JP2007026099A - Remote control system of electric device and its registration method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To introduce a remote control system at low cost while reducing the amount of troublesome and complex registration operations. <P>SOLUTION: A server 19 that initially stores the electric waveform information of electric devices 6a, 7a and infrared remote control signals controlling the electric devices 6a, 7a is installed in a data center or the like. The server 19 is shared by a plurality of offices and homes. In this way it is made possible to introduce the remote control system at low cost. Also, control information for each of the electric devices 6a, 7a and the like is accumulated in a concentrated manner. When the control information of the same electric devices as the control information accumulated is already stored in the server 19, the control information is utilized. The results of detection of the state-based current waveforms of the electric devices 6a, 7a are detected by a current waveform detection outlet 5 in synchronism with the control of the server 19 and automatically registered in the server 19 via the Internet to reduce the operation of introducing the remote control of the electric devices 6a, 7a. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a remote control system for an electric device that controls an existing home appliance used in a general household or business office via the Internet.

  The mobile phone and broadband Internet environments are rapidly spreading and are expected to be applied to various services. In particular, interest in home appliance control services that use networks as a means to realize a “safe and secure” and “comfortable and convenient” living environment is increasing.

  By the way, as this type of technology, for example, using a mobile phone capable of transmitting a remote control signal, the data that is the origin of generating the remote control signal is obtained from the outside by a predetermined data communication means and stored. An invention relating to a mobile phone capable of being used is disclosed.

  Further, regarding a home safety monitoring system, a safety monitoring method and a safety monitoring system invention for transmitting various information to an information requester via the Internet are disclosed.

  However, in these proposals, there is no specific means on the network for electrical devices that are currently in use (those that are not compatible with networks), so there is a problem that all electrical devices to be controlled must be renewed. there were.

  On the other hand, in the mobile phone that controls these devices, for example, an infrared transmitter can be used to send a signal to turn on and off the target electric device, but the status of the electric device cannot be monitored. There was a problem that it was not possible to confirm whether or not it was operating normally.

  As one method for solving these problems, (Patent Document 1) proposes a method for monitoring the state of an electric device and detecting the model, connection position, and operating state from the characteristics of the current waveform of the device. .

  In this method, even in a remote place, an indoor electrical device can be operated by accessing a mobile phone, and the state of the electrical device can be detected, so that if an abnormal operation should occur, an appropriate action can be taken. is there.

  Therefore, in the present invention, a plurality of electrical devices used in an office or home are connected to a power source via a control connector, and the current waveform of the electrical device is measured with the control connector, so that the home It is stored in the database of the server, and by accessing from the communication device, the electrical device is identified from the current waveform transmitted from the electrical device, the state of the electrical device is detected, and necessary measures can be taken It is a thing. Furthermore, according to the present invention, the current waveform transmitted from the electric device is also observed by providing the detecting means in the outlet connecting the electric device.

  Here, the electrical equipment is any electrical equipment such as an air conditioner, a video deck, a computer, a copy machine, a facsimile, lighting, an iron, a toaster, a heater, a water heater, or a TV. One or more of an average value, a peak value, an effective value, a power factor, a crest factor, a waveform rate, a time constant, an energization time within a period, a phase difference, and a time difference feature quantity are used.

  Specifically, as shown in FIG. 5, infrared transmission for controlling a plurality of electric devices used in an office or home instead of infrared remote controllers 6b and 7b attached to the individual electric devices. A current waveform detection outlet 5 that is inserted between the machine 8, the electrical device and the power source, detects a current / voltage for each state of the electrical device, and can transmit a current waveform or its characteristics, and in an office or home It has a function of preliminarily storing the current waveform information of the electrical equipment installed in the inside and the infrared remote control signal information for controlling the electrical equipment, and installed in the office or home where the electrical equipment is installed. A configuration including a home server 9 and a router 10 is required.

  In the figure, reference numeral 6a is a video deck as an example of an electric device, and reference numeral 6b is a remote controller of the video deck. Reference numeral 7a is an air conditioner as an example of an electric device, and reference numeral 7b is a remote controller of the air conditioner.

  In the figure, for example, in order to control the air conditioner 7a from the mobile phone 12, first, “power on, power off, heating mode designation, cooling mode designation, dehumidification preset on the screen of the cellular phone 12 is performed. Control information corresponding to the selection of the request from items such as “mode designation” is transmitted to the home server 9 via the mobile communication network 1b or the Internet 11, and the home server is based on the contents designated from the mobile phone 12. The control information is transmitted to the infrared transmitter 8.

