JP2023059585A - Terminal device and program - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a terminal device and program, which offer improved convenience.SOLUTION: A terminal device according to an embodiment comprises a notification acquisition unit and a display control unit. The notification acquisition unit acquires notifications pertaining to multiple home appliances. The display control unit is capable of extracting a notification pertaining to one home appliance of the multiple home appliances from among the notifications acquired by the notification acquisition unit and displaying the extracted notification.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 6

Description

The embodiments of the present invention relate to terminal devices and programs.

2. Description of the Related Art A terminal device that notifies the operating status of home appliances is known. By the way, such a terminal device is expected to further improve convenience.

JP 2021-055947 A

A problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a terminal device and a program capable of improving convenience.

A terminal device according to an embodiment includes a notification acquisition unit and a display control unit. The notification acquisition unit acquires notifications regarding a plurality of home appliances. The display control unit can extract and display a notification related to one home appliance included in the plurality of home appliances from among the notifications acquired by the notification acquisition unit.

The figure which shows the whole structure of the household appliance system of 1st Embodiment. The block diagram which shows the functional structure of the household appliances of 1st Embodiment. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of the server of the first embodiment; FIG. The figure which shows an example of the content of apparatus registration DB of 1st Embodiment. The figure which shows an example of the content of watching service DB of 1st Embodiment. 3 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of the terminal device of the first embodiment; FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of contents of notification accumulation information according to the first embodiment; The figure which shows an example of the display content displayed on the terminal device of 1st Embodiment. The figure which shows an example of the individual operation screen which can operate the household appliances of 1st Embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of an individual operation screen corresponding to the “menu” of the first embodiment; FIG. FIG. 11 is a view showing an example of an individual operation screen corresponding to "notification" of the first embodiment; FIG. The figure which shows the state which the whole pull-down menu regarding "announcement" of 1st Embodiment was displayed. FIG. 11 is a view showing an example of an individual operation screen corresponding to "notification" of the first embodiment; FIG. FIG. 11 is a view showing an example of an individual operation screen corresponding to "notification" of the first embodiment; FIG. The figure which shows an example of the screen corresponding to the "notice" of 1st Embodiment. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing another example of an individual operation screen corresponding to “notice” of the first embodiment; 4 is a flowchart showing an example of the flow of processing according to the first embodiment; The figure which shows an example of the display content displayed on the terminal device of 2nd Embodiment. The block diagram which shows the functional structure of the terminal device of 3rd Embodiment. The figure which shows an example of the content of the information mode setting information of 3rd Embodiment. The block diagram which shows the functional structure of the terminal device of 4th Embodiment. The figure which shows an example of the content of the priority information of 4th Embodiment.

A home appliance system, a terminal device, and a program according to embodiments will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the same reference numerals are given to components having the same or similar functions. Duplicate descriptions of these configurations may be omitted. In this application, "based on XX" means "based on at least XX", and may include cases based on other elements in addition to XX. Also, "based on XX" is not limited to the case of using XX directly, but may also include the case of being based on what has been calculated or processed with respect to XX. In this application, "XX or YY" is not limited to either one of XX and YY, but may include both XX and YY. This is also the case when there are three or more selective elements. XX and YY are arbitrary elements (for example, arbitrary information).

In this application, "remote control" is not limited to operating a home appliance from the outside of the home where the home appliance is located, but is operating the home appliance using a terminal device inside the home where the home appliance is located. It can also include manipulating. In this application, "manipulating" broadly means changing the state of a home appliance. Moreover, below, a "database" is described as "DB."

(First embodiment)
<1. Overall Configuration of Home Appliance System>
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of a home appliance system 1 according to the first embodiment. The home appliance system 1 includes one or more home appliances 100, a server 200, and a terminal device 300, for example. One or more of home appliance 100 , server 200 , and terminal device 300 may be provided as an external configuration of home appliance system 1 . The network NW described later is, for example, the Internet, cellular network, Wi-Fi network, LPWA (Low Power Wide Area), WAN (Wide Area Network), LAN (Local Area Network), or other public lines or dedicated lines. You can use it depending on the situation.

Home appliance 100 is an electrical appliance that is mainly used at home. The home appliance 100 is arranged in the user's U residence. Home appliances 100 include, but are not limited to, air conditioners 100A, refrigerators 100B, cookers 100C, washing machines 100D, vacuum cleaners, rice cookers, and irons. Home appliance 100 is connected to network NW via wireless router WR and modem M installed in user U's residence. Home appliance 100 can communicate with server 200 or terminal device 300 via network NW. Hereinafter, for convenience of explanation, the air conditioner 100A may be referred to as the "air conditioner 100A" and the heating cooker 100C may be referred to as the "microwave oven 100C".

The server 200 is a management server that manages the household electrical appliances 100 . The server 200 is composed of one or more server devices (for example, cloud servers). Server 200 may also be referred to as a "server system." Server 200 can communicate with home appliance 100 or terminal device 300 via network NW. The server 200 may include an information processing unit that performs edge computing and fog computing, such as an information processing unit included in a router in the network NW. The server 200 is not limited to a cloud server, and may be a computer at the residence of the user U, a home router (for example, a wireless router WR), or the like.

Terminal device 300 is a terminal device used by user U of home appliance 100 . The terminal device 300 is, for example, a mobile terminal device such as a smart phone or a tablet terminal device. However, the terminal device 300 is not limited to a mobile terminal device, and may be a personal computer or the like. The terminal device 300 has a display device 301 including a display screen 301a capable of displaying various kinds of information, and an input device 302 capable of accepting user U's input. The input device 302 is, for example, a touch panel that overlaps the display screen 301a of the display device 301 . The input device 302 may include a camera, a microphone, etc. provided in the terminal device 300 .

An application program P is installed in the terminal device 300, and functions described below are supported. Application program P is an application program for managing home appliance 100 . The application program P is used, for example, for remote control or status confirmation of the home appliance 100 or use of services related to the home appliance 100 . Below, the application software started by executing the application program P is called "home appliance management application APP."

<2. Home appliances>
First, the home appliance 100 will be described in detail.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of the home appliance 100. As shown in FIG. Home appliance 100 has actuator 110, operation part 120, state detection part 130, control part 140, and storage part 180, for example.

Actuator 110 is a driving unit that operates the main functions of home appliance 100 . For example, if the home appliance 100 is a refrigerator, the actuator 110 may be a compressor that compresses refrigerant or a blower that circulates cold air inside the refrigerator. When home appliance 100 is a washing machine, actuator 110 is a motor or the like that rotates a washing tub.

The operation unit 120 is an operation button, a touch panel, or the like provided on the home appliance 100 . The operation unit 120 receives user U's operation regarding the home appliance 100 . The operation unit 120 receives, for example, an operation by the user U to specify or change the setting contents of the home appliance 100 . The setting contents of the home appliance 100 include one or more of control amounts, target values, threshold values, timer settings, operation modes, and the like regarding various controls. Information indicating the setting contents of home appliance 100 is stored in storage unit 180 as setting information 181 .

State detection unit 130 and control unit 140 are implemented by one or more hardware processors such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) installed in home appliance 100 executing a program. However, some or all of these functional units may be realized by hardware such as ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), PLD (Programmable Logic Device), or FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), or software and hardware. It may be realized by cooperation with wear.

