KR20060051934A - Network electronic appliance control system - Google Patents

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to construct a network home appliance control system in terms of cost, using a digital television having an Internet connection function. The present invention provides a server (300) connected to the Internet (10) for holding an operation screen for operating various network home appliances (150), a router (110) for controlling connection between a LAN-side connection device and the Internet; And a communication function for a television 160 equipped with a network communication function for executing an Internet browser and a wired / wireless communication network 30 connected to a router, and instructed by the control information received by the communication function. A network appliance 150 connected to the LAN home side of the router for performing the above-described operation, and connected to the network home appliance and a wired communication network or a wireless communication network to send control information sent from the server through the router to the network home appliance. A network home appliance control system with 120 is featured.

Internet, TV, Network Appliances, Operation Screen, LAN, Access Equipment, Router, Communication Network, Gateway

Description

Network home appliance control system {NETWORK ELECTRONIC APPLIANCE CONTROL SYSTEM}

1 is a block diagram of a network home appliance control system in one embodiment of the present invention.

2 is an explanatory diagram showing a procedure of accessing a server using a television as an operation terminal in the embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a first half portion of a sequence diagram showing a procedure for accessing a server to log on and performing operations for a specific household appliance using the television as an operation terminal in the above embodiment; FIG.

FIG. 4 is a later part of a sequence diagram showing a procedure for accessing a server to log on and performing an operation for a specific household appliance using the television as an operation terminal in the embodiment; FIG.

5 is an explanatory diagram showing a transition of an operation screen by an operation of turning off the air conditioner in the embodiment;

Fig. 6 is an explanatory diagram of HTML of an air conditioner operation screen transmitted from the ASP server to the television in the embodiment.

Fig. 7 is an explanatory diagram of HTML showing the operating state of the air conditioner transmitted to the television by the ASP server in the embodiment;

Fig. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a centralized control screen of an air conditioner which the ASP server transmits and displays on a television in the embodiment.

9 is an explanatory diagram showing a transition from the centralized control screen of the air conditioner to the individual control screen for the specific air conditioner in the embodiment;

10 is a first half portion of a sequence diagram showing a procedure of a intensive control operation of an air conditioner in the embodiment;

Fig. 11 is a later part of the sequence diagram showing the procedure of the intensive control operation of the air conditioner in the embodiment.

Fig. 12 is a sequence diagram showing a procedure for performing individual control by shifting from the centralized control mode of the air conditioner to the individual control mode in the embodiment.

Fig. 13 is an explanatory diagram of a centralized control screen of a lighting device which the ASP server transmits to a television and displays in the embodiment.

Fig. 14 is an explanatory diagram of the home appliance concentration control screen associated with the time when the ASP server transmits and displays it on the television in the embodiment;

Fig. 15 is a sequence diagram showing a procedure for centrally controlling related home appliances when going out in the embodiment.

16 is a block diagram of a conventional example.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

10: Internet

30: wired / wireless communication network

100: customer's house

110: router

120: gateway

151: air conditioner 1

152: air conditioner 2

153: lighting device

160: television

161: network communication function

300: ASP server

The present invention relates to a network home appliance control system for remotely operating a plurality of network home appliances having a network function.

In recent years, development of home appliances having a communication function, that is, network home appliances and the technology for using them has been in progress. A customer who purchases this network home appliance can install a home gateway as a gateway, establish a wired and wireless home network indoors, and connect the home network to a router, thereby connecting to the Internet through this router. Accordingly, the customer can use his or her home gateway or network home appliance by using a mobile terminal having a browsing function at a home, for example, a mobile phone or a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a portable personal computer, or a computer at the home. Can be accessed for remote monitoring and remote operation.

Because each company manufactures and sells a variety of network appliances, customers are most likely to use different types of appliances, such as a washing machine for xxx type xxx, a refrigerator for yyy type yy, and an air conditioner for zz type zz. Many products are purchased by manufacturers. In this case, in order to construct a home network, it is desired that the home gateway be able to remotely connect and communicate with various network home appliances of various types and to perform remote monitoring and remote control.

