JP4846016B2 - Power consumption management device, system, method, program for displaying power consumption according to the type of electrical appliance - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a power consumption management apparatus, system, method, and program for displaying power consumption according to the type of electrical appliance.

  In recent years, not only computers and telephones but also household electric appliances such as digital televisions, refrigerators, telephones, washing machines, etc. have become applicable as electric appliances connected to home networks. Furthermore, with the recent introduction of IT, the absolute number of appliances used at home has also increased, and it has become difficult for users to manage all the appliances in detail.

  On the other hand, from the viewpoint of saving environmental problems and utility costs, there is an increasing need to reduce the power consumption of electrical appliances as much as possible. However, it is difficult for a user who owns a large number of electrical appliances to sequentially check the power on / off status and the like up to the power consumption of each electrical appliance.

  In such a situation, the user of the client PC can manage the power consumption of the personal computer by forcibly applying the in-house power saving policy to the managed client PC connected to the server. Attempts have been made to calculate and reduce power consumption by applying an in-house policy rather than an individually set power saving policy (for example, Non-Patent Document 1).

  Furthermore, although it is a business use, the attendance / leaving situation of the user who uses the electronic devices A, B, C is stored, the number of users of the electronic devices A, B, C is counted based on the attendance / leaving situation, and the counted use The number of users and the operating status of electronic devices A, B, and C are collected, and when there are electronic devices that are operating even though the number of users is 0, the electronic devices are detected, A system for turning off the power of the electronic device has been proposed (for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2002-182806 A

Nikkei Business Publications, “Green IT for ITPro Net Managers 2nd Net Monitoring and Suppressing Power Consumption”, [online], [Search on November 24, 2009], Internet <URL: http: // itpro.nikkeib.co.jp/article/COLUMN/20080527/304100/>

  However, in the method of Non-Patent Document 1, since the target electrical appliance is a personal computer, power consumption is not automatically calculated and reduced for various types of electrical appliances, unlike home appliances. Even in the method of Patent Document 1, since there are not many types of target electrical appliances only with personal computers and printers, there is a problem that it becomes difficult to manage power consumption due to the large number of types of electrical appliances. It has not occurred.

  In other words, the user can automatically calculate the power consumption of individual appliances for various appliances connected to the network without individually setting the power consumption to reduce power consumption. It is desirable to notify the user at a predetermined timing.

  The inventor automatically identifies the type of the appliance connected to the network, calculates the amount of power consumption by referring to the catalog value of the power consumption of the appliance, and turns on the power of the appliance. We paid attention to the point that it would be possible to provide a system that notifies the user that the device is left in a state and is notified of the power consumption that is a rough guide.

  The object of the present invention is to automatically calculate the power consumption of each electrical appliance for various electrical appliances connected to the network, and notify the user of the power consumption at a predetermined timing in order to reduce the consumption. An object of the present invention is to provide a power consumption management device, system, method, and program.

  The present invention provides the following solutions.

  (1) A power consumption management device that manages the power consumption of an electrical appliance connected to a network, the startup time detecting a startup of the power supply of the electrical appliance and starting a measurement of the startup time of the electrical appliance Based on the measuring means, the appliance type determining means for determining the appliance information of the appliance, the power consumption catalog value retrieved from the appliance information, and the startup time, the power consumption of the appliance A power consumption amount management device comprising: a power consumption amount calculation means for calculating the power consumption amount, and a power consumption amount data transmission means for transmitting the power consumption amount calculated by the power consumption amount calculation means to the user terminal as power consumption amount data.

  The power consumption management device according to the invention of (1) detects the start-up of the power supply of the electric appliance, starts measuring the start-up time for the electric appliance, determines the electric appliance information of the electric appliance, and searches from the electric appliance information The power consumption of the electric appliance is calculated based on the power consumption catalog value and the startup time, and the calculated power consumption is transmitted to the user terminal as power consumption data.

  Therefore, according to the invention of (1), for various appliances connected to the network, the power consumption of each appliance is automatically calculated (without an input operation from the user), and the user terminal Notifies the amount of power consumed by individual appliances. At this time, since the user calculates the power consumption without inputting individual data such as individual power consumption of the electrical appliance, the convenience of the user is enhanced.

  (2) The power consumption management apparatus according to (1), wherein a packet receiving unit that receives a packet for determining a type of the appliance, and a definition file defined for each appliance are stored. Storage means, and a scoring means for comparing and scoring the definition file for each packet and the appliance, and the appliance type determining means extracts a definition file having a high score of the scoring means. A power consumption management apparatus that determines the appliance information of the definition file as the appliance information of the appliance.

  The power consumption management device according to the invention of (2) further receives a packet for determining the type of electrical appliance in the power consumption management device of (1), and a definition file defined for each electrical appliance , The packet and the definition file for each appliance are compared, scored, a definition file with a high score is extracted, and the appliance information of the definition file is determined as the appliance information of the appliance.

  Therefore, according to the invention of (2), the appliance identification of the appliance connected to the network is performed without requiring the registration operation of the appliance from the user, and based on the appliance information identified by the appliance, It is possible to calculate the power consumption.

(3) The power consumption management device according to (1),
Position information storage means for storing position information of the appliance;
Receiving position information of the user terminal from the user terminal, and determining whether or not the power of the electrical appliance is left on based on the position information of the user terminal and the position information of the electrical appliance A determination means,
The power consumption data transmission means transmits the power consumption calculated by the power consumption calculation means to the user terminal as power consumption data when it is determined that the power supply of the appliance is on and left unattended. Power consumption management device.

  The power consumption management device according to the invention of (3), in the power consumption management device of (1), further stores the position information of the electrical appliance, receives the position information of the user terminal from the user terminal, Based on the location information of the user terminal and the location information of the electrical appliance, it is determined whether or not the electrical appliance is turned on and left, and if it is determined that the electrical appliance is turned on and left The power consumption amount calculated by the power amount calculation means is transmitted to the user terminal as power consumption amount data.

  Therefore, according to the invention of (3), whether the user's whereabouts are estimated based on the position of the user terminal, whether or not the electrical appliance is powered on and left unchecked, should the power consumption data be transmitted? Is determined by the power consumption management device. For the user, it is possible to avoid a useless notification of receiving a notification of power consumption data even though the power is not turned on.

(4) A system comprising the power consumption management device according to (1),
A system in which the user terminal displays received power consumption data when the user terminal is turned off.

  In the system including the power consumption amount management device according to (1), which is the invention of (4), the user terminal displays the received power consumption amount data when the user terminal is turned off.

  Therefore, according to the invention of (4), the power consumption amount data is displayed immediately before the user terminal is turned off. As an example, the timing of turning off the power of a user terminal such as a personal computer is often moved from place to place, such as going out afterwards. Notifies the ON state and power consumption. For this reason, it is useful for the user before a movement for power consumption reduction.

  (5) A system including the power consumption management device according to (1) and a device recognition server connected to be communicable with the power consumption management device, wherein the power consumption management device A packet receiving means for receiving a packet for determining the type of the electrical appliance from the product; and a type information requesting means for requesting information on the type of the electrical appliance by transmitting the packet to the device recognition server. The device recognition server includes a storage unit that stores a definition file defined for each electrical appliance, and a definition file for each packet and the electrical appliance in response to a request from the power consumption management device. And, as a result of the scoring means, a definition file with a high score is extracted as a result of the scoring means, and the electrical appliance information of the definition file is Electrical appliance type determination means for transmitting to the power consumption management device as electrical product information of the electrical appliance, and the electrical appliance type determination means of the power consumption management device receives the electrical appliance information received from the electrical appliance A system that is determined as electrical product information for products.

