JP2010011379A - Apparatus operating device and apparatus operating method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an apparatus operating device and an apparatus operating method, such that a plurality of apparatuses can be operated intuitively and the usability of apparatuses in every day life is expected to be improved. <P>SOLUTION: The apparatus operating device which transmits a remote control signal for controlling one of the plurality of apparatuses, based on operation performed from the outside includes a self-position detecting means of detecting the position of the apparatus operating device and generating self-position information indicating the position; an apparatus specifying means of specifying an external apparatus to be controlled from wall-surface position information corresponding to the external apparatus by reference to the self-position information generated by the self-position detecting means; a control operation detecting means of detecting an operation for apparatus control from outside; and a transmitting means of transmitting a remote control signal corresponding to the operation detected by the control operation detecting means as a remote control signal for controlling the external apparatus specified by the apparatus specifying means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a device operating device and a device operating method for operating a plurality of devices, and relates to a remote control system and a remote control transmitter and an electronic device used therefor, in particular, a plurality of different electronic devices installed in the same space. It is suitable for use in a system that can be operated with a single remote control.

  Many home devices each have a remote control dedicated to the device, and a plurality of remote controls often exist in one room. In such a case, when the device is operated, the remote controller of the corresponding device is picked up and a desired operation is performed, but it often happens that the corresponding remote controller is not easily found. This is mainly due to the fact that there are multiple remote controls in one room, but as one of the things created to solve this problem, there is a multi-remote control that can operate multiple devices with one remote control. Yes (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  However, the operation by the multi-remote control as described in Patent Document 1 is performed by customizing the operation button for each device and the operation button for each device or the operation button common to each device for each operation target device. For this reason, the number of buttons on the remote controller increases, and the number of button operations required until a desired operation is performed requires a plurality of operations.

  On the other hand, there is an effort to make it possible to identify multiple devices by giving each device a special function as one device that controls multiple devices with a simple operation, but it is applicable to conventional devices Can not.

  In addition, the approach of preparing a special command by gesture or the like for device identification requires the user to remember the command, and requires some training before use.

On the other hand, in Patent Document 2, a target device is discriminated as a candidate based on position information of a remote controller and an electric device.
However, when there are a plurality of candidates for the target, a device close to the target is preferentially output from the position information as a candidate, and if it is different, the change operation must be performed again. Eventually, the user must select the target device on the interface.

In either case, there is a problem that the user is separated from the user-friendliness in which the target device is selected only by the operation of pointing the remote control at the target device.
JP 2003-078779 A JP 2004-166193 A (paragraph number 0048)

  The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a device operating device and a device operating method that can intuitively operate a plurality of devices and that can be expected to improve the usability of devices in daily life. .

  In order to solve the above-described problem, an apparatus operating device of the present invention is an apparatus operating device that transmits a remote control signal for controlling any of a plurality of external devices based on an operation from the outside. A self-position detecting unit that detects a position and generates self-position information indicating the position, and refers to the self-position information generated by the self-position detecting unit, so that the external device to be controlled corresponds to this external device. A device specifying means for specifying from the wall surface position information, a control operation detecting means for detecting an operation for external device control, a remote control signal for controlling the external device specified by the device specifying means, and Transmission means for transmitting a remote control signal corresponding to the operation detected by the control operation detection means.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to intuitively operate a plurality of devices, and there is an effect that improvement in usability of devices in daily life can be expected.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.

Embodiment 1 according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.
Reference numeral 10 denotes the room of the room constituting this system.
Reference numerals 100 to 103 denote electric devices that operate with a remote controller such as a television or a DVD recorder.
Reference numerals 104 and 105 denote base stations that can wirelessly grasp the current location of the sensor and can transmit and receive information.
Reference numeral 110 denotes a remote controller that is a device operating device 1 that can control a plurality of electric devices.
111 indicates a direction vector of the remote controller.
130-133 show the wall surfaces 1-4 used as the object of an electric equipment.
FIG. 2 shows an external configuration of the remote controller 110.
Reference numeral 20 denotes a remote controller.
Reference numeral 200 denotes a remote control changeover switch.
Reference numerals 201 to 202 denote sensors whose positions can be detected by GPS or the like.
Reference numeral 203 denotes a panel that displays a control screen of the target device.
FIG. 3 shows a display example when there are multiple target candidates. A display is made on the panel 203 of FIG. In other words, it has an error and OK indicator, and as a detailed display of the error, for example, as a notification to the user about the target device, “There are multiple candidates, so it will be detected again with higher accuracy. Please display "is displayed.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration related to the device operation control process of the device operation apparatus 1. As shown in FIG. 4, the device operating device 1 is a horizontal direction detecting unit 3 1 which is a horizontal direction detecting means (direction detecting means) by following a program in which a CPU (not shown) is stored in ROM. A vertical direction detection unit 32 that is a vertical direction detection unit (direction detection unit), a distance detection unit 3 3 that is a distance detection unit, a room information generation unit 3 4 that is a room information generation unit, and a room information setting instruction A room information setting instruction unit 3 5 as a means, a determination timing detection unit 3 6 as an operation start detection unit, a target device determination unit 3 7 as a target device determination unit, and room information D B (database) 3 8 , An operation content recognition unit 39 that is an operation content recognition unit, a target device correction unit 4 0 that is a target device correction unit, an operation command D B (database) 4 1 that stores various operation commands, and an operation An operation command generation unit 42 is a command generating means, the operation target apparatus (e.g. broadly, TV, air conditioning, lighting, etc.) includes an operation command transmitting section 4 3 is an operation command transmission means for transmitting the operation command to the.

