JP2006195700A - Information terminal device and its program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that a storage part 202 provided in an electric appliance 200 does not store detail information (color or door opening direction) of an exterior, thereby when image data for the appearance of the electric appliance is to be displayed on an information terminal apparatus 100 connected to the electric appliance 200, the information such as the color or the door opening direction do not coincide with each other. <P>SOLUTION: A server 300 holds the image data on the appearance of the electric appliance 200. When the electric appliance 200 having the same appliance identification information has a different appearance, the difference of the appearance can be discriminated by the information terminal apparatus 100 by counting the number of URL showing the storage location of the image data transmitted by the server 300. Furthermore, if the server 300 transmits a character string showing a feature of the appearance along with the URL to the information terminal apparatus 100, the information terminal apparatus 100 displays types thereof on a screen of a notification part 405. The image data showing the same appearance can be displayed by having a user select one. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an information terminal device for displaying an appearance of an electric device and a program thereof.

  In recent years, network home appliances, which are home appliances that can be connected to a network, have been proposed, and accordingly, various services for these devices have been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  FIG. 6 shows a conventional information processing apparatus 100 described in Patent Document 1. As shown in FIG. 6, the information terminal device 100 is connected to an electric device 200, a server 300, and a BS broadcast station 500.

  Then, in order to make the user browse the image data of the target electric device 200, the device identification information acquisition unit 101 that acquires the device identification information from the electric device 200 set by the user, and the image that stores the image data Storage unit 102, transmission unit 103 that transmits the device identification information to server 300, and reception that receives the image data transmitted from BS broadcast station 500 by transmitting the device identification information and stores it in image storage unit 102 This is realized by including a unit 104 and a notification unit 105 that displays the image data.

Note that the image data in the conventional example is data related to the instruction manual of the electric device 200.
JP 2003-8529 A

  However, the conventional configuration has the following problems when the electric device 200 is considered as a refrigerator, for example.

  The refrigerator is a device in which a microcomputer mounted on a control board provided in the refrigerator mainly operates a compressor or the like on temperature signals detected by various temperature sensors to cool the inside of the refrigerator cabinet to an appropriate temperature. The microcomputer includes a storage unit that stores various information.

  The storage unit stores information indicating that the device including the microcomputer is a refrigerator (device type information), information on a company that manufactured the refrigerator (manufacturer code), information indicating a product model (product code), and the like. Has been. These three pieces of information are collectively called device identification information.

  In addition, the refrigerator has a door that opens to the right or a left to the same model. Furthermore, there may be several types of appearance colors for the same model. In order to match the convenience of the user and the place (kitchen etc.) where the refrigerator is installed, the appearance (door opening and color) is changed for the same model.

  When producing a refrigerator with such a different appearance, the manufacturing company does not change the basic cooling capacity of the refrigerator depending on the appearance, so the control board is assembled without storing the appearance information in the memory unit of the microcomputer. . This also has the effect of reducing the types of parts when manufacturing.

  Therefore, when displaying the image data indicating the appearance of the refrigerator on the information terminal device 100, even if the device type information, manufacturer code, and product code held by the microcomputer of the refrigerator are read out, the door is opened even if the model is the same. And had the problem of being displayed with different colors. In addition, the device connected to the information terminal device 100 is not limited to a refrigerator, and other electrical devices such as an air conditioner are also connected. Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish between an electrical device that displays external image data and an electrical device that does not. is there.

  The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems, and displays the same information as the information used by the user of the electric device 200 until the color and the door open, as the information on the appearance of the electric device 200 displayed on the information terminal device 100. The purpose is to let you.

  In order to solve the conventional problem, the information terminal device of the present invention receives device identification information from an electrical device, and receives the image data from a server that stores image data and a character string indicating the appearance of the electrical device. In the information terminal device to be acquired, the information terminal device transmits a device identification information acquisition unit that acquires the device identification information, and the device identification information acquired by the device identification information acquisition unit to a server and stores the image data. An image acquisition unit that receives storage location information indicating a location and the character string and acquires the image data, a notification unit, an input unit, and an image storage unit that stores the image data, the image acquisition unit When there are a plurality of storage location information received after transmitting the device identification information, the character string is displayed on the notification unit to allow the electric device user to select an image to be acquired. It is obtained by way.