  Next, the infrared transmitter 8 emits a signal 7d equivalent to the infrared signal 7c of the remote controller 7b corresponding to the control content based on the control information transmitted from the home server 9, and sends the control information. It transmits to the air conditioner 7a.

  At this time, the control content to the air conditioner 7a designated through the remote controller 7b and the light emission signal 7c based on the control content, the air conditioner 7a designated through the mobile phone 12, the home server 9 and the infrared transmitter signal 8 are designated. The control content and the light emission signal 7d based on the control content must match.

  Accordingly, in order to control the corresponding electric device 7a from the mobile phone 12 in the same manner as the remote controller 7b controls the corresponding electric device 7a, the control contents, the light emission signal, and the infrared transmitter 8 specified by the remote controller 7b are controlled. It is necessary to perform the work of matching the control content transmitted by the light emission signal with the light emission signal in advance for each electric device 6a, 7a and for each control item, and to store the information in the home server 9.

  Therefore, for example, in the registration to the air conditioner 7a, as shown in FIG. 6, first, an operation for turning on the power switch of the air conditioner 7a to be registered is designated from the mobile phone 12 (step SB1). The home server 9 registers the designated items from the mobile phone in the control registration information table prepared for each electric device (step SB2). Next, an operation to turn on the power switch of the air conditioner 7a is designated (transmitted) to the infrared transmitter 8 to the remote controller 7b of the air conditioner 7a (step SB3). The infrared transmitter 8 receives the infrared signal from the remote control 7b, and transmits information serving as a source of the infrared signal to the home server 9 (step SB4). The home server 9 registers the information in step SB2 in the control registration table provided for each electric device, and binds the information registered in step SB2 (step SB5).

  Next, the operation mode is registered. For example, when the “heating mode” is set, the registration work is performed in the same manner as in steps SB1 to SB5 described above (loop SB1). Similarly, registration operations such as “cooling mode”, “dehumidification mode”, “power OFF”, and the like are performed (loops SB2, SB3, and SB4).

Furthermore, in order to identify the electrical equipment 6a, 7a from the current waveform transmitted from the electrical equipment 6a, 7a, detect the state, and take necessary measures, control of the electrical equipment 6a, 7a is required. After the information registration work is completed, it is necessary to store current waveforms for each operation of the electric devices 6a and 7a in the database of the home server 9 in advance. In this operation, as shown in FIG. 7, an operation for turning on the power switch of the air conditioner 7a is designated from the cellular phone 12 (step SD1). Current waveform information flowing through the current waveform detection outlet 5 is transmitted to the home server 9 via the router 10 (step SD2). The home server 9 registers the current waveform information in the current waveform information table prepared for each of the electric devices 6a and 7a, and ties the power switch from the mobile phone 12 with information indicating the ON state (step SD3). . Next, for the designation of “heating mode”, registration work is performed in the same manner as in steps SD1 to SD3 (loop SD1). Similarly, registration operations such as “cooling mode”, “dehumidification mode”, “power OFF”, and the like are performed (loops SC2 and SC3).
JP 2003-2559569 A

  However, if remote control is to be performed while placing the home server in the office or home, the complicated and complicated registration work as described above is performed for each electrical device installed in the office or home. To register the control information in the home server.

  In addition, even if control information for the same electrical equipment as the current electrical equipment to be registered is registered in another office or home server in the home, the information cannot be easily diverted. There is a limit to performing a quick setting operation.

  In addition, in order to identify the state of the electrical device by the current waveform detection outlet, the control state and current waveform of the electrical device or its characteristics must be individually measured in advance. Furthermore, there is a problem that the registration work becomes complicated.

  In addition, considering that it is necessary to prepare a home server individually for each office or home, there remains a problem in introducing a remote control system more inexpensively and more quickly.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to reduce the labor of complicated and complicated registration work, and to introduce a remote control system more inexpensively and more quickly.

  In order to solve the above problems, in the present invention, an infrared transmitter that controls a plurality of electric devices used in an office or home instead of an infrared remote controller attached to each electric device; and A current waveform detection outlet that can be inserted between an electric device and a power supply, can detect a current / voltage for each state of the electric device, and can transmit a current waveform or its characteristics, and is installed in a plurality of offices or homes. A function of preliminarily storing current waveform information of the electrical equipment and infrared remote control signal information for controlling the electrical equipment, a server installed in a data center or a server room, the infrared transmitter and the server; And a router for controlling communication between the current waveform detection outlet and the server, and connection between the router and a mobile phone That it had adopted a configuration including the Internet.

  With this configuration, if the control information of the electrical equipment is stored in a server on the network and the information is shared and used, there is no need to prepare a server at each home or office, which is complicated and complicated. Registration work can also be reduced.

