RU2574823C2 - Home appliance and method of outputting audio signal for diagnosis - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: radio engineering, communication.

SUBSTANCE: home appliance comprises a conversion unit for generating a frame, which includes a combination of symbols which respectively represent four different carrier frequencies, based on data which make up a packet, according to a quadrature frequency-shift keying (QFSK) method. The four different carrier frequencies have values lower than 2 kHz. The duration of outputting the carrier frequency, which is output according to one symbol, ranges from 40 to 45 ms.

EFFECT: avoiding the noise suppression of a portable terminal and an echo effect between carrier frequencies which are output according to each symbol which causes signal interference.

23 cl, 8 dwg

Description

This application claims priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2012-0072381, filed July 3, 2012, which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a household device for outputting diagnostic data in the form of an audio signal and a method for outputting an audio signal.

2. BACKGROUND

Usually, the user contacts the service center when the home appliance fails, and the specialist personally comes to the user for repair. However, such a personal visit to a specialist involves extra costs, and also, without preliminary information about the home appliance, the home appliance is difficult to repair efficiently. Recently, due to technological development, a telephone network has been used for remote diagnostics of information about failures.

In addition, European patent application EP0510519 proposes a method by which information about failures of a household device is transmitted to a service center via a telephone network via a modem connected to the household device. However, in this case, there is such a problem as the need to constantly connect the modem to a household device. In particular, since a household appliance, such as a washing machine, is usually installed outdoors, there is a problem with connecting the washing machine to the telephone network.

In US patent No. 5987105 a method for controlling a household device is proposed, according to which information about the operation of the household device is converted into an audio signal, and said information is output via the telephone network. According to this control method, the sound signal output from the household device is transmitted to the service center by the user's telephone. As for the structure of the data packets constituting the audio signal, the information must be translated into many packets for output. One packet is configured with a duration of 2.97 s, and when one packet is output, the next packet is output after 730 ms. Accordingly, the output of all information to be transmitted lasts more than 3 s.

A portable terminal, such as a mobile telephone or smart phone, provides a noise reduction function. When a signal having a predetermined frequency is continuously detected for a predetermined time (approximately 3 s), said noise reduction function recognizes the signal as noise. In addition, the intensity of the audio signal is significantly attenuated or distorted by the communication medium when the audio signal is input to a portable terminal, as explained in US Pat. , 730 ms), the signal can still be recognized as noise. For reference, US Pat. No. 5,987,105 does not provide a suggestion for the noise reduction function of a portable terminal or its definition, not to mention a way to circumvent the aforementioned problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Aspects of the invention are disclosed in the independent claims.

The above and other objectives, features, aspects and advantages of the device and method in accordance with the present invention will become clearer from the following detailed description given in connection with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are given to provide a deeper understanding of the invention and form part of the present description, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a diagram explaining a diagnostic process of a household device in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram explaining a configuration of a home appliance and a diagnostic system comprising said home appliance in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a diagram representing carrier frequencies constituting a signal output from a home appliance in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a diagram in the case where the data (a) constituting the packet is converted by the dual-tone frequency shift keying (BFSK) method (b) and converted by the quadrature frequency shift keying (QFSK) method (c);

FIG. 5 is a diagram for comparing output time (b) using the BFSK method and output time (c) using the QFSK method, when data (a) constituting the packet is output under the assumption that the time of one symbol is set identical;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a packet at the application layer and a frame at its corresponding physical layer in a home appliance in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a signal conversion process in a home appliance diagnostic system; and

FIG. 8 is a diagram explaining a configuration of a frame generated by a signal converting procedure in a home appliance diagnostic system shown in FIG. 7.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Despite the use of specific terms, these terms do not serve to limit the meaning or scope of the present invention defined in the claims, but only to illustrate the present invention. Accordingly, one skilled in the art will appreciate from the foregoing that various modifications and other equivalent embodiments are possible. The invention is not limited to the described embodiments, but is fully characterized by the appended claims. The same numeric positions refer everywhere to the same elements.

In FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a diagnostic process of a household device in accordance with an embodiment. In FIG. 2 is a block diagram explaining a configuration of a home appliance and a diagnostic system comprising said home appliance in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, typically, the home appliance 100 may include an audio output unit 181, for example, a buzzer and speaker, for outputting a notification sound or an acknowledgment sound, and, from said sound, the user can recognize a failure or abnormal operation of the home appliance 100 in step S11. In addition, the home appliance 100 may provide a function for outputting diagnostic data in the form of a sound that combines particular frequencies. Said sound signal may be output by the sound output unit 181, typically provided for outputting a warning sound signal or a confirmation sound signal (or additional sound output means for outputting sound other than the aforementioned signals).

