WO2015001809A1

WO2015001809A1 - Information notification method

Info

Publication number: WO2015001809A1
Application number: PCT/JP2014/003573
Authority: WO
Inventors: 松崎　なつめ; 布田　裕一; 大森　基司; 前田　学; 勇二海上
Original assignee: パナソニックインテレクチュアルプロパティコーポレーションオブアメリカ
Priority date: 2013-07-05
Filing date: 2014-07-04
Publication date: 2015-01-08
Also published as: JP2016105529A

Abstract

A server (200) receives, from one of one or more electrical home appliances, an appliance log that includes the on/off state of said electrical home appliance. Said server (200) also receives, from a handheld device (300) used by the user of the electrical home appliances, location information for said handheld device (300). The server (200) compares location information for a house (100) with the location information for the handheld device (300), and if the server (200) determines that the handheld device (300) is within a prescribed distance of the house (100) and the abovementioned electrical home appliance is in an "on" state, while the handheld device (300) is within the aforementioned prescribed distance of the house, the server (200) provides the handheld device (300) with information to the effect that the aforementioned electrical home appliance is in the aforementioned "on" state.

Description

Information notification method

This disclosure relates to a technology for notifying the user of forgetting to turn off home appliances when going out.

In recent years, household appliances or AV devices that can be connected to a network are increasing. In connection with this, it is considered that a cloud business operator collects various log information including operation history of home appliances or AV devices via a network. A system for controlling home appliances or AV devices using the collected log information is expected.

However, the above system is in the examination stage, and further improvement was necessary for practical use.

Japanese Patent No. 4703784

One aspect of the information notification method of the information management system for solving the above problem is
An information notification method in an information management system for managing information indicating a state of one or more home appliances in a house,
Via the first network, receiving log information including the ON / OFF state of one of the one or more home appliances from the one home appliance;
The location information of the display terminal of the user of the home appliance is periodically received from the display terminal,
When the position of the display terminal is determined to be within a predetermined distance from the house by using a database that manages the position information of the house and compared with the position information of the display terminal, the one home appliance If the device is on,
While the position of the display terminal is included within the predetermined distance from the house, information indicating that the one home appliance is in an ON state is provided to the display terminal via the second network. is there.

In the above mode, further improvement was realized.

1 is an overall configuration diagram of an information notification system 10 according to a first embodiment of the present disclosure. It is a block diagram of household appliances 101 of information notifying system 10 in Embodiment 1 of this indication. 2 is a block diagram of a server 200 of the information notification system 10 according to Embodiment 1 of the present disclosure. FIG. [Fig. 3] Fig. 3 is a block diagram of a mobile device 300 of the information notification system 10 according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 7 is a sequence diagram illustrating an operation of the information notification system 10 according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure. It is explanatory drawing which shows the range in the 1st Example of the predetermined range judgment part 206 of the information notification system 10 in Embodiment 1 of this indication. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an operation in a first example of a predetermined range determination unit 206 of the information notification system 10 according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure. It is explanatory drawing which shows the range in 2nd Example of the predetermined range judgment part 206 of the information notification system 10 in Embodiment 1 of this indication. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an operation in a second example of the predetermined range determination unit 206 of the information notification system 10 according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure. It is a block diagram in the 3rd example of predetermined range judgment part 206 of information notifying system 10 in Embodiment 1 of this indication. It is explanatory drawing which shows the range in 3rd Example of the predetermined range judgment part 206 of the information notification system 10 in Embodiment 1 of this indication. 12 is a flowchart illustrating an operation in a third example of the predetermined range determination unit 206 of the information notification system 10 according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure. It is a figure which shows an example of the data structure of the household appliance log of the information notification system 10 in Embodiment 1 of this indication. It is a figure showing an example of notice screen G14 of information notice system 10 in Embodiment 1 of this indication. It is a block diagram of the server 200 of the information notification system 10 in Embodiment 2 of this indication. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an operation in the first implementation example of the required time acquisition unit 211 of the information notification system 10 according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an operation in the second implementation example of the required time acquisition unit 211 of the information notification system 10 according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure. It is a figure which shows an example of the notification screen G18 of the information notification system 10 in Embodiment 2 of this indication. It is a whole block diagram of the information notification system 10 in Embodiment 3 of this indication. It is a block diagram of the monitoring apparatus 103 of the information notification system 10 in Embodiment 3 of this indication. It is a block diagram of the server 200 of the information notification system 10 in Embodiment 3 of this indication. It is a figure which shows an example of the registration screen G25 of the information notification system 10 in Embodiment 3 of this indication. It is a sequence diagram which shows operation | movement of the information notification system 10 in Embodiment 3 of this indication. It is a figure which shows the data structure of the corresponding | compatible table H27 recorded on the corresponding | compatible monitoring apparatus recording part 216 of the information notification system 10 in Embodiment 3 of this indication. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an operation in the first implementation example of the monitoring log determination unit 213 of the information notification system 10 according to the third embodiment of the present disclosure. It is a figure showing an example of notice screen G26 of information notice system 10 in Embodiment 3 of this indication. It is a block diagram of the server 200 of the information notification system 10 in Embodiment 4 of this indication. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the information notification system 10 according to the fourth embodiment of the present disclosure. It is a figure which shows an example of notification screen G29 of the information notification system 10 in Embodiment 4 of this indication. It is a figure which shows the whole image of the service which the information management system in this Embodiment provides. It is a figure which shows the example in which an apparatus maker corresponds to a data center operating company. It is a figure which shows the example in which both or one of an apparatus manufacturer and a management company corresponds to a data center operating company. It is a figure which shows the whole image of the service which the information management system in the service type 1 (in-house data center type | mold cloud service) provides. It is a figure which shows the whole image of the service which the information management system in the service type 2 (IaaS use type cloud service) provides. It is a figure which shows the whole image of the service which the information management system in the service type 3 (PaaS use type cloud service) provides. It is a figure which shows the whole image of the service which the information management system in the service type 4 (SaaS use type | mold cloud service) provides.

(Knowledge that became the basis of this disclosure)
As a system for notifying the operating status of devices, a slave device that operates in conjunction with the master device and does not operate alone among multiple electrical devices is operated when the slave device is not operating. If there is a notification, there is one that performs notification (prior art document 1 <Japanese Patent No. 4703784>).

However, in the technology disclosed in the prior art document 1, each electric appliance (1005) is operated when the amount of power consumed by the power consumption measuring device (1001) attached to each electric appliance (1005) exceeds a threshold. Judge that you are doing. Therefore, it is not considered to determine the operating state of an electrical appliance that does not have a dedicated measurement device that measures power consumption for each device, such as a home appliance or an AV device.

Also, the technology disclosed in the prior art document 1 is that the power control support device (101) is the main device for the slave device that operates in conjunction with the master device without operating alone among the plurality of electrical appliances (1005). The device power consumption measuring device (1001) and the slave device power consumption measuring device (1001) are confirmed, and the main device power consumption measuring device (1001) determines that the main device is not in operation. When determining that the slave device is operating, the slave device power consumption measuring apparatus (1001) determines that the slave device has forgotten to turn off the power. After that, energy saving support such as notifying the user that the slave device has been forgotten to be turned off is performed. The timing for notifying forgetting to turn off is the timing at which the power control support apparatus (101) determines that forgetting to turn off or the timing at which the forgetting to turn off state is measured for a certain period or longer. Decisions are not taken into account.

Therefore, in the prior art document 1, for example, it is impossible to notify the operating state of the electrical appliance when the user goes out while the user is in the house or when the user goes out and is within a predetermined range from the house. In addition, the prior document 1 is, for example, only when the user wishes to notify the home appliance that remains in the ON state while in the house, or when the user goes out while operating the electrical appliance. It is impossible to respond to the user's request such as requesting notification of forgetting to turn off the electrical appliance.

Therefore, the following improvement measures were examined to improve the functions of the information management system.

One aspect of the information notification method of the information management system is:
An information notification method in an information management system for managing information indicating a state of one or more home appliances in a house,
Via the first network, receiving log information including the ON / OFF state of one of the one or more home appliances from the one home appliance;
Receiving the position information of the display terminal of the user of the home appliance from the display terminal;
When the position of the display terminal is determined to be within a predetermined distance from the house by using a memory for managing the position information of the house and compared with the position information of the display terminal, the one home appliance If the device is on,
While the position of the display terminal is included in the range of the predetermined distance from the house, information indicating that the one household electrical appliance is in an ON state is provided to the display terminal via the second network.

According to the said aspect, it judges that the position of the said display terminal is in the range of the said predetermined distance from the said house based on the positional information on the display terminal of the user of the said household appliance, and the ON / OFF state of the said one household appliance is set. When it is determined that the one home electric appliance is in the ON state based on the log information included, information indicating that the one home electric appliance is in the ON state is provided to the display terminal based on the determination.

Accordingly, it is determined that the display terminal is within a predetermined distance from the house using the position information of the display terminal of the user of the home appliance, and log information including the ON / OFF state of the one home appliance is stored. It is determined that the one household electrical appliance is in an ON state. Therefore, even if the one home appliance does not have a dedicated measuring device, it can be accurately determined that the one home appliance is in an ON state, and the user of the display terminal is the user The judgment result can be transmitted to the display terminal of the user at an appropriate time within a predetermined distance from the house.

Furthermore, when the home appliance is in the ON state, information indicating that the home appliance is in the ON state is provided to the display terminal, and thus notification is not performed until the home appliance is in the OFF state. Therefore, unnecessary communication can be prevented, and an increase in network traffic due to an increase in communication volume can be prevented. Further, by preventing unnecessary communication, it is possible to suppress an increase in communication cost without bothering the user.

Since one or more home appliances that are in the ON state are notified, it is not necessary to register a specific home appliance to be notified in advance. Therefore, the number of operations can be reduced when using the information notification system, and the user is not bothered.

In the above embodiment, for example,
The first network and the second network may be the same network.

In the above embodiment, for example,
The first network and the second network may be different networks.

In the above embodiment, for example,
Using a database that manages map information, obtain area map information of the area including the position indicated by the position information of the display terminal,
Managing the position information of the display terminal received from the display terminal together with the reception time;
Calculate the moving speed of the display terminal based on the time change of the position information of the display terminal,
It may be determined whether the position of the display terminal is within a predetermined distance from the house using the calculated moving speed of the display terminal and the area map information.

In this case, since the moving speed of the display terminal is calculated and the area map information is acquired, the position of the display terminal at the timing of notifying the display terminal of information indicating the ON state can be predicted. Therefore, even if the accurate position information of the display terminal at the notification timing is not known, it can be determined whether the display terminal is within a predetermined distance at the notification timing.

In the above embodiment, for example,
While the position of the display terminal does not coincide with the position of the house and is included within the range of the predetermined distance, information indicating that the one home appliance is in an ON state via the second network. It may be provided to the display terminal.

Thereby, when the position information of the display terminal of the user of the home appliance is away from the house and is within a predetermined distance from the house, the information that the one home appliance is in the ON state is It is notified to the display terminal. Therefore, it is possible to notify the user's display terminal that the one home appliance is in an ON state at an appropriate time when the user of the display terminal is out and is not away from the user's house.

