KR20110085048A - A ubiquitous control system for electric home appliances identified by video images and the method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A ubiquitous control system for home appliances identified by video images and method thereof are provided to automatically adjust a focus to the selected home appliance after selecting home appliances and selecting a control command and minimize a transmission amount by transmitting only a changed still image. CONSTITUTION: A product information input unit(41) receives a control signal corresponding to a control command of the home appliance and a location of the home appliance. A control command receiving unit(42) receive selection from a portable terminal and receive a control command of the home appliances. An image control transmission unit(43) adjusts a focus of a camera to a selected home appliances and transmits an image to a portable terminal by obtaining an image of the home appliances. A control signal command unit(44) command an output of an infrared ray signal to an infrared ray signal output device according to the control command of the home appliances.

Description

Ubiquitous control system for electric home appliances identified by video images and the method

The present invention relates to a ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control system and method for remotely controlling the home appliance by using a camera equipped with an infrared signal output device.

In particular, the present invention relates to a ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control system and method for automatically focusing on a selected home appliance and minimizing a transmission amount by selecting only a home appliance and selecting a control command by a mobile phone.

The present invention also relates to a ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control system and method in which the output direction of the infrared signal is automatically adjusted when the output direction of the infrared signal is fixed to the front direction of the camera to focus the camera.

Generally speaking, ubiquitous is derived from the Latin word meaning 'anywhere, anytime', and it refers to an environment in which a user can freely access a network regardless of a computer or network.

One of the most important technologies for implementing such ubiquitous is a home networking system that remotely controls each household appliance in a home through a mobile communication network and the Internet.

For example, the air conditioner can be operated even when going out, or a suitable room temperature can be set before returning home. In addition, by controlling the electric rice cooker remotely to cook at home, you can eat hot rice immediately. In addition, it is possible to check the intrusion of outsiders in real time or remotely by checking the operation status of dangerous equipment such as stoves and fans from the outside.

As described above, an example of a technology for remotely controlling home appliances using a mobile phone or the Internet has been presented in [Korean Patent Application 10-2006-0017156, "Home Network System"] (hereinafter, referred to as Prior Art 1).

The prior art 1 is a home network system for selectively controlling each operation of a plurality of target devices in a home by a specific control command of a specific terminal connected through the Internet. Wirelessly connected to a WLAN access point and the WLAN access point to remotely control an operation of a specific target device among the plurality of target devices by a specific control command of the specific terminal, and photograph the plurality of target devices It is composed of a wireless remote control camera (wireless remote control camera) for transmitting to a specific terminal so that a user using a specific terminal can know the operating status of a plurality of target devices.

However, the prior art 1 does not present in detail how the camera photographs home appliances and transmits the photographing data to the mobile phone. Nevertheless, inferred from the prior art 1, the user transmits the photographed image of the home appliance to the mobile phone, and the user controls the home appliance while viewing the transmitted photographed image. Therefore, there is a problem that the amount of data to be transferred to the mobile phone is quite large.

In addition, the prior art 1 installs a plurality of infrared light emitting elements in the camera and emits infrared light in all directions of 180 degrees by itself. As such, when a plurality of light emitting devices emit infrared rays in all directions, all home appliances located in all directions receive infrared signals. Therefore, if the infrared signal is the same as the control signal of the two or more home appliances, there is a problem that all two or more home appliances can react.

An object of the present invention is to solve the problems as described above, when selecting a home appliance with a mobile phone and selecting a control command, the ubiquitous image to automatically focus on the selected home appliance, and transmit only the changed still picture to minimize the amount of transmission It is to provide a home appliance control system and method.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control system and method in which the output direction of the infrared signal is automatically adjusted when the output direction of the infrared signal is fixed to the front direction of the camera to focus the camera.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention relates to a ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control system for controlling a home appliance remotely by a mobile phone using a camera equipped with an infrared signal output device, the location of the home appliance and the A product information input unit configured to receive a control signal corresponding to the control command; A control command receiving unit which receives a home appliance from the mobile phone and receives a control command of the home appliance; An image control transmitter for focusing the camera on a selected household appliance and acquiring an image of the household appliance and transmitting the image to the mobile phone; And a control signal command unit for instructing the output of the infrared signal to the infrared signal output device according to the control command of the home appliance.