In addition, a user who determines the abnormal functioning of the home appliance by the warning sound output from the sound output unit 181 can call a service center to describe the abnormal symptom of the home appliance and may request a solution or request repair. Of course, regardless of the output by the audio output unit 181, the user can directly determine the abnormal operation of the home appliance 100 and may contact the service center in some cases.

When a connection is established with the service center, the agent of the service center can register a user complaint and may try to propose an appropriate solution. In some cases, specific information about the symptom of a home appliance is required.

The agent explains to the user a method for outputting diagnostic data in the form of sound in step S13. In accordance with the explanation, the user can position the communication terminal 230 near the audio output unit 181 and, then, can manipulate the user input means provided on the control panel of the home device 100 to output a predetermined sound containing diagnostic data via the audio output unit 181. In this case, the diagnostic data may include identification information for identifying the type of home appliance 100, information about the current status of the driving action or the recent status of the driving action of the home device 100 (hereinafter referred to as the driving information), setting values set in accordance with the manipulation of the user or running pre-stored algorithm (hereinafter referred to as installation information), and information stored when open or the abnormal operation of the home appliance 100, in accordance with the self-diagnosis algorithm, (hereinafter referred to as failure information).

An audio signal containing diagnostic data output by the audio output unit 181 may be transmitted to the service center via the communication network in step S14. The service center may comprise a control device 290 for receiving an audio signal transmitted over a communication network. The control device 290 may reverse extract diagnostic data from an audio signal transmitted over the communication network, and may diagnose the home appliance 100 based on the extracted information.

Using the communication methods of the 3G and 4G generations, the authors of the present invention found that when the diagnostic data is modulated and transmitted using the carrier frequency in the mentioned frequency range, due to the attenuation or distortion of the signal occurring during transmission over the communication network, the equipment on the receiving side that receives diagnostic data cannot accurately isolate the diagnostic data. The present invention provides a more accurate method for transmitting diagnostic data in communication media of the 3G and 4G generations, and, in the following, a detailed description of this method is provided. In an additional preferred embodiment, as the authors of the present invention have established, in 3G and 4G mobile communication systems suitable for use with smart telephones, the carrier frequencies used for transmitting signals in accordance with the present invention are in the preferred range lower than 2 kHz .

In addition, as is widely known, the 3G mobile communication system belongs to the mobile phone and mobile communications standard, which meets the requirements of the International Mobile Telecommunications - 2000 (IMT-2000) standard of the International Telecommunication Union. The 4G generation mobile communication system replaces the 3G generation mobile communication system and provides a more advanced mobile communications environment.

A control device 290 that receives an audio signal containing diagnostic data via a communication network can again extract diagnostic data from the audio signal through the inverse signal conversion process and, based on the received data, can diagnose the home appliance 100 using a predefined diagnostic algorithm.

However, in accordance with an embodiment, the home appliance 100 may execute a self-diagnosis algorithm to perform diagnostics and, then, may output its result in the form of an audio signal. In this case, the diagnostic data may contain a result generated by the diagnostic algorithm, that is, a diagnostic result.

In any case, the party containing the control device 290, for example, a service center, can provide appropriate user service based on the diagnostic result and can send the repairman 93 to the house, if necessary, at step S16. As shown in FIG. 2, the diagnostic system of a home appliance in accordance with an embodiment may include a home appliance 100 for outputting an audio signal containing diagnostic data, and a control device 290 for receiving an audio signal output from the home appliance 100 via a communication network, and, based on said signal, for diagnosing a home appliance 100. The diagnostic data mentioned below is described below as diagnostic data that is generated by executing a self-diagnosis algorithm in b -quantum unit 100 and the result of its use, but are not limited to said formation. As described above, the diagnostic data may contain variable parameters used in the execution of the diagnostic algorithm in the control device 290.

