JP5020924B2 - Home appliance diagnosis method and information processing apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a home appliance diagnosis method and an information processing apparatus.

  Conventionally, when a household electric appliance used at home breaks down, the user calls the manufacturer's call center to explain the trouble situation, and the manufacturer who has received the notification dispatches a service person to the user's house to locate the failure point. It was common to repair. In such a case, since it is difficult for the user to fully explain the failure contents by telephone, there is a problem that the service staff must go to the site to identify the product model number and the cause of the failure.

As a technique for solving such a problem, a home appliance maintenance management system is known (see, for example, Patent Document 1). With this technology, maintenance data is collected for each household electrical appliance and sent to the manufacturer regularly, so that the manufacturer can grasp the status of the household electrical appliance without dispatching service personnel to the site and deal with malfunctions, etc. Can do.
JP 2002-354554 A

  However, in the technique described in Patent Document 1, when the home appliances used in the home are the same manufacturer, the state of all home appliances can be grasped. In general, home appliances are used, and when a single system is configured by combining home appliances from multiple manufacturers, for example, home theater etc., suddenly no video is displayed or no audio is output. In such a case, there is a problem that the failure of the entire system cannot be solved unless all manufacturers perform maintenance using such technology.

  Even if all manufacturers of household electrical appliances used in the home maintain using such technology, all information on household electrical appliances used by the user without knowing it There was a problem that personal information would be known to people unintended by the user because it would be disclosed to the manufacturer.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above, and it is possible for each manufacturer to cope with troubles in home appliances without disclosing personal information of users that is not necessary for solving troubles in home appliances. An object of the present invention is to provide a home appliance diagnosis method and an information processing apparatus.

  In order to solve the above-described problems and achieve the object, the present invention includes a step of receiving user identification information for identifying a user, the user identification information, and communication with an external network connected to the user's local network. Obtaining network device identification information corresponding to the received user identification information from user information storage means associated with the network device identification information for identifying the network device that relays the network device, and the network device identification Using the information, accessing the network device, and acquiring from the network device, home appliance information that is information on the home appliance connected to the local network, and included in the acquired home appliance information, The access information is information for accessing the home appliance. Determining the state of the home appliance with respect to each of the home appliances using the service information, and determining the home appliance in which the trouble has occurred, and the home appliance in which it has been determined that the trouble has occurred And notifying the information processing apparatus connected to the network to the information processing apparatus corresponding to the manufacturer information included in the home appliance information.

  In addition, the present invention provides a receiving means for receiving user identification information for identifying a user, a network device identification for identifying the user identification information and a network device connected to the user's local network and relaying communication with an external network. User information storage means for storing information in association with each other, network device information acquisition means for acquiring network device identification information corresponding to the received user identification information from the user information storage means, and the acquired network Home appliance information acquisition means for accessing the network device using device identification information, and acquiring home appliance information that is information related to the home appliance connected to the local network from the network device, and the acquired home appliance Included in the device information, Using the access information, which is information for checking, the home appliance determining means for determining the home appliance in which the trouble has occurred by diagnosing the state of the home appliance for each of the home appliances, and the trouble Home appliance information transmission means for transmitting the access information of the home appliance determined to have occurred to a predetermined information processing apparatus connected to the network and corresponding to the manufacturer information included in the home appliance information; It is characterized by providing.

  According to the present invention, home appliance information that is information related to home appliances connected to a local network is acquired from a network device connected to the user's local network, and the status of the home appliance is diagnosed for each home appliance. The maker has access to the manufacturer's home appliance by determining the home appliance in which the trouble has occurred and notifying the manufacturer's information processing device of the access information of the home appliance that has been determined to be in trouble. For this reason, each manufacturer is not required to disclose personal information of users, which is not necessary to solve the troubles of home appliances. There is an effect that it is possible to cope with troubles of home appliances.

  Exemplary embodiments of a home appliance diagnosis method and an information processing apparatus according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The present invention is not limited to these embodiments.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a home appliance diagnosis system 10 according to the present embodiment. In the present embodiment, as an example, when diagnosing home appliances connected via a home network 500 (specifically, a wired LAN (Local Area Network), a wireless LAN, etc.) built in a user's home Will be explained. Note that the present invention is not limited to a home network in a home, and may be applied to diagnosis of a device when a home appliance or information device is connected to a LAN in a general company, a university, a public office, or the like.

