JPH10164246A - Device information management device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To open a home page to the public to an access from a telephone line with a simple operation by detecting information from a device and facility which do not have a connection function to a network to superimpose on a radio wave network, automatically changing a home page and providing a WWW server in addition. SOLUTION: A device information management device consists of a sensor unit 1, a house server 2 and a portable terminal 3. The unit 1 consists of a light quantity detecting part 10 which detects light of a LED lamp that is attached to the device, a decision processing part 11 which decides the light quantity, a transmitting signal creating part 12 which creates a transmitting signal based on the result and a radio wave transmitting part 13. The server 2 consists of a radio wave receiving part 14, a received radio wave analyzing part 15 which analyzes a received signal, a home page changing part 16 which automatically changes contents of a home page based on the result, a WWW server 17 which opens a home page to the public for access from the terminal 3 and a modem 18.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a device for collecting / managing equipment information and security information at home.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, home electric appliances such as washing machines, refrigerators, televisions and the like are widely used in almost all households in Japan. However, all of these operations and management are independent for each device, and there is a point that maintenance and security management can be improved.

[0003] In order to solve these problems, a network system for managing various information related to equipment and security in a home or office has been proposed.

[0004] A home bus system and the like are well known in the home, and a centralized management type air conditioning / lighting system installed in a newly constructed intelligent building or the like is well known for business use.

[0005]

However, these systems have not been widely used in homes or existing buildings for the following reasons.

[0006] 1. Standard interfaces for network connections are not widespread.

[0007] 2. Since information from old existing equipment (equipment) that does not have a network connection function cannot be detected,
Cannot manage all devices.

[0008] 3. A dedicated communication device and communication software are required to obtain information from the outdoors or office. Moreover, the operation is complicated.

4. Low affinity with currently used computer network systems.

[0010]

According to the present invention, there is provided a sensor for detecting an operation state of a device, a sensor information transmitting section for transmitting a signal detected by the sensor as a wireless signal, and a wireless signal transmitted from the sensor information transmitting section. A radio wave receiving unit that receives signals, a received radio wave analysis unit that analyzes the signals received by the radio wave receiving unit and captures the operation status of the device, and changes the homepage according to the operation status of the device obtained by the received radio wave analysis unit It is provided with a homepage change unit and a WWW server for publishing the homepage for access from a telephone line.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a schematic conceptual diagram of a device information management apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows details of the configuration.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a sensor unit for detecting the status of equipment and facilities in a home and transmitting the detection result as a radio signal, and 2 denotes a radio signal from a plurality of sensor units arranged in the home. And create a WWW (World Wide Web) homepage based on those signals.
The home server 3 that changes and presents home page information for external access through a telephone line is a mobile terminal (PDA, PIM, mobile phone, etc.) for connecting to the home server 2.

FIG. 2 explains in detail the configuration of the sensor unit 1 and the configuration of the home server 2 included in the configuration of FIG. 10 is a light amount detection unit for detecting the intensity of light of an LED lamp attached to another device, 11 is whether the light amount detected by the light amount detection unit 10 is greater than a predetermined value,
Alternatively, a determination processing unit that determines whether or not it is blinking at a certain timing, 12 is a transmission signal creation unit that creates a transmission signal based on the determination result of the determination processing unit 11, and 13 is created by the transmission signal creation unit 12. A radio wave transmitting unit that modulates the transmitted signal and transmits it as a radio wave. Reference numeral 14 denotes a radio wave receiving unit that receives a radio wave transmitted from the radio wave transmitting unit 13, 15 denotes a received radio wave analyzing unit that analyzes a signal received by the radio wave receiving unit 14, 1
Reference numeral 6 denotes a homepage change unit for automatically changing the contents of a homepage written in a language such as HTML or Java based on the result of the received radio wave analysis unit 15, and 17 denotes a homepage change unit 1.
A WWW server for publishing the homepage updated in 6 for access from others, 18 is a WWW server 17
This is a modem for connecting the Internet with a telephone line and exposing the changed homepage for access through the telephone line.

The operation of the embodiment of the device information management apparatus configured as described above will be described.

In the present invention, in order to detect information from a device (equipment) having no network connection function,
A method using a sensor is used as a method for obtaining operation information of a device.