By the way, since the functions of each product are included in each product, even if the communication standardization of network home appliances is in progress, in order to monitor and control the communication with the network home appliances connected to the home gateways, On the other side, the manufacturer can install software for communication and remote monitoring and control at the communication device and the microserver in advance, but the home gateway needs to newly install software for communication and monitoring and control with newly participating network appliances. .

As network home appliances are home appliances, customers expect that all functions including communication functions can be used as soon as they are purchased at a retail store and installed indoors and connected to a power supply. It is not possible to ask the customer who purchased the product for installation.

On the other hand, because of the rapid pace of technological innovation for home appliances, it is also impractical to install software that assumes various functions for each home appliance so that it can be included in the home gateway in advance.

Taking these into consideration, an ASP server (Server of an Application Service Provider) that registers software necessary for communication, remote monitoring, and control for each of a variety of various network appliances is installed externally, and a network appliance is newly installed in a home network. When connected, it is preferable to automatically access the ASP server from the home gateway, and to download and use the software corresponding to the household electrical appliance from the minimum information of the network household appliance.

Therefore, when the inventors of the present invention set up an ASP server for controlling home appliances as an external server on a global network such as the Internet, and try to control home appliances through a home gateway from a customer's indoor operation terminal, A network home appliance control system has been proposed in which a graphical user interface (GUI) is sent from an external server to an operation terminal, displayed in a browser, and the monitoring and control of home appliances can be performed through the GUI. This is a system configuration shown in FIG. 16. The network home appliance control system includes a router 110, a home gateway 120, various network home appliances 151-153, and a global network installed in a customer's home 100. ASP server (external server) 300 as a home appliance information server installed on the Internet 10 and a user member management server as a customer information management server connected to the ASP server 300 and a dedicated local network 20. 200, an authentication server 500 that executes an authentication service of a user member.

The ASP server 300 can also be connected to a mobile terminal 401 or a PC 402 such as an external mobile phone or PDA via the Internet 10.

In the home 100 of each customer, a home gateway 120 for managing a router 110 for connecting to the Internet 10 and a home network 30 serving as a subnetwork is provided. Indoor network home appliances 151-153 are connected to a home network 30 which is a wired and / or wireless subnetwork. This home network 30 is composed of, for example, any one of a Bluetooth (registered trademark) network, a power line network, an ether network (registered trademark), and a WIFI wireless network or a plurality of networks thereof. In addition, a personal computer 130 or a home terminal equivalent thereto can be connected to the router 110 as a controller, and operation instructions can be given to various network home appliances 151-153 from the operation screen displayed thereon to perform intensive remote operation. To make it work.

By the way, in the network home appliance control system having such a configuration, unlike a network home appliance, a personal computer or a dedicated home terminal is connected for operation of various network home appliances 151 to 153 connected to the home network 30, and operated through it. There is a problem in that it is necessary to do so, which is expensive.

The present invention aims to further improve the proposed network home appliance control system. The present invention provides a network home appliance control system that can be advantageously constructed in a cost-effective manner using a digital television having an Internet connection function. It aims to provide.

One feature of the present invention is a server connected to the Internet that holds an operation screen for operating various network home appliances, a router that performs connection control between a connection device on the LAN (Local Area Network) side and the Internet; A communication function for a television equipped with a network communication function that executes an Internet browser and a wired communication network or a wireless communication network connected to the LAN side of the router, and instructed by the control information received by the communication function. A network appliance connected to a LAN side of the router and a gateway for connecting the network appliance to a wired or wireless communication network and sending control information sent from the server to the network appliance by the router. There is one network in the home appliance control system.

In a network home appliance control system according to one aspect of the present invention, the server includes a database of GUI screens for each type of television, and the information of the gateway and the television when the access is received from the television. It is possible to obtain format information, extract a GUI screen corresponding to the television from the database, and download it to the television.