In addition, in the ubiquitous video confirmation home appliance control system, the video control transmitter selects a camera that can focus on a location of a selected home appliance from a plurality of cameras, and focuses the selected camera on the location. It features.

In addition, in the ubiquitous video confirmation home appliance control system, the image control transmitter converts the acquired image into a still image and transmits it, but retransmits only when the still image changes from the previous still image. do.

In addition, the present invention is a ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control system, wherein the control signal command unit outputs an infrared signal when the signal output direction of the infrared signal output device is set to the front direction of the camera when the focus of the camera is focused It is characterized by.

In addition, in the ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control system, the control signal command unit controls the angle of the infrared output so that the infrared output angle is transmitted only within the focus of the camera.

In addition, the present invention relates to a ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control method of a system for remotely controlling the home appliance by a mobile phone using a camera equipped with an infrared signal output device, (a) the location of the home appliance and the home appliance Receiving a control signal corresponding to a control command of a product; (b) selecting a home appliance from the mobile phone and receiving a control command of the home appliance; (c) focusing the camera on a selected home appliance, acquiring an image of the home appliance, and transmitting an image to the mobile phone; (d) instructing the infrared signal output device to output an infrared signal according to a control command of the home appliance; And (e) retransmitting an image of the home appliance having a change after the infrared signal is output to the mobile phone.

In addition, the present invention is a ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control method, the step (c) is to select a camera that can focus on the location of the selected home appliances from a plurality of cameras, and to focus the selected camera to the location It is characterized by.

In addition, the present invention is a ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control method, the step (c) is to transmit a still image of the home appliance, characterized in that the still image is retransmitted only when there is a change compared to the previous still image .

The present invention also provides a computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for performing the ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control method.

As described above, according to the ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control system and method according to the present invention, by automatically focusing on the selected home appliances and sending only the changed image before sending the image, it is possible to accurately control the data transmission amount and at the same time The effect of minimizing and reducing costs is obtained.

In addition, according to the ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control system and method according to the present invention, by matching the infrared signal output device and the camera to control the output direction of the infrared signal only by controlling the camera focus, the number of parts of the infrared signal output device is reduced The effect that a control circuit can be comprised easily is acquired.

1 is a diagram showing the configuration of an entire system for implementing the present invention.
2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a surveillance camera according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a diagram illustrating an example of matching a photographing range and an infrared ray transmitting range of a camera according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a ubiquitous video confirmation home appliance control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a flowchart illustrating a ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a view for explaining the effect of the present invention.
Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings
10: cell phone 21: network
22: mobile communication network 30: computer terminal
40: home appliance control system 41: product information input unit
42: control command receiver 43: image control transmitter
44: control signal command unit 45: data storage
46: Product Information DB 47: Camera Information DB
50: surveillance camera 51: lens unit
52 lens 55 driving device
56: infrared signal output device
70: server 80,81,82: home appliances

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

In addition, in describing this invention, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected and the repeated description is abbreviate | omitted.

First, an example of the whole structure of the whole system for implementing this invention is demonstrated with reference to FIGS.

As shown in FIG. 1, the entire system for implementing the present invention includes a surveillance camera 50, a home appliance control system 40, a server 70, and a mobile phone 10. The home appliance control system 40 and the server 70 are connected to the network 21. The mobile phone 10 also connects to the server 70 via the mobile communication network 22.

Surveillance camera 50 is an optical device that can be installed in the house to obtain the image of the home appliance by photographing the home appliances.

As shown in FIG. 2, the surveillance camera 50 may rotate 360 degrees on the horizontal plane by the driving device 55, and may rotate 180 degrees on the vertical plane. That is, the object can be photographed in a horizontal plane of 360 degrees and a vertical plane of 180 degrees.

However, the surveillance camera 50 is not limited to the camera having the shooting range. That is, even if the rotation angle is smaller than the above range, any surveillance camera that can perform the function of the camera can be applied.

On the other hand, the surveillance camera 50 is provided with an infrared signal output device 56. That is, the surveillance camera 50 is composed of a lens unit 51 is provided with a lens, an infrared signal output device 56 for outputting infrared signals, and a driving device 55. It also includes a control circuit or a control module (not shown) for controlling the components.

Preferably, the front direction of the camera, that is, the lens unit 51 and the infrared signal output device 56 are installed so that their directions coincide with each other. That is, the lens direction of the lens 51 and the signal output direction of the infrared signal output device 56 is provided to be the same.