  In the system including the power consumption management device according to (1) which is the invention of (5), the power consumption management device receives a packet for determining the type of the electrical appliance from the electrical appliance, To the device recognition server to request information about the type of appliance, the device recognition server stores the definition file defined for each appliance, and in response to a request from the power consumption management device, Compare the packet and the definition file for each electrical appliance, score it, extract the definition file with the highest score as a result of scoring, and use the electrical appliance information in that definition file as the electrical appliance information for the electrical appliance. Send to the management device. Then, the power consumption management apparatus determines the received electrical appliance information as electrical appliance information of the electrical appliance.

  Therefore, according to the invention of (5), the device identification of the appliance connected to the network is performed without requiring a registration operation from the user, and the power consumption amount is determined based on the appliance information identified by the device. It is possible to calculate and transmit power consumption data, but since the appliance type is determined by the device recognition server, it is possible to provide device identification processing in a SaaS (Software as a Service) type. It becomes.

  (6) A startup time measuring step in which a power consumption management device that manages the power consumption of an electrical appliance connected to the network detects the startup of the power supply of the electrical appliance and starts measuring the startup time of the electrical appliance. And calculating an electric appliance type of the electric appliance based on the electric appliance type determining step for determining electric appliance information of the electric appliance, a power consumption catalog value searched from the electric appliance information, and the startup time. A power consumption amount management method for executing a power consumption amount calculation step, and a power consumption amount data transmission step for transmitting the power consumption amount calculated in the power consumption amount calculation step as power consumption amount data to a user terminal.

  According to the invention of (6), the power consumption management device detects the activation of the power source of the electrical appliance, starts measuring the activation time for the electrical appliance, determines the electrical appliance information of the electrical appliance, and determines the electrical appliance information. The power consumption of the appliance is calculated based on the power consumption catalog value retrieved from and the activation time, and the calculated power consumption is transmitted to the user terminal as power consumption data.

  Therefore, according to the invention of (6), the power consumption of each electrical appliance is automatically calculated (without input operation from the user) for various electrical appliances connected to the network, Notifies the amount of power consumed by individual appliances. At this time, since the user calculates the power consumption without inputting individual data such as individual power consumption of the electrical appliance, the convenience of the user is enhanced.

  (7) A startup time measurement step of detecting a startup of the power of the electrical appliance in a power consumption management device that manages the power consumption of the electrical appliance connected to the network, and starting a startup time measurement for the electrical appliance , Electrical appliance type determination step for determining electrical appliance information of the electrical appliance, power consumption catalog value searched from the electrical appliance information, and consumption for calculating the power consumption of the electrical appliance based on the startup time A program for executing a power consumption calculation step and a power consumption data transmission step of transmitting to a user terminal the power consumption calculated in the power consumption calculation step as power consumption data.

  According to the invention of (7), the power consumption management device detects the activation of the power supply of the electrical appliance, starts measuring the activation time for the electrical appliance, determines the electrical appliance information of the electrical appliance, and determines the electrical appliance information. The power consumption of the appliance is calculated based on the power consumption catalog value retrieved from and the activation time, and the calculated power consumption is transmitted to the user terminal as power consumption data.

  Therefore, according to the invention of (7), the power consumption of each electrical appliance is automatically calculated (without input operation from the user) for various electrical appliances connected to the network, and the user terminal Notifies the amount of power consumed by individual appliances. At this time, since the user calculates the power consumption without inputting individual data such as individual power consumption of the electrical appliance, the convenience of the user is enhanced.

  According to the present invention, for various electrical appliances connected to the network, the power consumption of each electrical appliance is automatically calculated, and the power consumption is notified to the user at a predetermined timing in order to reduce consumption. It is possible to provide a power consumption management device, system, method, and program.

It is a figure which shows the whole structure and each functional block of the power consumption management apparatus 50, the electric appliance 20, the user terminal 30, and the catalog value provision server 300. FIG. It is a flowchart figure of a type determination / power consumption data transmission process. It is a flowchart figure of a power consumption calculation process. It is a figure which shows an example of a MAC address. It is a figure which shows an example of a MAC address maker table. It is a figure which shows an example of a MAC address model table. It is a figure which shows an example of a port number. It is a figure which shows an example of a port number table. It is a conceptual diagram which shows an example of scoring process and the process which specifies an electric appliance. It is a figure which shows an example of the correspondence table of electrical appliances and power consumption. It is a figure which shows an example which displayed power consumption amount data on the user terminal 30 of a mobile telephone. It is a figure which shows an example which displayed the power consumption data on the user terminal 30 of a personal computer. It is a figure which shows an example of the corresponding table of electrical appliances and position information. It is a flowchart figure of a power supply neglect judgment process. It is a flowchart figure of a power consumption data display process. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of a power consumption management device 50. FIG. It is a figure which shows the whole structure and each functional block in a system provided with the apparatus recognition server.

  Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. This is merely an example, and the technical scope of the present invention is not limited to this.

[First embodiment]: [Overall configuration]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of the network system 1.

  The network system 1 is a network system including a public line network such as the Internet, and includes a power consumption management device 50, an appliance 20, a catalog value providing server 300, and a user terminal 30. The power consumption management device 50 is communicably connected to the appliance 20 via a local network such as a wired / wireless LAN. Furthermore, the power consumption management device 50 is communicably connected to the catalog value providing server 300 and the user terminal 30 via a public network such as the Internet.

  The electrical appliance 20 is an electrical appliance having a network connection function. For example, in addition to a television, a telephone, and a computer, a cellular phone, a portable information terminal, a portable music player, a television, an audio component, content playback / recording Not only information appliances such as players, printers, telephones, fax machines, copiers, scanners, MFPs (multifunctional peripherals, multifunction printers), refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers, fans, air conditioners, electric heaters Also includes white goods such as rice cookers and microwave ovens, electric lighting, servers, exchanges and routers.

  These electrical appliances 20 have a function of communicating with the power consumption management device 50 using a protocol such as TCP / IP via a local network.

  The power consumption management device 50 includes a request packet transmission unit 51, a response packet reception unit 52, a definition file storage unit 53, a scoring unit 54, an appliance type determination unit 55, and a power consumption calculation unit 58. And a power consumption data transmission means 61, and as a more preferred embodiment, a power supply leaving judgment means 59 and a position information storage means 60. The power consumption management device 50 is an information device including the control unit 10 and the main memory 340 (see FIG. 16), and may be a computer or a router. Each of the above means is implemented by a program that realizes this being read into the main memory 340 and executed by the control unit 10. In other words, the power consumption management device 50 may be a dedicated information device including the above-described means, or may be an information device having other functions such as a personal computer, a television, and a router.

  The request packet transmission unit 51 has a function of transmitting a request packet to be described later, and is realized by the communication I / F 330 and the control unit 10.

  The response packet receiving unit 52 has a function of receiving a response packet, which will be described later, from the electrical appliance 20, and is realized by the communication I / F 330 and the control unit 10.

  The definition file storage unit 53 has a function of storing a definition file described later, and is realized by a hard disk or a flash disk (SSD) 390, a main memory 340, and the like.