In addition, in the network home appliance control system of the aspect of the present invention, the GUI screen includes an iframe tag that displays individual parts included therein, and each iframe tag includes a cgi command for giving an operation command for the corresponding part. It is possible to include.

Further, in the network home appliance control system of one aspect of the present invention, the network communication function detects an operation input for any one of the individual parts displayed on the GUI screen and is included in an iframe tag of the corresponding part. A common gateway interface (CGI) is executed in the server, the operation command is transmitted to the network home appliance through the gateway, and the network home appliance transmits the execution result of the operation command to the server. Receiving the execution result of the operation control of the network appliance, the display of the part is changed, and image data corresponding to the display after the change of the part is transmitted to the network communication function of the television, and the network communication function of the television is Receive image data of the corresponding part from the server, and The display of each part can be changed to that corresponding to the result of the operation control.

In addition, in the network home appliance control system of one aspect of the present invention, an iframe tag is included that periodically and actively inquires about the gateway and reflects the result in image data of a corresponding part of the GUI screen. It is possible.

Further, in the network home appliance control system according to one aspect of the present invention, the database is a GUI screen for integrating and controlling a plurality of network appliances of the same type, wherein the operation target registration / deregistration of individual network home appliances is performed on the GUI screen. It is possible to include a centralized control screen including a part for registration / release operation for setting the.

Further, in the network home appliance control system according to one aspect of the present invention, the GUI screens for the plurality of network home appliances of the same type are GUI screens in which the plurality of network home appliances of the same type are integrated and intensively controlled from the GUI screen. A centralized control screen including a part for home appliance selection that transitions to an operation screen of a network home appliance and a part for registering and canceling operation for setting an operation target registration / unregistration of individual network home appliances on the centralized control screen; It is possible to have individual operation screens for a plurality of network appliances of a kind.

In addition, in the network home appliance control system of one aspect of the present invention, the same kind of network home appliances may be an air conditioner or a lighting device.

Further, in the network home appliance control system of one aspect of the present invention, the database is a GUI screen for instructing centralized control of one title, and links the same or a plurality of network home appliances to the GUI screen, and the network It is possible to include a GUI screen for giving a separate operation command to each of the home appliances.

According to the present invention, by using a television equipped with a network communication function that executes an Internet browser, which is one of network appliances, other network appliances connected to a home network can be individually operated, and the network appliances can be operated for remote operation. Otherwise, a dedicated home terminal or personal computer can be completed without connecting to a home network, thereby reducing the cost of system construction.

<Example>

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. 1 is a block diagram of a network home appliance control system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The network home appliance control system of the present embodiment includes a router 110, a home gateway 120, air conditioners 1 151, air conditioners 2 152, and lighting devices 153 as various network home appliances installed in a customer's home 100. ), A television 160 having a network communication function 161 for connecting to the Internet by executing an Internet browser, and an ASP server 300 as a home appliance information server installed on the Internet 10 which is a global network. Consists of. In this embodiment, the ASP server 300 authenticates the user member management server 200 and the user member as the customer information management server connected to the dedicated local network 20 as shown in FIG. It will be described as including an authentication server 500 for executing a service. As shown in FIG. 16, the ASP server 300 can also be connected to a mobile terminal 401 or a PC 402 such as an external mobile phone or PDA via the Internet 10.

In the home 100 for each customer, a router 110 for connecting to the Internet 10 and a home gateway 120 for managing a home network 30 that is a subnetwork are provided, and in this home gateway 120. On the other hand, indoor network home appliances 151-153 are connected to a home network 30 which is a wired and / or wireless subnetwork. This home network 30 is composed of, for example, any one of a Bluetooth (registered trademark) network, a power line network, an ether network (registered trademark), and a WIFI wireless network or a plurality of networks thereof. In addition, a television 160 having a network communication function 161 that can be connected to the Internet by executing an Internet browser is connected to the router 110. In the network home appliance control system of the present embodiment, the television 160 functions as a personal computer 130 or a home terminal shown in FIG. For this reason, the television 160 employs a digital television capable of internet browsing.

