JPS62173845A - Telecontrol system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the cost of a telecontroller itself by sharing expensive voice recognizing device and audio response unit out of functions, which are required as the telecontroller, among plural households. CONSTITUTION:A telecontroller 11 is provided in a remote place through a switch 13 which switches the connection of a telephone line 12 to a telephone set 14 and is connected to a network controller 19 of a central home controller 18 provided for plural telecontrollers 11. The voice inputted through the telephone line 12 is inputted to a voice recognizing device 20 through the switch 13 and the network controller 19 and is recognized. The recognition result is converted to control information by the control of a CPU 25 having a storage means 25 and is sent to a remote controller 23. The remote controller 23 transmits control information to a remote controller 17 of the telecontroller 11 through a signal transmission line 26. A controller 15 receives this information to perform required control and transmits the control result to the line 12.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention provides a method for controlling electrical equipment installed in a specific area, for example, a home, in accordance with control information of voice or PB multiplied signals input using a telephone line. This relates to a telecontrol system.

(Conventional technology) In recent years, as part of home automation, telecontrollers have been installed in condominiums, etc., and people are using their telephones to manage crime prevention and disaster prevention in their homes when they are away from home. Attempts are being made to control the

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional telecontroller.
It is connected to the line 2 via a switch 3 that changes the connection. Voice, which is control information input via the line 2, is recognized by a voice recognition device (VRD) 6. Internal control unit (TCL) 7 is computer (CPU)
8, performs control on electrical equipment (air conditioners, gas appliances, other general electrical equipment) 9 based on this recognition result,
A signal indicating the execution result is sent to the audio response unit (ARU) 5. ARU 5 converts this signal into audio and sends it to SW
3. The execution results were sent to the line users via voice via line 2.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, a combination of a voice recognition device and a voice response device is used as the simplest means for communication between a human and a telecontroller via a telephone line.

However, control information recognition devices such as voice recognition devices and response devices such as voice response devices are extremely expensive, which makes the price of telecontrol high, and although it is convenient, telecontrol systems are not available in ordinary homes. (Means for Solving Problems) The present invention provides a telecontrol system that controls electrical equipment within a specific area to which a line belongs according to control information input from a line. A first control means that is provided in each of the plurality of specific areas and controls electrical equipment in the specific area, and a first control means that is connected to the plurality of first control means via a transmission line. a central control means connected thereto, the central control means having a control information recognition means, a response means, and a second control means; and a central control means connected to each of the lines belonging to the plurality of specific areas. and network control means.

(Function) The present invention recognizes each piece of control information input from a plurality of lines using a control information recognition means, and the second control means issues an instruction to execute a process according to the recognition result to this information via a transmission line. The control information is transmitted to the first control means of the specific area to which the input line belongs, the first control means controls the electrical equipment according to this execution command, and the control results are transmitted to the second control means via the transmission path. The second control means sends the control result to the telephone line using the response means, thereby controlling electrical equipment installed in the specific area using the telephone line.

(Embodiment) The configuration of an embodiment of the present invention will be explained using the block diagram of FIG.

The telecontroller 11 installed in a specific area, for example, at home, is installed in a remote location via a switch 5W13 that switches the connection of the telephone line 12 to the telephone device 74, and is installed in common for a plurality of telecontrollers 11. It connects to the network control unit NCU19 of the central home control unit CHCl8. The voice input via the telephone line 12 is sent to the SW
Voice recognition device VRD via I 3, NCU 1 g
20 and is recognized. This recognition result is converted into control information under the control of the computer 25 having a storage means MM25 and sent to the remote control device RC23 via the data bus DMA-BUS. remote control device RC
23 is a remote control device RC17 of the telecontroller 11
A signal transmission line 26 consisting of a power line or a dedicated line
Sends control information via. This signal transmission path 26 is
It is connected to a plurality of telecontrollers 11. The internal control device TCL 7 controls electrical equipment (disaster prevention system, crime prevention system, air conditioning system, and other general electrical equipment) 16 based on the control information received from the RC 17, and transmits the control results to the TCL 15, the RC 17, and the signal transmission path 26. It is sent to RC23 of CHCI 8 via Upon receiving the control result, the CHC 1B creates a voice using the voice response device ARU 21 under the control of the CPU 24, and transmits the voice to the DMA-B.
US 5NCU 19. Sends control results to line 12 via voice 5W13.

