JP2003169189A - Electrical device system applicable to network - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electrical device system applicable to a network and capable of easily and surely supplying a user with service information on an electrical device, using method advice information or the like. <P>SOLUTION: The electrical device system applicable to the network is provided with an electrical device 1 for transmitting device information including operation, a set state or the like, a telephone set or a facsimile machine 2 for receiving and transmitting the device information on the electrical device and an external server 10 for receiving the device information from the telephone set or the facsimile machine to convert the device information into device service information. The exterior server transmits the converted device service information to the telephone set or the facsimile machine. The telephone set or the facsimile machine receives the device service information and supplies the user with the device service information. The use of the continuously power- supplied telephone set or facsimile machine enables easily and surely supplying the user with the information eagerly requested by the user. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to electric appliances used in homes, offices, etc., such as life and work, telephones or faxes in combination with an external server, and the usage status such as operation of electric appliances, and usage advice. The present invention relates to a network-compatible electric device that notifies a user of information such as the above.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, there have been proposed many methods of connecting home electric appliances in a home via a network and performing remote control from outside the home. For example, JP-A-200
The remote operation system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 0-59867 uses electronic mail distributed via the Internet as an information transmission means, and operation control information for operating and controlling home electric appliances and the like in a remote place from the way home. Is transmitted to home electric appliances and the like. These are configured as shown in FIG. 11, and enable operation of the device via the network.

That is, the electric equipment 40 is an air conditioner 40a used in the home, a video tape recorder (hereinafter referred to as VTR) 40b, an audio 40c, and a water heater 40d. The electric device 40 is connected to, for example, a personal computer 41, and a mail server 43 on the Internet 42.
The communication device 44 such as a mobile phone sends an operation signal to the personal computer 41 through the mail server 43 and the Internet 42 so that the electric device 40 can be operated from outside the house. The personal computer 41 includes a communication device unit 45 that transmits and receives to and from the mail server 43 of the Internet 42, a mail receiving / decoding unit 47 that is a control device unit 46,
It has a device control information conversion unit / control unit 48 and a device control information transmission unit 49 for transmitting and receiving with the electric device 40.

[0004]

With the above-described conventional configuration, the personal computer 41 can receive not only remote operation but also the operation status of the electric equipment, and the equipment operation / setting which is the operation status received from the electric equipment. It is possible to process the state data and inform the user of the operating information such as the power consumption and the electricity bill if the control device and the communication device are devices having a data processing function such as a personal computer. However, in the case of a personal computer, it is not always owned by every household and the power is not turned on every time data is received, and there is a problem that it cannot be said that the user is surely notified of the information.

The present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and it is possible to easily and surely inform the user of usage information, usage advice information, etc. of an electrical device, and an electrical device device compatible with a network. Is provided.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides an electric device for transmitting device information such as operation and setting state, a telephone for receiving and transmitting device information of the electric device, or A fax and an out-of-home server that receives device information from the telephone or fax and processes it into device usage information, the out-of-home server sends the processed device usage information to the phone or fax, and the phone or fax is A network-compatible electric device that receives device usage information and notifies the user of the device usage information.

According to the above means, the telephone or the fax machine is generally used while the power is always on. Therefore, the telephone or the fax has a function of receiving the device information from the electric device at any time and transmitting it to the server outside the house, and also receiving the device use information processed by the server outside the house at any time to notify the user.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, in order to notify the user that the electric device is in the optimum use state based on the received device information, the outside server for sending the usage advice information to the telephone or the fax is provided. It is a network-compatible electric equipment device provided.

According to the above means, the outside server has a function of notifying the user through the telephone or the fax of usage advice information in which the electric equipment processed based on the equipment information received from the telephone or the fax is in the optimum use state. .

According to a third aspect of the present invention, it is determined whether the device usage information or the usage advice information is printed on paper or displayed on the screen according to the function of the telephone or fax, and the device usage information is displayed. Alternatively, it is a network-compatible electric device including an out-of-home server that sends usage advice information to a telephone or a fax.