The state detection unit 130 detects the state of the home appliance 100 based on the detection results of various sensors provided in the home appliance 100, the operating state of the actuator 110, the setting information 181, or the like. The “state of the home appliance” is, for example, an operation mode in operation, a set value or target value for operation, a detected value of a physical quantity, or an ambient environment (ambient temperature, etc.) of the home appliance 100 .

The state detection unit 130 also detects changes in the state of the home appliance 100 based on the detection results of various sensors provided in the home appliance 100, the operation state of the actuator 110, and the like. The “state change of the home appliance” is, for example, the end of a certain operation mode or the movement occurring in the home appliance 100 (such as opening and closing the door of the refrigerator 100B). In this application, "state" and "change of state" are not strictly used separately. "State" and "state change" are concepts that partially overlap. Therefore, an event may correspond to a "state", a "state change", or both a "state" and a "state change".

In this embodiment, the state detection unit 130 detects whether or not there is a problem with the home appliance 100 as part of the state of the home appliance 100 . In the present application, "malfunction" is not limited to a failure of home appliance 100, but may also include a temporary abnormality occurring in home appliance 100 (such as a long opening time of the door of refrigerator 100B). State detection unit 130 stores information indicating the detected defect in storage unit 180 as defect information 182 . When the problem in the home appliance 100 is resolved, the state detection unit 130 updates the problem information 182 to delete the information indicating the problem.

The control unit 140 controls the home appliance 100 as a whole. For example, the control unit 140 operates the home appliance 100 by controlling the actuator 110 based on the detection results of various sensors provided in the home appliance 100 and the setting information 181 . The control unit 140 also executes various controls in response to requests from the server 200 and responses to the server 200 .

In this embodiment, when the state detection unit 130 detects a state change of the home appliance 100 , the control unit 140 transmits a notification indicating the detected state change to the server 200 . In addition, when the state detection unit 130 detects a problem with the home appliance 100 , the control unit 140 transmits a notification indicating the detected problem to the server 200 .

Further, when receiving from server 200 a confirmation request for confirming the state of home appliance 100, control unit 140 generates state information indicating the latest state of home appliance 100 based on the detection result of state detection unit 130, and generates the state information. Send the state information to the server 200 . When defect information 182 exists in storage unit 180 , control unit 140 generates state information including defect information 182 and transmits the generated state information to server 200 .

The storage unit 180 is a functional unit that stores various information. Storage unit 180 is realized by a combination of RAM (Random Access Memory), ROM (Read Only Memory), EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM), SSD (Solid State Drive), or the like. Storage unit 180 stores setting information 181 and defect information 182 .

<3. Server>
Next, the server 200 will be described in detail.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of the server 200. As shown in FIG. The server 200 has, for example, a device registration unit 210, a home appliance management unit 220, a service provision unit 230, an office contact notification unit 240, and a storage unit 280.

Device registration unit 210, home appliance management unit 220, service provision unit 230, and business communication notification unit 240 are implemented by one or more hardware processors such as the CPU installed in server 200 executing programs. be. However, some or all of these functional units may be realized by hardware such as ASIC, PLD, or FPGA, or may be realized by cooperation between software and hardware. Note that these functional units may be separately provided in a plurality of server devices. Also, one or more of these functional units may be provided in the terminal device 300 or the home appliance 100 instead of the server 200 .

<3.1 Device Registration Section>
The device registration unit 210 performs device registration of the home appliance 100 in response to a request from the terminal device 300 (that is, an application from the user U). Device registration means associating a specific user U with the home appliance 100 used by the user U (that is, the home appliance 100 to be remotely controlled). Device registration is performed, for example, by registering a correspondence relationship between user information (for example, user ID) that can identify user U and device information (for example, device ID) that can identify an individual home appliance 100 . In this embodiment, the correspondence relationship is registered in the device registration DB 281 stored in the storage unit 280 . The device ID is, for example, the manufacturing number of the home appliance 100 . The device registration may be performed by associating the specific terminal device 300 used by the user U with the specific home appliance 100 instead of associating the specific user U with the specific home appliance 100. good.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of the device registration DB 281. As shown in FIG. In the device registration DB 281, for example, a user ID, a device ID, a type (household appliance type) of the home appliance 100, a model of the home appliance 100, and a display name on the home appliance management application APP are registered in association with each other. be.

When the device registration unit 210 registers the home appliance 100 in response to a request from the terminal device 300 , the device registration unit 210 transmits to the terminal device 300 information indicating the home appliance 100 that has undergone the device registration. Information indicating the home appliance 100 for which device registration has been performed is stored in the storage unit 380 of the terminal device 300 as device registration information 381, which will be described later.

When the device registration of the home appliance 100 is performed, when the device registration of the home appliance 100 is changed, or when the device registration of the home appliance 100 is deleted, the device registration unit 210 sends a notification indicating the details. to the terminal device 300 .

<3.2 Home appliance management section>
The home appliance management unit 220 manages the home appliances 100 for which device registration has been performed. For example, when the home appliance management unit 220 receives a remote operation request for remotely operating the home appliance 100 from the terminal device 300, the home appliance management unit 220 notifies the home appliance 100 of a control command corresponding to the received remote operation request. The device 100 is remotely operated.

Further, when the terminal device 300 receives a confirmation request for confirming the state of the home appliance 100, the home appliance management unit 220 notifies the home appliance 100 of a request to transmit state information indicating the state of the home appliance 100. do. The home appliance management unit 220 transmits the state information received from the home appliance 100 to the terminal device 300 . If the status information received from the home appliance 100 includes the failure information 182 of the home appliance 100 , the home appliance management unit 220 transmits the status information including the failure information 182 to the terminal device 300 .

In the present embodiment, when the home appliance management unit 220 receives a notification indicating a state change of the home appliance 100 from the home appliance 100, the home appliance management unit 220 treats the notification indicating the state change of the home appliance 100 as a notification related to the home appliance 100. 300. When the home appliance management unit 220 receives a notification indicating the failure of the home appliance 100 from the home appliance 100 , the home appliance management unit 220 transmits the notification indicating the failure of the home appliance 100 to the terminal device 300 as a notification regarding the home appliance 100 .

<3.3 Service Provider>
The service providing unit 230 provides services related to the home appliance 100 for which device registration has been performed. The service provided by the service providing unit 230 is, for example, a service related to the home appliance 100 and different from the operation (control) of the home appliance 100 . In this embodiment, the service providing unit 230 includes a food material managing unit 231 , a recipe providing unit 232 , a watching service providing unit 233 , a reference information providing unit 234 and an advertisement information providing unit 235 .

(Ingredient Management Department)
The food management unit 231 provides a food management service. The food material management service is a service that manages the inventory of food materials present in user U's home (for example, refrigerator 100B). In this embodiment, the food material management service is a service related to the refrigerator 100B (or the microwave oven 100C), and can be used by the user U when the refrigerator 100B is registered. The foodstuff management unit 231 receives input of foodstuffs existing in the home of the user U, and registers and manages the input foodstuffs in the stock list DB 282 stored in the storage unit 280 .

When a predetermined state change is detected in the food material management service (for example, when the number of days remaining until the intake deadline of a certain food item becomes equal to or less than a predetermined number of days), the food material management unit 231 detects a predetermined state change in the food material management service. The detection is transmitted to the terminal device 300 as a notification regarding the food material management service. The “expiration date” is, for example, an expiration date or an expiration date.

