JP2019036945A - Radio connection method and consumer electronics - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a radio connection method capable of easily determining whether or not consumer electronics can communicate with a desired master unit.SOLUTION: A radio connection method for establishing radio connection of consumer electronics 10 and a master unit communicating by radio LAN communication protocol, by using a setting terminal 30 for radio connection with the consumer electronics 10 includes a master unit search step (S15) of searching a radio communicable master unit by the slave unit function of the consumer electronics 10, a list creation step (S17) of creating a radio field intensity list associating the identification information of the master unit searched by the master unit search step, and the radio field intensity of electromagnetic wave from the master unit received by the consumer electronics 10, and a list transmission step (S18) of transmitting the radio field intensity list to the setting terminal 30 by the master unit function of the consumer electronics 10.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2A

Description

  The present disclosure relates to a wireless connection method for establishing a wireless connection between a home appliance and a parent device that communicates using a wireless LAN (Local Area Network) communication standard by using a setting terminal that is wirelessly connected to the home appliance, and the home appliance. Regarding equipment.

  A device having a wireless communication function (for example, a printing apparatus) is connected to a communication network, and the device is remotely operated or the state of the device is confirmed via the communication network. Patent Document 1 discloses a method for easily performing settings for connecting a device that does not have sufficient input interfaces to a communication network (specifically, wireless communication with a parent device).

JP 2003-143156 A

  In recent years, household appliances (so-called smart household appliances) having a wireless communication function have been developed with the progress of the Internet. Such home appliances can be installed in a different place from devices with conventional wireless communication functions (for example, if the home appliance is a washing machine, it is installed in a dressing room), so the radio wave of the parent device may not reach There is sex.

  However, in the method of Patent Document 1, it is not considered that a device is installed in a place where a radio wave from a desired parent device may not reach.

  Therefore, an object of the present disclosure is to provide a wireless connection method and a home appliance that can easily determine whether or not the home appliance can wirelessly communicate with a desired parent device.

  A wireless connection method according to an aspect of the present disclosure uses a setting terminal that is wirelessly connected to the home appliance to establish a wireless connection between the home appliance that communicates with a wireless LAN (Local Area Network) communication standard and a parent device. Wireless device connection method, wherein the home appliance searches for the parent device capable of wireless communication by a child device function, and the identification information of the parent device searched in the parent device search step, A list creation step of creating a radio wave intensity list in which the home electric appliance is associated with a radio wave intensity of a radio wave received from the master unit; and the home appliance has a master unit function to set the radio wave intensity list to the setting terminal. A list transmission step of transmitting to the list.

  Moreover, the household electrical appliance which concerns on 1 aspect of this indication is a household electrical appliance provided with the wireless communication part which communicates by wireless LAN communication specification, Comprising: The said wireless communication part communicates with a main | base station and the terminal for a setting, A communication control unit that controls communication with the master unit and the setting terminal via the communication unit, and the communication control unit is configured to control the master unit capable of wireless communication with a slave unit function as the control. Searching, creating a radio wave intensity list in which the identification information of the master unit searched and the radio field intensity of the radio wave received from the master unit by the communication unit are associated with each other, and It transmits to the said terminal for a setting via a communication part.

  According to the wireless connection method and the home electric appliance according to one aspect of the present disclosure, it is possible to easily determine whether the electric home appliance can communicate with a desired parent device.

1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a radio communication system according to Embodiment 1. FIG. FIG. 2A is a sequence diagram illustrating a first process performed by the home appliance according to Embodiment 1. FIG. 2B is a sequence diagram showing processes after the first process in the radio communication system according to Embodiment 1. FIG. 3A is a flowchart illustrating a first process performed by the home appliance according to Embodiment 1. FIG. 3B is a flowchart illustrating processing performed by the setting terminal according to Embodiment 1. FIG. 3C is a flowchart illustrating a second process performed by the home appliance according to Embodiment 1. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an installation example of the home appliance according to the first embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a radio wave intensity list displayed on the setting terminal according to the first embodiment. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a screen for inputting parent device information connected in the setting terminal according to the first embodiment. FIG. 7 is a sequence diagram illustrating a first process performed by the home appliance according to the second embodiment.

  Hereinafter, embodiments will be described with reference to the drawings as appropriate. However, more detailed description than necessary may be omitted. For example, detailed descriptions of already well-known matters and repeated descriptions for substantially the same configuration may be omitted. This is to avoid the following description from becoming unnecessarily redundant and to facilitate understanding by those skilled in the art.

  Each figure is a mimetic diagram and is not necessarily illustrated strictly. Moreover, in each figure, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected to the substantially same structure, The overlapping description may be abbreviate | omitted or simplified.

  The inventor of the present application provides the accompanying drawings and the following description in order for those skilled in the art to fully understand the present disclosure, and is intended to limit the subject matter described in the claims. is not.

(Embodiment 1)
Hereinafter, the wireless communication system according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.

[1. Wireless communication system]
First, a radio communication system 1 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a wireless communication system 1 according to the present embodiment.

  The wireless communication system 1 according to the present embodiment includes a home electric appliance 10 having a wireless communication function, two wireless routers 20a and 20b (an example of a parent device), and a setting terminal 30. Note that the number of parent devices included in the wireless communication system 1 is not particularly limited. For example, the number of master units may be three or more. The wireless communication is wireless communication between devices including a parent device and a child device, and as an example, wireless communication using a communication standard such as a wireless LAN (for example, Wi-Fi (registered trademark)). . Further, the parent device is a device that relays received wireless communication, for example, and the child device is a device that communicates with the parent device, for example.

[1-1. Home appliances]
The home electric appliance 10 is a home electric appliance that communicates according to a wireless LAN (Local Area Network) communication standard. Home appliance 10 performs wireless communication with wireless routers 20a and 20b (hereinafter also referred to as wireless router 20a and the like). The home appliance 10 also performs wireless communication with the setting terminal 30 when establishing a wireless connection between the home appliance 10 and the wireless router 20a.