  A home appliance diagnosis system 10 according to the present embodiment includes a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a PC) 100 of a general call center, a PC 200 of a manufacturer call center, a router 300, and home appliances 400-1 to 400-n. ing. The PC 100, the PC 200, and the router 300 are connected via a network 600 such as the Internet. Further, the router 300 disposed in the user's home and the household electrical appliances 400-1 to 400-n are connected via the home network 500.

  Note that the router 300 arranged in the user's home is not limited to the router as long as it is a network device that relays communication between the home network 500 in the user's home and the external network 600. Also good. The router 300 is set with a global IP address (hereinafter referred to as an IP address) that is identification information for identifying the router 300 in the external network 600.

  The PC 100 of the general call center includes an input / output unit 101, a communication unit 102, a user information acquisition unit 103, a home appliance information acquisition unit 104, a home appliance determination unit 105, a user information storage unit 110, and a home appliance information storage. Part 120. The business operator who operates the general call center enters into a contract with the user to allow the PC 100 to acquire information on the home appliances installed in the user's home and the state of the home appliances via the network 600. It shall be.

  The user information storage unit 110 stores information for identifying the router 300 installed in each home of a plurality of users, that is, the IP address of the router. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a data configuration of the user information storage unit 110. As shown in FIG. 2, the user information storage unit 110 stores user identification information (hereinafter referred to as a user ID) and a router IP address in association with each other.

  The home appliance information storage unit 120 includes information on home appliances acquired from each of the home appliances 400-1 to 400-n connected to the home network 500 built in each of a plurality of users (hereinafter referred to as home appliance information and ), Home appliance identification information (hereinafter referred to as device ID), and a personal identification number. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a data configuration of the home appliance information storage unit 120. The home appliance information storage unit 120 stores a device ID, a manufacturer name, a model number, a router IP address, a port number, and a password in association with each other.

  Of the information stored in the home appliance information storage unit 120, the manufacturer name, model number, IP address of the router 300, and port number of each of the home appliances 400-1 to 400-n are home appliance information and acquired from the router 300. To do. Here, the IP address and port number of the router are access information necessary for accessing the home appliance. When the PC 100 or PC 200 accesses the router 300 using the access information, the router 300 converts the IP address and port number of the router into the private IP address and port number of the home appliance. Thereby, PC100 and PC200 can access intended household appliances 400-x.

  The device ID is information for identifying a home appliance managed by the PC 100 of the general call center. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, for example, “xxxx01001” that is a combination of a user ID “xxxx01” and an identification number “001” that identifies the home appliance 400-1 connected to the home network 500 of the user ID “xxxx01” By setting as the model ID, the PC 100 of the general call center can identify each of the home appliances 400-1 to 400-n connected to the home network 500 of each of a plurality of users.

  The personal identification number is information used by the user to permit disclosure of access information of the home appliance 400 and is information for identifying the home appliance 400. The device ID and password are generated by the system and stored in the home appliance information storage unit 120. The device ID and the password may be unified.

  The input / output unit 101 receives an input of a user ID. More specifically, the input / output unit 101 receives input from an input device such as a keyboard or a mouse, and displays output data on a display device such as a display.

  The communication unit 102 communicates with the router 300, the PC 200, and the like connected via the network 600 using a protocol such as TCP / IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol), and transmits and receives data. In addition, the communication unit 102 includes a remote operation function for remote operation such as Telnet or SSH (Secure SHell). The communication unit 102 transmits a personal identification number corresponding to the home appliance 400-x determined to have a problem to the PC 200 of the manufacturer call center. The communication unit 102 receives a personal identification number from the PC 200 of the manufacturer call center, acquires access information of the home appliance 400-x corresponding to the received personal identification number from the home appliance information storage unit 120, and acquires the acquired access information of the manufacturer call center. It transmits to PC200.

  The user information acquisition unit 103 acquires the IP address of the router 300 corresponding to the user ID accepted by the input / output unit 101 from the user information storage unit 110.

  The home appliance information acquisition unit 104 uses the IP address of the router 300 acquired by the user information acquisition unit 103, and from the router 300 connected via the network 600, the home appliance 400 connected to the router 300 via the home network 500. The home appliance information of −1 to 400-n is acquired and stored in the home appliance information storage unit 120. In addition, the router 300 receives UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) or DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) compliant protocol, ARP (Address Resolution Protocol :) from each of the home appliances 400-1 to 400-n connected to the home network 500. Various information is acquired using Address Resolution Protocol (ICMP), Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), etc., and the manufacturer name and model number of home appliances are connected from the acquired various information to an external network. Determine the port number etc. The details of the process in which the router 300 acquires household electrical appliance information are described in Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-243170 filed earlier by the present applicant.

