JP2021148402A - Heating device operating system - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a heating device operating system in which, while it is possible to remotely instruct the start of operation using an external communication terminal, it is possible to ensure safety in use.SOLUTION: There are provided burner combustion type heating means 12 for heating a heating object, device-side communication means 14 capable of communicating various information with a smartphone 2 via an information communication network I, operation control means 100 that controls the operation, and object existence state detection means BS that detects whether an object exists in the vicinity of the front of a warm air blowing portion. The operation control means 100 controls the operation of the heating means 12 so that, in the case where the start of the heating operation is instructed by the smartphone 2, the heating operation is started when the existence of the object is not detected, and the heating operation is not started when the existence of the object is detected.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

In the present invention, for example, a heating device such as a fan heater and an external communication terminal capable of remotely operating the heating device are provided, and the heating device includes a burner combustion type heating means for heating a heating target and the external. The present invention relates to a heating device operation system including a device-side communication means capable of communicating various information with a communication terminal via an information communication network, and an operation control means for controlling the operation of the heating device.

The heating device operation system is configured to enable wireless remote control of a heating device such as a gas fan heater by using an external communication terminal such as a mobile phone or a smartphone, and such an external communication terminal. The heating device can be remotely controlled wirelessly using. With this configuration, it is possible to start the operation of the heating device installed at home from outside, and when the user of the external communication terminal returns home, the room in the house to be heated is heated. It is convenient because it becomes.

In such a system, conventionally, when operation start information for instructing the heating device to start operation is communicated from an external communication terminal, a burner combustion type such as a gas burner is used regardless of the difference in the situation on the heating device side. It is configured to start a heating operation by a heating means to perform a heating operation (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP-A-2019-44997

In a room in a house to be heated, an object that should not be heated near the hot air blowing part of the heating device, such as a spray can filled with gas (hereinafter referred to as a non-heatable object). May be placed.

In the above-mentioned conventional configuration, when the start of operation is commanded from the external communication terminal, the user of the external communication terminal does not know the condition of the room in the house to be heated, so that the vicinity of the hot air blowing part of the heating device is used. Even if there is an unheatable object as described above, the start of operation will be instructed. Then, there is a risk that the unheatable material will become hot and damaged due to continuous warm air.

An object of the present invention is to provide a heating device operation system capable of ensuring safety in use while being able to remotely command the start of operation using an external communication terminal.

The characteristic configuration of the heating device operation system according to the present invention is
A heating device and an external communication terminal capable of remotely controlling the heating device are provided.
In the heating device
A burner combustion type heating means for heating a heating target, a device-side communication means capable of communicating various information between the external communication terminal via an information communication network, and an operation control means for controlling the operation of the heating device. It is a heating device operation system equipped with
An object presence / absence state detecting means for detecting whether or not an object exists in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion is provided.
The operation control means is
When the external communication terminal commands the start of the heating operation, if the object presence / absence state detecting means does not detect the existence of the object, the heating operation is started, and the object presence / absence state detecting means detects the existence of the object. The point is to control the operation of the heating means so that the heating operation is not started if it is detected.

According to the present invention, when an operation start command of a heating device is commanded from an external communication terminal, it is detected by the object presence / absence state detecting means that an object does not exist in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion. Then, the operation of the heating means is started. As a result, the heating device can be started to operate even when the user is away from home by remote control, which is convenient.

However, when the operation start command of the heating device is commanded from the external communication terminal, if it is detected by the object presence / absence state detecting means that an object exists in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion, the operation is performed. The operation of the heating means is not started regardless of the start command. As a result, the heating operation is not performed in the state where the object exists in the vicinity of the warm air blowing portion, so that the safety in use can be ensured.

In this way, the object presence / absence state detecting means detects whether or not an object exists in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion, and based on the detection result, it is determined whether or not the heating operation is possible. Safety can be ensured.

Therefore, it has become possible to provide a heating device operation system capable of ensuring the safety in use while being able to remotely command the start of operation using an external communication terminal.

In the present invention
The object presence / absence state detecting means is
A distance measuring means for measuring the distance from the warm air blowing portion to an object existing in front of the warm air blowing portion, and a distance measuring means.
If the distance detected by the distance measuring means is smaller than the set value, it is determined that an object exists in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion, and the distance is detected by the distance measuring means. If the distance is larger than the set value, it is preferable to provide a proximity state determining means for determining that an object does not exist in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion.

According to this configuration, even if an object exists in front of the warm air blowing part, if the distance from the warm air blowing part to the object is larger than the set value, it is determined that the object does not exist. , The heating operation will be started. If the distance from the hot air blowing part to the object is large, the warm air will not be blown with a strong force, and there is little possibility that the object will become hot. As a result, the range of use of the heating device can be expanded without limiting the opportunity to use the heating device, and the usability is improved.

