TW201842469A - Method for operating household appliance capable of optimizing triggering operations or authorization of a household appliance for a user - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for operating a household appliance (1); wherein, identification features of a user (2) and/or an external communication device (9) of the user (2) are received and compared with stored reference features; and wherein, while the identification feature is consistent with the reference feature, the user (2) is allowed or not allowed to access to the household appliance (1). In order to manage the access to functions of the household appliance (1), the method of the present invention includes: defining a plurality of authorization groups (3) which determine a scope of authorization for accessing functions of the household appliance (1), and wherein the user (2) is assigned to the authorization groups (3).

Description

 Household appliance operation method  

The present invention relates to a method of operating a home appliance, wherein an identification feature of a user and/or an external communication device of the user is received and compared to the stored reference feature, and wherein, if consistent, allowed or disallowed User access to household appliances.

The method of operation of household appliances is known to us. The household appliance can for example be an electric kitchen appliance, in particular a cooking mixing device, or a cleaning device. The cleaning device is a cleaning device that is automatically moved or held by a user, for example, a vacuuming device, a wiping device, a combined vacuum wiping device, or a polishing device, a mowing device, or other device.

The publication WO 2014/083029 A1, for example, discloses an electric kitchen appliance having a stirring vessel, a stirring device corresponding to the stirring vessel, and a matching heating device. The kitchen appliance has a camera that points to the user of the kitchen appliance and captures the facial features of the user, the facial features being compared by the facial detection software and the reference features stored in the facial database. Based on the results of facial inspection, the working routine of kitchen equipment is implemented. This work routine can be, for example, activating a kitchen appliance, activating voice control and/or gesture control, or selecting a recipe specified by the user.

The publication EP 2 617 341 A2 discloses an automatically moveable cleaning device and a method of operating the cleaning device, wherein different operations on the cleaning device are triggered based on the receipt of the identification representing the characteristics of the particular transmitting device. In the case of detecting the stored logo, for example, an alarm function, a transition routine or a stationary state can be triggered. This identification may for example be a mobile radio number, an ID number of a mobile radio device or the like.

Although the aforementioned household appliances and methods of operation have been tested in practical applications, the object of the present invention is to improve such household appliances and methods of operation, and in particular to optimize the triggering or approval of user-related operations of the home appliance.

To achieve the above object, the present invention first proposes: defining an authorization group, determining an authorization range for access to functions of the home appliance, and wherein the user is assigned to the authorization group.

In accordance with the present invention, each user is assigned to one or more predefined authorization groups with a particular authorization profile. The authorization groups are user groups containing at least several users who have the same type of authorization for functional access to the home appliance. However, an authorization group can in principle also contain only a single user. The two authorization groups contain mutually different access schemes for the home appliances, ie different access ranges. For example, it is possible to provide a child protection system for household appliances, and to set a small access range for the authorized group "child", while other authorized groups that do not include children can access all functions of the household appliance. For the authorized group "Children", only functions that do not pose a risk to children are allowed. In the case of household appliances such as kitchen appliances, it is possible to exclude from the authorized group "children" that the stirring device rotates at a rotational speed that exceeds a predefined limit, the temperature of the heating device exceeds a defined limit, or the like. The authorization group may be defined according to different characteristics of the possible users, for example, according to the age of the user, the schedule, the usage habits for the home appliance, and the like. For kitchen appliances, the usage habits can be, for example, specific eating habits of the user, for example, only vegetarian, low-carbohydrate or low-fat cooking. In the case of cleaning equipment, it is customary, for example, to combine suction cleaning with subsequent wet wipe cleaning.