There are various methods for detecting the state of the device using the sensor. Here, the "method of detecting the light amount of the LED lamp of another device" shown in the embodiment of FIG. 2 will be described as a specific example. Most recent home appliances use LED lamps to indicate the state of the device. In particular, power lamps that are often used are power lamps that are turned on and are in operation, lamps that show an abnormal state (the power lamp may be blinking), and operating states (for example, in the case of video). "Playing" or "Recording")
It is a lamp showing. In the present embodiment, a small sensor unit is mounted externally on these lamps, and the state of the device is detected by detecting the amount of light, blinking, lighting color, and the like.

In the sensor unit 1 shown in FIG.
The light of the D lamp is detected by a light amount detection unit 10 including a photodiode or the like. The detected signal is processed by the determination processing unit 11 to detect whether the light amount exceeds a predetermined value, or whether the light amount changes at a constant rhythm, what color the color is, and the like. Determine the status of the device. The transmission signal creation unit 12 generates a signal according to the status of the device determined by the determination processing unit 11 and outputs the signal to the radio wave transmission unit 13. The radio wave transmitting unit 13 modulates the input signal and transmits it to the home server 2 as a radio wave.

With the operation and configuration of the sensor unit 1 as described above, even for devices and facilities that cannot be connected to a network, the status of the devices can be detected, and the status information can be transmitted to the wireless network.

Wireless signals transmitted from a plurality of sensor units 1 installed in each household device are transmitted to a home server 2.
Received at. In the home server 2, according to the information transmitted from the sensor unit, the WWW (World Wide
b) Change the homepage.

The WWW is CERN (European laboratory for pa
rticle physics), a distributed hypermedia system on the Internet, whose use has been increasing rapidly in recent years. In this system, not only text information but also multimedia information such as a still image, a moving image, and audio can be browsed by a simple operation. In addition, since the Internet is a worldwide network system, it has the advantage that it can be accessed from anywhere.

Information transmitted on the WWW is written in languages such as HTML and Java. Here, the information transmitted on the WWW is simply called a homepage.

In the home server 2, the radio wave output from the sensor unit 1 is received by the radio wave receiving unit 14. The radio signal received by the radio receiver 14 is sent to the received signal analyzer 15 as it is. The received signal analyzer 15 demodulates this signal, and asks "from which sensor unit?" Or "What is the current operating state of the device?"
Take out information such as. The homepage change unit 16 changes the homepage according to the analysis result of the received radio wave analysis unit 15. Specifically, there is a change in a script written in the HTML language, a replacement of an applet written in Java or the like, or a change in a link destination.

The changed homepage is WWW server 1
7 and the modem 18 enable access from outside via a telephone line. However, the WWW server 17 here also includes software (such as PPP) for performing a communication service similar to TCP / IP using a telephone line.

FIG. 3 shows a specific example of a change in the homepage. This is a display of device information such as a TV, video, gas tap, etc. as a home page based on a floor plan of a single-family home. The user browses the homepage changed by the changing unit 16.

On the floor plan of the single-family house, there are animations of each device, which change according to a signal from the sensor unit 1. Specific examples of changes in the display method according to the state of each device are shown in the lower part of FIG.

By using the device information management device configured as described above, information on devices at home can be easily browsed on a homepage on the Internet using graphic display or animation display. Also, since the Internet is a large-scale international computer network system, it can be accessed from anywhere, and the WWW Browser on the homepage can be easily obtained, so if there is a telephone line or a terminal connected to the Internet, it can be easily used at home. You can see information.

Further, according to the present invention, since the state of each device is detected by the sensor, the state can be easily taken out from ordinary home electric appliances having no configuration for network connection.

In the present embodiment, the sensor unit 1 is configured to detect the light amount of the LED of another device by using the light amount detection unit 1, but the state of the device is detected by using another sensor. Is also good. For example, a configuration for detecting pressure as shown in FIG. 4 or a configuration using a mechanical switch may be used. To detect "whether a person is sitting in a chair" or "whether a person is sleeping in a bed", FIG. 4a)
A method of detecting pressure as described above is suitable. By arranging a pressure sensor in a portion where a person's weight is applied, it is possible to detect whether or not a person is present and to transmit the information wirelessly to a home server. The mechanical switch of FIG. 4B) is suitable for opening and closing the door and the gate, and the information of the mechanical switch may be sent to the home server.
Further, similarly to FIG. 4, the sensor unit 1 may be configured using other sensors such as a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, and an infrared sensor.

