JP2009272664A - Call system, and home appliance - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a call system that reports operation states of even respective home appliances having no network connection function in response to operation on a service center side, and to provide a home appliance used for the call system. <P>SOLUTION: The call system includes the home appliances, a terminal that the user has, and a center server. The terminal sends out a modulated sound generated by modulating instruction information received from the center server. A home appliance has a demodulating means of demodulating the modulated sound, and checks the operation state of itself based on the demodulated instruction information. The home appliance superposes equipment information showing a check result on a sound and outputs the sound. The terminal reports the equipment information to the center server based on the superposed sound that the home appliance outputs. Thus, the equipment information on the home appliance is obtained in response to operation from the service center side. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&amp;INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a reporting system for reporting information such as a failure of a household electrical device, and a household electrical device used in the reporting system.

  In general, when a failure occurs in a household electric appliance (home appliance), the user often calls the service center to inform the failure status. When the service center receives such a failure report, it dispatches maintenance personnel to the user and repairs the failure.

  However, many failures are minor and do not require maintenance personnel. For example, it may be easily restored simply by resetting. Even in such a case, if the user is not familiar with the operation of the home appliance, it is necessary to send a maintenance staff to check the failure status.

  Thus, there has been proposed one in which home appliances are connected via a LAN and customer information and repair information are presented from a management device to a service center (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  In addition, it is also proposed to connect home appliances via LAN, install a server to collect operation information of each home appliance, periodically send the operation status of home appliances to the service center, and inform the user of the inspection results (For example, Patent Document 2).

In recent years, automatic telephone answering services have become widespread in service centers, and there is a mode in which a user selects a menu while pressing a push phone and makes an inquiry by connecting to an appropriate operator for some questions prepared in advance. It is popular.
Japanese Patent No. 3851733 JP 2007-305145 A

  However, at present, many general household appliances do not have a function of connecting to a network, and it has been impossible to configure a system such as Patent Documents 1 and 2.

  In the systems disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2, it is necessary to newly install a server connected to the service center in the home.

  Furthermore, in the automatic telephone answering service as described above, it is difficult for the user to determine the failure state and the content of the question, and it is difficult to select an appropriate answer. In addition, there is a problem that it is time-consuming and troublesome because it requires an operation of pushing a push phone in response to a question. In addition, unless the user made a call, the service center could not know the operating status of home appliances in each household.

  Therefore, the present invention is used in a notification system that can notify the operating status of each home appliance by an operation from the service center even if it is a home appliance that does not have a network connection function. The purpose is to provide household electrical equipment.

  The reporting system according to the present invention includes a household electrical device, a terminal owned by a user, and a center server. The household electric appliance is a general home appliance including a speaker (sound emitting means) and a remote control light receiving unit (receiving means). The terminal can use a device including an infrared transmission unit (sending means) such as a mobile phone, and sends out modulated light (infrared) in which instruction information received from the center server is modulated. Note that only the instruction information may be received from the center server and encoded and modulated by the terminal, or the encoded instruction information may be transmitted from the center server and the terminal may be sent to the home appliance as it is. It is good. For example, a modulated audio signal is transmitted from the center server, and the terminal may emit the audio signal as it is.

  The home appliance includes a demodulating unit that demodulates modulated light transmitted from the terminal (or modulated voice if the receiving unit is a microphone), and extracts device information indicating its own operating state based on the demodulated instruction information. An extraction unit and a device-side modulation unit that superimposes device information on sound are provided. The device information includes information unique to the device (manufactured product number, etc.), information such as an operation history and a failure state. The terminal reports device information to the center server based on the superimposed voice emitted by the home appliance. In this way, device information of home appliances can be obtained by an operation from the service center side.

  In addition to the mobile phone, various devices such as a dedicated terminal for the notification system, a home phone, and a personal computer can be used as the terminal. In the case of using a home phone, superimposing sound is emitted from the speaker of the handset and instruction information may be transmitted to the home appliance.

  In addition, a general telephone line network or the Internet network is used as a connection mode between the terminal and the center server.

