JPH1155761A - Living monitor system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the convenience more by detecting not only an operated state of each electric appliance but also an operating state of each electric appliance. SOLUTION: The system is configured to record and manage the operated state of an electric appliance 1 in a home by a central management means (central management section) 3. In this case, an operating state detection means 14 that detects an operating state of load components such as a light emitting diode, a motor, a heater, a boiling indication LED 13A mounted on the electric appliance 1 and the operating state of the electric appliance detected by the operating state detection means 14 is sent to the central management means 3. Furthermore, an operation state detection means (microcomputer) 23 that detects an operated state of an operation switch (boiling indication switch) 12A operating the load components 13A is provided and the operated state of the electric appliance 1 detected by the operated state detection means 23 is sent to the central management means 3 with the operating state.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a life monitor system for recording and managing the operation status of home electric appliances.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in this type of life monitoring system, when each household electrical appliance is used, its operation information is centrally managed as a predetermined signal wave using a household power line or a dedicated cable as a signal transport path. The centralized management means manages the operation. For example, information recorded in the centralized management means for each household is centrally managed by a personal computer or the like installed in a clinic or the like, so that the safety of an elderly person living alone or a disabled person can be monitored.

[0003]

However, the life monitor system detects whether or not the operation switch of each electric product has been operated and transmits the operation information to the central management means. Only the operation status of each electric product can be detected. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a life monitoring system that can detect not only the operation status of each electric product but also the operation status of each electric product, thereby improving the convenience.

[0004]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a life monitoring system according to the present invention is a life monitoring system for recording and managing the usage status of electric appliances in a home by centralized management means. Operating state detecting means for detecting the operating state of the load components such as the light emitting diode, the motor, and the heater, and transmitting the operating state of the electric appliance detected by the operating state detecting means to the central management means. It was done.

[0005] In the life monitor system, a light emitting diode, a motor, and a motor that operate in accordance with the operation state of an electric product are provided.
Since the operation status detection means is provided on the load components such as the heater, the operation status of the electric product is detected, and the operation information is transmitted to the central management means to record and manage the operation status of the household, thereby enabling the home life status to be detected. Can be monitored.

In the life monitoring system, operating condition detecting means for detecting an operating condition of an operating switch for operating the load component is provided, and the operating condition of the electric appliance detected by the operating condition detecting device is centralized together with the operating condition. Preferably, it is transmitted to the management means. With this configuration, it is possible to determine a failure of the electric product, in which the load component does not operate, even though the operation switch is pressed.

It is preferable that the operating condition detecting means is a photocoupler including a light emitting element connected to the load component and a light receiving element for receiving light from the light emitting element. Alternatively, the operating condition detecting means may be a current transformer connected to the load component.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a life monitoring system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. This life monitor system detects the operation status and operation status of each electric appliance 1 in the home, transmits the information to the central management unit 3 via the signal transfer path 2, and the central management unit 3 transmits the information. Records and manages information. In addition, the information recorded in the central management unit 3 is transmitted to the monitor unit 5 installed in a home helper's house or the like outside the home by using the telephone line 4 or the like, thereby monitoring the living situation of the home. Things.

As shown in FIG. 2, the electric appliance 1 includes a load control circuit 7 and a display panel 8, to which a microcomputer 9 and a modulation / demodulation circuit 10 are added. In this embodiment, the electric product 1 is an electric pot 1A.
And rice cooker 1B are illustrated, but in addition to these,
It goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to all kinds of electric products 1 used at home, such as air cleaners, air conditioners, and vacuum cleaners.

As shown in FIG. 3, for example, an operation status detecting means is connected to the electric pot 1A to a boiling switch 12A, which is an operation switch for starting a boiling operation, provided on the display panel 8, and is connected to the boiling switch 12A. An operating condition detecting means 14 is connected to a light emitting diode (hereinafter referred to as a boiling LED) 13A, which is a load component which operates by turning on the boiling switch 12A, and detects an operation and operation related to boiling by these detecting means. Like that.