For example, the home appliance is in an ON state while the user leaves the house and is relatively easy to return to the house, for example, within a few tens of meters from the house, or before using public transportation, for example. Can be notified to the user. By notifying the user that the home appliance is in the ON state at this timing, the user can easily select an action to return to the house to turn the home appliance off. Therefore, waste of electric power due to the user going out while the home appliance is in an ON state can be prevented.

In the above embodiment, for example,
While the position of the display terminal coincides with the position of the house and is included within the range of the predetermined distance, information indicating that the one household electrical appliance is in an ON state via the second network It may be provided to the display terminal.

As a result, information indicating that the one household electrical appliance is in an ON state while the position information of the display terminal coincides with the house and is within a predetermined distance from the house is sent to the display terminal. Be notified. Therefore, the determination result can be transmitted to the user's display terminal while the user of the display terminal is in the user's house.

For example, even when the user is in the house, for example, the user on the first floor of the house recognizes that the unused home appliances installed on the second floor of the house remain in the ON state. If not, the user can be notified that the home appliance remains in the ON state. By notifying the user that the home appliance is in the ON state at this timing, the user can be prompted to perform an operation for turning the home appliance off. It is possible to prevent waste of electric power due to continuing.

In the above embodiment, for example,
Using a database that manages map information, obtain area map information of the area including the position indicated by the position information of the display terminal,
Tracking changes in the location information of the display terminal received from the display terminal on the regional map information,
Determining a route to the house and a moving speed of the display terminal on the area map information based on a change in the position information of the display terminal that has been tracked;
When providing the display terminal with information indicating that the one household electrical appliance is in the ON state, the time until the user of the display terminal returns to the house is calculated using the determined route and moving speed. ,
Information indicating that the one home appliance is in an ON state and information indicating a time until the user of the display terminal returns to the house may be provided based on the calculated time.

In the above embodiment, for example,
Count the elapsed time from when the display terminal leaves the area corresponding to the house,
Obtaining the counted time when providing the display terminal with information indicating that the one household electrical appliance is in an ON state;
Information indicating that the user of the display terminal returns to the house based on the acquired time may be provided together with information indicating that the one household electrical appliance is in an ON state.

In this case, when displaying the ON state of a predetermined home appliance on the display terminal, since the time until the user returns to the house is also displayed, it is possible to provide the user with a determination material for determining whether to return to the house. .

In the above embodiment, for example,
The position information of the display terminal may be periodically received from the display terminal.

In this case, since the location information is periodically notified, the moving speed of the display terminal can be easily obtained from a plurality of location information, and the route taken by the user can be traced using the map information.

In the above embodiment, for example,
The one or more home appliances include another home appliance connected to the information management system through the first network and capable of monitoring an operation state of the one home appliance,
Receiving information indicating the operating state of the one household electrical appliance from the other household electrical appliance via the first network;
The ON / OFF state of the one home appliance may be determined based on the information indicating the operation state.

In this case, even when the predetermined home appliance is out of order and the correct ON / OFF state cannot be notified, information indicating the operation state of the predetermined home appliance is notified from another home appliance. The ON / OFF state of the home appliance can be accurately determined.

In the above embodiment, for example,
Managing correspondence information indicating the other home appliance corresponding to the one home appliance;
You may select the said other household appliances matched with the said one household appliance based on the said correspondence information.

In this case, since correspondence information is managed, it is possible to easily identify which home appliance is another home appliance that monitors a predetermined home appliance.

In the above embodiment, for example,
The other home appliance is a wattmeter that is connected to the information management system through the first network and detects the amount of power used in the house,
The ON / OFF state of the one home appliance may be determined based on information indicating the amount of power used received from the power meter via the first network.

In this case, it is possible to accurately determine the ON / OFF state of a predetermined home appliance using the amount of power used detected by the power meter.

In the above embodiment, for example,
The other home appliance is connected to the information management system through the first network, and includes a sound collecting device that collects operation sounds of the one home appliance,
The ON / OFF state of the one home appliance may be determined based on information indicating the operation sound of the one home appliance received from the other home appliance via the first network.

In this case, since the operation sound detected by the sound collector is notified, it is possible to accurately determine the ON / OFF state of a predetermined home appliance from the operation sound.

In the above embodiment, for example,
The other home appliance is connected to the information management system through the first network, and includes an electronic thermometer for measuring the temperature in the house,
The ON / OFF state of the one household electrical appliance may be determined based on information indicating the temperature in the house received from the other household electrical appliance via the network.

In this case, since the temperature detected by the electronic thermometer is notified, the ON / OFF state of a predetermined home appliance can be accurately determined from the temperature.

In another aspect,
An information notification method in an information management system for managing information indicating a state of one or more home appliances in a house,
Via the first network, receiving log information including the ON / OFF state of one of the one or more home appliances from the one home appliance;
Receiving the position information of the display terminal of the user of the home appliance from the display terminal;
Using a database that manages map information, obtain area map information of the area including the position indicated by the position information of the display terminal,
Tracking changes in the location information of the display terminal received from the display terminal on the regional map information,
Based on the change in the location information of the tracked display terminal, the travel distance that the display terminal has moved from the house on the regional map information is calculated,
Before the movement distance of the display terminal from the house exceeds a predetermined distance, information indicating that the one household electrical appliance is in an ON state is provided to the display terminal via the second network.

According to the above aspect, the movement distance of the display terminal moved from the house is calculated based on the change in the position information of the display terminal of the user of the home appliance, and before the movement distance exceeds a predetermined distance, the one When it is determined that the one home appliance is in the ON state based on the log information including the ON / OFF state of the home appliance, information indicating that the one home appliance is in the ON state is provided to the display terminal. The

Thereby, the movement distance that the display terminal has moved from the house is calculated using the change in the position information of the display terminal of the user of the home appliance, and the log information including the ON / OFF state of the one home appliance is used to calculate the movement distance. It is determined that one home appliance is in an ON state. Therefore, it is possible to accurately determine that the one household electrical appliance is in the ON state, and the user can move from the house in consideration of the distance that the user actually moved when the user of the display terminal went out. The judgment result can be transmitted to the display terminal of the user at an appropriate time not away.

For example, when the user leaves the house and moves to a point where the linear distance from the house is 1 kilometer, the road is under construction, for example, or the road is complicated, or the road is complicated. . In these cases, the distance traveled by the user may be longer than the linear distance from the house, for example, 1.5 km. In the above aspect, since the notification deadline to the user is determined based on the distance actually moved from the house, the home appliance is in the ON state while the distance that the user has to move to return to the house is relatively short. Can be notified to the user. By notifying the user that the home appliance is in the ON state at this timing, the user can easily select an action to return to the house to turn the home appliance off. Therefore, waste of electric power due to the user going out while the home appliance is in an ON state can be prevented.

In addition, since notification is performed for one or more home appliances in the ON state, it is not necessary to register a specific home appliance to be notified in advance. Therefore, the number of operations can be reduced when using the information notification system, and the user is not bothered.

Each of the embodiments described below shows a specific example of the present disclosure. Numerical values, shapes, components, steps, order of steps, and the like shown in the following embodiments are merely examples, and are not intended to limit the present disclosure. In addition, among the constituent elements in the following embodiments, constituent elements that are not described in the independent claims indicating the highest concept are described as optional constituent elements. In all the embodiments, the contents can be combined.

(Overview of services provided)
First, an overview of services provided by the information management system in the present embodiment will be described.

FIG. 30A is a diagram showing an overall image of services provided by the information management system in the present embodiment. The information management system includes a group 700, a data center operating company 710, and a service provider 720.

The group 700 is, for example, a company, an organization, or a home, and may be of any size. The group 700 includes a plurality of devices 701 including a first device and a second device, and a home gateway 702. The plurality of devices 701 include devices that can be connected to the Internet (for example, smartphones, personal computers (PCs) or televisions), and devices that cannot be connected to the Internet by themselves (for example, lighting, washing machines, refrigerators, and the like). Including. The plurality of devices 701 may include devices that can be connected to the Internet via the home gateway 702 even if they cannot be connected to the Internet by themselves. The user 1 uses a plurality of devices 701 in the group 700.

The data center operating company 710 includes a cloud server 711. The cloud server 711 is a virtualization server that cooperates with various devices via the Internet. The cloud server 711 mainly manages huge data (big data) that is difficult to handle with a normal database management tool or the like. The data center operating company 710 performs management of data, management of the cloud server 711, operation of the data center that performs them, and the like. Details of services performed by the data center operating company 710 will be described later.

Here, the data center operating company 710 is not limited to a company that only manages data or the cloud server 711. For example, as shown in FIG. 30B, when a device manufacturer that develops or manufactures one of a plurality of devices 701 is managing data or managing a cloud server 711, the device manufacturer This corresponds to the data center operating company 710. The data center operating company 710 is not limited to one company. For example, as shown in FIG. 30C, when the device manufacturer and the management company jointly or share the management of the data or the cloud server 711, both or one of them corresponds to the data center operating company 710. .

The service provider 720 includes a server 721. The server 721 referred to here includes, for example, a memory in a personal PC regardless of the scale. In addition, the service provider 720 may not include the server 721.

In the above information management system, the home gateway 702 is not essential. For example, when the cloud server 711 performs all data management, the home gateway 702 is unnecessary. In addition, there may be no device that cannot be connected to the Internet by itself, as in the case where all devices in the home are connected to the Internet.

Next, the flow of information in the above information management system will be described.

First, the first device or the second device of the group 700 transmits each log information to the cloud server 711 of the data center operating company 710, respectively. The cloud server 711 accumulates log information of the first device or the second device (arrow 731 in FIG. 30A). Here, the log information is information indicating, for example, driving conditions or operation dates / times of the plurality of devices 701. For example, the log information includes TV viewing history, recording recording information of the recorder, operation date / time of the washing machine, amount of laundry, opening / closing date / time of the refrigerator, or opening / closing frequency of the refrigerator, but is not limited thereto. Various information that can be acquired from various devices may be included. Note that the log information may be directly provided to the cloud server 711 from the plurality of devices 701 via the Internet. The log information may be temporarily accumulated in the home gateway 702 from a plurality of devices 701 and provided to the cloud server 711 from the home gateway 702.

Next, the cloud server 711 of the data center operating company 710 provides the accumulated log information to the service provider 720 in a certain unit. Here, the fixed unit may be a unit that can organize and provide the information collected by the data center operating company 710 to the service provider 720, or may be a unit that the service provider 720 requests. In addition, although the information is provided in a fixed unit, it may not be a fixed unit, and the amount of information to be provided may change depending on the situation. The log information is stored in the server 721 owned by the service provider 720 as necessary (arrow 732 in FIG. 30A).

Then, the service provider 720 organizes the log information into information suitable for the service provided to the user, and provides it to the user. The user to whom the information is provided may be the user 1 who uses the plurality of devices 701 or the external user 2. As a method for providing information to users 1 and 2, for example, information may be provided directly to users 1 and 2 from service provider 720 (

arrows

733 and 734 in FIG. 30A). As a method for providing information to the user 1, for example, information may be provided to the user 1 via the cloud server 711 of the data center operating company 710 again (

arrows

735 and 736 in FIG. 30A). Further, the cloud server 711 of the data center operating company 710 may organize the log information into information suitable for the service provided to the user and provide the information to the service provider 720.

