JP2019009719A - Communication device, control method of the same, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

To obtain trouble information of a communication device easily from an external device.SOLUTION: The communication device includes: wireless communication means for operating as an access point and performing wireless communication with an external device; setting means for setting validity or invalidity of operation as the access point; detection means for detecting a failure occurring in the communication device; and control means for causing the communication device to operate as the access point even if the operation as the access point is set invalid by the setting means when a predetermined condition is satisfied. The wireless communication means can cause the communication device to operate as the access point by the control means and wirelessly transmit information on faults detected by the detecting means to the external device.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for notifying failure information of a communication device.

  Conventionally, a projector detects its own failure, and notifies this to an external device by various methods such as a change in blinking pattern of an LED light, serial communication, wired / wireless LAN or network communication, and writing to a USB memory. Doing things.

  For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for creating an e-mail for notifying an error when a failure occurs and transmitting the e-mail to a transmission destination designated in advance.

  Patent Document 2 discloses a technique for writing failure data to a USB memory by connecting the USB memory to a projector after the failure has occurred.

JP 2002-250971 A JP 2007-271852 A

  However, the notification based on the change of the blinking pattern of the LED has a problem that it is difficult to visually recognize the failure of the apparatus and the details of the error cannot be obtained. Furthermore, the method of acquiring error information by USB or serial communication is complicated because it uses a cable. In particular, these problems become conspicuous when the device is installed in a place where the user's hand cannot easily reach (for example, when the projector is installed in a suspended state).

  A communication device according to the present invention operates as an access point, wireless communication means for wirelessly communicating with an external device, setting means for setting validity / invalidity of the operation as the access point, and a failure occurring in the communication device. Detecting means for detecting, and control means for operating the communication apparatus as the access point even if the operation as the access point is set to be invalid by the setting means when a predetermined condition is satisfied, The wireless communication unit can cause the control unit to operate the communication device as the access point, and then wirelessly transmit information about the failure detected by the detection unit to the external device, The condition includes at least that a failure that has occurred in the communication device is detected by the detection unit.

  According to the present invention, failure information of a communication device can be easily obtained from an external device.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the projector of 1st Embodiment. It is a flowchart for demonstrating control of 1st Embodiment.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the following embodiments. The embodiments of the present invention show preferred modes of the invention and do not limit the scope of the invention.

<First Embodiment>
In this embodiment, a projector capable of communicating via a network will be described as an example of a communication device. The communication device according to the present invention is not limited to a projector. Examples of communication devices include, for example, imaging devices typified by surveillance cameras, various equipment used in factories and facilities, devices such as instruments used in automobiles, trains, airplanes, and various devices used in medical settings, etc. Can be given.

  FIG. 1 shows a hardware configuration of the projector according to the present embodiment.

  A CPU 101 controls the entire projector 100. Examples of the control include projection control, recording control, communication control, and input control. Note that the projector 100 is not necessarily controlled by one piece of hardware. A plurality of control units may share the processing and function as one unit, or one control unit may function as a plurality of units. Note that the idea that the hardware is not necessarily one is the same in the other configurations described below.

  Reference numeral 102 denotes a RAM, which is a main memory for storing data. The RAM 102 is mainly used as a storage area for various data such as an area for storing or developing a program executed by the CPU 101 and a work area for executing the program.

  Reference numeral 103 denotes a ROM. The ROM 103 stores data such as programs and parameters for operating the projector 100 in advance, and the CPU 101 operates according to the contents of the ROM 103.

  Reference numeral 104 denotes a VRAM that is used as an area for storing an image projected by the projection unit 105 described later.

  Reference numeral 105 denotes a projection unit. The projection unit 105 displays an image instructed by a projection control unit 106 described later. Specifically, the projection unit 105 includes a liquid crystal panel, a lens, and a light source.

  Reference numeral 107 denotes an operation unit that accepts input from the user. The operation unit 107 includes a button attached to the housing, a remote control reception unit that receives a user operation from a remote controller (not shown), and the input operations are transmitted to the CPU 101.