In the present invention
The object presence / absence state detecting means is
An image information acquisition means for acquiring image information of a portion near the front of the warm air blowing portion, and
An image information determining means for determining whether or not the object exists in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion by an image recognition process based on the image information acquired by the image information acquiring means is provided. It is preferable to have.

According to this configuration, it is determined whether or not an object exists by using a method of image recognition processing based on the image information based on the image information obtained by photographing the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion. .. For example, is the object shown in the image the target object using an image recognition program that has learned in advance about an object that is expected to be placed near the front of the warm air blowing part? It can be dealt with by determining whether or not it is. Recently, the accuracy of image recognition has been remarkably improved due to the progress of technology, so that it is possible to accurately discriminate images.

In the present invention
The image information discriminating means is
When it is determined that the object exists in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion, the object being photographed is subjected to image recognition processing based on the image information acquired by the image information acquisition means. It is preferable that it is configured to determine whether or not it is a non-heatable object that may be damaged by heating.

According to this configuration, for example, using an image recognition program that has learned in advance an unheatable object such as a spray can, it is determined whether or not the object projected on the image is an unheatable object. As an image recognition program, for example, deep learning (deep learning) is performed by an algorithm of a well-known convolutional neural network (CNN), so that it is possible to accurately determine whether or not an object cannot be heated. Is.

In the present invention
The object presence / absence state detecting means is
An image information acquisition means for acquiring image information of a portion near the front of the warm air blowing portion, and
A storage means for storing the image information acquired in the previous heating operation by the image information acquisition means as reference image information, and a storage means.
When the operation start information for instructing the operation start of the heating device is received from the external communication terminal, the current image information acquired by the image information acquisition means and the reference image information are different from each other. If it is determined that an object exists in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion and the current image information does not differ from the reference image information, the object exists in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion. It is preferable to provide a means for determining the existence or nonexistence of an object that determines that the object is not present.

According to this configuration, when the previous heating operation by the heating device is performed, the image information acquisition means acquires the image information of the vicinity portion in front of the device, and the image information is stored in the storage means. When the heating operation is being performed, there are people in the room to be heated, so no objects are placed near the front of the heating device where warm air is blown out, and the captured image shows that. It is assumed that such an object is not shown.

When the operation start information is received from the external communication terminal, the image information acquisition means acquires the image information (current image information) of the vicinity portion in front of the device, and the current image information and the image information stored in the storage means ( Depending on whether or not the reference image information) is different, if the current image information and the reference image information are not different, it is determined that no object exists in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion. .. As a result, the heating operation is started.

If the current image information and the reference image information are different, it is determined that an object that was not placed when the previous heating operation was performed exists in the vicinity of the front of the device. be able to.

However, even if an object is placed in the vicinity in front of the device and the object is reflected in the current image information, if the object is also reflected in the reference image information, the heating operation is started. Is considered to have no problem. Therefore, if the current image information and the reference image information are not different, it is determined that the object does not exist, so that the range of use of the heating device is not unnecessarily narrowed and the usability is improved. ..

In the present invention
A movement detecting means for detecting whether or not the heating device has moved to a different position is provided.
The means for determining the presence or absence of an object is
When the movement detecting means detects that the heating device has moved between the time when the reference image information is stored and the time when the operation start information is received from the external communication terminal, the image information is acquired. It is preferable that the image information is acquired by the means and rewritten and stored in the storage means as the reference image information.

According to this configuration, when the heating device is moved to a different position, the hot air is blown out from the heating device at different locations, and it is assumed that another object exists at that location. Therefore, when the movement detecting means detects that the heating device has moved, the image information of the image information acquiring means is rewritten and stored as the reference image information. As a result, safety can be ensured at the start of operation by the next remote control.

In the present invention
The means for determining the presence or absence of an object is
During the previous heating operation, the image information acquisition means is made to acquire the image information at time intervals, and it is determined that the acquired image information is not different from other image information. It is preferable that the operation is controlled so that the image information having the largest number of times is stored in the storage means as the reference image information.

According to this configuration, when the heating operation is being performed, for example, a person may walk past a portion in front of the heating device. As a result, when the image information acquisition means acquires the image information, if the image pickup process is performed only once, a passing person or another object may be reflected. Therefore, by taking multiple shots and using an image that is considered to be appropriate as the reference image information, that is, the one that is determined to be the most frequently determined to be not different from other image information, the image is unexpectedly reflected. By excluding things, it is possible to improve the discrimination accuracy of objects.

It is an overall block diagram of a heating device operation system. It is a block diagram which shows the control structure of a heating device operation system. It is a front view which shows the schematic internal structure of a gas fan heater. It is a vertical right side view which shows the schematic internal structure of a gas fan heater. It is a top view which shows the operation part of a gas fan heater. It is a perspective view which shows the state which the object exists in the front vicinity part of the gas fan heater. It is a figure which shows the flowchart of the control operation of a gas fan heater. It is a figure which shows the flowchart of the control operation of a smartphone. It is a front view of the smartphone which shows the state which the home screen is displayed. It is a front view of the smartphone which shows the state which the abnormal operation screen is displayed. It is a front view of the smartphone which shows the state which the normal operation screen is displayed. It is a figure which shows the image information. It is a figure which shows the image information. It is a block diagram which shows the control structure of the heating device operation system of 2nd Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the flowchart of the control operation of the gas fan heater of 2nd Embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the control structure of the heating device operation system of 3rd Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the flowchart of the control operation of the gas fan heater of 3rd Embodiment.