The home gateway 120 performs network communication with the network home appliances 151-153 and 160 connected to the home network 30, accumulates monitoring control data of various network home appliances, and sends an external command to each of the network home appliances. And transmit a response from each of the network appliances, and provide a transparent GUI to be described later when there is access from the television 160 to perform operations and control on the network appliances 151-153 through a browser. .

The network home appliances 151-153 are a washing machine, a refrigerator, an air conditioner, a microwave oven (represented by reference numeral 150), and together with a controller for controlling the operation of the network home appliance, a manufacturer, a product name, a code number, and operation / failure. And a microserver for recording and accumulating history data, and a communication function for network communication with the home gateway 120.

The ASP server 300 holds screen information for controlling and monitoring various types of network appliances, control information, and information of network appliances to be controlled, and also holds customer information necessary for user authentication, and also for customers. It collects the monitoring and control information of the indoor network household appliances every time, and provides a function of providing the appropriate monitoring and control screen as a GUI according to the type of the television 160 for each customer.

Next, the operation of the network home appliance control system having the above configuration will be described.

<User Member Registration>

In order to use the network home appliance control system of the present embodiment, it is necessary to perform user member registration. The user member registration is accessed from the television 160 to the ASP server 300 via the router 110, and the user member registration screen. And receiving and transmitting personal information, identification number, password, and the like of the user member from the screen. The ASP server 300 is a network home appliance 151 connected to the router 110 and the unique identification information of the home gateway 120 and the home gateway 120 through the home network 30 in the user member registration procedure. , 152, 153 also receives and registers identification information, for example, a MAC address.

<Registration of new household appliances>

In addition, when a newly purchased network home appliance is connected to the home network 30, the home gateway 120 detects it, receives the information of the newly participating network home appliance, and automatically transmits its unique ID to the ASP server 300. Log in as, and transmit the information of the new participating network home appliance, for example, the company name, product name, format, and ID. When the ASP server 300 receives the information of the new registered device, the ASP server 300 corresponds to the ID of the home gateway 120 and registers it as network home appliance information. When registration is completed, the completion notice is returned to the home gateway 120, and the home gateway 120 side also updates the information of the connected device.

<Accumulation of operation history>

The ASP server 300 accumulates the operation history of the network home appliance groups 151, 152, and 153 connected to each home gateway 120. When any event, such as power on, power off, washing completion, filter contamination alarm, occurs in any one of the network household appliances group, the corresponding network household appliance sends the occurrence of the event to the home gateway 120. The home gateway 120 accesses the ASP server 300, which is designated as a link destination in advance, for automatic notification of event occurrence notification, and transmits event information from the corresponding network household appliance. The ASP server 300 associates the received event information with the ID of the home gateway 120 and registers it as a log of the corresponding network home appliance. As a result, the ASP server 300 accumulates and manages the logs of the network household appliances instead of the home gateway 120 of each user member, so as not to put excessive load on the home gateway 120 side. As a result, the home gateway 120 side is not required to have high-performance and high-performance specifications, and the cost is lowered.

<Access from television>

The user member can operate and control the group of network home appliances 151-153 through the browser activated for this reason from the television 160. 3 and 4, the user member turns on the television 160, activates the browser, and accesses the home gateway 120 from the browser screen (step S101). In response, the home gateway 120 adds a predetermined cookie to the access request, and accesses the ASP server 300 linked in advance via the Internet 10 (step S103). When the ASP server 300 requests login procedure (steps S105 and S107), and a user member enters an ID and password from the television 160 and logs in to this procedure (step S109), this login information is returned to the home gateway ( 120 transmits to the ASP server 300 (step S111). The ASP server 300 executes the authentication procedure (step S113). Then, if this authentication procedure is successful, the ASP server 300 sets the above-mentioned cookie so that various operation control is possible from the television 160, and transmits the remote operation menu screen accordingly (step S115-). S119).