Further, in the configuration of FIG. 2, a configuration in which the WWW server 17 is installed in the home has been described, but a method via a provider may be used. Here, the provider is an organization such as a company that provides services for accessing the WWW, mainly telephone lines. This configuration is shown in FIG. The difference between the configurations of FIGS. 5 and 2 is the configuration of a part of the home server 2 and the configuration of the provider, and the rest is common in both operation and configuration. Referring to FIG.
The signal demodulated in is sent to the information transmission control device 20,
Sent to provider over telephone line. The provider transmits the signal sent from the telephone line to the information reception control device 2
1 and receives the signal, and changes the homepage according to the signal
Change the homepage at 6. In the configuration of FIG. 5, basically, only the home page creating unit 16, the WWW server 17, and the modem 18 of the configuration of FIG. 2 are moved to the provider. Thus, as a new configuration, an information transmission control device 20 for transmitting an output result of the received radio wave analysis unit 15 using a telephone line and an information reception control device 21 for receiving the output result are required. The configuration of the home server 2 ′ is simpler than that of FIG. 2, which is advantageous in terms of cost.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 6 is a diagram showing details of the configuration of a device information management apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 6, reference numeral 10 denotes a light amount detecting unit for detecting the intensity of light of an LED lamp attached to another device, and 11 denotes whether or not the light amount detected by the light amount detecting unit 10 is larger than a predetermined value. A judgment processing unit for judging whether or not it is blinking at a certain timing;
A transmission signal creation unit 13 for creating a transmission signal based on the determination result is a radio wave transmission unit for modulating the signal created by the transmission signal creation unit 11 and transmitting the modulated signal as a radio wave. Reference numeral 14 denotes a radio wave receiving unit that receives a radio wave transmitted from the radio wave transmitting unit 13;
Reference numeral 5 denotes a received radio wave analyzing unit for analyzing a signal received by the radio wave receiving unit 14, reference numeral 17 denotes a WWW server for publishing a homepage for access from another, and reference numeral 18 denotes a WWW server 17
This is a modem for connecting the Internet with a telephone line and exposing the changed homepage for access through the telephone line. The above configuration is similar to that of the first embodiment. The difference between this embodiment and the above-described embodiment is that
Data storage unit 30 for storing the output of 5 as time-series information
And a living condition determining unit 31 for estimating a living condition in the home from the output of the received radio wave analyzing unit 15 and the information stored in the data storing unit 30, and a life advice based on the estimation result of the living condition determining unit 31. Life advice generation unit 32 to be performed
A homepage database 33 for storing external homepage information for advice generation in the life advice generation unit 32, an inference rule database 34 for storing inference rules used for estimation, and a life advice generation unit 32.
Is provided with a homepage creation unit 35 for creating a homepage including life advice information based on the output result of the homepage.

The operation of the embodiment of the device information management apparatus configured as described above will be described.

However, since the configuration and operation of the sensor unit 1 in FIG. 6 are the same as those of the first embodiment, only the operation of the home server 2 'will be described here.

In the home server 2 ′, the radio wave output from the plurality of sensor units 1 arranged in the home is received by the radio wave receiving unit 14. The radio signal received by the radio receiver 14 is sent to a received signal analyzer 15, where the current operation status of the device is detected.

The data storage unit 30 stores the operation status of the device as time-series information. For example, when the sensor unit 1 is attached to the water heater, the signal from the sensor unit 1 is received and analyzed by the radio wave receiving unit 14 and the received radio wave analyzing unit 15, and the home server 2 'displays the current operation state of the water heater. Can tell. The data storage unit 30 manages and stores the information on the usage status and the time information in association with each other. For example, assuming that the water heater is started to be used at 19:00 on November 16 and used until 21:00, the data management unit 30 sets “November 30: water heater: 19--21”.
And store this information for a long time. However, if the device is used intermittently, it is determined whether or not the device has been used in that time zone based on whether or not the usage time per hour has exceeded a predetermined value. As described above, by storing the use start time and the end time for each device in the home for a long period of time, data for determining the life pattern of the home is accumulated.