As shown in FIG. 3, the front range that can be photographed through the lens unit 51 and the arrival range of the infrared signal output from the infrared signal output device 53 are installed to be similar. For example, in FIG. 3, the television 81 may be photographed by the lens 52 of the camera, but the refrigerator 82 may not be photographed. Similarly, the infrared rays of the infrared light emitting element 57 can reach the television 81, but the refrigerator 82 cannot reach it.

The camera unit 51 may set the photographing range by adjusting the zoom of the lens, and the infrared signal output device 56 may set the output range of the infrared ray by installing the reflector 58. Through the structure as described above, the surveillance camera 50 makes it possible to control only the home appliances in the image photographed by the camera.

The infrared signal output device 56 is an apparatus capable of outputting an infrared (IR) signal used in a remote controller for controlling a general household appliance. The infrared signal output device 56 includes an infrared light emitting element 57 and a reflecting plate 58. The signal output from the infrared light emitting element 57 is controlled by a control module (not shown) of the surveillance camera 50.

On the other hand, the number of the monitoring camera 50 may be installed in two or more. For example, a surveillance camera 50 may be installed in each room, or two or more surveillance cameras 50 may be installed in one room.

The home appliance control system 40 is a system for controlling home appliances of a house guide by using the surveillance camera 50. The home appliance control system 40 may be created by a program installed in the computer terminal 30, or may be configured as a control circuit and implemented as a custom semiconductor. May be Hereinafter, the embodiment is implemented as a program and installed in the computer terminal 30.

The computer terminal 30 is connected to the surveillance camera 50 by wireless or wired. A radio frequency (RF) method, a Bluetooth method, or the like may be applied, and a wired USB method or the like may be applied.

The home appliance control system 40 is installed in the computer terminal 30 to access the surveillance camera 50 and control the control module (not shown) of the surveillance camera 50 to control the surveillance camera 50 or transmit and receive data. do. In addition, the home appliance control system 40 may provide a user interface to display a result to a user or receive an input (or a command) from the user through an input device (monitor, keyboard, etc.) of the computer terminal 30.

The home appliance control system 40 controls the surveillance camera 50 to focus on a specific household appliance, receives an image captured by the surveillance camera 50, and outputs an infrared signal output device 56 installed in the surveillance camera 50. ) Outputs a signal.

The server 70 provides a communication service with the home appliance control system 40 and the mobile phone 10, and provides the home appliance control system 40 with a control signal corresponding to a control command of the home appliance.

The server 70 communicates data with the home appliance control system 40 (or computer terminal) on the TCP / IP protocol (or Internet protocol), and the data communication with the cellular phone 10 on the mobile communication network (CDMA or HSDPA, etc.). .

Therefore, the server 70 provides a user interface that can perform data conversion or can be driven in the mobile phone 10 as necessary. For example, the server 70 receives data transmitted from the home appliance control system 40 to the mobile phone 10, converts the data into an executable form on the WAP, and transmits the data to the mobile phone 10. In addition, the server 70 receives a command input to the mobile phone 10 and switches to a command that can be performed by the home appliance control system 40.

In addition, the server 70 builds a control signal DB according to the control command of each home appliance and downloads it according to the request of the home appliance control system 40. The control command is a command for performing a function of a home appliance. For example, in the case of a television, the control command is a power command, a power off, a channel tuner, a sound control, and a gas boiler. And the like are control commands. On the contrary, the control signal of the control command means an infrared signal to be output from the infrared signal output device 56 for executing the control command.

Infrared signals according to control commands of home appliances are different for each type or manufacturer. However, there are cases where they overlap. For example, the power-on signal of company A's (A) product may be the same as that of company B's (B) product.

The control signal DB of the server 70 is a database composed of the control commands and infrared signals of the home appliances as described above. Therefore, the home appliance control system 40 may obtain a control signal for the control command by connecting to the server 70 and knowing only the home appliance and its control command.

Next, the configuration of the ubiquitous video confirmation home appliance control system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

As shown in FIG. 4, the ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control system 40 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a product information input unit 41, a control command receiver 42, an image control transmitter 43, and a control signal command. It is composed of a section 44. It may also include a data store 45 for storing data.

The product information input unit 41 receives a control signal corresponding to the position of the home appliance and the control command of the home appliance.

