JP2003046654A - Home interphone - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a home interphone, with which speaking is performed mutually between respective places for a plurality of arbitrary places in home such as the entrance, a living room and small rooms through simple installation work without being accompanied with the wiring work of a private line. SOLUTION: In a control circuit (CONT) 225, encoding processing is respectively applied to audio data received from an audio system interface circuit (IF-A) 222 and video data received from a video system interface circuit (IF-B) 223, packet data for transmission are generated on the basis of these encoded audio and video data and instruction data, and the relevant packet data are sent to a PLC modem 221 as speech information for transmission. In the PLC modem 221, the speech information for transmission (packet data for transmission) received from the control circuit (CONT) 225 are transmitted through a power source plug P and a power source outlet 12 onto in-house wiring 11.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a PLC (power Li
home communication intercom using technology.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, a domestic intercom used between an entrance and a living room connects a base unit and a handset with a dedicated line to enable mutual conversation. However, the conventional intercom of this kind has a problem that if the number of rooms in which conversation is possible is increased, the wiring between the master unit and the slave unit becomes complicated. Further, there is a problem that a wireless intercom using an FM transceiver or the like has a high possibility of affecting various electric / electronic devices in the home such as a television and a radio receiver.

[0003]

As described above, in the conventional intercom for home use, the wiring between the master unit and the slave unit becomes complicated as the number of rooms in which conversation is possible increases. In addition, in the case of a wireless intercom that uses an FM transceiver, there is a high possibility that it will affect various electrical and electronic devices in the home, such as televisions and radio receivers. was there.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances.
A home intercom system that allows you to talk to each other at any place in your home, such as the entrance, living room, small room, etc., with simple installation work without the need for wiring a dedicated line. The purpose is to provide.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a home intercom system using PLC technology, and uses a power line modem (power li) having a home wiring (a home power line) as a transmission path.
ne modem) is used to enable voice calls, or a combination of voice and video (still image, quasi-moving image, moving image), between arbitrary multiple points in the home.

That is, the home intercom according to the present invention includes a power line modem for transmitting and receiving information using in-home wiring,
Decoding processing means for decoding the coded call information received by the power line modem, and output means for reproducing the call information decoded by the decoding processing means and outputting it to the outside.
It is characterized by further comprising input means for inputting call information, and coding processing means for coding the call information input from the input means and sending it to the power line modem.
As a result, audio or audio and video (still image, semi-video, moving image) can be displayed in any part of the house, including the living room and the entrance, without any wiring work for the dedicated line. It is possible to mutually transmit call information that is a combination of.

Further, the home intercom according to the present invention includes a power line modem for transmitting and receiving information using in-home wiring,
Reception processing means for selecting coded call information addressed to itself from the information received by the power line modem, decoding processing means for decoding the coded call information selected by the reception processing means, and the decoding processing means. Output means for reproducing the call information decoded by the above and outputting it to the outside, input means for inputting the call information, coding processing means for coding the call information input from said input means, and said code Instruction means for instructing the destination of the call information encoded by the encoding processing means, and the destination information instructed by the instruction means for the call information encoded by the encoding processing means, or the destination information and the originator Transmission processing means for adding information and transmitting it to the power line modem is provided. As a result, without requiring any dedicated wiring work, for example, at any location inside the house, including the living room, entrance, etc., by designating the other party, the voice, or voice and video (still Image, quasi-moving picture, moving picture) can be transmitted to each other.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an arrangement configuration example of a home intercom according to the present invention.
Intercoms are provided in the living room, room A, room B, and room C, respectively. In the figure, 1 is a house to which the intercom according to the present invention is applied, 2 is an outdoor distribution line, 3 is an electric power meter, 10 is an indoor distribution board, 11 is home wiring (household power line), and 12 is Power outlets provided on the in-house wiring 11 and are existing household power system facilities, respectively.

Reference numerals 21 to 25 are intercoms (PLC-IP) using a power line modem according to the present invention. In this embodiment, the living room, the entrance, and the rooms A to C have different configurations. There is. Here, among the intercoms (PLC-IP) 21 to 25, the intercom (PLC-IP) 21 that is a master is provided in the living room, and the intercoms (PLC-IP) 22 to 25 that are slaves are installed in the rooms A to C. And it is installed at the entrance.

In this case, the intercom (PLC
2 shows an example of the external configuration of the (-IP) 21 and FIG. 3 shows an example of the external configuration of the intercoms (PLC-IP) 22 to 25 that are slaves.