Hereinafter, the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
As shown in FIG. 1, the heating device operation system illustrated in the present embodiment includes a gas fan heater (an example of a heating device) 1 and a smartphone (an example of an external communication terminal) 2 capable of remotely controlling a gas fan heater. It has.

[About gas fan heater]
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the gas fan heater 1 heats the fluid air to be heated by burning the fuel (natural gas), the operation operation unit 11 that enables the user to directly operate the operation. A gas burner 12 as a burner combustion type heating means, a blower fan 13 for flowing air toward the gas burner 12, and a router RU connected to an Internet line I as an information communication network are wirelessly communicated (Wi-Fi, etc.) or wired. It is configured to include a device-side communication means 14 connected via a cable, a device-side control unit 15 that controls the operation of a gas fan heater, a housing 17 that covers the outer periphery, and the like.

As shown in FIG. 1, the operation operation unit 11 is arranged on the top surface of the housing 17. As shown in FIG. 5, the operation operation unit 11 selects the operation switch 11A and the good morning timer function that enable the operation start operation and the operation stop operation of the gas fan heater 1 as the switches operated by the user. The good morning timer switch 11B that enables the selection of the good night timer function, the good night timer switch 11C that allows the user to select the eco-driving function, the eco-driving switch 11D that enables the user to select the eco-driving function, and the set temperature and set time can be changed. It is equipped with a setting switch 11E and the like. In addition, the operation lamp 11a that lights up when the operation starts, the good morning timer lamp 11b that lights up when the good morning timer function is selected, the good night timer lamp 11c that lights up when the good night timer function is selected, and the eco-driving function are selected. The eco-driving lamp 11d that lights up, the communication lamp 11e that lights up in connection with the communication connection with the smartphone 2, the temperature display unit 11f, and the like are also provided.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the gas burner 12 injects the fuel gas toward the combustor 12A and the combustor 12A that burn the mixture of the fuel gas and the combustion air, thereby causing the fuel gas and the combustion air. The injection nozzle 12B that mixes the fuel gas, the gas pipe 12C that guides the fuel gas to the injection nozzle 12B, the first electromagnetic valve 12D and the second electromagnetic valve 12E that open and close the gas pipe 12C, and the flow rate of the fuel gas can be adjusted. It is equipped with a proportional valve 12F. The combustor 12A includes an igniter 12b that ignites the fuel guided to the combustion chamber 12a, and a flame sensor 12c that detects a flame due to ignition and enables detection of extinguishment of the flame.

As shown in FIG. 4, the housing 17 has a suction port 17A formed on the back surface thereof and a warm air blowing portion 17B formed on the front surface thereof. On the back of the housing 17, an air filter 18 for collecting dust that removes dust from the air sucked from the suction port 17A and a temperature sensor 19 that detects the temperature of the air sucked from the suction port 17A as the current room temperature are provided. ing.

The blower fan 13 sucks in outside air from the suction port 17A of the housing 17 by rotating the cross flow fan 13A by the operation of the fan motor 13B. A part of the sucked air is mixed with the fuel gas as combustion air and supplied to the combustion chamber 12a. The remaining air bypasses the combustor 12A, is mixed with the combustion exhaust gas from the combustion chamber 12a to raise the temperature, and is then blown out from the warm air blowing portion 17B as the warm air blowing portion. The heated fluid air is blown out from the warm air blowing portion 17B to warm the room to be heated.

The gas fan heater 1 is provided with an object presence / absence state detecting means BS that detects whether or not an object exists in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion. Then, when the operation control means 100 that controls the operation of the gas burner 12 in the device side control unit 15 is instructed by the smartphone 2 to start the heating operation, the object existence / absence state detecting means BS must detect the existence of the object. It is configured to control the operation of the gas burner 12 so that the heating operation is started and the heating operation is not started if the object presence / absence state detecting means BS detects the existence of the object. Hereinafter, a specific configuration will be described.

An infrared camera 16 is provided on the upper side of the warm air blowing portion 17B on the front surface of the housing 17 as an image information acquisition means for photographing a nearby portion in front of the apparatus to acquire image information. The infrared camera 16 can acquire image information by photographing a portion near the front of the warm air blowing portion 17B even when the location where the gas fan heater 1 is placed is dark at night.

The bottom of the housing 17 is provided with a bottom ultrasonic sensor 20 as a movement detecting means capable of detecting whether or not the gas fan heater 1 is carried by the user and moved to a different position. .. Although not shown, the bottom ultrasonic sensor 20 includes a transmitter that emits ultrasonic waves downward and a receiver that can receive ultrasonic waves that are reflected by the floor and return. It is possible to measure the distance from the floor surface to the elapsed time between transmission and reception.

