JP5326346B2 - Manual information acquisition system, electrical equipment, terminal, and manual information acquisition program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a manual information acquisition system capable of easily acquiring manual information required by a user when using household electric appliances.

  In general, when a household electric appliance (home appliance) is used, it is often operated by referring to an instruction manual attached to the product. Conventionally, a user searches for an instruction manual when an operation method is lost during use or when a trouble occurs, and further, a necessary item in the instruction manual is searched for and referred to.

  In this case, in addition to the trouble of searching for the instruction manual itself, it also takes time to search for a page on which necessary items are described.

In view of this, there has been proposed a technique in which a name plate displaying a two-dimensional code is photographed with a portable terminal, connected to a host computer via a network, and manual information is browsed.
JP 2007-193603 A

  However, the manual information display system of Patent Document 1 requires a name plate (or display unit) for displaying a two-dimensional code, and a function for reading the code on the terminal side is necessary.

  Therefore, manual information cannot be acquired by a terminal that does not have a function of reading a two-dimensional code. Moreover, manual information could not be acquired even when there is no display unit on the device side and a two-dimensional code cannot be displayed, such as a general air conditioner, vacuum cleaner, refrigerator, and sewing machine.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a manual information acquisition system that can easily acquire manual information required by a user even if the home appliance does not have a configuration for displaying a two-dimensional code. And

Manual information acquisition system of the present invention comprises an electric equipment, and the end edge, and a center server, the. The electrical device is a general home appliance including a speaker (sound emitting means), for example. This home appliance has an extracting means for extracting device information indicating its own operating status, and a generating means for determining manual information required according to the extracted device information and generating manual specifying information for specifying the manual information. And device-side modulation means for superimposing the manual designation information on the sound. The device information includes information such as operation history, current operation status, and failure status. The manual designation information is information indicating the page number of the manual, for example. The home appliances extract device information by an explicit operation of the user or an automatic execution program and superimpose manual designation information on the sound and emit the sound . End end, based on the added speech the appliances emitted, transmitted the manual designation information to the center server, acquires manual information.

  As the terminal, it is possible to use various devices such as a dedicated terminal for the manual information acquisition system, a home phone, a mobile phone, and a personal computer. As a connection mode with the center server, a general telephone line network or the Internet network is used.

  When a home phone or a mobile phone is used as a terminal and a general telephone line network is used as a connection mode, a push tone signal is used as a voice emitted from a home appliance. The terminal calls the center server by the push tone signal, transmits the superimposed voice, and transmits the manual designation information. In this case, since the push tone signal is used, it is possible to connect to an appropriate operator (for example, a person who is familiar with operations necessary for each home appliance) and make an inquiry in the automatic response service. In this case, the operator may communicate with the user to transmit manual information, or the operation content may be voice-guided.

  When a mobile phone or personal computer is used as the terminal and the Internet network is used as the connection mode, the superimposed voice is demodulated by the terminal, and the acquired information is transmitted to the center server based on the demodulated connection destination information (link information). To do. The link information is, for example, a URL, and the terminal accesses the center server based on this URL.

  According to this invention, even if it is a household appliance which does not have a structure which displays a network connection function or a two-dimensional code, the manual information which a user needs can be acquired easily.

  Hereinafter, a manual information acquisition system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the main configuration of a manual information acquisition system according to this embodiment.

  The manual information acquisition system shown in FIG. 1 includes a home appliance 1, a network connection terminal 2 such as a mobile phone, and a center server (service center) 3. The network connection terminal 2 and the center server 3 are connected to the Internet network 7.

  The household electric appliance 1 is a general household electric appliance having a sound emission function, such as an air conditioner, a vacuum cleaner, a refrigerator, and a sewing machine. In addition, the function and structure as a household appliance are abbreviate | omitted.

  The home appliance 1 includes a description location detector 11, a manual code table 12, an encoder 13, a modulator 14, a manual sound storage unit 15, a speaker 16, an operating state detector 17, and an operation unit 18. The description location detector 11, the encoder 13, the modulator 14, and the operation status detector 17 are described and explained as hardware configurations in the example of the figure, but are realized by software using a microcomputer with built-in RAM or the like. It is also possible. The manual code table 12 and the manual sound storage unit 15 are realized by a ROM built in a home appliance. Of course, manual sounds (beep sounds, etc.) can be generated by software without being stored in the ROM.

  The operating status detector 17 detects the operating status of the home appliance 1. The detection of the operation status is a process of accumulating an operation history (recorded in the built-in RAM or the like), a process of extracting the current operation status, and information on the failure status (for each failure content) A process of obtaining a code including subdivided numbers, symbols, and the like.