  At this time, a server for preliminarily storing the product information of the electrical equipment such as the current waveform information of the electrical equipment, the infrared remote control signal for controlling the electrical equipment, the product name, the model name, the model, and the name of the manufacturing company is installed in the data center or the like. By sharing the server with multiple offices and homes, the control information for each electrical device is concentrated and accumulated, and it is the same as the electrical device for which the information is to be registered in order to start remote control. When the control information of the electric device is already registered in the server, a method of copying the control information to the management table in the server corresponding to the electric device to be registered can be adopted.

  By adopting such a method, the registration operation can be completed simply by copying the management table.

  At this time, when registering the current waveform detection result for each state of the electric device, on the other hand, the server is set so that the electric device is turned on, off, and other driving states via the Internet, router, and infrared transmitter. On the other hand, the current waveform detection outlet detects the current and voltage for each state of the electrical device, and transmits the current waveform detection or its characteristics to the server, and the control state and current waveform result of the electrical device. It is possible to adopt a method of automatically fetching the state database of the electric equipment by binding the information indicating the

  By adopting such a method, the state database of the electric equipment can be automatically constructed on the server.

  Since the present invention is configured as described above and uses a server on the network in common, a remote control system for electrical equipment can be constructed at low cost. In addition, a server that stores in advance the current waveform information of the electrical equipment and the infrared remote control signal that controls the electrical equipment is installed in a data center or the like, and the server is shared by a plurality of offices and homes. Since the control information is concentrated and accumulated, if control information of the same electrical equipment as that to be registered is already registered in the server, the registration work can be facilitated by using the control information.

  Furthermore, by introducing the current waveform detection result for each state of the electric device in synchronization with the control of the server, the current waveform detection outlet detects it and automatically registers it in the server via the Internet, thereby introducing the remote control of the electric device. It is effective in reducing work.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a remote control system for explaining the features of the present invention, which is arranged on the Internet with an infrared transmitter 8, a current waveform detection outlet 5, and a router 10 installed in an office or home. Server 19.

  The infrared transmitter 8 is for controlling a plurality of electric devices 6a and 7a used in an office or home instead of the controller 6b or 7b attached to each electric device.

  The current waveform detection outlet 5 is provided with an AD converter as shown in FIG. 2, for example, and is inserted between the electric devices 6a and 7a and the power source to detect the current / voltage for each state of the electric device, In addition, the current waveform or its characteristic is output.

  The router 10 is for connecting the Internet 11 to the infrared transmitter 8 and the current waveform detection outlet 5.

  As the server 19, for example, the one shown in FIG. 3 can be used. With the firewall F / W, the authentication server DNS, the switching hub SW, the web server (mobile phone) WEB, the hub HUB, and the database DB Configured in the database DB, current waveform information of the electrical equipment installed in a plurality of offices or homes, infrared remote control signal information for controlling the electrical equipment and product name, model name, model, manufacturing company It has a function of preliminarily storing product information of an electric device such as a name, and an ASP (application service provider) server installed in a data center on the Internet can be used.

  With such a system configuration, the server 19 can be shared by a plurality of offices and homes, so that the effect of lowering the system introduction cost can be expected.

  On the other hand, in the figure, reference numeral 6a is a video deck as an example of an electric device, and reference numeral 6b is a remote controller of the video deck. Moreover, the code | symbol 7a is an air conditioner as an example of an electric equipment, and the code | symbol 7b is a remote controller of the said air conditioner.

  Next, in the same figure, the control information flow of the electrical equipment when the remote control system is used will be described by taking up the air conditioner 7a.

  In order to control the air conditioner 7a from the mobile phone 12, first, “power ON, power OFF, heating mode specification, cooling mode specification, dehumidification mode specification” etc. preset on the screen of the mobile phone 12 etc. The control information corresponding to the selection of the request from the item is transmitted to the server 19 such as the data center via the mobile communication network 1b or the Internet, and the server 19 is based on the contents designated from the cellular phone 12, and the infrared transmitter 8 transmits control information.

  Next, based on the control information transmitted from the server 19, the infrared transmitter emits a signal equivalent to the infrared signal of the remote controller 7b corresponding to the control content, and transmits the control information to the air conditioner 7a. To do.

  At this time, the control content to the air conditioner 7a specified via the remote controller 7b and the light emission signal 7c based on the control content, the mobile phone 12, the server 19, and the air conditioner 7a specified via the infrared transmitter 8 are specified. The control content and the light emission signal 7d based on the control content need to match.

