JP2008140141A - Automatic monitoring system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automatic monitoring system, capable of surely coping with an abnormal state with high emergency without troubling a user. <P>SOLUTION: The automatic monitoring system 100 disposed within a dwelling house 2 is adapted to be capable of detecting various abnormal states caused in the dwelling house 2 and reporting the occurrence of such abnormal state to a portable terminal 80, a fixed telephone set 82 or the like. A main control device 6 selects one of voice message and character message based on the emergency level of an abnormal state the occurrence of which is determined, and reports the content of the abnormal state by the selected method. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an automatic monitoring system for monitoring a house, and more particularly to an automatic monitoring system capable of appropriately selecting and notifying a voice or a message based on an urgency level.

  In recent years, home network technology has been proposed in which home appliances such as televisions and air conditioners in a house are connected to each other via a network, and control and management of each home appliance are realized. By using such home network technology, various systems using various devices in a house can be realized.

  As an example of such a system, an automatic monitoring system capable of remotely monitoring a situation in a house has been proposed. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-326221 (Patent Document 1) discloses a home appliance network system that can shift to an appropriate operation state according to an abnormal state. In this home appliance network system, a home appliance having an emergency message transmitting means for broadcast transmission that creates an emergency message in which a code indicating the type of emergency that has occurred is recorded, and an emergency type code recorded in the received emergency message. Home appliances having emergency measure means for taking corresponding measures.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-297384 (Patent Document 2) responds to an abnormal situation detected by a user from among notification destinations registered in advance according to the detected abnormal situation without depending on a security company. A home security system or the like that selects a report destination to be notified and reports an emergency message to the report destination is disclosed. This home security system, when receiving a signal output from the sensing means, is one of the report destinations registered in advance in the registration means according to the abnormal situation detected by the sensing means corresponding to the received signal. Alternatively, if two or more are selected and the selected reporting destination does not respond, another reporting destination is selected and an emergency message corresponding to an abnormal situation is transmitted to the reporting destination that has responded .
JP 2004-326221 A JP 2001-297384 A

  In the home security system disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-297384 (Patent Document 2), emergency messages are sequentially transmitted to a plurality of preset report destinations until one of the report destinations responds. Will be tried. However, there are abnormal states that can be sensed from high to low. Therefore, in response to all abnormal conditions, when an emergency message is uniformly sent to the report destination, abnormal conditions with a high degree of urgency can occur due to frequent occurrence of abnormal conditions with a low degree of urgency. There was also a risk of oversight.

  Also, for abnormal situations with low urgency, the user often only needs to confirm the occurrence afterwards, whereas for abnormal situations with high urgency, the user takes some action against the occurrence. In many cases, this should be done immediately. Therefore, regardless of the degree of urgency, if an urgent message is uniformly transmitted by the same method, there is a possibility that the user will be bothered and the treatment for an abnormal state with a high degree of urgency may be delayed.

  Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide an automatic monitoring system capable of reliably performing a treatment for an abnormal state having a high degree of urgency without causing trouble to the user. Is to provide.

  An automatic monitoring system according to an aspect of the present invention is configured to be connected to a home network formed in a home and to a home network and to transmit data between a partner outside the home via a wide area network. The control unit, the sensor unit configured to detect changes in the monitoring target in the home, and transmit the detection information to the control unit via the home network, and to perform predetermined measures for abnormal conditions that may occur in the home And a treatment unit. And a control part matches the abnormal condition prescribed | regulated by the conditional expression containing at least 1 of the detection information transmitted from a sensor part, and the 1st memory | storage which stores an emergency level, notification content, and treatment content previously Means, second storage means for storing a notification destination including at least one of a telephone number and an e-mail address in advance in association with the urgency level, and voice for generating voice data in which notification contents are voiced In accordance with the data generation means, a call means for making a call with a partner outside the house according to the Internet protocol, a message generation means for generating a character message including character data indicating the contents of notification, and according to the Internet protocol , A mail transmission means for transmitting a text message to an outside party, and detection information transmitted from the sensor unit In response to the first extraction means for extracting the urgency level of the abnormal state, the notification content and the treatment content corresponding to the conditional expression established among the conditional expressions stored in the first storage means, and at least the first extraction means Third storage means for storing the notification content extracted by the time of occurrence, and treatment execution means for giving an instruction to a corresponding treatment section in order to execute a treatment according to the treatment content extracted by the first extraction means; The second extraction means for extracting the corresponding notification destination from the second storage means based on the urgency level extracted by the first extraction means, and the notification destination extracted by the second extraction means are the telephone number and the mail address. A determination means for determining whether the notification destination is specified, and when the notification destination is specified by the telephone number in the determination means, the notification content extracted by the first extraction means is sounded. A first notifying unit for notifying the notification destination by voice using the calling unit, and a first extracting unit when the notifying destination is specified by an e-mail address in the determining unit. And a second notification unit that provides the extracted notification content to the message generation unit and notifies the notification destination of the notification content by a text message using the mail transmission unit.

