JP2006201879A - Remote monitoring system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To increase system reliability by avoiding a line break caused by a disaster, etc. , and to enable system establishment with a simple and inexpensive work. <P>SOLUTION: Using the wireless interface of a low power wireless communication system, a master station BS is connected to each slave station TS1-TSn. Each measurement data of sensors S1-Sk provided in each slave station TS1-TSn is collected by means of polling from the master station BS, and also the related measurement data is autonomously transmitted to the master station BS when abnormality is detected in each slave station TS1-TSn. Further, each user terminal MS1-MSm of each resident can be connected to the master station BS via a communication network NW. When abnormality is detected in the measurement data, an alarm data is transmitted from the master station BS to the user terminal of the corresponding resident. Also, in response to a source request from each user terminal MS1-MSm, the content of a monitoring data table is reported from the master station BS to the user terminal of the request source as a search report data. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a remote monitoring system that remotely monitors, for example, the state of an office or a residence via a communication line.

  In recent years, for example, a slave station has been set up in each residence of a condominium or an apartment building, and a master station has been set up in a management office. A system has been proposed in which the state of each residence can be remotely monitored by transmitting it to the master station and displaying the transmitted detection signal or imaging signal on the master station (for example, Patent Document 1 or Patent Reference 2).

JP 05-274576 A

JP 2001-250698 A

  However, in the conventionally proposed system, the slave station and the master station are connected via a wired line or a light line. For this reason, for example, when a disaster such as an earthquake or fire occurs, a wired line or an electric line may be disconnected due to damage or insect damage caused by animals. In this case, it is possible to remotely monitor the status of each residence become unable. In addition, since construction is required for laying a line, labor, time, and equipment costs are required to construct the system.

  The present invention has been made by paying attention to the above circumstances, and the object of the present invention is to provide a remote monitoring system that is less likely to cause line disconnection due to a disaster and the like, improves the reliability of the system, and is easy to construct and inexpensive. It is to provide.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention connects a slave station that monitors the status of a monitoring target area and generates monitoring data, and a master station installed in a monitoring center via a wireless line. The master station and the user terminal can be connected via a communication network. In the master station, the monitoring data generated in the slave station is received and stored via the wireless line, and the monitoring result of the monitoring target area is expressed based on the stored monitoring data. Create report data and output it from the reporter in the master station. Further, it is determined whether or not it is necessary to notify the user terminal of the monitoring result, and when notification is necessary, second report data representing the monitoring result is created and transmitted to the user terminal. Is.

  Therefore, according to the present invention, since the slave station and the master station are connected via a wireless line, it is possible to protect the line from damage from disconnection caused by animals, insects, etc., and from disasters such as earthquakes and fires. It is possible to hold the line with high reliability. In addition, since there is no need to lay cables or the like, there is an advantage that the construction can be simplified and made inexpensive. Furthermore, when an abnormality is detected in the monitoring target area, notification data to that effect is sent to the corresponding user terminal for notification. For this reason, for example, the user can immediately know an abnormality at home wherever and whenever.

  Further, according to the present invention, when the second report data is transmitted from the master station to the user terminal, it is determined whether the destination user terminal is a fixed terminal or a portable terminal. Second report data having a smaller amount of information than the first report data is created and transmitted to the user terminal of the report destination.

  In this way, when the user terminal is a mobile terminal, for example, second display data having an amount of information corresponding to the display capability of the mobile terminal is transmitted. For this reason, it is possible to display the notification data in a form corresponding to the display capability such as the size and resolution of the display, color / monochrome, etc. in the portable terminal.

  Furthermore, the present invention reads out the monitoring data of the corresponding monitoring target area when receiving a notification data transmission request from the user terminal, and based on this monitoring data, the second reporting data representing the monitoring result of the monitoring target area And a means for transmitting the request to the requesting user terminal. If it does in this way, a user will be able to check the state of a house etc. by his request from anywhere at any time.

  Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a remote monitoring system in which line disconnection due to a disaster or the like is unlikely to occur, reliability can be improved, and construction is easy and can be configured at low cost.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a remote monitoring system according to the present invention.
In the figure, HH is a housing group such as a condominium or an apartment building, and a master station BS is installed in the management office of this housing group HH. On the other hand, the slave stations TS1 to TSn are installed in the residences H1 to Hn constituting the residence group HH, respectively. The master station BS and the slave stations TS1 to TSn each have a radio interface. The wireless interface performs wireless communication using a low-power wireless data transmission system such as a wireless local area network (LAN) or an ultra wide band (UWB) system, for example. The station BS performs wireless communication for obtaining monitoring data with each of the slave stations TS1 to TSn.