According to the above means, the out-of-home server prints the device usage information or the usage advice information, which is processed based on the device information received from the telephone or the fax, on paper according to the function of the telephone or the fax. Alternatively, it has a function of sending a signal indicating whether to display on the screen to the telephone or the fax.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electric device for transmitting device information such as operation and setting status, a telephone or fax for receiving and transmitting device information of the electric device, and the telephone or fax. Determining means for receiving the device information of the device and processing the device information into device usage information, wherein the telephone or the fax determines whether the device usage information or the usage method advice information can be internally processed from the received device information. And an internal information processing unit that processes the device use information or the use method advice information by internal processing, and a unit that notifies the user of the device use information or the use method advice information. It is a device.

According to the above means, the telephone or the fax determines whether the device information received from the electric device can be internally processed into the device usage information or the usage method advice information by the judging means. The device has a function of notifying the user of the device usage information or the usage method advice information processed by the internal information processing device based on the determined device information.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, an electric device for transmitting device information such as operation and setting state, a telephone or fax for receiving and transmitting device information of the electric device, and the telephone or fax. And a device for determining whether the telephone or fax can be processed by the user based on the received device information of the failure, and When it is determined that processing is possible, the network-compatible electric device apparatus has a transmission means for notifying the maintenance center in which the electric device is registered by facsimile transmission.

According to the above means, the telephone or the fax determines whether or not the device information of the failure received from the electric device can be processed by the user side by the judging means. When the user determines that the processing is possible, the user has a function of notifying the determination result of the determination to the maintenance center in which the electric device is registered by facsimile transmission.

The invention according to claim 6 is a network-compatible electric device that notifies a user of advice information for emergency processing when a telephone or a fax machine is out of order.

According to the above means, the telephone or the fax has a function of notifying the user of the advice of the emergency treatment in the case of a simple failure.

[0018]

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

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a network-compatible electric device according to the present invention.
Is a conceptual diagram showing the usage arrangement of the electric device, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing device usage information on the screen of the telephone or fax of the electric device, and FIG. 4 is device usage information shown on the screen of the telephone or fax. 5 is a processing flow chart of FIG. 5 and is a processing flowchart of device usage information based on received data of an out-of-home server in the electric device.

As shown in FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 designates an air conditioner 1a, a VTR 1b, which is used in homes and offices.
Electric equipment such as audio 1c and water heater 1d can be operated manually and by a remote controller at the place where they are installed, and operation signals can be set by receiving operation signals from the outside and the operating status. , It has a function to send device information such as setting status to the outside. Here, the air conditioner 1a will be described as an example. Reference numeral 2 denotes a telephone or a fax machine which is always used with the power turned on, and a telegram receiving section 3, a telegram decoding section 4, a telegram transmitting section 5, a screen 6, a printing section 7 in the case of a fax, and other than these, via the Internet. Device control information conversion for transmitting and receiving all device operation signals
A control unit 8 and a device control information transmission unit 9 are provided and connected to each electric device 1 so that information can be transmitted and received.

Reference numeral 10 denotes an out-of-house server of an Internet provider, which is connected to a telephone or a fax 2 through a network such as a telephone line, and includes a receiving unit 11, a data processing unit 12,
The transmission data creation unit 13, the determination unit 14 as a determination unit, and the transmission unit 15 are provided. Then, the data processing unit 12 and the transmission data creation unit 13 of the out-of-home server 10 notify the user as shown in FIGS. 3 and 6 based on the device information of the electric device 1 transmitted from the telephone or the fax 2. In order to process the device usage information suitable for the above, the control unit executes the flowchart shown in FIG. Reference numeral 16 denotes a house, in which an air conditioner 1a, a VTR 1b, and a fax 2 having a telephone function are installed, and these devices form a network such as a telephone line with the outside server 10.