  An automatic monitoring system according to another aspect of the present invention is configured to be able to transmit data between a home network formed in a home and a partner outside the home via a wide area network while being connected to the home network. A control unit, and a sensor unit configured to detect a change in a monitoring target in a home and transmit detection information to the control unit via a home network. Then, the control unit transmits the information that is visible to the other party outside the house according to the predetermined protocol and the calling means for making a call with the other party outside the house according to the predetermined protocol. First or second identification based on the urgency level of the abnormal state determined to have occurred in the determination means, the determination means for determining the abnormal state that occurred in the home based on the detection information Determining means for determining the notification destination specified by the information, and when the notification destination determined by the determination means is specified by the first identification information, it is determined that the problem has occurred in the determination means using the calling means When the first notification means for notifying the notification destination of the abnormal state to the notification destination by voice and the notification destination determined by the determination means are specified by the second identification information, using the information transmission means, The information capable of viewing the contents of the notification anomaly condition judged to have occurred in the cross section and a second notification unit configured to notify the notification destination.

  According to the automatic monitoring system according to this aspect, after selecting one of audio and visible information based on the urgency level of the abnormal state determined to have occurred, the abnormal state is determined by the selected method. Notification content is notified. As a result, it is possible to provide a notice of an abnormal state with a greater degree of sharpness compared to a configuration in which notification is uniformly performed by the same method (for example, voice). Therefore, the user can be surely executed for an abnormal state with a high degree of urgency without bothering the user.

Preferably, the visually recognizable information is a text message including text data of notification contents.
Preferably, the determination unit determines an abnormal state that has occurred in the house according to a conditional expression including at least one of detection information transmitted from the sensor unit.

  Preferably, the deciding means extracts the urgency level of the abnormal state generated with reference to the first database in which the urgency level and notification contents are defined in advance in association with the abnormal state, and the extracted urgency level The notification destination is determined by referring to the second database in which the notification destination is defined in advance in association with the urgency level.

  Preferably, the automatic monitoring system according to this aspect further includes a treatment unit for executing a predetermined treatment for an abnormal state that may occur in the house, and the control unit determines that the abnormal state is determined to have occurred in the determination unit. The apparatus further includes a treatment execution means for causing the treatment section to execute a treatment associated with.

  Preferably, the control unit further includes history storage means for storing information relating to the abnormal state determined to have occurred by the determination means together with the time of occurrence thereof.

Preferably, the predetermined protocol includes an internet protocol.
Preferably, the determination unit determines the notification destination so that the notification is performed using the first notification unit preferentially as compared with the second notification unit as the urgency level becomes higher.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to realize an automatic monitoring system capable of reliably performing a treatment for an abnormal state having a high degree of urgency without causing trouble to the user.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Note that the same or corresponding parts in the drawings are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof will not be repeated.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an automatic monitoring system 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention.
Referring to FIG. 1, an automatic monitoring system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention is arranged in a house 2, detects the occurrence of various abnormal conditions that may occur in the house 2, and via the Internet network 50, The mobile terminal 80, the fixed telephone 82, or an IP telephone (not shown) can be notified of the occurrence of the abnormal state. More specifically, the automatic monitoring system 100 includes a home network 4, a main control device 6, a gateway (GW) 8, a temperature sensor 20, a monitoring camera 22, a gyro sensor 24, a sprinkler 26, and an open / close A valve 28, a water supply pipe 27, a hard disk recorder (HDR) 32, a television 30, an air conditioner 34, a gas meter 36, and a smoke sensor 38 are provided.

  The home network 4 is formed in the house 2 and mediates data transmission between devices constituting the automatic monitoring system 100.

  The main control device 6 is a device for controlling the overall operation of the automatic monitoring system 100, acquires detection information from each device via the home network 4, and determines that an abnormal state has occurred in the house 2. Then, the notification content corresponding to the abnormal state is notified to the notification destination existing outside the house 2 via the Internet network 50. The detailed contents of processing in the main controller 6 will be described later.

  The gateway 8 is connected between the home network 4 and the Internet network 50 and mutually converts protocols between the two networks. More specifically, the gateway 8 sends a data packet sent from the main control device 6 to a predetermined destination on the Internet network 50 based on the header information and receives it via the Internet network 50. The transmitted data packet is sent to the main controller 6.

  The temperature sensor 20 is disposed in an appropriate place in the house 2, for example, a ceiling portion, detects the temperature in the house 2, and sends detection information including the detected temperature to the main controller 6 via the home network 4. To transmit. That is, the temperature sensor 20 is a sensor unit that monitors the temperature in the house 2.

  For example, the surveillance camera 22 is arranged at the entrance or window of the house 2 and photographs a person who enters and exits the house 2. Furthermore, the monitoring camera 22 may have a function of detecting a person's movement or the like using an image processing technique. When the person's movement or the like is detected, the detection information is sent to the main control device 6 via the home network 4. Transmit to. That is, the monitoring camera 22 is a sensor unit that monitors the movement of a person in the house 2 or the like.

  The gyro sensor 24 mainly detects shaking of the house 2 caused by an earthquake or the like, and transmits the detection information to the main controller 6 via the home network 4. That is, the gyro sensor 24 is a sensor unit that monitors the shaking of the house 2.

  For example, the smoke sensor 38 is arranged on the ceiling portion of the house 2 and detects whether or not smoke has been generated up to a predetermined state, and the detection information including the smoke generation state is mainly controlled via the home network 4. Transmit to device 6. That is, the temperature sensor 20 is a sensor unit that monitors the smoke generation state in the house 2.