The operation to be detected is not limited to the boiling operation, and the heat retaining operation may be detected by detecting a heat retaining switch and a thermal retaining LED. Alternatively, the hot water supply operation may be detected by detecting a hot water supply switch and a hot water supply motor. On the other hand, in the case of the rice cooker 1B, the rice cooker and the cooker LED detect the rice cooking operation, the warming switch and the warming LED operate the warming operation by the reservation switch and the reserve LED, and the like. These detecting means can be retrofitted to the existing electrical product 1 or can be attached in advance to the newly manufactured electrical product 1.

The operation status detecting means utilizes the microcomputer 9. When the boiling switch 12A is on, an H signal is input to the input portion of the microcomputer 9, and when the boiling switch 12A is off, an L signal is input to the input portion. The operation state of the switch 12A can be detected. The microcomputer 9 also receives operation information indicating that the boiling switch 12A has been operated and operation information input by the operation state detecting means 14,
The signal is transmitted to the modulation / demodulation circuit 10 as a predetermined signal wave. Further, at every desired time such as every two hours, the operation status of the electric appliance 1 at that time is transmitted to the modulation / demodulation circuit 10 as a predetermined signal wave by the built-in clock as described above. Further, it detects whether or not there is a reply from the central management unit 3 to the modem circuit 10, and if the reply is not detected within a predetermined time by a built-in timer, retransmits the signal wave. .

For example, the information signal of each electric appliance 1 is:
As shown in FIG. 4, it is represented by 6 bits in a binary system, and is composed of elapsed time information b6, product information b5 to b3, and operation / operation information b2, b1. The elapsed time information b6 is 1 for regular information every two hours, and 0 for other operation / operation information. Depending on
The corresponding case is indicated by 1, and the non-applicable case is indicated by 0. operation·
The operation information b2, b1 indicates the operation status and operation status of each electric appliance 1. The operation information b2 indicates 1 when a predetermined load component (the boiling LED 13A) is operating and 0 when it is not operating. The operation information b1 indicates 1 when a predetermined operation switch (boiling switch 12A) is on and 0 when it is off. The information signal can be modified in various ways such as amplification of transmission information.

The operating state detecting means 14 detects whether or not the boiling heater is operating by detecting the energizing state of the boiling LED 13A as a load component. As shown in FIG. 16, an LED 17 as a light emitting element, and a phototransistor 18 as a light receiving element. The resistor 16 and the LED 17 are
It is connected in series to the connection line 19 of the boiling LED 13A. The phototransistor 18 includes the LED
The switching is performed according to the presence or absence of light at 17. A reference voltage is input to the collector C side, the emitter E side is connected to the microcomputer 9 via a resistor 20, and a resistor 21 is connected upstream of the resistor 20. Grounded through. The hot water supply switch 12B and the hot water supply motor 13
When the hot water supply operation is detected by detecting B, as shown in FIG. 7, the resistor 16 and the LED 17 are connected to the hot water supply motor 13A.
Connected in parallel.

The modulation / demodulation circuit 10 frequency-modulates the signal wave of the information signal output from the microcomputer 9 to a predetermined high-frequency current, and transmits the modulated wave to the signal carrier 2 via the transformer 22. Further, it receives a modulated wave carried by the signal carrying path 2 via the transformer 22, demodulates the modulated wave into a predetermined signal wave, and outputs the signal wave to the microcomputer 9.

[0016] As shown in FIG.
The existing home power line wired in the home is used. When the electric product 1 is inserted into an outlet, the electric product 1 and the central management unit 3 can be easily connected to each other. The modulated wave is superimposed and conveyed.

The central management unit 3 is provided for each home, and comprises a microcomputer 23, a modulation / demodulation circuit 24, a memory 25, and a modem 26 as shown in FIG.

