KR100469807B1 - Method for managing manufactured goods through internet - Google Patents

Abstract

Remotely control the products connected to the gateway and the home network via the user's computer through the Internet, and transmit the failure information to the management server in case of a failure of a certain product, and from the management server Download the cooking information to the product and perform the cooking.

It is determined whether the gateway or the user computer is connected to the management server, and when the gateway is connected, it receives the MAC address and the current IP from the gateway, determines whether the gateway is registered with the MAC address, and is registered. If not, register the received MAC address and IP, and register the user information of the registered gateway. If the gateway is registered, the IP of the gateway is updated and stored with the received IP, and the user computer is connected. If the user is registered, the management server searches for the MAC address and IP of the corresponding gateway and sends the searched MAC address and IP to the user's computer. Connect to the gateway The remote control makes the products connected to the network.

Description

Method for managing manufactured goods through internet}

The present invention relates to a product management method using the Internet for remotely controlling and managing operations of a plurality of products connected to a gateway and a home network, and downloading predetermined cooking information to perform a corresponding cooking.

With the rapid development of communication technology and computer field, computer communication and internet communication have become an essential means of information acquisition and exchange for the modern people, and their functions and roles are explosively increasing.

The Internet is an Internet subscriber connected to an Internet network to which information providers and specific servers are connected to a terminal such as a computer to perform data communication. After accessing through the terminal to utilize the information or services on the site. In addition, the Internet is not limited to data communication between people belonging to a specific service group, but is not classified as a country or region, and thus, the Internet has become the most popular information acquisition and communication network.

In addition, in each home, various products such as gas boilers, ovens, and gas ranges are connected to the home network, and many efforts are made to remotely control the products connected to the home network through the Internet.

The home network typically includes a gateway, and connects to the Internet through the gateway to perform data communication.

However, the gateway is first provided with an Internet Protocol (IP), and is connected to the Internet to perform data communication. The network operator system providing IP does not provide static IP to Internet users due to lack of IP. In addition, since the IP is used as the gateway provides access to the Internet, it is very likely that the IP used will be changed every time the gateway connects to the Internet.

Therefore, the gateway can perform data communication by accessing a website of the Internet, but since the IP currently used by the gateway is not known, an operation of predetermined products connected to the gateway from the outside and connected to the gateway and the home network is performed. It did not control.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a product management method using the Internet that can remotely control the operation of certain products connected to its gateway through the Internet from the outside and the home network.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a product management method using the Internet that can request after-sales service by automatically transmitting the failure information to the management server when a failure occurs in the predetermined products connected to the home network .

Another object of the present invention is to manage the product using the Internet to download the cooking information that can be cooked with a predetermined product from the management server to the corresponding product, the remote control to perform the cooking according to the downloaded cooking information To provide a method.

The product management method using the Internet of the present invention having such a purpose is to determine whether a gateway or a user computer connected to a home network with a plurality of products is connected to a management server, and when the gateway is connected to the management server. The management server receives the MAC address and the current IP from the gateway and determines whether the gateway is registered as the MAC address. If the gateway is not registered, the management server uses the received MAC address and IP. Register and register the user information of the registered gateway from the product installer computer, and when the user computer is connected, the management server judges whether or not the user is registered. The server has a MAC address Searching for an IP and transmitting the retrieved MAC address and IP to the user's computer, the user's computer can connect to the corresponding gateway with the IP and remotely control the products connected to the home network through the gateway.

When the gateway is registered as a result of the determination, when the gateway IP is updated and stored as the received IP, when the failure information of the product transmitted while the gateway monitors a plurality of products is input to the management server, The management server stores the fault information and requests after-sales service.