If the user is recognized by the home appliance and determines that the user's identification feature is consistent with the stored reference feature and the access authorization for the identified user is stored, the user can be at home depending on the authorized group to which the user belongs. The appliance is accessed by functions within the scope of its authorization associated with its authorized group. In principle, the household appliance can be identified by the user in different ways. The user can, for example, prove his identity by means of a personalized identification of the corresponding transmitting device, for example by means of a mobile radio number or device ID. The transmitting device is an external communication device relative to the home appliance, preferably a mobile device of the user, preferably a mobile phone, a laptop, a tablet or the like. The identity can be transmitted by Bluetooth, Wlan, ZigBee, UMTS, GSM or the like. In addition, the external communication device can also be, for example, a wafer card containing an RFID chip that can be identified by the home appliance to read the wafer card.

In particular, the invention proposes to analyze the face of the user by means of a face detection routine for identifying the user, wherein the facial features of the user are compared with the stored reference features. For facial detection, especially facial features such as eye, nose or mouth features are analyzed. In addition, other features can be compared, such as facial shape, facial color, and the like. To this end, the home appliance is equipped with an image detecting device such as a camera, which detects a user, photographs a user's image or video, and detects a user's face therein. The face or facial features detected therein are compared to a list of stored facial features to associate the face with a user registered on the home appliance. Preferably, the image detecting device corresponds to a home appliance, for example, integrated in a casing of the home appliance. However, as an alternative, the image detecting device may also be an external device. The analysis device corresponding to the image detecting device and implemented as image processing for face detection and/or face detection is preferably integrated in a home appliance, but may also be combined with a server such as a regional server or a network server. The corresponding external device. In particular, image processing can also be performed on the cloud server, wherein in this case, the image captured by the image detecting device is transmitted to the cloud server through the corresponding communication channel.

The information about the correspondence between the user and the authorization group may be stored in the storage of the home appliance or may be stored in an external storage. In the case where the image detecting device or another detecting device transmits the image or the user's identification to an external server, the reference feature of each user stored on the server can be compared with the image or the identifier. In the case where the user's identification feature matches the stored reference feature, the user can be detected. Subsequently, the authorization of the detected user is checked. Alternatively, the check can be performed on an external server or in a home appliance, wherein in the latter case, information about the identity of the detected user is transmitted to the home appliance. In order to achieve a smooth function of the method, the authorization groups are preferably stored in the home appliance itself or on a cloud server that is always accessible to the home appliance. Avoid storing the authorization group on an external device that is not always connected to the communication connection with the device performing the analysis. In an unfavorable situation, the authorization group may be stored on a user's mobile device, such as a mobile phone, which does not establish communication with the home appliance at the point in time when another registered user is identified. Therefore, the preferred storage location is either the home appliance itself or a cloud server that is always accessible.

Either on the home appliance itself, or by an external device (for example, an external communication device) with a corresponding application installed, to define an authorization group and assign the new user to the authorization group. In particular, with external communication devices, access rights can be defined simply and conveniently in a comfortable input interface regardless of the presence and/or characteristics of the home appliance's own input interface.

This method can be implemented explicitly on a number of discretely distributed computing units, i.e., on the home appliance itself, on an external server, and/or on an external, and especially mobile, device. Furthermore, it is of course also possible to carry out all calculations only on the household appliance itself.

The invention also proposes to create a personal authorization file for each user, wherein the user is assigned to the authorization group according to the authorization file of the user. The user's personal authorization file contains one or several different authorizations for implementing the functions of the home appliance. To this end, for example, a supervisor of the household appliance can be provided with a pre-made selection list containing possible authorizations for each user for selecting a particular authorization from the selection list. The authorization may be, for example, an option or action of a household appliance, such as starting cleaning, using environmentally friendly functions of the household appliance, approaching a particular cleaning destination, and the like. Such authorization may for example also be the use of household appliances in a particular room, for example, in particular a cleaning robot. For example, children can be prohibited from running a cleaning robot in their parents' studio. After creating a personal authorization profile for the user, the user is assigned to an authorization group that includes users with the same or at least very similar authorization profiles. In this case, an intersection may also be formed between the authorization contained in the user's personal authorization file and the authorization of the corresponding authorization group, and the user is assigned to the one of the plurality of possible authorization groups. In order to achieve a clear correspondence of the user to the authorization group, the following scheme can be used: minimum consistency must be achieved, which is either defined as a percentage, and/or as defined by importance, taking into account the authorization rating .