At the time of the first user member registration and at the time of further registration of new household appliances thereafter, the model, maker, type, and Internet of the group of network household appliances 150 participating in the home network 30 from the home gateway 120 in advance. Since the model, maker, and format of the browseable television 160 are registered, the configuration of this menu screen refers to the resolution of the television 160 by referring to the registration information of the user member of the access source on the ASP server 300 side. It is a screen structure which makes it the screen according to this, and selects the household appliances which are operation object from the group of network household appliances 150 registered. Thereby, it is possible to set it as the size and content according to the resolution and the performance of the television 160 which displays the GUI screen for network home appliance operation.

Thus, when a user member specifies a specific network home appliance from the GUI screen of the television 160 and transmits an operation request to the ASP server 300 (steps S121-S125), the ASP server 300 registers the network home appliance already registered in advance. The GUI service screen (here, referred to as home appliance 1) is called and transmitted to the television 160, and the operation screen of the network home appliance is displayed on the screen of the browser (steps S127-S131).

When a user member performs operations such as power on, power off, temperature setting operation, etc., from the GUI service screen displayed on the television 160, the operation command is sent to the home gateway 120, and the home gateway 120 ) Transmits and executes an operation command for the corresponding network household appliance 1, and receives the execution result from the corresponding network household appliance 1 (steps S133-S139). The operation execution result is transmitted from the home gateway 120 to the ASP server 300, and power-off is registered as a history of the corresponding network household appliance 1 of the user member in the database as an event log (steps S141 and S143).

Since the home gateway 120 does not hold the GUI screen information, when the ASP server 300 receives the operation result, the ASP server 300 downloads the GUI screen reflecting the operation result of the corresponding model to the source television 160 (step S145). ). When the television 160 receives the GUI screen of the control result, it displays it and confirms the operation result to the user member (step S147).

Thereby, the ASP server 300 side can collect and manage the operation event of the network household appliance as a log for each user member, and the burden on the home gateway 120 can be reduced.

5 illustrates a remote operation screen of the air conditioner on the browser screen of the television 160. When it is thought that the air conditioner of the living room with a user member wants to turn off by the remote operation from the television 160, if the air conditioner of the target living room is designated from the operation menu screen, the air conditioner of the objective as shown in FIG. A page of HTML indicating the current state is displayed along with the operation screen of. Here, the target air conditioner is currently in "cooling operation", and the "on" button is highlighted. On the other hand, when the off operation is performed by the remote control manipulator for the television 160, the off command is transmitted to the ASP server 300, and the ID of the air conditioner is sent from the ASP server 300 to the originator's home gateway 120. The designated OFF command is returned, and the home gateway 120 transmits this command to the corresponding air conditioner through the home network 30 to turn it off. When the off state is confirmed, the home gateway 120 returns the off state information to the ASP server 300 together with the ID of the air conditioner. Upon receiving this signal, the ASP server 300 performs registration update in which the operating state of the air conditioner of the user member's indoor is "off" in the database in its own device, and sends information of the "off" state to the source. It transmits to the television 160. In response to this, the browser of the television 160 changes the current state to "stopping" and highlights the "off" button on the operation page of the air conditioner as shown in Fig. 5B. .

In the case of shifting the browser page from Fig. 5A to Fig. 5B, the operation is performed on the page before the operation, and when the operation result is obtained, the procedure is to rewrite the page showing the state. During the waiting time from when the above "off" operation is performed until the browser page indicating the off state is sent from the ASP server 300, the screen of the television 160 continues to display nothing. do.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, the ASP server 300 employs an iframe of the display HTML tag of the browser page, and the operation is performed in reality, and the display is continued for the part not directly related to the operation, and the part whose aspect changes. Program the display to change only. That is, as shown in FIG. 6, each part of the "status display" part, the "on button" part, and the "off button" part shown in FIG. 5 is defined as an iframe, and each part is defined by CGI. The command is executed on the ASP server 300 side, and as a result, the display mode is shifted according to the execution result for each part.