If the gas fan heater 1 stays at the same position, the distance to the floor surface detected by the bottom ultrasonic sensor 20 is small and constant. However, when the gas fan heater 1 moves, the distance to the floor surface measured by the bottom ultrasonic sensor at that time temporarily increases, so that it is possible to determine that the gas fan heater 1 has moved.

The device-side control unit 15 is acquired by an operation control means 100 that controls the operation of the gas burner 12 and the blower fan 13, a storage means 101 that stores image information taken by the infrared camera 16, and an infrared camera 16. The object presence / absence determination means 102 that determines whether or not an object exists in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion based on the image information, and the object photographed by the image recognition process based on the image information are heated. An image information determining means 103 for determining whether or not the object cannot be heated that may be damaged is provided.

The device-side control unit 15 is composed of a microcomputer or the like having an arithmetic processing function, an information storage function, and the like. The operation control means 100, the object presence / absence determination means 102, and the image information determination means 103 are composed of a control program.

The storage means 101 is composed of, for example, a non-volatile memory such as an EEPROM or a flash memory that is rewritable and can hold information even when no power is supplied, or a storage device such as a magnetic disk, and information is provided even when the power supply is cut off. Can be memorized.

The device-side control unit 15 controls the operation of the gas burner 12, the blower fan 13, the infrared camera 16, and the device-side communication means 14 based on the operation of the operation operation unit 11 or the remote control from the smartphone 2.

That is, the device-side control unit 15 executes the following processing.
When the heating operation is being executed, the operation of the infrared camera 16 is controlled so as to take an image of the front part of the housing 17 where the warm air blown from the warm air blowing portion 17B is blown. Then, the acquired image information is stored in the storage means 101 as reference image information. When the bottom ultrasonic sensor 20 detects that the gas fan heater 1 has moved between the time when the reference image information is stored and the time when the operation start information is received from the smartphone 2, the gas fan heater 1 does not move after the detection. After a lapse of a predetermined time from the above, the image information is acquired by the infrared camera 16 and rewritten and stored in the storage means 101 as the reference image information.

Further, when the operation start information is received from the smartphone 2, the infrared camera 16 is operated so as to acquire the image information (current image information) by photographing the front vicinity portion of the warm air blowing unit 17B. Then, using an image identification processing method by image processing, which is a well-known technique, it is determined whether or not the current image information captured by the infrared camera 16 and the reference image information stored in advance are different from each other.

If it is determined that the current image information and the reference image information stored in advance are not different, the heating operation is started, and if it is determined that the current image information and the reference image information are different, the heating operation is started. The operation of the gas burner 12 is controlled so that the heating operation is not started unless other conditions described later are also satisfied.

When starting the heating operation, the operation start process is executed. In this operation start process, the gas burner 12 and the blower fan 13 are started to start heating the flowing air by the gas burner 12, and the operation lamp 11a is turned on. When the operation start process is executed, the gas burner 12 starts the combustion operation by opening the first solenoid valve 12D and the second solenoid valve 12E and igniting the igniter 12b.

After the operation start process is executed, the set temperature set by the user is set as the control target temperature, and the gas burner 12 is operated so as to maintain the current room temperature detected by the temperature sensor 19 at the control target temperature. To execute.

When the operation stop operation is performed by the operation switch 11A or the operation stop is commanded by the smartphone 2 during the operation of the gas fan heater 1, a stop process for stopping the operation of the gas fan heater 1 is executed. In this stop process, the first solenoid valve 12D and the second solenoid valve 12E are closed, the combustion operation of the gas burner 12 is stopped, the operation lamp 11a is turned off, and then the blower fan 13 is operated for a set time. Let the gas burner 12 cool.

In addition to that, when the good morning timer switch 11B is operated, the operation control means 100 executes the operation start process at the preset operation start scheduled time by the good morning timer function. Further, when the good night timer switch 11C is operated, the operation control means 100 executes the stop control after the lapse of the set time by the good night timer function. In the eco-operation function, the gas burner 12 is operated in the eco-operation mode in which the control target temperature is a temperature 1 ° C. lower than the set temperature in the normal operation mode.

[About smartphones]
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the smartphone 2 is a touch-sensitive image display as a display means capable of inputting various input information by direct operation by the user and displaying various images and information. Operation of the device 21, the voice output unit 22 that outputs voice, the call function unit 23 that enables a call with another communication device, the terminal side communication means 24 that is wirelessly connected to the Internet line I, and the smartphone 2. It is configured to include a terminal-side control means 25 for controlling the above, a housing 26 surrounding the surroundings, and the like. The terminal-side control means 25 is composed of a microcomputer or the like having an arithmetic processing function, an information storage function, and the like.