  The sprinkler 26 is a device that is arranged on a ceiling portion of the house 2 and sprays water supplied through a water supply pipe 27 for extinguishing the fire when a fire occurs in the house 2. The water supply pipe 27 is provided with an opening / closing valve 28 in the supply path to the sprinkler 26, and the opening of the opening / closing valve 28 starts water spraying. The on-off valve 28 is connected to the home network 4 and configured to be able to execute an opening operation or a closing operation in accordance with an instruction from the main control device 6. That is, the open / close valve 28 is a treatment unit for performing fire extinguishing.

  The air conditioner 34 is an air conditioner that adjusts the interior of the house 2 to a predetermined set temperature. In response to an instruction transmitted from the main controller 6 via the home network 4, the air conditioner 34 is activated and stopped, and the set temperature is changed. Can be configured. That is, the air conditioner 34 is a treatment unit for adjusting the temperature in the house 2.

  The gas meter 36 is a device that integrates the gas flow rate when the gas supplied from the gas company or the gas filled in the gas cylinder arranged close to the house 2 is introduced into the house 2. In the present embodiment, the gas meter 36 is further connected to the home network 4 and has a function of cutting off the gas supply to the house 2 in accordance with an instruction from the main control device 6. That is, the gas meter 36 is a treatment unit for shutting off the gas supply to the house 2.

  The hard disk recorder 32 is a recording / reproducing apparatus that has a built-in hard disk and stores video information or the like in the hard disk or can reproduce the stored video information. The hard disk recorder 32 is connected to the home network 4, and outputs video information stored in advance to the television 30 in response to an instruction from the main control device 6, or video captured by the surveillance camera 22. Acquire and record via the home network 4. Further, the hard disk recorder 32 is configured to be able to turn on or off the power of the television 30 in response to an instruction from the main control device 6.

  The television 30 is connected to the hard disk recorder 32, and as described above, is turned on or off, and displays video based on video information reproduced by the hard disk recorder 32 on its screen.

  Next, the configuration of the notification destination connected to the automatic monitoring system 100 via the Internet network 50 will be described.

  In the Internet network 50, data packets are transmitted according to a common Internet Protocol (IP) as a network layer in a so-called OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) model. Such data packets are used for various applications by appropriately selecting a higher application layer in the OSI model. Examples of such applications include transmission / reception of electronic mail and IP telephones using VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology.

  Therefore, in the present embodiment, the notification destination is notified using the information or sound that can be visually recognized as the occurrence of the abnormal state. More specifically, the visually recognizable information is, for example, a text message including text data of notification contents, and the text message is transmitted by e-mail. In addition, a voice that utters the notification content is transmitted using an IP phone.

  The Internet network 50 is connected to a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) server 52 that performs communication control between IP telephones via the Internet network 50. The SIP server 52 establishes a session with the destination IP telephone, based on the IP address associated with the telephone number input to the source IP telephone.

  Further, telephone stations 60 and 70 that enable a call between an IP telephone and a conventional telephone are connected to the Internet network 50.

  The telephone station 60 implements a call or data transmission / reception between an IP telephone connected to the Internet network 50 and a mobile phone or a personal digital assistant (PDA). The concept including a mobile phone or a mobile information terminal is referred to as “mobile terminal 80”. The telephone office 60 includes an exchange 64 and a gateway 62. The exchange 64 is selectively connected to an exchange 68 corresponding to the relay antenna 66 including the mobile terminal 80 to be communicated in the area, and exchanges data (voice or character data). The gateway 62 mutually converts a data packet transmitted via the Internet network 50 and a signal handled by the exchange 64. More specifically, the gateway 62 outputs the character data of the data packet related to the e-mail to the exchange 64 among the data packets received via the Internet network 50, and the data packet related to the IP telephone is converted into a voice signal. The data is converted and output to the exchange 64. As described above, the gateway 62 performs conversion processing according to the type of data packet flowing through the Internet network 50.

  The telephone office 70 also realizes a call between the IP telephone connected to the Internet network 50 and the fixed telephone 82 (or facsimile). The telephone office 70 includes an exchange 74 and a gateway 72. The exchange 74 is selectively connected to an exchange 78 corresponding to the fixed telephone 82 to be communicated, and transmits and receives voice. The gateway 72 mutually converts a data packet related to an IP telephone transmitted via the Internet network 50 and a voice signal handled by the exchange 74.

  With the configuration described above, the automatic monitoring system 100 can make a call or send an e-mail between the IP telephone, the mobile terminal 80 and the fixed telephone 82 existing outside the house 2 via the Internet network 50.

(Main controller configuration)
FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of main controller 6 according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  Referring to FIG. 2, main controller 6 is realized by a personal computer as an example. More specifically, the main controller 6 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 602, a communication interface (communication IF) 604, a monitor 606, a keyboard 608, a mouse 610, a hard disk (HDD) 612, and a RAM. (Random Access Memory) 614 and a CD-ROM drive 616.