  When a home phone or mobile phone is used as the terminal and a general telephone network is used as the connection mode, the service center calls the user's phone, or the user calls the service center and modulates from the phone speaker. Make a voice call to report device information. At this time, a push tone signal may be used as the sound emitted by the home appliance. When the center server executes the automatic response service, the telephone can collect a push tone signal to connect to an appropriate operator that matches the device information (failure content) and make an inquiry.

  Furthermore, in the said invention, it is desirable for household appliances to perform return operation | movement based on instruction information. In the case of a minor failure that does not require maintenance personnel, even if the service center presents the return work to the user, the return work cannot be performed unless the user is familiar with the operation of the home appliance. However, by controlling the home appliance from the center server side as described above, it is possible to recover from the failure state without any complicated operation by the user.

  According to this invention, even if it is a household appliance which does not have a network connection function, the apparatus information of each household appliance can be notified by operation from the service center side.

  Hereinafter, a reporting system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a notification system according to the present embodiment. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the notification system.

  The notification system shown in FIG. 1 includes a home appliance 1, a network connection terminal 2 such as a mobile phone, and a center server (service center) 3. The network connection terminal 2 and the center server 3 are connected to the Internet network 7.

  The household electric appliance 1 is a general household electric appliance such as a television or an air conditioner. In addition, the function and structure as a household appliance are abbreviate | omitted. The home appliance 1 includes a check processing unit 11, a microphone 12, an encoder 13, a modulator 14, a check result sound storage unit 15, a speaker 16, a demodulator 17, and a command reception processing unit 18.

  The check processing unit 11, the encoder 13, the modulator 14, the demodulator 17, and the command reception processing unit 18 are described and explained as a hardware configuration in the example of FIG. Can also be realized. The check result sound storage unit 15 is realized by a ROM built in a home appliance. Of course, the check result sound can be generated each time by software without being stored in the ROM.

  The network connection terminal 2 includes a microphone 21, a demodulator 22, a network connection unit 23, a reception processing unit 24, an encoder 25, a modulator 26, a command transmission sound storage unit 27, and a speaker 28. Such a network connection terminal can be realized by a general information processing terminal having a network connection function, such as a mobile phone and a personal computer, as well as a terminal dedicated to the notification system of the present embodiment. In addition, the demodulator 22, the reception processing unit 24, the encoder 25, and the modulator 26 are described and explained as hardware configurations in the example of the figure, but can also be realized by software. Other functions and configurations as the information processing terminal are omitted.

  In this notification system, the center server 3 issues an operation status check instruction to the home appliance 1 (transmits instruction information). The home appliance 1 checks the operation status in response to a check instruction from the center server 3, and reports the result to the center server as device information. This operation will be described with reference to FIGS.

  First, the center server 3 transmits a check command (a command for executing a process in which the check processing unit 11 of the home appliance 1 checks the operation status) to the network connection terminal 2 (s11). The reception processing unit 24 of the network connection terminal 2 receives the check command via the network connection unit 23 (s21). When the network connection terminal 2 is a mobile phone, the user may start up an application for operating the notification system, or the application may be started up automatically with reception of a check command as a trigger.

  The network connection terminal 2 encodes the check command by the encoder 25 (s22). The encoded check command is sent to the modulator 26. The modulator 26 reads a command transmission sound (for example, a beep sound) from the command transmission sound storage unit 27 and inputs it to the speaker 28 as an audio signal on which the check command is superimposed (s23). The speaker 28 emits the input superimposed sound (s24).

  Note that any method may be used as the modulation method, but a method that takes into account the acoustic characteristics of the speaker 28 of the network connection terminal 2 and the microphone 12 of the home appliance 1 is desirable. In this example, the network connection terminal 2 modulates the instruction information. However, the center server 3 may transmit the modulated instruction information.

