JP2001241737A - Air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To dispense with dedicated temperature sensor and humidity sensor when sales records are accumulated in relation to temperature information and humidity information at the time of collecting and processing marketing data in POS system. SOLUTION: The air conditioner is provided with temperature sensors 1, 2 and humidity sensors 3, 4 and temperature information and humidity information sampled through these sensors can be transmitted to a POS system 31.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention comprises at least one of a temperature sensor for sampling the outside air temperature and / or the indoor temperature and a humidity sensor for sampling the outdoor humidity and / or the indoor humidity. Alternatively, the present invention relates to an air conditioner that adjusts and controls room temperature and / or room humidity based on temperature information and / or humidity information collected by the humidity sensor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the development of information technology in recent years, in the field of sales and distribution, promotion of business efficiency has been promoted by electronic technology. In particular, a point-of-sale information management system (Point of Sales System:
The POS system has been used for a long time since its commencement, and has been used by many stores and marketing companies.

[0003] This POS system generally makes it possible to efficiently collect sales information for each product in retail stores and the like, collects and accumulates this sales information for each product individually, and accurately calculates accounting calculations for sales. Not only quickly and quickly, but also to collect out-of-stock information and automatically manage purchases, and to accurately determine marketing predictions by grasping so-called “selling goods” and “dead goods” to help assortment of products. The range of utilization is wide.

[0004] In particular, when marketing prediction is performed using a POS system, seasonal fluctuations and climate changes are collected by some method, and a causal relationship between the sales results of each product and the seasonal fluctuations and climate changes is determined. It is also performed by statistical methods.

[0005]

Here, in a POS system, a PO quantity such as a sales quantity and a sales time for each product is required.
In order to utilize S data for marketing prediction, the temperature and humidity at the time of sale of an individual product may be collected and associated with the sales performance of the product.

As a method for realizing this, a host computer in the management center accumulates temperature changes and humidity changes in each region based on data announced by the Japan Meteorological Agency and collects them at terminals of retail stores and the like. Each POS
When the data is transmitted to the host computer in the management center, there is a method of adding the temperature and humidity corresponding to the time when each product is sold to the data, but the actual temperature that changes every moment in each sales area is available. In order to more accurately reflect the temperature and the humidity, it is most desirable to actually measure the temperature information and the humidity information at each retail store that actually sells the product. In this case, a dedicated temperature sensor and humidity sensor are installed at each retail store, and information on the outside air temperature and humidity is collected using these sensors, and these are collected by the PO.
It is also possible to include it in the S data.

However, when a POS system is installed in each retail store, a dedicated temperature sensor and a humidity sensor must be installed, which requires labor for installation and a cost for parts for these sensors. However, a great deal of economical burden is required.

An object of the present invention is to provide an air conditioner capable of including temperature information and humidity information at the time of product purchase or the like in POS data without installing a dedicated temperature sensor and humidity sensor. Is to do.

[0009]

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems,
According to the first aspect of the present invention, at least one of a temperature sensor (1, 2) for sampling an outside air temperature and / or an indoor temperature and a humidity sensor (3, 4) for sampling an outdoor humidity and / or an indoor humidity is provided. An air conditioner that adjusts and controls indoor temperature and / or indoor humidity based on temperature information and / or humidity information collected by the temperature sensor and / or the humidity sensor, wherein the temperature sensor and / or the humidity are A transmission means (24, 28, 14, 29, 30) for transmitting temperature information and / or humidity information collected by the sensor to a predetermined external data processing device (31) is provided.

[0010] According to a second aspect of the present invention, the external data processing device (31) accumulates sales results of commodities displayed in the room where the indoor unit is arranged in association with temperature information and / or humidity information. By doing so, the marketing data collection processing is executed.

[0011]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the external data processing device executes predetermined data processing using the temperature information and / or the humidity information, the data is collected by the temperature sensor and / or the humidity sensor in the air conditioner. The transmitted temperature information and / or humidity information is transmitted to a predetermined external data processing device by a transmission unit. Thus, without installing a dedicated temperature sensor and / or humidity sensor, the temperature information and / or humidity can be obtained using the temperature sensor and / or humidity sensor of the air conditioner.
Or collect humidity information.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the marketing data collection processing is easily executed by accumulating the sales results of the products in association with the temperature information and / or the humidity information.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS <Structure> FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing an air conditioner according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram thereof. This air conditioner is a general one in which temperature sensors 1 and 2 and humidity sensors 3 and 4 are installed in advance, as shown in FIGS. Temperature information and humidity sensors 3 and 4
And the humidity information collected at
It can be transmitted to an OS system.