In addition, the remote control, the management server finds the gateway corresponding to the user ID input by the user computer, retrieves the MAC address and IP of the gateway, and transmits the retrieved MAC address and IP to the user computer, the transmission The user's computer receives the MAC address and IP address and accesses the corresponding gateway through the received IP. When the user accesses the gateway, the user computer sends the MAC address to the gateway so that the gateway can determine whether the MAC address matches. If the MAC address is identical, the gateway transmits a control page and the current control status for remote control of multiple products, and the gateway controls the operation of the product according to the input command of the user computer. , The control of the corresponding product, the input of the user computer In the case of downloading the predetermined control information for the predetermined product, the gateway downloads the corresponding control information from the management server, transmits and stores it to the corresponding product, and performs the operation of the predetermined control information for the predetermined product. The gateway commands the operation of the control information to the corresponding product, and when the deletion of the predetermined control information for the predetermined product, the gateway commands to delete the corresponding control information stored in the product.

1 is a block diagram showing hardware to which the product management method of the present invention is applied;

2 to 5 is a signal flow diagram showing a product management method of the present invention

2 is a signal flow diagram illustrating a process of newly registering a gateway in a management server;

3 is a signal flow diagram illustrating a process of informing a gateway of a changed IP and failure information to a management server and performing a remote control operation according to an operation of a user computer;

4a and 4b is a signal flow diagram showing the operation of the management server,

5 is a signal flow diagram illustrating an operation of downloading cooking information from a management server, performing cooking, and deleting cooking.

* Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings *

100: multiple gateway 110: multiple products

120: Internet 130: Multiple Modems

140: a plurality of product installer computer 150: management server

160: network operator system 170: multiple user computers

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail a product management method using the Internet of the present invention.

1 is a block diagram showing hardware to which the product management method of the present invention is applied. Here, reference numeral 100 denotes a plurality of gateways installed one at each home, and reference numeral 110 denotes a plurality of products such as a gas boiler, an oven, and a gas range installed in each household. The gateway 100 and the product 110 each have a built-in PLC (Power Line Communication) device capable of performing data communication through a power line. A plurality of products 110 installed in each home is connected to form a home network.

Reference numeral 120 denotes the Internet, which is a data communication network based on Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (TCP / IP), and is connected to each modem 130 through a local area network (LAN) in which the plurality of gateways 100 are embedded. The Internet 120 is connected to enable data communication.

Reference numeral 140 denotes a product installer computer used by a product installer who installs a predetermined product 110 in each home. The product installer computer 140 is connected to the gateway 100, and is connected to the internet 120 through a LAN embedded in the gateway 100 and the modem 130.

Reference numeral 150 denotes a management server that remotely manages the plurality of products 110 through the Internet 120 while being operated by a producer who produces the plurality of products 110. It is a network operator system that provides a predetermined IP to perform data communication by accessing the Internet 120, the reference numeral 170 is for users of the plurality of products (110) to remotely manage the operation of the products (110) A plurality of user computers are used.

The management method of the present invention applied to hardware having such a configuration installs a predetermined product 110 and a gateway 100 in each home, connects each other to a home network to enable data communication with each other, and the product installer installs his computer. That is, when powering on the gateway 100 in a state in which the product installer computer 140 is connected to the gateway 100, as shown in FIG. 2, the gateway 100 is connected to the home network in step 200. Recognize a plurality of products 110 that are present.

When the recognition of the plurality of products 110 is completed in step 200, the product installer computer 140 connects the gateway 100 and the plurality of products 110 according to the operation of the product installer in step 202. Set it.

For example, in step 200, information that the gateway 100 can automatically recognize with respect to a predetermined product 110, for example, information such as serial number, manufacturing date and installation date of the product 110, etc. In step 202, the product installer directly inputs product information that cannot be automatically recognized by the gateway 100, and sets the gateway 100 and the plurality of products 110 to be correctly connected.

When the connection setup of the gateway 100 and the plurality of products 110 is completed in step 302, the gateway 100 in step 304 is a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server of the network operator system 160 When the server 150 is connected to the management server 150 through the Internet 120 with the provided IP, and is connected to the management server 150, the gateway 100 is configured in step 206 with the Dynamic Domain Name System (DDNS). ) Determines the unique MAC (Media Access Control) address assigned to the gateway 100 and the IP provided from the network operator system 160, and transmits the determined MAC address and IP to the management server 150.

When the gateway 100 transmits the MAC address and the IP to the management server 150 as described above, the management server 150 receives the MAC address and the IP, and in step 208, the MAC address and the data are received. In step 210, the base station determines whether the gateway 100 is currently registered. That is, the management server 150 searches whether the received MAC address is stored in the database.