  When the above superimposed sound (command transmission sound) is generated, the user brings the network connection terminal 2 close to the home appliance 1. If the network connection terminal 2 has a display unit, a command transmission sound is generated and a command transmission process is displayed, and a message prompting the user to bring the terminal closer to the home appliance is displayed. When there is no display unit, it may be displayed on the home appliance main body or the instruction manual that the network connection terminal is approached when a command transmission sound is generated. Further, voice guidance may be given to bring the network connection terminal closer to the command transmission sound, such as “Please bring the mobile phone closer to the product”.

  When the user brings the network connection terminal 2 close to the home appliance 1, the microphone 12 of the home appliance 1 collects the superimposed sound emitted from the speaker 28 and inputs it to the demodulator 17 (s 31). The demodulator 17 demodulates the check command encoded from the superimposed voice (s32). Thereafter, the command reception processing unit 18 decrypts the check command and transmits it to the check processing unit 11 (s33). The check processing unit 11 checks its own operating status in accordance with the received check command (s34). The operation status check is a process of acquiring own unique information (manufactured product number, etc.), a process of acquiring an operation history (recorded in the built-in RAM, etc.) A process of acquiring information (error codes composed of numbers, symbols, etc., which are subdivided for each failure content). The check processing unit 11 extracts these pieces of information as device information.

  Thereafter, the check processing unit 11 transmits the device information to the encoder 13. The encoder 13 encodes the device information and transmits it to the modulator 14 (s35). The modulator 14 reads the check result sound from the check result sound storage unit 15 and inputs the check result sound to the speaker 16 as an audio signal on which the device information is superimposed (s36). This check result sound (superimposed sound) is emitted from the speaker 16 (s37).

  Note that any modulation method may be used in the modulation processing of the home appliance 1, but it is desirable to use a frequency band corresponding to the acoustic characteristics of the speaker 16 and the microphone 21.

  The microphone 21 of the network connection terminal 2 collects the superimposed sound emitted from the speaker 16 and inputs it to the demodulator 22 (s25). The demodulator 22 demodulates the device information from the superimposed voice (s26). The demodulator 22 transmits the demodulated device information to the center server 3 via the network connection unit 23 (s27).

  The center server 3 receives this device information (s12) and stores it in a predetermined database. In this way, the center server 3 acquires device information of the home appliance 1. The accumulated device information is used for various processes. For example, the center server 3 stores countermeasures and repair methods according to error codes included in the device information, and the device information and countermeasures are transferred to the operator. When the operator determines that a failure has occurred in the home appliance 1, the user calls the user's home telephone and takes measures to teach a countermeasure. It is also possible to send a countermeasure to the user's e-mail address or send information indicating the countermeasure to the network connection terminal 2 to display the countermeasure on the display unit (not shown) of the network connection terminal 2. It is. If the failure requires dispatch of maintenance personnel, the maintenance personnel refer to the failure information and repair method, prepare for repair (preparation of necessary parts, etc.), and then go to the user for repair.

  It is also possible to send a command again from the center server 3 to the home appliance 1 so that the home appliance 1 performs an automatic return process. For example, a reset command is transmitted from the center server 3, and the check processing unit 11 performs a reset process according to the reset command. In this case, the home appliance can be controlled from the center server side, and it is possible to return from the failure state without any complicated operation by the user. The control mode from the center server side is not limited to the return operation. For example, if the home appliance is an AV amplifier, various settings (such as sound field correction) can be made on the center server side and reflected in the AV amplifier.

  1 illustrates an example in which the home appliance 1 includes a microphone. However, as illustrated in FIG. 3, a home appliance including a remote control light receiving unit can perform the same operation as in FIG. 2. . FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a notification system including a home appliance 1 having a remote control light receiving unit and a network connection terminal 2 having an infrared port. In addition, about the structure which is common in FIG. 1, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected and the description is abbreviate | omitted.

  In the notification system of FIG. 3, the network connection terminal 2 includes an infrared port 29 and transmits modulated light (infrared rays). The modulator 26 modulates the received check command with infrared light and transmits it via the infrared port 29. Moreover, the household appliance 1 is provided with the remote control light-receiving part 19, and receives the said modulated light. The demodulator 17 demodulates the check command from the modulated light. Other operations are the same as those shown in FIG. Thus, the notification system of the present invention can be realized even with home appliances including a remote control light receiving unit.