  The scoring unit 54 has a function of scoring each definition file based on the definition file, and is realized by the control unit 10, the hard disk or flash disk (SSD) 390, the main memory 340, and the like.

  The appliance type determining means 55 has a function of finally determining the type of appliance, and is realized by the control unit 10, a hard disk or flash disk (SSD) 390, a main memory 340, and the like.

  The power consumption amount calculation means 58 executes the power consumption amount calculation process shown in FIG. 3, accesses the catalog value providing server 300, acquires the power consumption catalog value of the electrical appliance 20, and stores the power consumption amount data. It has a function to generate and is realized by the communication I / F 330 and the control unit 10.

  The power supply neglect determination unit 59 has a function of determining whether or not the power supply of the electrical appliance 20 in the power consumption amount data generated by the power consumption amount calculation unit 58 is left based on the position information. When the user terminal 30 receives a radio wave for position information and calculates the position information (GPS: Global Positioning System), the power supply leaving determination unit 59 uses the calculated position information as the user terminal 30. Compared with the position information of the electrical appliance 20 received as the power consumption data, it has a function of determining (estimating) whether or not the electrical appliance 20 is left in an on state. The power neglect determination unit 59 is realized by the communication I / F 330 and the control unit 10.

  The location information storage means 60 has a function of storing location information of each electrical appliance 20, and is realized by the control unit 10, a hard disk or flash disk (SSD) 390, a main memory 340, and the like.

  The power consumption amount data transmission unit 61 has a function of transmitting the power consumption amount data to the user terminal 30, and may determine transmission based on the determination of the power supply leaving determination unit 59. The power consumption data transmission unit 61 is realized by the communication I / F 330 and the control unit 10.

  The electrical appliance 20 includes at least a control unit 21 realized by a CPU, a communication unit 24 realized by a communication I / F, and a storage unit 22 realized by a hard disk, a flash disk (SSD), a main memory, or the like. And a display unit 23 such as a liquid crystal monitor may be provided. The electrical appliance 20 is assumed to be a computer. However, as long as the electrical appliance 20 has the above configuration, the electrical appliance 20 may be a general household electrical appliance or a commercial electrical appliance as described above. .

  The catalog value providing server 300 may be a normal Web server, and receives access from the power consumption calculation means 58 to the catalog value database 305 based on the appliance information (type) of the corresponding appliance 20. Search power consumption catalog values. The catalog value providing server 300 transmits the searched power consumption catalog value to the power consumption calculation unit 58. The catalog value providing server 300 may be a different server for each electrical appliance 20. For example, a different catalog value providing server 300 is provided for each maker that manufactures the electrical appliance 20, and the power consumption amount management apparatus 50 accesses the catalog value providing server 300. The power consumption catalog value may be acquired from each catalog value providing server 300 by determining the address (URL, IP address, etc.) of the catalog value providing server 300 to be used.

  The user terminal 30 is an information processing terminal that receives power consumption data, and is, for example, a terminal such as a mobile phone or a personal computer. The user terminal 30 includes power consumption amount data output means 32 that displays data of power consumption amount data or outputs sound. The user terminal 30 may include a position information transmission unit 31. In this case, the user terminal 30 has a function of measuring or generating the position information of the user terminal 30. The method of measuring position information is a method of measuring the latitude and longitude of the user terminal 30 by receiving radio waves by GPS, for example. Also, the method of generating location information is, for example, when the user terminal 30 has a mobile phone function, depending on whether or not it is within the radio wave reachable range of the home network (for example, the radio wave coverage range of the wireless LAN). It can be determined whether or not is in the home. In this case, when the user terminal 30 is in the home (home network coverage), identification data indicating that the user terminal 30 is in the home is generated as position information.

[Flowchart of type determination / power consumption data transmission processing]
FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the type determination / power consumption data transmission processing. First, the request packet transmission means 51 of the power consumption management device 50 transmits a request packet to the electrical appliance 20 (step S10).

  The request packet is packet data that the power consumption amount management apparatus 50 transmits to the electrical appliance 20 in order to receive a response packet for determining the type of the electrical appliance 20.

  The request packet may be, for example, a command such as ARP (Address Resolution Protocol), ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol), or SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), and uPnP (UniversalPlD) ) May be a compliant protocol.

  Note that the request packet transmission means 51 may be a mode in which a request packet is periodically transmitted to the electrical appliance 20. That is, the request packet transmission means 51 transmits the request packet every tens of seconds, every few minutes, or every several hours, thereby detecting the appliance 20 connected so as to be communicable at a predetermined timing.

  The electrical appliance information is information related to the electrical appliance 20 and is information including at least a type of electrical appliance (a manufacturer name, a device name, etc. for specifying the type of electrical appliance).

  Next, the response packet receiving unit 52 of the power consumption management device 50 receives a response packet from the predetermined electrical appliance 20 (step S11).

  The response packet is a packet data transmitted from the electrical appliance 20 and is packet data used to determine the type of the electrical appliance 20 or as a clue to determine the type of the electrical appliance 20. In the first embodiment, the response packet is a response packet transmitted from the electrical appliance 20 that has received the request packet transmitted from the power consumption management device 50. In the third embodiment, a case where the response packet is not a response packet of the request packet will be described.

  Next, the power consumption management device 50 performs definition file reference processing (step S12). The control unit 10 of the power consumption management device 50 refers to the definition file stored in the definition file storage unit 53, compares it, and performs the next scoring process (step S13).

  The definition file is data (library) predetermined for each electrical appliance 20 and is data necessary for specifying the type of the electrical appliance 20. Referring to FIG. 9 to be described later, the definition file (electrical appliance A definition file) is composed of one or more definition items (X5, Y2, Z3). 20 (electric appliance A in this case) is specified. The definition item is definition data for specifying the type of the electrical appliance 20 with one request packet and response packet.

  Next, the scoring means 54 of the power consumption management device 50 compares the definition file with the response packet to score (score) (step S13).

  The scoring will be described with reference to FIG. The power consumption management device 50 transmits one or more request packets (A1, B1, C1) and receives response packets (X5, Y8, Z9) corresponding thereto. Then, the power consumption management device 50 refers to the definition items of the definition files (electric appliance A definition file, electric appliance B definition file, electric appliance C definition file) for each electric appliance stored in the definition file storage means 53. Compare with the response packet.

  For example, a case where an ARP command is transmitted as a request packet and this response is received from an electrical appliance 20 will be described. By transmitting the ARP command to the target electrical appliance 20, a packet including the MAC address information of the target electrical appliance 20 is received as a response packet.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the MAC address is composed of a 48-bit code, the upper 24 bits are assigned as a vendor ID, a vendor-specific ID is given, and the next 8 bits is a model ID.

  The definition file storage means 53 may store a table for configuring a definition file for each electrical appliance. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, as a MAC address maker table, the code of the upper 24 bits and the manufacturer name of the electrical appliance 20 (not necessarily the vendor name of the manufacturer, the entire electrical appliance 20 having the communication I / F). Vendor (manufacturer) name), points for scoring, and ID are associated with each other. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 6, as the MAC address model table, the upper 8 bits code, the model name of the electrical appliance 20, the points for scoring, and the ID are associated with each other.