  The CPU 602 is an arithmetic unit that reads a program stored in the hard disk 612 or the like and executes processing according to the program. The communication interface 604 is electrically connected to the home network 4 (FIG. 1), and executes data transmission / reception within the home network 4. The monitor 606 is a display unit for displaying the result of arithmetic processing in the CPU 602, and includes a liquid crystal display as an example. A keyboard 608 and a mouse 610 are interfaces for the user to give instructions and settings to the main control device 6. The hard disk 612 stores a program read from the CD-ROM 618 that is a storage medium by the CD-ROM driving device 616, and reads stored data or stores new data in response to an access request from the CPU 602. Etc. The RAM 614 functions as a work memory when the CPU 614 executes arithmetic processing, temporarily stores data used in the arithmetic processing, or reads the stored data. The CD-ROM drive 616 optically reads data stored in the CD-ROM 618 and transfers it to the hard disk 612 or the like.

(Control structure in CPU of main controller)
FIG. 3 shows a control structure in CPU 602 of main controller 6 according to the embodiment of the present invention. The control structure in the CPU 602 shown in FIG. 3 is realized by the CPU 602 executing a program, but may be realized by an electronic circuit corresponding to each block.

  Referring to FIG. 3, the control structure in CPU 602 of main controller 6 includes an event detection unit 6021, a monitoring control unit 6022, a treatment execution unit 6023, an audio data generation unit 6024, an IP telephone unit 6025, a message A generation unit 6026, a mail transmission unit 6027, a log storage unit 6028, and a clock unit 6029 are included. The hard disk 612 stores an abnormal state database 612a, a notification destination database 612b, and a log database 612c.

  Whether the event detection unit 6021 receives detection information from each of the temperature sensor 20, the monitoring camera 22, the gyro sensor 24, and the smoke sensor 38 connected to the home network 4 (FIG. 1) via the communication interface 604. If any detection information is received, a process start event is generated for the monitoring control unit 6022.

  In response to the event generated by the event detection unit 6021, the monitoring control unit 6022 refers to the abnormal state database 612a stored in the hard disk 612 to determine whether an abnormal state has occurred.

FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing the data structure of the abnormal state database 612a.
Referring to FIG. 4, abnormal state database 612 a includes conditional expression field 6121, urgency level 6122, notification content field 6123, and treatment content field 6124.

  In the conditional expression field 6121, an abnormal state is defined by a conditional expression including at least one of detection information transmitted from each sensor. These conditional expressions are configured so that the user can arbitrarily set them.

  FIG. 4 shows an example in which the temperature sensor 20 detects a high temperature in two stages. That is, “H” is sent as detection information when the temperature detected by the temperature sensor 20 exceeds the first temperature (for example, 40 ° C.), and detected when the temperature exceeds the second temperature (for example, 60 ° C.). “HH” is transmitted as information. Further, when the smoke sensor 38 detects the generation of smoke, it sends “H”. The first column of the conditional expression field 6121 shown in FIG. 4 defines a conditional expression that is established when “HH” detection information is received from the temperature sensor 20 and “H” is received from the smoke sensor 38. Is done. This conditional expression is for determining that a fire has occurred in the house 2. Further, the urgency level, the notification content, and the treatment content are defined in the urgency field 6122, the notification content field 6123, and the treatment content field 6124 in association with each of the conditional expressions defined in the conditional expression field 6121. . That is, in the first column of FIG. 4, the emergency level is “F”, the notification content is “fire occurrence”, and the action content is “sprinkler“ ON ”” in association with the abnormal state of fire occurrence in the house 2. Is defined.

  In addition, by adopting the conditional expression using the detection information from the temperature sensor 20 and the smoke sensor 38 as described above, it is possible to avoid erroneous determination about a serious abnormal state such as the occurrence of a fire. Here, in the second column of the conditional expression field 6121 shown in FIG. 4, "HH" detection information is received from the temperature sensor 20, and "H" is not received from the smoke sensor 38 (ie, "L"). Is satisfied). This conditional expression is for determining that the temperature of the house 2 is rising, and does not determine that a fire has occurred. That is, even when the detection information “HH” is received from the temperature sensor 20, the determination is divided into “fire” or “temperature rise” according to the detection information from the smoke sensor 38. Therefore, by defining a detailed conditional expression, it is possible to determine the occurrence of an abnormal state more accurately.

  Referring to FIG. 3 again, the monitoring control unit 6022 responds to the transmitted detection information, and the conditional expression established among the conditional expressions (conditional expression field 6121 in FIG. 4) defined in the abnormal state database 612a. The emergency level (emergency level field 6122 in FIG. 4), the notification content (notification content field 6123 in FIG. 4), and the treatment content (treatment content field 6124 in FIG. 4) are extracted. Then, the monitoring control unit 6022 extracts a corresponding notification destination from the notification destination database 612b based on the extracted urgency level.

FIG. 5 is a diagram schematically showing the data structure of the notification destination database 612b.
Referring to FIG. 5, the notification destination database 612 b includes an urgency field 6126 and a notification destination field 6127.

  The urgency field 6126 constitutes a so-called relational database associated with the value of the urgency field 6122 shown in FIG. That is, “A” to “F” defined in the urgency field 6126 is a list of values that can be input to the urgency field 6122 shown in FIG. In the notification destination field 6127, at least one of a telephone number and a mail address, which is identification information for specifying the notification destination, is defined in association with the urgency field 6126.

In this embodiment, as an example, the urgency level is defined in the following six stages.
At the urgency level “A”, as described later, only the history (log) of the abnormal state that has occurred is stored, and the notification destination is not notified.

  At the urgency level “B”, the contents of the abnormal state that has occurred are notified to the notification destination only once by e-mail.