If the MAC address is not registered in the database as a result of the determination of step 210, the management server 150 stores the MAC address and IP received from the gateway 100 in the database and newly registers the MAC address.

In the next step 214, the product installer computer 140 accesses the new subscriber page of the management server 150 according to the operation of the product installer, and in step 216, the user of the new subscriber is inputted by inputting a user ID and password. Register.

When the user registration of the new subscriber is completed, the product installer computer 140 displays information of the installed product at step 218, for example, the serial number of the product 110 and the status of the owned product according to the operation of the product installer. In step 220, the MAC address of the new subscriber is retrieved from the database of the management server 150 in step 220 to determine whether the setting and registration of the new subscriber is completed. That is, it is determined whether or not the MAC address of the new subscriber is stored in the database of the management server 150, and when it is stored, it is determined that the setting and registration of the new subscriber is completed. It is determined that the setting and registration of the subscriber is not completed.

If the setting and registration of the new subscriber is not completed as a result of the determination of step 222, the process returns to step 218 to register information of the installed product, and in step 220, it is searched whether the MAC address is stored. In operation 222, the operation of determining whether the setting and registration of the new subscriber is completed is repeated. When the setting and registration of the new subscriber is completed as a result of the determination of step 222, the product installer computer 224 accesses the control screen of the management server 150 in step 224, and in step 226 It is checked whether or not the various products 110 in the home network is operating normally, and if the various products 110 in normal operation does not operate in step 228 and returns to step 224 to the management server ( Access the control screen of step 150, and repeatedly perform an operation of checking whether or not various products 110 in the home network are operating normally in step 226, and when the product 110 is operating normally, the gateway The setting registration of the 100 and the plurality of products 110 ends.

3 is a signal flow diagram illustrating a process of informing a management server of a changed IP and failure information in a product management method of the present invention and performing a remote control operation according to an operation of a user computer. As shown in FIG. 300, the gateway 100 recognizes a plurality of products 110 connected to itself, and aggregates information such as failure information and current status information of the recognized products 110. .

In the next step 302, it is determined whether the recognition and information aggregation of the product 110 is completed. If not, the recognition and information aggregation operation of the product 110 is continued. When the recognition and aggregation of the product 110 is completed in step 302, the gateway 100 transmits the modem 130 to the IP provided by the DHCP server of the network operator system 160 in step 304. And accessing the management server 150 through the Internet 120, and determining whether the connection to the management server 150 has been completed in step 306, and is not connected to the management server 150 as a result of the determination. If not, after the predetermined time elapses in step 308, the operation of repeatedly accessing the management server 150 is provided with an IP in step 304 again.

When connected to the management server 150 in step 306, the gateway 100 determines the IP currently being used by the Dynamic Domain Name System (DDNS) built in step 310, and the determined IP is Determine whether it is the same as the previously used IP.

That is, in order for the gateway 100 to be connected to the Internet 150 through the modem 130 and perform predetermined data communication, the gateway 100 is first provided with an IP from the network operator system (), and is connected to the Internet 120 using the IP. At this time, the network operator system 160 does not provide a fixed IP to the gateway 100 due to lack of IP, etc., but provides a floating IP, so that the gateway 100 currently manages the server 150. Determine the IP used while accessing.

In the next step 312, it is determined whether the determined IP is the same as the IP previously used while accessing the management server 150, and if the IP is changed, the gateway 100 determines the MAC in step 314. By transmitting the address, the changed IP and product information, etc. to the management server 150 to inform that the IP has been changed, the management server 150 searches the corresponding gateway 100 by MAC address, and the searched gateway 100 ) Is stored by updating the changed IP.

In the next step 316, the gateway 100 monitors and stores the current state of the plurality of products 110 connected to the home network, and in step 318, the failure information of the predetermined product 110 as a result of the monitoring. Determine whether there is.