  By extracting each element of this MAC address maker table and MAC address model table, it becomes a definition item and constitutes a definition file for each electrical appliance. For example, ID001 in the MAC address maker table corresponds to X5 (see FIG. 9) (definition item X5) of the appliance A definition file, and ID010 in the MAC address device table corresponds to Y2 (definition item Y2 in the appliance A definition file). )

  In response to the A1 packet transmitted as the request packet, the electrical appliance 20 transmits a response packet (X5). The response packet (X5) is compared with the definition items in the definition file of the electrical appliance A. If they are the same, points are given with reference to each table.

  For example, in the above example, the case where the response packet X5 is a packet including information on the target MAC address and the 48-bit code is “04-A3-43-5F-43-23” will be described. Since the upper 24 bits are the same as the definition item X5 (ID001), 0.3 points are given. Further, in the next 8 bits, since it is the same as the definition item (ID010), 0.3 points are given. Therefore, the electric appliance A definition file can obtain a total of 0.6 points.

  In the above example, one request packet (A1) is scored for two definition items (ID001, ID010) by a response packet (X5). A plurality of definition items may be scored from the packet.

  Next, the power consumption management device 50 compares the response packet Y8 with Y2 of the appliance A definition file, compares the response packet Z9 with Z3 of the appliance A definition file, and acquires each point. (See FIG. 9). The total score of the electrical appliance A definition file is the sum of all the points thus obtained. This is calculated for all definition files, such as an appliance A definition file, an appliance B definition file, an appliance C definition file,.

  In the above description, the case where the response packet X5 and the definition item X5 are the same has been described.

  As an example of judging by similarity, a mode in which 0.2 points are given if the upper 16 bits of the upper 24 bits of the response packet X5 are the same, and 0.1 points are given if the upper 8 bits are the same (packet) It may be determined by the degree of similarity of the character string. In this way, the point value can be adjusted such that the point is increased when the similarity between the response packet and the definition item is high.

  The power consumption management device 50 receives a plurality of response packets from the appliance 20 by transmitting a plurality of types of request packets.

  Next, the electrical appliance type determining means 55 of the power consumption management device 50 determines the type of the electrical appliance 20 (device) (step S14). That is, scoring as described above is performed for all definition files, the obtained scores are compared, and the definition file with the highest score is extracted, thereby determining the type of the appliance 20.

  For example, as described above, the appliance A definition file, the appliance B definition file, the appliance C definition file, and the definition files for all the appliances are calculated, and the appliance with the highest score is obtained. The product definition file is extracted to identify the electrical appliance 20.

  Referring to FIG. 9, for example, since the response packet (X5, Y8, Z9) and X5 of the appliance A definition file (X5, Y2, Z3) are the same, the appliance A definition file has 0.6. Suppose you get points. On the other hand, each definition item (X1, Y7, Z1) of the appliance B definition file is not the same as the response packet (X5, Y8, Z9). Suppose you have 3 points.

  And since the electrical appliance C definition file (X5, Y8, Z8) and the response packet (X5, Y8, Z9) and the definition item Y8 are the same, 0.9 points were acquired in the electrical appliance A definition file. And In this case, among the definition files for the appliances A to C, the definition file for the appliance C is determined to be the highest overall point (0.9 points), and the definition file C is extracted. Is determined to be appliance C.

  As an example, the appliance A definition file is defined as a definition file up to the manufacturer name A company, and the appliance B definition file is added to the manufacturer name A company, and is one of the types of devices (AB-01). The definition file can be specified up to. In this case, when an electrical appliance 20 is manufactured by company A and has the type AB-01, the electrical product B definition file has a higher point than the electrical appliance A definition file. Therefore, the electrical appliance 20 is determined to be the electrical appliance B (AB-01 of company A) that has a high overall score.

  Conversely, if a certain electrical appliance 20 is manufactured by Company A and is of the type BC-03, it cannot be specified that it is BC-03. It can be specified by the definition file. Therefore, although the device name cannot be specified, at least the manufacturer name can be specified, and the appliance information can be specified step by step.

  As an example of a determination element for scoring other than the MAC address, an example in which determination is made based on a TCP / IP port will be described with reference to FIGS. Electrical appliance 20 well-known port The type of electrical appliance 20 is specified according to the usage status of the port number specially used (bound) in the electrical appliance 20.

  As shown in FIG. 7, in the electrical appliance X, it is assumed that the port numbers 5000 and 5002 are in use and the 5001 is not in use. For example, this status is detected by a NETSTAT command. Then, as shown in FIG. 8, the port number table stored in the definition file storage means 53 is referred to, and the port numbers in use (bind) are compared to determine the identity with the definition item of ID100. And give points. Port numbers 5000 and 5002 are in use, and if 5001 is not in use, 0.2 points are given.

  When using the NETSTAT command, as a request packet, the NETSTAT command may transmit a packet to the partner electrical appliance 20, but as described in the third embodiment, the power consumption management device 50 Broadcast or multicast packets may be received from the electrical appliance 20 in advance, and a NETSTAT command result may be obtained using these received packets.

  That is, even if the power consumption amount management apparatus 50 does not transmit a NETSTAT command serving as a request packet to the electrical appliance 20, a broadcast or multicast packet ( The scoring process described above may be realized based on a packet that notifies the binding state of the port number.

  Note that points are assigned not only when the port numbers in the port number table and the binding status are completely the same, but also what percentage of existing ports are in use and what percentage is not in use. The points may be given according to the degree of use (the degree of use is not completely the same but is similar). For example, it is assumed that the usage degree of a port and points are stored in advance as a table. In this case, port numbers 5000 and 5002 are in use, and when port 5001 is not in use, 66% of the ports are in use. Therefore, when 66% of the ports are in use, the processing is such that a predetermined point is given with reference to the table.

  Further, the OS (Operating System) version may be determined and the point may be assigned. For example, as described in the third embodiment, an nbns (Net BIOS Name Server) packet is received as a response packet transmitted in broadcast, OS version information is acquired, and the OS is identified based on this. Then, points may be given based on the identified version of the OS.

  For example, in the definition file of the electrical appliance AB-01, it is assumed that “if the OS version is“ X type ”is used, 0.5 is added as a point” is registered as a definition item. At this time, if the OS version is specified as “X type” by the nbns packet, 0.5 is added to the point of the electrical appliance AB-01.

  Next, the power consumption amount calculation means 58 of the power consumption amount management device 50 executes the power consumption amount calculation process of FIG. 3 (step S15). The power consumption amount calculation means 58 detects one of the electric appliances 20 connected to the network that has been activated (step S20). It should be noted that once the type determination process is executed and the type of the electrical appliance 20 is stored in the power consumption management device 50, the power source of the electrical appliance 20 for which the type has been determined may be turned off thereafter. Good. In this case, as shown in FIG. 3, even if the power consumption calculation process is executed, the activation of the electrical appliance 20 is not detected by the determination in step S20, and therefore the processes after step S21 are not executed ( Step S20: NO). However, after the electric appliance 20 is powered on, step S21 and subsequent steps are executed.

  When detecting the activation of the electrical appliance 20 whose type is determined (step S20: YES), the power consumption management device 50 starts measuring the activation time of the electrical appliance 20 (step S21). That is, the power consumption management device 50 periodically transmits a PING packet (for example, every 3 minutes) to check whether the power supply of the electrical appliance 20 is turned on by a packet response, If a response is returned, it is assumed that the power is on and the time from the first response is accumulated and measured.

  Transmission of the PING packet is continuously executed periodically, but as parallel processing, the power consumption amount calculation means 58 accesses the catalog value providing server 300 and acquires the power consumption catalog value of the electrical appliance 20. (Step S22).