The living condition determination unit 31 is provided with a data storage unit 30
, And calculates statistics such as an average value and a variance value such as a use time period and a use time length of each device, and determines an outline of a household life pattern. Specifically, the living situation determination unit 31 has dozens of basic patterns of the life pattern, and calculates which basic pattern the statistic of the use time zone and the use time length of each device is close to, An operation of selecting the top several close patterns is performed. As basic patterns, various types such as "morning type", "night type", "double working type", "elderly type", "vacation type" are prepared.

The living condition determining unit 31 calculates the statistics of the operating state of the equipment over a long period of time, and not only selects a close basic pattern, but also calculates the statistics of the operating state of the equipment in recent days. A basic pattern close to the value is selected. This allows you to estimate your most recent living situation,
Changes in life can be estimated to some extent.

The life advice generation unit 32 is based on the long-term life pattern estimated by the life situation judgment unit 31 and the recent life pattern obtained from the device operation status in recent days.
Gives advice on life. Here, the life advice expresses a proposal for the estimated life pattern by a link on a homepage.

At present, the Internet and WWW are rapidly spreading. The content on the Internet is already enormous, with a wide variety of types. Among them,
There is a great deal of information on medical care, cooking, housing, and clothing that are closely related to daily life, as well as advertisement information on various products. The index information for these contents is stored in the homepage database 33. Specifically, for each target home page, the type (category) of the information and the location (address) are stored.

The inference rule database 34 stores knowledge for generating a link to an appropriate homepage from the life pattern estimated by the living situation determination unit 31.
Here, the knowledge of selecting a homepage from a life pattern is expressed by a rule expression such as "if, if, please". Specific examples are shown below.

(Examples of rules in the inference rule database 34) If the long-term life pattern is "morning type" and "elderly type" and the recent life pattern is "night type", the category "adult disease" Please search the homepage database 33 for the homepage of "Guide for light exercise".

The inference rule database 34 stores many such rules. Life advice generator 32
Makes inferences using this set of rules. The homepage database 33 is searched using the inference result.

The homepage creation unit 35 embeds the address (URL) of the homepage output from the life advice generation unit 32 in the form of link information on the homepage, and gives predetermined icons and explanatory documents to make it easy for the user to understand. I do. The procedure of this part is specifically realized by changing a script written in the HTML language or replacing an applet written in Java or the like. FIG. 7 shows an example of a specifically created homepage. This is a display example when browsing with a WWW Browser on a mobile terminal.

The homepage created by the homepage creation section 35 can be accessed from the outside via a telephone line by the WWW server 17 and the modem 18, and the user can use his / her own life from the operation status of the device which is stored naturally. Only relevant information can be obtained.

By using the device information management device configured as described above, it is possible to determine a life pattern from the operation status of devices at home and to propose life advice according to the life pattern.

Access via a provider as shown in FIG. 5 is also possible. In this case, the data storage unit 30, the living situation determination unit 31, the living advice generation unit 32, the homepage database 33, and the inference rule database 34 are included in the provider, not the home server. In such a configuration, the homepage database 33 and the inference rule database 34 are constantly updated by a specialized trader, so that more detailed services are possible. In addition, the provider can embed the link information of the advertisement in the homepage preferentially in response to a request from each company. Thereby, the user who accesses the provider browses the advertisement information with priority. In this case, it is possible to embed only appropriate advertisements on the homepage according to the household's life pattern, which is superior to advertisements distributed to all viewers such as conventional TV commercials and newspaper advertisements. Advertising media.

Although the present embodiment has been described with a focus on life advice, as shown in FIG. 8, the device status determination unit 40 and the device advice generation unit 41 are replaced with the life status determination unit 31 and the life advice generation unit 32. , It is also possible to provide a user with a suggestion such as information on equipment maintenance and replacement information as a homepage. In this case, the device status determination unit 40 estimates the aging or failure of the device based on the total operation time of the device or the state of use.
Based on the status determined by the device status determination unit 40, the device advice generation unit 41 uses the inference rules in the inference rule database 34 'and the homepage database 33' to generate a home page containing information such as maintenance and replacement information. Search for. The homepage generation unit creates a new homepage using the searched homepage as link information, as in the above embodiment. As a result, the user can obtain advice on home appliances and equipment.