  As illustrated in FIG. 1, the home appliance 10 includes a wireless communication unit 11 and a home appliance main body 12. Note that the home appliance 10 is not a home appliance that is carried and used by a user, but is usually a device that is installed and used in a predetermined place in a house or the like. The home appliance 10 is, for example, a washing machine, a refrigerator, an air conditioner, a microwave oven, or a television.

  The wireless communication unit 11 is a wireless communication module (wireless LAN module) that wirelessly communicates with both the wireless router 20a and the setting terminal 30 according to the wireless LAN communication standard. The wireless communication unit 11 is built in the home appliance 10 in advance. The wireless communication unit 11 includes a communication unit 11a, a communication control unit 11b, and a storage unit 11c.

  The communication unit 11 a is a wireless communication interface for the home appliance 10 to wirelessly communicate with both the wireless router 20 a and the setting terminal 30. The communication unit 11a wirelessly communicates with the wireless router 20a and the setting terminal 30 by wireless communication according to a communication standard such as IEEE802.11a, b, g, and n. The communication unit 11a has a slave function that operates as a slave and a master function that operates as a master. The communication unit 11a operates only one function of a slave unit function (function that operates as a slave unit) and a master unit function (function that operates as a master unit) under the control of the communication control unit 11b, and Both the slave unit function and the master unit function can be operated in parallel.

  In FIG. 1, broken arrows indicate wireless communication performed by the wireless communication unit 11 as a slave unit, that is, wireless communication performed by the slave unit function. In FIG. 1, solid arrows indicate wireless communication performed by the wireless communication unit 11 as a parent device, that is, wireless communication performed by the parent device function. The same applies to the subsequent drawings.

  The communication control unit 11 b is a control device that controls each component of the wireless communication unit 11. For example, the communication control unit 11b controls wireless communication with the wireless router 20a and the setting terminal 30 via the communication unit 11a. The communication control unit 11b creates a radio wave intensity list in which the radio wave intensity (reception intensity) of the radio wave received by the communication unit 11a from the wireless router 20a or the like and the identification information of the wireless router 20a or the like is associated with the communication unit 11a. To the setting terminal 30. Further, when a predetermined operation is acquired from the setting terminal 30, control corresponding to the operation is performed. For example, when the communication control unit 11b acquires an operation for starting wireless connection with the wireless router 20a via the setting terminal 30, the communication control unit 11b controls the communication unit 11a to perform wireless connection with the wireless router 20a.

  Further, the communication control unit 11 b is connected to the home appliance control unit 12 b of the home appliance main body unit 12. The communication control unit 11 b may control each component of the wireless communication unit 11 in accordance with a user operation acquired by the home appliance body unit 12. Moreover, the operation with respect to the household appliance main-body part 12 acquired via the main | base station (for example, wireless router 20a) is output to the household appliance control part 12b. Thereby, the household appliance main-body part 12 operate | moves according to operation acquired via the main | base station.

  The communication control unit 11b is a processor that executes a control program stored in the storage unit 11c, but may be realized by a dedicated circuit or the like.

  The storage unit 11c is a storage device that stores a control program executed by the communication control unit 11b. In addition, the storage unit 11c may store identification information (for example, SSID (Service Set IDentifier)) and security information (for example, a password) of a parent device that establishes a wireless connection. The storage unit 11c is realized by a nonvolatile memory such as a flash memory.

  The home appliance main body 12 is a part that realizes the original function of the home appliance. For example, when the home appliance 10 is a washing machine, the home appliance main body 12 is a portion that executes washing of clothes or the like in the home appliance 10. Hereinafter, an example in which the home appliance 10 is a washing machine will be described.

  The home appliance main body 12 includes an acquisition unit 12a, a home appliance control unit 12b, a storage unit 12c, and a display unit 12d.

  The acquisition unit 12a is a user interface that receives an operation from the user. The acquisition unit 12a is realized by, for example, a push button or a touch panel.

  The home appliance control unit 12b is a control device that controls the operation (for example, washing, etc.) of the home appliance main body 12 based on an operation from the user acquired through the acquisition unit 12a. The home appliance control unit 12b acquires the control information stored in the storage unit 12c based on the operation acquired from the acquisition unit 12a, and controls the operation of the home appliance 10 based on the acquired control information. When the home appliance 10 is a washing machine, for example, when the user's selection operation such as a standard course or a hand washing course is acquired, the home appliance control unit 12b reads out and executes control information corresponding to the course from the storage unit 12c.

  The home appliance control unit 12b is a processor that executes a control program stored in the storage unit 12c, but may be realized by a dedicated circuit or the like.

  The storage unit 12c is a storage device that stores a control program executed by the home appliance control unit 12b. The storage unit 12c is realized by a nonvolatile memory such as a flash memory.

  The display unit 12d is a display device that performs simple display such as the operation state of the home appliance 10 under the control of the home appliance control unit 12b, and is, for example, a liquid crystal display (for example, a liquid crystal display that performs segment display). The display unit 12d may be a display lamp or the like. When the home appliance 10 is a washing machine, the display unit 12d displays the washing course executed by the home appliance 10 and the remaining time.

[1-2. Wireless router]
The wireless routers 20a and 20b are communication devices that operate as a parent device and relay wireless communication from a child device (for example, the home appliance 10). For example, the wireless router 20a or the like is an access point that relays communication between an external network (not shown) and the home appliance 10. Note that the number of wireless routers (parent devices) included in the wireless communication system 1 is not particularly limited. In addition, one of the wireless routers 20a and the like may be a repeater that relays wireless communication between the other of the wireless routers 20a and the like and the home appliance 10. That is, one of the wireless routers 20a and the like as a repeater (for example, the wireless router 20b) is connected to the other of the wireless routers 20a and the like as the base unit (for example, the wireless router 20a) as a slave unit and wirelessly communicates. . In addition, one (relay device) such as the wireless router 20a is connected to the home appliance 10 as a parent device and performs wireless communication. One of the wireless routers 20a and the like communicates with the home appliance 10 using identification information received from the other (parent device) such as the wireless router 20a.