(recipe provider)
The recipe providing unit 232 provides a recipe service. A recipe service is a service related to recipe suggestion or search. In this embodiment, the recipe service is a service related to the refrigerator 100B or the microwave oven 100C, and becomes available to the user U by performing device registration of either the refrigerator 100B or the microwave oven 100C. The recipe providing unit 232 proposes or searches for recipes based on the recipe DB 283 stored in the storage unit 280 .

(Monitoring Service Department)
The watching service providing unit 233 provides a watching service. The watching service is a service for watching over a person to be watched over using the home appliance 100 installed in the home of the user U or the home of the user U's family. The watching service providing unit 233 registers and manages the home appliance 100 used for the watching service, the time zone for the watching service, and the like in the watching service DB 284 stored in the storage unit 280 .

In this embodiment, the watching service watches over the person being watched over based on whether or not the door of the refrigerator 100B is opened or closed during a predetermined time period set in advance. Note that the watching service may watch over the person to be watched based on the ambient temperature of refrigerator 100B, the operating state of air conditioner 100A, etc. instead of/in addition to whether or not the door of refrigerator 100B is opened or closed.

In this embodiment, when door opening/closing is detected in refrigerator 100B, information indicating that door opening/closing is detected (hereinafter referred to as “door opening/closing information”) is transmitted from refrigerator 100B to server 200 . Monitoring service providing unit 233 provides monitoring service based on the presence or absence of door opening/closing information received from refrigerator 100B. For example, when a predetermined state regarding the monitoring service is detected (for example, when the door of the refrigerator 100B is not opened or closed during the predetermined time period), the monitoring service providing unit 233 detects that the predetermined state regarding the monitoring service is detected. That is transmitted to the terminal device 300 as a notification regarding the watching service.

FIG. 5 : is a figure which shows an example of the content of watching service DB284. In the monitoring service DB 284, for example, whether or not the door of the refrigerator 100B is opened and closed in a preset predetermined time period is registered in chronological order with respect to the management ID and the device ID. That is, the monitoring service DB 284 includes not only the latest door opening/closing history, but also the past door opening/closing history. The monitoring service providing unit 233 can provide whether or not the door is opened/closed in the form of a timeline.

(Reference Information Department)
The reference information providing unit 234 provides a reference information service. The reference information service is information indicating reference information related to the home appliance 100 (for example, recommended usage of the home appliance 100). Recommended usage techniques include convenient usage of the home appliance 100, convenient usage of the home appliance management application APP, maintenance methods for extending the life of the home appliance 100, and the like. In this embodiment, the reference information providing unit 234 registers and manages the reference information as described above in the reference information DB 285 stored in the storage unit 280 .

(Advertising Information Department)
The advertisement information providing unit 235 provides an advertisement information service. The advertisement information service is a service that provides advertisement information introducing the latest home appliance 100 . In this embodiment, the advertisement information providing unit 235 registers and manages the advertisement information described above in the advertisement information DB 286 stored in the storage unit 280 . The advertisement information providing unit 235 can acquire advertisement information corresponding to the home appliance 100 targeted for advertisement based on the advertisement information DB 286 .

<3.4 Office communication notification department>
The business contact notification unit 240 transmits to the terminal device 300 a business contact notification regarding the server 200 or the home appliance management application APP. "Clerical contact notice" is, for example, a notice notifying the timing of maintenance of the server 200, the addition of a new function of the home appliance management application APP, and the like, and is different from the notice relating to a specific home appliance 100 or a specific service. is. The office contact notification unit 240 is an example of a “notification unit”.

<3.5 Storage unit>
Storage unit 280 is realized by a combination of RAM, ROM, EEPROM, SSD, or the like. The storage unit 280 stores, for example, a device registration DB 281, an inventory list DB 282, a recipe DB 283, a watching service DB 284, a reference information DB 285, and an advertisement information DB 286.

<4. Terminal device>
Next, the terminal device 300 will be described in detail.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of the terminal device 300. As shown in FIG. The terminal device 300 has, for example, a registration reception unit 310, a notification acquisition unit 320, a display control unit 330, an operation reception unit 340, and a storage unit 380.

The registration reception unit 310, the notification acquisition unit 320, the display control unit 330, and the operation reception unit 340 are realized by one or more hardware processors such as the CPU installed in the terminal device 300 executing the application program P. be done. In other words, registration reception unit 310, notification acquisition unit 320, display control unit 330, and operation reception unit 340 are software function units included in home appliance management application APP.

<4.1 Registration Reception Section>
The registration accepting unit 310 accepts an application for device registration of the home appliance 100 based on the user U's operation on the operation accepting unit 340 . In this application, "receiving an application for registration" or "receiving registration" is not limited to the case where the registration process is completed in the terminal device 300, and the operation of the user U instructing device registration (i.e., application for registration) is A case where the terminal device 300 accepts and the actual registration processing is performed by the server 200 may also be included. In the present embodiment, the registration reception unit 310 associates the home appliance 100 (hereinafter referred to as “target home appliance 100”) with the user ID used for login in a state where the home appliance management application APP has been logged in using the user ID. ) will be accepted for registration.

<4.2 Notification Acquisition Unit>
The notification acquisition unit 320 acquires various notifications from the server 200 . In the present application, "acquiring" is not limited to actively acquiring by notifying a transmission request, but acquiring by receiving information transmitted from the server 200 without notifying a transmission request. case can also be included. The notification acquisition unit 320 stores various acquired notifications in the storage unit 380 as notification accumulation information 382 .

In the present embodiment, the notification acquisition unit 320 adds the device registration of the home appliance 100, changes the content of the device registration, deletes the device registration, or the like when the device registration of the home appliance 100 is added, or the content of the device registration is deleted. A notification is received from the server 200 indicating a change or deletion of device registration. Such notifications may hereinafter be referred to as "system notifications".

In this embodiment, the notification acquisition unit 320 receives a notification regarding the home appliance 100 from the server 200 . For example, when a state change is detected in the home appliance 100 , the notification acquisition unit 320 receives from the server 200 a notification indicating the state change of the home appliance 100 (that is, a notification indicating that the state change has occurred). Further, when a malfunction is detected in the home appliance 100 , the notification acquisition unit 320 receives a notification indicating the malfunction of the home appliance 100 (that is, a notification indicating that a malfunction has occurred) from the server 200 .

In the present embodiment, when there is a service (hereinafter referred to as “home appliance-related service”) related to one or more home appliances 100 for which device registration has been performed, the notification acquisition unit 320 receives a notification related to the home appliance-related service ( For example, it receives from the server 200 the above-described notification regarding the food management service and notification regarding the watching service.

Further, in this embodiment, the notification acquisition unit 320 receives from the server 200 a business contact notification related to the server 200 or the home appliance management application APP generated by the business contact notification unit 240 of the server 200 . In the following, such clerical contact notices may be simply referred to as "contact notices" or "secretariat notices."

Further, in the present embodiment, when a predetermined condition is satisfied (for example, when the display control unit 330 displays a home screen DH, which will be described later), the notification acquisition unit 320 sends a confirmation request for confirming the state of the home appliance 100 to the server. 200. In this case, the notification acquisition unit 320 receives status information indicating the status of the home appliance 100 (status information including the failure information 182 if the home appliance 100 has a failure) from the server 200 .

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the content of notification accumulation information 382. As shown in FIG. In the notification accumulation information 382, for each notification, management ID, type of related home appliance 100 or home appliance-related service, notification content, notification acquisition time (reception time), and whether it is unread or read. The information shown is associated and stored.