  As a result, even if there are multiple colors of the same model, for example, the image acquisition unit can know how many types of models have different appearances depending on the number of storage location information transmitted from the server. When there are a plurality of pieces of location information, the user can be notified by displaying a character string received together with the storage location information on the notification unit.

  Then, the input unit detects a character string selected by the user, and acquires image data from storage location information corresponding to the character string, thereby displaying an electric device (for example, a refrigerator) on the information terminal device. Appearance information (until the color and door opening) can be displayed as the same as the user is using.

  Further, even when the number of types of appearance of the model increases after the sale of the electrical device, the storage location information and the character string content transmitted from the server are changed (the image data of the increased appearance and the character string are changed). Since it can be changed by simply adding to the current one, no change to the information terminal device is required.

  The information terminal device and its program for displaying the appearance of the electric device according to the present invention are such that the user uses the electric device (for example, information on the appearance of the refrigerator until the color or door opening) displayed on the information terminal device. Can be displayed as the same.

  1st invention receives the apparatus identification information from an electric equipment, The information terminal apparatus which acquires the said image data from the server which preserve | saves the image data and character string which show the appearance of the said electric equipment, The said information terminal apparatus is A device identification information acquisition unit that acquires the device identification information; and the device identification information acquired by the device identification information acquisition unit is transmitted to a server, and the storage location information indicating the storage location of the image data and the character string are received. And an image acquisition unit that acquires the image data, a notification unit, an input unit, and an image storage unit that stores the image data. The image acquisition unit receives the device identification information after transmitting the device identification information. When there are a plurality of storage location information, the character string is displayed on the notification unit to allow the electric device user to select an image to be acquired. As a result, even when there are a plurality of colors of the same model, the image acquisition unit can know how many types have different appearances for the model depending on the number of storage location information transmitted from the server. When there is a plurality of pieces of information, the character string received together with the storage location information is displayed on the notification unit, so that the user can be notified.

  Then, the input unit detects a character string selected by the user, and acquires image data from storage location information corresponding to the character string, thereby displaying an electric device (for example, a refrigerator) on the information terminal device. Appearance information (until the color and door opening) can be displayed as the same as the user is using.

  In particular, the image acquisition unit of the information terminal device according to the first invention acquires the image data when receiving the storage location information after transmitting the device identification information and stores the image data in the image storage unit. If there is a plurality of storage location information, the character string is displayed on the notification unit, and image data other than the image data corresponding to the character string selected by the person detected by the input unit is displayed. By deleting the image from the image storage unit, it is possible to acquire all image data regardless of the number of types of appearance and leave only the image data selected by the user. The information on the appearance of the electric device (refrigerator) displayed on the screen can be displayed in the same way as the color device or the user using the electric device (refrigerator) until the door opens.

  In particular, the third aspect of the invention relates to an identifier storage unit that stores an identifier so that the information terminal device of the first or second aspect of the invention can be connected to the electrical device, and device registration that assigns the identifier to the electrical device. When the device registration unit assigns the device identification information, the device identification information acquisition unit acquires the device identification information in conjunction with the assignment of the identifier, and the image acquisition unit acquires the image data. By acquiring the image data, the image data can be acquired without performing special processing for acquiring the image data.

  In the fourth invention, in particular, the image acquisition unit of the information terminal device of the third invention deletes the corresponding image data from the image storage unit when an arbitrary identifier is deleted from the identifier storage unit. There are the following effects. When the identifier is deleted from the identifier storage unit, the electric device having the identifier and the information terminal device do not communicate with each other, and image data corresponding to the identifier becomes useless data. Therefore, if the image data is deleted, the image storage unit can be used effectively.