The smartphone 2 is configured so that an application program (hereinafter, referred to as a remote control application) for wirelessly remotely controlling the gas fan heater 1 can be downloaded from an external server 27 via the Internet line I. By the way, this remote control application makes it possible to start or stop the operation of the gas fan heater 1 via the Internet line I by the smartphone 2, and the manufacturer of the gas fan heater 1 or the like. Provided by. The external server 27 is managed by a manufacturer or the like of the gas fan heater 1.

The terminal-side control means 25 in the smartphone 2 sends an operation start signal as operation start information for starting the operation of the gas fan heater 1 from the terminal-side communication means 24 via the Internet line I and the external server 27 to the gas fan heater. It is configured to transmit to the device-side communication means 14 of 1.

[Remote control operation]
Next, the control operations of the device-side control unit 15 and the terminal-side control means 25 when the gas fan heater 1 is remotely controlled by the smartphone 2 will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, respectively. When remotely controlling the gas fan heater 1 with the smartphone 2, it is necessary to activate the remote control application installed in advance. 7 and 8 show a series of processes from the command to start the operation to the start of the operation of the gas fan heater 1 to the stop of the operation.

As shown in the flowchart of FIG. 8, when the remote control application is activated, the terminal side control means 25 of the smartphone 2 displays the home screen as shown in FIG. 9 on the image display 21 (step # 21). When the operation start operation unit 21A in the home screen is operated by the user to command the start of the heating operation (step # 22), the gas fan heater is instructed from the terminal side communication means 24 via the Internet line I and the external server 27. An operation start signal is transmitted to the device-side communication means 14 of 1 (step # 23).

As shown in FIG. 7, when the device-side control unit 15 receives the operation start signal transmitted from the terminal-side communication means 24 of the smartphone 2 (step # 1), the device-side control unit 15 photographs a portion near the front of the warm air blowing unit 17B. The operation of the infrared camera 16 is controlled so as to acquire the image information (step # 2). Although not shown, when the operation start signal is received from the smartphone 2, the communication lamp 11e is turned on.

Image discrimination for comparing the reference image information captured during the previous heating operation, which is stored in the storage means 101 in advance, with the current image information acquired this time, and determining whether or not they are different. The process is executed (step # 3). Specifically, it is determined whether or not the current image information and the reference image information are different from each other by using an image identification processing method by image processing, which is a well-known technique. In this case, it may be judged by an image recognition program which is a well-known technique. This image recognition program may be formed from a binary classification algorithm. At the time of the first operation, the reference image information of the storage means 101 is not stored, but in that case, it is determined that the reference image information is the same as the current image information.

For example, when the reference image information as shown in FIG. 13 is stored and the image is taken as the current image information as shown in FIG. 12, warm air blowout is added to the current image information. Since different objects BT are shown in the vicinity of the front of the portion 17B, it is determined that the images are different.

When it is determined in the discrimination process of step # 3 that the reference image information and the current image information are different (step # 4), in other words, an object exists in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion. When it is determined that the object is not heated, the image recognition process based on the image information is used to execute the determination process for determining whether or not the object being photographed is an unheatable object that may be damaged by heating (step #). 5).

In this discrimination process, it is preferable to use an image recognition program in which an object that may be damaged by heating, such as a spray can, is learned in advance as an unheatable object. This image recognition program may determine whether or not it is a non-heatable object by, for example, deep learning (deep learning) by an algorithm of a convolutional neural network (CNN).

Next, when it is determined that the object photographed by the determination process in step # 5 is an unheatable object (step # 6), the device-side communication means 14 does not start the combustion operation of the gas burner 12. Sends an inoperability signal to the effect that the heating operation cannot be executed to the communication means 24 on the terminal side of the smartphone (step # 7).

If the terminal-side control means 25 of the smartphone 2 receives the response signal from the device-side communication means 14 of the gas fan heater 1 (step # 24) and the signal is an inoperable signal (step # 25), FIG. As shown in the above, the image display 21 displays an abnormal state indicating that the heating operation cannot be started due to the presence of an obstacle near the gas fan heater 1 (step # 30).

When the device-side control unit 15 determines that the reference image information and the current image information do not differ from each other by the discrimination process in step 3 (step # 4), or when the discrimination process in step # 5 determines that the non-heatable object is generated. If it is determined that the gas fan heater does not exist (step # 6), an operation start process for starting the operation of the gas fan heater 1 is executed (step # 8). After that, combustion control is executed (step # 9). That is, the gas burner 12 is operated by adjusting the fuel supply amount so that the indoor temperature detected by the temperature sensor 19 is maintained at the control target temperature set by the user.

By receiving the operation start signal from the smartphone 2 in this way, when the operation start process is executed, the device-side communication means 14 notifies the terminal-side communication means 24 of the smartphone 2 that the heating operation has started. The operation start signal is transmitted (step # 10).