The microcomputer 23 comprises a modem 24
The operation status of each electric product 1 received through the memory 25 is analyzed, and which of the electric products 1 has been operated at ○ hours × minutes is stored in the memory 25.
To record. Further, the operation status of each electric product 1 recorded in the memory 25 is transmitted to the monitor unit 5 via the modem 26 and the telephone line 4 at predetermined time intervals by a built-in clock. The time is 6:00, 12:00, 1
It can be set at desired times, such as at 8:00 and every six hours, such as at 24:00.

The modulation / demodulation circuit 24 receives, via the transformer 27, a modulated wave from each electric product 1, which is superimposed and conveyed on the signal carrier path 2, similarly to the modulation / demodulation circuit 10 of the electric product 1. , Demodulates the signal into a predetermined signal wave and outputs the demodulated signal to the microcomputer 23, modulates a return signal from the microcomputer 23 into a predetermined modulated wave, and converts the modulated wave into a transformer 27.
And is superimposed on the signal transport path 2 and transmitted.

The monitor unit 5 is for centrally managing signals transmitted from the central management unit 3 provided for each home and monitoring each home. The monitor unit 5 connects the central management unit 3 and the telephone line 4 to each other. Connected through. A personal computer can be used as the monitor unit 5. The information may be transmitted and received via a dedicated line or wireless instead of the telephone line 4.

Next, the operation of the microcomputer 9 of each electric product 1 in the life monitoring system will be described. For example, the microcomputer 9 of the electric pot 1A first
As shown in the flowchart of FIG. 5, in step S1, the on-edge of the input signal from the boiling switch 12A (the moment when the input signal changes from the L signal to the H signal) is detected, and if detected, the process proceeds to step S2. If not, the process proceeds to step S12.

In step S2, 1 is set in the operation information b1.
Record

Then, the process waits for one second in step S3, and proceeds to step S4 after one second has elapsed. This step S3
Is a boiling LED after operating the boiling switch 12A.
This is provided in consideration of a time lag until the light of 13A is turned on, and can be changed to a predetermined time.

In step S4, whether or not the boiling LED 13A is turned on is detected based on a signal from the operating condition detecting means 14. Here, when the lighting of the boiling LED 13A is detected, in step S5, the operation information b
1 is recorded in 2 and the process proceeds to step S7, and if not detected, in step S6, 0 is recorded in the operation information b2 and the process proceeds to step S7.

In step S7, all the information signals b7 to b7
Set b1. Specifically, steps S1, S2,
When proceeding in the order of 3, 4, 5, 7 the information signal is 0001
It becomes 11. On the other hand, steps S1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7
, The information signal becomes 000110.

Next, in step S8, the set information signal is transmitted. Thereby, the modulation / demodulation circuit 10 converts the signal wave of the input information signal into a predetermined modulation wave, and superimposes the modulation wave on the signal carrier path 2 via the transformer 22 and transmits the modulated wave to the central management unit 3. I do. When the microcomputer 23 receives the modulated wave, the central management unit 3 returns a signal indicating that the signal has been received to the electric pot 1A. The operation of the microcomputer 23 of the central management unit 3 will be described later in detail.

Next, in step S9, the built-in timer is operated.

Next, in step S10, it is detected whether or not a reply has been received from the central management unit 3 via the modem circuit 10. If a reply has been detected, the process returns. If no reply is detected, the process proceeds to step S11.

In step S11, it is detected whether or not the timer has counted up. If the timer has counted up, the process returns to step S8 to retransmit the information signal. If the timer has not counted up, the process returns to step S10. As described above, if there is no reply within a predetermined time, the information is retransmitted, so that noise or the like is generated in the domestic power line, which is the signal transport path 2, and the central management unit 3 transmits the signal. Omission of information management due to inability to recognize can be prevented.

