JP3000581B2 - Telephone terminal device and remote control system - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention enables remote control of the operation of various electric and electronic devices, detection of the operation status thereof, and communication thereof via a telephone line. The present invention relates to a telephone terminal device such as a line remote control device.

2. Description of the Related Art Hereinafter, a home power line remote control device described above will be described as an example of a telephone terminal device.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is a home power line remote control device for notifying a caller of a detection state of a sensor provided correspondingly to various electric / electronic devices via a telephone line to a caller by a voice signal generated by voice synthesis. .

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of a conventional device of this kind.

In the figure, 1 is a telephone line, 2 is a home power line remote control device main body, 3A to 3F are various devices connected to the home power line remote control device main body 2, and 3a to 3f are the devices 3A to 3F, respectively. These are individually installed sensors. Reference numeral 3A denotes a transmission locking device installed at an entrance or the like, in which a door opening / closing sensor 3a for detecting a locking state is installed. 3B is a lighting fixture, which includes a power ON / OFF which detects the state of the power supply.
The sensor 3b is installed. 3C is an air conditioner, in which a room temperature sensor 3c is installed. 3D is a water heater, in which a water temperature sensor 3d is installed. 3E is a rice cooker, 3F is a ventilation fan, each has a power ON / OFF sensor
3e and 3f are installed. 4 is a switch control unit for operating each of the devices 3A to 3F, 5 is a sensor status detecting unit for detecting information from each of the sensors 3a to 3f, 6 is an incoming call detecting unit for detecting an incoming call from the telephone line 1, 7 Is an automatic line closing unit for closing a line by a signal from the incoming call detecting unit 6, 8 is a line interface, 9 is a remote control signal detecting unit for detecting a remote control signal sent via the telephone line 1, 10 Is a message voice synthesizing unit for transmitting a voice signal to the telephone line 1, and 11 is a telephone such as a public telephone capable of transmitting a tone pulse signal.

Next, the operation of the system using the home power line remote control device configured as described above will be described.

Telephone that can go out with home power line remote control device body 2 activated and send tone pulse signals from outside
At 11, a call is made to the home power line remote control device main body 2 via the telephone line 1. On the other hand, in the home power line remote control device, when the incoming call detection unit 6 detects an incoming call, the automatic line closing unit 7 automatically closes the line. After confirming that the line has been closed, the caller uses the operation unit of the telephone 11 to send a DTMF (Dual Tone
A preset remote control signal is transmitted by a Multi Frequency signal. In the case of this conventional example, a command for turning on / off the power of each of the devices 3A to 3F and a status notification command used for remotely listening to the detection information of each sensor are set as the remote control signals. In the home power line remote control device, the remote control signal sent from the caller is detected and judged by the remote control signal detection unit 9, and if it is a command to turn on / off the device, the switch control unit 4 corresponds. ON / OFF of the device
I do. Also, if it is a sensor status notification instruction, 3a to 3f
The current detection information of each sensor is determined by the sensor status detection unit 5 from the output from each sensor of the above, and the detected content is converted into a voice signal by the message voice synthesis unit 10, and the line interface 8 and the telephone line 1 To the telephone 11, that is, the caller side. As an example of the voice signal generated by the message voice synthesizer 10 and transmitted to the caller, in the case of the sensor of 3a, "the door is locked." Or "the door is not locked." And 3c sensors, such as "The current room temperature is ** degrees." Or "The air conditioner is not running."

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in the above-described home power line remote control device, the status report of the sensors is performed by an audio signal, so it is difficult to hear depending on the status of the line, and it is difficult to hear the status reports of all the sensors. There was a problem that time had to be spent for ten seconds or several minutes.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems, the present invention shows, in a simplified diagram, output information from sensors installed on a plurality of devices, image information of each device displayed in a simplified diagram, and the status of each device. An image signal generating unit that converts the image into an icon image including information;
An image signal modulating unit that modulates the image signal generated by the image signal generating unit into a signal that can be transmitted to a telephone line, an incoming call detecting unit that detects an incoming call from the telephone line, and an incoming call detection by the incoming call detecting unit An automatic line closing unit that automatically closes the telephone line afterward, and the automatic line closing unit detects whether there is a remote control signal in a signal coming from the calling side via the telephone line after the line is closed. A remote control signal detection unit, and when a predetermined remote control signal is detected by the remote control signal detection unit, image information of each device generated by the image signal generation unit is displayed in a simplified diagram, and the information of each device is displayed. Control means is provided for modulating an icon image including information indicating a situation into a signal that can be transmitted via the telephone line by the image signal modulation unit and controlling transmission to the telephone line.