In the above embodiment, the air conditioner 1a is operated by the remote controller (not shown) attached at the time of purchasing the equipment.
The operation can be controlled within 6 as usual. Then, the power consumption and the electricity bill, which are the device usage information when the air conditioner 1a is operating, are displayed on the screen 6 of the telephone or the fax 2 as shown in FIG. 3, and the user is notified.
That is, as shown in FIG. 4, while the air conditioner 1a is in operation,
The current consumption amount i, which is the operation status, is transmitted to the telephone or the electronic message receiving unit 3 of the fax 2 as device information. Then, the telephone or fax machine 2 that received this current consumption
Is analyzed by the electronic message decoding unit 4 and then transmitted from the electronic message transmitting unit 5 to the receiving unit 11 of the outside server 10 via the Internet.

The out-of-home server 10 analyzes the content of the received electronic message when it is sent to the data processing unit 12, and processes it into a value of device usage information suitable for notifying the user. Then, when the notification timing comes, the data is sent to the transmission data creation unit 13, and the determination unit 14 determines whether this data can be displayed on the screen 6 of the telephone or the fax 2 and should be printed by the printing unit 7. Or send it back to fax 2. When the device usage information b is received at the telephone or the fax 2, the message "Yesterday's air conditioner power consumption is kwh, electricity bill is Δyen" is displayed on the screen 6 as shown in FIG. 3, and the device usage information is notified to the user. be able to.

Then, such device usage information is processed by the data processing unit 12 and the transmission data creation unit 13 by executing the flow shown in FIG. That is, first, in step (hereinafter referred to as S) 1, it is determined whether the amount of current is received,
After the reception of S2, the electric energy is calculated in S3 by applying a voltage. Next, in step S4, the amount of power consumption is integrated together with the elapsed time and the amount of power used so far. Then, after the notification time has elapsed in S5, the electricity bill is calculated in S6, and a transmission message is created in S7. Further, the load of performing this degree of calculation on the outside server 10 is not great.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, useful information for the user can always be easily obtained, and it is possible to effectively use the electric equipment. That is,
By connecting telephones or faxes used in the majority of households to electric devices without using expensive personal computers as in the past, and by connecting to a server outside the house via a network for mutual transmission and reception, It is always easy and reliable to obtain device usage information.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the device use information processed by the out-of-home server 10 based on the device information of the electric device 1 transmitted from the telephone or the fax 2 is:
It could be displayed on the screen 6 of the telephone or the fax 2 as shown in FIG. However, the determination unit 14 of the server 10 outside the home may determine that the printing unit 7 should print.
For example, as the device usage information, FIG. 6 showing the hourly change of the indoor temperature, which is the history of the operating state of the air conditioner, is shown.
Etc.

That is, the graph shown in FIG. 6 is printed by the printing section 7 of the fax 2 by facsimile transmission. When the amount of information is small as shown in FIG. 3, the notification may be given to the screen 6 provided in the telephone or the fax 2, but in the case of such a temporal change in the room temperature, the fax cannot be displayed on the screen 6 and is displayed. 2 printing is desirable.
This determination is performed by the determination unit 14 of the outside server 10. For information that should be printed, in the case of an air conditioner, it is judged whether it is operating at an appropriate temperature, and by leaving it on paper, the time change of the operating room temperature for daily and monthly performance comparison,
Monthly power consumption and electricity bill may change, but neither prints a large amount and has little effect on paper consumption.