Further, when the disaster prevention/crime prevention system of the electrical equipment 16 detects an emergency situation, the TCL 15 similarly sends emergency situation information to the CHC 18 via the signal transmission line 26. CH
C18 NCU I9 has an automatic call function,
Automatically calls the pre-set emergency call destination and
Use RU 21 to report emergencies by voice.

Next, the configuration of the remote control device RC will be explained using FIG. 3. First, the RC 17 on the telecontroller 11 side will be explained.

31 is an input terminal for signals transmitted from a remotely installed device such as a CHC; for example, an input terminal to which an air conditioner driving command etc. is transmitted from CHo 1 B.

32 is the receiving terminal for Senna information sent to the telecontroller, and the receiving terminal here receives the received information (status).
is modulated by the MD and then transmitted from the terminal 33 to the information transmission path 26
The data is sent to the CHC 18 via the .

Information sent from telecontroller 11 to CHCI B, and vice versa, from CHC1B to telecontroller 1.
Since the signal sent to RC 1 is information with extremely important meaning, the information passing through the information transmission path 26 is normally sent and received by the other party's RC 23, and then the received signal is sent back to the sender as it is as a verification signal. The transmitted content is checked against the received verify signal by CMP, and after confirming that it matches the transmitted information, the sender sends a verification completion signal again, and this is the first time that it is received as a drive command. Can be put in.

MD is a modulation circuit, and is connected from the telecontroller 11 to C.
When transmitting information to HC1B, the frequency of 100 kHz is set as one of the information protection measures against external noise so that the information will not be incorrect even if a commercial power line is used instead of a dedicated line as the signal transmission path. This circuit is designed to modulate at higher frequencies. 34 is a relay or a trybook output circuit for driving an air conditioner or the like based on the signal received at the terminal 31.

Next, the RC23 installed in CHCI 8 will be explained.

31 is a receiving terminal for information sent from each telecontroller such as a sensor. 33 is a terminal for sending commands to the telecontroller. 32 is the CPU of CHC1B
Information transmission/reception terminal between 24 and RC23. Reference numeral 34 is a control terminal for sending information from the telecontroller 11 to the voice response unit ARU 21, voice mail VMS, etc. to be described later.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the structure of transmission data on a signal transmission path in a remote control device using RCs 17 and 23. 35 is transmission data, which usually consists of 20 bits. That is, a header (4 bits) to distinguish it from other signals, a destination address to which control information is to be sent, and a route address function code (14 bits) consisting of the control information and the destination address.
Finally, it is made up of a single bit (1 bit) that is used to check the entire data for errors. 36 is a diagram showing the case where transmission data consisting of 20 bits is modulated with a high frequency of 100 kHz or more.By applying modulation at a high frequency in this way, it is possible to create a high quality signal transmission line connecting RCs. Even if a dedicated cable is not available, malfunctions due to noise can be avoided by using a commercial power line instead of the dedicated cable, for example. Further, 32 indicates demodulated received data.

As in the present invention, a CHC where many houses are installed in common
In the case of shared use of the CHC, it is economically burdensome to connect the telecontroller installed in each home with the CHC using a dedicated cable.

However, as shown in Figure 4, by applying a bias of several 100 Hz to the information signal line that connects the RCs, control errors due to noise etc. can be prevented even if commercial power lines are used instead of dedicated cables. This makes it possible to prevent

In other words, commercial power lines can be used in place of dedicated cables, and this makes it possible to obtain enormous economic benefits.

FIG. 5 shows the internal structure of CHC in detail. In the figure, No. 4 is a network control unit NCU having an automatic call/receive function. If a private branch exchange or line concentrator is not installed between the telecontroller and the CHC, only the number of telecontrollers is required, but it is usually an inexpensive one consisting of three relays and one LSI, making it economical. There is no need to install a private branch exchange or line concentrator.

On the other hand, the normal voice response device ARU 44 is an expensive device because the hardware and software used in the file memory VMJ 8 that stores the digitalized voice information and the voice synthesis circuit 5YNS 49 are enormous.

In addition, the voice recognition device VRD 43 also uses button information (yes, no, no,
Characteristics of words such as ichi, ni, san, -m-air conditioner) are distorted in kana, and the recognition memory required to extract and recognize the characteristic e-turns from distorted speech information is enormous. Therefore, an ultra-high-speed CPU 45 is required in order to quickly match the contents of this huge memory with the characteristic patterns of the input audio information.