Note that the user 1 may be the same as or different from the user 2.

1. Embodiment 1
Here, as an embodiment of the present disclosure, an information notification system according to the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings.

1.1 Overall Configuration of Information Notification System FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the overall configuration of the information notification system 10 according to the first embodiment. The information notification system 10 includes a house 100, a home appliance 101 in the house 100, a home appliance 102, a server 200, a mobile device 300, a network 400 (an example of a first network) that connects the house 100 and the server 200, and the server 200. A network 500 (an example of a second network) connecting the mobile device 300 and a GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite 600 for measuring the position of the house 100 and the position of the mobile device 300 are provided. The mobile device 300 is an example of a display terminal.

In FIG. 1, only the

home appliances

101 and 102 are illustrated in the house 100, but the disclosed communication network is not limited thereto. The house 100 may include an arbitrary number of home appliances. Further, as assumed connection modes, the household

electrical appliances

101 and 102 are connected to each other in the house 100 via a router (not shown) installed in the house 100 and outside the house 100 via the router. A mode of being connected to the network 400 can be adopted. The

networks

400 and 500 are, for example, a wired Internet line and a wireless 4G communication network, respectively, but are not limited thereto. Both networks may be wireless communication networks as well.

Note that the mobile device 300 may be a display terminal such as a mobile phone including a smartphone, a tablet terminal, or a laptop personal computer.

In the description of the embodiment of the present disclosure, for example, the following story is assumed.

The user goes out while holding the mobile device 300 and is away from the house 100. Here, for example, the home appliance 101 is an air conditioner. Then, it is assumed that when the user goes out, the air conditioner should be turned off. At that time, while the user is within a predetermined range from the house 100, the portable device 300 held by the user is notified that the air conditioner is in the ON state. The predetermined range refers to a range in which the user can easily return to the house 100. For example, the range from leaving the house 100 to getting on a bus or train, or the range up to a point where the required time to return to the house 100 is within 5 minutes, for example, corresponds to the predetermined range. The user who has been notified that the air conditioner is in the ON state notices that he / she has forgotten to turn off the air conditioner, returns to the house 100, turns off the air conditioner, and then goes out of the house 100 again. To do. Thereby, the user can go out in peace.

1.2 Household appliances 101
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the home appliance 101 in the house 100. Since the home appliance 102 has the same configuration, the description thereof is omitted here. The home appliance 101 includes an inquiry receiving unit 110, a home appliance log collecting unit 111, a home appliance log reporting unit 112, and a communication unit 113.

1.2.1 Inquiry Receiving Unit 110
The inquiry receiving unit 110 receives an inquiry from the server 200. The inquiry includes a command that causes the server 200 to report the ID (identifier) of the inquiry source server 200, the ID of the inquiry home electrical appliance 101, and the home appliance log of the electrical home appliance. Here, the home appliance log includes the operating status of the home appliance 101 (whether it is in an ON state or an OFF state).

1.2.2 Home Appliance Log Collection Unit 111
When the inquiry receiving unit 110 receives an inquiry from the server 200, the home appliance log collection unit 111 determines whether the home appliance 101 is currently operating from the inside of the home appliance 101 (ON state or OFF state). Home appliance logs including the home appliance 101 are collected and put into an appropriate format. The home appliance log may include the time of collection and the operation state of other home appliances 101. For example, when the home appliance 101 is an air conditioner, the home appliance log includes, for example, information indicating whether the current setting mode is cooling or heating, information such as set temperature, air volume, current room temperature, and outside temperature. May be.

13 is a diagram showing an example of the data configuration of the home appliance log D131 of the air conditioner. The home appliance log D131 includes items of “device ID”, “time”, “ON / OFF”, “setting value”, and “current situation”. The item “device ID” stores an ID for uniquely identifying the home appliance. The collection time of the home appliance log D131 is stored in the item “time”. In the item “ON / OFF”, information indicating whether the home appliance is currently in an ON state or an OFF state is stored. In the “setting value” item, the current setting value of the home appliance is stored. The item “current situation” stores the situation of the room detected by the air conditioner as the home appliance.

In this example, the operating status of the air conditioner (1) at the time of October 7:00 in April 2013 is shown. Therefore, “air conditioner (1)” is stored in the item “equipment ID”, and “2013.4.10 7:00” is stored in the item “time”. At this time, since the air conditioner (1) is in the ON state, “ON” is stored in the “ON / OFF” item. At this time, the set value of the air conditioner (1) is set to the temperature of 22 degrees, the humidity of 40%, the current setting mode is heating, and the operation mode is automatically set (for example, the setting mode is automatically switched to cooling or heating). Therefore, “22 degrees, 40%, heating, automatic” is stored in the “set value” item. At this time, since the temperature of the room detected by the air conditioner (1) was 21 degrees and the humidity was 33%, “21 degrees, 33%” is stored in the “current situation”.

13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data configuration of the home appliance log D132 of the video (2). Since video (2) does not detect room temperature or humidity, the item “current status” is omitted from the home appliance log D132. Other than that, the data structure of the home appliance log D132 is the same as that of the home appliance log D131. In this example, since the operation state of the video (2) at 7:00 on April 10, 2013 is shown, the items “device ID” and “time” are “video (2)”, respectively. And “2013.4.10 7:00” are stored. Since video (2) is stopped (OFF state) at this time, “OFF” is stored in the item “ON / OFF”. At this time, video (2) has been set for 4 channel recording reservation at 19:00 on the same day, and therefore, “4.10 19:00 4ch” is stored in the “setting value” item. .

The lower part of FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of the data configuration of the home appliance log D133 of the power meter. Since the power meter has no set value, the item “set value” is omitted from the home appliance log D133. Other than that, the data structure of the home appliance log D133 is the same as that of the home appliance log D131.

In this example, since the status of the wattmeter at 7:00 on April 10, 2013 is shown, “wattmeter” is stored in the “device ID” item, and “time” item is stored in the “time” item. “2013.4.10 7:00” is stored. In addition, since the power meter has measured that the power consumption is currently 1 kW, “1 kW” is stored in the item “current situation”.

1.2.3 Home Appliance Log Reporting Unit 112
Returning to FIG. 2, the home appliance log reporting unit 112 converts the home appliance log that has been formatted in a predetermined format by the home appliance log collection unit 111 into an appropriate format that can be decoded by the server 200 in order to report to the server 200. This format includes the ID of the home appliance 101 that is the report source, the ID of the server 200 that is the report destination, and the home appliance log (for example, the home appliance log D131 shown in FIG. 13).

1.2.4 Communication unit 113
The communication unit 113 connects the home appliance 101 to a router (not shown) via a wired or wireless LAN (local area network) in the house 100. As the communication unit 113, for example, a communication module corresponding to an IEEE 802.11 series wireless LAN or an IEEE 802.3 series wired LAN can be employed.

1.3 Server 200
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the server 200 in the information notification system 10. The server 200 includes a communication unit 201, a home appliance log reception unit 202, a home appliance log determination unit 203, a notification determination unit 204, a portable device position reception unit 205, a predetermined range determination unit 206, a home appliance log notification unit 207, an inquiry processing unit 208, A communication unit 209 and a house position recording unit 210 are provided.

1.3.1 Communication unit 201
The communication unit 201 connects the server 200 to the home appliances in the house 100 via the network 400. Here, the network 400 is a wired communication Internet network. As the communication unit 201, a communication module such as a modem can be employed.

1.3.2 Home appliance log receiving unit 202
The home appliance log receiving unit 202 receives a home appliance log from the home appliance that has responded to the inquiry from the server 200.

1.3.3 Home appliance log determination unit 203
The home appliance log determination unit 203 determines whether there is an ON state home appliance using the home appliance log collected from the home appliance.

1.3.4 Notification determination unit 204
If the predetermined range determination unit 206 determines that the portable device 300 is within the predetermined range, and the home appliance log determination unit 203 determines that there is an ON state home appliance, the notification determination unit 204 It is determined to notify the device 300 that there is a home appliance in the ON state in the house 100 (that is, there is a home appliance that has been forgotten to be turned off when going out).

On the other hand, the notification determination unit 204 determines that the mobile device 300 is outside the predetermined range in the predetermined range determination unit 206, or determines that there is no home appliance in the ON state in the home appliance log determination unit 203. In this case, it is determined that the mobile device 300 is not notified that there is a home appliance in the house 100 in the ON state.

1.3.5 Position receiving unit 205 of portable device
The position receiving unit 205 of the portable device receives position information (latitude and longitude) of the portable device 300 from the portable device 300 via the communication unit 209.

1.3.6 Predetermined Range Determination Unit 206
The predetermined range determination unit 206 determines whether or not the mobile device 300 is within a predetermined range. Examples of the predetermined range are described in detail in 1.5.2 to 1.5.4.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the predetermined range determination unit 206 having map information described in 1.5.4. The predetermined range determination unit 206 includes an area map information acquisition unit 305, a mobile device moving speed calculation unit 306, a mobile device position prediction unit 307, and a distance L range determination unit 308.

The area map information acquisition unit 305 acquires area map information of an area including the current position of the mobile device 300 from a database (not shown) for managing map information. Here, the acquired area map information includes at least a predetermined range.

The mobile device moving speed calculation unit 306 calculates the moving speed of the mobile device 300 using the position information of the mobile device 300 that is periodically reported.

The portable device position prediction unit 307 predicts the position of the portable device 300 when notifying the home appliance log using the area map information and the moving speed of the portable device 300.

The distance L range determination unit 308 determines whether or not the position of the mobile device 300 predicted by the mobile device position prediction unit 307 is within a predetermined range defined by the radius of the distance L with the house 100 as the center. To do.

1.3.7 Home appliance log notification unit 207
Returning to FIG. 3, the home appliance log notification unit 207 notifies the mobile device 300 of the fact that the notification determination unit 204 determines that there is a need to notify the mobile device 300 that there is a home appliance in the ON state. Notification data having a predetermined format that can be decoded by the mobile device 300 is generated and transmitted to the mobile device 300 through the communication unit 209. This format includes the ID of the server 200 that is the notification source, the ID of the mobile device 300 that is the notification destination, and the ID of the home appliance that is in the ON state. Note that when there are a plurality of ON-state home appliances, the number of ON-state home appliances and the ID of the home appliance are sequentially listed in this format. This format may include notification time information (for example, notification time).

1.3.8 Inquiry Processing Unit 208
The inquiry processing unit 208 transmits an inquiry instruction for causing each home appliance in the house 100 to report a home appliance log to each home appliance via the communication unit 201.

1.3.9 Communication unit 209
The communication unit 209 connects the server 200 to the mobile device 300 via the network 500. Here, the network 500 is a wireless 4G communication network. Therefore, as the communication unit 209, for example, a communication module that connects the server 200 to a wireless 4G communication network can be employed.

1.3.10 House Location Recording Unit 210
The house position recording unit 210 records in advance the position information (latitude and longitude) of the house 100 to which the service by the information notification system 10 is applied. Since the server 200 manages one or more houses 100, the house position recording unit 210 records the position information of all the houses 100 to be managed.