  The master station BS includes a communication interface different from the radio interface. The communication interface performs communication using a communication network NW including a computer network such as a wired public network, a mobile communication network, and the Internet. By using this communication network, the master station BS can perform user terminals MS1 to MSm. Send report data to. The user terminals MS1 to MSm are terminals registered in advance among the terminals owned by the residents of the above-mentioned houses H1 to Hn, such as mobile terminals such as mobile phones and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), personal computers, and the like. It consists of a fixed terminal.

By the way, the master station BS and the slave stations TS1 to TSn are configured as follows. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the master station BS, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the slave stations TS1 to TSn.
First, the master station BS includes an antenna 11, a radio unit 12, a signal processing unit 13, a master station control unit 14, a database 15, an input unit 16, a display unit 17, and a network interface (network I / F). 18. Among these, the antenna 11 and the wireless unit 12 constitute the wireless interface described above, and perform low-power wireless communication for acquiring monitoring data with the slave stations TS1 to TSn. The signal processing unit 13 converts the transmission data output from the master station control unit 14 into a signal form necessary for wireless transmission, and allows the master station control unit 14 to handle data received by the radio unit 12. Convert to a possible signal form.

  The master station control unit 14 includes a microcomputer, and has a data collection control function 141, a data management control function 142, and a terminal communication control function 143 as control functions according to the present invention. These control functions are realized by causing the microcomputer to execute an application program.

  The data collection control function 141 transmits a measurement data acquisition request to the slave stations TS1 to TSn periodically or when an earthquake or the like is detected, and receives measurement data from the slave stations TS1 to TSn. That is, measurement data is acquired from each of the slave stations TS1 to TSn by a polling method. At the same time, each slave station TS1 to TSn receives measurement data autonomously transmitted when an abnormality is detected.

  The data management control function 142 creates a monitoring data table for each of the slave stations TS <b> 1 to TSn and stores the created monitoring data table in the database 15. Then, the measurement data of each slave station TS1 to TSn acquired by the polling method by the data collection control function 141 and the data autonomously transmitted by each slave station TS1 to TSn are stored in the monitoring data table.

  The data management control function 142 determines whether or not an abnormality has occurred based on the measurement data stored in the monitoring data table. When the occurrence of an abnormality is detected, display data for reporting the occurrence of the abnormality to the administrator is created and displayed on the display unit 17. When the administrator inputs a measurement data display request through the input unit 16, the monitoring data table of the corresponding residence is read from the database 15, and the contents of the read monitoring data table are displayed on the display unit 17. To do.

  The terminal communication control function 143 reads the monitoring data table of the corresponding residence from the database 15 when a monitoring data table search request is sent from the user terminals MS1 to MSm. Then, display data suitable for display on the user terminals MS1 to MSm is created based on the read monitoring data table, and the created display data is directed from the network I / F 18 to the requesting user terminal. Send.

  In addition, when the occurrence of an abnormality is detected by the data management control function 142, the terminal communication control function 143 determines, for each residence, whether or not the abnormality is an abnormality of a notification target registered in advance. And when it is abnormality of report object, the display data suitable for the user terminal which the applicable resident owns is produced, and this produced display data is transmitted to the said applicable user terminal from network I / F18.

  On the other hand, each of the slave stations TS1 to TSn includes a plurality of sensors S1 to Sk, a slave station control unit 21, a storage unit 22, a radio unit 23, and an antenna 24. Among them, the radio unit 23 and the antenna 24 constitute the radio interface described above, and transmit and receive radio signals to and from the master station BS. The plurality of sensors S <b> 1 to Sk are installed in each room in the house or a house equipment to be monitored, and are configured by a gas sensor, a temperature sensor, an infrared sensor, an impact sensor, and the like. The sensor may include a camera for monitoring the trends of residents and pets.

  The slave station control unit 21 includes a microcomputer, and includes a request transmission control function 211 and an autonomous transmission control function 212 as control functions according to the present invention. These control functions are realized by causing the microcomputer to execute an application program.