The home appliance 100 may include a control unit 150 for receiving a control command from a user, various kinds of information for operating the home appliance 100, and a diagnostic selection unit 160 for selecting a diagnostic start command. The control unit 150 and the diagnostic selection unit 160 may be provided separately, but, in accordance with an embodiment, if a method for inputting a specific key from manual keys, for example, buttons and dials constituting the control unit 150, is applied (for example, when the duration by pressing the power button for more than a predetermined time), the power button can serve as a diagnostic selection unit 160 (as opposed to turning on / off the home appliance 100). As a consequence, a relatively less used diagnostic selection unit 160 is provided. In another example, when a predetermined combination is entered in accordance with the input order of the specific keys, these keys may serve as a diagnostic selection unit 160, which is not the main function of each key. That is, various embodiments are possible.

After the diagnostic command is entered by the diagnostic selection unit 160, the controller 170 may execute the diagnostic algorithm stored in the memory 140 based on the diagnostic data stored in the memory 141 or the data recalled from the memory 141 to compose the application layer packet by preliminarily of a given data processing process using diagnostic data generated by the diagnostic algorithm, and then can perform the modulation process by controlling the conversion unit 180, h Oba create the physical layer frame comprising a combination of symbols corresponding to the carrier frequency. The progressive state of the process can be displayed by the display unit 118, and the display unit 118 can be implemented as visual presentation means, for example, a liquid crystal (LCD) display and LED (LED), which is usually provided on the control panel to display the operating status of the household device 100.

In this case, the memory 141 may be a recording medium for temporary storage of diagnostic data and may comprise a random access memory (RAM), flash memory, random access memory with increased data availability time (EDORAM), a magnetic recording medium and an optical information medium with the ability to write / erase data, regardless of the presence of volatile or non-volatile properties. The storage device 140 may be a recording medium for storing a diagnostic algorithm, and may be a non-volatile recording medium for holding recorded data, regardless of the supply of power to the household device 100.

The transform unit 180 may configure a frame corresponding to the packet generated by the controller 170, and the frame may contain symbols corresponding to the carrier frequencies constituting the audio signal output from the audio output unit 181. According to this embodiment, the frequency signal can be generated from diagnostic data using the QFSK (quadrature frequency shift keying) method. Accordingly, the frequency signal generated by the conversion unit 180 comprises a combination of four different carrier frequencies.

The audio output unit 181 may output an audio signal in accordance with a frequency signal and may be implemented as a buzzer or speaker. The audio output unit 181 may be a buzzer for outputting four carrier frequencies that are separately recognized in a preferred frequency range lower than 2 kHz.

In FIG. 3 is a diagram showing carrier frequencies constituting a signal output from a home appliance in accordance with an embodiment. In FIG. 4 is a diagram in the case where the data (a) constituting the packet is converted by two-tone frequency shift keying (BFSK) (b) and converted by quadrature frequency shift keying (QFSK) (c). In FIG. 5 is a diagram for comparing output time (b) using the BFSK method and output time (c) using the QFSK method, when data (a) constituting the packet is output under the assumption that the time of one symbol is set to the same.

As shown in FIG. 3, the home appliance in accordance with the present embodiment can convert diagnostic data using the QFSK method and then can output the data. This requires four carrier frequencies, as shown in FIG. 3.

In the QFSK method, 2 bits of data may correspond to one carrier frequency. Hereinafter, as one example, the case of modulating data using different carrier frequencies f11, f12, f13 and f14 is explained. Moreover, the carrier frequency corresponding to the data “00” is designated as f11 201, the carrier frequency corresponding to the data “01” is designated as f12 202, the carrier frequency corresponding to the data “10” is designated as f13 203, and the carrier frequency corresponding to given "00", is designated as f14 204.

In this case, f11, f12, f13 and f14 may be frequency signals having different values, and may have values less than 2 kHz. Each frequency value can have one of the frequency values that make up the scale.

The frequencies that make up the scale are widely known. For example, f11, f12, f13, and f14 can be 1396 Hz, 1567 Hz, 1760 Hz, and 1975 Hz, respectively. Such values may have F, G, A, B of six octaves based on 12 scales, but are not limited to this. In this case, the carrier frequencies are chosen so that the scales are not adjacent, and this choice serves to provide a difference in frequency values for a clear identification of each carrier frequency.

Since the carrier frequencies have values that make up the scale, the audio signal output by the audio output unit 181 can satisfy the user's emotional assessment, and since there is a sufficient difference between the values, the frequencies are clearly different, and the proportion of successful communication attempts can be increased.