Preferably, the position of the home appliance is input through the image of the surveillance camera 50. That is, the user operates the surveillance camera 50 to focus the home appliance at the center of the camera screen, and recognizes the position at that time as the location of the home appliance. At this time, the product information input unit 41 memorizes the position state of the surveillance camera 50, and focuses on the household electrical appliance by restoring to the position where the surveillance camera 50 was stored when the household electrical appliance is selected.

In addition, when there are many surveillance cameras 50, it selects which camera and focuses the camera on home appliances. At this time, the product information input unit 41 stores both the selected camera information and the position data.

The control signal corresponding to the control command of the home appliance may be received from the server 70 or may be directly input by the user.

Connect the receiving module provided separately to the computer terminal (30). Register your product name and click the button to set. By pressing the corresponding button on the remote controller, the infrared signal is received by the receiving module and recognized three times to prevent the surrounding error.

Meanwhile, the recognized signal may be transmitted to the server 70 and shared with all users. In other words, the recognized signal is stored in the DB and can be interoperable through the Internet 21. In case of new product, all users can use it by registering once. In addition, the server 70 confirms and corrects the newly registered signal and stores it in the shared folder.

The control command receiving unit 42 receives a home appliance from the mobile phone 10 and receives a control command of the home appliance.

When the user goes out of the house, the mobile phone 10 accesses the computer terminal 30 through the server 70 remotely. The connected user can view the list of electronic products that can be remotely controlled (or registered) and the control command list of the corresponding products.

The user selects an electronic product to be controlled by the mobile phone 10 and also selects a control command for the selected electronic product. The control command may include a command for directly transmitting an infrared signal, and also includes a command for viewing an image of an electronic product. In this case, the control command receiving unit 42 receives the selected home appliance and the selected control command transmitted from the mobile phone 10.

The image control transmitter 43 focuses the camera on the selected home appliance, acquires an image of the home appliance, and transmits the video to the mobile phone.

The image control transmitter 43 finds the position of the selected home appliance and rotates the surveillance camera 50 to focus on the position.

In particular, the image control transmitter 43 selects a camera that can focus on a location of a selected home appliance among a plurality of cameras, and focuses the selected camera on the location.

 When the focus is focused, the surveillance camera 50 is photographed to obtain an image of the home appliance.

Preferably, the image control transmitter 43 converts the obtained image into a still image and transmits it, but retransmits only when the still image changes from the previous still image. The image control transmission unit 43 outputs an infrared signal and then retransmits the image of the home appliance with the change to the mobile phone.

That is, only the still picture is sent without continuously sending the video in the form of a stream. The image control transmitter 43 sends a still image again when there is a change in the image received from the camera. In detail, a threshold of image change is determined, and when an image change occurs above the threshold, the image is transmitted again.

The control signal command unit 44 commands the infrared signal output device 56 to output an infrared signal according to the control command of the home appliance.

The control signal command unit 44 outputs an infrared signal when the signal output direction of the infrared signal output device 56 is set to the front direction of the camera and the camera is focused.

In particular, the control signal command unit 44 controls the angle of the infrared output such that the infrared output angle is transmitted only within the focal point of the camera.

As described above, by matching the output direction of the lens unit 51 and the infrared signal output device 56 of the surveillance camera 50 in the same direction and the range thereof, the control signal command unit 44 makes the camera focus only. When set, only commands to send infrared signals.

Next, a ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

As shown in FIG. 5, the method includes: (a) receiving a control signal corresponding to a location of a home appliance and a control command of the home appliance (S10); (b) receiving a home appliance from the mobile phone 10 and receiving a control command of the home appliance (S20); (c) focusing the camera 50 on the selected home appliance, acquiring an image of the home appliance, and transmitting an image to the mobile phone 10 (S30); (d) instructing the output of the infrared signal to the infrared signal output device 56 according to the control command of the home appliance (S40); And (e) retransmitting an image of the home appliance having a change after the infrared signal is output to the mobile phone (S50).

In particular, step (c) selects a camera that can focus on a location of a selected home appliance among a plurality of cameras, and focuses the selected camera on the location. In addition, the step (c) transmits a still image of the home appliance, but only if the still image is changed compared to the previous still image.

The omitted parts of the ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control method refer to the description of the image confirmation home appliance control system 40 described above.