  As described above, according to the notification system of the present embodiment, the device information can be notified by the operation from the center side only by the user bringing the mobile phone or the like closer.

  Even if the home appliance does not support network connection, device information can be transmitted via the network, and the service side can take appropriate measures. In addition, since the location and operation status of each home electric appliance can be known by the processing from the center server 3, it is possible to quickly cope with a recall.

  In general, most home appliances have a function to emit sound and an infrared light receiving unit (or microphone), and a new hardware configuration for transmitting and receiving information to such home appliances can be added. The notification system of the present invention can be realized only by a minor configuration change such as a firmware change without the need to install a server in the home. In addition, if the network connection terminal 2 is a mobile phone, the speaker and microphone are of course equipped with an IrDA-compliant infrared port, and there is no need to add a special hardware configuration on the terminal side. .

  Next, FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating another example of the notification system. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the notification system according to another example. The notification system shown in FIG. 4 includes a home appliance 4, a telephone 5, and a service center (center server) 6. The telephone 5 and the service center 6 are connected to a general telephone line network 9. The notification system in this example can notify device information by operation on the service center side even when there is no network connection environment in the home. The telephone 5 can be replaced with a mobile phone.

  The household electrical appliance 4 is a general household electrical appliance, similar to the household electrical appliance 1 described above. The function and configuration as a home appliance are omitted. The home appliance 4 includes a check processing unit 41, a microphone 42, an encoder 43, a modulator 44, a check result sound storage unit 45, a speaker 46, a demodulator 47, and a command reception processing unit 48. The check processing unit 41, the encoder 43, the modulator 44, the demodulator 47, and the command reception processing unit 48 can be realized by hardware or software.

  The telephone 5 is a general home telephone provided with a microphone 51 and a speaker 52.

  The service center 6 includes a demodulator 61, a telephone transfer device 62, an operator terminal 63, and a modulator 64.

  Also in this notification system, the service center 6 instructs the home appliance 4 to check the operation status. The home appliance 4 checks the operation status in response to a check instruction from the service center 6 and reports the result to the service center as device information. This operation will be described with reference to FIGS.

  First, the service center 6 encodes the check command (s51), superimposes it on the command transmission sound (s52), and transmits the superimposed sound to the telephone 5 (s53). The telephone 5 receives the superimposed sound (s61) and emits the sound through the speaker 52 (s62). The connection between the service center 6 and the telephone 5 may be performed by calling the telephone 5 from the service center 6 side, or by the user calling the service center 6 using the telephone 5. Good. Note that any modulation method may be used, but a method that takes into account the acoustic characteristics of the telephone is desirable.

  When the above superimposed sound (command transmission sound) is generated, the user brings the telephone 5 close to the home appliance 4. In this case, a message indicating that the telephone is brought closer when a command transmission sound is generated is displayed on the home appliance main body or the instruction manual. In addition, voice guidance may be provided to bring the telephone closer to the command transmission sound.

  When the user brings the telephone 5 close to the home appliance 4, the microphone 42 of the home appliance 4 collects the superimposed sound emitted from the speaker 52 and inputs it to the demodulator 47 (s 71). The demodulator 47 demodulates the check command encoded from the superimposed voice (s72). Thereafter, the command reception processing unit 48 decrypts the check command and transmits it to the check processing unit 41 (s73). The check processing unit 41 checks its own operating status in accordance with the received check command, and extracts device information (s74).

  Thereafter, the check processing unit 41 transmits the device information to the encoder 43. The encoder 43 encodes the device information and transmits it to the modulator 44 (s75). The modulator 44 reads the check result sound from the check result sound storage unit 45 and inputs it to the speaker 46 as an audio signal on which the device information is superimposed (s76). This check result sound is generated from the speaker 46 (s77).