  The horizontal direction detection unit 3 1 uses the geomagnetic sensor 1 5 to determine the horizontal angle of the device operating device 1 when the user points the device operating device 1 toward an operation target device (for example, a television, an air conditioner, or a lighting device). To detect.

  The vertical direction detection unit 3 2 detects the angle in the vertical direction of the device operating device 1 using GPS. The distance detection unit 3 3 detects the distance between the operation target device and the device operation device 1 using GPS.

  The room information generation unit 3 4 generates room information from the detection result of the horizontal direction detection unit 3 1, the detection result of the vertical direction detection unit 32, and the detection result of the distance detection unit 3 3, and the room information setting instruction unit 3 5 Instructs the user how to set in order to generate room information. The room information D B 3 8 stores the room information generated by the room information generation unit 3 4.

  The discrimination timing detection unit 3 6 detects the timing for discriminating the operation target device (for example, the television 2, the air conditioner 3, the lighting 4, etc.), and the target device discrimination unit 3 7 3, lighting 4, etc.). Further, the target device correction unit 4 0 performs correction when the operation target device determined by the target device determination unit 3 7 is incorrect.

  The operation content recognition unit 3 9 recognizes the operation content from the user for the operation target device (for example, the television 2, the air conditioner 3, the lighting 4, etc.). The operation command generation unit 42 extracts and generates an operation command from the operation command D B 4 1 based on the operation content recognized by the operation content recognition unit 3 9, and the operation command transmission unit 43 generates the operation command generation unit 4 2. The operation command generated in step 1 is transmitted to the operation target device. The operation command D B 4 1 stores an operation command related to each operation of each operation target device.

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of a remote control operation by the device operating device 1 in the present embodiment.
First, when the user presses the changeover switch 200 of the remote controller, the device change switch is turned on (step S61). Then, the remote control position / remote control direction is acquired from the base station (step S62).

Next, a target device candidate is detected based on the position information, the direction of the remote controller, and the pointing angle (initial value α) (step S63).
The presence / absence of the target device candidate is determined (step S64). If there is no target device candidate, an error screen is displayed (step S65). If there is, the target device candidate is determined to be unique (step S66).

If it is determined in step S66 that the target device candidate is unique, the selection of the target device is completed (step S67), and the target device menu screen is displayed (step S68).

On the other hand, if the target device candidate is not determined to be unique in step S66, the accuracy is improved and the user is notified of redetection (step S69), and the remote control position and remote control direction are reacquired from the base station and directed. The angle is changed (precise value β, where 0 <β <α) (step S70).

Next, the target device candidate is redetected based on the position information, the direction of the remote controller, and the pointing angle (precision value β) (step S71). Then, it is determined whether the target device candidate is unique (step S72).

If it is determined in step S72 that the target device candidate is unique, the selection of the target device is completed (step S67), and the target device menu screen is displayed (step S68).

On the other hand, if the target device candidate is not determined to be unique in step S72, the accuracy is increased (precision value γ, where 0 <γ <β), and the user is notified of redetection (step S69). Repeat the operation.

In summary, there are a plurality of electric devices (100 to 103) in the room (10). Each electric device can be controlled by a remote control (105) such as a TV, a DVD recorder, or an air conditioner. This remote control is equipped with information on the control menu of each device and can be displayed on the touch panel (203).

A sensor (201) is mounted on the remote controller, and the position of the remote controller can be detected by transmitting and receiving signals to and from the base stations (104, 105). The use of high-performance GPS can be assumed as a system for performing detailed position detection. If sufficient accuracy can be ensured using electronic reference points deployed throughout the country, they may be used instead of the base station.

The remote control can receive information on the current location of the remote control and the direction the remote control is facing from the base station. In order to obtain the direction vector of the remote control, by mounting another sensor (202) on the remote control, a method of simultaneously obtaining the position between two points when the power switch is turned on can be realized.

In the remote controller, information on which device is to be controlled when the direction vector of the remote controller is directed to which wall surface in the room is registered in advance based on the position of each electric device. This may be a method in which a sensor is mounted on each electric device, and the base station automatically acquires and sets the position of each electronic device. Moreover, when an electric device is near, the target wall surface may overlap.

  When the user roughly presses the switch on the remote controller toward the device to be operated, the current location and direction vector of the remote controller are acquired from the base station. The server obtains the direction vector of the remote control. When the directivity (α) range set in the direction vector of the remote control is all within the wall surface where the target electric device is set, the device is selected.