[1-3. Setting terminal]
The setting terminal 30 is a portable terminal device that is carried by a user, such as a smartphone or a tablet terminal.

  The setting terminal 30 performs wireless communication with the home appliance 10 and is connected to the home appliance 10 as a slave of the home appliance 10 (wireless communication unit 11) that operates as a parent device.

  As illustrated in FIG. 1, the setting terminal 30 includes a communication unit 31, a control unit 32, a storage unit 33, a display unit 34, and an acquisition unit 35.

  The communication unit 31 is a wireless communication interface for the setting terminal 30 to wirelessly communicate with the home appliance 10. The communication part 31 is connected with the household appliances 10 which operate | move as a main | base station by the wireless communication according to communication standards, such as IEEE802.11a, b, g, and n, for example.

  The control unit 32 is a control device that controls each component included in the setting terminal 30. For example, when receiving the radio wave intensity list transmitted from the home appliance 10 via the communication unit 31, the control unit 32 displays the received radio wave intensity list on the display unit 34. The control unit 32 may store the received radio wave intensity list in the storage unit 33.

  The control unit 32 is a processor that executes a control program stored in the storage unit 33, but may be realized by a dedicated circuit or the like.

  The storage unit 33 is a storage device that stores a control program executed by the control unit 32. The storage unit 33 is realized by a nonvolatile memory such as a flash memory.

  The display unit 34 is a display device that displays a predetermined image or the like under the control of the control unit 32, and is, for example, a liquid crystal display. The display unit 34 displays a radio wave intensity list acquired via the communication unit 31 under the control of the control unit 32.

  The acquisition unit 35 is a user interface that receives an operation (instruction) from the user, and is, for example, a touch panel, a push button, a keyboard, or the like. When the acquisition unit 35 is a touch panel, the acquisition unit 35 is bonded to the display unit 34. The user operation acquired by the acquisition unit 35 is transmitted to the communication unit 11 a via the communication unit 31 under the control of the control unit 32.

[2. Flow for setting up wireless communication]
Next, a method in which the home appliance 10 establishes a wireless connection with an appropriate parent device in the wireless communication system 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 2A to 6. Here, an example in which the home appliance 10 establishes a wireless connection with the wireless router 20a (an example of a parent device) will be described.

  First, a flow of creating a radio wave intensity list, which is a list of parent devices capable of wireless communication, in home electric appliance 10 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 2A and 3A. Although details will be described later, the present invention is characterized in that the home electric appliance 10 creates a radio wave intensity list and transmits the radio wave intensity list to an external device (the setting terminal 30 in the present embodiment).

  FIG. 2A is a sequence diagram illustrating a first process performed by home appliance 10 according to the present embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 2A, the home appliance 10 acquires an operation for starting establishment of a wireless connection with the parent device (that is, an instruction to start wireless connection) (S11). For example, the home appliance main body 12 of the home appliance 10 acquires an operation from the user via the acquisition unit 12a. At this time, the home appliance 10 and the wireless router 20a and the like, and the home appliance 10 and the setting terminal 30 are not wirelessly connected. That is, wireless communication is not performed between the home appliance 10 and the wireless router 20a and the like, and between the home appliance 10 and the setting terminal 30. In addition, it is assumed that the home electric appliance 10 is operating the slave function at the time when Step S11 is performed.

  The household appliance control part 12b will output that the said operation was acquired to the communication control part 11b, if operation which establishes a wireless connection from a user in step S11 is acquired. And if the communication control part 11b acquires that the said operation was acquired from the household appliance control part 12b, it will control the communication part 11a and will start operation | movement of a main | base station function (S12). Then, the communication control unit 11b establishes a wireless connection with the setting terminal 30 as a parent device (S13). Specifically, the home appliance 10 (wireless communication unit) is transmitted by transmitting identification information and security information of the wireless communication unit 11 in which the setting terminal 30 operates as a base unit to the wireless communication unit 11 by a user operation. 11) and the setting terminal 30 are established. Thereby, it is possible to realize a wireless communication network in which the home appliance 10 is a parent device and the setting terminal 30 is a child device.

  When the wireless connection between the home appliance 10 and the setting terminal 30 is established in step S13, the setting terminal 30 identifies the parent device that can be received by the home appliance 10 and the radio wave intensity of the radio wave received from the parent device. A list request, which is a request for creating a radio wave intensity list including the above, is transmitted to the home appliance 10 (S30). For example, when the setting terminal 30 acquires an operation for transmitting the list request from the user to the home appliance 10 via the acquisition unit 35, the control unit 32 transmits the list request to the home appliance 10 via the communication unit 31. To do. The setting terminal 30 that operates as a slave unit transmits a list request to the household electrical appliance 10 that operates as the master unit (specifically, the wireless communication unit 11).

  When the list request is received from the setting terminal 30 (step S14), the home electric appliance 10 searches for the parent device as a child device (S15). That is, a parent device search step is performed in which the home appliance 10 searches for a wireless router 20a or the like capable of wireless communication by the slave device function. Specifically, the communication control unit 11b controls the communication unit 11a to search for a wireless router 20a or the like that can perform wireless communication using the slave function. Note that the communication control unit 11b may display information indicating that the list request is received on the display unit 12d via the home appliance control unit 12b. For example, when the display unit 12d is a display lamp, the fact that the list request has been received may be displayed by blinking the display lamp. Thereby, the user can easily know that the home appliance 10 has received the list request. Further, the communication control unit 11b may display information indicating that the parent device search step is being performed on the display unit 12d via the home appliance control unit 12b.