On the other hand, steps S1 to S1
If the process has proceeded to 2, that is, if the on-edge of the boiling switch 12A has not been detected, it is detected in step S12 whether a predetermined time for periodically transmitting the operation information to the central management unit 3 has been reached. If the predetermined time has elapsed, the process proceeds to step S13. If not, the process returns to step S1.

In step S13, the boiling switch 1
In order to detect whether 2A is in the ON state or the OFF state, it is detected whether or not the input signal from the boiling switch 12A is an L signal. Proceed to. If the signal is not the L signal, that is, if the signal is the H signal, the process proceeds to step S2, and steps after step S2 are performed in the same manner as described above. In this case, the information signal set in the subsequent step S7 is 100111
Or it becomes 100110.

In step S14, 0 is recorded in the b1 and b2 as operation / action information, and the flow advances to step S7. Then, in this step S7, the signal of 100100 is set, and the steps after step S8 are performed in the same manner as described above.

Next, the operation of the microcomputer 23 of the central management unit 3 will be described. The microcomputer 2 of the central management unit 3
3, as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 6, first, in step S20, it is detected whether or not an information signal has been received from the electric appliance 1 via the modulation / demodulation circuit 24. If the information signal has been received, the process proceeds to step S21. If not received, step S
Proceed to 23.

In step S21, the received information signal is analyzed, and the information is recorded in the memory 25 together with the date and time of reception.

Then, in step S22, a return signal indicating that the signal from the electric appliance 1 has been received is transmitted, and the routine returns.

On the other hand, from step S20 to step S
If the process proceeds to step S23, it is detected in step S23 whether a predetermined time for periodically transmitting the information recorded in the memory 25 to the monitor unit 5 has been detected. Proceed to S24. If the predetermined time has not elapsed, the process returns to step S20.

In step S24, all information recorded in the memory 25 is read.

Then, in step S25, the entire information is transmitted to the monitor unit 5 and the routine returns. The information may be transmitted until a reply signal is received from the monitor unit 5, as in the case of the electric product 1.

On the monitor unit 5 side, the operation information and operation information of each electric appliance 1 transmitted from the central management unit 3 of each home are displayed on the monitor, and the information is compared with the past information to compare the information of the residents. Judge the safety. If there is no operation of any of the electric appliances 1 within a certain period of time, it is determined that something has happened to the resident, and the home is contacted or visited. In addition, when the predetermined load component is not operating despite the operation of the operation switch after seeing the information, the user is caused to visit the electric product 1 for repair.

As described above, in the life monitoring system of the first embodiment, the operation information indicating that the operation switch of the electric appliance 1 has been operated and the operation information of the load component operated by operating the operation switch are transmitted. Therefore, it is possible to not only monitor the life by looking at the operation status of the electric appliance, but also determine the failure of the electric appliance 1 that does not operate the load component despite the operation of the operation switch. it can. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the inconvenience of not being able to monitor the living situation of the home due to the failure of the electric product 1.

FIG. 8 shows a life monitoring system according to a second embodiment. The second embodiment differs from the first embodiment in that a boiling LED 13 is used as a load component to determine whether or not a boiling operation has been performed by operating a boiling switch 12A.
A difference is that the energization of A is detected, whereas the energization of the boiling heater 13A 'itself connected to the load control circuit 7 is detected. In this case, the resistor 16 and the LED 1
7 is a connection line 2 connected in parallel with the boiling heater 13A '.
8, and a rectifier diode 29 is provided upstream of the resistor 16.

FIG. 9 shows a life monitoring system according to the third embodiment. The third embodiment differs from the second embodiment in that a photocoupler is provided as the operating condition detecting means 14 in the boiling heater 13A 'through which an alternating current is supplied, but a current transformer is used. doing.