1.4 Mobile device 300
FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the mobile device 300 in the information notification system 10. The mobile device 300 includes a communication unit 301, a mobile device position collection unit 302, a position notification unit 303, and a display unit 304.

1.4.1 Communication unit 301
The communication unit 301 connects the mobile device 300 to the server 200 via the network 500. As the communication unit 301, for example, a communication module of a wireless 4G communication network can be employed.

1.4.2 Location collection unit 302 of portable device
The position collection unit 302 of the mobile device receives radio waves from the GPS satellite 600 (originally using radio wave information from three or more satellites), and calculates the current position information (latitude and longitude) of the mobile device 300. .

1.4.3 Location notification unit 303
The position notification unit 303 converts the position information of the mobile device 300 into a predetermined format that can be decoded by the server 200 and periodically notifies the server 200 of the position information. This format includes the ID of the mobile device 300 that is the notification source, the ID of the server 200 that is the notification destination, and the location information of the mobile device 300. This format may include time information.

1.4.4 Display unit 304
The display unit 304 displays a notification screen indicating notification from the server 200. FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of the notification screen G14 when the air conditioner is not in the OFF state. The notification screen G14 may be output as a pop-up on the display unit 304 by an application (service application) for receiving a service from the information notification system 10 installed in the mobile device 300. Further, the mobile device 300 may display the notification screen G14 when a notification by mail is received from the server 200.

1.5 Operation of Information Notification System 10 FIG. 5 is a sequence diagram showing an example of the operation of the information notification system 10.

1.5.1 Operation overview (S101)
The mobile device 300 periodically notifies the server 200 of its location information.

(S102)
The inquiry processing unit 208 of the server 200 periodically inquires each

home appliance

101 and 102 in the house 100 about the home appliance log. Here, the home appliance 101 to be inquired is a home appliance installed in the house 100, and a home appliance to be managed by the server 200 is adopted. In this example, since the

home appliances

101 and 102 are managed by the server 200, the

home appliances

101 and 102 are inquired. In addition, even if the server 200 is a household appliance to be managed, the server 200 may not transmit an inquiry for a household appliance (for example, a refrigerator) that is always on.

(S103)
When the home appliance 101 receives an inquiry from the server 200, the home appliance 101 collects the home appliance log and reports the collected home appliance log to the server 200. Similarly, the home appliance 102 reports the home appliance log to the server 200.

(S104)
The predetermined range determination unit 206 of the server 200 uses the position information of the house 100 and the position information of the mobile device 300 received in S101 to determine whether or not the mobile device 300 is within a predetermined range from the house 100. to decide. Within the predetermined range is a range in which it is easy for a user who is away from the house 100 to go out to know that the air conditioner in the house 100 is not turned off and to return to the house 100. An example of this determination will be described in detail in 1.5.2 to 1.5.5. If it is determined that the mobile device 300 is within the predetermined range (within the range in S104), the process proceeds to S105, and if it is determined that the mobile device 300 is out of the predetermined range (out of the range with S104), The process ends.

(S105)
The home appliance log determination unit 203 of the server 200 determines whether there is a home appliance in the ON state among the home appliances that collect the log information.

(S106)
If it is determined in S105 that there is a home appliance in the ON state (YES in S105), the notification determination unit 204 of the server 200 determines to notify the mobile device 300 that the home appliance is in the ON state, and the home appliance log The notification unit 207 notifies the mobile device 300 of that fact. On the other hand, if it is determined in S105 that there is no home appliance in the ON state (NO in S105), the process ends.

For example, a notification screen G14 as shown in FIG. 14 is displayed on the display unit 304 of the mobile device 300. This notification screen G14 is displayed on the mobile device 300 as a pop-up if a service application is operating on the mobile device 300. Further, this service application may be realized by a local application installed in the mobile device 300 or may be realized by a Web application. Further, the notification screen G14 may be displayed by notifying the user of a simple message indicating that there is a notification from the server 200 and performing a predetermined operation by the user.

In FIG. 14, it is notified that the air conditioner is not turned off. Therefore, the notification screen G14 displays “The air conditioner is not turned off”. In addition, in the example of FIG. 14, since the range from the home to the bus stop is set as a predetermined range, “This notification will confirm and notify you of the state of the house before you get on the bus. ”Is displayed, and an explanation to the effect that the information on the house has been confirmed and notified to the mobile device 300 before getting on the bus is displayed. However, as an example, this description may be omitted from the notification screen G14 of FIG.

1.5.2 First Implementation Example of Predetermined Range FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a first implementation example of a predetermined range. In the first implementation example, a circle with a radius L having a predetermined distance around the house 100 is adopted as the predetermined range, and it is determined whether or not the portable device 300 exists inside the circle. That is, when the mobile device 300 is within a predetermined range from the position (x0, y0) of the house 100, the user is notified of the home appliance in the ON state.

In FIG. 6, the position of the house 100 is (x0, y0). x0 and y0 indicate the latitude and longitude of the position of the house 100, respectively. Further, the position of the mobile device 300 is (x, y). In the example of FIG. 6, an example in which the position (x, y) of the mobile device 300 is located in a predetermined range is shown. As the position (x0, y0) of the house 100, for example, the latitude and longitude of the center of the house 100 are employed.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing processing of the first implementation example, and is a flowchart showing details of the position determination processing (S104) of the portable device 300 shown in the sequence diagram of FIG.

(S1041)
Using the position (x0, y0) of the house 100 and the position (x, y) of the mobile device 300,
LL ^ 2 = (x−x0) ^ 2 + (y−y0) ^ 2
Is calculated. Here, “LL” indicates the distance between the position of the mobile device 300 and the position of the house 100, and “^ 2” indicates the square.

(S1042)
When L ^ 2 ≧ LL ^ 2 is satisfied (YES in S1042), it is determined that portable device 300 exists within a predetermined range (distance range indicated as the inside of a circle with radius L centered on the house). If the above condition is not satisfied (NO in S1042), it is determined that mobile device 300 exists outside the predetermined range.

1.5.3 Second Implementation Example of Predetermined Range FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a second implementation example of the predetermined range. In the second implementation example, the position (x, y) of the mobile device 300 is within the range indicated by the inside of the circle described in 1.5.2, and is separated from the house 100 by a distance M (M <L). If the mobile device 300 is present, it is determined that the portable device 300 exists within the predetermined range. That is, when the mobile device 300 is away from the position (x0, y0) of the house 100 by a distance M, it is determined that the user has gone out.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the process of the second implementation example, and is a flowchart showing details of the position determination process (S104) of the portable device 300 shown in the sequence diagram of FIG.

(S1043)
This is the same as S1041 in FIG.

(S1044)
When L ^ 2≥LL ^ 2≥M ^ 2 is satisfied (YES in S1044), it is within a predetermined range (between two concentric circles having a radius M and a radius L centered on the house 100). It is determined that the portable device 300 exists in the range). On the other hand, when the above condition is not satisfied (NO in S1044), it is determined that the mobile device 300 exists outside the predetermined range.

Here, as a range indicated by the inner side of the circle having the smaller radius of the two concentric circles, for example, if the house 100 is a house with land, it is approximated to the size of the building of the user's house 100 on the ground. A certain extent may be adopted, or a extent approximating the site area of the land owned by the user may be adopted. However, the range indicated by the inside of the circle with the smaller radius is not limited to these. For example, if the house 100 is an apartment house, a range that is approximate to the user's dwelling unit is adopted as the range indicated by the inside of the circle with the smaller radius.

1.5.4 Third Realization Example of Predetermined Range A case where map information is used will be described as a third realization example of the predetermined range. In the first and second implementation examples, the position (x, y) of the mobile device 300 at the time when the home appliance in the ON state is notified to the mobile device 300 is acquired. On the other hand, in the third implementation example, the mobile device 300 is moving, and the server 200 notifies the mobile device 300 of the home appliance in the ON state using the position information periodically notified from the mobile device 300. The position of the mobile device 300 is predicted, and it is determined whether or not the predicted position is within a predetermined range (within a distance L from the house).

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of a third example of realization within a predetermined range. In FIG. 11, road information R11 from the house 100 and road information R11 obtained from the map information is schematically shown. The position of the portable device 300 at a certain time t1 is (x1, y1), and the position of the portable device 300 at another time t2 is (x2, y2).

Here, the map information includes a directed graph composed of nodes corresponding to predetermined points on the road such as intersections and inflection points and links corresponding to roads connecting the nodes. In addition, in the map information, information on the actual latitude and longitude is associated with each location, and the name of the location is associated. Each node and each link is assigned a unique identifier.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing details of the position determination process (S104) of the portable device shown in the sequence diagram of FIG. Here, the position (x, y) of the mobile device 300 at the time t3 when the server 200 notifies the home device with the ON state to the mobile device 300 is predicted, and the predicted position is within a predetermined range (distance from the house 100). L range) is determined. First, prior to the start of the flowchart of FIG. 12, the moving distance m of the portable device 300 is calculated using the map information from time t1 to time t2. The moving distance m may be calculated, for example, by searching for the shortest path between the position at time t1 and the position at time t2 from the map information.

Note that the flowchart shown in FIG. 12 is executed, for example, at time t3. The time t2 is, for example, the latest position information notification time from the portable device 300 to the server 200 at the time t3, and the time t1 is, for example, the position information one before the latest position information. Is the notification time. However, this is only an example, and as the times t1 and t2, the notification times of any two pieces of position information among the position information notified in the past fixed period with respect to the time t3 may be adopted. Then, the position information at the times t1 and t2 is plotted on the map information, the movement route of the mobile device 300 from the time t1 to the time t2 is extracted, and the distance of the extracted movement route is calculated as the movement distance m. The

(S1045)
v = m / (t2-t1) is calculated.

Here, v is the moving speed of the mobile device 300 from time t1 to time t2. For example, when the user carrying the mobile device 300 moves on a bicycle, the moving speed v has a faster value than when walking, and when the user holding the mobile device 300 moves on foot, the moving speed v Has a slower value than a bicycle.

(S1046)
The travel distance mm from time t2 to time t3 is calculated using time t3 when the server 200 notifies the home appliance 101 in the ON state to the mobile device 300 and the travel speed v obtained in S1045. Here, the moving distance mm is expressed by the following equation.

Mm = (t3-t2) × v

Here, the moving speed mm from the time t2 to the time t3 is assumed to be the moving speed v from the time t1 to the time t2, and the moving distance mm is calculated. Further, when the server 200 regularly notifies the mobile device 300 of the operation state of the home appliance 101, the notification timing is used as the time t3. In addition, when a mode in which this notification is performed after a certain time after the user goes out of the house 100 is employed, the time t <b> 3 is a timing at which a certain time has elapsed since the mobile device 300 left the house 100. . Here, as the fixed time, for example, an arbitrary time within a time period in which it is estimated that the user is within a predetermined range after leaving the house 100 may be adopted, and it is estimated that the time is out of the predetermined range. A time slightly shorter than the set time may be employed.

(S1047)
Using the map information, a position (x3, y3) moved from the position (x2, y2) at the time t2 by the moving distance mm is calculated as the predicted position (x, y) of the mobile device 300 at the time t3.