  The operation unit 18 is operated by the user, and is a button on which, for example, “?”, “Help”, and the like are displayed. The user presses the button of the operation unit 18 when he wants to know how to operate the home appliance 1 or when a trouble occurs.

  When the user presses the operation unit 18, the description location detector 11 acquires the operation history and the like from the operation status detector 17 as device information. Using this device information, the manual code table 12 is referred to, and the location (page number of the instruction manual) where the necessary manual information is described is detected.

  The manual code table 12 stores a table in which a manual code is associated with each page number of an instruction manual attached to the home appliance. Each page number includes link information such as a connection destination URL. The manual code is extracted from the device information, and corresponds to an error code if the home appliance is in a failure state.

  The description location detector 11 inputs a location (hereinafter referred to as manual designation information) where necessary manual information detected from the manual code table 12 is described to the encoder 13. The encoder 13 encodes the manual designation information and transmits it to the modulator 14.

  The modulator 14 reads the manual sound from the manual sound storage unit 15 and inputs it to the speaker 16 as an audio signal on which manual information is superimposed. This sound signal (superimposed sound) is emitted from the speaker 16. Any method may be used as the modulation method, but a method that takes into account the acoustic characteristics of the demodulation side (network connection terminal 2 in the figure) is desirable. For example, if the network connection terminal 2 is a general mobile phone, it is desirable to use a frequency band corresponding to the acoustic characteristics of the speaker 16 and the microphone of the mobile phone.

  The network connection terminal 2 includes a microphone 21, a demodulator 22, and a network connection unit 23. Such a network connection terminal can be realized by a general information processing terminal having a network connection function and a microphone, such as a mobile phone and a personal computer, as well as a terminal dedicated to the notification system of the present embodiment. Further, the demodulator 22 is described and explained as a hardware configuration in the example of the figure, but can also be realized by software. Other functions and configurations as the information processing terminal are omitted.

  When the above superimposed sound (manual sound) is generated, the user brings the network connection terminal 2 close to the home appliance 1. If the home appliance 1 has a display unit, a manual sound is generated and an instruction to instruct to bring the network connection terminal closer is displayed. Further, it may be displayed on the main body that a network connection terminal is brought closer when a manual sound is generated. Further, the manual sound may be a voice such as “Please bring your mobile phone closer” and voice guidance may be provided.

  When the user brings the network connection terminal 2 close to the home appliance 1, the microphone 21 picks up the superimposed sound emitted from the speaker 16 and inputs it to the demodulator 22. The demodulator 22 demodulates the manual designation information from the superimposed voice. When the network connection terminal 2 is a mobile phone, the user may start an application having a demodulation function, or an application having a demodulation function may be automatically started using a superimposed voice as a trigger. .

  The demodulator 22 refers to the link information included in the demodulated manual designation information, and accesses the center server 3 via the network connection unit 23. In this way, manual designation information is transmitted from the home appliance 1 to the center server 3.

  The center server 3 stores various manual information corresponding to the manual designation information, and provides the designated manual information to the user side. Any method may be provided. For example, if the network connection terminal 2 is a mobile phone, manual information is transmitted to the mobile phone and displayed on the display unit. If there is a television connected in the home, manual information can be displayed on this television. Manual information can also be provided by voice guidance from a speaker of a mobile phone.

  It is also possible to send manual information as image data to the user's email address. Furthermore, a mode is also possible in which manual designation information is transferred to the operator, and the operator calls the user's home telephone and takes measures to teach the operation method.

  When there is a microphone or a remote control receiver on the home appliance 1 side, manual information can be transmitted to the home appliance side and voice guidance can be provided from the speaker of the home appliance 1. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a manual information acquisition system when voice guidance is performed from a speaker of the home appliance 1. In addition, about the structure which is common in FIG. 1, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected and the description is abbreviate | omitted.

  The home appliance 1 in this example further includes a remote control light receiving unit 101, a demodulator 102, and a manual information processing unit 103. The demodulator 102 and the manual information processing unit 103 can be realized by hardware or software. The network connection terminal 2 further includes a reception processing unit 24, an encoder 25, a modulator 26, and an infrared port 27. The reception processing unit 24, the encoder 25, and the modulator 26 can be realized by hardware or software.