<4.3 Display control unit>
The display control unit 330 controls the content displayed on the display screen 301 a of the display device 301 by controlling the display device 301 of the terminal device 300 . For example, the display control unit 330 includes one or more first operation units B1 for operating the home appliance 100, one or more second operation units B2 for using home appliance-related services related to the home appliance 100, One or more third operation units B3 for browsing reference information related to the home appliance 100, one or more fourth operation units B4 for browsing recommended recipes, and one for browsing advertisement information The fifth operation section B5 described above is displayed on the display screen 301a in a predetermined manner (see FIG. 8). Hereinafter, the first to fifth operation units B1, B2, B3, B4, and B5 are simply referred to as "operation unit B" when not distinguished from each other. The display control unit 330 will be described later in detail.

<4.4 Operation reception unit>
The operation accepting unit 340 accepts an operation of the user U performed on the input device 302 in relation to the home appliance management application APP. For example, the operation accepting unit 340 accepts an operation by the user U on the operating unit B (first to fifth operating units B1, B2, B3, B4, B5) displayed on the display screen 301a. The operation reception unit 340 transmits a signal corresponding to the operation unit B operated by the user U to the server 200 . As a result, the server 200 performs processing corresponding to the operation unit B operated by the user U. FIG.

<4.5 Storage unit>
Storage unit 380 is realized by a combination of RAM, ROM, EEPROM, SSD, or the like. The storage unit 380 stores an application program P, device registration information 381 and notification accumulation information 382 . In the device registration information 381, a list of home electric appliances 100 registered in association with the user ID of the user U who uses the terminal device 300 is registered.

<5. Contents displayed on the display screen>
Next, the display contents of the terminal device 300 will be described. The display contents described below are realized by the processing of the display control unit 330 unless otherwise specified. In the following description, the "operation unit B" is an operation unit displayed on the display screen 301a, and is a function key assigned to call a specific function. The operation unit B is, for example, an icon displayed on the display screen 301a.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of display contents displayed on the display screen 301a of the terminal device 300. As shown in FIG. The screen shown in FIG. 8 is, for example, the home screen (top screen) DH of the home appliance management application APP. A "home screen" is a screen that is displayed first as an operation screen of the home appliance management application APP. A black frame indicated by reference numeral 301a shown in FIG. 8 indicates the content displayed on the display screen 301a of the display device 301 at one time.

In this embodiment, the display control unit 330 displays the first functional area R1, the second functional area R2, the third functional area R3, the fourth functional area R4, and the fifth functional area R5 on the home screen DH. That is, the display control unit 330 displays the first to fifth functional regions R1, R2, R3, R4, R5 on one screen. In this application, "display on one screen" means "display on a continuous screen". In other words, "to be displayed on one screen" is not limited to the case where it is displayed within a screen that can be viewed at once (for example, within the display screen 301a), but is partially hidden from the screen that can be viewed at once. It may also include the case where it is displayed in order by scrolling from the state where it is displayed.

<5.1 First functional area>
The first functional area R1 is a functional area corresponding to "household appliance control (household appliance operation)". The first functional area R1 includes one or more first operation parts B1 for operating the home appliance 100. FIG. In the present embodiment, a plurality of first operation parts B1 for operating different electrical home appliances 100 are displayed in the first function area R1.

In the present application, the “operation unit for operating the home appliance 100” is not limited to an operation unit that directly operates the home appliance 100, but may be an operation unit for transitioning to an operation screen that allows the home appliance 100 to be operated. good. In the present embodiment, when the first operation unit B1 is operated (for example, tapped) by the user U, the individual operation screen of the electric home appliance 100 corresponding to the operated first operation unit B1 (operation divided for each electric home appliance 100) is displayed. screen).

In this embodiment, when the home appliance 100 is registered, the first operation unit B1 corresponding to the home appliance 100 for which the device registration has been performed is added to the first function area R1. In other words, the number of first operation units B1 corresponds to the number of home appliances 100 for which device registration has been performed.

FIG. 8 shows that "air conditioner 1", "air conditioner 2", "refrigerator", "oven range", and "washing machine" are registered as a plurality of home appliances 100, and as a result, a plurality of first operation units As B1, a first operation unit B1a for operating "air conditioner 1", a first operation unit B1b for operating "air conditioner 2", a first operation unit B1c for operating "refrigerator", "microwave oven , and a first operation unit B1e for operating "washing machine" are displayed.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of an individual operation screen 410 on which home appliance 100 can be operated. On the individual operation screen 410, one or more operation units 411 capable of operating the home appliance 100 or a display unit 412 displaying the state of the home appliance 100 are displayed. For example, FIG. 9 shows an individual operation screen 410 corresponding to the air conditioner 1. As shown in FIG. The individual operation screen 410 corresponding to the air conditioner 1 is displayed after transition from the home screen DH by, for example, operating (for example, tapping) the first operation unit B1a corresponding to "air conditioner 1" on the home screen DH. . Although FIG. 9 illustrates the individual operation screen 410 corresponding to the air conditioner 1 , the individual operation screen 410 corresponding to other types of household electrical appliances 100 may include an operation unit 411 and a display unit 412 corresponding to the type of the household electrical appliance 100 . is displayed.

Next, returning to FIG. 8, the special display M1 displayed in the first functional area R1 will be described. In this embodiment, when the display control unit 330 causes the home screen DH to be displayed, the notification acquisition unit 320 sends a confirmation request to the server 200 to confirm the latest state of the home appliances 100 corresponding to the operation units B1. Send. Then, the notification acquisition unit 320 receives, from the server 200, state information indicating the latest state of each home appliance 100 (state information including the fault information 182 if the home appliance 100 has a problem) as a response to the confirmation request. .

When the display control unit 330 receives status information including the defect information 182 for a certain home appliance 100 from the server 200 (that is, when acquiring a notification regarding a defect of the home appliance 100), the display control unit 330 displays A special display M1 indicating the presence of the problem is displayed in association with the first operation part B1 corresponding to the home appliance 100 having the problem among the plurality of first operation parts B1.

FIG. 8 shows an example in which a special display M1 is displayed on the first operation portion B1c for operating the refrigerator 100B. The special display M1 is, for example, a .tangle-solidup. mark displayed at the corner of the first operation unit B1. However, the shape and display position of the special display M1 are not limited to the above example. For example, the special display M1 may be displayed superimposed on the first operation part B1, or may be displayed in the vicinity of the first operation part B1.

<5.2 Second Functional Area>
Returning to FIG. 8, the second functional region R2 will be described. The second functional area R2 is a functional area corresponding to home appliance-related services. The second functional area R2 includes one or more second operation parts B2 for using home appliance-related services. In this embodiment, the second function area R2 displays a plurality of second operation parts B2 corresponding to different home appliance-related services.

In the present application, "an operation unit for using a service" is not limited to an operation unit for directly using a service, but may be an operation unit for transitioning to an operation screen for using a service. In the present embodiment, when the second operation unit B2 is operated (for example, tapped) by the user U, the individual operation screen of the home appliance-related service corresponding to the operated second operation unit B2 (operation divided for each home appliance-related service) is displayed. screen).

In the present embodiment, when the home appliance 100 is registered and there is a home appliance-related service related to the home appliance 100 for which the device registration has been performed, a second operation unit corresponding to the home appliance-related service exists. B2 is added to the second functional region R2. On the other hand, if the home appliance 100 has been registered and there is no home appliance-related service associated with the home appliance 100 for which the device registration has been performed, the second operation unit B2 is not added. That is, the number of second operation units B2 corresponds to the number of home appliance-related services that can be used by the user U by performing the device registration of the home appliance 100 .

