JP2005150901A - Appliance registration system and information terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To display an image of a household electric appliance registered in an in-house home network on an information terminal upon the completion of the registration of the appliance. <P>SOLUTION: This appliance registration system includes: an information center 5, the information terminal 6, and the household electric appliances 7 to 10. By downloading images coincident with names of the household electric appliances to the information terminal 6 from the information center 5, the images can be displayed together with the information of the household electric appliances when monitoring or controlling the household electric appliance 7 from the household electric appliance 10. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a device registration system and an information terminal for registering home appliances in a home network in a home network that controls home appliances wirelessly from an information terminal that can be connected to the Internet.

  In recent years, wireless home appliances such as air conditioners and refrigerators, security devices such as intrusion sensors, and information terminals installed in the home can be connected wirelessly to control multiple home appliances from one terminal or via the Internet. In-home network systems have been developed that access information centers and information providers from information terminals, collect contents related to housework and home appliances, and manage security information in the house.

  In order to use home appliances compatible with such a network system on the network, the device must first be registered in the home network. This process is called device registration. In conventional device registration, the home appliance is accessed from the remote control that controls the home appliance, the information stored in the home appliance is acquired, sent to the server, and the device registration is completed. The device registration information is received, the state of the home appliance is set to a predetermined state based on the information, and the server confirms the device information with the host in response to the device registration request from the remote controller.

FIG. 9 shows a conventional device registration system (see Patent Document 1). As shown in FIG. 9, the host 1, the server 2, the remote controller 3, and the device 4 are configured. How the conventional device registration system performs registration will be described with reference to FIG. First, the remote controller 3 makes a device information request to the device 4. The requested device 4 transmits device information to the remote controller 3. The remote controller 3 receiving the information requests the server 2 for device registration. If the server 2 that has received the request has already saved the information of the device, the device information is confirmed with the host 1, and if the device confirmation is performed, the device information is sent to the remote controller 3, and the remote controller 3 Registration information is sent to the device 4 to complete device registration. If the device information is not stored in the server 2, the device registration information is requested from the host 1 and the device registration information is received from the host 1.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-276478

  However, the conventional configuration has not been equipped with a function for downloading information other than device information contents such as manufacturer, model, power, etc. at the time of device registration. However, when operating home appliances that are not visible from an information terminal equipped with a remote control remote control function such as a home network in the home, it is correct whether the operation is actually performed when there is no image. There was a problem that it was difficult to get a sense of whether it was a device. In particular, home appliances with multiple homes are difficult.

  For example, air conditioners are often located in each room, but when specifying which air conditioner to operate when operating a device, even if the manufacturer or model number is displayed, the air conditioner in which room is displayed to the user. It is often difficult to judge whether or not A method of judging the air conditioner by indicating the name of the room is also conceivable, but it is assumed that the name of the room is unified and recognized by the whole family. Therefore, if the image of the air conditioner main body, the image including the air conditioner and its installation location, and the image of the operation unit (remote control) of the air conditioner are displayed, it can be made very easy for the user.

  An object of the present invention is to solve the above-described conventional problems, and to provide a device registration system and an information terminal that download an image of a home appliance from an information center at the time of device registration and display the image at the time of home appliance operation. And

  In order to solve the conventional problem, the device registration system of the present invention is configured to register a home appliance in the home network in a home network that controls the home appliance via a wireless connection from an information terminal that can be connected to the Internet. A device registration system comprising: a plurality of home appliances; an information center that stores information on the home appliances; and the information terminal that displays information downloaded from the information center through the Internet. The image of the home appliance is downloaded from the information center to the information terminal and displayed. Then, when newly registering the home appliance in the home network, the home appliance is accessed by accessing the information center via the Internet, downloading the image of the home appliance to the information terminal, and displaying the image on the information terminal. When the control is performed, an image of the home appliance can be displayed on the information terminal.

  The device registration system according to the present invention downloads an image of the home appliance from an information center to an information terminal that controls the home appliance when registering the home appliance on a home network. The home appliances can be controlled while displaying the image.

  The first invention is to access an information center via the Internet when newly registering a home appliance in the home network, download an image of the home appliance to the information terminal, and display the image on the information terminal. Thus, when the home appliance is controlled, an image of the home appliance can be displayed on the information terminal.

  In the second invention, in particular, when searching for an image to be downloaded from the information center of the first invention, the image of the home appliance is registered without error by referring to the name of the home appliance and the name of the image. Can do.

  The third invention displays an image downloaded from the information center particularly when monitoring or controlling the state of the home appliance with the information terminal of the first invention, and is suitable for use on the information terminal, Can be displayed in shape or color.

  In particular, the fourth invention generates the name of the home appliance image of the second invention based on the manufacturer of the home appliance and the product number, so that the image of the home appliance registered from the information center is definitely downloaded to the information terminal. can do.