As shown in FIG. 4 and 5, the data “010100101110” (a) can be converted by the BFSK method using two different frequencies f1 and f2 (b) and can be converted by the QFSK method (c). If the duration of the output of the audio signal corresponding to the carrier frequency output in accordance with each symbol that constitutes a physical layer frame (see Fig. 8) is denoted by the ST time of one symbol, then 1 bit corresponds to one symbol in the BFSK method, and 2 bits correspond to single character in QFSK mode. Therefore, in the case of the same ST time of one symbol, even when the same amount of data is output by the signal, the QFSK method may take half the time of the BFSK method. Accordingly, in comparison with the BFSK method, the QFSK method can output more data in the form of an audio signal for the same time. Therefore, the home appliance according to the embodiment can complete the output of the audio signal within 3 seconds, taking into account modern communication methods, and, accordingly, can output a large amount of data in the form of an audio signal in a short time by converting the signal using the QFSK method. The authors of the present invention based on the fact that modern devices, such as smartphones, have a noise reduction function, which can adversely affect the signals in accordance with the present invention. Therefore, an improved method using quadrature frequency shift keying (QFSK) is proposed.

In FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a packet at the application layer and a frame at its corresponding physical layer in a home appliance in accordance with an embodiment. In FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a signal conversion process in a home appliance diagnostic system. In FIG. 8 is a diagram explaining a configuration of a frame generated by a signal converting process in a diagnostic system of a household device shown in FIG. 7.

As shown in FIG. 6, with respect to a home appliance in accordance with an embodiment, one packet at the application layer containing diagnostic data may correspond to one frame at the physical layer. That is, the data can not be divided into many frames for transmission, and one frame may contain an audio signal from the beginning of the output to the end of the output.

Typically, a packet can be divided into several frames, and an audio signal can be output by inserting an inter-frame gap (IFS) between frames. However, the aforementioned method may require the determination of a preamble (that is, a code combination representing the beginning of each frame) when an audio signal is received and processed, and even if the audio signal is output exactly within a predetermined time of one symbol in accordance with the communication medium, then in the equipment the receiving side that receives the audio signal may experience a delay. In this case, the accuracy of the determination of the preamble may be reduced. In a home appliance in accordance with an embodiment, a single preamble may suffice, since the entire audio signal is output completely in one frame. Therefore, characteristic limitations can be removed.

As shown in FIG. 7, a home appliance according to an embodiment can form a frame containing a plurality of characters by encoding and interleaving processes using the transmitted information, and characters corresponding to a frame check sequence (FCS), an end symbol, and a preamble can be added during the processes.

In more detail, the controller 170 or minicomputer additionally enter the FCS sequence in the diagnostic data. The FCS sequence may be additional data for performing an error detection process (for example, a CRC-8 (8-bit cyclic redundancy check) method) to identify whether a frame has been transmitted accurately.

Then, the controller 170 may encode diagnostic data containing the added FCS sequence. The coding method described may vary and, therefore, may comprise, for example, a convolutional coding method with a rate of 1/2. In particular, a convolutional coding method with a rate of 1/2 can be used in the forward error correction (FEC) method to recover a character after an error, and to recover a bit error, a convolutional code in the forward error correction (FEC) method can be used.

Encoding may be based on 1/2 coding rate (i.e., one bit is input and two bits are output). Moreover, since the code rate 1/2 requires a large number of redundant bits, a puncturing algorithm can be used to reduce the number of redundant bits. In addition, the end symbol may be an additional symbol generated during the convolutional encoding process.

Alternation can be a method for mixing the order of characters and their transmission, which is used when continuous errors occur during the transmission of an audio signal. The alternation process can alternate the payload sections (see FIG. 8) corresponding to the diagnostic data and the end symbol.

In addition, an audio signal output in accordance with the configured frame from the home device can be transmitted to the control device 290 through input from an external terminal 230 and a communication network. Then, the control device 290 can detect the preamble in accordance with a predefined protocol and can obtain diagnostic data (i.e., payload) by performing reverse rotation processes, end symbol detection, decoding, and FCS sequence detection.

In particular, decoding can use the Viterbi decoding algorithm, which is easily executed by personal computer (PC) software, and this algorithm can be useful to reduce errors in the method of selecting bit combinations characterized by the smallest error from all expected bit configurations.