  When the communication unit 11a receives a radio wave from the wireless router 20a or the like, the communication control unit 11b receives the radio wave intensity of the radio wave received by the communication unit 11a from the wireless router 20a or the like and the identification information of the wireless router 20a or the like. An associated radio wave intensity list (for example, the list shown in FIG. 5) is created (S17). That is, a list creation step is performed in which the communication control unit 11b creates a radio wave intensity list. The created radio wave intensity list is transmitted to the setting terminal 30 via the communication unit 11a (S18). That is, a transmission step is performed in which the home electric appliance 10 (wireless communication unit 11) transmits a radio wave intensity list to the setting terminal 30 operating as a slave by the master unit function of the communication unit 11a.

  Here, the 1st process which the household appliances 10 perform is demonstrated in detail, referring FIG. 3A.

  FIG. 3A is a flowchart showing a first process performed by home electric appliance 10 (specifically, wireless communication unit 11) according to the present embodiment. In addition, in step S11-S13, it is the same as the content demonstrated above, and abbreviate | omits description.

  When wireless connection with the setting terminal 30 is established in step S13, the wireless communication unit 11 determines whether a list request has been received from the setting terminal 30 (S14). When the home appliance 10 receives a list request from the setting terminal 30 (Yes in S14), it searches for a parent device as a child device (S15). If the list request is not received from the setting terminal 30 (No in S14), the communication control unit 11b waits until the communication unit 11a receives the list request. The communication control unit 11b terminates the wireless connection with the setting terminal 30 when the list request is not received even after a predetermined period of time has elapsed since the wireless connection with the setting terminal 30 is established in step S13. Also good. That is, the communication control unit 11b may control the communication unit 11a to stop the operation of the parent device function.

  When the communication unit 11a receives radio waves from the wireless router 20a or the like, that is, there is a wireless router 20a or the like to which the communication unit 11a can be connected (Yes in S16), the communication control unit 11b creates a radio wave intensity list (S17 ), And transmits the created list to the setting terminal 30 as a parent device (S18). That is, a transmission step is performed in which the home electric appliance 10 transmits a radio wave intensity list to the setting terminal 30 by the parent device function.

  In the following description, the communication unit 11a receives radio waves from the two wireless routers 20a and 20b, and the radio wave intensity list receives the identification information of the wireless routers 20a and 20b and the respective routers. It is assumed that the radio wave intensity is associated with the radio wave.

  When there is no wireless router 20a or the like capable of wireless communication in step S15 (No in S16), the communication control unit 11b may control the communication unit 11a to start searching for the wireless router 20a again. For example, if No in step S16, the process proceeds to step S19 to determine whether or not the re-search has been completed. If the search has not been completed (No in step S19), the process returns to step S15 to search for the wireless router 20a and the like. This re-search may be performed only once or multiple times. For example, the re-search may be repeated for a predetermined number of times or time.

  If the search has been completed (Yes in step S19), the communication control unit 11b transmits information indicating that there is no connectable wireless router 20a to the setting terminal 30 (S20). In addition, when step S20 is performed, the process (S31-S37) in the setting terminal 30 demonstrated below and the process (S40-S44) in the household appliances 10 are not performed.

  As described above, household electrical appliance 10 according to the present embodiment creates a radio wave intensity list in which radio wave intensity (reception intensity) is associated with wireless router 20a and the like, and transmits the list to setting terminal 30. Accordingly, the user can easily determine whether or not the home appliance 10 is in a communication range such as the desired wireless router 20a by displaying the radio wave intensity list on the setting terminal 30. If there is no connectable wireless router 20a or the like, the setting terminal 30 receives information indicating that fact. Thereby, the user can easily determine that the home appliance 10 is not within the communication range of the desired wireless router 20a or the like. Then, it is possible to improve the communication state such as the movement of the installation location of the home appliance 10 or the installation location of the wireless router 20a or the like.

  Next, the flow of processing after the first processing according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 2B, 3B, and 3C.

  FIG. 2B is a sequence diagram showing processes after the first process in the wireless communication system according to the present embodiment.

  As illustrated in FIG. 2B, the setting terminal 30 receives the radio wave intensity list transmitted by the home appliance 10 in step S18 via the communication unit 31 (S31). When receiving the radio wave intensity list, the control unit 32 displays the radio wave intensity list on the display unit 34 (S32). For example, identification information such as the wireless router 20a and the received radio wave intensity are displayed as the radio wave intensity list (see FIG. 5 described later for an example of the radio wave intensity list).

  Then, a desired wireless router (for example, the wireless router 20a) is selected from the radio wave intensity list displayed on the display unit 34 by the user. For example, there may be a plurality of wireless routers 20a and the like, and the wireless router having the highest radio wave intensity may be selected as the wireless router that performs wireless communication with the home appliance 10 from among them. Then, a password for wireless communication with the wireless router 20 a selected by the user is input via the acquisition unit 35. That is, the setting terminal 30 receives information (an example of parent machine information to be connected) including identification information of the wireless router 20a to which the home appliance 10 is wirelessly connected from the user and a password for wirelessly connecting to the wireless router 20a. The information is acquired (S33), and the information is transmitted to the home appliance 10 via the communication unit 31 (S34). The wireless router selected from the radio field intensity list by the user is an example of the wireless router specified by the setting terminal 30.

  The communication control unit 11b receives the connected parent device information transmitted in step S34 via the communication unit 11a (S40). And the communication control part 11b performs the connection process with the wireless router 20a from the identification information of the wireless router 20a contained in the acquired main | base station information to connect, and the password for wirelessly connecting with the said wireless router 20a ( S41). That is, the second connection step is performed in which the home appliance 10 establishes a wireless connection with the wireless router 20a specified by the setting terminal 30 by the slave function. For example, when the wireless connection with the wireless router 20a fails, the communication control unit 11b may perform connection processing with the wireless router 20a a plurality of times. Note that the home appliance 10 wirelessly connecting to the wireless router 20 a using the connected parent device information received from the setting terminal 30 is an example of a wireless connection method performed using the setting terminal 30.