(S1048)
By using the predicted position (x, y) and the position (x0, y0) of the house 100, LL ^ 2 = (x−x0) ^ 2 + (y−y0) ^ 2 is calculated.

(S1049)
If the condition of L ^ 2 ≧ LL ^ 2 is satisfied (YES in S1049), it is determined that the predicted position (x, y) is within a predetermined range, and the server 200 has the home appliance 101 in the ON state. This is notified to the mobile device 300. On the other hand, if the above condition is not satisfied (NO in S1049), it is determined that the predicted position (x, y) is outside the range inside the circle with the radius L from the house 100, and the household electrical appliance 101 in the ON state is Even if there is, it is not notified to the portable device 300.

In the third implementation example, when the time t3 is the same timing as the notification timing of the position information of the mobile device 300, the position information at the time t3 is obtained, so the server 200 needs to calculate the predicted position (x, y). There is no. Therefore, the third implementation example may be applied when the notification timing of the position information of the mobile device 300 is different from the time t3.

1.6 Effects of First Embodiment In the first embodiment, if there is a home appliance that is not in the OFF state before the mobile device 300 moves outside the predetermined range, the mobile device 300 is notified of this. Is done. Here, the predetermined range indicates, for example, a range from the house 100 to the nearest bus stop. Before getting on the bus, the user can return to the house 100, turn off the home appliances that are not in the OFF state, and go out in peace. As an example of not being in the OFF state, for example, a case where the power supply is forgotten to be turned off. In addition, as an example of this, for example, even if the home appliance can be remotely turned off normally, the user must return to the house 100 because the remote control unit of the home appliance has failed. For example, the home appliance may not be turned off.

Alternatively, the predetermined range may be a range to the nearest station of the train. If the bus is on the way to the nearest station of the train, it is possible to transfer to the return bus again and return to the house 100 to turn off the home appliances in the ON state. However, if the train is on an express train, for example, if it is an express train, it takes an excessive amount of time for the user to return to the house 100.

In such a case, it is possible to prevent the home appliance from being used unnecessarily by returning to the house 100 with a notification within a predetermined range and reliably turning off the home appliance in the ON state.

2. Embodiment 2 (displays time to return)
Hereinafter, the information notification system 10 according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings. The difference from the first embodiment is that, when notifying the portable device 300 of the home appliance in the ON state, the time required to return to the house 100 is also notified. FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an example of the notification screen G18 in the second embodiment. In this notification screen G18, information that it takes 5 minutes to return to the house 100 is displayed together with information that the home appliance is in the ON state. Specifically, in the notification screen G18, a message “It takes about 5 minutes to return home” is added to the notification screen G14. In this way, it is possible to present the user with information for determining whether or not to return to the house 100. The notification screen G18 may be output to the display unit 304 as a pop-up by the service application. In addition, the mobile device 300 may display the notification screen G18 when receiving a notification by mail from the server 200.

In the following, this difference will be mainly described, and the description of the same parts as those in the first embodiment will be omitted.

2.1 Configuration of Information Notification System The overall configuration of the information notification system 10, the home appliance, and the configuration of the mobile device 300 are the same as in the first embodiment (see FIGS. 1, 2, and 4). Description is omitted.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the server 200 in the second embodiment. In addition to the server configuration of the first embodiment, a required time acquisition unit 211 is provided.

2.2 Time required acquisition unit 211
The required time acquisition unit 211 predicts the time until the user holding the mobile device 300 returns to the house 100 by the required time acquisition process. And the server 200 notifies the estimated time to notify the portable device 300 of the home appliance in the ON state. The required time acquisition process will be specifically described in 2.3 and 2.4.

2.3 First Realization Example of Required Time Acquisition Process The first realization example of the required time acquisition process is the time required for the user holding the mobile device 300 to leave the house 100 and receive the notification as it is. To the time required to return to the house 100 (hereinafter referred to as a predicted required time). For this reason, time measurement is started from the time when it is determined that the user has left the house 100, and the time measurement is continued until the information on the home appliance in the ON state is notified. Together with the information on the home appliance in the ON state, the measured time is notified to the portable device 300 as the estimated required time.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating a first implementation example of the required time acquisition process performed with the required time acquisition unit 211 as the center.

(S2111)
The required time acquisition unit 211 confirms whether the portable device 300 has left the house 100. Here, if the required time acquisition unit 211 determines that the mobile device 300 has moved away from the house 100 when the position information of the mobile device 300 changes from the inside to the outside of the circle having the distance M illustrated in FIG. 8, for example. Good. If it is determined in S2111 that the mobile device 300 is away from the house 100 (YES in S2111), the process proceeds to S2112, and if it is determined that the mobile device 300 is not away from the house 100 (NO in S2111), the process Returns to S2111.

(S2112)
The required time acquisition unit 211 starts measuring the predicted time when the mobile device 300 leaves the house 100.

(S2113)
The notification determination unit 204 notifies the mobile device 300 of the home appliance that is not in the OFF state because there is a home appliance that is not in the OFF state in the house 100 and the mobile device 300 is within a predetermined range. Determine if it is necessary. This is the same as S104 and S105 in FIG. If it is determined in S2113 that the mobile device 300 needs to be notified (YES in S2113), the process proceeds to S2114. On the other hand, if it is determined that there is no need to notify the mobile device 300 (NO in S2113), the process returns to S2113.

(S2114)
If it is determined YES in S2113, the required time acquisition unit 211 confirms the time when measurement is started in S2112 and determines that time as the predicted required time. The home appliance log notification unit 207 notifies the mobile device 300 of the estimated required time together with information indicating that there is a home appliance in the ON state.

2.4 Second Realization Example of Required Time Acquisition Processing In the first realization example of required time acquisition processing, when you depart on the way from the house 100 to the current location, or when you talk to someone on the way Then, it is considered that there is a difference between the time required to get to the current location after leaving the house 100 and the time required to return to the home 100 from the current location. In the second implementation example of the required time acquisition process, the predicted required time is calculated from the distance from the house 100 to the current location and the moving speed of the mobile terminal (user). Thereby, the estimated required time until returning to the house 100 is calculated more accurately.

The required time acquisition unit 211 of the server 200 periodically receives the position information of the mobile device 300 from the mobile device 300 and obtains the moving speed of the mobile device 300. Thus, the required time acquisition unit 211 can determine whether the mobile device 300 is moving by bicycle, moving on foot, or moving by car. On the other hand, the required time acquisition unit 211 acquires the distance traveled by the mobile device 300 from the map information.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart showing a second implementation example of the required time acquisition process performed with the required time acquisition unit 211 as the center.

(S2115)
The required time acquisition unit 211 calculates the movement distance m from the difference between the time t1 and the time t2 and the map information. Then, the required time acquisition unit 211 calculates the moving speed of the mobile device 300 from v = m / (t2−t1). Here, assuming that the calculation timing of the predicted required time is time t2, for example, the latest position information notification time is adopted as the time t2, and the time t1 is notified one time before the latest position information, for example. The notification time of the location information is adopted. The calculation of the movement distance m is the same as S1045 in FIG.

(S2116)
The required time acquisition unit 211 calculates the route distance R between the house 100 and the current portable device 300 using the map information. Here, the route distance R is a shortest route or an optimum route calculated by route search processing generally used in a car navigation system or the like. Here, the shortest route indicates a route having the shortest moving distance. The optimum route is a route that takes the shortest travel time considering the presence or absence of a signal or the presence or absence of a sidewalk. Specifically, the current location and the position of the house 100 are plotted on the map information, and the shortest route and the optimum route are searched using a route search algorithm such as the Dijkstra method or the A-star algorithm.

(S2117)
The required time acquisition unit 211 calculates T = R / v as an estimated required time that is required to return from the current location to the house 100. Then, the home appliance log notification unit 207 notifies the portable device 300 of the predicted required time calculated by the required time acquisition unit 211 together with the notification of the ON state.

2.5 Effects of Second Embodiment In the second embodiment, in addition to the effects of the first embodiment, the prediction required for the user to return from the current location to the house 100 in order to turn off the home appliance in the ON state. The time is displayed on the portable device 300 together with the notification of the ON state. Thereby, when returning to the house 100 from the present location and turning off the home appliance in the ON state and going out again, the user can be informed of how much time is lost. Thereby, the user can select the action to be taken in consideration of his / her schedule and the risk and disadvantage of going out with the home appliance set in the ON state. That is, the user can select whether to turn back to the house 100 to turn off the home appliance that is in the ON state, or to go directly to the destination without returning to the house 100. Further, when the user selects to return to the house 100, the user can also predict how much delay will occur in his / her schedule, which is useful for the user.

3. Embodiment 3 (monitored by other devices)
Next, an information notification system according to the third embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings. In the first embodiment, the server 200 collects home appliance logs directly from each home appliance. In the third embodiment, server 200 acquires a monitoring log from a monitoring device associated with each home appliance in advance, and determines whether there is an ON-state home appliance from the acquired monitoring log.

For example, the server 200 does not acquire the home appliance log indicating whether the air conditioner is in the ON state or the OFF state from the air conditioner itself, but from the wattmeter (monitoring device) that monitors the power supplied to the air conditioner. get. Then, the server 200 determines whether or not the air conditioner is in an ON state from the acquired monitoring log. For example, it is assumed that there is an air conditioner that can transmit only the home appliance log in the OFF state to the server 200 due to a failure even though it is in the ON state. In this case, using the monitoring log (power value) obtained from the power meter, the server 200 can correctly determine whether or not the air conditioner is in the ON state. Further, even if the home appliance does not have a communication unit for notifying the server 200 of the home appliance log, the server 200 can be turned on by acquiring the monitoring log notified from the monitoring device including the communication unit. Whether or not it is in a state can be grasped.

3.1 Overall Configuration of Information Notification System FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating an overall configuration of the information notification system 10 according to the third embodiment. The information notification system 10 includes

monitoring devices

103, 104, and 105 (an example of other home appliances) in the house 100 in addition to the configuration of the first embodiment shown in FIG. The description of the same parts as those of the first embodiment is omitted.

3.2 Monitoring device 103
FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the monitoring device 103. The monitoring device 103 includes an inquiry receiving unit 114, a monitoring log collecting unit 115, a monitoring log reporting unit 116, and a communication unit 117. The inquiry receiving unit 114 and the communication unit 117 are the same as the inquiry receiving unit 110 and the communication unit 113 included in the home appliance 101, respectively, and thus description thereof is omitted here.

Since the

monitoring devices

104 and 105 have basically the same structure as the monitoring device 103, the description thereof is omitted.

3.2.1 Monitoring log collection unit 115
The monitoring log collection unit 115 collects, as a monitoring log, predetermined information related to home appliances that are determined to be monitored in advance. For example, when the monitoring device 103 (power meter) targets the home appliance 101 (air conditioner), the monitoring log collection unit 115 of the power meter collects the power value supplied to the power supply of the air conditioner as a monitoring log. For example, when the monitoring device 104 (thermometer) targets the home appliance 101 (air conditioner), the monitoring log collection unit 115 of the thermometer monitors the temperature near the air conditioner or the temperature of the room where the air conditioner is installed. Collect as. For example, when the monitoring device 104 (sound sensor) targets the home appliance 102 (automatic vacuum cleaner), the monitoring log collection unit 115 of the sound sensor uses the operation sound of the home appliance 102 (automatic vacuum cleaner) as a monitoring log. collect. Then, the monitoring log collection unit 115 converts the collected monitoring log into a predetermined format that can be decoded by the monitoring log reporting unit 116, and outputs it to the monitoring log reporting unit 116. An example of the format of the monitoring log is shown in the lower part of FIG.