As shown in FIG. 8, the total duration of the audio signal that is output from the home appliance in accordance with the embodiment does not exceed 3 s. A frame in accordance with an embodiment may comprise a preamble containing 8 characters, a payload containing 48 characters (corresponding to 6 bytes of data at the application level), an FCS sequence containing 8 characters and an end character containing two characters. Accordingly, the time of one symbol can be configured with the possibility of not exceeding 45 ms. The inventors have found that when the time of one symbol is set too short, the echo effect between the carrier frequencies output in accordance with each symbol causes signal interference. Therefore, in theory, the time of one character should be set as long as possible. However, in order to provide the above-described frame and to completely output an audio signal within 3 seconds, the inventors of the present invention have found that, in a preferred embodiment, the time of one symbol can be from 40 to 45 ms. In the case of 45 ms, since the total duration of the output of the audio signal is 2.98 s (which is very close to 3 s), it is possible to use the noise reduction function due to the delay during signal processing according to the external terminal 230. Therefore, it can be assumed that the time of one symbol is 44 ms. In this case, all audio signals can be fully output within 2.90 s and approximately 100% of the successful communication attempts can be supported by almost all terminals.

The foregoing, for clarity, describes the preferred embodiments, however, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications, additions, and replacements are possible without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention disclosed in the attached claims.

Claims (23)

1. A household appliance comprising:
a selection unit for receiving a diagnostic command on a home device from a user;
memory for saving diagnostic data on a home device;
a controller for processing diagnostic data stored in the memory to form a packet, in accordance with the input of the diagnostic command through the selection unit;
a conversion unit for generating a frame including a combination of symbols, which respectively represent four different carrier frequencies, based on the data constituting the packet, in accordance with the method of quadrature frequency shift keying (QFSK),
while four different carrier frequencies have values lower than 2 kHz,
the duration of the output of the carrier frequency output in accordance with one symbol is from 40 to 45 ms. 2. A household device according to claim 1, in which the total output time of the audio signal corresponding to the frame does not exceed 3 s. 3. The home appliance of claim 1, wherein the transform unit creates one frame in accordance with the packet. 4. The household appliance of claim 3, wherein the frame comprises a continuous combination of characters. 5. The home appliance according to claim 1, wherein the controller performs encoding at a code rate of 1/2 based on diagnostic data. 6. The home appliance of claim 5, wherein the controller adds a frame check sequence (FCS) to the diagnostic data and, based on this, performs the encoding process. 7. The home appliance of claim 5, wherein the packet contains data further generated during the encoding process. 8. The home appliance of claim 7, wherein the controller performs an alternation process including additional data. 9. The home appliance of claim 8, wherein the frame comprises a preamble added to characters corresponding to interleaved data. 10. A household device according to claim 2, in which four different carrier frequencies make up the scale. 11. The household appliance of claim 10, wherein four different frequencies are based on 12 scales and the spacing between carrier frequencies comprises at least one scale. 12. A home appliance according to claim 10, wherein the smallest of the four different frequencies has a value higher than 1.3 kHz. 13. The home appliance according to claim 1, wherein the controller generates diagnostic data by executing a predetermined diagnostic algorithm on the home appliance. 14. A household device according to claim 1, further comprising a storage device for storing a diagnostic algorithm. 15. A method for outputting an audio signal for diagnosing a household device, the method comprising the steps of:
form a frame that includes a combination of characters, respectively, representing four carrier frequencies, based on the bits constituting the diagnostic data of the household device, by modulating the signal by the method of quadrature frequency shift keying (QFSK); and
the carrier frequencies are output in accordance with the symbols making up the frame,
while four different carrier frequencies have values lower than 2 kHz,
the duration of the output of the carrier frequency output in accordance with one symbol is from 40 to 45 ms. 16. The method according to p. 15, in which the step of forming a frame comprises the steps of:
add a frame check sequence (FCS) to the diagnostic data;
encode data containing the added FCS sequence;
add an end character, which is additionally generated during the encoding process; and
add a preamble to a specific pattern to notify the start of a frame. 17. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of performing an alternation process between adding an end symbol and adding a preamble. 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of encoding the data is based on code rate 1/2. 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the frame contains a preamble including 8 characters, a payload having 48 characters corresponding to diagnostic data, an FCS sequence including 8 characters, and an end character including 2 characters. 20. The method according to p. 15, in which the step of forming a frame includes forming a frame that includes a continuous combination of characters. 21. The method according to p. 16, in which four different carrier frequencies have values lower than 2 kHz; 22. The method according to p. 21, in which four different carrier frequencies make up the scale. 23. The method according to p. 15, in which the total output time of the carrier frequencies does not exceed 3 s.

Images