  In this example, the center server 3 transmits manual information to the network connection terminal 2, and the network connection terminal 2 receives the manual information by the reception processing unit 24 and encodes it by the encoder 25. Thereafter, manual information is modulated by the modulator 26, and modulated light (infrared rays) is transmitted from the infrared port 27. In the home appliance 1, the remote control light receiving unit 101 receives the modulated light, and the demodulator 102 demodulates the manual information. The manual information processing unit 103 performs voice guidance based on the received manual information. That is, a voice signal for voice guidance indicating the operation method is generated and input to the speaker 16. Thus, if it is household appliances provided with the remote control light-receiving part, voice guidance can be performed from the household appliances 1. Further, when the home appliance 1 includes a microphone, the home appliance 1 can be configured to emit a sound with manual information superimposed from the speaker of the network connection terminal 2 and demodulate the home appliance 1.

  In FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the home appliance 1 has a built-in modulator and superimposes manual designation information on the manual sound. The device 11 may read a modulated manual sound corresponding to the device information. In this case, the manual code table 12 stores a table in which the modulated manual sound is described for each manual code. The description location detector 11 refers to the manual code table 12 with the manual code extracted from the device information, and selects the modulated manual sound.

  As described above, according to the manual information acquisition system of the present embodiment, the user can obtain necessary manual information simply by pressing the operation unit 18 and bringing the mobile phone or the like closer when a manual sound is generated. it can. In addition, even if a user does not perform explicit operation, you may make it the household appliances 1 transmit manual specification information by an automatic execution program. For example, when the home appliance 1 is in a failure state, manual information indicating a coping method can be automatically acquired without any operation by the user.

  In addition, according to the manual information acquisition system of the present embodiment, manual information can be obtained via the network even if the home appliance does not support network connection or does not have a configuration for displaying a two-dimensional code. it can.

  In general, the majority of home appliances have a function of emitting sound, and it is not necessary to add a new hardware configuration for transmitting information or a configuration for displaying a two-dimensional code to such home appliances. The manual information acquisition system according to the present invention can be realized by only a minor configuration change such as a firmware change.

  Next, FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing another example of the manual information acquisition system. The manual information acquisition system shown in FIG. 1 includes a home appliance 4, a telephone 5, and a service center (center server) 6. The telephone 5 and the service center 6 are connected to a general telephone line network 9. The manual information acquisition system of this example can acquire manual information from the service center even when there is no network connection environment in the home. The telephone 5 can be replaced with a mobile phone.

  The household electrical appliance 4 is a general household electrical appliance, similar to the household electrical appliance 1 described above. The function and configuration as a home appliance are omitted. The home appliance 4 includes a description location detector 41, a manual code table 42, an encoder 43, a modulator 44, a push tone signal generation unit 45, a speaker 46, an operation status detector 47, and an operation unit 48. The description location detector 41, the encoder 43, the modulator 44, the push tone signal generation unit 45, and the operation status detector 47 can be realized by hardware or software.

  The operating status detector 47 detects the operating status of the home appliance 1 in the same manner as the operating status detector 17. Similarly to the description location detector 11, the description location detector 41 acquires device information from the operation status detector 47, refers to the manual code table 42 using this device information, and stores manual designation information. To detect. The manual code table 42 stores a table in which manual designation information and service center connection destinations (telephone numbers and automatic response menu selection numbers) are described for each manual code. As will be described later, the automatic response menu selection number is used for transfer to the operator after connection to the service center. The description location detector 41 refers to this table to detect manual designation information, and selects a service center connection destination and an automatic response menu selection number according to the manual code.

  The failure detector 41 inputs manual designation information to the encoder 43. In addition, the push tone signal generation unit 45 is instructed to generate a push tone signal corresponding to the selected connection destination.

  The encoder 43 encodes the manual designation information and inputs it to the modulator 44. Here, the modulator 44 superimposes the manual designation information on the push tone signal generated by the push tone signal generation unit 45, and inputs the superimposed sound to the speaker 46 as an audio signal of a manual sound. This manual sound is generated from the speaker 46.

  When a manual sound is generated from the speaker 46, the user brings the handset of the telephone 5 close to the home appliance 4. Similarly to the above, if the home appliance 4 has a display unit, it sounds a manual sound and displays an instruction to bring the telephone closer. Further, it may be displayed on the main body that the telephone is brought closer when a manual sound is generated. Further, at the beginning of the manual sound, a voice such as “Please bring the telephone handset close” may be emitted.

  When the user brings the telephone 5 close to the home appliance 4, the microphone 51 picks up the manual sound generated by the speaker 46. Since this manual sound includes a push tone signal, a call is made to a predetermined connection destination (service center 6). Further, when the service center 6 makes an automatic response, the manual sound includes a push tone signal of an automatic response menu selection number. In this case, after connecting to the service center 6, a manual sound is constructed so that a continuous push tone signal is generated, and a telephone call is made to an appropriate operator department (one who is familiar with the operation necessary for each home appliance). To be transferred. The transfer is performed by the telephone transfer device 62 of the service center 6.