If there is failure information of the predetermined product 110 as a result of the determination of step 318, the gateway 100 transmits the failure information to the management server 150 in step 320 to request an after-service. If there is no failure information of the predetermined product 110 as a result of the determination of step 318, the gateway 100 determines whether the user computer 170 is connected through the Internet 120 in step 322. When the user computer 170 is not connected, the process returns to step 310 to determine the current IP and to determine whether the IP has changed, and to notify the management server 150 when the IP has changed. Repeat the operation.

When the user computer 170 is connected to the gateway 100 in step 322, the gateway 100 controls and manages operations of the plurality of products 110 from the user computer 170 in step 324. After transmitting a control and monitoring web page to the user computer 170, it is determined whether a predetermined control command is received from the user computer 170 in step 326, and the predetermined control command from the user computer 170. When it is received, in step 328, the gateway 100 performs an operation according to the received predetermined control command.

4a and 4b is a signal flow diagram showing the operation of the management server in the product management method of the present invention. As shown therein, the management server 150 determines whether a user such as the gateway 100, the user computer 170, or the product installer computer 140 is connected through the Internet 120 in step 400. If it is determined that access is made, the security authentication is performed in step 402 to determine whether the user is a legitimate user.

When the security authentication of the step 402 is completed, the management server 150 determines the predetermined information input in the step 404 to step 414, and performs an operation according to the determined predetermined information. .

That is, when the connected user requests the control of the predetermined product 110 in step 404 as the user computer 170, the management server 150 receives the user input in the security authentication process in step 416. Check the ID, search the database for the MAC address of the gateway 100 corresponding to the confirmed user ID, and if the search of the MAC address is successful in step 418, the management server 150 in step 420 ) Transmits the IP address of the gateway 100 and the searched MAC address to the user computer 170, and the user computer 110 transmits the gateway 100 to the IP received from the management server 150 in step 422. In step 424, the MAC address is transmitted to the gateway 100.

In the next step 426, the gateway 100 compares its MAC address with the MAC address received from the user computer 170, and terminates when the MAC address does not match. And if the MAC address in step 426 matches, the control page where the gateway 100 can control the product 110 with the user computer 170 and the current control state of the product 110 in step 428. In step 430, and performs the remote control of the product 110 in accordance with the operation of the user computer 170, and in step 422, if the user computer 170 selects the end of the remote control operation Quit.

If the received information is information for requesting new user registration in step 406 or requesting user registration cancellation in step 408, the management server 150 registers / cancels a user in step 434. Perform an operation to register or terminate the user, and if the user information change is requested in step 410, perform the user information change in step 436 to change the information, and from the gateway 100 in step 412 If the predetermined information is received, the user information management operation is performed in step 438 to process the predetermined information received from the gateway 100, and if the failure information is received in step 414, step 440 Manages the failure information, requests after-sales service for after-sales service, and if no information is input from the connected user, the user information is managed in step 442. The.

5 is a signal flow diagram illustrating an operation of downloading cooking information, performing cooking, and deleting cooking information from a management server in the product management method of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 500, the user computer 170 accesses the management server 150 through the Internet 120 using the IP provided by the network operator system 160 in step 500. After the security authentication is completed in step 504, in step 506, the user computer 170 connects to the gateway 100 with the IP of the gateway 100 provided by the management server 150.

In a next step 508, it is determined whether the user computer 170 is connected to the gateway 100, and if not, the process returns to step 506 and accesses the gateway 100 again. When the user computer 170 is connected to the gateway 100 in step 508, the user computer 170 selects the product 110 to be remotely controlled in step 510, and the gateway in step 512. 100 transmits the control page of the selected product 110 to the user computer 170, and then connects the download page of the management server 150 in step 514, the connected download page to the user computer ( 170, and then determine the selection of user computer 170 in step 516.

In step 516, if the user computer 170 selects a dish download, and in step 518, selects a dish to be downloaded, the gateway 100 downloads the selected dish information in step 520, and In addition to storing the downloaded cooking information at 522, and transmits to the corresponding product 110 to store, and in step 524 to transmit the information of the downloaded cooking to the user computer (170). That is, the gateway 100 stores the title of the downloaded cooking information, and stores the process of performing cooking in the corresponding product 110. When storing of the cooking information is completed in step 522, the gateway 100 transmits the downloaded cooking information to the user computer 170 in step 524.