  The request transmission control function 211 fetches measurement data from each of the sensors S1 to Sk each time a measurement data acquisition request addressed to itself is sent from the master station BS. Then, return information including the measurement data and the sensor identification ID is generated, and the return information is wirelessly transmitted from the wireless unit 23 to the master station BS.

  The autonomous transmission control function 212 takes in measurement data from each of the sensors S1 to Sk continuously or at regular intervals in the acquisition request waiting period, and associates the measurement data with sensor identification information (sensor ID). 22 to store. Each time new measurement data is captured, the new measurement data is compared with the previous measurement data stored in the storage unit 22. When the difference exceeds the threshold value, the new measurement data is transmitted to the master station BS together with the abnormality occurrence message.

Next, the operation of the system configured as described above will be described.
(1) When the master station BS collects measurement data using the polling method
The master station BS periodically transmits a measurement data acquisition request to each of the slave stations TS1 to TSn as shown in FIG. That is, the master station control unit 14 generates a measurement data acquisition request every hour, for example. This acquisition request is converted into a signal format for wireless transmission by the signal processing unit 13, and then converted into a wireless signal by the wireless unit 12, and is sequentially transmitted from the antenna 11 to the slave stations TS1 to TSn. The acquisition request is also transmitted when an earthquake greater than a predetermined seismic intensity is detected by an earthquake sensor (not shown).

  On the other hand, when the acquisition request addressed to the local station is received by the wireless unit 23, the slave stations TS1 to TSn take the measurement data from the sensors S1 to Sk by the slave station control unit 21 and create return information. In this return data, the measurement data of the sensors S1 to Sk is inserted in association with the sensor identification information. Then, the created return data is returned from the radio unit 23 to the master station BS as shown in FIG.

  Each time the master station control unit 14 transmits the acquisition request to one slave station, the master station controller 14 monitors the return from the slave station. When the return information is sent from the requested slave station, the measurement data included in the return information is stored in the monitoring data table of the corresponding slave station in step 3a. At this time, the monitoring data table also stores attribute information such as the type of monitoring target, the location of the sensor, and the alarm occurrence status, as shown in FIG. The process of receiving and storing the return data is sequentially performed for all the slave stations TS1 to TSn, thereby collecting the measurement data of all the slave stations TS1 to TSn.

In addition to the measurement data collection process, the master station control unit 14 executes an abnormality determination notification process and a measurement data notification process in response to a search request from the user terminals MS1 to MSm.
That is, as shown in FIG. 4, the master station control unit 14 determines whether or not an abnormality has occurred based on the measurement data stored in the monitoring data table in step 3f. This determination is performed by comparing each measurement data with a preset threshold value. When the occurrence of an abnormality is detected, display data for notifying the administrator of the occurrence of the abnormality is created and displayed on the display unit 17 in step 3g.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 7, the display data includes a floor plan 171 of the residence, a mark indicating the installation positions of the sensors S <b> 1 to Sk, and an abnormality occurrence message 172. And the mark of the sensor which detected abnormality among the marks which show the installation position of the said sensors S1-Sk blinks. Therefore, the administrator can confirm at a glance the name of the house where the abnormality occurred, the place where the abnormality occurred, and the type of the abnormality that occurred, by looking at the display data displayed on the display unit 17. It becomes.

  Further, the master station control unit 14 determines whether or not the abnormality type is registered in advance as a report target to the user in step 3h. And if it is report object, alarm data will be created by step 3i, and this alarm data will be transmitted from the radio | wireless part 12 toward the applicable user terminal (for example, MS1). When the slave station MS1 receives the alarm data, the slave station MS1 displays the received alarm data on the display in step 3j.

  At this time, the alarm data is created and transmitted according to the type of user terminal that is the report destination. For example, when the user terminal of the report destination has a small display screen size like a mobile phone, only the abnormality occurrence message 172 of the display data displayed on the display unit 17 of the master station BS is transmitted as alarm data. The On the other hand, if the user terminal is a fixed terminal such as a personal computer, the display data displayed on the display unit 17 of the master station BS is transmitted as it is as alarm data.

  Therefore, the user can be notified of an alarm only when an important abnormality among various kinds of abnormalities that are expected to occur, and according to the display screen size of the user terminals MS1 to MSm used by the user himself / herself. The contents of the alarm can be confirmed in the optimum data format.