  In the fifth aspect of the invention, in particular, an image can be displayed on the information terminal by reading an image from the memory card after device registration with the information terminal of the third aspect of the invention and selecting an image change menu.

  In particular, the sixth invention can be realized by a computer by programming the functions of the device registration system according to any one of claims 1 to 3 and claim 5 or the information terminal according to claim 4. it can.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 shows a configuration diagram of a device registration system according to the first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of home appliance image selection means on an information center, and FIG. 3 shows a device registration operation. It is a flowchart of.

  In FIG. 1, 5 is an information center, 6 is an information terminal, 7 to 10 are home appliances such as air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, and microwave ovens. In FIG. 2, 11 is a device name decoding means, 12 is a home appliance image database, and 13 is an image selection means. The device registration system will be described with reference to FIG. 1, FIG. 2, and FIG.

  First, in order to newly register the home appliance 7 in the home network, the device registration menu is selected from the menu displayed on the information terminal 6 in STEP 1, the device to be registered and the network home appliance are selected in STEP 2, and STEP 3 The new registration menu is selected at, and the home appliance 7 is set to the registration mode, for example, within 5 minutes after the new registration menu is selected at STEP 4.

  The home appliance is registered in STEP 5, and device information including the name of the home appliance of the home appliance 7 is sent from the home appliance 7 to the information terminal 6 at the time of registration. The information terminal 6 sends this device information to the information center 5, and the information center 5 compares the name of the sent home appliance 7 with the device image stored in the center, and the image with the same name is sent to the information terminal 6. Send.

  If the registration is successful without error, the registration information is saved in STEP 7 and the registration is completed. If registration cannot be performed due to an error in STEP 6, registration is performed again from STEP 3.

  The details of how the home appliance image is selected in the information center 5 in STEP 5 will be described. The information center 5 receives the home appliance information transmitted from the information terminal 6 as shown in FIG. The name of the household appliance currently registered is read by the decoding means 8. The information center 5 includes a home appliance image database 12 in which images of home appliances are stored, and the file name of the image is the name of the home appliance that is shown. For example, when the name of the home appliance is NR-D471NG, the name of the image is NR-D471NG. jpg. Then, the image selection means 13 selects a home appliance image having the same name as the registered home appliance name from the home appliance image database 12 and transmits the image to the information terminal 6.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, information on home appliances is sent to the information center 5 that stores the home appliance image database 12 to select an image that matches the registered home appliances to the information terminal. It can be displayed during device registration.

  It should be noted that home appliances of different manufacturers can be handled at a common information center by including manufacturer information in the image name. For example, if the name of the image is NATIONAL-NR-D471N-G. jpg and so on.

  Alternatively, if the user performs user registration via postal mail, e-mail, or the Internet, the information center uses home appliances (model number, serial number, body color identification number, etc.) registered at that time. A device image may be selected and sent to the user's email address.

(Embodiment 2)
FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an image change operation procedure when an image change is performed after device registration is completed, and FIG. The image changing operation will be described with reference to FIGS.

  As described in the first embodiment, at the time of device registration, a home appliance image that matches the name of the home appliance registered in the information center 5 according to the present invention is transmitted to the information terminal 6. When the user wants to display another image on the information terminal 6 after device registration, the image can be changed using the setting change menu of the terminal.

  First, the image change menu is selected in STEP 9, and if it is desired to select an image from the information center, the process proceeds to STEP 10a. If it is desired to select an image from the memory card, the process proceeds to STEP 10b.

  When the information center is selected, it is confirmed whether or not the information center 5 can be accessed by the communication means 14 in STEP 11a. If it is accessible, the type name of the product for which a new image is to be obtained is entered in STEP 12a, and the control means in STEP 13a. When the name entered in 16 matches the name registered in the home appliance image database 12, the image display means 18 displays an image list of the product on the information terminal 6.

  Next, in STEP 15a, the image to be obtained is selected. In STEP 16a, the image selected by the control means 16 is confirmed. If there is no mistake in the image, the image is displayed on the information terminal 6 by the image display means 18 in STEP 17a. The updated registration content is transmitted to the information center 5 by the communication means 14, and the new registration content is managed on the information terminal 6 by the home appliance registration information management means 17.

  If it is desired to select an image from the memory card, the memory card reading means 15 confirms whether the memory card is set in the information terminal 6 in STEP 11b. If it is recognized, a list of images on the memory card is displayed in STEP 12b. Displayed by the display means 18. In STEP 13b, an image obtained from the list is selected. If there is no mistake in the confirmation screen in STEP 14b, the image is displayed by the image display means 18 in STEP 15b.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, by changing the setting, it is possible to display on the information terminal 6 an image that suits the user's preference.