  Note that the user may make an operation to make a call to the service center 6 and the manual sound may include only the push tone signal of the automatic response menu selection number. Again, the call is automatically transferred to the appropriate operator department.

  The service center 6 includes a demodulator 61, a telephone transfer device 62, and an operator terminal 63. The demodulator 61 demodulates the manual designation information superimposed on the manual sound. The telephone transfer device 62 performs telephone transfer according to the push tone signal input from the telephone 5 as described above.

  The operator terminal 63 is a terminal used by an operator in each department, and has a telephone function and an information processing terminal function. Manual specification information demodulated by the demodulator 61 is transmitted to the operator terminal 63, and the telephone 5 is transferred and connected from the telephone transfer device 62. The operator refers to the transmitted manual designation information and takes measures to teach the user how to operate through the telephone 5.

  As with the center server 3 described above, manual information corresponding to the manual information may be automatically voice-guided.

  In addition, when the home appliance has a microphone, it can be configured to emit sound with manual information superimposed from the speaker of the telephone, demodulate it with the home appliance, and provide voice guidance from the speaker of the home appliance. is there.

  Even in the notification system using the home telephone as described above, the user can obtain necessary manual information without having to press the push phone only by bringing the telephone close when the manual sound is generated.

  Further, in addition to the case where home appliances do not support network connection, manual information can be acquired through a general telephone line network even when there is no network connection environment in the home.

  Even in this case, the home appliance need only have a function of emitting sound, and there is no need to add a new hardware configuration for transmitting information to such a home appliance, and minor changes such as firmware changes are possible. The manual information acquisition system of the present invention can be realized only by changing the configuration.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a manual information acquisition system. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the manual information acquisition system in the case of transmitting manual information to household appliances. It is a block diagram which shows the other structure of a manual information acquisition system.

Explanation of symbols

1-Household appliances 2-Network connection terminal 3-Center server 7-Internet network

Claims (8)

And the electric device, a manual information acquisition system including a terminus, a center server, and
The electrical equipment is extraction means for extracting equipment information indicating its own operating status;
Determining the required manual information based on the device information, generating means for generating manual specification information for specifying the required manual information; and
Modulation means for superimposing the manual designation information on sound;
Sound emission means for emitting superimposed sound on which the manual designation information is superimposed,
The terminal includes acquisition means for transmitting the manual designation information to the center server based on the superimposed voice and acquiring necessary manual information from the center server ,
The modulation means superimposes the manual designation information on a guide sound,
The manual information system , wherein the guidance sound includes voice guidance for bringing the terminal closer to the electric device . The manual information acquisition system according to claim 1, wherein the terminal includes a voice guidance unit for a terminal that performs voice guidance based on the manual information acquired by the acquisition unit. The terminal includes transmission means for transmitting manual information acquired by the acquisition means,
The electrical equipment includes receiving means for receiving manual information transmitted by the transmitting means;
Manual information acquisition system according to claim 1, characterized in that and a voice guiding means for electrical equipment which performs speech guidance based on the manual information received by the receiving unit. The sound emitted by the sound emitting means of the electrical device includes a push tone signal,
The acquisition means connects to the center server through a telephone line based on the push tone signal, selects a connection destination automatic response menu based on the push tone signal, and transmits the manual designation information. manual information acquisition system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that acquires manual information to be. The manual designation information includes link information indicating a connection destination,
The terminal comprises demodulation means for demodulating manual designation information from the superimposed voice;
Said acquisition means, any center server in a network connection, must become to get the manual information according to claim 1 to claim 3, wherein in response to the link destination information included in demodulated manual designation information Manual information acquisition system described. An electrical device used in the manual information acquisition system according to any one of claims 1 to 5 . The terminal used in the manual information acquisition system in any one of Claims 1 thru | or 5 . A manual information acquisition program to be executed to the electrical device and end late,
An extraction step of extracting device information indicating its operating status to the electrical device;
Determining the necessary manual information based on the device information, generating the manual specifying information for specifying the required manual information;
A modulation step of superimposing the manual designation information on audio;
A sound emission step of emitting superimposed sound on which the manual designation information is superimposed; and
To the terminal, based on the added speech, said manual designation information transmitted to the cell Ntasaba, to execute the acquisition step of acquiring manual information required from the center server,
The modulation step superimposes the manual designation information on a guide sound,
The manual information acquisition program characterized in that the guidance sound includes voice guidance for bringing the terminal closer to the electric device .

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