  In particular, the fifth invention is a program for realizing at least a part of the functions of the information terminal device of the first to fourth inventions by a computer. Since it is a program, hardware resources such as a CPU (microcomputer), RAM, ROM, storage device, I / O, etc., electrical information equipment, a computer, a server, etc. cooperate with each other, and at least one of the information terminal devices of the present invention. The part can be easily realized. Also, program distribution and installation can be simplified by recording on a recording medium or distributing a program using a communication line.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system to which an information terminal device 100 according to the first embodiment of the present invention belongs.

  The information terminal device 100 is connected to a refrigerator 210, which is an electrical device 200, via a first network 401, and constitutes a home network. Further, the information terminal device 100 is connected to the server 300 via the second network 402. The information terminal device 100 configures an internet home appliance system with the above configuration.

  The information terminal device 100 includes a liquid crystal display panel as the notification unit 105 and a touch panel overlaid on the liquid crystal display panel as the input unit 106.

  The first network 401 is assumed to include wireless units 403 and 404 in the information terminal device 100 and the refrigerator 210, respectively, with the communication medium being wireless. Although wireless is used as a communication medium of the first network, it may be wired such as power line communication in which data is superimposed on an electric wire or a power line.

  The second network 402 is a public line network such as an analog telephone line or a digital telephone line as a communication medium.

  Next, FIG. 2 shows a configuration block diagram of an internet home appliance system according to the present embodiment, which includes the information terminal device 100, the refrigerator 210, and the server 300 shown in FIG.

  In FIG. 2, the refrigerator 210 that is the electric device 200 includes a transmission / reception unit 211 and a storage unit 212. The transmission / reception unit 211 is a processing unit for connecting to the first network 401. When a message is transmitted from the information terminal apparatus 100, communication is always performed via this processing unit.

  The storage unit 212 includes device identification information including information indicating that the electric device is the refrigerator 210 (device type information), information on the company that manufactured the refrigerator 210 (maker code), and information indicating the product model (product code). Is remembered. The device identification information may be composed of a part of these information.

  When device identification information is requested from the information terminal device 100, the device identification information is read from the storage unit 212 and transmitted to the information terminal device 100 via the transmission / reception unit 211.

  In FIG. 2, the server 300 includes a transmission / reception unit 301 and a storage unit 302. The transmission / reception unit 301 is a processing unit for connecting to the second network 402. When transmitting data to the server 300 or when a message is transmitted from the information terminal device 100, the transmission / reception unit 301 always communicates via this processing unit. Shall be performed.

  The storage unit 302 stores image data indicating the appearance of the electric device 200 (including the refrigerator 210) and a character string indicating the characteristics of the image data. For example, a character string such as “blue (right open)” or “white (left open)” is stored.

  When device identification information is received from the information terminal device 100, the URL (storage location information) indicating the storage location of the image data corresponding to the device identification information and the character string corresponding to the image data are displayed in the information terminal device 100. Send to.

  In FIG. 2, the information terminal device 100 includes a device identification information acquisition unit 101, an image storage unit 102, a notification unit 105, an input unit 106, a first transmission / reception unit 111, a second transmission / reception unit 112, A device registration unit 113, an identifier storage unit 114, and an image acquisition unit 115 are provided.

  The first transmission / reception unit 111 is a processing unit for connecting to the first network 401. When trying to acquire the data of the refrigerator, this processing unit is always used when setting or acquiring the data of the refrigerator. It shall be done via

  The second transmission / reception unit 112 is a processing unit for connecting to the second network 402. When data is transmitted to the server 300 or when a message is transmitted from the server 300, the second transmission / reception unit 112 is always connected via this processing unit. Communication.

  The information terminal device 100 assigns an identifier to the refrigerator 210 via the first transmission / reception unit 111 in order to communicate with the refrigerator 210. Since the information terminal device 100 determines which device communicates based on this identifier, the information terminal device 100 and the refrigerator 210 cannot communicate unless this processing is performed. The device registration unit 113 transmits a unique identifier (numerical value) to the refrigerator 210 (this process is referred to as “identifier assignment”). When the refrigerator 210 receives the identifier from the information terminal device 100, the refrigerator 210 holds the identifier, and includes the identification information in the communication data when communicating with the information terminal device 100.