FIG. 8 shows that as home appliance-related services related to the registered home appliances 100 (refrigerator and microwave oven), there are a "food material management service", a "recipe service", and a "monitoring service". As the second operation part B2, a second operation part B2a for using the "ingredients management service", a second operation part B2b for using the "recipe service", and a second operation part B2b for using the "monitoring service" This is an example in which the operation section B2c is displayed.

The “ingredients management service” is a service related to the refrigerator 100B (or the microwave oven 100C) and provided by the foodstuff management unit 231 of the server 200 . A second operation unit B2a corresponding to "ingredients management service" is added when refrigerator 100B or microwave oven 100C is registered as a device. By operating (for example, tapping) the second operation unit B2a, an individual operation screen on which the "ingredient management service" can be used is transitioned from the home screen DH and displayed.

A “recipe service” is a service related to refrigerator 100B or microwave oven 100C and provided by recipe providing unit 232 of server 200 . A second operation unit B2b corresponding to "recipe service" is added when refrigerator 100B or microwave oven 100C is registered as a device. By operating (for example, tapping) the second operation unit B2b, an individual operation screen on which the “recipe service” can be used is transitioned from the home screen DH and displayed.

The “watching service” is, for example, a service related to refrigerator 100</b>B and provided by watching service providing unit 233 of server 200 . A second operation unit B2c corresponding to "monitoring service" is added when refrigerator 100B is registered as a device. By operating (for example, tapping) the second operation unit B2c, various settings related to the "monitoring service" can be made, and the history of watching can be displayed (for example, opening and closing of the door of the refrigerator 100B can be displayed in a timeline format). individual operation screen is displayed after transition from the home screen DH.

<5.3 Third Functional Area>
Next, the third functional region R3 will be explained. The third functional area R3 is a functional area corresponding to "reference information service". “Reference information service” is a service provided by the reference information providing unit 234 of the server 200 . The third functional area R3 includes one or more third operation parts B3 for browsing reference information related to the home appliance 100. FIG. In this embodiment, a plurality of third operation sections B3 corresponding to different reference information are displayed in the third function area R3.

<5.4 Fourth Functional Area>
The fourth functional area R4 is a functional area corresponding to "recommended recipe (pickup recipe)". “Recommended recipe” is a service provided by the recipe provider 232 of the server 200 . The fourth functional area R4 includes one or more fourth operation parts B4 for viewing recommended recipes. In this embodiment, a plurality of fourth operation sections B4 corresponding to different recommended recipes are displayed in the fourth function area R4.

<5.5 Fifth Functional Area>
Next, the fifth functional region R5 will be explained. The fifth functional area R5 is a functional area corresponding to "advertisement information service". “Advertisement information service” is a service provided by advertisement information providing unit 235 of server 200 . The fifth functional area R5 includes one or more fifth operation parts B5 for viewing advertisement information. In this embodiment, a plurality of fifth operation sections B5 corresponding to different advertisement information are displayed in the fifth function area R5.

<5.6. Other Operation Units>
Next, other operation units will be described. An operation unit B6 corresponding to "menu" is displayed on the home screen DH. In this embodiment, when the operation unit B6 is operated (for example, tapped) by the user U, the screen transitions to the individual operation screen 510 (see FIG. 10) corresponding to "Menu".

In the present embodiment, if there is one or more unread notifications among the notifications acquired by the notification acquisition unit 320, the display control unit 330 displays the unread notifications on the home screen DH based on the notification accumulation information 382. A special display M2 indicating that there is is displayed. The special display M2 is displayed, for example, near the operation section B6 corresponding to "Menu".

<6. Display related to notification>
Next, display related to notifications will be described.
FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of an individual operation screen 510 corresponding to "Menu". The individual operation screen 510 displays a plurality of operation units 511 corresponding to "account management", "edit home appliance settings", "share registered home appliances", "notice", "application information", and "demo mode". be done.

In this embodiment, when there is one or more unread notifications among the notifications acquired by the notification acquisition unit 320, the display control unit 330 indicates that there is also an unread notification on the individual operation screen 510. Display the special display M2. The special display M2 is displayed, for example, near the operation unit 511 corresponding to "Notice".

(First display mode of the first display part)
FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of the individual operation screen 520 corresponding to "Notification", and is a diagram showing the first display mode of the individual operation screen 520. As shown in FIG. The individual operation screen 520 is displayed after transition from the individual operation screen 510 by, for example, operating (for example, tapping) the operation unit 111 corresponding to “Notice” on the individual operation screen 510 .

In the present embodiment, the display control unit 330 includes a first display unit (first display screen, first area) S1 that displays notifications regarding home appliance 100 or home appliance-related services, and a second display unit that displays clerical contact notifications. A display section (second display screen, second area) S2 and an operation section 521 for switching between the first display section S1 and the second display section S2 can be displayed. On the individual operation screen 520 shown in FIG. 11, a first display section S1 and an operation section 521 (hereinafter referred to as "switching operation section 521" for convenience) are displayed. The switching operation unit 521 will be described later in detail.

The first display unit S1 displays notifications N1 regarding one or more (for example, a plurality of) household electrical appliances 100 . These notifications N1 are, for example, notifications indicating changes in the state of the electrical home appliance 100 acquired by the notification acquiring unit 320, or notifications indicating malfunctions of the electrical home appliance 100 . These notifications N1 include notifications regarding a plurality of home appliances 100 of different types when device registration of a plurality of home appliances 100 of different types is performed. In the example shown in FIG. 11, the notification N1 regarding home appliance 100 is a notification that washing has ended in washing machine 100D, a notification that cooking has stopped in microwave oven 100C, or a refrigeration operation has started in air conditioner 100A. A notification will appear stating that

In addition, when there is one or more (for example, multiple) home appliance-related services related to the home appliance 100 for which device registration has been performed, the first display unit S1 displays a notification N2 relating to the home appliance-related service. These notifications N2 are notifications acquired by the notification acquisition unit 320 and are notifications indicating that a predetermined state or a predetermined state change has been detected in the home appliance-related service. These notifications N2 include notifications regarding a plurality of home appliance-related services of different types when there are a plurality of home appliance-related services of different types associated with one or more home appliances 100 for which device registration has been performed. In the example shown in FIG. 11, a notification indicating that the door of refrigerator 100B was not opened/closed during a preset time period in the monitoring service is displayed as the notification N2 regarding the home appliance-related service.

The first display unit S1 also displays a notification N3 (system notification N3) indicating addition of device registration of the home appliance 100 acquired by the notification acquisition unit 320, change of device registration content, deletion of device registration, and the like.

Display control unit 330 displays, as a first display mode on individual operation screen 520, notification N1 regarding one or more (for example, a plurality) of home electric appliances 100 and notification N2 regarding one or more (for example, a plurality) of home appliance-related services. , system notification N3, and all these notifications are arranged and displayed on the first display unit S1 in the order of the acquired times. That is, the display control unit 330 arranges and displays a plurality of notifications acquired by the notification acquisition unit 320 as the history list L. FIG. In this embodiment, the display control unit 330 does not display the contact notification N4, which will be described later, on the first display unit S1.