[0049]

As described above, by using the configuration of the present invention, it is possible to easily view the operation status of home appliances on a homepage on the Internet using graphic display and animation display.
Since the operation status of home appliances is detected by a sensor and sent to the home server by a wireless signal, a wireless network can be constructed even for appliances and facilities having no network connection function. In addition, by determining a life pattern from the operation state of the device and automatically linking a home page including content according to the life pattern, a home page having information on life advice can be automatically created.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a device information management device of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration of a device information management device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a homepage display.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a sensor unit.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of a device information management device using a provider.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration of a device information management device according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a result of creating a homepage for life advice.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a configuration in which the embodiment is applied to device advice;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Sensor unit 2 Home server 3 Portable terminal 4 Provider 10 Light amount detection part 11 Judgment processing part 12 Transmission signal creation part 13 Radio wave transmission part 14 Radio wave reception part 15 Reception radio wave analysis part 16 Homepage change part 17 WWW server 18 Modem 20 Information transmission Control device 21 Information reception control device 30 Data storage unit 31 Living condition determination unit 32 Life advice generation unit 33 Homepage database 34 Inference rule database 35 Homepage creation unit 40 Device state determination unit 41 Device advice generation unit

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A sensor for detecting an operation state of a device, a sensor information transmitting unit for transmitting a signal detected by the sensor as a wireless signal, and a radio wave receiving for receiving a wireless signal transmitted from the sensor information transmitting unit. Unit, a received radio wave analysis unit that analyzes the signal received by the radio wave reception unit and captures the operation status of the device, a home page change unit that changes the home page according to the operation status of the device obtained by the received radio wave analysis unit, A device information management device comprising a WWW server for publishing the home page for access from a telephone line. 2. A light amount detection unit for detecting a light amount and a regular change in the light amount, a judgment processing unit for judging an operation state of a device from a detection result of the light amount detection unit, A sensor information transmitting unit that transmits a signal as a wireless signal, a radio wave receiving unit that receives a radio signal transmitted from the sensor information transmitting unit, and a reception that analyzes a signal received by the radio wave receiving unit and captures an operation state of a device. A radio wave analysis unit, a home page change unit that changes at least one of text information, image information, and link information in a home page according to the operation status of the device obtained by the reception radio wave analysis unit, and accessing the home page from a telephone line. A device information management device comprising a WWW server for publishing the information to a device. 3. A sensor for detecting an operation state of a device at home, a sensor information transmitting unit for transmitting a signal detected by the sensor as a wireless signal, and receiving a wireless signal transmitted from the sensor information transmitting unit. A radio wave receiving unit, a received radio wave analyzing unit that analyzes a signal received by the radio wave receiving unit and captures the operating status of the device, and time-series data in which the operating status of the device obtained by the received radio wave analyzing unit is associated with time. A data storage unit that accumulates the data, a life information determination unit that estimates a life pattern of the target home from time-series data of the operation status of the device stored in the data storage unit, and information related to home life. A homepage database that stores index information consisting of categories and addresses for homepages on the Internet, An inference rule database storing inference rules for generating a device, and an inference is performed from the life pattern determined by the living information determination unit using an inference rule in the inference rule database, and a homepage database according to the inference result. And a homepage generator for generating a homepage for providing life advice using the address information of the homepage searched by the life advice generator, and publishing the homepage for access from a telephone line. Device information management device comprising a WWW server for use. 4. A sensor for detecting an operation state of a device, a sensor information transmitting unit for transmitting a signal detected by the sensor as a wireless signal, and a radio wave receiving for receiving a wireless signal transmitted from the sensor information transmitting unit. Unit, a received radio wave analyzing unit that analyzes the signal received by the radio wave receiving unit and captures the operating status of the device, and stores the operating status of the device obtained by the received radio wave analyzing unit as time-series data correlated with time. A data storage unit, a device state determination unit that determines the total use time and frequency of use from time-series data of the operation status of the device stored in the data storage unit and determines the state of the device, device maintenance and new products, etc. A homepage database that stores index information consisting of categories and addresses with respect to homepages on the Internet that contain information about An inference rule database that stores inference rules for generating advice from the state of the device detected by the sensor, and an inference rule in the inference rule database from the state of the device determined by the device state determination unit. A device advice generating unit that performs inference by using the homepage database according to the inference result; a homepage generating unit that generates a homepage that performs device advice using the address information of the homepage searched by the device advice generating unit; A device information management device comprising a WWW server for disclosing access to a telephone line.