Intercom (PLC-IP) 2 on the base unit side
As shown in FIG. 2, a speaker 211 that outputs voice during a call, a microphone 212 that inputs voice during a call, and an imaging camera 21 that captures a face image or the like during the call are shown in FIG.
3, a display unit 214 for displaying and outputting a face image or the like during a call, call destination designating switches S11 to S15 for selecting a call partner,
A chime designating switch S16 for designating on / off of the chime is provided. Incidentally, P is a power plug inserted into the power outlet 12.

Intercom (PLC-IP) 2 on the slave side
2 to 25, as shown in FIG. 3, a speaker 211 that outputs voice during a call, a microphone 212 that inputs voice during a call, an imaging camera 213 that captures a face image or the like during a call, a call partner (here, a base unit). Side intercom (P
A call button S21 or the like for calling the LC-IP) 21) is provided.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the internal circuit configuration of the intercom (PLC-IP) 21 on the master side shown in FIG.

The intercom (PLC-IP) 21 includes:
As shown in FIG. 4, a power line modem (hereinafter referred to as a PLC modem) 221 and a voice interface circuit (IF-
A) 222, video system interface circuit (IF-B)
223, switch interface circuit (IF-C)
224, a control circuit (CONT) 225 for controlling the entire intercom (PLC-IP) 21 on the master side, and the like.

The PLC modem 221 transmits and receives voice and video call information via the power plug P and the power outlet 12 with the in-home wiring (electric line in the home) 11 as a transmission path. At this time, as a transmission format of the call information transmitted and received by the PLC modem 221, a transmission format of a plurality of channels by frequency multiplexing (frequency multiplexing transmission method) in which a transmission channel of video data and a transmission channel of audio data are provided separately, Or, the data type for communication data (audio data / video data / chime sound data)
Any of a transmission format (packet transmission method) in which packets are transmitted with a flag indicating is applicable, but here, as an example, the call information is transmitted and received by the packet transmission method.

Audio interface circuit (IF-A)
A D / A converter and a voice amplifier 222 receive the voice data decoded by the control circuit (CONT) 225, convert the voice data from digital to analog, and reproduce and output the call voice from the speaker (SP) 211. And the call voice input from the microphone (MIC) 212, and analog-digital conversion is performed to control the circuit (CON).
T) 225 and an audio amplifier and an A / D converter.

Video interface circuit (IF-B)
A D / A converter and a video signal amplifier 223 receives the video data decoded by the control circuit (CONT) 225, converts the video data into an NTSC video signal, and outputs the NTSC video signal for display on a display unit (DISP) 214. , And a video signal amplifier and an A / D converter for analog-digital converting a video signal such as a face image captured by the image pickup camera (VC) 213 and sending it to the control circuit (CONT) 225. This video interface circuit (IF-
B) Still images, quasi-moving images, moving images, etc. can be considered as the images handled by 223, but in this embodiment, the transmitted images are face images of family members, visitors, etc. during a call,
In addition, a still image or a quasi-moving image is handled in view of the packet transmission speed of the call information, the cost, and the like.

Switch system interface circuit (IF-
C) 224 is a callee designating switch S11 to S15 for selecting a call partner (here, simultaneous / individual, entrance, room A, room B, room C) and a chime designating switch S16 for designating on / off of the chime. Command data according to the operation of various switches such as the control circuit (CONT) 225
It has an interface function to pass to.

The control circuit (CONT) 225 decodes the call information such as the coded voice data and the coded video data received by the PLC modem 221, and decodes the voice information to the voice interface circuit (IF-A). ) 22
2 and sends the video data to the video interface circuit (IF-B) 223, the audio data received from the audio interface circuit (IF-A) 222, and the video interface circuit (IF). −
B) An encoding processing unit that respectively encodes the video data received from 223, and a destination address (callee address) and a chime based on the instruction data received from the switch system interface circuit (IF-C) 224. An address and data generation processing unit that generates sound data and a local address, call information (voice data / video data) encoded by the encoding processing unit, and an address generated by the generation processing unit ( Call information for transmission (transmission packet data in this embodiment) in a predetermined transmission format (see FIG. 5) as shown in FIG. 5 based on the own station address and the callee address) and the data (chime sound data). Is generated and sent to the PLC modem 221, and it is determined whether or not the received information is addressed to the own station. Constructed and a reception processing unit for taking the received information addressed to the own station.

The intercom (PLC-I
P) The internal circuit configuration of 22 to 25 is also shown in FIG.
The intercom (PLC-IP) 21 on the base unit side shown in FIG. 1 is realized by almost the same basic components, and details thereof will be omitted here.

