target device 30 is in the activated state. 302 (uuid) in FIG. 3 indicates a universally unique identifier (Universally Unique Identifier) of the activation target device 30 and is an identifier (identification information) for uniquely identifying the activation target device 30.

  FIG. 4 is a sequence chart showing a processing example of the communication system according to the embodiment of the present invention. Hereinafter, a processing example of the communication system according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. This processing example is a processing example when the activation request terminal 20 can directly activate the activation target device 30.

  When the activation request terminal 20 is connected to the network 10 (step S401), the device list including the device information of the activation target device 30 connected to the network 10 is acquired from the monitoring terminal 40 in step S402. The device information of the activation target device 30 includes at least a MAC address that is information necessary for activating the activation target device 30 and a UUID (identifier) for identifying the activation target device 30. In the present embodiment, the MAC address is used to activate the activation target device 30 using the WOL function. However, when the activation target device 30 is activated by a method other than the WOL function, the MAC address is used instead of the MAC address. Information necessary for the activation method is included in the device information. The activation request terminal 20 sets the activation target device 30 in the activated state based on the acquired device information, and confirms that it has transitioned to the activated state. The activation request terminal 20 can acquire the device description and service description of the activation target device 30, and can control the activation target device 30 by using the device description and the service description as control information.

  Returning again to the description of FIG. In step S <b> 403, the activation request terminal 20 transmits an activation request to the activation target device 30. The activation target device 30 transitions to the activation state when receiving the activation request from the activation request terminal 20. In step S406, the activation request terminal 20 multicasts an SSDP message for advertisement of a service provided by itself.

  The activation request terminal 20 transmits an activation request in step S403, and then waits for reception of an SSDP message from the activation target device 30. Here, if a communication device 50 conforming to UPnP different from the activation target device 30 is connected to the network 10, the activation request terminal 20 may receive an SSDP message from the communication device 50 in step S404. . In FIG. 4, the communication device 50 and the activation target device 30 are illustrated separately. However, the communication device 50 and the activation target device 30 may be physically different devices, and the functions of the communication device 50 may be the same. The software to be realized and the software to realize the function of the activation target device 30 may be included in the same device.

  Upon receiving the SSDP message (Alive message) from the communication device 50, the activation request terminal 20 analyzes the SSDP message and acquires the UUID included in the SSDP message. In step S <b> 405, the activation request terminal 20 compares the acquired UUID with the UUID included in the device information acquired from the monitoring terminal 40. Here, since both UUIDs do not match, the activation request terminal 20 does not acquire the device description and service description of the communication device 50.

  On the other hand, when the SSDP message (Alive message) transmitted from the activation target device 30 is received in step S406, the activation request terminal 20 analyzes the received SSDP message and acquires the UUID included in the SSDP message. In step S407, the activation request terminal 20 compares the acquired UUID with the UUID included in the device information acquired from the monitoring terminal 40. Here, since both UUIDs match, in step S <b> 408, the activation request terminal 20 requests the device description and service description from the activation target device 30 and acquires the device description and service description from the activation target device 30. As described above, since the activation request terminal 20 does not acquire the device description and service description of the unnecessary communication device 50, the processing load on the activation request terminal 20 itself and the communication device 50 can be reduced.

  As described above, the activation target device 30 may be identified based on the MAC address instead of the UUID. However, when the software that realizes the function of the activation target device 30 and the software that realizes the function of the communication device 50 exist in the same apparatus, the SSDP messages transmitted by both functions have the same MAC address. In such a case, the activation target device 30 cannot be specified based on the MAC address. However, by using the UUID, the SSDP message of the activation target device 30 is specified even when the software that realizes the function of the activation target device 30 and the software that realizes the function of the communication device 50 exist in the same apparatus. be able to.

  FIG. 5 is a sequence chart showing another process of the communication system according to the embodiment of the present invention. Hereinafter, the processing of the communication system according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In addition, this process example is a process example in case the starting request | requirement terminal 20 cannot start the starting object apparatus 30 directly.

  In steps S501 and S502 in FIG. 5, the process in which the activation request terminal 20 connects to the network 10 and acquires the device list is the same as steps S401 and S402 in FIG. In step S503, the activation request terminal 20 transmits an activation instruction including device information indicating a device designated from the device list to the monitoring terminal 40. The monitoring terminal 40 identifies a device to be activated from the device information included in the activation instruction, and acquires information for activating the corresponding device (hereinafter referred to as device activation information). In step S <b> 504, the monitoring terminal 40 generates an activation request based on the device activation information and transmits it to the activation target device 30.

  After transmitting the activation request, the monitoring terminal 40 waits to receive an SSDP message from the activation target device 30. Here, if a communication device 50 conforming to UPnP different from the activation target device 30 is connected to the network 10, the monitoring terminal 40 receives an SSDP message (Alive message) from the communication device 50 in step S505. Sometimes. In FIG. 5, the communication device 50 and the activation target device 30 are illustrated separately. However, the communication device 50 and the activation target device 30 may be physically different devices, and the functions of the communication device 50 may be the same. The software to be realized and the software to realize the function of the activation target device 30 may be included in the same device.

  The monitoring terminal 40 that has received the SSDP message from the communication device 50 analyzes the SSDP message and acquires the UUID included in the SSDP message. In step S506, the monitoring terminal 40 compares the acquired UUID with the UUID included in the device information acquired from the activation target device 30. Here, since both UUIDs do not match, the monitoring terminal 40 does not acquire the device description and service description of the communication device 50.

  On the other hand, when the SSDP message (Alive message) transmitted from the activation target device 30 is received in step S507, the monitoring terminal 40 analyzes the received SSDP message and acquires the UUID included in the SSDP message. In step S508, the monitoring terminal 40 compares the acquired UUID with the UUID included in the device information. Here, since both UUIDs match, the monitoring terminal 40 requests the device description and service description from the activation target device 30 and acquires the device description and service description from the activation request terminal 20 in step S509.