  And the communication control part 11b transmits the result of the connection process with the wireless router 20a performed by step S41 to the terminal 30 for a setting (S43). The communication control unit 11b controls the communication unit 11a and transmits the result of the connection process to the setting terminal 30 by the master unit function. That is, a connection result transmission step is performed in which the home appliance 10 transmits the wireless connection result between the home appliance 10 and the identified wireless router 20a in the second connection step to the setting terminal 30 by the master unit function.

  The setting terminal 30 receives the connection result transmitted in the connection result transmission step (S35), and displays the received connection result (S36). Specifically, the connection result received by the control unit 32 via the communication unit 31 is displayed on the display unit 34. Thereby, the user can check the result of the wireless connection between the desired wireless router 20a and the home appliance 10.

  And the household appliances 10 stop a main | base station function, when the wireless connection with the wireless router 20a is established (S44). That is, in the second connection step, when the wireless connection between the home appliance 10 and the wireless router 20a is established, a stop step of stopping the master unit function of the home appliance 10 is performed after the connection result transmission step.

  Specifically, the communication control unit 11b controls the communication unit 11a to stop the operation of the parent device function. As a result, the home appliance 10 can perform wireless communication with the desired wireless router 20a. For example, the user can remotely control the home appliance 10 from the outside or the like via the wireless router 20a, or can obtain the operating state of the home appliance 10. For example, when the home appliance 10 is a washing machine, it is possible to instruct the start of washing or to acquire the remaining time of the washing operation via the wireless router 20a. Note that the communication control unit 11b does not stop the operation of the slave unit function in step S44. That is, after step S44 (specifically, when the wireless communication unit 11 and the wireless router 20a are performing wireless communication), the wireless communication unit 11 operates only with the slave function, and the wireless router 20a Perform wireless communication. 2A and 2B and steps S12 to S18 and steps S40 to S43, home appliance 10 operates both in the parent device function and the child device function.

  Here, the process performed by the setting terminal 30 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 3B.

  FIG. 3B is a flowchart showing processing performed by setting terminal 30 according to the present embodiment. In steps S30 to S37 described below, when wireless communication is performed with the home appliance 10, the setting terminal 30 operates as a slave unit. That is, the setting terminal 30 performs wireless communication using the home appliance 10 as a parent device.

  First, after the wireless connection with the home appliance 10 is established, the setting terminal 30 issues a list request for creating a radio wave intensity list including the radio wave intensity that can be received by the home appliance 10 and the identification information of the parent device. It transmits to the apparatus 10 (S30). Step S30 is the operation of the setting terminal 30 shown in FIG. 2A.

  Then, when receiving the radio wave intensity list from the home appliance 10 (Yes in S31), the setting terminal 30 displays the radio wave intensity list (for example, see FIG. 5) on the display unit 34 (S32). Specifically, when receiving the radio wave intensity list from the home appliance 10 via the communication unit 31, the control unit 32 displays the radio wave intensity list on the display unit 34. Note that when the setting terminal 30 has not received the radio wave intensity list from the home appliance 10 (No in S31), the setting terminal 30 stands by until the radio wave intensity list is received. For example, when the radio wave intensity list is not received from the home appliance 10 even after a predetermined period of time, the setting terminal 30 may transmit the list request to the home appliance 10 again. That is, step S30 may be executed again.

  When the radio field intensity list is displayed on the display unit 34 in step S32, the identification information of the master unit (desired master unit) to which the home appliance 10 is wirelessly connected from the radio field intensity list displayed on the display unit 34 by the user, and A password for wireless communication with the parent device is input via the acquisition unit 35. When the control unit 32 acquires identification information and a password (hereinafter, also referred to as connected parent device information) of the parent device with which the home appliance 10 communicates wirelessly from the user via the acquisition unit 35 (Yes in S33), the connection The parent device information to be transmitted is transmitted to the home appliance 10 via the communication unit 31 (S34). Thereby, when the home appliance information received by the home appliance 10 is wirelessly connected, it is possible to establish a wireless connection with the master device having the identification information included in the information. In addition, when the base unit information to be connected is not acquired even after a predetermined period has elapsed (No in S33), for example, the control unit 32 may return to step S30 and transmit the list request to the home appliance 10 again. Further, when the parent device information to be connected in step S33 is not acquired, the case where the user's desired parent device is not included in the radio wave intensity list is included. That is, even when the acquisition unit 35 acquires a selection indicating that the desired parent device is not included in the radio wave intensity list displayed on the display unit 34 from the user, and the home appliance 10 receives the selection result. included. In this case, the process returns to step S30, and the list request is transmitted again to the home appliance 10 so that the home appliance 10 can perform a re-search (S15 shown in FIG. 2A).

  When the setting terminal 30 receives a connection result of wireless connection with a desired parent device based on the parent device information to which the home appliance 10 is connected (Yes in S35), the setting terminal 30 displays the connection result on the display unit 34. (S36). In addition, when the connection result is not received by step S35 (it is No at S35), the control part 32 waits until it receives a connection result from the household appliances 10. FIG. For example, when the connection result has not been received from the home electric appliance 10 even after a predetermined period of time has elapsed, the setting terminal 30 may transmit the connected parent device information transmitted in step S34 to the home electric appliance 10 again.

  If the connection result received in step S35 indicates that the wireless connection with the desired parent device has been established (Yes in S37), the processing of the setting terminal 30 ends. For example, the control unit 32 may determine that the processing of the setting terminal 30 is to be terminated when a selection indicating completion of wireless connection between the home appliance 10 and the parent device is acquired from the user.

  On the other hand, if it has shown that it was not able to connect with the main | base station (it is No at S37), the setting terminal 30 will return to step S34, and will transmit the main | base station information connected to the household appliances 10 again. At this time, the control unit 32 acquires the parent device information to be connected again from the user (S38). Specifically, the control part 32 acquires the identification information of the main | base station which the household appliances 10 connect from a user, and the password for carrying out wireless connection with the said main | base station. And it returns to step S34 and the control part 32 transmits the main | base station information to connect newly acquired in step S38 to the household appliances 10. FIG. Note that step S38 may not be performed.