  Here, the device identification information acquisition unit 101 is a processing unit that acquires device identification information from the refrigerator 210, but acquires device identification information from the refrigerator 210 when the device registration unit 113 assigns an identifier.

  The image acquisition unit 115 transmits the device identification information acquired by the device identification information acquisition unit 101 to the server 300, receives the URL and the character string transmitted from the server 300, and acquires necessary image data based on the URL. And a processing unit stored in the image storage unit 102.

  With the configuration as described above, the operation of the information terminal device 100 will be described using the flowchart of FIG. 3 and FIGS. 4 and 5.

  First, when trying to connect the refrigerator 210 to the information terminal device 100, the device registration unit 113 assigns an identifier to the refrigerator 210 via the first transmission / reception unit 111 (S301). When the device registration unit 113 assigns an identifier, the device registration unit 113 stores the identifier in the identifier storage unit 114 (S302).

  Next, the device identification information acquisition unit 101 acquires the device identification information stored in the storage unit 202 from the refrigerator 210 via the first transmission / reception unit 111 (S303). Then, the image acquisition unit 115 transmits the device identification information acquired by the device identification information acquisition unit 101 to the server 300 via the second transmission / reception unit 112 (S304).

  When the server 300 acquires the device identification information from the information terminal device 100, the image data indicating the appearance of the device having the device identification information and a character string indicating the appearance (for example, “white (if the color is white and the refrigerator is right-opened”) The character string such as “open right”) and the number of URLs to be transmitted are transmitted to the information terminal device 100.

  At this time, if there is a plurality of image data and character strings for one piece of device identification information, the information is transmitted to the information terminal device 100 as shown in FIG. Each data is separated by “,” (comma). The character string and the URL are transmitted in association with each other. In this embodiment, since there are four types of appearance, transmission is performed according to the rules (number of URLs), (character string, URL), (character string, URL), (character string, URL), (character string, URL). is doing.

  Next, when receiving the URL and the character string indicating the storage location of the image data from the server 300 (S305), the image acquisition unit 115 analyzes the received data, and when there are a plurality of URLs based on the number of URLs ( In step S306, character strings corresponding to the number of URLs are extracted from the received data and displayed on the notification unit 105 (step S307).

  FIG. 5 shows a screen displayed on notification unit 105 in the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 5, the acquired character string is also displayed as a button (107) on the screen, and this button functions as the input unit.

  Then, when the user touches a character string that matches the appearance of the used refrigerator 210 displayed on the notification unit 105, it detects which character string the input unit 106 touches (S308), and obtains image data to be acquired. It can be determined (S309).

  Next, in order to acquire the determined image data, the image acquisition unit 115 acquires image data from the server 300 based on the URL corresponding to the character string (S310), and stores it in the image storage unit 102 (S311).

  In addition, when the number of URLs is one (in the case of the electric device 200 that does not need to consider the difference in appearance such as the refrigerator 210), the image data may be acquired from one URL as it is. Therefore, the information terminal device 100 does not need to consider what the connected device is.

  When the connection between the refrigerator 210 and the information terminal device 100 is canceled, the device registration unit 113 deletes the identifier of the refrigerator 210 that has been deleted from the identifier storage unit 114, and the image storage unit 102 is interlocked at this time. If the image data indicating the appearance of the refrigerator 210 is deleted, the image storage unit 102 can be used effectively.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, when the appearance (color or door opening) of the refrigerator 210 having the same device identification information is different, the number of URLs indicating the storage location of the image data transmitted by the server 300 The information terminal device 100 can determine that there is a difference in appearance.

  Furthermore, if the server 300 sends a character string indicating the appearance characteristics to the information terminal device 100 as a set together with the URL, the information terminal measure 100 can display the type on the screen of the notification unit 105, and the user Can be selected. If the image acquisition unit 115 acquires the selected image data from the server 300, the image data can be the same as the refrigerator 210 used by the user. In addition, it is not necessary to be aware of the type of electrical equipment to which the information terminal device 100 is connected.

