KR20030087337A - Integrated remote control system and method for home automation using personal digital assistant having voice recognition function - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A system and method for integrating and remotely controlling home appliances by using a PDA(Personal Digital Assistant) having a voice recognition function is provided to synthetically manage a plurality of home appliances in a remote place, without the necessity of manipulating a special device. CONSTITUTION: A PDA receives and recognizes a user's voice command(S510). The PDA converts the recognized voice into a pre-appointed serial number(S520) and transfers the serial number to an integrated home appliance control system(S530). The integrated home appliance control system converts the serial number into a control code(S540). Then the integrated home appliance control system creates an infrared ray signal corresponding to the control code and transmits it to a relevant home appliance(S550). The relevant home appliance, receiving the infrared ray signal transmitted from the integrated home appliance control system, executes the received command(S560).

Description

Integrated remote control system and method for home automation using personal digital assistant having voice recognition function

The present invention relates to an integrated remote control system for remotely and collectively controlling a plurality of home appliances by recognizing a user's voice using a personal digital assistant (PDA).

In general, home electrical and electronic equipment (for example, television, audio, etc.) fixedly installed at a predetermined position is a device for controlling the operation remotely, and is often equipped with a remote control device.

Such a remote control device presses a specific key provided in the remote control device for the user's desired operation (for example, output volume control of a television, channel switching, etc.), and accordingly emits an infrared signal for controlling the corresponding device, The transmitted infrared signal is received by the infrared receiver of the device and converted into an electrical signal to control the device.

With such a remote control device, a device fixed to a certain location can be controlled from a location away from the device, but instead, the user must directly operate the remote control device to control the device. There is an inconvenience of having to confirm and press, and to minimize the obstacle between the remote control device and the device. In addition, there is a problem that a malfunction occurs by pressing an undesired function due to immature operation or mistake of the remote control device.

In order to solve this problem, a remote control transmitter having a voice recognition function has been proposed, and examples thereof include Korean Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-0027981.

Korean Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-0027981 includes a microphone 21 used to input a voice signal for television control; A voice recognition unit 22 for temporarily storing a voice signal input through the microphone 21 and recognizing it as a code according thereto and outputting voice recognition code data; A control unit 24 for determining a specific command corresponding to the voice recognition code data input from the voice recognition unit 22 and outputting a control signal according thereto; A memory unit 23 connected to the control unit 24 and storing a specific command for voice recognition code data; A pulse generator 25 for generating a pulse code corresponding to a recognized control command according to a control signal output from the controller 24; And a pulse transmitter 26 for transmitting the coded signal output from the pulse generator 25 to the receiver 8 of the television.

In general, various kinds of electric and electronic devices are used in homes, and a separate remote control device is usually used for each of these devices. However, in this case, the user is inconvenient to operate each of a plurality of remote control devices for a plurality of devices. As a method for solving such a problem, an apparatus for integrating and managing a plurality of devices has been developed.

Examples of a device for integrated management of a plurality of devices are described in Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 1999-0046612 and Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 1999-0068223.

Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 1999-0046612 discloses a home automatic management device. The technical contents thereof receive a command signal in the form of an infrared ray, and determine whether or not it matches its ID. Various home appliances; A remote controller for launching a key code corresponding to an ID of a home appliance selected from the general home appliances and contents of a desired command in the form of an infrared signal; It is installed in pairs near the ceiling of each compartment of the home and receives the infrared signal emitted from the remote control, and the ceiling side number which emits the operation command of the general household appliance in the form of an infrared signal to the compartment. Light emitting unit; A personal computer for collectively controlling overall operations of home automation by storing operation instructions for each of the general household appliances; Receive setting, modification and deletion of various toilets in the microcomputer relaying the transfer of data between the ceiling receiver and the light emitting unit and the personal computer, and the operation command of the home appliance. The present invention relates to a home automatic management device including a touch screen which integrally performs a function as a fixed key input unit and a function of an indicator for displaying the program contents of the personal computer.

On the other hand, the technical contents of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 1999-0068223 relate to a system for centrally managing a plurality of electrical devices, and includes a device centralized management device and a terminal device for a managed device, and the terminal device for a managed device is The wireless device is configured to perform wireless communication between the device centralized management device and the terminal device for the managed device registered in the device centralized management device and arranged for the plurality of electric devices to be managed, respectively, and registered in the device centralized management device. A corresponding electric device is controlled through a terminal device for a managed device.