  The home appliance determination unit 105 remotely accesses each of the home appliances 400-1 to 400-n using each access information of the home appliances 400-1 to 400-n stored in the home appliance information storage unit 120. The state of the device is diagnosed, and the home appliance 400-x in which a trouble has occurred is determined.

  Next, the manufacturer call center PC 200 will be described. The manufacturer call center PC 200 is connected to the general call center PC 100 and the router 300 via the network 600. Similar to the PC 100 described above, the PC 200 has a remote operation function for remote operation, such as Telnet or SSH. There are a plurality of manufacturer call centers for each manufacturer.

  Next, the router 300 and the home appliances 400-1 to 400-n connected to the user's home network 500 will be described. There are a plurality of users, and a home network 500 is constructed for each user.

  The router 300 is connected to the external network 600 and relays communication such as address conversion when communicating with the external network 600 with each of the home appliances 400-1 to 400-n connected to the home network 500. In addition, the router 300 stores household appliance information acquired from the household appliances 400-1 to 400-n connected via the home network 500 in a storage unit. The router 300 acquires home appliance information when the home appliance connects to the home network 500 or when the connection is released. For this reason, the router 300 memorize | stores the newest household appliance information, without a user operating.

  The home appliances 400-1 to 400-n communicate with the router 300 and the home network 500 using a protocol such as TCP / IP. The home appliances 400-1 to 400-n include recording media recording / playback apparatuses such as a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) player, an HD (Hard Disk) player, a CD (Compact Disc) player, a liquid crystal television, a plasma television, and a cathode ray tube. It includes video display devices such as televisions, speakers, telephones, refrigerators, washing machines, routers, PCs, printers, multifunction devices, and the like.

  Next, home appliance diagnosis processing by the home appliance diagnosis system 10 configured as described above will be described. 4 and 5 are flowcharts showing the home appliance diagnosis processing procedure performed by the PC 100, PC 200, router 300, or home appliance 400-1 to 400-n of the home appliance diagnostic system 10. FIG.

  First, when a malfunction occurs in home appliances in the home, the user calls the general call center, and notifies the operator of the user ID for identifying the user and the trouble situation. Note that the user ID may be information such as a user's telephone number because it may be information that uniquely identifies the user. In addition to verbally notifying the operator, an input of a user ID may be accepted by an automatic response from a telephone or the like.

  In the PC 100 of the general call center, the input / output unit 101 receives an input of a user ID (step S401). The user information acquisition unit 103 acquires the IP address of the router 300 corresponding to the user ID from the user information storage unit 110 (step S402). Next, the communication unit 102 remotely logs in to the user router 300 using the IP address of the router 300 (step S403). The router 300 accepts the remote login (Step S404).

  The household appliance information acquisition part 104 requests | requires the household appliance information of the household appliances 400-1 to 400-n connected in the user's home network 500 to the router 300 (step S405). The router 300 acquires household appliance information in response to the request for household appliance information (step S406). The router 300 transmits the home appliance information stored in the router 300 to the PC 100 (step S407). In addition, even if the router 300 transmits home appliance information stored in advance, the router 300 receives a request for home appliance information from the PC 100, and the home appliances 400-1 to 400-n connected to the home network 500 are received. The home appliance information may be acquired from and transmitted.

  The home appliance information acquisition unit 104 receives home appliance information from the router 300 (step S408), and stores the received home appliance information in the home appliance information storage unit 120 (step S409). The home appliance information storage unit 120 stores, in addition to the home appliance information received from the router 300, a device ID and a password that are information for identifying each home appliance.

  The home appliance determination unit 105 transmits a command for diagnosing the state of the home appliance using the access information of each of the home appliances 400-1 to 400-n (step S410). The home appliances 400-1 to 400-n execute a command for diagnosing the state of the home appliance via the router 300 (step S411). Household appliances 400-1 to 400-n transmit the execution result of the command to PC 100 (step S412).

  The home appliance determination unit 105 receives the execution result of the command (step S413), and determines the home appliance in which a trouble has occurred from the execution result of the command (step S414). Next, the home appliance determination unit 105 acquires a personal identification number corresponding to the device ID in which the trouble has occurred from the home appliance information storage unit 120 (step S415). The communication unit 102 transmits the personal identification number to the PC 200 of the manufacturer call center (step S416). In addition, instead of transmitting the personal identification number via the network 600, the operator of the general call center may notify the operator of the manufacturer call center verbally. Alternatively, the operator of the general call center may verbally convey the password to the user by telephone, and the user may verbally convey the password to the operator of the manufacturer call center by telephone transferred to the manufacturer call center.