  At the urgency level “C”, the content of the abnormal state that has occurred is notified to the notification destination in real time by e-mail.

  At the urgency level “D”, the content of the abnormal state that has occurred is notified to the notification destination by telephone. If there is no response from the notification destination, the notification destination is notified only once by e-mail.

  At the urgency level “E”, the contents of the abnormal state that has occurred are notified to the notification destination by telephone. If there is no response from the notification destination, another notification destination is notified by telephone. If a plurality of notification destinations are defined in advance and there is no response from the notification destination, the notification destinations are sequentially changed and notification is attempted.

  At the urgency level “F”, when a specific abnormal state such as a fire or an intruder occurs, the contents are notified to a socially determined notification destination such as a fire department or a police station.

  In accordance with such urgency level classification, the input of the notification destination in the first column of the notification destination field 6127 corresponding to the urgency level “A” becomes invalid. In addition, in the second column and the third column of the notification destination field 6127 corresponding to the urgency levels “B” and “C”, a mail address “mobile @ home” is defined as an example. Further, in the notification destination field 6127 corresponding to the urgency level “D”, a telephone number “XXX-XXXXXX-XXX” is defined as the first notification destination, and there is no response. An email address “mobile @ home” is defined as the second notification destination. Further, in the fifth column of the notification destination field 6127 corresponding to the urgency level “D”, a telephone number “XXX-XXXXXX-XXX” is defined as the first notification destination, and a response is received. If there is no response, a telephone number “△△ − △△△△ − △△△△” is defined as the second notification destination. If there is no response, the third notification destination is “●● − ●●●●”. -● ● ● ● is specified. Further, in the sixth column of the notification destination field 6127 corresponding to the urgency level “F”, socially defined “110” or “119” is defined.

  As described above, the monitoring control unit 6022 extracts a corresponding notification destination from the notification destination database 612b based on the extracted urgency level.

  Referring to FIG. 3 again, monitoring control unit 6022 determines whether the notification destination extracted from notification destination database 612b is specified by a telephone number or a mail address. Then, when the extracted notification destination is specified by a telephone number, the monitoring control unit 6022 gives the notification content extracted from the abnormal state database 612a to the voice data generation unit 6024. At the same time, the monitoring control unit 6022 gives the IP telephone unit 6025 the telephone number of the notification destination extracted from the notification destination database 612b.

  The voice data generation unit 6024 generates voice data obtained by converting the notification content given from the monitoring control unit 6022 into voice, and outputs the generated voice data to the IP telephone unit 6025. Note that a known speech synthesis technique can be used for generating speech data.

  The IP telephone unit 6025 makes a call with a partner existing outside the house 2 according to the Internet protocol (IP). Specifically, the IP telephone unit 6025 converts the voice data given from the voice data generation unit 6024 into a data packet by using the VoIP technology according to the Internet protocol, and also notifies the destination corresponding to the telephone number given from the monitoring control unit 6022. The data packet is sent to the destination address (IP address or the like). In addition, IP telephone unit 6025 receives an audio signal (or tone signal) generated by the response of the notification destination, and outputs a predetermined response signal to monitor control unit 6022.

  On the other hand, when the extracted notification destination is specified by the email address, the monitoring control unit 6022 uses the message generation unit to extract the notification content extracted from the abnormal state database 612a and the notification destination email address extracted from the notification destination database 612b. To 6026. At the same time, the monitoring control unit 6022 gives a mail transmission instruction to the mail transmission unit 6027.

  The message generation unit 6026 generates a character message including character data indicating the content of notification given from the monitoring control unit 6022, and outputs the generated character message to the mail transmission unit 6027. In the text message, a mail address given from the monitoring control unit 6022 is incorporated as a header and is formed into a format that can be transmitted as an e-mail.

  The mail transmission unit 6027 transmits a text message to a partner existing outside the house 2 according to the Internet protocol (IP).

  It should be noted that both the above-described call by the IP telephone unit 6025 and the data packet associated with the transmission of the electronic mail by the mail transmission unit 6027 are sent to the Internet network 50 via the gateway 8 (FIG. 1). It is sequentially transferred and delivered to the destination.

  In addition to the abnormal state notification function described above, when the monitoring control unit 6022 extracts the notification content of the abnormal state from the abnormal state database 612a, the monitoring control unit 6022 gives the notification content to the log storage unit 6028. When the notification content is given from the monitoring control unit 6022, the log storage unit 6028 acquires the current time from the clock unit 6029 and stores the notification content in the log database 612c in the hard disk 612 together with the time (occurrence time). . Note that the monitoring control unit 6022 gives the notification content to the log storage unit 6028 regardless of the urgency level of the abnormal state. Note that the urgency level and the notification destination may be stored in the log database 612c as well as the notification contents of the abnormal state.

(Log collection function)
Furthermore, the monitoring control unit 6022 sends the history of notification to the notification destination by the above-described IP phone or e-mail or the history of response from the notification destination in the notification using the IP phone to the log storage unit 6028. give. The log storage unit 6028 sequentially stores information provided from the monitoring control unit 6022 in the log database 612c.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of history data stored in the log database 612c.
Referring to FIG. 6, the log database 612c includes a time field 6128 and a log content field 6129.