If there is one or more unread notifications among the notifications displayed on individual operation screen 520, display control unit 330 makes the letters of the unread notifications bold and displays the unread status as a part of the notifications. A special display M2 indicating that is displayed. This is the same for the second display mode, the third display mode, and the second display section S2, which will be described later.

(Second display mode of first display unit)
In the present embodiment, the display control unit 330 controls the display control unit 330 to be acquired by the notification acquiring unit 320 when the operation accepting unit 340 accepts an operation by the user U to select one home appliance 100 from among the plurality of home appliances 100. The notification N1 related to the one home appliance 100 is extracted from the notifications received and displayed. This content will be explained below.

In the present embodiment, the display control unit 330 includes, for example, as a part of the first display unit S1, an operation unit 522 for selecting the type of the home appliance 100 or the type of home appliance-related service related to the notification to be extracted and displayed. (hereinafter referred to as "selection operation section 522" for convenience) is displayed. The selection operation section 522 is, for example, an operation section having a pull-down menu PM. In FIG. 11 , “all” corresponding to all home appliances 100 and home appliance-related services is selected in the selection operation section 522 .

FIG. 12 shows a state in which the selection operation unit 522 is operated (for example, tapped once) in FIG. 11 to display all of the pull-down menu PM. The user U operates (for example, taps) a portion corresponding to the type of home appliance 100 or the type of home appliance-related service to be extracted and displayed in the pull-down menu PM. Thereby, the operation accepting unit 340 accepts an operation of the user U to select the type of home appliance 100 or the type of home appliance-related service to be extracted and displayed. Note that the selection operation unit 522 is not limited to the pull-down menu PM, and may be another type of operation unit.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of the individual operation screen 520 corresponding to "notice", and is a diagram showing the second display mode of the individual operation screen 520. As shown in FIG. The second display mode transitions from the first display mode or the third display mode described later when the operation accepting unit 340 accepts an operation by the user U to select the type of the home appliance 100 to be extracted and displayed. displayed.

In this embodiment, the display control unit 330 has a filtering function of extracting specific notifications that match set conditions. The display control unit 330 extracts a specific notification based on the contents included in the notification accumulation information 382, for example.

In the present embodiment, the display control unit 330 controls, as the second display mode on the individual operation screen 520, one or more (for example, a plurality) notifications N1, one or more (for example, A notification N1 related to one home appliance 100 selected by the user U's operation is extracted and displayed from among the notifications N2 related to home appliance-related services and the system notifications N3. The example shown in FIG. 13 is an example in which the microwave oven 100C is selected as the home appliance 100 that is to be extracted and displayed, and only notifications related to the microwave oven 100C are extracted and displayed on the first display unit S1. In the second display mode, when there are a plurality of notifications N1 related to the same home appliance 100, these notifications N1 are displayed side by side on the first display section S1 in order of time acquired.

(Third display mode of the first display part)
In the present embodiment, the display control unit 330 determines that the operation of the user U to select one home appliance-related service from one or more (for example, a plurality of) home appliances 100 and one or more (for example, a plurality of) home appliance-related services is When the operation reception unit 340 receives the notification, the notification N2 related to the home appliance-related service is extracted from the notifications acquired by the notification acquisition unit 320 and displayed.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of the individual operation screen 520 corresponding to "Notice", and is a diagram showing the third display mode of the individual operation screen 520. As shown in FIG. The third display mode is displayed by transitioning from the first display mode or the second display mode when the user U's operation of selecting the type of home appliance-related service to be extracted and displayed is accepted by the operation accepting unit 340. be done.

Display control unit 330 controls, as a third display mode on individual operation screen 520, notification N1 regarding one or more (for example, a plurality of) home electric appliances 100 displayed in the first display mode, and notification N1 for one or more (for example, a plurality of) home appliance-related The notification N2 regarding one home appliance-related service selected by the user U's operation is extracted from the notification N2 regarding the service and the system notification N3 and displayed. The example shown in FIG. 15 is an example in which "monitoring service" is selected as a home appliance-related service to be extracted and displayed, and only notifications related to "monitoring service" are extracted and displayed on the first display unit S1. In the third display mode, when there are a plurality of notifications regarding the same home appliance-related service, these notifications are displayed side by side on the first display section S1 in order of time acquired.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an example of a screen 530 corresponding to "Notice". For screen 530, for example, notification N1 related to home appliance 100, notification N2 related to home appliance-related service, or system notification N3 is selected on individual operation screen 520 (for example, a notification to be displayed on individual operation screen 520 is tapped. ), the individual operation screen 520 is transitioned and displayed. A screen 530 is a screen showing details of the contents of the notification.

(Second display part)
FIG. 16 is a diagram showing another example of the individual operation screen 520 corresponding to "Notice", and is a diagram showing the second display section S2. The display control unit 330 arranges and displays the business contact notifications N4 on the second display unit S2 in the order of the acquired time. In this embodiment, the display control unit 330 does not display the notification N1 regarding the home appliance 100, the notification N2 regarding the home appliance-related service, and the system notification N3 on the second display unit S2. In other words, the display control unit 330 displays the notifications N1, N2, N3 regarding home appliances and home appliance-related services, etc., and the business contact notification N4 in distinct areas.

The switching operation unit 521 is an operation unit that receives an operation by the user U to select which of the first display unit S1 and the second display unit S2 is to be displayed. The first display section S<b>1 and the second display section S<b>2 can be switched to display one of them based on the user U's operation on the switching operation section 521 . That is, when the switching operation portion 521 is operated (eg, tapped) while the first display portion S1 is displayed, the first display portion S1 is switched to the second display portion S2. On the other hand, when the switching operation portion 521 is operated (for example, tapped) while the second display portion S2 is displayed, the second display portion S2 is switched to the first display portion S1. The switching operation section 521 is, for example, a switching tab displayed on the individual operation screen 520 . Note that the switching operation unit 521 is not limited to the switching tab, and may be another type of operation unit.

<7. Other indications related to notifications>
In the present embodiment, the display control unit 330 receives, as a new notification, a notification regarding the home appliance 100, a notification regarding a home appliance-related service, a system notification, or a contact notification while the home appliance management application APP is running. , to display a pop-up notification indicating that the notification has been received on the screen being displayed. In addition, the operating system or another program installed in the terminal device 300, in a state where the home appliance management application APP is not activated, receives a new notification regarding the home appliance 100, a home appliance related service, a system notification, or a contact. If a notification is received, display a push notification indicating that the notification has been received.

In this embodiment, the display control unit 330 arranges a plurality of notifications acquired by the notification acquisition unit 320 in chronological order on the first display unit S1 or the second display unit S2. That is, the display control unit 330 arranges and displays a plurality of notifications acquired by the notification acquisition unit 320 as the history list L. FIG. Then, when the upper limit number (for example, 30) of the history list L is reached, the display control unit 330 displays the oldest notification on the first display unit S1 or the second display unit S2 each time a new notification is acquired after that. (ie, delete from history list L).

In addition, in the present embodiment, the display control unit 330 makes the characters of the unread notification bold, and displays the special display M2 indicating the unread state as part of the notification. indicate. These modifications will be described in the third embodiment.

<8. Process Flow>
FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the flow of processing. In FIG. 17 , for convenience of explanation, the notification regarding the home appliance 100 or the notification regarding the home appliance-related service, and the system notification are collectively referred to as “home appliance notification”.

