JP2730451B2 - CATV home terminal controller - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a CATV home terminal control device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A CATV home terminal control device includes:
A method in which an operation manager manually transmits control information such as viewing information to each home terminal using an input (operation) means such as a keyboard, or a communication line between a CATV home terminal control device and a host computer device. A method has been adopted in which connection is made and control information is transmitted by a remote command from a host computer device.

[0003]

However, according to the first conventional method, since the operation manager must directly operate the CATV home terminal control device, a person other than the operation manager operates the home terminal. Could not control.

[0004] This means that in the case of an additional function that has been recently demanded, for example, an emergency notification service function, the sender of the emergency notification is a person other than the CATV operation manager (operator), for example, a person in charge of the disaster prevention section of the city hall. Therefore, this method in which a person other than the operation manager cannot control the home terminal was fatal.

According to the second method, the problem of the first method can be solved by opening the terminal of the host computer to a person other than the CATV operation manager. CA on the host computer side
Special software for exchanging command data with the TV home terminal control device is required, and there has been a problem that the development of this software requires a great deal of labor and cost.

[0006] The present invention solves the above problems,
An object of the present invention is to provide a CATV home terminal control device capable of easily performing remote control of a CATV home terminal.

[0007]

To achieve this object, a CATV home terminal control device according to the present invention has a contact interface for inputting at least two contact signals and at least two types of command data stored in advance. Command storage means, viewing data storage means for storing predetermined viewing data, data transmission means for outputting command data and / or viewing data to an external predetermined CATV home terminal, and a contact signal input from a contact interface. Control means for controlling the output of command data corresponding to the contact signal to the CATV home terminal in response to the input of the contact signal. The feature is that output is possible.

[0008]

According to the CATV home terminal control device constructed as described above, the control means controls the output of command data corresponding to the contact signal input from the contact interface to the CATV home terminal, and outputs the command data. And / or transfer the viewing data to an external predetermined C
Output to ATV home terminal.

[0009]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG.
An embodiment of the V home terminal control device will be described in detail. FIG. 1 shows a partially omitted embodiment of a CATV home terminal control apparatus according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, a CATV home terminal control device (hereinafter simply referred to as a control device) 10 includes a control unit 1 as control means, a contact interface 2 as contact input means, a data transmission unit 3, a storage means, , A viewing data storage unit 5, an input unit 6 as input means, a display unit 7, and a head end 9 having an RF modulation unit 8.

The control unit 1 controls the upper parts to read out a data signal, for example, a viewing data signal to be transmitted to each home terminal, from the viewing data storage unit 5 and send it to the data transmission unit 3. To each home terminal via Further, the control unit 1 constantly monitors the contact state of each of the contacts 1 to n of the contact interface 2 and reads command data corresponding to the contact from the command storage unit 4 when the input of the contact changes. Control is performed to transmit the data to the data transmitting unit 3 and transmit the data to each home terminal via the CATV transmission path 20.

The contact interface 2 has a plurality of contacts to which signals are inputted to control the apparatus from a remote place, and the state of each contact is constantly monitored by the control unit 1. The data transmission unit 3 transmits command data input from the command storage unit 4 or viewing data input from the viewing data storage unit 5 according to the control signal of the control unit 1 to the CATV transmission path 2.
Send to 0.

The command storage unit 4 stores command data corresponding to each contact of the contact interface 2. The viewing data storage unit 5 receives and holds viewing data such as news, sports, music, and movies to be transmitted to each home terminal, and transmits the stored viewing data according to a control signal of the control unit 1. Send it to unit 3. The input unit 6 includes an operation unit such as a keyboard or a sensor panel, and a control instruction signal input by an input operation of an operation manager is transmitted to the control unit 1.