  The time field 6128 stores the time when the log storage unit 6028 received the history data from the monitoring control unit 6022, and the log content field 6129 stores the history data.

  In the example illustrated in FIG. 6, first, assuming that “H” is transmitted as detection information from the temperature sensor 20 at time “14:00”, the monitoring control unit 6022 reads the temperature sensor from the abnormal state database 612a illustrated in FIG. The notification content “temperature rise” of the abnormal state corresponding to “H” of 20 is extracted and given to the log storage unit 6028. Then, the log storage unit 6028 stores the notification content in the log database 612c together with the time “14:00” that is the generation time. Note that FIG. 6 illustrates a configuration in which the urgency level is also stored in the log storage unit 6028.

  Thereafter, if “HH” is sent as detection information from the temperature sensor 20 at time “14:15”, the monitoring control unit 6022 corresponds to “HH” of the temperature sensor 20 from the abnormal state database 612a shown in FIG. The notification content “temperature abnormality” of the abnormal state to be extracted is extracted and given to the log storage unit 6028. The smoke sensor 38 remains “L”. Then, the log storage unit 6028 stores the notification contents in the log database 612c together with the time “14:15” that is the generation time.

  At the same time, the monitoring control unit 6022 notifies the notification content to the notification destination (“XXX-XXXXXX-XXX” shown in FIG. 5). At this time, the monitoring control unit 602 also provides the log storage unit 6028 with contents indicating the execution of the notification operation. Then, the log storage unit 6028 stores the contents in the log database 612c together with the time “14:16” that is the execution time of the notification operation.

  Furthermore, when the notification content is received and the notification content is confirmed, and there is a response from the notification destination, the monitoring control unit 6022 also provides the log storage unit 6028 with the content indicating this response. Then, the log storage unit 6028 stores the contents together with the response time “14:17” in the log database 612c. The notification content response is realized by the user of the notification destination operating the telephone (for example, pressing the “#” button).

  As described above, the log storage unit 6028 stores occurrences of abnormal conditions, notification operations, notification responses, and the like in the order of occurrence.

(Action execution function)
Furthermore, the monitoring control unit 6022 performs the treatment for the abnormal state in which the treatment content is defined in advance together with the notification to the notification destination described above.

  Referring to FIGS. 1 and 4 again, as an example, when “HH” is sent from temperature sensor 20 and “H” is sent from smoke sensor 38, it is determined that house 2 has “fire”. The Then, the monitoring control unit 6022 instructs the opening / closing valve 28 to open in accordance with “sprinkler“ ON ”” which is a treatment content corresponding to “fire occurrence”. In response to this instruction, the sprinkler 26 is opened, and the sprinkler 26 starts to spray water. In this way, a measure (fire extinguishing) for the occurrence of a fire in the house 2 is executed. Further, in FIG. 4, the operation of the air conditioner 34 is started for the “temperature abnormality” in the house 2 (second column), and the gas supply is shut off by the gas meter 36 for the “earthquake occurrence” (third column). Is stipulated.

  As another example of the treatment content, when the monitoring control unit 6022 detects an illegal intruder into the house 2, the monitoring camera 22 captures an image in the house 2 with the monitoring camera 22 and stores the captured image in the hard disk recorder 32. Further, threatening video or threatening voice stored in the hard disk recorder 32 in advance may be displayed on the television 30 for illegal intruders. Furthermore, it may be configured to detect the rain and move the clothesline etc. under the roof of the house 2 so that the laundry does not get wet.

(Processing flow)
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of main controller 6 according to the embodiment of the present invention. Note that the following processing is executed by the CPU 602.

  Referring to FIG. 7, CPU 602 determines whether or not detection information from a sensor or the like has been received (step S100). If the detection information has not been received (NO in step S100), CPU 6 determines again whether the detection information has been received (step S100).

  On the other hand, when the detection information is received (YES in step S100), the CPU 6 refers to the abnormal state database 612a stored in the hard disk 612 and defines the abnormal state based on the received detection information. It is determined whether or not a conditional expression is satisfied (step S102). If there is a conditional expression that is satisfied (YES in step S102), CPU 602 extracts the urgency level, the notification content, and the treatment content corresponding to the satisfied conditional expression (step S104). If there are a plurality of conditional expressions that are satisfied, the process of step S104 is repeatedly executed as many times as the number of conditional expressions that are satisfied.

  On the other hand, if there is no conditional expression that is satisfied (NO in step S102), the CPU 602 returns to the first process of this flowchart.

  The CPU 602 stores the extracted notification contents together with the time of occurrence in the log database 612c of the hard disk 612 (step S106). Further, the CPU 602 determines whether or not valid contents are defined in the extracted treatment contents (step S108). If valid contents are defined (YES in step S108), CPU 602 instructs the target apparatus to execute a treatment corresponding to the treatment content (step S110). If valid contents are not defined (NO in step S108), CPU 602 omits the instruction to execute the treatment.

  Subsequently, the CPU 602 extracts a notification destination from the notification destination database 612b stored in the hard disk 612 based on the extracted urgency level (step S112). Then, the CPU 602 determines whether the extracted notification destination is specified by a telephone number or a mail address (step S114).

  When the notification destination is specified by a telephone number (in the case of “telephone number” in step S114), CPU 602 generates voice data in which the extracted notification content is voiced (step S116). Then, CPU 602 transmits a call to the telephone number of the notification destination and transmits a sound corresponding to the notification content (step S118).