  A wired LAN network IF 108 communicates with an external device such as a PC, a smartphone that is a kind of mobile phone, or a so-called tablet device.

  Reference numeral 109 denotes a wireless LAN network IF having an access point (AP) function, which performs wireless communication with an external device. The wireless LAN network IF 109 issues a beacon signal including its own SSID, and performs processing to allocate an IP address when an external device having a wireless LAN client function is connected. And it communicates with external devices, such as PC and a smart phone. The access point function using the wireless LAN network IF 109 can be switched between valid / invalid by the user operating the operation unit 107. By disabling the access point function, the processing load and power consumption of the projector 100 can be suppressed.

  Reference numeral 110 denotes an internal bus that connects the processing blocks described above.

  Note that failure information described later in the present embodiment is stored in the ROM 103. Examples of failures in the present embodiment include the following examples. The lamp life of the projection unit 105 is approaching, the temperature of the projector 100 exceeds a predetermined value, the air filter needs to be replaced, and if the battery is driven, the remaining battery level falls below the predetermined value. And so on. Fault information for notifying these faults to an external device is stored in the ROM 103.

  The above is the configuration of the projector 100 in the present embodiment. Next, the operation of the projector 100 according to the present embodiment when a failure occurs will be described with reference to the projector operation flowchart of FIG.

  The flow in FIG. 2 is started at the timing when the projector 100 is connected to a video source such as a PC using a cable or the like and the projection processing is started. Note that this flow is periodically executed after the start of projection.

  First, in step S201, the CPU 101 determines whether a projection failure is currently occurring. If a projection failure has occurred, the process proceeds to S202. If not, this process is repeated. Although not shown, when the CPU 101 is notified of the end of the projection processing of the projector by a user operation via the operation unit 107, the processing flow is stopped.

  In S202, the CPU 101 inquires of the wired LAN network IF 108 whether the function is enabled. If it is valid, the process flow ends. If it is invalid, the process proceeds to S203. Here, in addition to whether the wired LAN network IF 108 is enabled, whether the wired LAN cable is connected may be added as a criterion.

  In S203, the CPU 101 reads the set value of the ROM 103, checks whether its own projection mode is the ceiling mode or the flat mode, and if it is in the flat mode, ends this processing flow. If it is suspended from the ceiling, the process proceeds to S204.

  In S204, the CPU 101 inquires of the wireless LAN network IF 109 whether the access point function is enabled. If it has been validated, this processing flow is terminated, and if it has been invalidated, the process proceeds to S205.

  Here, the processing of S201 to S204 is not limited to this order, and may be performed in any processing order.

  In S205, the CPU 101 controls the wireless LAN network IF 109 to enable the access point function and form a wireless LAN network without a security key, and the process proceeds to S206. By entering this state, for example, it is possible to accept a wireless LAN connection from an external device such as a PC or a smartphone. In particular, in this embodiment, since the access point function is validated without a security key, the external apparatus can easily establish a wireless LAN connection with the projector 100. When the wireless LAN connection with the external device is established, the CPU 101 transmits failure information corresponding to the failure type determined in S201 to the external device. This may be automatically transmitted according to the connection with the external device, or may be transmitted according to a request from the external device.

  In step S <b> 206, the CPU 101 determines whether failure information has already been transmitted to the external device via the wireless LAN network IF 109. If so, the process proceeds to S208. If not, the process proceeds to S207.

  In S208, the CPU 101 controls the wireless LAN network IF 109, invalidates the access point function, and ends this processing flow. This is because the access point activated in S205 is temporary for transmitting the failure information. Thus, by automatically disabling the access point function after transmitting the failure information, it is possible to minimize the time for operating without a security key.

  In S207, the CPU 101 confirms whether or not a predetermined period (for example, 4 hours) negotiated in advance since the access point function is validated. If it has elapsed, the process proceeds to S208 to invalidate the access point function, and if not, the process proceeds to S206. This is also a consideration for operating without a security key.