The display unit 7 is a liquid crystal display or C
It comprises a display device such as an RT display, and displays data such as contents input by the input unit 6 and contents transmitted to each home terminal. The head end 9 has an RF modulation unit 8, is connected to the data transmission unit 3 and the CATV transmission line 20, and converts each data input from the data transmission unit 3 into an FM.
The data is modulated and the modulated data is transmitted to the CATV transmission line 20.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.
FIG. 2 shows an example of a recording format of the command storage unit 4. According to this example, when the contact 1 is ON, the group 1
It is set to smooth the buzzer of the home terminal belonging to. When the contact 2 is ON, the control ID =
The selected channel of the home terminal of 0001 is set to be switched to a predetermined channel. When the contact n is ON, the power of the home terminals of all the subscribers is turned ON as shown in the above operation example, and at the same time, a buzzer for calling attention is leveled, and further, the channel selected by the user is changed. It is set so as to forcibly switch to a predetermined channel. The control unit 1 reads command data corresponding to the state of the contact from the command storage unit 4 and sends it to the data transmission unit 3, and performs various controls of a display device such as a CRT display of each home terminal via the CATV transmission line 20. . Various command data set and stored in the command storage unit 4 can be changed by an input operation of the input unit 6.

Next, an operation example in which the CATV home terminal control device 10 of the present embodiment notifies a subscriber of an emergency broadcast at the time of occurrence of a disaster such as an earthquake will be described. The operation of the control device 10 at this time is performed by a keyboard operation of a person in charge of a disaster prevention section, such as a city hall, which is a remote place. The terminal 30 including the keyboard and the contact interface 2 of the control device 10 are connected by a communication line 40 such as a telephone line.

When a disaster such as an earthquake occurs and an emergency control signal is input by a keyboard operation input of the external terminal 30 performed by a person in charge, a preset contact n of the contact interface 2 is turned on. . The control unit 1 reads command data corresponding to the contact n from the command storage unit 4 and sends the command data to the data transmission unit 3, and the CATV transmission line 2
Various types of control of a display device such as a CRT display of each home terminal are performed via the control terminal 0. That is, the power of the home terminals of all the subscribers is turned on via the CATV transmission line 20, and at the same time, a buzzer for calling attention is given. Further, the user's channel is forcibly switched to a predetermined channel.

According to the CATV home terminal control device 10 of the present embodiment, the contact interface 2 having a plurality of contacts connectable to an external terminal via the communication line 40;
Since the command storage unit 4 storing the command corresponding to each contact is provided, the home terminal of the subscriber can be controlled by remote control. This also means that control of the home terminal can be performed by a person other than the operation manager.

Further, the remote control for controlling the home terminal is not limited to an input device such as a keyboard.
It is also possible to take in an alarm contact from a monitoring control device such as a TV transmission path failure into the contact interface 2. C
Taking the example of monitoring and controlling an ATV transmission line failure, it is possible to sound a buzzer at the home terminal of the maintenance technician's house when a CATV transmission line failure occurs at night.

Although the present embodiment has been described with respect to only an emergency broadcast at the time of occurrence of a disaster such as an earthquake, other information such as a fire report or a CATV transmission path failure can also be provided as described above. .

[0020]

According to the present invention, the CATV home terminal control device controls the output of the command data corresponding to the input contact signal to the CATV home terminal so that the command data and / or the viewing / listening data can be transmitted to a predetermined external device. Can be output to the CATV home terminal. Therefore, the remote control of the home terminal of the subscriber can be easily performed without the control device of the home terminal connected to the higher-order computer or the dedicated software for exchanging commands, which is conventionally required.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially omitted block diagram showing an embodiment of a CATV home terminal control device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a command storage state of a command storage unit in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Control part 2 Contact interface 3 Data transmission part 4 Command storage part 5 Viewing data storage part 6 Input part 7 Display part 8 RF modulation part 9 Head end 10 CATV home terminal control device 20 CATV transmission line 30 External terminal 40 Communication circuit

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A contact interface for inputting at least two contact signals, a command storage means in which at least two types of command data are stored in advance, a viewing data storage means for storing predetermined viewing data, and the command data And / or data transmission means for outputting the viewing data to an external predetermined CATV home terminal; and in response to the contact signal input from the contact interface, to the CATV home terminal of the command data corresponding to the contact signal. Control means for controlling the output of the CATV, wherein the command data corresponding to the emergency can be output by inputting the contact signal in an emergency in place of the viewing data in a normal time in an emergency. Home terminal control device. 2. The CATV home terminal control device further comprises an input means for new input and / or change input of the command data, and a new output form of the command data corresponding to the urgent contents. 2. The CATV home terminal control device according to claim 1, wherein registration and / or updating is enabled.