  The power consumption catalog value is, for example, the amount of power consumed by the electrical appliance 20 per hour, and is a value determined for each electrical appliance 20, and is stored in the catalog value database 305.

  Note that, as the power consumption catalog value, the power consumption catalog value in the normal use mode when the appliance is normally used and the standby state that consumes power while saving the power consumption by putting the appliance 20 in the standby state. There is an appliance 20 that has both mode power consumption catalog values. In this case, the power consumption amount management device 50 determines whether the electrical appliance 20 belongs to one of these modes by transmitting a request packet, adopts the determined power consumption catalog value, and will be described below. Power consumption data to be generated may be generated.

  Next, the power consumption calculation means 58 calculates the power consumption using the activation time of the electrical appliance 20 and the power consumption catalog value (step S23). That is, the product of the activation time of the appliance 20 and the acquired power consumption catalog value is calculated. Then, the calculated value is generated as power consumption data (step S24). Note that the power consumption calculation processing is executed after a predetermined time such as 10 minutes elapses. This predetermined time can be manually determined by the user.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a correspondence table between electrical appliances and power consumption. Corresponds to the type of electrical appliance determined by the type determination process, the startup time and startup time of the electrical appliance 20, the power consumption catalog value acquired from the catalog value providing server 300, and the power consumption generated as power consumption data It is attached.

  For example, the appliance type “TV-01” has a startup time of 10:10, a startup time of “1 hour 50 minutes”, a power consumption catalog value of “570 Wh”, and a power consumption amount. Is the product of the startup time and the power consumption catalog value, and is “1045 Wh”.

  Returning to FIG. 2, next, the power consumption amount management apparatus 50 executes a power consumption amount data transmission process of transmitting the calculated power consumption amount data to the user terminal 30 (step S <b> 17). When receiving the power consumption data, the user terminal 30 outputs the power consumption data to the power consumption data output means 32.

  11 and 12 are screen display examples when the power consumption data is displayed on the user terminal 30. FIG. When the user terminal 30 is a mobile phone (portable information terminal) as shown in FIG. 11, if the user carries a mobile phone, the TV in the living room is left on and the user can study. Even in the case, the power consumption data is notified to the mobile phone brought to the study.

  However, even if a device such as a television is left in a power-on state, there is often no need for notification of power consumption data if the user is viewing it. Therefore, as a preferred embodiment, the power supply leaving determination process is executed (step S16) before the power consumption data transmission process (step S17).

  With reference to FIG. 14, the power supply leaving determination process will be described. The power consumption management device 50 checks the position information of the electrical appliance 20 that has generated the power consumption data (step S30). Here, the user inputs the positional information of the electrical appliance 20 in advance via the user terminal 30 or the like, and stores it in the positional information storage unit 60 of the power consumption management device 50. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a correspondence table between the electrical appliance 20 and position information. The user inputs the electrical appliance and the location information (“living room”, “study”, “kitchen”) in association with each other. Here, the user may input the numerical values of latitude and longitude as the position information via the user terminal 30 and associate them with the electrical appliance 20. The power consumption management device 50 confirms the position information of the electrical appliance 20 that has generated the power consumption data based on the position information stored in the position information storage unit 60 in advance.

  Next, the power consumption management device 50 confirms the position information of the user terminal 30 (step S31). As a premise of this, the user notifies the power consumption management device 50 which appliance 20 the user terminal 30 corresponds to. For example, the user notifies the user terminal 30 of the type “PC-01” of the electrical appliance 20. Thereby, the power consumption management apparatus 50 can confirm that “PC-01” which is the user terminal 30 has the position information “study”.

  As another embodiment, when the user terminal 30 receives a radio wave for position information and calculates position information (GPS or the like), the power supply neglect determination unit 59 includes the position information transmission unit 31 ( For example, numerical values of latitude and longitude are acquired as position information. Thereby, it can confirm that the positional information on the user terminal 30 is a numerical value of predetermined latitude and longitude.

  Furthermore, as another embodiment, it can be determined whether or not the user terminal 30 is in the home based on whether or not the radio wave reachable range of the home network (for example, the radio wave coverage range of the wireless LAN). In this case, when the user terminal 30 is within the home network radio wave reachable range, the position information becomes identification data indicating that the user terminal 30 is in the home, and when the user terminal 30 is outside the home network radio wave reachable range, The information is identification data indicating that the user is out.

  Next, the power consumption management device 50 compares the position information of the appliance 20 and the position information of the user terminal 30 to determine whether the position information matches (matches within a predetermined range) ( Step S32). For example, if the location information of the electrical appliance 20 is “study” and the location information of the user terminal 30 is “study”, the location information matches. Further, when the position information is a numerical value of latitude and longitude, it is assumed that the position information matches within a predetermined range if it is within a predetermined error range. Further, when the location information is identification data indicating that the user is out of the home network, the location information is “out of office”, and the home appliance 20 has the home location information. Therefore, all the electric appliances 20 are left in a power-on state.

  If the position information matches (step S32: YES), the non-transmission flag is activated and the process is terminated (step S33). Here, the non-transmission flag is a flag indicating that power consumption amount data is not transmitted in the power consumption amount data transmission processing executed after the end of the power supply leaving determination processing. That is, when the position information matches, it is determined (presumed) that the user is in the vicinity of the electrical appliance 20 that is powered on, and thus it is assumed that transmission of power consumption data is not required. For this reason, the non-transmission flag is activated.

  If the position information does not match (step S32: NO), it is determined that the electrical appliance 20 is powered on and left (step S34), and thus the process is terminated without starting the non-transmission flag.

  Next, the power consumption amount management apparatus 50 executes a power consumption amount data transmission process after the power supply leaving determination process ends (step S17) (see FIG. 2). The power consumption data transmission means 61 determines whether or not the non-transmission flag is activated, and transmits the power consumption data to the user terminal 30 when the non-transmission flag is not activated.

  With reference to FIG. 15, the power consumption data display processing executed by the user terminal 30 will be described. As shown in FIG. 11 described above, the power consumption data may be displayed on the user terminal 30, but in this aspect, the power consumption data of the appliance 20 is displayed when the power of the user terminal 30 is turned off. The case will be described.

  If the user terminal 30 determines whether the power of the user terminal 30 is turned off (such as OS (Operating System) shutdown), and if the user terminal 30 determines that the power is turned off, step S41 is performed. The process from is executed.

  When it is determined that the shutdown is performed (step S40: YES), a process of acquiring the power consumption amount data in the power consumption amount management apparatus 50 is executed (step S41). That is, the power consumption amount management device 50 does not display the power consumption amount data received by the user terminal 30 by sequentially executing the power consumption amount data transmission processing, but the power consumption amount data from the user terminal 30. In response to the acquisition request, the power consumption data transmission process is executed. In other words, the power consumption amount management device 50 stores the power consumption amount data of each electrical appliance 20 and is on standby until an acquisition request is received from the user terminal 30.

  Next, the user terminal 30 displays the acquired power consumption data (step S42). FIG. 12 is an example in which the power consumption data is acquired and displayed while the user terminal 30 is shut down. Here, the user terminal 30 (PC-01) is located in the study, and the television (TV-01) with the location information “living” and the photo printer (RA-01) with the location information “kitchen” are predetermined when the power is turned on. Notifying that you have been left for hours. After the power consumption data is displayed and a predetermined time (1, 2 minutes, etc.) has passed, the user terminal 30 is powered off. This may be performed under the control of the OS.