With reference to FIG. 6, the effect of this invention is explained in more detail.

When the user selects the home appliance and the control command to the mobile phone 10, the camera 50 automatically focuses on the home appliance and transmits the image. Therefore, the user does not have to continuously receive the image to find the home appliance. Therefore, the transmission amount of the image data can be reduced.

Therefore, the user can see only the image focused on the home appliance, and can not see the image outside the screen of the mobile phone. If two household appliances have the same control signal, the following problem occurs.

As shown in Figure 6a, looks at the case where the home appliances A and B have the same control signal. When the surveillance camera 50 focuses on the home appliance A, the user cannot see the home appliance B. At this time, if the user selects the control command to output the control signal affects both the home appliances A and B. However, the user cannot know the situation of the household electrical appliance B, and therefore cannot cope with an incorrect control signal.

However, according to the present invention, since the control signal does not reach the part other than the camera focusing, the problem is not important. That is, since the control signal does not reach the home appliance B outside the screen viewed by the user on the mobile phone, the home appliance B is not affected.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 6B, when both the home appliances A and B are in the screen of the surveillance camera 50, the control signal output by the user's control command reaches and affects both home appliances. However, in FIG. 6B, the user can cope with this because the user can see both the home appliances A and B.

For example, the home appliance B may be turned off, a control command may be sent to the home appliance A, and the home appliance B may be turned on. Alternatively, the user may move the focus of the camera to the left to move the home appliance B so that it does not appear on the screen in the image of the camera, and then transmit a control command.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the amount of transmission of image data can be minimized by minimizing a case where a user adjusts a camera to acquire an image. In particular, since a mobile phone uses a mobile communication network, the reduction of data transmission is directly related to cost reduction.

As mentioned above, although the invention made by this inventor was demonstrated concretely according to the said Example, this invention is not limited to the said Example and can be variously changed in the range which does not deviate from the summary.

The present invention is applicable to the development of a ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control system for remotely controlling the home appliance by using a camera equipped with an infrared signal output device. In particular, the present invention is useful for developing a ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control system that automatically focuses on a selected home appliance and selects a control command and selects a control command and transmits only the changed still image to minimize the transmission amount.

Claims (8)

In a ubiquitous video confirmation home appliance control system for controlling the home appliances remotely by a mobile phone using a camera equipped with an infrared signal output device,
A product information input unit configured to receive a location of a home appliance and a control signal corresponding to a control command of the home appliance;
A control command receiving unit which receives a home appliance from the mobile phone and receives a control command of the home appliance;
An image control transmitter for focusing the camera on a selected household appliance and acquiring an image of the household appliance and transmitting the image to the mobile phone; And
Ubiquitous image confirmation home control system comprising a control signal command unit for commanding the output of the infrared signal to the infrared signal output device according to the control command of the home appliance.
The method of claim 1,
The image control transmission unit selects a camera that can focus on a location of a selected home appliance among a plurality of cameras, and the focus of the selected camera according to the ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control system.
The method of claim 1,
The image control transmitter converts the acquired image into a still image, and transmits the same, but retransmits the still image only when there is a change from the previous still image.
The method of claim 1,
And the control signal command unit outputs an infrared signal when the signal output direction of the infrared signal output device is set to the front direction of the camera and the camera focuses.
The method of claim 4, wherein
The control signal command unit ubiquitous video confirmation home control system, characterized in that for controlling the angle of the infrared output so that the infrared output angle is transmitted only within the focus of the camera.
In the ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control method of a system for remotely controlling the home appliance by a mobile phone using a camera equipped with an infrared signal output device,
(a) receiving a control signal corresponding to a location of a home appliance and a control command of the home appliance;
(b) selecting a home appliance from the mobile phone and receiving a control command of the home appliance;
(c) focusing the camera on a selected home appliance, acquiring an image of the home appliance, and transmitting an image to the mobile phone;
(d) instructing the infrared signal output device to output an infrared signal according to a control command of the home appliance; And
(e) ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control method comprising the step of re-transmitting the image of the home appliance that has changed after the output of the infrared signal to the mobile phone.
The method of claim 6,
Step (c) is a ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control method, characterized in that for selecting a camera that can focus on the location of the selected home appliances from a plurality of cameras, the focus of the selected camera to the location.
A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for performing the ubiquitous image confirmation home appliance control method of claim 6 or 7.

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