When the terminal-side control means 25 of the smartphone 2 receives the operation start signal from the device-side communication means 14 of the gas fan heater 1 (step # 25), as shown in FIG. 11, the gas fan heater is displayed on the image display 21. 1 displays a normal operation state indicating that the heating operation is being performed satisfactorily (step # 26). When it is desired to stop the heating operation, the operation stop signal can be transmitted to the device-side communication means 14 by operating the stop operation unit 21B of the image display 21.

The device-side control unit 15 starts the heating operation based on the operation start command from the smartphone 2, and then, every time the set time elapses, the device-side control unit 15 photographs a location near the front of the warm air blowing unit 17B to acquire image information. The operation of the infrared camera 16 is controlled so as to (steps # 11 and 12). The captured image information is sequentially stored in the storage means 101. At this time, for example, when a predetermined number of image information is stored, it is preferable to always save the latest image by a set number of images, such as rewriting the image information with the newly captured image information in the oldest order.

The device-side control unit 15 operates by transmitting an operation stop signal from the terminal-side communication means 24 of the smartphone 2 or performing an operation stop operation by the operation switch while the heating operation is being executed. When the stop is commanded (step # 13), the combustion operation of the gas burner 12 is stopped and the heating operation is stopped (step # 14). At that time, among the plurality of image information stored as described above, the image information most frequently determined not to be different from the other image information is stored in the storage means 101 as the reference image information ( Step # 15). In this processing, it is preferable to use an image identification processing method by image processing, which is a well-known technique, to determine whether or not the information is different from other image information.

Then, after storing the reference image information as described above, the gas fan heater 1 is separated by determining whether or not the distance to the floor surface measured by the bottom ultrasonic sensor is temporarily increased. When it is detected whether or not the image has moved to the location (step # 16) and the movement is detected, the infrared camera 16 newly acquires the image information and rewrites and stores the image information in the storage means 101 as the reference image information (step). # 17). The reference image information stored in this way is used in the image information discrimination process at the time of the next operation start command.

Of the flowcharts shown in FIG. The processes in steps # 2 to # 4 correspond to the object presence / absence determining means 102, and the processes in steps # 5 and # 6 correspond to the image information determining means 103. Then, the processes of step # 1 and steps # 7 to # 17 correspond to the operation control means 100. Then, the device-side control unit 15 and the infrared camera 16 constitute an object presence / absence state detecting means BS. Specifically, the storage means 101, the object presence / absence determination means 102, the image information determination means 103, and the infrared camera 16 in the device-side control unit 15 constitute the object presence / absence state detection means BS.

According to the above configuration, when the operation of the gas fan heater 1 is started by wireless remote control by the smartphone 2, it is placed near the front of the warm air blowing portion 17B when the previous heating operation is performed. When an object that has not been used exists, it is possible to prevent the heating operation from being performed, and it is possible to sufficiently ensure safety.

[Second Embodiment]
Next, the second embodiment will be described.
In this second embodiment, an image discrimination process is performed in which the reference image information stored in the storage means 101 is compared with the current image information acquired this time, and whether or not they are different is determined. There is no configuration. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 14, the above embodiment is not provided with the bottom ultrasonic sensor 20 in the first embodiment, the storage means 101 in the device-side control unit 15, and the object presence / absence determination means 102. It's different. Hereinafter, only the points different from the first embodiment will be described.

The device-side control unit 15 executes the process as shown in FIG.
When the device-side control unit 15 receives the operation start signal transmitted from the terminal-side communication means 24 of the smartphone 2 (step # 1), the device-side control unit 15 photographs a portion near the front of the warm air blowing unit 17B by the infrared camera 16 to obtain image information. (Step # 2) is the same as in the above embodiment. However, in the second embodiment, the image recognition process based on the image information acquired by the infrared camera 16 is used to determine whether or not the object exists in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion 17B, and the object. The image information discriminating means for discriminating whether or not an unheatable object exists is executed (step # 3).

In this image discrimination process, whether or not there is an unheatable object in the captured image using an image recognition program that learns in advance an object that may be damaged by heating such as a spray can as an unheatable object. To determine. This image recognition program may determine whether or not it is a non-heatable object by, for example, deep learning (deep learning) by an algorithm of a well-known convolutional neural network (CNN).

Then, when it is determined by the determination process of step # 3 that an unheatable object exists (step # 4), the heating operation is performed on the terminal-side communication means 24 of the smartphone 2 without starting the heating operation. Is transmitted (step # 5) to the effect that the operation cannot be executed. When it is determined that an unheatable object exists, the heating operation is started, the operation start signal is transmitted, and the combustion control is executed (steps # 6, # 7, # 8). After that, if there is an operation stop command, the operation is stopped and a series of processes is completed (steps # 9 and # 10).