3.2.2 Monitoring log reporting unit 116
The monitoring log reporting unit 116 converts the monitoring log output in a predetermined format by the monitoring log collection unit 115 into a format for reporting to the server 200, and transmits it to the server 200 through the communication unit 117. Here, the format for reporting to the server 200 includes the ID of the monitoring device 103 as the report source, the ID of the server 200 as the report destination, and the monitoring log collected by the monitoring device (for example, the power value in the case of a power meter). Is included.

3.3 Server 200
FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the server 200 according to the third embodiment. In addition to the configuration illustrated in FIG. 3, the server 200 includes a corresponding monitoring device recording unit 216, a monitoring log receiving unit 212, a monitoring log determination unit 213 instead of the home appliance log determination unit 203, and monitoring instead of the home appliance log notification unit 207. A log notification unit 214 is provided. The rest of the configuration is the same as that shown in FIG.

3.3.1 Corresponding monitoring device recording unit 216
The correspondence monitoring device recording unit 216 records the correspondence table H27 in which the correspondence relationship between the home appliance and the monitoring device that monitors the home appliance is shown. FIG. 24 is a diagram showing an example of the data configuration of the correspondence table H27. In this example, the monitoring device 103 and the monitoring device 104 of the home appliance 101 (air conditioner) are a power meter and a thermometer, respectively, and the monitoring device 105 of the home appliance 102 (automatic vacuum cleaner) is a sound sensor (microphone). It has been recorded. A plurality of monitoring devices may be registered for one home appliance, and one monitoring device may monitor a plurality of home appliances.

3.3.2 Monitoring log receiving unit 212
The monitoring log receiving unit 212 makes an inquiry to the monitoring device, and receives the monitoring log transmitted from the monitoring device as a response to the inquiry through the communication unit 201.

3.3.3 Monitoring log determination unit 213
The monitoring log determination unit 213 uses the monitoring log received by the monitoring log reception unit 212 to determine whether there is an ON-state home appliance. For example, the monitoring log determination unit 213 determines whether or not the air conditioner is ON using a monitoring log from a power meter that is a monitoring device.

3.3.4 Monitoring log notification unit 214
The monitoring log notification unit 214 is determined by the notification determination unit 204 to notify that there is an ON state home appliance because there is an ON state home appliance and the mobile device 300 is within a predetermined range. If this happens, the mobile device 300 is notified of this via the communication unit 209. The format of this notification includes the ID of the server 200 that is the notification source, the ID of the mobile device 300 that is the notification destination, and the ID of the household electrical appliance that is in the ON state. When there are a plurality of ON-state home appliances, the number and ID are sequentially listed in the format of this notification. The notification format may include notification time information, and may include the ID and name of the monitoring device.

3.4 Operation of Information Notification System 10 The operation of the information notification system 10 includes 1) a registration phase for registering a monitoring device, and 2) whether or not a predetermined home appliance is in an ON state based on a monitoring log transmitted from the monitoring device. This is divided into a notification phase in which the mobile device 300 is notified. Hereinafter, the operation of each phase will be described.

3.4.1 Registration Phase FIG. 22 is a diagram showing a registration screen G25 for registering, for example, an air conditioner monitoring device. The registration screen G25 is displayed on the mobile device 300. The registration screen G25 displays a list of monitoring device candidates that can check the operating state of the air conditioner among the monitoring devices installed in the house 100. In the example of FIG. 25, a power meter, a thermometer, and a sound sensor (microphone) are listed as candidates. The monitoring device exemplified here may not be a single wattmeter, thermometer, or sound sensor. For example, when there are home appliances having functions such as a power meter, a thermometer, and a sound sensor, the home appliances may be displayed as a list on the registration screen G25 as a monitoring device. For example, a washing machine equipped with a sound sensor can be a candidate for a monitoring device.

Here, as the monitoring devices displayed in a list on the registration screen G25, monitoring devices registered in advance in the server 200 are employed. Here, the server 200 may extract, in advance, home appliances that can be monitoring device candidates from home appliances installed in the house 100 for each home appliance, and list the extracted home appliances on the registration screen G25. .

When there is a washing machine equipped with a sound sensor in the house 100 as a monitoring device, the washing machine is installed at a location far from the installation location of the air conditioner to be monitored, and the operation sound of the air conditioner cannot be detected. In some cases. In this case, the washing machine may be omitted from the registration screen example G25 of FIG. In this case, the server 200 manages the position information of each home appliance installed in the house 100, and determines whether a certain home appliance is applicable as a monitoring device for a predetermined home appliance using the position information. do it. Here, when the server 200 manages the floor plan of the house 100, coordinates on the floor plan indicating the installation position of each home appliance can be adopted as the position information of each home appliance. And the server 200 should just judge that a certain household appliance is not suitable as a monitoring apparatus, since a certain household appliance is installed in the distance with respect to a predetermined household appliance using this coordinate.

The registration screen G25 describes the characteristics when each monitoring device monitors the operating state of the air conditioner. For example, as a method of determining an air conditioner operating state (air conditioner is in an ON state or an OFF state) from a monitoring log from a power meter, there are a method using a power value itself (absolute value) and a method using a power change. When only the air conditioner is connected to the system to which the power meter is connected, the server 200 can accurately determine the operating state of the air conditioner using the power value measured by the power meter. On the other hand, when a household appliance other than the air conditioner is connected to the system to which the power meter is connected, the server 200 uses the power value measured by the power meter to accurately determine the operation state of the air conditioner. There is a possibility that it cannot be judged well. In this case, the server 200 may determine the operating state of the air conditioner using the power change.

Therefore, in the example of FIG. 22, the display column of “watt meter” describes “the power value itself or the power change is confirmed” as a monitoring characteristic when the power meter is used. Here, the user may specify whether the determination method using the power value itself or the determination method using the power change is employed, or the server 200 may determine. In the latter case, the server 200 may manage in advance information indicating which outlet (system) each home appliance is connected to in the house 100, and use this information to select the determination method described above. .

When determining the operating state of the air conditioner using the temperature measured by the thermometer, the server 200 may determine whether the air conditioner is on or off from the absolute value of the temperature measured by the thermometer. Alternatively, the server 200 may obtain a temporal transition of the temperature from the measured value of the temperature measured a plurality of times by the thermometer, and may determine the ON state or the OFF state of the air conditioner from the temporal transition. In this case, since several temperature measurement values are required, it takes a certain amount of time to determine the operating state of the air conditioner.

Therefore, in the example of Fig. 22, the display column of "Thermometer" has the characteristic of monitoring when using a thermometer "Check the temperature itself or the temperature change. It takes a little time to check." It is described.

When the operation state of the air conditioner is determined using the sound measured by the sound sensor, the air blowing sound of the air conditioner is used to determine the ON state and the OFF state of the air conditioner.

Therefore, in the example of FIG. 22, “Sound sensor” is displayed in the “Sound sensor” display column.

The user selects a monitoring device from the candidates listed on the registration screen G25. Here, the user may select a plurality of monitoring devices.

The registration screen G25 is provided with a check box C25 for selecting each monitoring device displayed in a list. In the example of FIG. 22, since the power meter, the thermometer, and the sound sensor are displayed in a list, three check boxes C25 corresponding to these three monitoring devices are displayed. The user operates the mobile device 300 and inputs a check mark in the check box C25 to select a monitoring device. In the example of FIG. 22, a check mark is input to the wattmeter and thermometer check box C25, and the wattmeter and the thermometer are selected as monitoring devices for the air conditioner.

When a monitoring device is selected by the user, the corresponding monitoring device recording unit 216 records the ID of the selected monitoring device in association with the ID of the home appliance monitored by the monitoring device in the correspondence table H27. In the example of FIG. 24, a power meter and a thermometer are recorded as monitoring devices for determining the operating state of the air conditioner.

In addition, in the registration table H27, determination conditions for determining that the home appliance is in the ON state are also recorded. For example, in the example of FIG. 24, “1 kW or more” is registered as “value when ON” in “watt meter”. This indicates that when the power consumption detected by the power meter shows a value of 1 kW or more, it is determined that the air conditioner is in the ON state.

In the example of FIG. 24, the “thermometer” is set to “value when ON”, “the temperature in the vicinity of the air conditioner or in the room is 25 degrees or less (June to August), 15 degrees or more (December to February)” Is recorded. This means that if the temperature in the vicinity of the air conditioner or the room where the air conditioner is installed is 25 degrees or less in the summer (June to August), it is determined that the air conditioner is on, and in the winter (December to February) If it is 15 degrees or more, it indicates that the air conditioner is determined to be in the ON state. This is because it is assumed that a cooling operation is performed in summer and a heating operation is performed in winter.

In the example of FIG. 24, “sound sensor” is recorded in association with “automatic vacuum cleaner”. In the example of FIG. 24, “60 dB or more” is registered as “value when ON” for “automatic vacuum cleaner”. This indicates that when the operation sound of the automatic cleaner less than 60 dB is detected by the sound sensor, it is determined that the automatic cleaner is in the ON state.

Note that whether or not the operation sound detected by the sound sensor is the operation sound of the automatic cleaner may be determined by, for example, frequency analysis of the operation sound detected by the sound sensor. For example, if a feature value of an operation sound is extracted by performing a Fourier transform on the operation sound, and the similarity between the feature amount and a feature value determined in advance as the operation sound of an automatic cleaner is greater than or equal to a certain level, the sound sensor automatically It may be determined that the operation sound of the vacuum cleaner has been detected.

In the above description, the example in which the judgment standard is changed according to the season is shown as the judgment standard for judging the ON state of the air conditioner based on the temperature acquired by the thermometer. However, the same judgment standard may be adopted throughout the year. For example, it is considered that an air conditioner rarely performs a heating operation in a low latitude area, and an air conditioner rarely performs a cooling operation in a high latitude area. In this case, the same judgment standard may be adopted throughout the year as the judgment standard.

Also, the determination criteria are not limited to such setting, and the determination criteria may be flexibly set based on the characteristics of the weather in each region.

3.4.2 Notification Phase FIG. 23 is a sequence diagram showing the operation of the notification phase in the information notification system 10.

(S101)
The mobile device 300 periodically notifies the server 200 of its own location information.

(S110)
The server 200 refers to the correspondence table H27 recorded in the correspondence monitoring device recording unit 216, and acquires the ID of the monitoring device of each home appliance. Here, when a plurality of monitoring devices are registered for one household electrical appliance, the server 200 acquires IDs of the plurality of monitoring devices. Here, IDs of the monitoring device 103 (power meter) and the monitoring device 104 (thermometer) are acquired as the monitoring device of the home appliance 101 (air conditioner), and the monitoring device is used as the monitoring device of the home appliance 102 (automatic vacuum cleaner). Assume that the ID of 105 (sound sensor) is acquired.