  The manufacturer call center PC 200 receives the password (step S417). The PC 200 transmits the received personal identification number to the PC 100 of the general call center (step S418). The communication unit 102 of the PC 100 of the general call center receives the personal identification number (step S419), acquires the home appliance access information corresponding to the personal identification number from the home appliance information storage unit 120 (step S420), and the acquired access information. Is transmitted to the PC 200 of the manufacturer call center (step S421). For example, when the PC 200 of the manufacturer call center transmits the personal identification number “1234” to the PC 100 of the general call center, the PC 100 stores the home appliance device corresponding to the personal identification number “1234” from the home appliance information storage unit 120 as shown in FIG. The IP address “a1: b1: c1: d1” and the port number “x” as access information are transmitted to the PC 200 of the manufacturer call center.

  The manufacturer call center PC 200 receives the access information (step S422), and remotely logs in to the home electric appliance 400-x using the access information (step S423). The home appliance 400-x accepts the remote login (step S424). Note that the home appliance 400-x that is permitted to access does not allow access to all programs and data stored in the home appliance 400-x, but further adds access limiting information to the access information. You may make it accessible only to the program and data of a part.

  The PC 200 transmits a command for diagnosing the state of the home electric appliance for which access is permitted (step S425). The home appliance 400-x executes a command for diagnosing the state of the home appliance (step S426), and transmits the execution result of the command to the PC 200 of the manufacturer call center (step S427).

  The PC 200 receives the execution result of the command (step S428), and determines the state of the home appliance from the execution result of the command (step S429). The PC 200 executes a response corresponding to the determined state of the home appliance (step S430). For example, if a trouble that occurs in the home appliance 400-x is solved by updating a program or data stored in the home appliance, the program or data is downloaded from the PC 200 to the home appliance 400-x. In addition, if the problem cannot be resolved by replacing the program or the like, and dispatch of a service person is necessary, the dispatch of the service person is arranged. Even when a service person is dispatched, it is possible to remotely log in to the household electrical appliance 400-x in which a trouble has occurred and to investigate the model number and state of the household electrical appliance, thereby reducing the work load of the service staff at the site. be able to.

  As described above, the PC 100 of the general call center diagnoses each of the home appliances 400-1 to 400-n connected to the user's home network 500, specifies the home appliance in which the trouble has occurred, and then trouble occurs. Since the access information for accessing only the household electrical appliances to be transmitted is transmitted to the PC 200 of the manufacturer call center, the user does not disclose unnecessary personal information, that is, information on household electrical appliances of other manufacturers owned by the user. You can receive a response to troubles.

  As a modification of the above-described embodiment, in addition to transmitting the personal identification number to the PC 200 of the manufacturer call center, the personal identification number is set in the router 300 as the personal identification number for accessing the home appliance 400-x. You may make it request | require a personal identification number when performing remote login to the household appliances 400-x. Thereby, the security in the user's home network 500 can be further improved.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the PC 100 according to the present embodiment. The PC 100 according to the present embodiment includes a control device such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 701, a storage device such as a ROM (Read Only Memory) 702 and a RAM (Random Access Memory) 703, an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), and an optical disk. An external storage device 704 such as a drive; a display device 705 such as a display device; an input device 706 such as a keyboard and a mouse; a communication interface 707 connected to an external network; and a bus 708 connecting them. It has a hardware configuration using a normal computer.

  The home appliance diagnosis program executable on the PC 100 is a file in an installable or executable format, such as a CD (Compact Disk) -ROM, a flexible disk (FD), a CD-R, a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk), or the like. And recorded on a computer-readable recording medium.

Further, the home appliance diagnosis program executable by the PC 100 may be stored on a computer connected to a network such as the Internet and provided by being downloaded via the network. Moreover, you may comprise so that the household appliance diagnosis program which can be performed with PC100 of this Embodiment is provided or distributed via networks, such as the internet.
Moreover, you may comprise so that the household appliance diagnostic program which can be used by embodiment mentioned above is provided by previously incorporating in ROM702 or the like.
The home appliance diagnosis program executed by the PC 100 that can be used in the above-described embodiment includes the above-described units (input / output unit, communication unit, user information acquisition unit, home appliance information acquisition unit, home appliance determination unit, etc.). As the actual hardware, the CPU 701 reads the information acquisition program from the recording medium and executes it to load each of the above units onto the main storage device. The input / output unit, communication unit, user An information acquisition unit, a home appliance information acquisition unit, a home appliance determination unit, and the like are generated on the main storage device.
Note that the user information storage unit 110 and the home appliance information storage unit 120 can be configured by any commonly used storage medium such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), an optical disk, or a semiconductor memory.