[Third Embodiment]
Next, the third embodiment will be described.
In the third embodiment, as shown in FIG. 16, the bottom ultrasonic sensor 20, the infrared camera 16, the storage means 101 in the device-side control unit 15, the object presence / absence determination means 102, and the object presence / absence determination means 102 in the first embodiment. The front ultrasonic wave as a distance measuring means capable of measuring the distance to an object on the front side of the device by emitting ultrasonic waves toward the front of the device instead of the infrared camera 16 without providing the image information discriminating means 103. A sensor 28 is provided. Further, the device-side control unit 15 is provided with a proximity state determining means 104 that determines whether or not an object exists in the vicinity of the front of the device based on the measurement result of the front ultrasonic sensor 28. .. Hereinafter, only the points different from the first embodiment will be described.

Although not shown, the front ultrasonic sensor 28 includes a transmitter that emits ultrasonic waves toward the front of the device and a receiver that can receive ultrasonic waves that are reflected and returned. It is possible to measure the distance from the elapsed time between the transmission and reception of the sound wave to the object on the front side of the device. The proximity state determination means is composed of a control program.

The device-side control unit 15 executes the process as shown in FIG.
When the device-side control unit 15 receives the operation start signal transmitted from the terminal-side communication means 24 of the smartphone 2 (step # 1), the device-side control unit 15 receives the operation start signal (step # 1) from the warm air blowing unit 17B by the front ultrasonic sensor 28, and the object (heating is not possible). Object) Measure the separation distance to the BT (step # 2). That is, the front ultrasonic sensor 28 emits ultrasonic waves toward the front of the device, receives the ultrasonic waves reflected from the nearest object and returns, and between the transmission and reception of the ultrasonic waves. The distance from the elapsed time of to the object on the front side of the device is calculated.

If the object BT is located near the hot air blowing portion, the object BT may become hot due to the strong blowing of warm air on the object BT. Therefore, if the measured separation distance is smaller than the preset value, the heating operation cannot be executed on the terminal-side communication means 24 of the smartphone 2 without starting the heating operation. A non-operational signal is transmitted (steps # 3 and # 4).

When the measured separation distance is larger than the preset set value, the heating operation is started, the operation start signal is transmitted, and the combustion control is executed (steps # 3, # 5, # 6). , # 7). After that, if there is an operation stop command, the operation is stopped and a series of processes is completed (steps # 8 and # 9).

[Another Embodiment]
(1) In the first embodiment, among the plurality of image information acquired by the operation control means 100 during the previous heating operation, the image most frequently determined not to be different from other image information. The information is stored as the reference image information, but instead of this configuration, the image taken by the infrared camera 16 at the end of the previous heating operation may be stored as the reference image information. Further, the image taken only once during the previous heating operation may be used. Further, the user may manually instruct the writing / storing process of the reference image information, and various configurations can be used. In short, it is sufficient to acquire the image information of the vicinity portion in front of the device during the previous heating operation.

(2) In the first embodiment, a bottom ultrasonic sensor 20 is provided as a movement detection means for detecting whether or not the gas fan heater 1 has moved. Instead of this configuration, for example, A reflective optical sensor having a light emitter that projects light and a light receiver that receives reflected light, an optical sensor that simply detects brightness, and a contact piece that touches the floor surface are provided to make contact with movement. Detecting means having various configurations can be used, such as a contact type sensor that detects movement by swinging a piece, a vibration sensor that detects vibration, and an acceleration sensor.

(3) In the first embodiment, when it is detected that the gas fan heater 1 has moved after the reference image information is stored, the reference image information is rewritten and stored. When the user moves the gas fan heater 1, the user may manually instruct the writing / storing process of the reference image information, and various configurations can be used.

(4) In the first embodiment, the storage means 101, the object presence / absence discriminating means 102, and the image information discriminating means 103 are provided in the device-side control unit 15 of the gas fan heater 1. Alternatively, for example, all of them, or some of them, may be provided in the external server 27, or an external personal computer or tablet connected via a communication line. It may be provided in a terminal or the like.

(5) In the first embodiment and the second embodiment, the infrared camera 16 is used as the image information acquisition means, but the infrared camera 16 is not limited to the infrared camera 16, and a general image capturing camera and the front of the device are illuminated. It may be provided with a lamp so that it can be photographed even in a dark state.

(6) In the first embodiment and the second embodiment, if it is determined that the non-heatable object exists in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion 17B, the heating operation is not performed. Instead of the configuration, even when an unheatable object exists in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion 17B, the separation distance between the warm air blowing portion 17B and the object BT (unheatable object) is measured. If the separation distance is larger than the set value, the heating operation may be started. This is because when the distance is more than a certain distance, the temperature becomes low before the discharged warm air reaches the object, and it is considered that an excessive temperature rise does not occur. In this case, as the set value for the separation distance, it is advisable to obtain and set an appropriate value in advance by an experiment or the like.

(7) In the third embodiment, the proximity state determining means 104 is provided in the device-side control unit 15 in the gas fan heater 1, but instead of this configuration, for example, they are provided in the external server 27. The configuration may be provided, or may be provided in an external personal computer, tablet terminal, or the like connected via a communication line.