(Embodiment 3)
FIG. 6 is a home appliance list screen display of the information terminal according to the third embodiment of this invention. 8a shows a reduced size image of the refrigerator. FIG. 7 is a menu display of the refrigerator of the information terminal according to the third embodiment of this invention. 8b shows a standard size image of the refrigerator. FIG. 9 is a display obtained by modifying a part of the refrigerator of the information terminal according to the third embodiment of this invention. 8c shows the image of the shape which deform | transformed a part of refrigerator, 11 is a vegetable room at the time of using the household appliances 8 as a refrigerator.

  The image-specific change operation will be described with reference to FIGS. 6, 7, and 8.

  The image downloaded to the information terminal 6 can be used for various display screens of the information terminal 6. For example, when it is desired to display an image of a home appliance on a menu screen as shown in FIG. 6 for selecting a home appliance to be controlled, a plurality of images are displayed on one display screen. Yes.

  However, when monitoring or controlling the selected home appliance, a screen full image such as the refrigerator image 8b is suitable for a screen for controlling one home appliance as shown in FIG. That is, if the size of the image of the downloaded refrigerator image 8b is set as a standard size and the household appliances selection menu as shown in FIG. 6 displays household appliances that can be selected in a table of two vertical units and two horizontal units, The image size is set to vertical and horizontal ½.

  Also, home appliances consisting of a number of parts, such as the refrigerator 8, have different operating conditions for each part. When displaying the operating status of one part, it is better for the user to display an image that emphasizes that part. Easy to understand. For example, assume that the information terminal 6 displays the temperature status of the refrigerator 8. When the operation status relating to the entire refrigerator 8 is displayed as shown in FIG. 7, the refrigerator image 8 b is displayed, and when the operation status of the vegetable compartment 14 is displayed, the refrigerator image of FIG. 8 is displayed. The image which focused on the vegetable compartment 14 is displayed like 8c. Moreover, the parts of the image of the home appliance may be enlarged or displayed in different colors.

  Moreover, although the refrigerator was demonstrated here as an example, if it is household appliances which consist of several parts which perform different operation | movement, it may not be a refrigerator.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, by changing the size, color, and shape of the image of the home appliance according to the image application on the information terminal, an image most suitable for the home appliance information displayed on the information terminal is obtained. It can be displayed, and it makes it easy to understand the control and operation status of home appliances from the information terminal.

  As described above, the device registration system and the information terminal according to the present invention can download an image at the time of device registration and display the image after the device registration is completed. It can also be applied to applications such as control systems.

Configuration diagram of device registration system in Embodiment 1 of the present invention Configuration diagram of home appliance image selection in Embodiment 1 of the present invention Flowchart of device registration operation in Embodiment 1 of the present invention Flowchart of image change operation procedure in Embodiment 2 of the present invention Configuration diagram of device registration unit of information terminal in Embodiment 2 of the present invention Home appliance list screen display diagram of information terminal in mobile phone 3 according to the present invention Menu display diagram of home appliance of information terminal in Embodiment 3 of the present invention The display figure which deform | transformed a part of household appliances of the information terminal in Embodiment 3 of this invention Configuration diagram of a conventional device registration system

Explanation of symbols

1 Host 2 Server 3 Remote Control 4 Equipment 5 Information Center 6 Information Terminal 7 Air Conditioner (Home Appliance)
8 Refrigerator (home appliances)
8a Reduced size image of refrigerator 8b Standard size image of refrigerator 8c Modified image of refrigerator 9 Washing machine (home appliance)
10 Microwave oven (home appliance)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Device name decoding means 12 Home appliance image database 13 Image selection means 14 Communication means 15 Memory card reading means 16 Control means 17 Home appliance registration information management means 18 Image display means 19 Vegetable room

Claims (6)

In a home network that controls home appliances wirelessly from an information terminal that can be connected to the Internet, a device registration system that registers the home appliances in the home network, a plurality of home appliances, An information center for storing information; and the information terminal for displaying information downloaded from the information center through the Internet, and downloading and displaying an image of the home appliance from the information center to the information terminal at the time of device registration A device registration system characterized by that. 2. The device registration system according to claim 1, wherein an information center that stores information on home appliances is accessed from an information terminal, and the home appliances that are registered at the time of device registration and the home appliance images stored in the information center. The device registration system according to claim 1, wherein an image having a matching name is transmitted from the information center to the information terminal. 3. The device registration system according to claim 2, wherein an image of the home appliance is downloaded from the information center to the information terminal, and at least one of the size, shape, and color of the image of the home appliance is used depending on the use on the information terminal. The device registration system according to claim 2, which can be changed. The device registration system according to claim 2, wherein the name of the image of the home appliance that differs depending on the home appliance described in claim 2 is generated based on a manufacturer and a product number of the home appliance. An information terminal that displays an image of a home appliance, and after completion of device registration for registering the home appliance to the home network, the image of the home appliance displayed by the setting change menu of the information terminal is changed to another image. An information terminal that can capture new images not only from the information center, but also from the outside using a memory card. The program for making a computer implement | achieve at least one part of the function of any one of Claims 1-5.

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