With such a device centralized management device, a plurality of devices can be controlled together through a centralized management device, but even in this case, there is still inconvenience that a user must directly operate a remote control device or a device centralized management device.

The present invention is to solve the problems of the prior art to provide a system that allows a user to remotely manage a plurality of home appliances without the need to operate a separate device.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a system for managing a home device using a voice interface that is most familiar to a user by acquiring information that a user wants to input through voice recognition and providing information necessary for the user through voice synthesis. will be.

1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a home appliance integrated remote control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a PDA used in the home appliance integrated remote control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a home appliance integrated remote control apparatus used in the home appliance integrated remote control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 shows an example of a power supply control device used in a home appliance integrated remote control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a flowchart of a method for integrated remote control of home appliances according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In order to achieve this object, the present invention recognizes a voice command of a user through a personal digital assistant (PDA) and transfers the recognized command to the home appliance integrated control device using the Bluetooth standard. The integrated household appliance control device controls each household appliance by transmitting an infrared signal for controlling the household appliance based on the information transmitted from the personal digital assistant.

That is, the voice recognition integrated remote control system according to the present invention is a personal digital assistant installed with a voice recognition program to recognize a voice command received by receiving a voice command from a user, the personal digital assistant recognized by the personal digital assistant; One or more home appliance integrated control device for wirelessly receiving an instruction and wirelessly transmitting an infrared signal corresponding to the received command to the outside, and wirelessly receiving and receiving an infrared signal transmitted by the home appliance integrated control apparatus. It comprises one or more household appliances that can be controlled by infrared signals.

Herein, the personal digital assistant includes at least a Bluetooth transmitter, and the integrated device for home appliance includes at least a Bluetooth receiver, so that the portable device and the integrated device for home communication communicate with each other using a Bluetooth standard. Preferably, the identification number for identifying the Bluetooth transmitter of the personal digital assistant is transmitted along with the command recognized by the personal digital assistant.

In addition, the home appliance includes at least a home appliance having an infrared reception function and a power line control device having a switch or an outlet including an infrared receiver.

On the other hand, the integrated control method for home appliances according to the present invention, a personal digital assistant having a voice recognition program installed to recognize the voice command received by receiving a voice command from a user and a command recognized by the personal portable information terminal Is a method of integrated control of a plurality of household devices by voice using one or more home appliance integrated control device that wirelessly transmits an infrared signal corresponding to the received command to the outside, wherein the voice command of the user A first step in which a command recognized and recognized by the personal digital assistant is wirelessly transmitted to the home appliance integrated control device; a second step in which the command is converted into an infrared signal by the home appliance integrated control device; The infrared signal is transmitted by the device And a third step of transmitting to the home device to be controlled. In the first step, the command may be transmitted to the home appliance integrated control device according to the Bluetooth standard.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a home appliance integrated remote control system using a PDA having a voice recognition function according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in Figure 1, the integrated remote control system of the present invention is controlled by the integrated device 100 and the infrared signal to communicate with the home appliance using a Bluetooth protocol and PDA 100 equipped with a voice recognition engine It includes a plurality of household devices (300_1, ..., 300_n) that can be.

The PDA 100 recognizes a command given by the user to control each household device 300_1, .., 300_n, converts it into a predetermined serial number code, and then uses the Bluetooth protocol to control the integrated household device 200. ) Can be sent. The Bluetooth standard is 2.4GHz, an ISM open frequency band that does not require a wireless license as a technical standard for wireless connection in a small area (10-100m) .It is small in size, low in price and low in power consumption. Suitable for use in short-range wireless communication of home and portable devices, many recent personal digital assistants include a Bluetooth module.

On the other hand, the home appliance integrated control device 200 may generate and transmit an infrared signal according to the command code received from the PDA (100). The home appliances 300_1, .., 300_n include infrared controlled home appliances, such as televisions, VCRs, and audio, which can be controlled through remote control devices using ordinary infrared rays. The power control can be controlled in the manner according to the present invention by attaching a switch or an outlet having an infrared receiver to the household appliance.