  Next, the second process performed by the home appliance 10 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 3C. The second process is a process in which the home appliance 10 establishes a wireless connection with a desired parent device selected by the setting terminal 30.

  FIG. 3C is a flowchart showing a process performed by home appliance 10 according to the present embodiment. In steps S <b> 40 to S <b> 46 described below, the home appliance 10 wirelessly communicates with the slave device function when wirelessly communicating with the wireless router 20 a, and wirelessly communicates with the parent device function when wirelessly communicating with the setting terminal 30.

  First, when the base unit information to be connected is received from the setting terminal 30 (Yes in S40), connection processing for wireless connection with the base unit (in this case, the wireless router 20a) included in the base unit information to be connected is performed ( S41). Connection processing is executed from the identification information and password of the parent device included in the parent device information to be connected. When the wireless connection with the wireless router 20a is established (Yes in S42), the home appliance 10 transmits information indicating that the wireless connection is established (the wireless connection is successful) to the setting terminal 30 (S43). . Specifically, the communication control unit 11b transmits a connection result indicating that a wireless connection has been established to the setting terminal 30 via the communication unit 11a. And the communication control part 11b controls the communication part 11a, and stops operation | movement of a main | base station function (S44). That is, the communication control unit 11b disconnects the wireless connection with the setting terminal 30. Thereby, the setting of the wireless connection between the home appliance 10 and the wireless router 20a (an example of the parent device) is completed.

  In step S42, if the wireless connection with the wireless router 20a cannot be established (No in S42), the home appliance 10 sets information indicating that the wireless connection could not be established (wireless connection failed). 30 (S45). For example, when the password included in the base unit information to be connected acquired in step S40 is wrong (that is, when the user inputs the wrong password to the setting terminal), the wireless connection fails. When the communication control unit 11b re-receives the parent device information to be connected from the setting terminal 30 (Yes in S46), the communication control unit 11b executes Step S41 again using the re-received parent device information. Here, if the parent device information to be connected is re-received, if it is No in step S37 shown in FIG. 3B, the connected parent device information retransmitted from the setting terminal 30 (for example, in step S38) Information on the parent device to be connected acquired again from the user). Furthermore, the fact that the base unit information to be connected has been received again is transmitted from the setting terminal 30 when the setting terminal 30 has not received a connection result from the home appliance 10 even after the setting terminal 30 has passed for a predetermined period. Information on the parent device to be connected (for example, the same information as the parent device information transmitted in step S34).

  In addition, when the base unit information to be connected is not received again even after a predetermined period of time (No in S46), the process proceeds to step S44 and the base unit function is stopped.

  Here, specific installation examples of home appliances will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an installation example of the home appliances 10, 10a, and 10b according to the present embodiment.

  FIG. 4 shows an example in which there are houses 200 to 203, and wireless routers (wireless routers 20a to 20e) are installed in the houses 200 to 203, respectively. The house 200 includes a living room 200a, a kitchen 200b, and a dressing room 200c, where a home appliance 10 (for example, a personal computer), a home appliance 10a (for example, a refrigerator), and a home appliance 10b (for example, a washing machine) are installed. . In the house 200, two wireless routers 20a and 20b are installed. Household appliances 10c to 10e are installed in the houses 201 to 203, respectively.

  So-called white goods such as refrigerators and washing machines are placed in a different location from the devices that were previously connected to the wireless LAN, so they can be installed in places where the radio waves of the master unit (in this case, the wireless router) do not reach There is sex. In addition, white goods may not have a sufficient display device (for example, only a predetermined display can be performed). In such home appliances, it is easy to determine whether the home appliance is within the communication range of the desired parent device by creating a radio wave intensity list by the method described above and transmitting it to the setting terminal. Can be done.

  A case where a radio wave intensity list is created by the above-described method for the home appliance 10b shown in FIG. 4 will be described.

  The home appliance 10b receives radio waves from the wireless routers 20a and 20b in the house 200. Home appliance 10b also receives radio waves from each of neighboring houses 201-203. That is, the home appliance 10b receives radio waves from each of the wireless routers 20a to 20e.

  As shown in FIG. 2A, when receiving a list request from the setting terminal 30 (not shown in FIG. 4) (S14), the household electrical appliance 10b executes a search step for searching for a parent device as a child device (S15). . Here, five routers 20a to 20e are searched for as base units capable of wireless communication. The home appliance 10b creates a radio wave intensity list that associates the identification information of each of the wireless routers 20a to 20e and the radio wave intensity of the received radio wave (S17), and transmits the list to the setting terminal 30 (S18).

  Next, the radio wave intensity list displayed on the setting terminal 30 will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a radio wave intensity list displayed on the setting terminal 30 according to the present embodiment.

  In FIG. 5, the identification information of the wireless routers 20a to 20e is indicated by SSID1 to SSID5, respectively, and the radio wave intensity is indicated by four antenna bars. By displaying the radio wave intensity list as shown in FIG. 5, the user can easily determine whether or not home appliance 10b is within the communication range of the desired parent device. The radio wave intensity list is not limited to the form shown in FIG. 5 and may be displayed by an arbitrary method. For example, the radio wave intensity may be displayed side by side in the order of strong or weak radio wave intensity, or the radio wave intensity may be displayed as a numerical value instead of the antenna bar.

  Here, it is assumed that the user selects the wireless router 20a (SSID1) that is installed in the house 200 and has the strongest radio wave intensity. Then, a password for wireless connection with the wireless router 20 a is input by the user via the acquisition unit 35.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen for inputting parent device information connected in the setting terminal 30 according to the present embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 6, a wireless router 20a whose identification information is SSID1 is displayed as a parent device, and a password input field is displayed below it. The user inputs a password for wireless connection with the wireless router 20 a via the acquisition unit 35. And it transmits to the household appliances 10b from the setting terminal 30 as parent machine information to which the identification information and password of this parent machine are connected. Note that the parent device information to be connected may include information other than the identification information and the password.