(Embodiment 2)
As a modification of the first embodiment, the image acquisition unit 115 acquires image data from all the URLs even if there are a plurality of URLs transmitted from the server 300 and stores them in the image storage unit 102. Even if the character string is displayed as a button on the notification unit 105 and data other than the image data corresponding to the selected character string is deleted from the image storage unit, the image data remaining in the image storage unit 102 is used. The refrigerator 210 used by a person can be the same as the appearance. In this case, a part of the acquired image may be displayed instead of displaying the character string.

  Note that the means described in this embodiment causes hardware resources such as a CPU (or microcomputer), a RAM, a ROM, a storage / recording device, an electric / information device including an I / O, a computer, a server, and the like to cooperate. You may implement with the form of a program. In the form of a program, new functions can be easily distributed / updated and installed by recording them on a recording medium such as magnetic media or optical media or distributing them via a communication line such as the Internet.

  As described above, the information terminal device and the program thereof according to the present invention can match the appearance information of the refrigerator displayed by the user with that used by the user, so that the washing machine and rice cooker are not limited to the refrigerator. It is also possible to apply to an application such as connecting an electrical device having a plurality of colors to the same terminal model to the information terminal device and displaying image data of the appearance on the information terminal device. Moreover, not only an electric apparatus but the thing provided with a several color in the same model can be utilized.

Schematic diagram of a system in Embodiment 1 of the present invention Configuration block diagram according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention The flowchart which shows operation | movement of the information terminal device in Embodiment 1 of this invention. The figure which shows the data format sent from the server in Embodiment 1 of this invention. The screen figure displayed on the alerting | reporting part of the information terminal device in Embodiment 1 of this invention Configuration block diagram of a conventional information terminal device

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Information terminal device 101 Device identification information acquisition part 102 Image storage part 103 Transmission part 104 Reception part 105 Notification part 106 Input part 111 1st transmission / reception part 112 2nd transmission / reception part 113 Device registration part 114 Identifier storage part 115 Image acquisition part DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 200 Electric equipment 210 Refrigerator 211 Transmission / reception part 212 Storage part 300 Server 301 Transmission / reception part 302 Storage part 401 1st network 402 2nd network 403,404 Wireless communication unit 500 BS broadcast station

Claims (5)

In the information terminal device that receives the device identification information from the electrical device and acquires the image data from the server that stores the image data and the character string indicating the appearance of the electrical device,
The information terminal device includes: a device identification information acquisition unit that acquires the device identification information; storage location information that indicates the storage location of the image data by transmitting the device identification information acquired by the device identification information acquisition unit to a server; An image acquisition unit that receives the character string and acquires the image data, a notification unit, an input unit, and an image storage unit that stores the image data,
When there are a plurality of storage location information received after transmitting the device identification information, the image acquisition unit displays the character string on the notification unit to allow the electric device user to select an image to be acquired. Information terminal device. The image acquisition unit acquires all of the image data and stores it in the image storage unit when receiving the storage location information after transmitting the device identification information,
When there are a plurality of storage location information, the character string is displayed on the notification unit, and image data other than the image data corresponding to the character string selected by the person detected by the input unit is displayed as the image. The information terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the information terminal device is deleted from the storage unit. The information terminal device includes an identifier storage unit that stores an identifier for enabling connection with the electrical device, and a device registration unit that assigns the identifier to the electrical device, and the device registration unit assigns the identifier. The information according to claim 1, wherein the device identification information acquisition unit acquires the device identification information from the electrical device in conjunction with the assignment of the identifier, and the image acquisition unit acquires the image data from a server. Terminal device. The information terminal device according to claim 3, wherein the image acquisition unit deletes the corresponding image data from the image storage unit when an arbitrary identifier is deleted from the identifier storage unit. The program which makes a computer perform at least one part of the information terminal device of any one of Claims 1-4.

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