  Then, the CPU 602 determines whether there is a response from the notification destination (step S120). As described above, the response from the notification destination is realized by a telephone operation such as a response by the notification destination user, specifically, pressing of the “#” button.

  If there is no response from the notification destination (NO in step S120), the CPU 602 extracts the next notification destination from the notification destination database 612b (step S122), and executes the processing from step S114 onward again.

  If there is a response from the notification destination (YES in step S120), CPU 602 completes a series of processes and returns to the first process in this flowchart.

  On the other hand, when the notification destination is specified by the mail address (in the case of “mail address” in step S114), CPU 602 generates a character message including the character data indicating the extracted notification content and the mail address (step S114). S124). Then, the CPU 602 transmits the generated character message toward the mail address of the notification destination (step S126), and returns to the first process of this flowchart.

(Status monitoring of the automatic monitoring system itself)
Although the automatic monitoring system 100 described above monitors the occurrence of an abnormal state in the house 2, it is more preferable to monitor the soundness of the automatic monitoring system 100 itself. That is, there is a possibility that the function of the automatic monitoring system 100 will stop due to the system down of the main control device 6. Therefore, the system down of the main control device 6 can be monitored by performing periodic communication between the main control device 6 and other devices connected via the Internet network 50. In this embodiment, as an example, the SIP server 52 shown in FIG. 1 monitors the state of the main controller 6.

FIG. 8 is a sequence diagram relating to the state monitoring of the automatic monitoring system 100 itself.
Referring to FIG. 8, transmission and reception of “healthy request” and “healthy response” between main controller 6 and SIP server 52 are repeated at regular intervals. That is, when the SIP server 52 transmits a “healthy request” to the main control device 6 (SQ10), if the main control device 6 is healthy, a “healthy response” is returned to the SIP server 52 (SQ12). The transmission of the “healthy request” from the SIP server 52 is executed at a predetermined cycle (for example, every 5 minutes).

  On the other hand, when a system down or the like occurs in the main controller 6, a “healthy response” is not returned in response to the transmission of the “healthy request” from the SIP server 52 (SQ 14). Can be determined to be in an abnormal state. Then, the SIP server 52 notifies the occurrence of an abnormal state in the main control device 6 to a predetermined notification destination (SQ16).

  Since the SIP server 52 is an exchange for an IP telephone, it can notify by voice and can easily add an e-mail transmission function, so that notification by e-mail is also possible.

  In the embodiment of the present invention, the home network 4 corresponds to a “home network”, the main control device 6 corresponds to a “control unit”, and the temperature sensor 20, the monitoring camera 22, the gyro sensor 24, and the smoke sensor 38 are included. The sprinkler 26, the air conditioner 34, and the gas meter 36 correspond to the “treatment unit”, the abnormal state database 612a corresponds to the “first storage unit”, and the notification destination database 612b corresponds to the “second storage unit”. The log database 612c corresponds to “third storage means”, the voice data generation unit 6024 corresponds to “voice data generation means”, the IP telephone unit 6025 corresponds to “call means”, and generates a message. The unit 6026 corresponds to the “message generation unit”, the mail transmission unit 6027 corresponds to the “mail transmission unit”, and the monitoring control unit 602. Corresponds to “first extraction means”, “second extraction means”, “determination means”, “first notification means”, “second notification means”, and the treatment execution unit 6023 corresponds to “treatment execution means”. .

  According to the embodiment of the present invention, after one of the voice and the text message is selected based on the urgency level of the abnormal state determined to have occurred, the abnormal state is notified by the selected method. The contents are notified. As a result, it is possible to provide a notice of an abnormal state with a greater degree of sharpness compared to a configuration in which notification is uniformly performed by the same method (for example, voice). Therefore, the user can be surely executed for an abnormal state with a high degree of urgency without bothering the user.

  In addition, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the urgency level is divided into six stages, and even in the same urgency level, the notification from the voice to the notification by the character data depending on whether there is a response from the notification destination It can be switched to. Thereby, even if it is a situation where the user of the notification destination cannot respond, the user can be surely notified.

  In the above-described embodiment of the present invention, the configuration using the text message is illustrated as an example of the visually recognizable information, but the present invention is not limited to this. That is, any type of data may be used as long as it is information that can be visually recognized by the user.

  The embodiment disclosed this time should be considered as illustrative in all points and not restrictive. The scope of the present invention is defined by the terms of the claims, rather than the description above, and is intended to include any modifications within the scope and meaning equivalent to the terms of the claims.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an automatic monitoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a schematic block diagram of the main controller according to embodiment of this invention. It is a control structure in CPU of the main controller according to the embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows typically the data structure of an abnormal condition database. It is a figure which shows typically the data structure of a notification destination database. It is a figure which shows an example of the historical data stored in a log database. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of the main control apparatus according to embodiment of this invention. It is a sequence diagram concerning the state monitoring of the automatic monitoring system itself.