In addition, in FIG. 6, <iframescr = jyoutai.cgi> acquires the frame of the status display, the text of the "status display", and the operation status of the network household appliance obtained by executing CGI at predetermined intervals, for example, " HTML for displaying "cooling operation", "stopping", etc. is defined. The HTML indicates the frame of the status display, the text of "status display", and the characters indicating the current driving status such as "cooling operation" and "stopping" as shown in Fig. 5 by the HTML. Is displayed at a predetermined coordinate position. More details of this jyoutai.cgi are illustrated in FIG. By executing jyoutai.cgi, the ASP server 300 transmits the HTML shown in FIG. 7 to the television 160. In this HTML, we write onload = init () in the body part and execute the function in functioninit () at the moment it is read. And init () is executed every 60 seconds at the place of the setTimeout function of the function, and the television 160 is presently present to the air conditioner that is the corresponding network household appliance through the home gateway 120 at the interval defined in the HTML. Inquiry of humidity and operation status is obtained, the result is acquired and retained, and if there is a corresponding display area, the acquired data is displayed.

In FIG. 6, <iframescr = on.cgi> displays the frame of the button and the character of "ON" at a predetermined coordinate position, and transmits and executes the home appliance control command of the gateway to the ASP server 300 in accordance with the on operation. In addition, according to the result, the state of the button is turned on according to the operation state of the corresponding device. For example, the button is painted in green color for highlighting. If the state of the button is off, the display mode is defined. . Similarly, <iframescr = off.cgi> displays the frame of the button and the character of "0FF" at a predetermined coordinate position, and transmits and executes the home appliance control command of the gateway to the ASP server 300 in accordance with the off operation. In addition, according to the result, it is possible to define a display mode in which the state of the off button is filled in green, for example, for highlighting, if the state of the off button is off according to the operation state of the corresponding device, and the button is filled in white if the driving state is on. Doing.

In this way, the operation screens of the network household appliances are each parted for each type of operation button, each operation mode, and the closed HTLM is defined for each part, and the program is programmed to execute necessary control by the CGI. On the operation screen, only the corresponding button is not displayed for a while until the operation result is reflected, but other parts can be continuously displayed in the original mode, so that the entire screen of the television 160 displays the operation result. As long as it is reflected, it can be avoided to become invisible.

In addition, when an operation for turning off the air conditioner from the television 160 as the network home appliance 1 is executed, the home gateway 120 instructs execution of the off command held as described above. In order to change the button color, it is necessary for the home gateway 120 to execute the command from the screen of the television 160 to return the screen information. However, since the home gateway 120 does not hold the screen information, the home gateway 120 has a function of passing the execution result to the ASP server 300, and outputs HTML screen information from the ASP server 300 which received the execution result. By outputting to the television 160 of a transmission source, the display which reflected the control result on the screen of the television 160 can be made. The HTML for realizing this is as follows, for example.

`` When turning off the air conditioner:

  kadenseigyo.cgi?

  kiki = aircon & type = off & server

          = http: //server/output.cgi 」

Here, kadenseigyo.cgi designates the command on the gateway, kiki = aircon designates the target air conditioner, and type = off designates the power supply 0FF. And server = http: //server/output.cgi specifies the server which outputs the display of the result.

<Home appliance intensive control>

Next, the centralized control function by the network household appliance control system of the present embodiment will be described using the sequence diagrams of FIGS. 8, 10, and 11. In a typical home, one air conditioner is installed in each living room, and as a total in the house 100, there are many cases. In addition, since the lighting apparatus is installed in each room, the number thereof is further increased. If these are network home appliances, they can be connected to the home network for centralized control. Thus, the concentrated control function will be described.