  If the home appliance 10b is not within the communication range of the desired parent device (for example, the desired parent device is not searched even if the radio wave intensity list is repeatedly created), the location of the parent device is moved or added. There is a time to do. After moving the location of the parent device, etc., the user can easily check whether the home appliance is within the communication range of the desired parent device by creating the radio wave intensity list again by the above method. it can.

  As described above, the home appliance 10 creates a radio wave intensity list indicating the relationship between the identification information of the parent device capable of wireless communication and the radio wave intensity, and transmits the list to the setting terminal 30 which is a device different from the home appliance 10. The user can select a desired parent device from the radio wave intensity list displayed on the setting terminal 30. The home appliance 10 can execute wireless connection with the parent device specified by the setting terminal 30.

[3. Effect etc.]
As described above, the wireless connection method according to the present embodiment establishes wireless connection between the home appliance 10 communicating with the wireless LAN communication standard and the parent device (for example, the wireless router 20a), and wireless connection with the home appliance 10 is performed. In the wireless connection method performed using the setting terminal 30 to be performed, the home appliance 10 searches for a parent device capable of wireless communication using the child device function (S15), and searches in the parent device search step A list creation step (S17) for creating a radio wave intensity list in which the identification information of the parent device and the radio wave intensity of the radio wave received by the home appliance 10 from the parent device are associated with each other. And a list transmission step (S18) of transmitting the radio wave intensity list to the setting terminal 30.

  Thereby, the radio wave intensity list created by the home appliance 10 is transmitted to the setting terminal 30, so that the user can confirm the radio wave intensity list using the setting terminal 30. For example, even when the home appliance 10 does not have a sufficient display function, the user can check the radio wave intensity list with the setting terminal 30. Therefore, the user can easily determine whether or not the home appliance 10 can communicate with a desired parent device.

  Further, after the list transmission step, the home appliance 10 uses the slave function to establish a connection step (second step) for establishing a connection with the master unit (for example, the wireless router 20a) specified by the setting terminal 30. An example of a connection step) and a connection result transmission step in which the home appliance 10 transmits a connection result between the specified home device and the home device 10 in the second connection step to the setting terminal 30 by the base device function. Including.

  Thereby, it can be confirmed with the setting terminal 30 whether the wireless connection of the household appliances 10 and the main | base station was established. That is, it can be confirmed that the wireless connection has failed. Therefore, when the wireless connection fails, it is possible to easily take measures such as re-entering the password.

  In addition, in the second connection step, when the connection between the home appliance 10 and the parent device is established, a stop step of stopping the parent device function of the home appliance 10 is further included after the connection result transmission step.

  Thereby, after the wireless connection between the home appliance 10 and the parent device is established, the wireless connection between the home appliance 10 and the setting terminal 30 can be automatically disconnected.

  In addition, as described above, the home appliance 10 according to the present embodiment is a home appliance 10 including the wireless communication unit 11 that communicates according to the wireless LAN communication standard, and the wireless communication unit 11 is a base unit (for example, wireless A communication unit 11a that communicates with the router 20a) and the setting terminal 30, and a communication control unit 11b that controls communication with the parent device and the setting terminal 30 via the communication unit 11a. The communication control unit 11b searches for a parent device capable of wireless communication using the child device function, and the radio field strength in which the identification information of the found parent device is associated with the radio field strength of the radio wave received from the parent device by the communication unit 11a. A list is created, and the radio field intensity list is transmitted to the setting terminal 30 via the communication unit 11a by the master unit function.

  Thereby, there exists an effect similar to the radio | wireless connection method of the said household appliances 10. FIG.

(Embodiment 2)
Hereinafter, the radio communication system according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In the present embodiment, differences from the first embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 7 is a sequence diagram showing a first process performed by home appliance 110 according to the present embodiment.

  As illustrated in FIG. 7, the home appliance 110 acquires an operation for starting establishment of a wireless connection with the wireless router 20a (S111). This is the same as step S11 shown in FIG. 2A.

  Household appliance 110 according to the present embodiment, when acquiring an operation for starting establishment of wireless connection in step S111, searches for a parent device as a child device (S112). That is, even if the list request is not received from the setting terminal 30, the home device searching step is performed in which the home appliance 10 searches for the wireless router 20a or the like capable of wireless communication by the slave device function. The communication control unit controls the communication unit to search for a wireless router 20a or the like that can perform wireless communication by the slave function. The difference from the first embodiment is that the search step is executed with the start of the wireless connection setting acquired in step S111 as a trigger. That is, home appliance 110 according to the present embodiment is characterized in that a search step is performed before the operation of the parent device function is started.

  Next, the communication control unit, when the communication unit receives radio waves, the radio field intensity list in which the radio field intensity received by the communication unit from the wireless router 20a and the identification information of the wireless router 20a is related. Is created (S113). And a communication control part controls a communication part, and starts operation | movement of a main | base station function (S114). This is the same as steps S17 and S12 shown in FIG. 2A. Note that steps S113 and S114 do not have to be performed in this order, and it is only necessary that step S114 be executed after step S112 and before step S115 described later. For example, after step S114 is performed, step S113 may be performed, or steps S113 and S114 may be performed in parallel.

  Then, the communication control unit 11b establishes a wireless connection with the setting terminal 30 as a parent device (S115), receives a list request from the setting terminal 30 (S116), and sets the setting terminal 30 via the communication unit 11a. The radio wave intensity list is transmitted to (S117). This is the same as steps S13, S14, and S18 shown in FIG. 2A.

  As described above, in the wireless connection method according to the present embodiment, further, home appliance 110 establishes a connection with setting terminal 30 using the parent device function between the parent device search step and the list transmission step. Connection step (an example of a first connection step).

  In the master search step, the radio field intensity is measured while changing the radio channel. Further, the wireless channel used for communication with the parent device by the slave device function and the wireless channel used for communication with the setting terminal 30 as the slave device by the parent device function are the same wireless channel. That is, when one radio channel (for example, a radio channel used for communication with the parent device) is changed, the other radio channel (for example, a radio channel used for communication with the setting terminal 30) is changed to one radio channel. It is necessary to change following the change.