Explanation of symbols

  2 Housing, 4 Home network, 6 Main controller, 8, 62, 72 Gateway, 20 Temperature sensor, 22 Surveillance camera, 24 Gyro sensor, 26 Sprinkler, 27 Water supply pipe, 28 Open / close valve, 30 TV, 32 Hard disk recorder ( HDR), 34 Air conditioner, 36 Gas meter, 38 Smoke sensor, 50 Internet network, 52 SIP server, 60, 70 Telephone office, 64, 68, 74, 78 Switch, 66 Relay antenna, 80 Mobile terminal, 82 Fixed telephone, 100 Automatic Monitoring system, 602 monitoring control unit, 604 communication interface (communication IF), 606 monitor, 608 keyboard, 610 mouse, 612 hard disk (HDD), 612a abnormal state database, 612b notification destination database, 6 2c log database, 614 RAM, 616 CD-ROM drive, 6021 event detection unit, 6022 monitoring control unit, 6023 treatment execution unit, 6024 voice data generation unit, 6025 IP telephone unit, 6026 message generation unit, 6027 mail transmission unit, 6028 Log storage unit, 6029 Clock unit, 6121 Conditional expression field, 6122 Urgency field, 6123 Notification content field, 6124 Treatment content field, 6126 Urgency field, 6127 Notification destination field, 6128 Time field, 6129 Log content field.

Claims (9)

A home network formed in the home,
A control unit configured to be connected to the home network and configured to be capable of data transmission with a partner outside the home via a wide area network;
A sensor unit configured to detect a change in a monitoring target in the home and transmit detection information to the control unit via the home network;
A treatment unit for performing a predetermined treatment for an abnormal state that may occur in the house,
The controller is
First storage means for storing in advance an emergency level, notification contents, and treatment contents in association with an abnormal state defined by a conditional expression including at least one of the detection information transmitted from the sensor unit;
Second storage means for storing a notification destination including at least one of a telephone number and an email address in advance in association with the urgency level;
Voice data generation means for generating voice data in which notification contents are voiced;
Call means for making a call with the outside party according to the Internet protocol;
Message generating means for generating a character message including character data indicating the notification content;
In accordance with the Internet protocol, a mail transmission means for transmitting the text message to the outside partner,
In response to the detection information transmitted from the sensor unit, the urgency level, the notification content, and the treatment content of the abnormal state corresponding to the conditional expression established among the conditional expressions stored in the first storage unit are extracted. First extracting means for
Third storage means for storing at least the notification content extracted by the first extraction means together with the time of occurrence;
Treatment execution means for giving an instruction to the corresponding treatment section in order to perform treatment according to the treatment content extracted by the first extraction means;
Second extraction means for extracting a corresponding notification destination from the second storage means based on the urgency level extracted by the first extraction means;
Determination means for determining whether the notification destination extracted by the second extraction means is specified by a telephone number or an email address;
When the notification destination is specified by the telephone number in the determination means, the notification contents extracted by the first extraction means are given to the voice data generation means, and the notification contents are voiced using the call means. First notification means for notifying the notification destination by:
When the notification destination is specified by the e-mail address in the determination unit, the notification content extracted by the first extraction unit is given to the message generation unit, and the notification content is converted to a character using the mail transmission unit. And an automatic monitoring system including second notification means for notifying the notification destination by a message. A home network formed in the home,
A control unit configured to be connected to the home network and configured to be capable of data transmission with a partner outside the home via a wide area network;
A sensor unit configured to detect a change in a monitoring target in the home and transmit the detection information to the control unit via the home network;
The controller is
Call means for making a call with the outside party according to a predetermined protocol;
According to the predetermined protocol, information transmitting means for transmitting visible information to the outside partner,
A determination means for determining an abnormal state that has occurred in the house based on the detection information;
Determining means for determining the notification destination specified by the first or second identification information based on the urgency level of the abnormal state determined to have occurred in the determining means;
When the notification destination determined by the determination means is specified by the first identification information, the notification contents of the abnormal state determined to have occurred in the determination means are notified by voice using the call means. First notification means to notify first;
When the notification destination determined by the determination unit is specified by the second identification information, the notification contents of the abnormal state determined to have occurred in the determination unit can be visually confirmed using the information transmission unit. And a second notification means for notifying the notification destination of such information.   The automatic monitoring system according to claim 2, wherein the visually recognizable information is a character message including character data of the notification content.   The automatic monitoring system according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the determination unit determines an abnormal state that has occurred in the house according to a conditional expression including at least one of the detection information transmitted from the sensor unit.   The determination means extracts an urgency level of an abnormal state that has occurred with reference to a first database in which an urgency level and notification contents are defined in advance in association with the abnormal state, and based on the extracted urgency level The automatic monitoring system according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the notification destination is determined by referring to a second database in which the notification destination is defined in advance in association with the urgency level. The automatic monitoring system further includes a treatment unit for executing a predetermined treatment for an abnormal state that may occur in the house,
The said control part further includes the treatment execution means for making the said treatment part perform the treatment matched with the abnormal condition judged to have generate | occur | produced in the said judgment means. Automatic monitoring system described in 1.   The automatic monitoring system according to any one of claims 2 to 6, wherein the control unit further includes history storage means for storing information relating to an abnormal state determined to have occurred in the determination means together with the time of occurrence thereof. .   The automatic monitoring system according to claim 2, wherein the predetermined protocol includes an Internet protocol.   The determination means determines the notification destination so that the notification is performed preferentially using the first notification means as compared to the second notification means as the urgency level becomes higher. The automatic monitoring system according to any one of 2 to 8.

Images