FIG. 5 shows a transmission format of call information transmitted from the PLC modem 221 to the in-home wiring (in-house power line) 11, where the address of the own station and the address of the other party of the call are shown. , And communication data including coded call information (voice data / video data) and chime sound data (when chime-on is designated). In this embodiment, the packet transmission method is adopted as the transmission format of the call information transmitted / received by the PLC modem 221, and the communication data has a data type (audio data / video data / chime sound data). ) Is added and the call information is transmitted and received by packet transmission.

The operation of the intercom and the intercom system according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

In this embodiment, the intercom (PLC-IP) 21 on the master side having the external structure shown in FIG.
Is provided in the living room, and intercoms (PLC-IP) 22 to 25 on the child machine side having the external structure shown in FIG. 3 are provided in the rooms A to C and the entrance, respectively.

Intercom (PLC-IP) 2 on the master side
When making a call by designating a cordless handset from No. 1, one of the call destination designation switches S11 to S15 is switched on, the call destination is selected and designated, and the call voice is input from the microphone 212. , A face image is input from the image pickup camera 213. At this time, when adding a chime sound, the chime designating switch S16 is turned on and the call voice and the face image are input in the same manner as above.

The call voice captured by the microphone 212 is input to the audio interface circuit (IF-A) 222 as an analog audio signal, and the face image photographed by the image pickup camera 213 is converted to an analog interface image signal (IF-A). B) Input to 223 and converted into digital data respectively. Further, the digital audio data output from the audio interface circuit (IF-A) 222 and the digital video data output from the video interface circuit (IF-B) 223 are the switch interface circuit (IF-C) 22.
4 together with the instruction data output from the control circuit (CON
T) 225 is input.

The control circuit (CONT) 225 receives the audio data received from the audio interface circuit (IF-A) 222 and the video interface circuit (IF-A).
B) The video data received from 223 is coded, and the transmission packet data of the data format shown in FIG. 5 is generated based on the coded audio data and video data and the instruction data. The packet data is sent to the PLC modem 221 as call information for transmission.

The PLC modem 221 includes a control circuit (CON
T) The transmission call information (transmission packet data) received from 225 is transmitted to the in-home wiring 11 via the power plug P and the power outlet 12.

Intercom (PLC-IP) 2 on the slave side
The PLC modems 221 provided in Nos. 2 to 25 respectively receive the call information (packet data) transmitted on the in-home wiring 11 and, in the control circuit (CONT) 225, call information (packet information) addressed to the own station. Data), if it is addressed to the own station, the call information (packet data) is decoded, the flag content of the communication data is judged, and the voice data (including chime sound data) If so, the audio data is transferred to the audio interface circuit (I
F-A) 222, and if it is video data, the video data is sent to the video interface circuit (IF-B) 2
23.

Audio interface circuit (IF-A)
When the voice data is received from the control circuit (CONT) 225, the 222 restores the voice data to an analog voice signal and reproduces and outputs the call voice of the base unit side from the speaker 211.

Further, the video system interface circuit (IF
-B) When the video data is received from the control circuit (CONT) 225, the 223 restores the video data into an analog video signal and sends it to the display unit (DISP) 214, and then the display unit (DISP) 214 on the master unit side. The captured face image etc. is displayed and output.

Further, the intercom (PLC-I
P) 21 to the intercom (PLC-IP) 2 at the entrance
When making a call to all the handset units other than 5, the call destination designation switch S12 for selecting the simultaneous call / individual call is turned on, and the same call as above is performed. In this case,
According to the instruction data associated with the operation of the call destination designation switch S12, the control circuit (CONT) 225 generates a common partner address for the intercoms (PLC-IP) 22 to 24 on the slave side, and the transmission has the address. The PLC modem 2 generates call information (packet data for transmission).
It is transmitted to the home wiring (home electric power line) 11 by 21.

In this case, the intercom (PLC
-IP) 22 to 24 simultaneously receive and process the call information for transmission (packet data for transmission) transmitted on the in-home wiring (electrical power line in the home) 11, respectively, and process the same, in the same manner as above It reproduces and outputs the call voice of, and displays and outputs the face image and the like taken by the base unit side.

In this way, by turning on the call destination designation switch S12, the intercom (PLC-IP) 21 in the living room and the intercom (PLC) in the front door.
-All intercoms (PL) except for IP 25
C-IP) 22 to 24: 1: n call becomes possible,
By switching on the call destination designation switch S11, a 1: 1 call between the living room intercom (PLC-IP) 21 and the front door intercom (PLC-IP) 25 becomes possible, and the call destination designation switches S12 to S15 By switching on either, the intercom (22/23/22) of the room (A / B / C) that was switched on
It is possible to make a 1: 1 call between 24) and the living room.