Operation With this configuration, it is possible to transmit the detection status of a plurality of sensors at a time as image information to a videophone device using a general telephone line, which has been receiving attention in recent years.

EXAMPLES Before describing the present invention, a videophone device using a general telephone line, which has been receiving attention in recent years, will be briefly described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 5 is an external view of a still picture transmission videophone apparatus using a general telephone line, which has been receiving attention in recent years.
An image input unit composed of a CCD (Charge Coupled Device), an image pickup tube, etc., 13 is an image display unit composed of a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube), a liquid crystal display panel, etc., 14 is a still picture transmission videophone unit, and 15 is The image transmission button is operated when transmitting the image captured by the image input unit 12 to the other party via the telephone line. FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of the videophone apparatus. In FIG. 6, reference numeral 16 denotes an audio signal / video for switching the flow of a signal arriving on the telephone line 1 between the audio side (A) and the video side (B). The signal changeover switch 17 is used to determine whether or not there is a video signal in the signal sent from the other party via the telephone line 1 when the audio / video signal changeover switch is connected to the audio side (A). A video signal discriminating unit for discriminating, and when there is a video signal, sends a signal indicating that to the audio signal / video signal switch 16. Reference numeral 18 denotes an audio output unit such as a speaker, 19 denotes an audio input unit such as a microphone, 20 denotes a video signal modulation unit that modulates a video signal captured by the video input unit 12 into a signal that can be transmitted through the telephone line 1, 21 Are video signal demodulators for demodulating the modulated video signal sent through the telephone line 1, 22, 23
Denotes a first video memory and a second video memory, respectively.

Next, the operation of the videophone device configured as described above will be described. In the following description, it is assumed that a plurality of video telephones having the configuration shown in FIG.

First, in an initial state, the audio signal / video signal switch 16 is connected to the audio side (A). When a call or an incoming call occurs in this state, the caller and the called party are connected via a telephone line, and thereafter normal voice communication is mutually performed by the voice output unit 18 and the voice input unit 19. .

In this state, if the user wants to transmit an image to the other party, the image transmission button 15 is pressed. Then the audio signal
The video signal changeover switch 16 operates, and the signal flow switches from the audio side (A) to the video side (B), and the video input section
The video information fetched by 12 and stored in the first video memory 22 is modulated by the video signal modulator 20 into a signal that can be transmitted over a telephone line. Thereafter, the modulated video signal is prefixed with a signal for switching between audio and video, and transmitted from the line interface unit 8 to the other party via the telephone line 1. Then, the audio / video switching signal is detected by the video signal discriminating unit 17 of the other party's telephone terminal device, the audio / video signal switching switch 16 operates, and the signal flow changes from the audio side (A) to the video side (A). Switching to B), the video signal is demodulated by the video signal demodulation unit 21, stored in the second video memory 23, and displayed on the video display unit 13.

After the video transmission is completed, the audio signal / video signal switch 16 automatically returns to the audio side (A).

On the other hand, when the other party transmits the video, the same processing as described above is performed, and the received video is displayed on the video display unit 13 on the own side.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of a home power line remote control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 24 denotes an image signal generation unit for generating the detection status of each of the sensors 3a to 3f (this sensor is the same as the sensor given the same number in the conventional example) to predetermined image information; Reference numeral 25 denotes an image signal modulating unit that modulates the image signal generated by the image signal generating unit 24 into a signal that can be transmitted to the telephone line 1.

The operation of the home power line remote control device configured as described above will be described below.

Telephone 11 capable of transmitting general tone pulse signals
Remotely control the power ON / OFF of each device of 3A ~ 3F,
The case where each sensor information is received as an audio signal is the same as the conventional example.
The same applies to the case where the ON / OFF remote control of each of the devices 3A to 3F is performed, so the description is omitted here, and the case where each sensor information is received from the still picture transmission videophone main unit 14 will be described.

When the still image transmission video telephone unit 14 calls the home power line remote control unit 2, the automatic line closing unit 7 closes the line according to a command from the incoming call detection unit 6, as in the conventional example. Thereafter, the caller transmits a DTMF signal indicating that the predetermined caller is a videophone. In the home power line remote control device, this signal is detected and determined by the remote control signal detection unit 9, and the detection status of each of the sensors 3a to 3f is controlled to be transmitted to the calling side as an image signal. As a result, the detection status of each sensor is passed from the sensor status detection unit 5 to the image signal generation unit 24, and as shown in FIGS. In a form in which the situation is included in one screen, each device is converted into an icon image including image information that is displayed in a simplified diagram and information indicating the status of each device. Thereafter, the image information is modulated by the image signal modulating unit 25 into a signal that can be transmitted via the telephone line 1 and transmitted to the still image transmission video telephone main unit 14 on the calling side via the line interface 8 and the telephone line 1. Sent out. And the still picture transmission videophone main body of the calling side
At 14, similarly to the video communication between the still image transmission videophone devices, the received image information indicating the detection status of each sensor is transmitted to the video display unit 13 via the video signal demodulation unit 21 and the second video memory 23. And the caller can confirm the current situation by viewing the displayed image.

FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 are examples of image information indicating the sensor detection status sent from the home power line remote control device of the present invention.

Effects of the Invention As described above, the present invention provides an icon image including output information from sensors installed in a plurality of devices, image information displaying each device in a simplified diagram, and information indicating the status of each device. An image signal generation unit for converting the image signal into an image signal generated by the image signal generation unit, and an image signal modulation unit for modulating the image signal into a signal that can be transmitted to a telephone line. The means for transmitting the detection status image of the sensor generated in the above to the telephone line is provided, so that the status report of each sensor can be received in a short time as image information that can be understood at a glance. It is practically effective.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a home power line remote control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 2 and 3 are sensors transmitted from the home power line remote control device of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a conventional home power line remote control device, FIG. 5 is an external view of a still picture transmission video telephone, and FIG. 6 is a still picture transmission television. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a telephone device. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Phone line 2 ... Home electric power line remote control device main body 3A-3F ... Electrical equipment 3a-3f ... Sensor 4 ... Switch control part 5 ... Sensor situation detection part 6 ... Reception detection part 7 ... … Automatic line closing unit 8… Line interface 9… Remote control signal detection unit 10… Message voice synthesis unit 11… Telephone 12… Video input unit 13… Video display unit 14… Still image transmission videophone Main unit 15 Image transmission button 16 Audio signal / video signal switch 17 Video signal discriminator 18 Audio output unit 19 Audio input unit 20 Video signal modulator 21 Video signal demodulation Unit 22 First video memory 23 Second video memory 24 Image signal generation unit 25 Image signal modulation unit

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Kazumi Kawano 1006 Kazuma Kadoma, Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-61-41261 (JP, A) JP-A-63- 234943 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04M 11/00-11/10 G08B 25/00, 25/08

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. An image signal generator for converting output information from a sensor installed in each of a plurality of devices into an icon image including image information indicating each device in a simplified diagram and information indicating the status of each device. Unit, an image signal modulating unit that modulates the image signal generated by the image signal generating unit into a signal that can be transmitted to a telephone line, an incoming call detecting unit that detects an incoming call from the telephone line, and the incoming call detecting unit. An automatic line closing unit that automatically closes the telephone line after an incoming call is detected, and whether there is a remote control signal in a signal arriving via the telephone line from the calling side after the line is closed by the automatic line closing unit. A remote control signal detecting unit for detecting whether or not a predetermined remote control signal is detected by the remote control signal detecting unit; Information indicating the status of the device DOO telephone terminal, characterized in that the icon image having a control means for controlling so as to deliver to the modulated telephone line transmittable signal via the telephone line by the image signal modulator including. 2. A control terminal having an image display unit and transmitting a remote control signal via a telephone line; a plurality of controlled devices; sensors respectively installed in the plurality of controlled devices; A receiving unit that receives output information from the device, and converts the output information of the sensor obtained from the receiving unit into an icon image including image information indicating each device in a simplified diagram and information indicating the status of each device. An image signal generation unit, an image signal modulation unit that modulates the image signal generated by the image signal generation unit into a signal that can be transmitted to a telephone line, an incoming call detection unit that detects an incoming call from the telephone line, An automatic line closing unit that automatically closes the telephone line after detecting an incoming call at the detection unit; and the remote control to a signal arriving via the telephone line from the calling side after the line is closed at the automatic line closing unit. Detect if there is a signal A remote control signal detection unit, and a remote control device main unit having a remote control signal, wherein when the control device transmits a remote control signal, the remote control device main unit detects the remote control signal with the remote control signal detection unit. A signal of an icon image including image information in which each device generated by the image signal generation unit is displayed in a simplified diagram and information indicating the status of each device is transmitted via the telephone line by the image signal modulation unit. An icon image including image information indicating each device in a simplified diagram on the image display unit of the control terminal and information indicating the status of each device, while modulating the signal to a signal that can be transmitted to the control device. A remote control system characterized in that the remote control system is controlled so as to be displayed.