  In the above-described type determination / power consumption data transmission process, it is assumed that the power consumption calculation process (step S15) is performed immediately after the type determination process (step S14) of the electrical appliance 20. Once the type determination process (step S14) is executed, the appliance information of the appliance is determined, and the appliance information is stored in the power consumption management device 50, the power consumption calculation process (step S15). Subsequent execution timings may be arbitrary. For example, the processing after the power consumption calculation process (step S15) may be periodically executed at a timing such as every 15 minutes.

[Hardware configuration diagram]
FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the power consumption management device 50. The server in which the present invention is implemented may be a standard server, and an example of the configuration is shown below.

  The power consumption management device 50 includes a CPU 310 (a plurality of CPUs such as the CPU 320 may be added in a multiprocessor configuration), a bus line 490, a communication I / F (I / F: interface) 330, which configure the control unit 10. Main memory 340, BIOS (Basic Input Output System) 350, display device 360, I / O controller 370, input device 380 such as keyboard and mouse, hard disk or flash disk (SSD) 390, optical disk drive 400, and semiconductor memory 420 Prepare. The hard disk or flash disk (SSD) 390, the optical disk drive 400, and the semiconductor memory 420 are collectively referred to as the storage unit 120.

  The control unit 10 is a part that controls the power consumption management device 50 in an integrated manner, and reads and executes various programs stored in a hard disk or a flash disk (SSD) 390 as appropriate to cooperate with the hardware described above. The various functions according to the present invention are realized.

  The communication I / F 330 is a network adapter when the power consumption management device 50 transmits / receives information and data to / from the electrical appliance 20 via the network 1 described above. The communication I / F 330 may include a modem, a cable modem, and an Ethernet (registered trademark) adapter.

  The BIOS 350 records a boot program executed by the CPU 310 when the power consumption management device 50 is started, a program depending on the hardware of the power consumption management device 50, and the like.

  The display device 360 includes a display device such as a cathode ray tube display device (CRT) or a liquid crystal display device (LCD).

  The I / O controller 370 can be connected to a storage unit 120 that is a storage device such as a hard disk or flash disk (SSD) 390, an optical disk drive 400, and a semiconductor memory 420.

  The input device 380 accepts input by the administrator of the power consumption management device 50.

  The hard disk or flash disk (SSD) 390 stores various programs for causing the hardware to function as the power consumption management apparatus 50, programs for executing the functions of the present invention, and tables and records to be described later. The power consumption management device 50 can also use a hard disk or a flash disk (SSD) (not shown) separately provided as an external storage device.

  As the optical disk drive 400, for example, a DVD-ROM drive, a CD-ROM drive, a DVD-RAM drive, or a CD-RAM drive can be used. In this case, the optical disk 410 corresponding to each drive is used. A program or data may be read from the optical disk 410 by the optical disk drive 400 and provided to the main memory 340 or the hard disk or flash disk (SSD) 390 via the I / O controller 370.

  The computer referred to in the present invention refers to an information processing device including a storage device, a control unit, and the like, and the power consumption management device 50 includes an information processing device including the control unit 10, the storage unit 120, and the like. This information processing apparatus is included in the concept of the computer of the present invention.

[Second Embodiment: Device Recognition Server]
In the first embodiment, the embodiment in which the power consumption management device 50 determines the type of the electrical appliance 20 has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the type of the electrical appliance 20 is connected via a public line. An aspect determined by the device recognition server 500 will be described below as a second embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 17, the power consumption management system 5 includes a power consumption management device 50, an appliance 20, a device recognition server 500, a user terminal 30, a catalog value providing server 300, and a catalog value database 305. And. In a preferred embodiment, the electrical appliance 20 and the power consumption management device 50 are communicably connected via a local network (home network), and can communicate with the device recognition server 500 via a public line (such as the Internet). It is connected to the.

  The power consumption management device 50 includes a request packet transmission unit 51, a response packet reception unit 52, an appliance type information request unit 56, an appliance type determination unit 57, a power consumption calculation unit 58, and power consumption data. A transmission means 61, and as a more preferred embodiment, a power supply leaving determination means 59 and a position information storage means 60. The hardware configuration of the power consumption management device 50 is the same as that of the first embodiment. The power consumption management device 50 can be operated on, for example, a device on which a Java (registered trademark) VM (Java Virtual Machine) and an OSGi (Open Services Gateway Initiative) framework operate.

  The request packet transmission unit 51 has a function of transmitting a request packet to the electrical appliance 20 and is realized by the communication I / F 330 (see FIG. 16) and the control unit 10.

  The response packet receiving unit 52 has a function of receiving a response packet from the electrical appliance 20 and is realized by the communication I / F 330 and the control unit 10.

  The appliance type information requesting unit 56 has a function of requesting information (electric appliance information) for specifying the appliance type from the device recognition server 500, and is realized by the communication I / F 330 and the control unit 10. . Specifically, the electrical appliance type information requesting means 56 sends the request packet transmitted from the power consumption management device 50 to the electrical appliance 20 and the response packet responded by the electrical appliance 20 to the device recognition server 500. Send and request appliance information.

  The appliance type determination unit 57 has a function of receiving information (electric appliance information) that specifies the appliance type specified by the device recognition server 500, and is realized by the communication I / F 330 and the control unit 10.

  The power consumption amount calculating means 58, the power supply leaving judgment means 59, the position information storage means 60, and the power consumption amount data transmitting means 61 have the same functions as in the first embodiment, but the power consumption amount calculating means 58 is a device recognition unit. Based on the electrical appliance information specified by the server 500, the power consumption is calculated.

  The device recognition server 500 includes a request receiving unit 501 that receives a request from the power consumption management device 50, a scoring unit 502, a definition file database 503, and an appliance type determination unit 504. The device recognition server 500 is a computer, and the basic hardware configuration may be the same as that of the power consumption management device 50.

  The request receiving unit 501 has a function of receiving a request for electrical appliance information from the power consumption management device 50, and is realized by a control unit and a communication I / F. Specifically, a request packet transmitted to the electrical appliance 20 from the power consumption management device 50 and a response packet responded to by the electrical appliance 20 are received from the power consumption management device 50 and scored means 502 Prompt processing.

  The scoring unit 502 has a function of scoring each definition file based on the definition file, and is realized by a control unit, a hard disk, or a flash disk (SSD). This function is the same as the scoring means 54 of the first embodiment.

  The definition file database (definition file storage means) 503 has a database function for storing a definition file, which will be described later, and is realized by a control unit, a hard disk, or a flash disk (SSD). This function is the same as the definition file storage unit 53 of the first embodiment, but since the definition file database 503 is a dedicated server, it can be handled rather than managed by the power consumption management device 50. It is possible to increase the amount of definition file data. Note that SQL may be used as the database language.

  The appliance type determination unit 504 has a function of finally determining the type of appliance and transmitting it to the power consumption management device 50, and is realized by a control unit, a hard disk, or a flash disk (SSD). This function is different from the electrical appliance type determining means 55 of the first embodiment except for the function of transmitting electrical appliance information, which is information about the finally determined electrical appliance type, to the power consumption management device 50. It is the same.

  The electrical appliance 20 has the same functional configuration as that of the first embodiment.

  A power consumption management system 5 including a power consumption management device 50 to which the electrical appliance 20 is communicably connected and a device recognition server 500 that is communicably connected to the power consumption management device 50 includes the following: Execute.