  In the wireless connection method according to the present embodiment, wireless connection between the communication control unit and setting terminal 30 is not established at the time of performing the parent device search step. That is, the communication control unit does not have to change the wireless channel used for communication with the setting terminal 30 in the parent device search step. That is, the processing of the communication control unit can be simplified.

(Other embodiments)
As described above, the embodiments have been described as examples of the technology disclosed in the present application. However, the technology in the present disclosure is not limited to these, and can also be applied to embodiments in which changes, replacements, additions, omissions, and the like are appropriately performed. Moreover, it is also possible to combine each component demonstrated in the said embodiment and it can also be set as a new embodiment. Therefore, other embodiments will be exemplified below.

  For example, although the example in which the setting terminal 30 is a mobile terminal device has been described in the above embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this. The setting terminal 30 may be any device that operates as a slave unit in wireless communication and includes a display unit that displays a list received from the home appliance 10 and an acquisition unit that receives a selection from the user. The setting terminal 30 may be realized by a PC (Personal Computer) or the like.

  In addition, the order of the plurality of processes in the operations of the home appliance 10 and the setting terminal 30 (operation for establishing a wireless communication connection) described in the above embodiment is an example. The order of the plurality of processes may be changed, and the plurality of processes may be executed in parallel. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the example in which the home appliance 10 is operating the slave function at the time of step S11 in FIGS. 2A and 3A is not limited to this. In step S15 shown in FIGS. 2A and 3A, it is only necessary that the handset function operates before the home appliance 10 searches for the wireless routers 20a and 20b as the handset. For example, the operation of the child device function may be started in parallel with the timing of starting the operation of the parent device function in step S12, or after receiving the list request from the setting terminal 30 in step S14 May be operated.

  Moreover, some processes may be abbreviate | omitted among the some processes in operation | movement of the household appliances 10 and the setting terminal 30 demonstrated in the said embodiment. For example, step S19 shown in FIG. 3A may be omitted. That is, the communication control unit 11b may proceed to step S20 when there is no connectable wireless router 20a or the like in step S16.

  Moreover, although the wireless communication part 11 demonstrated the example incorporated in the household appliances 10 in the said embodiment, it is not limited to this. For example, the wireless communication unit 11 may be a wireless LAN adapter externally attached to the home appliance 10.

  In the above-described embodiment, each component may be configured by dedicated hardware or may be realized by executing a software program suitable for each component. Each component may be realized by a program execution unit such as a processor reading and executing a software program recorded on a recording medium such as a hard disk or a semiconductor memory. The processor is composed of one or a plurality of electronic circuits including a semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) or an LSI (Large Scale Integration). The plurality of electronic circuits may be integrated on one chip or provided on a plurality of chips. The plurality of chips may be integrated into one device, or may be provided in a plurality of devices.

  In addition, general or specific aspects of the present disclosure may be realized by a system, an apparatus, a method, an integrated circuit, a computer program or a computer-readable CD-ROM, a non-transitory recording medium such as an optical disc, and the like. . The program may be stored in advance in a recording medium, or may be supplied to the recording medium via a wide area communication network including the Internet. Further, the present invention may be realized by any combination of a system, an apparatus, a method, an integrated circuit, a computer program, and a recording medium.

  In addition, it is realized by arbitrarily combining the components and functions in each embodiment without departing from the spirit of the present disclosure, or forms obtained by subjecting each embodiment to various modifications conceived by those skilled in the art. Forms are also included in the present disclosure.

  The present disclosure is applicable to a wireless connection between a home appliance used in a house or the like and a parent device.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Wireless communication system 10, 10a-10e, 110 Home appliance 11 Wireless communication part 11a, 31 Communication part 11b Communication control part 11c, 12c, 33 Memory | storage part 12 Home appliance main body part 12a, 35 Acquisition part 12b Home appliance control part 12d, 34 Display 20a-20e Wireless router (base unit)
30 Setting terminal 32 Control unit 200 to 203 Housing 200a Living room 200b Kitchen 200c Dressing room

Claims (5)

A wireless connection method for establishing a wireless connection between a home appliance that communicates with a wireless LAN (Local Area Network) communication standard and a parent device using a setting terminal that is wirelessly connected to the home appliance,
A parent device search step in which the home appliance searches for the parent device capable of wireless communication by a child device function;
A list creation step of creating a radio wave intensity list in which the identification information of the parent machine searched in the parent machine search step is associated with the radio wave intensity of the radio wave received by the home appliance from the parent machine;
A list transmission step in which the home appliance transmits the radio wave intensity list to the setting terminal by a base unit function. Furthermore, the said household appliances include the 1st connection step for establishing a connection with the said terminal for a setting with the said parent | base_device function between the said main | base station search step and the said list transmission step. The wireless connection method described. Furthermore, after the list sending step,
A second connection step for the home appliance to establish a connection with the parent device specified by the setting terminal by the slave device function;
2. A connection result transmission step in which the home appliance transmits a connection result between the identified home device and the identified base unit in the second connection step to the setting terminal by the base unit function. Or the wireless connection method of 2. Further, in the second connection step, when a connection between the home appliance and the parent device is established, a stop step of stopping the parent device function of the home appliance after the connection result transmission step is included. The wireless connection method described in 1. A home appliance including a wireless communication unit that communicates with a wireless LAN communication standard,
The wireless communication unit
A communication unit that communicates with the base unit and the setting terminal;
A communication control unit that controls communication with the base unit and the setting terminal via the communication unit;
The communication control unit, as the control,
Search for the parent device capable of wireless communication with the child device function,
Create a radio wave intensity list in which the searched identification information of the parent machine is associated with the radio wave intensity of the radio wave received from the parent machine by the communication unit,
A home appliance that transmits the radio wave intensity list to the setting terminal via the communication unit by a base unit function.

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