First, the notification acquisition unit 320 acquires a notification from the server 200 (S101). The notification acquisition unit 320 stores the acquired notification in the notification accumulation information 382 . Next, the display control unit 330 classifies the obtained notification into a “home appliance notification” or an “office notification” by filtering based on the notification accumulation information 382 (S102).

The display control unit 330 classifies the acquired notification as a “home appliance notification” when it is a notification related to the home appliance 100, a home appliance related service, or a system notification (S103). When the first display portion S1 is displayed based on the user U's operation, the display control portion 330 causes the first display portion S1 to display a notice classified as "appliance notice".

On the other hand, if the acquired notice is a secretariat notice, the display control unit 330 classifies it as “secretariat notice” (S104). When the second display section S2 is displayed based on the operation of the user U, the notification classified as "secretariat notice" is displayed on the second display section S2.

When the acquired notification is a "home appliance notification", the display control unit 330 receives an input (selection) from the user U indicating which home appliance 100 or home appliance-related service notification is to be extracted and displayed (S105). ). When there is an operation by the user U to select a specific home appliance 100 or a specific home appliance-related service, the display control unit 330 extracts a notification related to the selected specific home appliance 100 or specific home appliance-related service and displays it as the first notification. 1 display section S1 (S106).

<9. Advantage>
As a first comparative example, consider a case where notifications related to home appliances and business contact notifications are displayed on different individual operation screens. In this case, the user U needs to check on a different screen to check the notification, which may be inconvenient.

As a second comparative example, let us consider a case in which notices related to home appliances and business contact notices are listed without distinguishing between types and contents, and displayed as a list. In this case, the user U needs to find the notification to be checked from among many saved notifications, which may be inconvenient.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, the display control unit 330 can extract and display the notification N1 regarding one home appliance 100 included in the plurality of home appliances 100 from among the notifications acquired by the notification acquisition unit 320 . According to such a configuration, it is possible to more easily and more reliably find the notification N1 related to the home appliance 100 to be checked. Thereby, the improvement of the user's U convenience can be aimed at.

In the present embodiment, the display control unit 330 controls the display control unit 330 to be acquired by the notification acquiring unit 320 when the operation accepting unit 340 accepts an operation by the user U to select one home appliance 100 from among the plurality of home appliances 100. The notification relating to the one electrical home appliance 100 is extracted from the notifications received and displayed. According to such a configuration, the user U can select the home appliance 100 for which the user wants to check the notification, and can find the notification related to the selected home appliance 100 more easily and more reliably. Thereby, the further improvement of the user's U convenience can be aimed at.

In the present embodiment, the display control unit 330 displays side by side the notifications regarding the home electric appliances 100 acquired by the notification acquisition unit 320 as the first display mode, and displays the notifications acquired by the notification acquisition unit 320 as the second display mode. The notification relating to the one electrical home appliance 100 is extracted from the notifications received and displayed. According to such a configuration, the user U can collectively check notifications related to a plurality of home appliances 100, which is highly convenient. You can check notifications by narrowing down to notifications about 100. Thereby, the further improvement of the user's U convenience can be aimed at.

In the present embodiment, the display control unit 330 displays, as the first display mode, side by side the notifications regarding the home appliances 100 and the notifications regarding the home appliance-related service acquired by the notification acquisition unit 320 . According to such a configuration, the user U can collectively check the notifications regarding the home appliances 100 and the notifications regarding the home appliance-related service, which is highly convenient.

In the present embodiment, the display control unit 330 extracts and displays the notification regarding the home appliance-related service from among the notifications acquired by the notification acquisition unit 320 as the third display mode. According to such a configuration, it is possible to more easily and more reliably find the notification related to the home appliance-related service to be checked. Thereby, the improvement of the user's U convenience can be aimed at further.

In this embodiment, the notification acquisition unit 320 acquires from the server 200 a contact notification that is different from a notification regarding a specific home appliance or a specific service. The display control unit 330 displays the notifications regarding the plurality of home appliances 100 and the contact notification in separate areas. According to such a configuration, since the notification and the communication notification regarding the plurality of home appliances 100 are displayed in separate areas, it becomes easier to check each notification. Thereby, the improvement of the user's U convenience can be aimed at further.

In the present embodiment, the display control unit 330 switches between the first display unit S1 that displays notifications regarding a plurality of home appliances 100 and the second display unit S2 that displays the contact notifications. According to such a configuration, it is possible to display the notification regarding the plurality of electric home appliances 100 and the contact notification in separate areas, and to make the respective display areas relatively large. This makes it easier to check each notification.

In the present embodiment, the display control unit 330 displays a plurality of first operation units B1 for operating each of the plurality of home appliances 100, and one or more home appliances included in the plurality of home appliances 100 are displayed. When the notification regarding the malfunction of the device 100 is acquired, the special display M1 indicating the presence of the malfunction is displayed on the first operation unit B1 corresponding to the home appliance 100 in which the malfunction occurs among the plurality of first operation units B1. do. According to such a configuration, the user U can easily notice the malfunction of the home appliance 100 at an early stage without checking the individual operation screen 910 corresponding to the notification. Thereby, the improvement of the user's U convenience can be aimed at further.

(Second embodiment)
Next, a second embodiment will be described. The second embodiment differs from the first embodiment in that a special display indicating a change in the state of the home appliance 100 is displayed instead of/in addition to the special display M1 indicating the malfunction. Configurations other than those described below are the same as those of the first embodiment.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an example of display content displayed on the terminal device 300 of the second embodiment. In the present embodiment, the display control unit 330 displays the first operation unit B1 for operating the home appliance 100, and a notification indicating a predetermined state or a predetermined state change regarding a certain home appliance 100 is acquired. In this case, the presence of the predetermined state or the predetermined state change is associated with the first operation unit B1 corresponding to the home appliance 100 in which the predetermined state or the predetermined state change exists among the plurality of first operation units B1. A special display M10 indicating is displayed.

The special display M10 indicating that a predetermined state or a predetermined state change exists is, for example, a special display M11 indicating that the home appliance 100 has finished operating normally (or completed a specific operation mode), or a special display M11 that indicates that the home appliance 100 has been This is a special display M12 indicating the existence of a reservation setting.

Further, in the present embodiment, the display control unit 330 displays the second operation unit B2 for using the home appliance-related service, and the display control unit 330 detects that there is a predetermined state or a predetermined state change regarding the home appliance-related service. is acquired, the predetermined state or the predetermined state is associated with the second operation unit B2 corresponding to the home appliance-related service in which the predetermined state or the predetermined state change exists among the plurality of second operation units B2. A special display M20 indicating the existence of a state change is displayed.

The special display M20 indicating the presence of a predetermined state or predetermined state change is, for example, a special display M21 indicating a state requiring caution at the first level, or a special display M21 at the second level, which is higher than the first level. This is a special display M22 indicating a state requiring attention. The special display M21 is displayed, for example, in the food management service when the number of days remaining until the expiration date of a certain food item is equal to or less than a predetermined number of days. The special display M22 is displayed, for example, when opening and closing of the door of the refrigerator 100B is not detected during a predetermined time period in the monitoring service.

According to such a configuration, the user U can easily notice more information at an early stage without checking the individual operation screen 910 corresponding to the notification. Thereby, the improvement of the user's U convenience can be aimed at further.