  The power consumption amount management device 50 transmits a predetermined request packet to the electrical appliance 20, and a response for determining the type of the electrical appliance 20 from the electrical appliance 20 that has transmitted the request packet. A response packet receiving step for receiving a packet and a type information requesting step for requesting information on the type of the electrical appliance 20 by transmitting the response packet to the device recognition server 500 are executed.

  On the other hand, the device recognition server 500 stores a definition file defined for each electrical appliance 20, and the response packet and the definition for each electrical appliance 20 in response to a request from the power consumption management device 50. A scoring step for comparing and scoring files, and a definition file having a high score by the scoring step are extracted, and the appliance information of the definition file is used as appliance information of the appliance 20 in the power consumption amount management apparatus 50. And an electrical appliance type determining step for transmitting electrical appliance information.

  Next, the electrical appliance type determination unit 57 of the power consumption management device 50 receives electrical appliance information from the device recognition server 500 and determines the electrical appliance information as electrical appliance information of the electrical appliance 20. Next, the power consumption amount calculation means 58 of the power consumption amount management apparatus 50 acquires the power consumption catalog value in the catalog value providing server, as in the first embodiment. Thereafter, the power consumption data is transmitted to the user terminal 30 as in the first embodiment. As a premise of this, the power supply leaving determination means 59 and the position information storage means 60 may determine whether the electric appliance is left with the power on. According to the present embodiment, it is possible to provide a SaaS (Software as a Service) type up to the determination of the type of electrical appliance.

  Note that according to the second embodiment, it is possible to automatically specify the type of appliances connected so as to be communicable (such as a device name that specifies the type of appliance) without involving the user. However, since the device recognition server 500 determines the appliance information, even if the definition file is newly updated, only the definition file database 503 of the device recognition server 500 needs to be updated. There is no need to update the definition file.

  That is, since at least one power consumption management device 50 is arranged in the user's home or company, updating the definition files of these individual power consumption management devices 50 may not be efficient. is there. On the other hand, since the update can be performed by updating only the definition file database 503 of the device recognition server 500, as a result, the management of information for determining the type of the electrical appliance 20 can be unified. It is. Since the definition file is updated every time the type of the electrical appliance 20 increases (every time a new electrical appliance 20 is released), the convenience is greatly enhanced by unification.

[Third embodiment: embodiment of passive packet]
In the third embodiment, the power consumption amount management device 50 does not transmit a request packet to the electrical appliance 20 (the power consumption amount management device 50 does not include the request packet transmission unit 51), and the type determination process (step This is an embodiment for executing S11 to S14).

  That is, the broadcast packet and the multicast packet (passive packet) transmitted from the electrical appliance 20 to the power consumption management device 50 at a predetermined timing are processed as (response) packets.

  When determining the type of the electrical appliance 20, the power consumption management device 50 receives broadcast or multicast packets from the electrical appliance 20 without transmitting a request packet to the electrical appliance 20, and receives these packets. Based on this, the scoring process is performed by referring to the definition file, and the type of the electrical appliance 20 is determined (steps S12 to S14 of the type determination process in FIG. 3).

  A broadcast packet is a data packet that is simultaneously transmitted to all terminals on the network. A multicast packet is a data packet that is transmitted to a plurality of predetermined terminals on the network simultaneously, but not to all terminals, like a broadcast packet.

  For example, an nbns packet, which is a passive packet, is received, OS version information is acquired, the OS is identified based on the OS version information, and points may be awarded based on the identified OS version. For example, in the definition file of the electrical appliance AB-01, it is assumed that “if the OS version is“ X type ”is used, 0.5 is added as a point” is registered as a definition item. At this time, if the OS version is specified as “X type” by the nbns packet, 0.5 is added to the point of the electrical appliance AB-01.

  Note that the power consumption management device 50 may identify the electrical appliance 20 based on the total score obtained by receiving a plurality of types of broadcast or multicast packets and scoring them individually.

  The power consumption management device 50 transmits a request packet, receives a response packet to the request packet, performs a scoring process, and receives a broadcast or multicast packet and performs a scoring process. In combination, the type of the electrical appliance 20 may be specified.

  Similarly, when the device recognition server 500 determines the type of the electrical appliance 20, the power consumption management device 50 transmits a broadcast or multicast packet from the electrical appliance 20 without transmitting a request packet to the electrical appliance 20. Based on these packets, the device recognition server 500 may perform scoring processing to determine the type of the electrical appliance 20.

[Auxiliary input from user]
According to the above-described embodiment, the appliance information of the appliance 20 is determined by the power consumption management device 50 or the device recognition server 500. However, the auxiliary data input from the user is accepted and based on this data. Electrical appliance information may be determined. For example, when the user recognizes data related to the electrical appliance 20 (for example, a manufacturer name), the user consumes the data related to the electrical appliance 20 by the power consumption management device 50 or the device recognition server 500, and this data Based on the result of scoring, the appliance information of the appliance 20 is determined. That is, the power consumption management device 50 or the device recognition server 500 determines, for example, a manufacturer name based on input data from the user before scoring, refers only to a definition file related to the determined manufacturer name, and the like. The appliance information is determined without referring to the definition file including the manufacturer name.

  Here, the input of the manufacturer name may be text input by the user for any of the electrical appliance 20, the power consumption management device 50, or the device recognition server 500, or character recognition is performed from an image captured by a digital camera, The manufacturer name may be extracted from this character, and the data of the manufacturer name may be used. In other words, the power consumption management apparatus 50 or the device recognition server 500 receives an input of an image taken with a digital camera, performs character recognition on the image, and extracts information about the appliance 20 as text characters. The extracted text characters are used as input data.

  Here, although it is possible to determine up to the manufacturer name of the electrical appliance 20, it may be possible to determine in stages rather than final classification such that the device name of the electrical appliance 20 cannot be determined. In order to deal with such a case, for example, “The manufacturer name can be specified with XX, but the device name is unknown, so please input the device name.” You may display a wizard to ask. In other words, when the manufacturer name can be determined but the device name cannot be determined, this question message is displayed. Here, the content of the question is not limited to the device name, but may ask the type of the electrical appliance 20 (digital television, recording medium playback recorder, etc.), and the size, color, and shape of the electrical appliance 20 that is assumed. You may ask. In this case, the electrical appliance 20 is stored in advance in association with the size, color, shape, and the like, and by obtaining a response to these, the device name or the like can be identified. When making an inquiry, a plurality of icons (images) of the electrical appliances 20 as candidates to be determined may be displayed and a selection of an icon may be received from the user.

  The input data is not limited to the manufacturer name described above, but may be a product name, logo mark, house mark, model name, or the like. In this case, it is assumed that a product name, a logo mark, a house mark, a model name, and the like to be used constitute a definition item and are stored in advance as a definition file. Conversely, data input from the user may be stored as definition items and used to update a database such as a definition file.

  As a result, by receiving the auxiliary information of the electrical appliance 20 from the user in this way, it is possible to shorten the processing time for determining the type and determine an appropriate type.

[HTTP packet capture]
When the power consumption management device 50 is a router, access is performed via the power consumption management device 50 when the electrical appliance 20 is connected to an external network such as a public line (Internet). Therefore, the power consumption management apparatus 50 may determine the appliance information of the appliance 20 by acquiring (capturing) a request packet from the appliance 20 to the external network and analyzing the packet. That is, when the electrical appliance 20 serving as the client terminal performs communication by transmitting an HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) request packet, all or a part of the packet from the first request packet to the end of communication is received. You may utilize for the determination of the electric appliance information of the electric appliance 20. FIG.