  When the check result sound is generated from the speaker 46, the user brings the telephone 5 close to the home appliance 4. If the home appliance 4 has a display unit, it produces a check result sound and displays an instruction to bring the telephone closer. Further, it may be displayed on the home appliance main body or the instruction manual that the telephone is brought close when a check result sound is generated. Furthermore, a voice such as “Please bring the telephone receiver close” may be emitted as the check result sound.

  When the user brings the telephone 5 close to the home appliance 4, the microphone 51 collects the check result sound emitted from the speaker 46 (s 63) and transmits it to the service center 6.

  The service center 6 receives the check result sound (s54), demodulates the device information by the demodulator 61, and stores it in a predetermined database (s55). In this way, the service center 6 acquires device information of the home appliance 4.

  In addition, as illustrated in FIG. 6, the home appliance 4 may include a push tone signal generation unit 49. In this case, the check result sound includes a push tone signal of an automatic response menu selection number. That is, the check processing unit 41 transmits device information to the encoder 43 and generates a predetermined push tone signal in the push tone signal generation unit 45 so as to be connected to a connection destination corresponding to the content of the device information. To instruct. In this case, the modulator 44 superimposes device information on the push tone signal generated by the push tone signal generation unit 45, and inputs this superimposed sound to the speaker 46 as a sound signal of the check result sound. In this case, the check result sound is configured so that a continuous push tone signal is generated, and the telephone is transferred to an appropriate operator department according to the device information. The transfer is performed by the telephone transfer device 62 of the service center 6.

  The operator terminal 63 of the service center 6 is a terminal used by an operator in each department, and has a telephone function and an information processing terminal function. The equipment information demodulated by the demodulator 61 is transmitted to the operator terminal 63, or the telephone 5 is transferred and connected from the telephone transfer device 62. When the operator refers to the transmitted device information and determines that a failure has occurred in the home appliance, the operator takes measures to teach the user how to deal with, repair method, etc. via the telephone 5. Further, if the error code included in the transmitted device information requires the dispatch of maintenance personnel, the operator contacts the user for repair dispatch and arranges the dispatch of maintenance personnel. The maintenance staff makes preparations for repair (preparation of necessary parts, etc.) according to the contents of the error code, and then goes to the user and performs appropriate repairs.

  Note that, similarly to the center server 3 described above, it is also possible to transmit a command to the home appliance 4 again and perform an automatic return process on the home appliance 4.

  Even in the notification system using the home telephone as described above, the device information can be reported by the operation on the service center side only by the user bringing the telephone closer.

  In addition to home appliances that do not support network connection, even if there is no network connection environment at home, device information can be reported from the service center through the general telephone line network. Appropriate measures can be taken on the service center side.

  Even in this case, the home appliance need only have a function of emitting sound and a function of collecting sound, and a new hardware configuration for transmitting information may be added to such a home appliance, The notification system of the present invention can be realized only by minor configuration changes such as firmware changes without installing a server.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a report system. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of a notification system. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the notification system in the case of transmitting a check command by infrared rays. It is a block diagram which shows the other structure of a report system. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the notification system which concerns on another example. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the notification system in the case of using a push tone signal.

Explanation of symbols

1-Household appliances 2-Network connection terminal 3-Center server 7-Internet network

Claims (4)

A notification system comprising a household electrical device, a terminal owned by a user, and a center server,
The terminal includes transmission means for transmitting modulated light or modulated sound in which instruction information from the center server is modulated,
The household electrical device includes receiving means for receiving the modulated light or the modulated sound;
Demodulation means for demodulating the instruction information;
In accordance with the instruction information, extracting means for extracting device information indicating its operating state;
Device-side modulation means for superimposing the device information on sound;
Sound emission means for emitting superimposed sound on which the device information is superimposed,
The notification system according to claim 1, further comprising a reporting unit configured to report the device information to the center server based on the superimposed voice. The sound emitted by the sound emission means of the household electrical appliance includes a push tone signal,
The reporting system according to claim 1, wherein the reporting unit reports the device information based on the push tone signal.   The notification system according to claim 1, wherein the household electrical appliance includes a return unit that performs a return operation based on the instruction information.   The household electrical equipment used in the report system in any one of Claims 1 thru | or 3.

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