The electric device 1 can be controlled from the outside of the house 16 via the Internet, such as a mobile phone, from the outside of the house 16 such as energization / interruption operation and state setting. That is,
The signal for operating the electric device transmitted from the mobile phone (not shown) is transmitted via the network to the outside server 1
The receiving unit 11 of 0 enters. Then, the signal processed by the outside server 10 is transmitted from the transmission unit 15 via the network to the device control information conversion / control unit 8 of the telephone or the fax 2.
Is transmitted to the electric equipment 1 through the equipment control information transmission unit 9 and is controlled by the equipment control information transmission unit 9 such as operation and state setting.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 7 is a diagram showing equipment usage advice information on a screen of a fax or a telephone in an electric equipment device compatible with a network of the present invention, and FIG. 8 is an outside server in the electric equipment device. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a procedure of creating usage advice information in. The present embodiment is based on the device information of the electric device transmitted from the telephone or the fax, and processes the device usage advice information in the server outside the house to notify the user through the telephone or the fax. Unlike the above invention, detailed description of parts having the same configuration and operational effect will be omitted with reference to FIGS. 1, 2, and 4, and different parts will be mainly described.

In the above-described embodiment, the out-of-home server 10 notifies the user based on the device information of the air conditioner 1a during operation, which is transmitted from the telephone or the fax 2, as in the first embodiment. The device use information is processed and transmitted, and the telephone or fax 2 notifies the user of this. However, in the present embodiment, since the notification is the device usage advice information, the device information includes not only the operating state but also the setting state information from the telephone or the fax server 2 outside the home server 1.
Sent to 0.

Further, when the device usage advice information is processed in the outside server 10, as shown in FIG. 8, the set temperature, the room temperature, and the outside temperature are accumulated as the operating condition and the setting condition of the air conditioner 1a. However, it is operated almost at the set temperature, and even if the set temperature is raised by 1 ° C in the case of cooling, comfort is not impaired sufficiently, and when the outside air temperature is low, the set temperature should be raised by 1 ° C. To advise. At that time, the effect of raising the temperature by 1 ° C. is also reported together with, for example, power consumption or electricity bill. Such advice is displayed on screen 6 of the telephone or fax 2 as shown in Fig. 7 "The outside air temperature is also low. Let's raise the air conditioning set temperature by 1 ° C. The electricity bill will be reduced in one week. Is displayed to give the user advice on how to use it.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the user is notified of the usage advice information in which the electric device processed based on the device information received from the telephone or fax at the server outside the home is in the optimum use state through the telephone or fax. According to this information, the user can change the operation setting of the air conditioner to use it in a healthy and economical manner.

In the present embodiment, in order to calculate the degree of the advice effect of the usage method, the performance of each device is required as model data.
0 is not owned by each household, but if database of model data for analysis is stored, the same valid information can be transmitted to a plurality of households having the target model.

(Third Embodiment) FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing another configuration of the network-compatible electric equipment according to the present invention. In this embodiment, a telephone or a fax determines whether device information should be transmitted to an out-of-home server or internally processed. In this regard, all the device information is transmitted to the out-of-home server and processed. Different from the inventions of the first to second embodiments, parts having the same configurations and effects are denoted by the same reference numerals, detailed description thereof will be omitted, and different parts will be mainly described.

Telephone or fax 2 as shown in FIG.
Determines whether the received device information of the electric device 1 can be internally processed into the device usage information shown in FIG. 3 or the like or the usage advice information shown in FIG. 7 or the like, or whether the device information should be sent to the out-of-home server 10. Message transmission determination unit 17 that is a determination means for
A display information creating unit 18 which is an internal information processing unit that processes the device usage information or the usage method advice information by internal processing; and a screen 6 that is a unit that notifies the user of the device usage information or the usage method advice information. Alternatively, it has a printing unit 7.

In the above-described embodiment, the air conditioner 1a transmits the device operation information as the device operation information, for example, the current consumption amount i to the telephone or the electronic message receiving unit 3 of the fax machine 2 during the operation. Then, the telephone or fax 2 that has received this current consumption amount is sent to the electronic message transmission determination unit 17 after the content analysis by the electronic message decoding unit 4. Message transmission determination unit 1 that received device information
7 determines whether it can be processed internally or by the server 10 outside the house, and when it must be processed by the server 10 outside the house, the telegram transmitter 5 sets the network to the receiver 11 of the server 10 outside the house. And the subsequent processing flow is the same as in the first and second embodiments described above.