  Therefore, in order to control the corresponding electric devices 6a and 7a from the mobile phone 12, in the same manner as the remote controllers 6b and 7b control the corresponding electric devices 6a and 7a, the control designated by the remote controllers 6b and 7b is used. It is necessary to perform the work of matching the content, the light emission signal, and the control content designated by the infrared transmitter 8 with the light emission signal for each electric device 6a, 7a in advance and for each control item, and to store the information in the server 19 is there.

  However, according to the present invention, the information is stored in the server 19 of the data center, and since the server 19 stores a number of methods of electrical equipment in the office or home, the remote control is started. When the control information of the same electrical equipment 6a, 7a as the electrical equipment 6a, 7a that is going to register the information has already been registered in the server 19 (for example, it may be provided from a manufacturer or the like) If the control information is copied to the management table in the server 19 corresponding to the electrical devices 6a and 7a to be registered, the registration work that has been conventionally required can be greatly reduced.

  Also, in the detection and registration of current waveforms for different states depending on the electrical equipment, if the item to be measured is based on the same electrical equipment experienced in advance elsewhere, the server 19 automatically designates the item. However, the current waveform can be detected while the operation can be greatly reduced. FIG. 4 is a flow chart in the case of taking in the information of the electric equipment based on the above-mentioned invention. Next, the procedure will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, information such as the model, model name, and manufacturing company name of the electric device to be registered is transmitted from the mobile phone 12 to the server 19 (step SA1). Based on the product information of the electrical device, the server 19 searches whether control information has been registered in the past (step SA2). If the control information has been registered, the result is returned to the mobile phone 12 (step SA3). The cellular phone 12 specifies that the past control information is to be copied as control information for the electric devices 6a and 7a to be registered (step SA4). Next, the cellular phone 12 instructs the server 19 to detect the current waveform for each operation of the electrical equipment and to fetch the detection result (step SA5). The server 19 automatically performs registration work according to the detection of the current waveform.

  By the way, in step SA2, if control information has not been registered in the past, the product information of the electric devices 6a and 7a input in step SA1 is stored in the database DB in the server 19, and control information is registered. This is returned to the mobile phone 12 (step SA6). After receiving the result of step SA6, the control information is registered (step SA7). Furthermore, the current waveform detection for each operation of the electric devices 6a and 7a and the operation of fetching the detection result are performed (step SA8). The server 19 can easily perform registration work by tying the item of step SA7 and the work procedure of step SA8 together with the product information of the electrical equipment saved in step SA6 and saving it as a database DB (step SA9).

  In this embodiment, the case where the electric device is controlled by the mobile phone is described, but the present invention is not limited to this. Any device that can be connected to the Internet may be used. For example, a personal computer, a PDA, or a game machine may be used.

Block diagram of the embodiment Electrical outlet block circuit diagram Server block diagram Action explanatory diagram of the embodiment Block diagram of conventional example Action explanatory diagram of conventional example Action explanatory diagram of conventional example

Explanation of symbols

5 Current waveform detection outlet 6a Video 6b Remote controller 7a Air conditioner 7b Remote controller 8 Infrared transmitter 10 Router 12 Mobile phone 19 Server

Claims (3)

An infrared transmitter for controlling a plurality of electric devices used in an office or home instead of an infrared remote controller attached to each electric device;
Inserted between the electrical device and the power source, detects the current and voltage for each state of the electrical device and current waveform, or a current waveform detection outlet capable of transmitting the characteristics,
It has a function of preliminarily storing current waveform information of the electrical equipment installed in a plurality of offices or homes and infrared remote control signal information for controlling the electrical equipment, and is installed in a data center or a server room. Server
A remote control system for electrical equipment, comprising: the infrared transmitter and the server; a router for controlling communication between the current waveform detection outlet and the server; and the Internet for connecting the router to a mobile phone. .   Install a server in the data center or the like to store in advance the electrical equipment current waveform information, infrared remote control signal to control the electrical equipment, product name, model name, model, manufacturing company name, etc. Control information for the same electrical equipment as the electrical equipment that is to be registered in order to centralize and store control information for each electrical equipment and to start remote control Is already registered in the server, the control information is copied to a management table in the server corresponding to the electric device to be registered.   When registering the current waveform detection result for each state of the electrical device, on the one hand, the server controls the electrical device to be in the ON, OFF and other driving states via the Internet, router, infrared transmitter, The current waveform detection outlet detects the current / voltage for each state of the electrical device, and transmits the current waveform detection or its characteristics to the server, and information indicating the control state of the electrical device and the current waveform result 3. The method of registering a remote control system for an electric device according to claim 2, wherein a state database of the electric device is automatically fetched by tying together.

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