In addition, the intercom (PLC-I
P) 22-25 to the intercom (PLC-I
P) 21 to call and make a call, by pressing the call button S21 provided on the intercom (PLC-IP) 22 to 25 on the handset side, the instruction data accompanying the operation of the call button S21 is displayed. The control circuit (CONT) 225 inputs the control circuit (CONT) 225 to generate transmission call information (transmission packet data) similar to the above, and the transmission call information (transmission packet data) is transmitted to the PLC. Wiring in the home by the modem 221 (home power line)
11 is transmitted to the intercom (PLC-IP) 21 on the master side. Since the operation of each unit in the slave unit and the master unit at this time can be easily understood from the above-described operation description, the detailed operation description will be omitted here.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, one intercom (PLC-IP) 21 on the master side provided with the callee designation switches S11 to S15 shown in FIG. 2 and the callee designation switch shown in FIG. An intercom system including four intercoms (PLC-IP) 22 to 25 on the side of the handset, which does not include S11 to S15, has been taken as an example, but, for example, an intercom including call destination designation switches S11 to S15. Any intercom system can be constructed, such as a system configuration using a plurality of (PLC-IP) 21 or a system configuration using an intercom that does not include the imaging camera 213 and the video system interface circuit (IF-B) 223. .

[0037]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, a plurality of arbitrary places in a home such as a front door, a living room, and a small room can be installed by a simple installation work without the work of wiring a dedicated line. The target can be provided with a home intercom that enables a call between each place.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an arrangement configuration example of a home intercom according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an external configuration example of a master side intercom in the above embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an external configuration example of a slave side intercom according to the above embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing internal circuit components of the interphone in the above embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a transmission format of call information in the above embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... house 2 ... Outdoor distribution line 3 ... Electricity meter 10 ... Distribution board 11 ... Wiring in the house (light line in the house) 12 ... Power outlet 21 ... Intercom on the base unit side (PLC-IP) 22 to 25 ... Intercom on the handset side (PLC-IP) 211 ... Speaker 212 ... Microphone 213 ... Imaging camera 214 ... Display unit 221 ... Power line modem (PLC modem) 222 ... Voice interface circuit (IF-A) 223 ... Video system interface circuit (IF-B) 224 ... Switch system interface circuit (IF-C) 225 ... Control circuit (CONT) S11-S15 ... Call destination switch S16 ... Chime designated switch S21 ... Call button

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    F-term (reference) 5C054 CD06 DA03 DA08 EA03 EG02                       HA22                 5K038 AA03 AA09 CC03 CC05 CC11                       DD15 DD23 EE02 EE08 EE13                       FF00                 5K046 AA03 BA03 BB02 PS31

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A power line modem for transmitting and receiving information using in-home wiring, a decoding processing unit for decoding the coded call information received by the power line modem, and a call decoded by the decoding processing unit. The information processing apparatus further comprises output means for reproducing information and outputting it to the outside, input means for inputting call information, and coding processing means for coding the call information input from the input means and sending it to the power line modem. A home intercom that is characterized. 2. A power line modem for transmitting and receiving information using in-home wiring, a reception processing unit for selecting coded call information addressed to the own station from information received by the power line modem, and a code selected by the reception processing unit. Decoding processing means for decoding the encrypted call information, output means for reproducing the call information decrypted by the decoding processing means and outputting it to the outside, input means for inputting the call information, and the input means Encoding processing means for encoding the input call information, instructing means for instructing a destination of the call information encoded by the encoding processing means, and call information encoded by the encoding processing means. The home interface is characterized by comprising: destination information instructed by the instructing means, or transmission processing means for adding the destination information and source information and transmitting the information to the power line modem. Down. 3. The home intercom according to claim 1, wherein the coded call information includes at least one of voice information, still image information, quasi-moving image information, and moving image information. 4. The instructing means includes a broadcast transmission instructing means for simultaneously transmitting call information to a plurality of destinations, and a destination specifying means for individually selecting and transmitting a plurality of destinations. Home intercom described in 2. 5. Each of a plurality of arbitrary places in the home,
A power line modem that transmits and receives information using in-home wiring, and a circuit that selects encoded call information addressed to itself from the information received by the power line modem, decodes the encoded call information, reproduces it, and outputs it to the outside. And an intercom having a circuit part for inputting and encoding the call information and sending it to the power line modem together with the destination information, and the power line modems of the interphones mutually use the home wiring as a transmission path. A home intercom system characterized in that communication is performed, and each of the intercoms specifies a call partner and mutually transmits voice or call information in which voice and video are combined.