(S111)
The inquiry processing unit 208 of the server 200 periodically transmits an inquiry for notifying the monitoring log to each monitoring device (a plurality of devices may be provided for one home appliance). Here, since the monitoring device 103 (power meter) and the monitoring device 104 (thermometer) are registered in the correspondence table H27 as monitoring devices of the home appliance 101 (air conditioner), the monitoring device 103 (watt meter) and the monitoring device 103 are monitored. An inquiry is transmitted to the device 104 (thermometer). Moreover, since the monitoring device 105 (sound sensor) is registered in the correspondence table H27 as a monitoring device of the home appliance 102 (automatic vacuum cleaner), an inquiry is transmitted to the home appliance 102 (automatic vacuum cleaner). ing. The inquiry includes the ID of the monitoring device, the ID of the server 200, the ID of the home appliance to be monitored, and an inquiry command indicating that the transmission data is an inquiry.

(S112)
The monitoring device 103 (power meter) receives an inquiry from the server 200 and collects a monitoring log.

(S113)
The monitoring device 104 (thermometer) also receives an inquiry from the server 200 and collects a monitoring log.

(S114)
The monitoring device 105 (sound sensor) also receives an inquiry from the server 200 and collects a monitoring log. Note that the order of S112, S113, and S114 may be reversed or simultaneous.

(S115)
The

monitoring devices

103, 104, and 105 transmit the collected monitoring logs to the server 200. For example, the monitoring device 103 (power meter) collects the power value of the power supply system of the home appliance 101 (air conditioner) to be monitored, and transmits the collected power value to the server 200 as a monitoring log. In addition, the monitoring device 104 (thermometer) collects the temperature of the room where the home appliance 101 (air conditioner) to be monitored is installed, and transmits the collected temperature to the server 200 as a monitoring log. For example, the monitoring device 105 (sound sensor) collects an audio signal in a frequency band indicating an operation sound of the home appliance 102 (automatic vacuum cleaner) to be monitored, and transmits the collected audio signal to the server 200 as a monitoring log. .

(S104)
The predetermined range determination unit 206 of the server 200 uses the location information of the house 100 and the location information of the mobile device 300 received in S101 to determine whether the mobile device 300 exists within a predetermined range from the house 100. Judging. Within the predetermined range is a range in which a user who is away from the house 100 on the go can easily return to the house 100 as in the first or second embodiment.

(S105)
When it is determined in S104 that the mobile device 300 is within the predetermined range (within the range in S104), the monitoring log determination unit 213 of the server 200 uses the collected monitoring log to identify the home appliance that has transmitted the inquiry. It is determined whether there is a home appliance in the ON state.

(S106)
If there is an ON home appliance (YES in S105), the notification determination unit 204 of the server 200 determines that the ID of the home appliance is to be notified to the mobile device 300 existing within a predetermined range, and the monitoring log notification unit 214 notifies the fact. At the same time, the monitoring log notification unit 214 of the server 200 notifies the mobile device 300 of information about the monitoring device. FIG. 26 is a diagram showing a notification screen G26 displayed on the display unit 304 of the mobile device 300. In the notification screen G26 of FIG. 26, since the air conditioner is in the ON state, “Air conditioner is in the ON state” is displayed. In addition, in the notification screen G26, the ON state of the air conditioner is determined from the monitoring logs of the wattmeter and the thermometer, so “It is confirmed from the wattmeter and the thermometer that the air conditioner is ON”. It is displayed. Note that the notification screen G26 may be output to the display unit 304 as a pop-up by the service application of the mobile device 300. Further, the mobile device 300 may display the notification screen G26 when receiving a notification by mail from the server 200.

3.4.3 Implementation Example for Determining ON State of Home Appliance from Monitoring Log Information FIG. 25 is a flowchart illustrating processing for determining whether a home appliance is in an ON state or an OFF state from a monitoring log. 23 is a flowchart showing detailed processing of S105 of FIG. FIG. 25 shows a case where it is determined whether the air conditioner is in the ON state or the OFF state from the absolute value of the power value measured by the monitoring device 103 (power meter) as an example of the determination of the ON state. Yes. Specifically, the correspondence table H27 in FIG. 24 records that the power consumption measured by the power meter is 1 kW or more when the air conditioner is in the ON state. Therefore, the monitoring log determination unit 213 checks whether or not the power value indicated by the monitoring log of the power meter is less than 1 kW (S2801). If the power value is less than 1 kW (YES in S2801), the monitoring log determination unit 213 determines that the air conditioner is in an OFF state. On the other hand, if the power value is 1 kW or more (NO in S2801), monitoring log determination unit 213 determines that the air conditioner is in the ON state.

Similarly, from the contents registered in the “value when ON” of the thermometer in the correspondence table H27 of FIG. 24, the monitoring log determination unit 213 determines that the monitoring log of the thermometer in summer (June to August). Is less than 25 degrees, the air conditioner is determined to be in the OFF state. Further, in winter (from December to February), the monitoring log determination unit 213 determines that the air conditioner is in the ON state if the temperature indicated by the monitoring log of the thermometer is 15 degrees or more, and the temperature is less than 15 degrees. If it is, the air conditioner is determined to be in an OFF state.

Similarly, from the contents registered in the “value when ON” of the sound sensor in the correspondence table H27 in FIG. 24, the monitoring log determination unit 213 determines that the operation sound indicated by the monitoring log of the sound sensor is 60 dB or less. The automatic cleaner is determined to be in an OFF state, and if the operation sound is 60 dB or more, it is determined that the automatic cleaner is in an ON state.

3.5 Effects of Embodiment 3 In Embodiment 3, it is determined whether or not the home appliance is in the ON state from the monitoring log of the monitoring device associated with the home appliance. For example, whether an air conditioner is in an ON state or an OFF state is determined not from a home appliance log of the air conditioner itself but from a monitoring log of a wattmeter that monitors power supplied to the air conditioner. Thus, for example, even if the server 200 has an air conditioner that can notify only the home appliance log in the OFF state even though it is in the ON state due to a failure, the air conditioner monitoring log obtained from the monitoring device can be used. The ON state of is accurately determined. Further, even if the home appliance does not have a communication unit for notifying the server 200 of the home appliance log, the server 200 can obtain the monitoring log notified from the monitoring device including the communication unit, so that the server 200 Whether or not the device is in the ON state can be grasped.

4). Embodiment 4 (notification based on distance actually moved)
In the first embodiment, if there is a home appliance that is in an ON state when going out, the home appliance is ON in the portable device 300 owned by the user while the user is in a circle having a predetermined radius from the house 100. Was notified. That is, in Embodiment 1, when a user exists in a circle having a predetermined radius, the user who has received the notification goes to the house 100 in order to perform an operation of changing the state of the home appliance (turning it to the OFF state). It was considered to be within easy reach.

On the other hand, in the fourth embodiment, it is determined whether or not the user exists within a predetermined range by using an actual moving distance when the user leaves the house 100 instead of a circle having a predetermined radius. For example, when the user moves east from the house 100, the road is very complicated, and thus the user's moving distance may be longer than the linear distance even though the straight distance from the house 100 is short. . On the other hand, when the user moves west, since the road is straight, the linear distance from the house 100 and the movement distance may be substantially the same. In these cases, it cannot be simply determined that the user is easy to return to the house 100 just because the user exists in a circle having a predetermined radius. In these cases, it is appropriate to determine whether or not it is easy for the user to return to the house 100 at the actual moving distance.

FIG. 29 is a diagram illustrating an example of a notification screen G29 displayed on the mobile device 300 in the fourth embodiment. FIG. 29 shows a notification screen G29 for notifying home appliances that are in the ON state when the moving distance of the user from the house 100 is 500 m or less. Therefore, the notification screen G29 displays “This notification has confirmed and notified the state of the house before the distance you have moved from your home reaches 500 m”.

Also, in the notification screen G29, since the air conditioner is in an ON state, “Air conditioner is in an ON state” is displayed. Note that the notification screen G29 may be output to the display unit 304 as a pop-up by the service application of the mobile device 300. In addition, the mobile device 300 may display the notification screen G <b> 29 when receiving a mail notification from the server 200.

4.1 Configuration of Information Notification System In the fourth embodiment, the overall configuration of the information notification system 10 and the configurations of the home appliance 101 and the portable device 300 are the same as those in the first embodiment (FIGS. 1, 2, and FIG. 4).

FIG. 27 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the server 200 in the fourth embodiment. In addition to the server configuration of the first embodiment, a mobile device moving distance calculation unit 215 is provided.

4.1.1 Movement distance calculation unit 215
The movement distance calculation unit 215 tracks the change in the position information of the mobile device 300 on the map information from the time when the user goes out of the house, and calculates the movement distance.

4.2 Operation of Information Notification System The operation of the information notification system 10 is the same as that of the first embodiment shown in FIG. However, the operation of S104 for determining whether the mobile device 300 is within a predetermined range is different. Here, determination of a predetermined range of the difference will be described.

FIG. 28 is a flowchart showing details of the process of S104 of FIG. 5 in the fourth embodiment.

(S10410)
The movement distance calculation unit 215 determines whether the mobile device 300 has left the house 100 from the position information of the mobile device 300. Here, the movement distance calculation unit 215 determines that the mobile device 300 is separated from the house 100 when the position information of the mobile device 300 changes from the inside to the outside of the circle of the distance M shown in FIG. Good.

(S10411)
The movement distance calculation unit 215 starts measuring the movement distance of the mobile device 300 from the house 100.

(S10412)
The travel distance calculation unit 215 tracks the travel route of the mobile device 300 using the location information and map information of the mobile device 300 that are regularly notified, and measures the travel distance. For example, the movement distance calculation unit 215 plots the position indicated by the position information notified from the portable device 300 on the map information, and connects the plotted positions along the road, thereby moving the movement route of the portable device 300. To track. Then, the movement distance calculation unit 215 calculates the length of the tracked movement route, and measures the actual distance corresponding to the calculated length as the movement distance of the mobile device 300.

(S10413)
If the movement distance measured by the movement distance calculation unit 215 is less than a predetermined distance (here, d) (YES in S10413), the predetermined range determination unit 206 is within the predetermined range. Judge that. On the other hand, if the moving distance is equal to or greater than the predetermined distance d (NO in S10413), it is determined that the mobile device 300 is outside the predetermined range.

4.3 Effects of Embodiment 4 In Embodiment 1, the user can set a predetermined range (ON home appliances) depending on how far the position of the mobile device 300 is linearly away from the house 100. It is determined whether or not it exists within the range of notification. On the other hand, in the fourth embodiment, the actual moving distance of the mobile device 300 is calculated using the map information, and it is determined whether or not the mobile device 300 exists within a predetermined range using the moving distance. ing. Thereby, for example, when moving to the east, the road is very complicated, and the moving distance becomes long although the linear distance from the house 100 is short, while when moving to the west, the movement from the house 100 Even in a case where the route is linear, the range in which the user can turn back can be accurately determined.

5. Other Modifications Although the present disclosure has been described based on the above-described embodiments, it is needless to say that the present disclosure is not limited to the above-described embodiments. The following cases are also included in the present disclosure.