  Furthermore, it is assumed that the resident inputs a search request command in his / her user terminals MS1 to MSm in order to confirm the situation at home. Then, a monitoring data table search request is transmitted from the user terminals MS1 to MSm to the master station BS. On the other hand, when the master station BS receives the search request, the master station BS shifts to step 3c, where it reads out the corresponding monitoring data table from the database 15, and creates search notification data based on the monitoring data table. This search notification data is also created in an optimum form according to the type of user terminal, that is, the display screen size. In step 3d, the generated display data is transmitted from the wireless unit 12 to the requesting user terminals MS1 to MSm. In the user terminals MS1 to MSm, the search data sent from the master station BS is displayed on the display. Therefore, the user can check the state of his / her home from the outside or work place as necessary.

(2) When the slave stations TS1 to TSn autonomously report an abnormality
In each of the slave stations TS1 to TSn, as shown in FIG. 5, the slave station control unit 21 fetches measurement data from the sensors S1 to Sk at a constant period, for example, 1 minute in step 4a, and stores the fetched measurement data. Stored in the unit 22. Each time the new measurement data is captured, the new measurement data is compared with the previous measurement data stored in the storage unit 22 in step 4b. As a result of the comparison, if the difference exceeds the threshold value, the new measurement data is transmitted from the radio unit 23 to the master station BS together with the abnormality occurrence message in step 4c.

  On the other hand, when the measurement data arrives together with the abnormality occurrence message from the slave stations TS1 to TSn, the master station control unit 14 of the master station BS stores the measurement data in the corresponding slave station monitoring data table in step 4d. Then, in step 4e, it is determined whether or not the abnormality occurrence message needs to be displayed on the display unit 17, and if necessary, display data is created based on the monitoring data table in step 4f. Then, the created display data is displayed on the display unit 17. The display data created at this time is also composed of the floor plan 171 of the residence, the marks indicating the installation positions of the sensors S1 to Sk, and the abnormality occurrence message 172 as shown in FIG.

  At the same time, the master station control unit 14 determines whether or not the type of abnormality is registered in advance as a report target for the user in step 4g. And if it is report object, alarm data will be created by step 4h, and this alarm data will be transmitted from the radio | wireless part 12 toward applicable user terminal MS1-MSm. At this time, the alarm data is created and transmitted according to the types of user terminals MS1 to MSm that are the report destinations, that is, the display screen size. When the slave stations MS1 to MSm receive the alarm data, the alarm data is displayed on the display in step 4i.

  As described above, according to this embodiment, the master station BS and each of the slave stations TS1 to TSn are connected using the radio interface of the low-power radio communication system, and each slave station is polled by the master station BS. The measurement data of the sensors S1 to Sk of the stations TS1 to TSn are collected, and when an abnormality is detected in each of the slave stations TS1 to TSn, the measurement data is autonomously transmitted to the master station BS.

  For this reason, it is possible to perform data transmission between each of the slave stations TS1 to TSn and the master station BS via a wireless line. Therefore, there is no need to worry about disconnection caused by animals such as mice or insects such as moths, as in the case of using a wired line, and even if a disaster such as an earthquake or fire occurs, It is possible to maintain communication between the two. For this reason, a highly reliable system can be provided. In addition, since there is no need to lay cables or the like, the construction can be simplified and made inexpensive.

  Further, in this embodiment, each resident's user terminals MS1 to MSm can be connected to the master station BS via the communication network NW, and when the abnormality is detected in the measurement data, the corresponding resident's user terminal MS1. Send alarm data to the user terminal. At the same time, in response to a search request from the user terminals MS1 to MSm, the master station BS notifies the requesting user terminal of the contents of the monitoring data table as search notification data. Therefore, when an abnormality is detected in the residence, alarm data representing the content is sent to the corresponding user terminals MS1 to MSm to notify the resident. For this reason, the resident can immediately know the abnormality in his home wherever he is.