  Here, the condition determination of S202 to S204 will be described. To summarize these conditions, when the conditions such as “the wired LAN is not valid”, “the ceiling is suspended”, and “the access point function is set to invalid” are met, the access point function is activated in S205. Activate. This is because the projector 100 according to the present embodiment is configured not to perform the access point function validation processing in S205 when the failure information can be acquired from the projector by other means. For example, if a wired LAN network is available, fault information can be output from there. Further, if the projector is used in a flat state where the user can reach, the user can connect a serial connector and a USB connector (not shown) to the projector, and output failure information via the projector. If these methods are effective, the user can acquire failure information without enabling the wireless LAN access point using the resources of the projector 100. However, the condition determination in S202 to S204 is merely an example of conditions in the present embodiment. Depending on the use case, it may be installed in a place where the user's hand is not easily reached even in a flat state, and there are devices such as smartphones that cannot be connected to a wired LAN network. Therefore, the conditions for enabling the access point function set to invalid are not necessarily limited to those shown in S202 to S204.

  Also, when the access point function is enabled in S204, no particular processing is performed. However, when a security key is set, processing for forcibly disabling the security key is performed. May be. This is because when the security key for performing the wireless LAN connection with the projector is confirmed from the OSD on the projection surface, there is no means for the user to confirm the security key due to the projection failure. In other words, by performing this process, it becomes unnecessary to input a security key to the projector in which the projection failure has occurred, and it is possible to easily connect to the projector in which the projection failure has occurred.

  Here, when the access point function is validated in S205, the CPU 101 may limit the function of controlling the projector via the wireless LAN network IF only to failure information acquisition. This has an effect of preventing the projector settings from being illegally rewritten or acquired through an access point without a security key that anyone can connect to.

  As described above, the operation described above makes it easy to establish a communication path after the occurrence of a failure even when a route for the external device to acquire failure information from the projector has not been established in advance.

<Other embodiments>
The present invention can also be realized by executing the following processing. That is, software (program) that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus via a network or various storage media, and a computer (or CPU, MPU, etc.) of the system or apparatus reads the program. It is a process to be executed.

Claims (11)

A communication device,
Wireless communication means that operates as an access point and wirelessly communicates with an external device;
Setting means for setting validity / invalidity of the operation as the access point;
Detecting means for detecting a failure occurring in the communication device;
Control means for causing the communication device to operate as the access point even if the operation as the access point is set to be invalid by the setting means when a predetermined condition is satisfied,
The wireless communication means can operate the communication device as the access point by the control means, and then wirelessly transmit information related to the failure detected by the detection means to the external device,
The predetermined condition includes at least that a failure that has occurred in the communication apparatus is detected by the detection means.   The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a network without a security key is formed when the control unit causes the communication apparatus to operate as the access point.   3. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the control unit causes the communication apparatus to operate as the access point, the wireless communication unit performs only communication for transmitting information on the failure. .   When the control unit causes the communication device to operate as the access point and the wireless communication unit transmits information on the failure, the control unit stops the operation of the communication device as an access point. The communication apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3.   5. The control unit stops the operation of the communication device as an access point when the control unit causes the communication device to operate as the access point and a predetermined time elapses. The communication device according to any one of the above.   The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the communication apparatus is a projector. A judgment unit for judging a state of installation of the communication device;
The communication device according to claim 6, wherein the predetermined condition includes that the determination unit determines that the communication device is installed in a suspended state.   The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the external device is a smartphone.   The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the external device is a tablet device. A communication device control method comprising:
A wireless communication process that operates as an access point and wirelessly communicates with an external device;
A setting step for setting validity / invalidity of the operation as the access point;
A detection step of detecting a failure occurring in the communication device;
A control step of operating the communication device as the access point even if the operation as the access point is set to invalid in the setting step when a predetermined condition is satisfied,
In the wireless communication step, after operating the communication device as the access point in the control step, it is possible to wirelessly transmit information about the failure detected in the detection step to the external device,
The method for controlling a communication device, wherein the predetermined condition includes at least detecting a failure that has occurred in the communication device in the detection step.   A computer-executable program for causing a computer to function as each unit of the communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 9.

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