(1) In the first embodiment, notification is received while the mobile device 300 is in a predetermined range. In the first embodiment, the predetermined range is a range from the house 100 to the distance L from the house 100 or a range from the distance M to the distance L, but the present disclosure is not limited to this. For example, the notification may be given to the mobile device 300 only while in the house 100. That is, while in the house 100, the user can know that there is an ON-state home appliance in the house 100 through the mobile device 300. On the other hand, when the user goes out of the house 100, notification that there is an ON-state home appliance is not performed. Therefore, even if the content of the mobile device 300 is viewed by another person on the go, information on the home appliance in the house 100 is displayed. Don't let others know you.

(2) In the first to fourth embodiments, the LAN, the Internet, and the 4G communication network are adopted as the network in the house 100, the network between the house 100 and the server 200, and the network between the server 200 and the portable device 300, respectively. However, the present disclosure is not limited to this. These networks may be different or the same. For example, the home appliance may be directly connected to the server 200 via a 4G communication network without going through a router. Further, as these networks, either a wired communication network or a wireless communication network may be employed.

(3) In the first to fourth embodiments, the mobile device 300 periodically notifies the server 200 of location information, but the present disclosure is not limited to this. The location information may be notified in response to an inquiry from the server 200, or the location information may be notified to the server 200 in response to an event such as passing through a place where the mobile device 300 is located.

(4) In the first to fourth embodiments, the server 200 may make an inquiry to the home appliance or the monitoring device only once and determine whether there is an ON home appliance from the response to the inquiry. The inquiry may be made a plurality of times, and the presence / absence of an ON state home appliance may be determined from a plurality of responses. When determining the ON state of a certain home appliance from a plurality of responses, different determination results may be obtained for each response. In this case, server 200 may determine a rule in advance, and determine whether there is an ON-state home appliance according to the rule. Here, as the rule, for example, a rule that adopts a judgment result for the latest response or a rule that adopts the most judgment result among the judgment results obtained in the past fixed period may be adopted.

(5) In the third embodiment, a single device such as a power meter, a thermometer, and a sound sensor is adopted as the monitoring device, but the present disclosure is not limited to this. If a functional module capable of monitoring another household electrical appliance is incorporated in a certain household electrical appliance, the household electrical appliance having the functional module may be employed as the monitoring device. For example, the operating state of the air conditioner may be confirmed using the camera function of an automatic cleaner with a camera function. In this case, the camera function is caused to image the power supply lamp of the air conditioner, and the server 200 acquires the captured image as a monitoring log. Then, the server 200 performs image recognition on this image, determines whether or not the power lamp is lit, and if the power lamp is lit, the air conditioner is in an ON state and the power lamp is turned off. Then, it may be determined that the air conditioner is in the OFF state.

(6) In the third embodiment, when recording the monitoring log from the monitoring device, the server 200 may record only the monitoring log indicating the OFF state, or record only the monitoring log indicating the ON state. Also good. Further, the server 200 may record both the monitoring log in the ON state and the monitoring log in the OFF state.

(7) In the first to fourth embodiments, the home appliance in the ON state is notified, but the home appliance in the OFF state may be notified, or the state of all the home appliances (ON state, OFF state) May be notified.

(8) In the first to fourth embodiments, the GPS is used to acquire the position information of the mobile device 300. However, a satellite positioning system other than the GPS may be used, and other positioning systems may be used. May be.

(9) In the notification screen G26, information indicating that the air conditioner is in operation is displayed from the wattmeter and the thermometer. In accordance with this display, the measured value of the wattmeter and the thermometer Measurement values may be displayed. In this case, for example, a message such as “the air conditioner's power value measured by the power meter is 1.3 kW and is 1 kW or more, so the air conditioner is determined to be in an ON state” is displayed, and the ON state is determined. The basis may be displayed.

Note that the technology described in the above aspect can be realized, for example, in the following types of cloud services. However, the types of cloud services in which the technology described in the above aspect is realized are not limited to these.

(Service type 1: In-house data center type cloud service)
FIG. 31 is a diagram showing an overview of services provided by the information management system in service type 1 (in-house data center type cloud service). In this type, the service provider 720 acquires information from the group 700 and provides a service to the user. In this type, the service provider 720 has a function of a data center operating company. That is, the service provider 720 has a cloud server 711 that manages big data. Therefore, there is no data center operating company.

In this type, the service provider 720 operates and manages the data center (cloud server) 803. The service provider 720 manages an operating system (OS) 802 and an application 801. The service provider 720 provides a service using the OS 802 and the application 801 managed by the service provider 720 (arrow 804).

(Service type 2: Cloud service using IaaS)
FIG. 32 is a diagram illustrating an overview of services provided by the information management system in service type 2 (IaaS-based cloud service). Here, IaaS is an abbreviation for infrastructure as a service, and is a cloud service provision model that provides a base for constructing and operating a computer system as a service via the Internet.

In this type, the data center operating company 710 operates and manages the data center (cloud server) 803. The service provider 720 manages the OS 802 and the application 801. The service provider 720 provides a service using the OS 802 and the application 801 managed by the service provider 720 (arrow 804).

(Service type 3: Cloud service using PaaS)
FIG. 33 is a diagram illustrating an overview of services provided by the information management system in service type 3 (PaaS use type cloud service). Here, PaaS is an abbreviation for Platform as a Service, and is a cloud service provision model that provides a platform serving as a foundation for constructing and operating software as a service via the Internet.

In this type, the data center operating company 710 manages the OS 802 and operates and manages the data center (cloud server) 803. Further, the service provider 720 manages the application 801. The service provider 720 provides a service using the OS 802 managed by the data center operating company 710 and the application 801 managed by the service provider 720 (arrow 804).

(Service type 4: Cloud service using SaaS)
FIG. 34 is a diagram illustrating an overview of services provided by the information management system in service type 4 (SaaS-based cloud service). Here, SaaS is an abbreviation for software as a service. The SaaS-based cloud service is, for example, an application provided by a platform provider who owns a data center (cloud server), or a user such as a company or individual who does not have a data center (cloud server) on the Internet. This is a cloud service provision model that has functions that can be used via other networks.

In this type, the data center operating company 710 manages the application 801, manages the OS 802, and operates and manages the data center (cloud server) 803. Further, the service provider 720 provides a service using the OS 802 and the application 801 managed by the data center operating company 710 (arrow 804).

As described above, the service provider 720 provides a service in any cloud service type. In addition, for example, the service provider or the data center operating company may develop an OS, an application, a big data database, or the like, or may be outsourced to a third party.

The information notification method according to the present disclosure is useful in an information notification method in an information management system that manages information indicating the state of one or more household electrical appliances in a house.

Claims

An information notification method in an information management system for managing information indicating a state of one or more home appliances in a house,
Via the first network, receiving log information including the ON / OFF state of one of the one or more home appliances from the one home appliance;
Receiving the position information of the display terminal of the user of the home appliance from the display terminal;
When the position of the display terminal is determined to be within a predetermined distance from the house by using a memory for managing the position information of the house and compared with the position information of the display terminal, the one home appliance If the device is on,
While the position of the display terminal is included within the range of the predetermined distance from the house, the information indicating that the one household electrical appliance is in an ON state is provided to the display terminal via the second network.
Information notification method.
The first network and the second network are the same network.
The information notification method according to claim 1.
The first network and the second network are different networks.
The information notification method according to claim 1.
Using a database that manages map information, obtain area map information of the area including the position indicated by the position information of the display terminal,
Managing the location information of the display terminal that is periodically received together with the reception time;
Calculate the moving speed of the display terminal based on the time change of the position information of the display terminal,
Using the calculated moving speed of the display terminal and the area map information to determine whether the position of the display terminal is within a predetermined distance from the house;
The information notification method according to claim 1.
While the position of the display terminal does not coincide with the position of the house and is included within the range of the predetermined distance, information indicating that the one home appliance is in an ON state via the second network. Providing to the display terminal;
The information notification method according to claim 1.
While the position of the display terminal coincides with the position of the house and is included within the range of the predetermined distance, information indicating that the one household electrical appliance is in an ON state via the second network Provide to the display terminal,
The information notification method according to claim 1.
Using a database that manages map information, obtain area map information of the area including the position indicated by the position information of the display terminal,
Tracking changes in the location information of the display terminal received from the display terminal on the regional map information,
Determining a route to the house and a moving speed of the display terminal on the area map information based on a change in the position information of the display terminal that has been tracked;
When providing the display terminal with information indicating that the one household electrical appliance is in the ON state, the time until the user of the display terminal returns to the house is calculated using the determined route and moving speed. ,
Along with the information that the one household electrical appliance is in an ON state, providing information indicating the time until the user of the display terminal returns to the house based on the calculated time.
The information notification method according to claim 1.
Count the elapsed time from when the display terminal leaves the area corresponding to the house,
Obtaining the counted time when providing the display terminal with information indicating that the one household electrical appliance is in an ON state;
The information notification method according to claim 1, wherein information indicating a time until a user of the display terminal returns to the house is provided based on the acquired time together with information indicating that the one household electrical appliance is in an ON state.
The position information of the display terminal is periodically received from the display terminal.
The information notification method according to any one of claims 1 to 8.
The one or more home appliances include another home appliance connected to the information management system through the first network and capable of monitoring an operation state of the one home appliance,
Receiving information indicating the operating state of the one household electrical appliance from the other household electrical appliance via the first network;
Determining the ON / OFF state of the one home appliance based on the information indicating the operation state;
The information notification method according to claim 1.
Managing correspondence information indicating the other home appliance corresponding to the one home appliance;
Selecting the other home appliance associated with the one home appliance based on the correspondence information;
The information notification method according to claim 10.
The other home appliance is a wattmeter that is connected to the information management system through the first network and detects the amount of power used in the house,
Determining an ON / OFF state of the one household electrical appliance based on information indicating the used electric energy received from the power meter via the first network;
The information notification method according to claim 10.
The other home appliance is connected to the information management system through the first network, and includes a sound collecting device that collects operation sounds of the one home appliance,
Determining an ON / OFF state of the one home appliance based on information indicating an operation sound of the one home appliance received from the other home appliance via the first network;
The information notification method according to claim 10.
The other home appliance is connected to the information management system through the first network, and includes an electronic thermometer for measuring the temperature in the house,
Determining the ON / OFF state of the one home appliance based on information indicating the temperature in the house received from the other home appliance via the network;
The information notification method according to claim 10.
An information notification method in an information management system for managing information indicating a state of one or more home appliances in a house,
Via the first network, receiving log information including the ON / OFF state of one of the one or more home appliances from the one home appliance;
Receiving the position information of the display terminal of the user of the home appliance from the display terminal;
Using a database that manages map information, obtain area map information of the area including the position indicated by the position information of the display terminal,
Tracking changes in the location information of the display terminal received from the display terminal on the regional map information,
Based on the change in the location information of the tracked display terminal, the travel distance that the display terminal has moved from the house on the regional map information is calculated,
Providing the display terminal with information indicating that the one household electrical appliance is in an ON state via the second network until the moving distance of the display terminal from the house exceeds a predetermined distance;
Information notification method.