The home gateway 120 grasps a plurality of types of network home appliances 150 participating in the home network 30, and registers IDs, driving histories, and driving states of each home appliances to the ASP server 300. have. Therefore, the ASP server 300 provides the centralized control screen as shown in FIG. 8 for listing up and intensively controlling the same type of network household appliances such as air conditioners and lighting devices in the same house 100. This registration is registered by the user member from the browser screen of the television 160. In FIG. 8, the centralized control screen 200 relating to the air conditioner is shown. In the reference numeral 200, each of the air conditioners of the type described in the format fields provided in the bedrooms, living rooms, nurseries, and the Western-style rooms are provided, and all of them are centralized. We choose and set in state that we can do. The CGI of the iframe tag mentioned above has grasped | ascertained the operation state of each air conditioner, and is displayed in each column. And as a kind of intensive control button, operation buttons of temperature setting, operation mode switching, air volume switching, and operation / stop are provided. In addition, since different functions have different functions, the central control screen 200 is provided with a maximum common divisor operation button that can operate any of the registered home appliances of the same type. In addition, about the air conditioner which is not made into intensive control object, it can remove from the object of intensive control by clicking the display window of "selecting" and switching to "exclusion".

As shown in the sequence diagrams of Figs. 10 and 11, after the login procedure (steps S201-S213), if a request for downloading the centralized control screen specifying the air conditioner is requested from the menu screen (steps S215-S225), the procedure shown in Fig. 8 is shown. The centralized control screen 200 is downloaded and displayed on the television 160 (steps S227-S231).

In this centralized control screen 200, when the up button and the down button of the temperature setting are operated from the remote controller (step S233), these are simultaneously transmitted to the home appliance group via the home gateway 120 (steps S235 and S237), A change command of the temperature setting is sent to all the air conditioners in the selection, and automatic room temperature control is performed on the set temperature after the change (step S239). The room temperature information from each air conditioner is transmitted to the ASP server 300 via the home gateway 120 to update the room temperature actual value for each air conditioner (steps S241 to S245), and further to the television 160. The centralized control screen 200 which rewrites the set temperature is downloaded (steps S247 and S249).

Next, the operation in the case of shifting from the centralized control screen 200 to the operation for the individual air conditioners will be described using the state transition diagram of FIG. 9 and the sequence diagram of FIG. 12. If the user member thinks that only the air conditioner of the bedroom is to be operated in particular from the centralized control screen, the "change" button provided in the air conditioner of the bedroom is operated from the remote controller with respect to the centralized control screen 200 of FIG. Steps S251 and S253). Thereby, the browser of the television 160 designates the ID of the air conditioner of the selected bedroom, and transmits the download request of the individual control screen 210 to the ASP server 300 (step S255).

The ASP server 300 calls the gif of the corresponding screen in response to the download request of the individual control screen 210 specifying this ID, and sends the gif containing the current driving state information to the television 160 of the requesting source. And the individual control screen 210 as shown in FIG. 9B is displayed on the television 160 (steps S257-S261). The user member performs a desired operation on the individual control screen 210 displayed on the television 160 such as temperature setting change, power on / off, operation mode switching, air volume switching, and the like (step S263). When a separate operation command for the air conditioner of this bedroom is issued, control for the air conditioner is executed by the same sequence as in Fig. 4 (steps S265-S277).

By enabling centralized control and individual control in this way, the status for each model can be grasped | ascertained by the list about the network household appliances installed in the house 100 from the centralized control screen 200 of FIG. In addition, according to the old and new products, and depending on the grade, it is possible to flexibly cope with the operation of the various functions by using the individual control screen 210.

In addition, centralized control can be performed not only with an air conditioner but with a lighting apparatus. 13 shows a concentrated control screen 201 of the lighting device. From the centralized control screen 201, the on / off operation can be performed at the same time with respect to the selection registered on the centralized control screen among the lighting devices in the living room, the bedroom, the western room, and the child room.

<Heterogeneous home appliance intensive control>

Next, the heterogeneous household appliance centralized control function by the network household appliance control system of the present embodiment will be described. For example, when the user member goes out, all the air conditioners in each room are turned off, the lighting devices in each room are also turned off, and the door light is turned on. A series of operations are registered in advance in association with the activity for each network household appliance to be used. The heterogeneous household appliance centralized control function enables the centralized household appliance to control all the necessary network appliances using the heterogeneous household appliance centralized control function at the start of the corresponding activity.