As a result, the cost of a device that recognizes voice information input from the telephone line 40 becomes very expensive.

As mentioned earlier, the price of NCU is extremely low, so even if it is connected one-to-one with the telecontroller installed in each home, the impact on economic efficiency is small;
and VRD are expensive, so it is necessary to design the system so that a small number of equipment can be used without waste. In consideration of the above points, in the system of the present invention, as shown in FIG. is installed. The voice response device is also provided with a terminal 50 for connection to a public telephone line via the NCU for emergency notifications to be described later.

Next, explanation will be given using FIGS. 1 and 6. Homeowner (
When Mr. A (hereinafter referred to as Mr. A) goes out, he first knocks down the telecontroller S'w3 in Figure 1, disconnects the telephone line from the telephone, and connects the NCU installed in CH and C.
Change it to 41. We will continue the explanation by assuming that Mr. A calls home from home, controls the telecontroller, and turns on the air conditioner before returning home.

As shown in Figure 6, Mr. A makes a phone call to his home (
AI operation). Then, the ARU 21 of the CHC 18 returns a response saying "Please enter your password."

Here, when Mr. A inputs a password (numbers) by voice, the VRD 20 recognizes the numbers input by voice, and when it receives a number with a predetermined number of digits, the CPU ? Even if the CPU 24 is notified every time a number is received, the effect of the present invention will not be affected in any way), and the CPU 24 verifies the password via the NCU 19.

As a result of the verification, if the identity of the person is confirmed, ARU 2
A voice response is made from 1, ``Please give me the service code.'' (operation in 2). Here, Mr. A says, “Air conditioner.”
When you say this, the VRD 20 recognizes this word and the CPU
Notify 24. According to the output of the VRD 20, the CPU 24 responds by voice from the ARU 21 saying, "This is air conditioner control" (operation &3).

When Mr. A replies "Yes," the VRD 20 recognizes the voice and notifies the CPU 24 of this fact. CPU 24
gives instructions to RC23 to check the operating status of the air conditioner in Mr. A's house. This instruction is transmitted to the RC 17 of Mr. A's telecontroller 11 via the signal transmission line 26. Since the instruction information is modulated with a high frequency of 100 kHz or more as shown in FIG. 4, there is no fear of false information due to noise, etc., and therefore a commercial power line can be used as the signal transmission path 26. The result detected by the RC 17 is sent back to the RC 23 via the signal transmission line 26. That is, TCL 15 checks the operating status of the air conditioner in Mr. A's house.

When it is reported that all air conditioners have stopped operating, the CPU 24 instructs the ARU 21 to respond, "All are currently stopped. If you wish to operate, please enter the number." A4 operation). When Mr. A says "san", it is recognized by VRD 20 and CPU
Reported on 24th. In the case of "Sun", it is registered in the storage device MM25 in advance that only the air conditioner in the room needs to be turned on, so the CPU 24 tells the ARU 21 to turn on the air conditioner in the room.

Do you have any other requests? ” (action of Ya 5).

When Mr. A hears this voice and says "No", V
It is recognized by the RD 20 and reported to the CPU 24. C
The PU confirms that all operations are now complete, and
Instruct RU 21 to say ``I look forward to your return.'' and begin monitoring the disconnection of the telephone (A6 action).

When the phone is disconnected, CHC1B is RC23-RCI7-T
Turn on the air conditioner in your room through the route of CL15.
The series of operations is completed by instructing the controller to set the value to N (operation &7).

It is assumed that the NCU 19 is held on hold for 60 seconds for one operation, and that it is used an average of five times a day. Furthermore, assuming that people from 300 households use the handle intensively for 2 hours, the total call volume added to the NCU is 60 x 3.
00X5/3600X2=12.57-thin.

On the other hand, the VRD should be on hold only when Mr. A is talking to the telecontroller.
Assuming that the holding time ratios of the RDs are equal, the VRD call volume will be 6.25 Erlangs, and the number of VRD facilities will be 12 based on Erlang's B equation.

In addition, the required number of terminals for the ARU (the number of responses per hour) should be 12 (although the ARU main body has a simultaneous response function, so only one terminal needs to be installed).

As is clear from the above explanation, expensive VRDs and ARUs
By separating it from the Wotere controller and centrally installing it in the CHC, it becomes possible to significantly reduce the amount of energy used.

Next, a case will be described in which the smoke sensor in Mr. A's home detects a fire.