Further, when the electronic message transmission judging section 17 judges that the processing can be performed internally, the display information creating section 18 processes it into the device usage information or the usage method advice information based on the device information, and the processed information is sent via the screen 6 or the printing section 7. It notifies the user. Of course, depending on the type of information, the load on the telephone or the fax 2 is required, so a small amount of calculation is desirable. As an example, the operating time of the air conditioner 1a or the VTR 1b is integrated, and the operating time of one day is displayed at a predetermined time, and the minimum temperature and the maximum temperature of the indoor temperature obtained from the air conditioner 1a in one day are displayed. By displaying the information, it is possible to easily check whether or not the desired driving is performed.

As described above, in the present embodiment, all the device information of the electric device is not transmitted to the server outside the home for processing, but is internally processed by the telephone or fax based on the device information, and the device is delivered to the user. Use information or usage advice information can be notified, and electrical equipment can be handled quickly.

(Embodiment 4) FIG. 10 is a flow chart of automatic notification to a maintenance center when a failure occurs in an electric device in a network-compatible electric device according to the present invention.
The present embodiment differs from the third embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 9 in that a telephone or a fax machine sends a repair request by facsimile to a maintenance center when a failure occurs in an electric device, and parts having the same configurations and effects are the same. A detailed description will be omitted with reference numerals, and different points will be mainly described.

Reference numeral 19 denotes a maintenance center (including a personal computer, etc.) connected to a telephone or fax 2 of a home or the like which is registered in advance through an Internet provider.
The failure information as the device information transmitted from the transmission unit 5 of the telephone or the fax 2 is received and the repair request is accepted. Further, the telephone or fax 2 notifies the maintenance center 19 of the failure in the electronic message decoding section 4a, but in the case of a simple failure that does not require maintenance by a specialist, the method of emergency processing is displayed on the screen 6 or printed. The failure information can be decrypted so that the user can be notified by the section 7.

In the above embodiment, the telephone or the fax machine 2 which has received the information C indicating the occurrence of a failure from the air conditioner 1a by the electronic message receiving unit 3 is decoded by the electronic message decoding unit 4 and then registered by the transmitting unit 5 in advance. Maintenance center 19
Send a fax requesting repair to As for the fax function, printing can be performed without inserting paper as in the test mode, so it is considered possible to automatically perform facsimile transmission in this way.

If the telephone or the fax 2 decodes the failure information by the electronic message decoding unit 4 and the notification is to the maintenance center 19, if the failure is a simple failure which does not require maintenance by an expert, the third embodiment will be described. As described above, the telephone or the fax 2 is processed to notify the user of the emergency processing method through the screen 6 or the printing unit 7. Therefore, the user can repair the air conditioner 1a according to the emergency process notified by the screen 6 or the printing unit 7.

In the present embodiment, an air conditioner is taken as an example of the electric equipment, but the same effect can be obtained by the automatic notification of the failure occurrence in the VTR, the audio, the water heater, etc. shown in FIG.

[0044]

As is apparent from the above-described embodiment, the invention according to claim 1 transmits the device information of the electric device from the telephone or fax connected to the network to the outside server, and the outside server It processes the device information and sends the device usage information to the telephone or fax.
The user can always know the device use information of the electric device without fail, and the electric device can be used beneficially.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, usage advice information is created in the out-of-home server according to the equipment information so that the equipment operates optimally, and the user is notified by telephone or fax. The user can always know how to use the electric device advice information reliably and can use the electric device efficiently.