  Further, in this embodiment, when notifying the alarm data from the master station BS to the user terminals MS1 to MSm, the alarm data is transmitted only when the kind of abnormality registered in advance by the resident occurs. Further, alarm data is created according to the types of user terminals MS1 to MSm as report destinations, that is, the display screen size. For this reason, it becomes possible for the user to be notified of an alarm only when an important abnormality has occurred among various kinds of abnormalities that are expected to occur, and according to the display screen sizes of the user terminals MS1 to MSm used by the user himself / herself. The contents of the alarm can be confirmed in the optimum data format.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the occurrence of an abnormality is detected based on the measurement data obtained by the sensors S1 to Sk, and the result is displayed on the display unit 17 of the master station BS. Report to MSm. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the trend of residents and pets in the residence is monitored based on the imaging data of the camera, and when an abnormality is detected, the result is displayed on the display unit 17 of the master station BS and necessary. Depending on the situation, the user terminals MS1 to MSm may be notified. In this way, it is possible to remotely monitor the trends of children in the answering machine, the elderly and the sick.

  Further, the user terminals MS1 to MSm are provided with a radio interface for the slave stations TS1 to TSn to perform data communication with the master station BS, and the user terminals MS1 to MSm communicate with the master station BS using this radio interface. You may make it access. In this way, when the user terminals MS1 to MSm are present in the low power wireless communication area of the master station BS, it is possible to perform data communication with the master station BS using the radio interface. As a result, the running cost can be reduced as compared with the case where a paid communication network NW is used.

  In addition, the configuration and installation location of the master station and the slave station, the type of wireless interface used for communication between the master station and the slave station, its communication protocol, the type of user terminal, and between this user terminal and the master station The data transmission control procedure and its contents, the type of abnormality to be detected, its detection method, abnormality determination means, and the like can be variously modified without departing from the scope of the present invention.

  In short, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment as it is, and can be embodied by modifying the constituent elements without departing from the scope of the invention in the implementation stage. Further, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of constituent elements disclosed in the embodiment. For example, some components may be deleted from all the components shown in the embodiment. Furthermore, you may combine suitably the component covering different embodiment.

The schematic block diagram which shows the position embodiment of the remote monitoring system concerning this invention. The block diagram which shows the structure of the main | base station used with the remote monitoring system shown in FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a slave station used in the remote monitoring system shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram showing a control procedure and contents when a master station collects measurement data by a polling method in the system shown in FIG. 1. The sequence diagram which shows the control procedure and content in case a slave station autonomously reports an abnormality in the system shown in FIG. The figure which shows an example of the monitoring data table memorize | stored in the database of the master station shown in FIG. The figure which shows an example of the display data displayed on the display part of the main | base station shown in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

  HH ... Residential group, H1-Hn ... Residential, BS ... Master station, TS1-TSn ... Slave station, MS1-MSm ... User terminal, NW ... Communication network, 11, 24 ... Antenna, 12, 23 ... Radio unit, 13 ... Signal processing unit, 14 ... master station control unit, 15 ... database, 16 ... input unit, 17 ... display unit, 18 ... network interface, 21 ... slave station control unit, 22 ... storage unit, 141 ... data collection control function, 142 ... data management control function, 143 ... terminal communication control function, 211 ... request transmission control function, 212 ... autonomous transmission control function.

Claims (3)

A slave station that is arranged corresponding to the monitored area and monitors the status of the monitored area and generates monitoring data, a master station connected to the slave station via a wireless line, and a master station A user terminal connectable via a communication network,
The master station is
Means for receiving monitoring data from the slave station via the wireless line and storing the received monitoring data in a storage medium;
Means for generating first report data representing a monitoring result of the monitored area based on the stored monitoring data, and outputting the generated first report data from a reporter in a master station;
It is determined whether or not it is necessary to notify the corresponding user terminal of the monitoring result of the monitoring target area, and when it is necessary to notify, the first monitoring data is stored based on the stored monitoring data or the first notification data. And a means for transmitting the generated second report data to the user terminal.   The means for transmitting the second report data determines whether the destination user terminal is a fixed terminal or a portable terminal, and if it is a portable terminal, the amount of information is less than that of the first report data. The remote monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein second report data is created and transmitted to the report destination user terminal.   When a report data transmission request is received from the user terminal, the monitoring data of the corresponding monitoring target area is read from the storage medium, and the second notification indicating the monitoring result of the monitoring target area based on the monitoring data The remote monitoring system according to claim 1, further comprising means for creating data and transmitting the created second report data to the requesting user terminal.

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