The operating condition detecting means 30 including the current transformer includes a coil 31, a smoothing circuit 32 including a smoothing capacitor 32a and a resistor 32b, and a rectifying circuit 33.
And The operating condition detecting means 30 is provided with the coil 31 so as to be electromagnetically induced by an alternating current supplied to the connection line 28 of the boiling heater 13A '. The coil 31 has a smoothing capacitor 32a and a resistor 32b.
Are connected in parallel. The rectifier circuit 33 is connected to the resistor 32b. The output terminal of the rectifier circuit 33 is connected to the microcomputer 9 via a resistor 34, and is grounded via an electric field capacitor 35 on the upstream side of the resistor 34.

In the operating condition detecting means 30, when the boil switch 12A of the display panel 8 is operated to supply an alternating current to the connection line 28 of the boil heater 13A ', the coil 31 is electromagnetically induced. Generate an induced electromotive force. Then, the induced electromotive force is smoothed by the smoothing circuit 32, converted into a direct current by the rectifier circuit 33, and input to the microcomputer 9, whereby the operation of the boiling heater 13A 'can be detected.

Incidentally, The life monitoring system of the present invention is not limited to the above configuration. For example, in each of the above embodiments, one operation of the electric appliance 1, for example, the electric pot 1
In the case of A, one of the boiling operation, the warming operation or the hot water supply operation is detected, and in the case of the rice cooker 1B, any one of the rice cooking operation, the warming operation, the reservation operation, and the like is detected. However, all operations may be detected. In this case, in order to achieve the purpose as the electric product 1, each electric product 1 operates each load component constituting the electric product 1 according to a predetermined flowchart.
By detecting whether each load component is operating normally according to the flowchart, it is possible to more easily determine the failure of the electric product 1.

[0046]

As is clear from the above description, in the life monitoring system of the present invention, the operating state of the load components constituting the electric product is recorded and managed by the centralized management means, and only the living situation of the home is monitored. In addition, since the operation switch is also configured to detect the operation, it is possible to determine a failure that the load component of the electric product does not operate despite the operation of the operation switch. for that reason,
Even if an electrical product breaks down, people can be visited for repairs.As a result, it is possible to prevent the inconvenience of not being able to monitor the living conditions of the household, and to be able to detect failures in electrical products at an early stage. Thereby, the convenience can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a life monitor system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a life monitoring system according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram illustrating an operation state detection unit according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an information signal on the side of an electric appliance.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the microcomputer of the electric product.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the microcomputer of the central management unit.

FIG. 7 is a circuit diagram showing a connection when detecting the operation of the hot water supply motor.

FIG. 8 is a circuit diagram illustrating an operation state detection unit according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a circuit diagram illustrating an operation state detection unit according to a third embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... electric products, 1A ... electric pot, 1B ... rice cooker,
2 ... Signal transport path, 3 ... Central management unit, 4 ... Telephone line, 5 ...
Monitor unit, 7: Load control circuit, 8: Display panel, 9: Microcomputer, 10: Modulation / demodulation circuit, 12A: Boiling switch (operation switch), 13A: Boiling LED (load component), 14: Operating status detecting means, 16 ... Resistance, 17 ... L
ED, 18 ... Phototransistor, 20 ... Resistor, 23 ...
Microcomputer, 24 modulation / demodulation circuit, 25 memory, 26 modem.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An operation for detecting an operation state of a load component such as a light-emitting diode, a motor, and a heater mounted on an electric appliance in a life monitor system that records and manages the use state of electric appliances in a home by a centralized management unit. A life monitor system comprising a state detecting means, and transmitting an operation state of the electric appliance detected by the operation state detecting means to the central management means. 2. An operation status detection means for detecting an operation status of an operation switch for operating the load component, and transmitting the operation status of the electric appliance detected by the operation status detection means to the central management unit together with the operation status. 2. The life monitor system according to claim 1, wherein the life monitor system is configured to perform the operation. 3. The device according to claim 1, wherein the operation state detecting means is a photocoupler including a light emitting element connected to the load component and a light receiving element for receiving light of the light emitting element. 2. The life monitor system according to 2. 4. The life monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the operation status detecting means is a current transformer connected to the load component.