According to the third aspect of the invention, the telephone server or the fax machine selects whether the device usage information or the usage method advice information is displayed on the screen of the telephone or the fax, or whether it should be printed by fax. The user can always know the device usage information or usage advice information accurately.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the telephone or the fax determines whether or not it is possible to internally process the device usage information or the usage method advice information from the received device information, and the device usage by internal processing. Internal information processing means for processing information or usage advice information,
The device has means for notifying the user of the device use information or the use method advice information, and all the device information does not have to be processed by the server outside the house, so the device use information or the use method advice information can be quickly known. It can be handled very conveniently.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, a telephone or fax machine connected to the network receives failure information from an electric device and enables automatic transmission to a maintenance center. When a failure occurs, maintenance is performed. Arrangements can be made automatically and can be handled very conveniently.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, the telephone or the fax notifies the user of the advice of the emergency processing at the time of the failure, and has an advantage that the failure of the electric equipment can be promptly dealt with.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a network-compatible electric device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing a usage arrangement of the electric device apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing device usage information on a screen of a telephone or a fax in the electric device.

FIG. 4 is a processing flow chart of device usage information shown on a screen of a telephone or a fax of the electric device.

FIG. 5 is a processing flowchart of device usage information based on device information received by an out-of-home server in the electric device device.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing device usage information, which is a change in an indoor temperature, which is a history of operating states of an air conditioner printed by fax of the electric device, for one day per hour.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing advice information on how to use a device on a screen of a telephone or a fax of an electric device according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a procedure of creating usage advice information in an outside server of the electric device.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing another configuration of the network-compatible electric device according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of automatic notification to the maintenance center when a failure occurs in the network-compatible electric device according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a conventional network-equipped electric equipment device capable of remote control.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Electric equipment (air conditioners, etc.) 2 Telephone or fax 3 Telegram receiver 4a Telegram decoding section 5 Telegram transmission unit (transmission means) 6 screens 7 Printing section 10 Out-of-house server 11 Receiver 12 Data processing department 13 Transmission data creation section 14 Discrimination unit (determination means) 15 Transmitter 17 Message transmission determination unit (determination means) 18 Display information creation unit (internal information processing means) 19 Maintenance Center

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Hiroshi Okui             1006 Kadoma, Kadoma-shi, Osaka Matsushita Electric             Sangyo Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 5C062 AA02 AA12 AA13 AA29 AB22                       AB23 AB38 AC04 AC05 AC38                       AF15                 5K101 KK01 KK15 LL01 MM07 NN18

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An electric device for transmitting device information such as operation and setting status, a telephone or fax for receiving and transmitting device information of the electric device, and a device for receiving device information from the telephone or fax. An outside server for processing device usage information is provided, the outside server sends the processed device usage information to a telephone or fax, and the phone or fax receives the device usage information and notifies the user of it. A network-compatible electric equipment device characterized by the above. 2. The out-of-home server transmits usage advice information in order to notify the user that the electric device is in the optimum use state based on the received device information. Network compatible electrical equipment equipment. 3. The out-of-home server determines whether to print the device use information or the use method advice information on paper or display it on the screen according to the function of the telephone or fax, and then use the device use information or the use information. The network-compatible electric device according to claim 1 or 2, which transmits method advice information. 4. An electric device for transmitting device information such as operation and setting state, a telephone or fax for receiving and transmitting device information of the electric device, and a device for receiving device information from the telephone or fax. An outside server for processing into device usage information is provided, and the telephone or the fax is judged from the received device information into device usage information or usage advice information, and a judging means for judging whether or not it can be processed internally, and the device by internal processing. A network-compatible electric equipment device comprising: internal information processing means for processing into usage information or usage advice information; and means for notifying the user of the equipment usage information or usage advice information. 5. An electric device for transmitting device information such as operation and setting state, a telephone or fax for receiving and transmitting device information of the electric device, and a device for receiving device information from the telephone or fax. An out-of-home server for processing into device usage information is provided, and when the telephone or fax is judged to be processable on the user side based on the received device information of the failure, when the user side judges that the process is possible. A network-compatible electric device apparatus having a transmission means for notifying the maintenance center registered with the electric device by facsimile transmission. 6. The network-compatible electric device apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the telephone or the fax notifies the user of advice information for emergency processing at the time of failure.