(Third embodiment)
Next, a third embodiment will be described. The third embodiment differs from the first embodiment in that the notification mode of the notification is changed according to the importance of the notification. Configurations other than those described below are the same as those of the first embodiment.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of the terminal device 300 of the third embodiment. In the above-described first embodiment, the display control unit 330 outputs pop-up notifications for all notifications acquired by the notification acquisition unit 320, displays the notifications in the history list L, manages unread states (for example, change the display mode with the already read state). Instead of this, in this embodiment, the display control unit 330 changes the notification mode of the notification according to the importance of the notification based on the notification mode setting information 383 stored in the storage unit 380 .

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing an example of the content of the notification mode setting information 383. As shown in FIG. In the notification mode setting information 383, presence/absence of pop-up notification, presence/absence of display in history list L, and presence/absence of management of unread status (for example, change of display mode between unread status and read status) are set for each type of notification. be. Depending on the combination of these settings, the notification modes related to notification can be divided into, for example, the following three (1) to (3).

(1) A notification with a relatively high degree of importance is set as having a pop-up notification, having a display in the history list L, and having unread status management. A notification with a relatively high degree of importance is, for example, a notification regarding a watching service. The notification regarding the watching service is, for example, the result of detection of door opening/closing of refrigerator 100B during a predetermined time period. "There is unread status management" means that an unread status notification is highlighted or a special display M2 is displayed.

(2) A notification with a relatively medium degree of importance is set as having a pop-up notification, having a display in the history list L, and having no unread status management. A notification with a relatively medium degree of importance is, for example, a notification indicating a malfunction of the home appliance 100 . “No unread status management” means that the unread status notification and the read status notification are displayed in the same manner.

(3) Notifications with relatively low importance are set as pop-up notifications, no display in the history list L, and no unread status management. A notification with relatively low importance is, for example, a notification indicating a state change of the home appliance 100 . The notification indicating the state change of home appliance 100 is, for example, the end of washing in washing machine 100D.

According to such a configuration, the notification mode of the notification differs depending on the importance of the notification. Therefore, it becomes easier for the user U to notice important notifications. Thereby, the further improvement of convenience can be aimed at.

(Fourth embodiment)
Next, a fourth embodiment will be described. The fourth embodiment differs from the first embodiment in that the display period in the history list L is changed according to the importance of the notification. Configurations other than those described below are the same as those of the first embodiment.

FIG. 21 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of the terminal device 300 of the fourth embodiment. In the above-described first embodiment, the display control unit 330 deletes all notifications acquired by the notification acquisition unit 320 under the same condition (for example, reaching the upper limit number of the history list L), starting with the oldest notifications. Instead of this, in the present embodiment, the display control unit 330 prioritizes notifications with high importance so that they remain in the history list L based on the priority information 384 stored in the storage unit 380. Delete from the history list L with priority from low notifications.

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of the priority information 384. As shown in FIG. In the priority information 384, the priority remaining in the history list L is registered for each type of notification. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 22, the priority of the notification regarding the "monitoring service" is the highest, the priority of the notification indicating the malfunction of the home appliance 100 is the next highest, and the priority of the notification regarding the "ingredients management service" is the next. system notification has the next highest priority, and notification indicating a state change of the home appliance 100 has the lowest priority.

In the present embodiment, when the display control unit 330 acquires a new notification when the number of the history list L has reached the upper limit, the display control unit 330 deletes the oldest notification among the notifications in the read state in order. When the upper limit number of the history list L is reached without any read status notification, the display control unit 330 displays a relatively high priority notification based on the priority information 384 among the unread status notifications. and delete the oldest notifications with lower priority first.

Note that the priority in the priority information 384 may be set for each type of home appliance 100 or for each type of home appliance-related service. That is, a notification regarding a specific home appliance 100 or a notification regarding a specific home appliance service may be preferentially left.

According to such a configuration, it is possible to reduce the possibility of overlooking an important notification for the user U. Thereby, the further improvement of convenience can be aimed at.

Several embodiments have been described above. However, embodiments are not limited to the examples described above. For example, multiple embodiments can be implemented in combination with each other.

According to at least one embodiment described above, the terminal device performs display control capable of extracting and displaying a notification related to one home appliance included in a plurality of home appliances from among the notifications acquired by the notification acquisition unit. have a part. According to such a configuration, it is possible to improve convenience.

While several embodiments of the invention have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. These embodiments can be implemented in various other forms, and various omissions, replacements, and modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. These embodiments and their modifications are included in the scope and spirit of the invention, as well as the scope of the invention described in the claims and equivalents thereof.

1 Home appliance system 100 Home appliance 200 Server 210 Device registration unit 220 Home appliance management unit 230 Service providing unit 300 Terminal device 310 Registration reception unit 320 Notification acquisition unit 330... Display control unit, 340... Operation receiving unit.

Claims (11)

a notification acquisition unit that acquires notifications regarding a plurality of home appliances;
a display control unit capable of extracting and displaying a notification related to one home appliance included in the plurality of home appliances from among the notifications acquired by the notification acquisition unit;
A terminal device with further comprising an operation reception unit that receives a user's operation,
The display control unit, when the user's operation of selecting the one home appliance from among the plurality of home appliances is accepted by the operation reception unit, selects from among the notifications acquired by the notification acquisition unit extracting and displaying notifications for the one consumer electronic device;
The terminal device according to claim 1. The display control unit displays side by side the notifications regarding the plurality of home appliances acquired by the notification acquisition unit as a first display mode, and displays notifications acquired by the notification acquisition unit as a second display mode. extracting and displaying notifications for the one consumer electronic device;
The terminal device according to claim 1 or 2. The notification acquisition unit acquires notifications regarding services related to one or more home appliances included in the plurality of home appliances,
The display control unit displays, as the first display mode, side by side the notifications regarding the plurality of home appliances and the notifications regarding the service obtained by the notification obtaining unit.
The terminal device according to claim 3. The display control unit extracts and displays a notification related to the service from among the notifications acquired by the notification acquisition unit as a third display mode,
The terminal device according to claim 4. The notification acquisition unit acquires from the management server a contact notification different from a notification regarding a specific home appliance or a specific service,
The display control unit displays the notification regarding the plurality of home appliances and the contact notification in separate areas.
The terminal device according to any one of claims 1 to 5. The display control unit switches between a first display unit that displays notifications related to the plurality of home appliances and a second display unit that displays the contact notifications.
The terminal device according to claim 6. In a case where the display control unit displays a plurality of operation units for operating each of the plurality of home appliances, a notification regarding a failure of one or more home appliances included in the plurality of home appliances is acquired. In this case, a special display indicating the presence of the defect is displayed in association with the operation unit corresponding to the home appliance having the defect among the plurality of operation units.
The terminal device according to any one of claims 1 to 7. The display control unit displays a plurality of operation units for operating each of the plurality of home appliances, wherein one or more home appliances included in the plurality of home appliances are in a predetermined state or in a predetermined state. when a notification indicating that a state change exists is acquired, the predetermined displaying a special indication indicating the presence of the state of or said predetermined state change;
The terminal device according to any one of claims 1 to 8. The notification acquisition unit acquires a notification regarding a specific service related to one or more home appliances included in the plurality of home appliances,
The display control unit prioritizes the notification regarding the specific service over one or more notifications regarding the plurality of home appliances based on a predetermined priority order, and leaves the notification on the history display.
The terminal device according to any one of claims 1 to 9. to the computer,
Get notifications for multiple home appliances,
extracting and displaying a notification related to one home appliance included in the plurality of home appliances from among the acquired notifications;
program.

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