Figure 2 shows in more detail the configuration of the PDA 100 used in the home appliance integrated remote control system according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2, according to the present invention, in addition to the configuration of a PDA 100 which is generally used, a microphone 120 for receiving a voice from a user external to the device and a signal input thereto are transferred to the CPU. In addition, the input bias (Input Bias) 130, the hard disk 150, which is an auxiliary storage device of the PDA (100) recognizes the user's voice command and converts it into a predetermined serial number integrated control device for home appliances ( A speech recognition engine is installed to perform the process of the process. It is also equipped with a speech synthesis engine that informs the result of execution by speech. On the other hand, the speech recognition engine includes a mapping table or the like for converting speech commands into serial numbers.

In addition, the PDA 100 includes a Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART) 160 connected to the CPU 110, a line driver 170 connected thereto, and a Bluetooth transceiver 180 connected to the CPU 110. Doing. The PDA 100 and the home appliance integrated control device 200 exchange signals through the Bluetooth transceiver 180. Bluetooth control software for controlling the Bluetooth transceiver 180 is also mounted on the HDD 150 of the PDA.

In order to operate the home appliance integrated remote control system using the PDA 100, the voice recognition engine and the Bluetooth control software on the HDD 150 are loaded on the memory 140 to operate together with the CPU 110.

On the other hand, in the home appliance integrated remote control system of the present invention, as well as a PDA with a built-in Bluetooth transmitter, even if the Bluetooth transmitter itself is not provided, the Bluetooth transmitter may be externally combined. In this case, a Bluetooth module manufactured in the form of a card may be used, and the Bluetooth module may be connected to a PDA using a compact flash (CF) or universal serial bus (USB) protocol.

The configuration of the integrated home appliance control device 200 is shown in detail in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 3, the home appliance integrated control apparatus 200 includes a Bluetooth transceiver 230 that communicates with a PDA 100 using a Bluetooth protocol to receive a command from a user. Accordingly, an infrared transceiver 220 for generating and transmitting an infrared signal for controlling each household device is included. The Bluetooth transceiver 230 and the infrared transceiver 220 convert a command from the user from the PDA 100 into a control code for controlling each household device to generate and transmit an appropriate infrared signal through the infrared transceiver. It is connected to the central processing unit 210 that performs the function of controlling and managing the entire home appliance integrated control device. The central processing unit 210 is connected to a read only memory (ROM) 250 which is a program memory and a random access memory (RAM) 260 which is a data memory, respectively, and the ROM 250 is used to control the central processing unit. The program is stored, and the RAM 260 stores control commands, additional information, or information temporarily generated in association with the Bluetooth transceiver 230.

Meanwhile, the home appliance integrated control device 200 includes a display module 240 for displaying necessary information such as each device and control content controlled by the device 200, and the display module 240 includes a central processing unit. Connected to 210. The display module 240 may be implemented using a liquid crystal display device or the like capable of displaying text.

At this time, the central processing unit 210 and the Bluetooth transceiver 230 and the central processing unit 210 and the infrared transceiver 220 are connected using the RS-232C protocol, the central processing unit 210 and the display module The 240, the ROM 250, and the RAM 260 may be connected to each other by using a 32-bit general data bus.

Such a home appliance integrated control device 200 is preferably installed one by one for each zone where the remote controllable home appliance is located, it is preferable to install in a place where there is no object that can interfere with infrared transmission and reception. In fact, one infrared remote control device 200 may be installed in each room or living room, and may be installed in the ceiling of each room or living room.

On the other hand, the control signal transmitted by the infrared remote control apparatus 200 for the integrated control of a plurality of home appliances preferably includes an identifier for identifying a home appliance to which the control command should be performed, the home appliance is controlled It is desirable to be able to identify an identifier included in the signal and determine whether or not the control command to be processed by it.

Home appliances that can be controlled by the home appliance integrated remote control system of the present invention may include a power line control device such as a lamp in addition to devices such as TV, VCR, air conditioner, etc. which can be controlled by a conventional infrared remote control. To this end, in the present invention, as shown in FIG. 4, a switch 320 or an outlet 340 having infrared receivers 310 and 330 is attached to a power line control device 300 such as a lamp.

In FIG. 4, a configuration in which an infrared receiver is attached to a switch or an outlet of one lighting device (stand) is shown as an example, but a switch having an infrared receiver may be developed and used in various ways. For example, when controlling the entire lighting using a general switch, the infrared receiver may be attached to the switch to control the entire lighting.