More specifically, this air conditioner has an outdoor unit 11
The indoor unit 12 and the indoor unit 12 mutually transmit and receive information through a predetermined communication line 13, and the outdoor unit 11 and the indoor unit 12 are controlled by a predetermined operation control panel (remote controller) 14. It has become. The outdoor unit 11 has a temperature sensor 1 and a humidity sensor 3,
The indoor unit 12 is provided with a temperature sensor 2 and a humidity sensor 4.

As each of the temperature sensors 1 and 2, a general sensor such as a thermistor or a thermocouple whose electric resistance changes to a temperature is used. An analog electric signal obtained from the first temperature sensor 1 installed in the outdoor unit 11 is converted into a digital signal by an analog / digital converter (A / D) 21 as shown in FIG. The information is input to a microcomputer chip (hereinafter, referred to as a “first microcomputer”) 22 as a control unit in 11. The second temperature sensor 2 is installed at a suction port of the indoor unit 12, and an analog electric signal obtained from the second temperature sensor 2 is converted into a digital signal by an analog / digital converter (A / D) 23 and then converted to a digital signal. Microcomputer chip (hereinafter referred to as “second microcomputer”) as a control unit in the machine 12
24.

As the humidity sensors 3 and 4, general sensors such as a ceramic humidity sensor, a polymer film humidity sensor or a thermistor humidity sensor are used. An analog electric signal obtained from the first humidity sensor 3 is as shown in FIG.
After being converted into a digital signal by an analog / digital converter (A / D) 25, the digital signal is input to a first microcomputer 22 in the outdoor unit 11. The second humidity sensor 4 is installed at a suction port of the indoor unit 12, and an analog electric signal obtained from the second humidity sensor 4 is converted into a digital signal by an analog / digital converter (A / D) 26, and then converted into a digital signal. The data is input to the second microcomputer 24 in the device 12.

The microcomputers 22 and 24 of the outdoor unit 11 and the indoor unit 12 respectively store the temperature information collected by the temperature sensors 1 and 2 and the humidity information collected by the humidity sensors 3 and 4 respectively. Communication circuits 27, 28 provided
To communicate with each other.

The second microcomputer 24 in the indoor unit 12
Transmits the temperature information collected by the temperature sensors 1 and 2 and the humidity information collected by the humidity sensors 3 and 4 to a predetermined interface device 29 through the communication circuit 28 and the operation control panel 14 as shown in FIG. The interface device 29 converts the temperature information and the humidity information given through the operation control panel 14 into, for example, EIA.
RS-, a standard established by the Electronic Industries Association of America
232C, IEEE 1394 which is a standard established by IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), or so-called USB
(Universal Serial Bus) or the like to convert the signal into a signal of a communication protocol suitable for a standard communication method, and transmit the signal to a POS system 31 (FIG. 1) through a connector 30 having a shape suitable for each communication method. Has become.

Here, the second microcomputer 24 and the communication circuit 2
8, operation control panel 14, interface device 29 and connector 30 are temperature sensors 1 and 2 and humidity sensors 3 and 4.
Temperature and humidity information collected by the POS system 31
The transmission means transmits the temperature information and the humidity information to the POS system 31.
The timing control is all controlled by the second microcomputer 24.

Here, as the POS system 31, for example, a general computing system including a main memory including a CPU and an SDRAM, a hard disk drive, and a monitor device as a screen display unit is used. A general device that can efficiently collect sales information for each product using an optical information reader such as a reader or an OCR (optical character reader) is used. The CPU operates according to a predetermined software program stored in advance in the hard disk drive, so that external temperature information and humidity information can be included in the POS data. These P Based on the S data, accounting calculation process related to sales, and executes various processes marketing data collection process, such as for purchase management processes, and sales forecast based on the out-of-stock information.

Each of the microcomputers 22 and 24 is a functional component operated by a predetermined software program in a general CPU to which a ROM, a RAM, and the like are connected.

<Operation> The operation of the air conditioner having the above configuration will be described. Here, the description will be made on the assumption that the connector 30 has already been connected to the POS system 31.

First, in each of the outdoor unit 11 and the indoor unit 12, the temperature information about the outside air temperature and the indoor temperature collected by each of the temperature sensors 1 and 2 is transmitted to each microcomputer 22 via analog / digital converters 21 and 23. , 24 respectively.

The humidity information on the outdoor humidity and the indoor humidity collected by the humidity sensors 3 and 4 is also input to the microcomputers 22 and 24 via the analog / digital converters 25 and 26.