For this purpose, for example, titles such as "when going out", "sleeping", "weather" and "working", and all network home appliances that require operation at the time of each activity and operations for each of them. The registered heterogeneous home appliance intensive control menu is registered in the ASP server 300 as that of the corresponding user member.

After the login procedure, the heterogeneous household appliance intensive control menu is downloaded and displayed on the television 160. From there, for example, as shown in FIG. Thereby, as shown in the sequence diagram of FIG. 15, ASP server 300 calls the operation | movement object network operation group and operation | movement with respect to each home appliances registered with respect to "the going out" of the user member (step S301-). S305) The corresponding operation command is transmitted to the home gateway 120 (step S307), and the home gateway 120 is operated for each home appliance (steps S309 and S311). The operation result is transmitted from the home gateway 120 to the ASP server 300 (steps S313 and S315), and the ASP server 300 confirms the operation result (step S317) and transmits a confirmation screen to the television 160. FIG. For example, a message stating that "preparation before going out" is completed and notified to the user member (steps S319 and S321). Thereby, the user member can confirm that the centralized control before going out is completed and can go out.

According to the present invention, there is provided a network home appliance control system which can be advantageously constructed in a cost manner by using a digital television having an Internet connection function.

Claims (10)

A server connected to the Internet having an operation screen for operating various network household appliances, A router for controlling connection between the LAN-side connection device and the Internet; The television connected to the LAN side of the router and equipped with a network communication function that executes an Internet browser, A network household appliance having a communication function for a wired communication network or a wireless communication network, and executing an operation indicated by control information received by the communication function; A gateway connected to the LAN side of the router and connected to the network home appliance and a wired or wireless communication network to send control information sent from the server through the router to the network home appliance; Network home appliance control system comprising a. The method of claim 1, The server includes a database of GUI screens for various televisions of a plurality of formats, and when receiving access from the television, acquires the information of the gateway and the format information of the television, and the GUI corresponding to the television. A network home appliance control system which extracts a screen from the database and downloads it to the television. The method of claim 2, The GUI screen includes an iframe tag indicating an individual part included therein, and each iframe tag includes a cgi command for giving an operation command for the corresponding part. The method of claim 3, The network communication function detects an operation input for any one of the individual parts displayed on the GUI screen, executes an iframe command of the corresponding part in the server, and issues the operation command to the corresponding network home appliance through the gateway. Send, The network appliance sends a result of executing the operation command to the server, The server receives the execution result of the operation control of the network household appliance, changes the display of the part, and transmits image data corresponding to the display after the change of the part to the network communication function of the television, The network communication function of said television receives the image data of the said part from the said server, and changes the display of the said part of the said GUI screen to the thing corresponding to the execution result of the said operation control. The method of claim 4, wherein And an iframe tag which periodically and actively inquires about the gateway and reflects the result in image data of a corresponding part of the GUI screen. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 5, The database is a GUI screen for integrating and controlling a plurality of network appliances of the same type, and the centralized control screen includes a registration / release operation part for setting operation target registration / unregistration of individual network household appliances on the GUI screen. Network home appliance control system comprising a. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 5, The GUI screens for the plurality of network appliances of the same type are GUI screens for integrating and controlling the plurality of network appliances of the same type, and the parts for home appliance selection which transition from the GUI screen to the operation screens of the individual network appliances are corresponding. A network household appliance having the centralized control screen including a registration / release operation part for setting an operation target registration / unregistration of individual network household appliances on the centralized control screen, and individual operation screens for a plurality of network appliances of the same type. Control system. The method according to claim 6 or 7, The network home appliance control system of the same kind is an air conditioner. The method according to claim 6 or 7, The network home appliance control system of the same kind is a lighting device. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 5, The database is a GUI screen for instructing centralized control of one title, and includes a GUI screen for linking the same or multiple types of network home appliances to the GUI screen, and giving a separate operation command to each of the network home appliances. Network home appliance control system.

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