  The present invention can also be applied to OSPi (OSGi Service Aggregation Platform) (open software componentization technology based on Java (registered trademark) language). That is, the OSAP service center corresponds to the integrated call center, and the service provider contracted with the OSAP center system corresponds to the manufacturer call center.

  As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated using embodiment mentioned above, a various change or improvement can be added to the said embodiment. In addition, the functions and configurations described in the above-described embodiments can be freely combined and a part of them can be omitted.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the household appliances diagnostic system concerning this Embodiment. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of a data structure of a user information storage part. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of a data structure of a household appliance information storage part. It is a flowchart which shows the household appliance diagnosis processing procedure which PC of a general call center of a household appliance diagnostic system, a maker call center PC, a router, or a household appliance performs. It is a flowchart which shows the household appliance diagnosis processing procedure which PC of a general call center of a household appliance diagnostic system, a maker call center PC, a router, or a household appliance performs. It is the figure which showed the hardware constitutions of PC concerning this Embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

10 Home appliance diagnostic system 100 PC of general call center
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Input / output part 102 Communication part 103 User information acquisition part 104 Home appliance information acquisition part 105 Home appliance determination part 110 User information storage part 120 Home appliance information storage part 200 PC of manufacturer call center
300 router 400 home appliance 500 home network 600 network

Claims (3)

A home appliance diagnosis method executed by a computer,
The computer accepting user identification information identifying the user;
The computer accepts the user identification information from user information storage means that stores the user identification information and network device identification information that identifies a network device that is connected to the user's local network and relays communication with an external network in association with each other. Obtaining network device identification information corresponding to the user identification information;
Using the network device identification information acquired by the computer, accessing the network device, and acquiring, from the network device, home appliance information that is information relating to the home appliance connected to the local network;
By using the access information, which is included in the home appliance information acquired by the computer and is information for accessing the home appliance, to diagnose the state of the home appliance for each of the home appliances, Determining the home appliance that is occurring;
If the trouble is determined the computer said home appliances has occurred, and notifying the personal identification number corresponding to the home appliance, to the information processing apparatus,
The computer receiving the personal identification number from the information processing apparatus;
And a step of notifying the information processing device of access information of the household electrical appliance corresponding to the received personal identification number when the computer receives the personal identification number. Accepting means for accepting user identification information for identifying a user;
User information storage means for storing the user identification information in association with network device identification information for identifying a network device connected to the user's local network and relaying communication with an external network;
Network device information acquisition means for acquiring network device identification information corresponding to the received user identification information from the user information storage means;
Using the acquired network device identification information, the network device is accessed, and from the network device, home appliance information acquisition means for acquiring home appliance information that is information related to the home appliance connected to the local network;
A trouble has occurred by diagnosing the state of the household electrical appliance for each of the household electrical appliances using the access information that is included in the acquired household electrical appliance information and is information for accessing the household electrical appliance. A home electric appliance determination means for determining the electric home appliance;
A personal identification number transmitting means for transmitting a personal identification number corresponding to the household electrical appliance to a predetermined information processing device when determining the household electrical appliance in which a problem has occurred;
A password receiving means for receiving the password from the predetermined information processing apparatus,
Computer Appliances information transmitting means, when receiving the personal identification number, the access information of the home appliance which corresponds to the personal identification number received, and transmits the predetermined information processing apparatus. On the computer,
The computer accepting user identification information identifying the user;
The computer accepts the user identification information from user information storage means that stores the user identification information and network device identification information that identifies a network device that is connected to the user's local network and relays communication with an external network in association with each other. Obtaining network device identification information corresponding to the user identification information;
Using the network device identification information acquired by the computer, accessing the network device, and acquiring, from the network device, home appliance information that is information relating to the home appliance connected to the local network;
By using the access information, which is included in the home appliance information acquired by the computer and is information for accessing the home appliance, to diagnose the state of the home appliance for each of the home appliances, Determining the home appliance that is occurring;
When the home appliance trouble has occurred it is determined that the computer, a personal identification number corresponding to the home appliance, and notifies the information processing apparatus step,
The computer receiving the personal identification number from the information processing apparatus;
A program for executing the step of notifying the information processing apparatus of access information of the home electric appliance corresponding to the received personal identification number when the computer receives the personal identification number.

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