In addition, when the user computer 170 selects to perform cooking in step 516, and instructs to perform cooking of the predetermined product 110 in step 526, the gateway 100 determines in step 528 a corresponding product ( A predetermined cooking start is commanded to 110 to perform a predetermined cooking on the product 110 at step 530.

In addition, when the user computer 170 selects the deletion of the stored cooking information in step 516, and selects the dish to delete in step 532, the gateway 100 corresponds to the corresponding product 110 in step 534. Send a delete command of the cooking, and in step 536 deletes the corresponding cooking information in which the product 100 is stored according to the deleting command, and in step 538, the gateway 100 cooks in accordance with the deletion of the cooking information. After updating the information, the updated cooking information in step 540 is transmitted to the user computer 170 so that the user can check.

On the other hand, while the present invention has been shown and described with respect to specific preferred embodiments, various modifications and changes of the present invention without departing from the spirit or field of the invention provided by the claims below It can be easily understood by those skilled in the art. For example, in the above description, the gateway and the plurality of products are connected to the PLC, but in the present invention, in addition to the PLC, a living network control protocol (LnCP), a home audio / video interoperability (HAVi), and a universal plug and UPnP Play can be easily applied even when connected to a home network, etc. Also, in the above example, the product is downloaded and the cooking information is described according to the cooking information. In the case of other home appliances other than the range, the control information of the home appliances may be downloaded and the operation may be performed according to the control information.

As described in detail above, the product management method using the Internet of the present invention can remotely control the operation of a certain product by accessing the gateway through the changed IP even if the IP is changed by the gateway. The information can be downloaded and cooked according to the cooking information, and in the event of a failure, the failure information can be automatically transmitted to the management server to request after-sales service.

Claims (5)

A tenth step of determining whether a gateway connected to a home network with a plurality of products is connected to a management server; In the tenth step, when the gateway is connected to the management server, the management server receives a MAC address and a current IP from the gateway and determines whether the gateway is registered by the MAC address; A thirtieth step in which the management server registers the input MAC address and IP and receives user information of the registered gateway from a product installer computer and registers the user when the gateway is not registered in the twentieth step; A 40th process of updating and storing the IP of the registered gateway with the received current IP when the gateway is registered as the determination result of the 20th process; A fifty step of determining whether or not the user computer has registered a user in step 40 when the user computer is connected to the management server; When the user is registered as a result of the determination of step 50, the management server searches for the MAC address and IP of the corresponding gateway and transmits the searched MAC address and IP to the user computer so that the user computer accesses the corresponding gateway with the IP. And remotely controlling products connected to the gateway through the home network; And After the 60th step, when the failure information of the product transmitted by the gateway while monitoring a plurality of products is input to the management server, the management server stores the failure information and requests after-sales service. How to manage products using the Internet. delete delete The method of claim 1, wherein the sixty step; A sixty-first step of the management server finding a gateway corresponding to a user ID input by the user computer and searching for the MAC address and IP of the gateway; A sixty-second step of transmitting the retrieved MAC address and IP to a user computer; A sixty-third step of accessing the corresponding gateway to the corresponding gateway by receiving the MAC address and the IP transmitted in the sixty-second step by the user computer; Step 64, when the gateway is connected in step 63, the user computer sends the MAC address to the gateway to determine whether the gateway matches the MAC address; A 65th step of transmitting, by the gateway, a control page and a current control state capable of remotely controlling a plurality of products when the MAC addresses match; And And the 66th step of controlling the operation of the corresponding product by the gateway according to the input command of the user computer in the control page transmitted in the 65th step. The method of claim 4, wherein the 66th process is performed by: When the input command of the user computer is downloading the predetermined control information for the predetermined product, the gateway downloading the control information from the management server and transmitting and storing the control information to the corresponding product; When the input command of the user computer is to perform the operation of the predetermined control information for the predetermined product, causing the gateway to command and perform the operation of the control information to the corresponding product; And And when the input command of the user computer deletes predetermined control information for a certain product, causing the gateway to delete the corresponding control information stored in the corresponding product.