  For example, when the electrical appliance 20 is a digital television, there may be a difference in contents that can be browsed and reproduced depending on the type of the digital television. The digital TV A has a Web page browsing function, a video playback function, and a rental video playback function, whereas the digital TV B has only a Web page browsing function. Therefore, when the electrical appliance 20 transmits a playback request packet of the video playback function and the power consumption management device 50 captures the packet, the electrical appliance 20 is not the digital television B but the digital television A. decide. As described above, the appliance information (type) of the appliance 20 may be determined according to the type of the requested packet according to the difference in the reproducible content.

[Other information that can be used to determine the type]
In determining the type of the electrical appliance 20, it is also possible to determine the type of the electrical appliance 20 by classifying the types of DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) clients.
It is also possible to use information as to whether or not the appliance 20 is compatible with IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6).
Communication between the appliances 20 in the network may be established by using a manufacturer-specific protocol. For example, when a NAS (Network Attached Storage) and a personal computer are connected to a network (such as a LAN), the personal computer may detect the NAS and transmit a packet unique to the manufacturer. In this case, the power consumption management apparatus 50 may acquire a manufacturer-specific packet and determine the type.
The type of the electrical appliance 20 may be determined based on the power consumption waveform formed as a time series graph of the power consumption of each electrical appliance 20. That is, since the waveform of power consumption differs depending on the type of the electrical appliance 20, the electrical power consumption waveform for each electrical appliance 20 is stored in advance, and the electrical appliance 20 is identified by comparing with the stored waveform. May be.

  The means and functions described above are realized by a computer (including a CPU, an information processing device, and various terminals) reading and executing a predetermined application program. The application program is provided in a form recorded on a computer-readable recording medium such as a flexible disk, CD (CD-ROM, etc.), DVD (DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM, etc.), for example. In this case, the computer reads the application program from the recording medium, transfers it to the internal storage device or the external storage device, stores it, and executes it. The program may be recorded in advance in a storage device (recording medium) such as a magnetic disk, an optical disk, or a magneto-optical disk, and provided from the storage device to a computer via a communication line.

  As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not limited to these embodiment mentioned above. The effects described in the embodiments of the present invention are only the most preferable effects resulting from the present invention, and the effects of the present invention are limited to those described in the embodiments of the present invention. is not.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Network system 5 Power consumption management system 20 Electrical appliance 30 User terminal 50 Power consumption management apparatus 300 Catalog value provision server 500 Device recognition server

Claims (7)

A power consumption management device for managing power consumption of electrical appliances connected to a network,
A startup time measuring means for detecting startup of the power supply of the appliance and starting measurement of startup time for the appliance;
Electrical appliance type determining means for determining electrical appliance information of the electrical appliance;
A packet receiving means for receiving a packet for determining the type of the electrical appliance;
Storage means for storing a definition file defined for each electrical appliance;
Comparing the packet and the definition file for each appliance, and scoring means for scoring,
The electrical appliance type determining means extracts a definition file having a high score from the scoring means, determines electrical appliance information in the definition file as electrical appliance information of the electrical appliance,
further,
Power consumption calculating means for calculating the power consumption of the electrical appliance based on the power consumption catalog value searched from the electrical appliance information and the startup time ;
A power consumption management device comprising: The power consumption management device according to claim 1,
Power consumption data transmission means for transmitting the power consumption calculated by the power consumption calculation means to the user terminal as power consumption data;
Position information storage means for storing position information of the appliance;
Receiving position information of the user terminal from the user terminal, and determining whether or not the power of the electrical appliance is left on based on the position information of the user terminal and the position information of the electrical appliance Judgment means,
With
The power consumption data transmission means transmits the power consumption calculated by the power consumption calculation means to the user terminal as power consumption data when it is determined that the power supply of the appliance is on and left unattended. Power consumption management device. A system comprising the power consumption management device according to claim 2 ,
A system in which the user terminal displays received power consumption data when the user terminal is turned off.   A power consumption management system comprising a power consumption management device for managing power consumption of electrical appliances connected to a network, and a device recognition server,
  A startup time measuring means for detecting startup of the power supply of the appliance and starting measurement of startup time for the appliance;
  Electrical appliance type determining means for determining electrical appliance information of the electrical appliance;
  A packet receiving means for receiving a packet for determining the type of the electrical appliance;
  Storage means for storing a definition file defined for each electrical appliance;
  Comparing the packet and the definition file for each appliance, and scoring means for scoring,
  The electrical appliance type determining means extracts a definition file having a high score from the scoring means, determines electrical appliance information in the definition file as electrical appliance information of the electrical appliance,
  further,
  Power consumption calculating means for calculating the power consumption of the electrical appliance based on the power consumption catalog value searched from the electrical appliance information and the startup time;
  A power consumption management system comprising: A power consumption management device that manages the power consumption of electrical appliances connected to the network
A startup time measuring step of detecting startup of the power supply of the appliance and starting measurement of startup time for the appliance;
An appliance type determination step for determining appliance information of the appliance;
A packet receiving step of receiving a packet for determining the type of the electrical appliance;
A storage step of storing a definition file defined for each electric appliance;
A scoring step of comparing and scoring the definition file for each packet and the appliance;
In the electrical appliance type determination step, a definition file having a high score of the scoring means is extracted, electrical appliance information of the definition file is determined as electrical appliance information of the electrical appliance,
further,
A power consumption amount calculating step of calculating a power consumption amount of the electric appliance based on the power consumption catalog value searched from the electric appliance information and the startup time ;
Power consumption management method to execute.   A power consumption management system comprising a power consumption management device that manages the power consumption of electrical appliances connected to a network and a device recognition server,
  A startup time measuring step of detecting startup of the power supply of the appliance and starting measurement of startup time for the appliance;
  An appliance type determination step for determining appliance information of the appliance;
  A packet receiving step of receiving a packet for determining the type of the electrical appliance;
  A storage step of storing a definition file defined for each electric appliance;
  A scoring step of comparing and scoring the definition file for each packet and the appliance;
  In the electrical appliance type determination step, a definition file having a high score of the scoring means is extracted, electrical appliance information of the definition file is determined as electrical appliance information of the electrical appliance,
  further,
  A power consumption amount calculating step of calculating a power consumption amount of the electric appliance based on the power consumption catalog value searched from the electric appliance information and the startup time;
  Power consumption management method to execute. In the power consumption management device that manages the power consumption of electrical appliances connected to the network,
A startup time measurement step of detecting startup of the power supply of the electrical appliance and starting measurement of startup time for the electrical appliance;
Electrical appliance type determination step for determining electrical appliance information of the electrical appliance;
A packet receiving step of receiving a packet for determining the type of the electrical appliance;
A storage step of storing a definition file defined for each electric appliance;
Comparing the definition file for each packet and the electrical appliance, and scoring step for scoring,
In the electrical appliance type determination step, a definition file having a high score of the scoring means is extracted, electrical appliance information of the definition file is determined as electrical appliance information of the electrical appliance,
further,
A power consumption amount calculating step for calculating a power consumption amount of the electrical appliance based on the power consumption catalog value searched from the electrical appliance information and the startup time ;
A program for running

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