(8) In each of the above embodiments, the device-side communication means 14 of the gas fan heater 1 is connected to the Internet line I via the router RU, but instead, networks having different standards are relayed. It may be configured to be connected to the Internet line I via a short-range wireless communication with the gateway, or may be directly connected to the base station of the mobile phone network via a communication line. Further, in the above embodiment, the smartphone 2 and the gas fan heater 1 communicate information via the Internet line I and the external server 27, but the Internet line I or near field I or near without the external server 27. The smartphone 2 and the gas fan heater 1 may be directly and communicably connected via distance wireless communication.

(9) In each of the above embodiments, when the gas fan heater 1 does not start the operation of the gas burner 12 even though the operation start information is transmitted from the smartphone 2, the image display 21 of the smartphone 2 displays the fact. However, instead of this configuration, the image display 21 may not be displayed.

(10) In each of the above embodiments, the gas fan heater is exemplified as the heating device, but a heating device such as an oil fan heater or an electric stove may be used.

(11) In each of the above embodiments, a smartphone is used as the external communication terminal, but instead of this, a conventional mobile phone, a tablet terminal, or the like may be used, or a stationary personal computer or the like may be used.

The configuration disclosed in the above embodiment (including another embodiment, the same shall apply hereinafter) can be applied in combination with the configuration disclosed in other embodiments as long as there is no contradiction. , The embodiments disclosed in the present specification are examples, and the embodiments of the present invention are not limited thereto, and can be appropriately modified without departing from the object of the present invention.

The present invention can be applied to a heating device operation system including a heating device such as a gas fan heater and an external communication terminal for remotely operating and operating the heating device.

1 Gas fan heater (heating device)
2 Smartphone (external communication terminal)
12 Gas burner (heating means)
14 Device-side communication means 16 Infrared camera (image information acquisition means)
20 Bottom ultrasonic sensor (movement detection means)
28 Front ultrasonic sensor (distance measuring means)
100 Operation control means 101 Storage means 102 Object presence / absence determination means 103 Image information determination means 104 Proximity state determination means BS Object presence / absence state detection means

Claims (7)

A heating device and an external communication terminal capable of remotely controlling the heating device are provided.
In the heating device
A burner combustion type heating means for heating a heating target, a device-side communication means capable of communicating various information between the external communication terminal via an information communication network, and an operation control means for controlling the operation of the heating device. It is a heating device operation system equipped with
An object presence / absence state detecting means for detecting whether or not an object exists in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion is provided.
The operation control means is
When the external communication terminal commands the start of the heating operation, the heating operation is started if the existence of the object is not detected by the object presence / absence state detecting means, and the existence of the object is detected by the object presence / absence state detecting means. A heating device operation system that controls the operation of the heating means so that the heating operation is not started if it is detected. The object presence / absence state detecting means is
A distance measuring means for measuring the distance from the warm air blowing portion to an object existing in front of the warm air blowing portion, and a distance measuring means.
If the distance detected by the distance measuring means is smaller than the set value, it is determined that an object exists in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion, and the distance is detected by the distance measuring means. The heating device according to claim 1, further comprising a proximity state determining means for determining that an object does not exist in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion when the distance is larger than the set value. Operation system. The object presence / absence state detecting means is
An image information acquisition means for acquiring image information of a portion near the front of the warm air blowing portion, and
An image information determining means for determining whether or not the object exists in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion by an image recognition process based on the image information acquired by the image information acquiring means is provided. The heating device operation system according to claim 1 or 2. The image information discriminating means is
When it is determined that the object exists in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion, the object being photographed is subjected to image recognition processing based on the image information acquired by the image information acquisition means. The heating device operating system according to claim 3, wherein it is configured to determine whether or not it is a non-heatable object that may be damaged by heating. The object presence / absence state detecting means is
An image information acquisition means for acquiring image information of a portion near the front of the warm air blowing portion, and
A storage means for storing the image information acquired in the previous heating operation by the image information acquisition means as reference image information, and a storage means.
When the operation start information for instructing the operation start of the heating device is received from the external communication terminal, the current image information acquired by the image information acquisition means and the reference image information are different from each other. If it is determined that an object exists in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion and the current image information does not differ from the reference image information, the object exists in the vicinity of the front of the warm air blowing portion. The heating device operation system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising an object presence / absence determining means for determining that the object is not present. A movement detecting means for detecting whether or not the heating device has moved to a different position is provided.
The means for determining the presence or absence of an object is
When the movement detecting means detects that the heating device has moved between the time when the reference image information is stored and the time when the operation start information is received from the external communication terminal, the image information is acquired. The heating device operation system according to claim 5, wherein image information is acquired by means and rewritten and stored in the storage means as the reference image information. The means for determining the presence or absence of an object is
During the previous heating operation, the image information acquisition means is made to acquire the image information at time intervals, and it is determined that the acquired image information is not different from other image information. The heating device operation system according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the image information with the largest number of times is stored in the storage means as the reference image information.

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