  In step S <b> 510, the monitoring terminal 40 acquires the device description and service description of the activation target device 30, and then transmits (provides) the device description and service description of the activation target device 30 to the activation request terminal 20. Thereby, the activation request terminal 20 can control the activation target device 30 based on the device description and the service description. When the activation request terminal 20 acquires the device description and service description in step S510, the activation request terminal 20 may make an acquisition request for the device description and service description to the monitoring terminal 40. The information transmitted from the monitoring terminal 40 to the activation request terminal 20 may be a URL indicating the location of the device description and the service description, not the device description and the service description itself. As described above, since the monitoring terminal 40 does not acquire unnecessary device description and service description of the communication device 50, the processing load on the monitoring terminal 40 itself and the communication device 50 can be reduced.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing processing of the activation request terminal 20. Hereinafter, the processing of the activation request terminal 20 will be described with reference to FIG.

  In step S601, the display control unit 202 acquires a device list including device information of the activation target device 30 that is not in the activated state from the monitoring terminal 40, and displays the activation target device 30 that is not in the activated state on the screen. When there are a plurality of activation target devices 30 that are not in the activated state, the display control unit 202 displays a list of the plurality of activation target devices 30 that are not in the activated state based on the device information included in the device list.

  In step S602, the device activation unit 206 identifies the activation target device 30 designated by the user from among the plurality of activation target devices 30 displayed in a list. This user designation operation is accepted by the input control unit 201. In step S <b> 603, the device activation unit 206 acquires the activation method from the device information of the identified activation target device 30. In step S <b> 604, the device activation unit 206 acquires an identifier that identifies the activation target device 30 from the device information of the identified activation target device 30. In this embodiment, UUID is used as an identifier, but other identifiers may be used.

  In step S605, the device activation unit 206 determines whether the activation target device 30 can be activated by the acquired activation method. If it can be activated, the process proceeds to step S606. On the other hand, if it cannot be activated, the process proceeds to step S607. In step S606, the device activation unit 206 transmits an activation request to the identified activation target device 30. In step S <b> 607, an activation instruction for the activation target device 30 is transmitted to the device activation unit 206 and the monitoring terminal 40. After step S607, the process proceeds to step S611.

  In step S608, the network monitoring unit 205 determines whether an SSDP message has been received. When the SSDP message is received, the process proceeds to step S609. On the other hand, if the SSDP message has not been received, the process returns to step S608 and waits for the reception of the SSDP message.

  In step S609, the device identifier comparison unit 203 analyzes the SSDP message, acquires a UUID included in the SSDP message, and determines whether the UUID matches the UUID acquired in step S604. If both UUIDs match, the process proceeds to step S610. On the other hand, if the UUIDs do not match, the process returns to step S608 and waits for the reception of the SSDP message.

  In step S610, the network monitoring unit 205 determines whether the SSDP message is an Alive message shown in FIG. If the SSDP message is an Alive message, the process proceeds to step S611. On the other hand, if the SSDP message is not an Alive message, the process returns to step S608 and waits for the reception of the SSDP message.

  In step S611, the network monitoring unit 205 acquires the device description and the service description based on the URL indicating the location of the device description and the service description included in the SSDP message, for example. If the process passes through step S606, the device description and the service description are directly acquired from the activation target device 30, and if the process passes through step S607, the device description and the service description are obtained from the monitoring terminal 40. Service description is obtained indirectly. In step S612, the display control unit 202 displays a screen for controlling the activation target device 30 to the user based on the device description and the service description.

  The present invention can also be realized by executing the following processing. That is, software (program) that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus via a network or various storage media, and a computer (or CPU, MPU, or the like) of the system or apparatus reads the program. It is a process to be executed.

  The preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, but the present invention is not limited to such specific embodiments, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the gist of the present invention described in the claims.・ Change is possible.

  10: network, 20: activation request terminal, 30: activation target device, 40: monitoring terminal, 201: input control unit, 202: display control unit, 203: device identifier comparison unit, 204: device information holding unit, 205: network Monitoring unit 206: Device activation unit

Claims (5)

An information processing apparatus capable of controlling an external device via a network,
Starting means for performing control for starting an external device to be controlled;
Receiving means for receiving information including identification information of the external device transmitted from an external device connected to the network at startup;
Determining means for determining whether or not the identification information of the external device included in the information received by the receiving means matches the identification information of the external device to be controlled;
An information processing apparatus characterized by not acquiring control information for controlling the external device when the determination means determines that the two pieces of identification information do not match.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the identification information is a UUID (Universally Unique Identifier).   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the activation unit performs control for activating the external apparatus to be controlled based on a MAC address of the external apparatus to be controlled. There is an information processing method executed by an information processing apparatus capable of controlling an external device via a network,
An activation step for performing control to activate an external device to be controlled;
A reception step of receiving information including identification information of the external device transmitted at the time of startup from an external device connected to the network;
A determination step of determining whether or not the identification information of the external device included in the information received by the reception step matches the identification information of the external device to be controlled;
An information processing method characterized by not acquiring control information for controlling the external device when it is determined by the determination step that both pieces of identification information do not match. To a computer that can control external devices via a network,
An activation step for performing control to activate an external device to be controlled;
A reception step of receiving information including identification information of the external device transmitted at the time of startup from an external device connected to the network;
Executing the determination step of determining whether or not the identification information of the external device included in the information received by the reception step matches the identification information of the external device to be controlled;
A control program for not acquiring control information for controlling the external device when it is determined by the determination step that both pieces of identification information do not match.

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