If the smoke sensor detects a fire, it will notify TCL 15 accordingly. TCL 15 immediately replaces RC17-RC23
The fire information is notified to the CPU 24 of CHC 1g via .

The CPU 24 indexes the table on the MM 25 in which notification destinations are registered in the event of a fire occurring at Mr. A's house, and sends notifications to Mr. A's place of work, the security guarantee company with which Mr. A has a contract, and the local fire department. The NCU 19 is instructed to dial to stop broadcast communication and to confirm the response. On the other hand, A.R.
For U21, compile an audio statement to be notified at the same time as the response.
Gathering instructions.

Calls to Mr. A's workplace are made using the public telephone line to which Mr. A subscribes, but calls to the security guarantee company and local fire department are made via the public telephone line shown in Figure 5, which is directly connected to the ARU. The call will be made from the telephone line 50.

In addition, if Mr. A's house is a condominium such as a condominium, the system that reports to the manager's office from other output terminals of the ARU,
In addition, in a hotel, an alarm can be sent from speakers on each floor or from extension telephones and speakers installed in each room.

In this way, the reason why prompt notifications could be made by relay communication was that the telecontroller 11 at Mr. A's house was connected to a common device called CHC.

In the above explanation, a voice recognition device and a voice response device have been used for conversation between a human and a machine, but a pushphone signal may be used instead of a voice recognition device. Since the pushphone signal receiver can now be configured inexpensively by using LSI, in this case it is connected in parallel with the NCU,
It is also possible to accommodate only the voice response device in the line concentrator.

However, the line concentrator not only has an economical effect by reducing the number of expensive voice recognition devices, but also reduces the number of
Because the CU and the communication means between humans and machines were centralized, it became possible to easily make emergency calls.Furthermore, the voice response device was equipped with a simultaneous response function, and the output of the voice response device was Because a public telephone was housed directly in the terminal, it became possible to send broadcast notifications in the event of an emergency.

That is, the effects of the embodiments of the present invention are as follows.

1) In conventional telecontrollers, expensive voice recognition devices and voice response devices were installed separately, but in the present invention, these devices are centrally installed, making it possible to reduce the price of the telecontroller itself. It became. Furthermore, even if we increase the amount of recognition memory for centralized installation and try to improve the recognition rate of the voice recognition device, or even if we try to increase the number of simultaneous responses of the voice response device, the amount of memory per telecontroller increases. The price increase was minimal, and a higher grade telecontrol system could be constructed than if these devices were distributed and installed in individual telecontrollers.

2) By centrally installing one voice response device with multiple simultaneous response output terminals and a simultaneous response function, notifications can be automatically sent to one or more locations in the event of an emergency (broadcast function)
It became possible.

3) By separating the NCU and communication means between humans and machines from the telecontroller installed in the home and installing them in common, it has become possible to send out emergency notifications.

(Effects of the Invention) According to the present invention, among the functions required for a telecontroller, expensive voice recognition devices and voice response devices can be centrally installed in the “central home control device J CHC” that is shared by multiple households, and The price of the controller itself can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a block diagram of a conventional telecontroller, Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a remote control device RC, and Fig. 4 is a communication between remote control devices. 5 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the central home control device, and FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram illustrating the use of the telecontroller, where 11 is the telecontroller, 12 is a telephone, and 13 is a diagram showing the configuration of the central home control device. is a switch, 14 is a telephone, 15 is an internal control device, 16 is an electric device, 17.23 is a remote control device, 18 is a central home control device, 19 is a network control device, 20 is a voice recognition device, 21 is a voice response device , 24 is a converter, 25 is a storage device,
26 is a signal transmission path.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] In a telecontrol system that controls electrical equipment in a specific area to which the line belongs according to control information input from the line, a first control means provided in each of the plurality of specific areas, a first control means for controlling electrical equipment in the specific area; a central control means connected to the plurality of first control means via a transmission line, the control information recognition means, the response means and the first control means; 2 control means; network control means for connecting the central control means and each of the lines belonging to the plurality of specific areas; The control information is recognized by the control information recognition means, and the second control means issues an instruction to execute a process according to the recognition result to the second control means in the specific area to which the line to which the control information has been input belongs via the transmission path. the first control means controls the electrical equipment according to the execution command, and sends the control result to the second control means via the transmission path, and the second control means A telecontrol system characterized in that the means transmits the control result to a line using the response means.