Now, a method of controlling home appliances using such an integrated remote control system will be described. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a control method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, the PDA 100 receives a command spoken by a user by voice and recognizes it (S510). For example, a user can issue a command like "turn on television."

Next, the PDA 100 converts the recognized voice into a predetermined serial number (S520), and then transfers the serial number to the home appliance integrated control apparatus 200 (S530). At this time, the control code transfer from the PDA 100 to the home appliance integrated control device 200 is performed using the Bluetooth protocol, and each Bluetooth transceiver mounted on each PDA 100 has a unique identification number, and this identification is performed. It is preferred that the numbers be passed together. By doing in this way, a trouble, such as crosstalk with the control system of an adjacent household, can be prevented.

When the serial number is transmitted to the home appliance integrated control device 200, the home appliance integrated control device 200 converts the serial number into a control code for controlling the home appliance (S540). In this case, the control code preferably includes at least an identifier for identifying a device to be controlled and information indicating a control command.

Next, the home appliance integrated control device 200 generates an infrared signal corresponding to the control code through the infrared transceiver 220 and transmits the infrared signal to the home appliance 300 (S550). The corresponding device 300 receiving the infrared signal transmitted from the home appliance integrated control device 200 performs the received command (S560).

In the above-described embodiment, the voice recognized by the PDA 100 is converted into a predetermined serial number and transferred to the integrated control device 200 for the home appliance, and the serial number is converted back to the control code in the integrated control device for the home appliance 200. Although the method has been described, the process of converting the control code may be directly performed by the PDA 100 and the converted control code may be transferred from the PDA 100 to the home appliance integrated control device 200.

On the other hand, as described above, although both the PDA 100 and the home appliance integrated control device 200 include a Bluetooth transceiver for communication according to the Bluetooth standard, the PDA 100 includes only a Bluetooth transmitter, if necessary. The device integrated control apparatus 200 may include only a Bluetooth receiver.

The present invention has been described in detail with reference to preferred embodiments, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and should be interpreted by the following claims. In addition, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications or changes may be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

As described above, by using the integrated voice recognition remote control system according to the present invention, the user can simply control each household device by uttering a voice in a language that is commonly used without the need to operate the buttons on the remote control. In addition, it is possible to control various home appliances by using PDA which is used normally without the need for a separate device for controlling home appliances.

Claims (6)

A system for integrated remote control of multiple home appliances using voice recognition, A personal digital assistant (PDA) equipped with a voice recognition program for receiving a voice command from a user and recognizing the received voice command; One or more household appliance integrated control apparatus wirelessly receiving a command recognized by the personal digital assistant and wirelessly transmitting an infrared signal corresponding to the received command to the outside; And one or more home appliances capable of being controlled by the infrared signals received by wirelessly receiving an infrared signal transmitted by the home appliance integrated control device. The method of claim 1, The personal digital assistant includes at least a Bluetooth transmitter, and the integrated control device for home devices includes at least a Bluetooth receiver, and the personal digital assistant and the control device for home devices communicate with each other using a Bluetooth standard. Integrated remote control system. The method of claim 2, Integrated voice recognition remote control system that is transmitted with the identification number for identifying the Bluetooth transmitter of the personal digital assistant in the process of transmitting the command recognized by the personal digital assistant to the home appliance integrated control device. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, The home appliance includes a voice recognition integrated remote control system including a power line control device controlled by a switch or an outlet including an infrared receiver. An infrared ray corresponding to the command received by the personal digital assistant installed with a voice recognition program and the command recognized by the personal portable terminal so as to receive the voice command from the user and recognize the input voice command. A method for integrated voice control of a plurality of household devices using one or more home appliance integrated control device for wirelessly transmitting a signal to the outside, A first step in which a voice command of a user is recognized by the personal digital assistant and the recognized command is wirelessly transmitted to the home appliance integrated control device; A second step in which said command is converted into an infrared signal by said household appliance integrated control device, And a third step of transmitting the infrared signal to the home appliance to be controlled by the home appliance integrated controller. The method of claim 5, In the first step, the command is delivered to the integrated voice recognition control device for the home appliance according to the Bluetooth standard.