Here, the temperature information and the humidity information collected on the outdoor unit 11 side are transmitted to the communication circuit 28 on the indoor unit 12 side via the communication circuit 27 and the communication line 13, and further transmitted from the communication circuit 28 to the second microcomputer. 24. In the second microcomputer 24, based on the temperature information and the humidity information transmitted from the indoor unit 12 and the temperature information and the humidity information received from the outdoor unit 11, as operated by the operation control panel 14, An air conditioning drive unit (not shown) is drive-controlled to perform general indoor temperature control and humidity control.

The interface device 29 includes the communication circuit 2
8 converts the indoor and outdoor temperature information and humidity information given through the operation control panel 14 into signals of a predetermined communication protocol. Then, for example, the POS system 31 is periodically transmitted through the connector 30 at regular intervals (for example, every 10 seconds).
(FIG. 1). Alternatively, when a predetermined request signal is transmitted from the POS system 31, the request signal is received by the second microcomputer 24 through the connector 30, the interface device 29, the operation control panel 14, and the communication circuit 28. The temperature information and the humidity information may be transmitted to the POS system 31 in response to the signal.

In the POS system 31 to which the temperature information and the humidity information are given as described above, the temperature information and the humidity information are included in the POS data and used.
Various processes such as a marketing data collection process mainly for sales prediction may be executed.

As described above, the temperature sensors 1 and 2 and the humidity sensors 3 and 4 already provided in the existing air conditioner.
Is used to collect indoor and outdoor temperature information and humidity information. The collected temperature information and humidity information are input to the POS system 31 after performing a predetermined protocol conversion. When installing the POS data, it is not necessary to newly install a dedicated temperature sensor and humidity sensor for collecting the temperature information and the humidity information to be used by being included in the POS data. In addition, it is possible to omit component costs required for the humidity sensor and to provide an extremely convenient air conditioner.

In the above embodiment, both the temperature information collected by the temperature sensor and the humidity information collected by the humidity sensor are transmitted to the POS system 31, but either one of the temperature information and the humidity information is transmitted. May be transmitted.

In the above embodiment, the information on the outside air temperature collected by the first temperature sensor 1 in the outdoor unit 11 and the information on the indoor temperature collected by the second temperature sensor 2 in the indoor unit 12 are used. Are transmitted to the POS system 31, but only one of the temperature information may be transmitted to the POS system 31, for example, only the outside air temperature is transmitted to the POS system 31.

Further, in the above embodiment, the outdoor unit 11
Both the outdoor humidity information collected by the first humidity sensor 3 and the indoor humidity information collected by the second humidity sensor 4 in the indoor unit 12 are transmitted to the POS system 31. Only one of the humidity information is transmitted to the POS system 31, for example, only the outdoor humidity information is transmitted to the POS system 31.
It may be transmitted to the OS system 31.

[0032]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the temperature information and / or the humidity information collected by the temperature sensor and / or the humidity sensor in the air conditioner are transmitted to a predetermined external data processing device by the transmission means. Since transmission is possible, when the external data processing device performs predetermined data processing using temperature information and / or humidity information, without installing a dedicated temperature sensor and / or humidity sensor,
Temperature information and / or humidity information can be collected using a temperature sensor and / or a humidity sensor of the air conditioner. Therefore, not only can the labor for installing the temperature sensor and / or the humidity sensor be reduced, but also the cost of parts can be saved because the dedicated temperature sensor and / or the humidity sensor can be omitted.

In particular, as described in the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to easily execute a marketing data collection process by accumulating sales results of products in association with temperature information and / or humidity information. effective.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an outline of an air conditioner according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an air conditioner according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 2 temperature sensor, 3, 4 humidity sensor, 11 outdoor unit, 12 indoor unit, 13 communication line, 14 operation control panel,
21, 23 analog / digital converters, 22, 24
Microcomputer, 25, 26 analog / digital converter, 27, 28 communication circuit, 29 interface device, 30 connector, 31 POS system

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き The continuation of the front page F term (reference) 3E042 CD10 EA06 3L061 BA03 9A001 HH34 JJ58 KK57 LL09

Claims (2)

[Claims] And a humidity sensor (3, 4) for sampling an outside air temperature and / or an indoor humidity, and a humidity sensor (3, 4) for sampling an outdoor humidity and / or an indoor humidity. An air conditioner that adjusts and controls indoor temperature and / or indoor humidity based on temperature information and / or humidity information collected by a temperature sensor and / or the humidity sensor, wherein the air conditioner is collected by the temperature sensor and / or the humidity sensor. Transmitting means (24, 2) for transmitting the received temperature information and / or humidity information to a predetermined external data processing device (31).
8, 14, 29, 30). 2. The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the external data processing device (31) calculates a sales result of a product displayed in a room in which the indoor unit is arranged by using temperature information and / or temperature information. An air conditioner that executes marketing data collection processing by storing it in association with humidity information.