If there is no target device, the user is notified of this (such as an error message) by displaying it on the panel.
As shown in FIG. 1, the remote control is directed toward the wall surface 1, but the wall surface 2 is also included in the range in which directivity is included, so the target candidates are the electric device 1 and the electric device 2. When there are a plurality of candidates as described above, the remote controller performs redetection because there are a plurality of target candidates.

When performing the re-detection, a method of notifying the user by displaying a message on the panel as shown in FIG. 3 or displaying an LED on a part of the remote control, vibrating, etc. can be considered.
The remote control re-acquires the current location and direction vector of the remote control through communication with the base station, narrows the directivity (below β), and detects the target device again. In this way, the directivity is narrowed until the number of targets becomes one, and redetection is repeated.

  When the target device candidate is reduced to one, the remote controller displays the menu of the target device on the panel so that the user can operate it.

A second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. Description of the parts common to the first embodiment is omitted.
(Modification)
When there are a plurality of candidates and redetection is performed, the target device is detected from the change in the direction vector. In the example of FIG. 1, it is assumed that the direction vector of the re-detected remote control is 112.
When the detection is performed at the same angle as the first, since the area of the wall surface 2 is larger than that of the wall surface 1, the electric device 2 is detected as a target. Thus, the target device can be detected by changing the direction closer to the target device.

  In the modified example, the target device is selected by the user moving the remote controller to the target device side, so that it is possible to save time and effort for selecting the target device through the interface.

A multi-remote controller equipped with a function capable of controlling a plurality of devices requires the user to select a device to be dealt with by himself / herself.
In the present embodiment, by detecting the position and direction of the remote controller, it is possible to detect the target device, usually by simply pointing the remote controller in the direction of the target device.
In addition, when a plurality of target device candidates are found because a plurality of electrical devices are close to each other, the target device is selected by performing detection again with increased detection accuracy. Therefore, even in this case, the user only has to properly point the remote control at the target device, and can save time and effort for making a selection on the interface.

As an effect of the present embodiment, an automatic switching multi-remote control is realized, so that when there are a plurality of target device candidates, the operation of selecting the target device from the interface by the user can be omitted.

In addition, this invention is not limited to the said embodiment, In the range which does not deviate from the summary, it can implement in various modifications.
Various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of constituent elements disclosed in the above-described embodiments. For example, some components may be deleted from all the components shown in the embodiment. Furthermore, constituent elements according to different embodiments may be appropriately combined.

1 is a system configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. The block diagram on the external appearance of the remote control 110 of the embodiment. The figure for demonstrating the example of a display when there exist multiple target candidates of the embodiment. The block diagram which shows the function structure concerning the apparatus operation control process of the apparatus operation apparatus of the embodiment. The flowchart of the remote control operation | movement by the apparatus operating device 1 in the embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

3 1 Horizontal direction detection means, direction detection means 3 2 Vertical direction detection means, direction detection means 3 3 Distance detection means 3 4 Room information generation means 3 5 Room information setting instruction means 3 6 Operation start detection means 3 7 Target device discrimination means 3 8 Room information database 3 9 Operation content recognition means 4 0 Target device correction means 4 1 Operation command database 4 2 Operation command generation means 4 3 Operation command transmission means 1 0 0 to 1 0 3 Electrical equipment 1 0 4 to 1 0 5 Base station 1 1 0 Remote control 1 1 1 to 1 1 2 Direction vector of remote control 1 3 0 to 1 3 3 Wall surfaces 1 to 4
2 0 0 changeover switch 2 0 1 to 2 0 2 sensor 2 0 3 display panel

Claims (4)

A device operating device that transmits a remote control signal for controlling any of a plurality of external devices based on an external operation,
Self-position detecting means for detecting the position of the device operating device and generating self-position information indicating the position;
By referring to the self-position information generated by the self-position detection means, device specifying means for specifying the external device to be controlled from the wall surface position information corresponding to the external device;
Control operation detection means for detecting an operation for controlling the device from the outside;
A device operation comprising: a remote control signal for controlling the external device specified by the device specifying means, and a transmission means for transmitting a remote control signal corresponding to the operation detected by the control operation detection means apparatus.   The apparatus operating device according to claim 1, wherein when there are a plurality of external apparatus candidates to be controlled, the apparatus operates to narrow down the directivity and narrow down the external apparatus candidates by redetection.   3. The device operation according to claim 2, wherein, when the re-detection is performed, a change in direction of the device operation device is grasped, and the target device is automatically selected based on the grasp result. apparatus. A device operation method in a device operation device that transmits a remote control signal for controlling any of a plurality of external devices based on an operation from the outside,
Detecting the position of the device operating device and generating self-position information indicating the position,
By referring to the generated self-position information, the external device to be controlled is specified from the wall surface position information corresponding to the external device,
Detects external device control operations,
A device operation method comprising: transmitting a remote control signal corresponding to the detected operation, which is a remote control signal for controlling the specified external device.

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