The invention proposes that the user obtains an authorization for configuring the household appliance and/or for using the household appliance with a defined range of functions, in particular for causing the defined operating appliance to be operated. By authorizing the configuration of the home appliance, the user can implement manager operations, for example, managing authorization for a particular user. In this case, the administrator user is, for example, authorized to add, delete or block other users, and to manage the authorization of other users for access to the functions of the home appliance. In addition, its configuration is to involve assigning specific users to an authorization group. Usually, the first user registered on the home appliance is created as a manager, and the authorization for configuring the home appliance is obtained, and thus the authority to invite other users is also provided, and the administrator authority can be given to these other users. A user known to a home appliance can obtain the right to use a specific range of functions of the home appliance. Thereby, such users can actively transmit control commands to the control device of the home appliance, thereby triggering a specific function. In the case where the household appliance is a kitchen appliance, its functional range includes the operation of the stirring device and/or the heating device. Furthermore, the operation of the agitation or heating device can also be limited to a particular operating range, such as a particular range of speeds, a particular range of temperatures, or the like. In the case of household appliances constructed as cleaning devices, their functional scope, for example, involves operating a motor fan unit (as appropriate only for specific power levels approved for the user), using optional cleaning elements, and the like.

In terms of authorization for configuring a home appliance, the invention in particular proposes that the configuration of the home appliance comprises defining an authorization group and/or assigning the user to the authorization group. In addition, a user having an authorization for configuring a home appliance can define a new authorization group for operating the home appliance or modify the authorization group. In addition, the user can assign new users to the authorization group, move the user from the first authorization group to the second authorization group, and the like.

The following technical solution can be adopted: in the case of belonging to a specific authorization group, the user cannot implement one or several or all functions of the home appliance. According to this technical solution, not only a user who uses the home appliance is allowed to register on the home appliance, but in particular, a user who does not allow the function of the home appliance to be implemented at all in extreme cases is also registered on the home appliance. In this case, during the identification process, although the user is identified on the home appliance and assigned to the authorization group, all functions of the home appliance can be disabled for the user. This occurs when the user belongs to an authorized group that cannot operate the home appliance. This authorization group may be, for example, a child living in a home who may be injured or cause damage to the home appliance when using the home appliance. In particular, in the case of such an authorization group, after successful identification, access attempts to the home appliance may also be stored and/or communicated to the manager.

The invention proposes: according to the age of the corresponding user, and/or the working day,/or the time of day, and/or the clock time, and/or the location of the household appliance, and/or other equipment in the household appliance The presence of an environment, and/or climatic conditions, defines the authorization of a particular authorization group. Depending on the age of the user, for example, an authorization group for adults and an authorization group for children can be defined. In addition, the authorization of a particular authorization group can be changed with reference to the workday, the time of day, and/or the clock time, for example, to prohibit the creation of household appliances for a particular or all authorized groups at noon or on Sunday. Great noise work. In addition, authorization to prohibit specific users from cleaning certain areas of the home may also be employed. For example, children can be prevented from cleaning their parents' studios. In summary, this means, for example, that an authorization to approve the operation of the cleaning robot is defined based on the current position of the robot in the home. In addition, authorization can be associated with external conditions. For example, the use of a lawn mower can be correlated with current climatic conditions. In particular, the start command for the lawn mower can be prohibited when rainfall occurs in the planned place of use or when rainfall is expected for a foreseeable time. Finally, the authorization can be associated with the presence of other devices in the environment of the home appliance. Other devices may be, for example, mobile communication devices. The following scheme may be adopted: in the case where at least one mobile device of a member of the authorized group "parent" is not logged into the home network, the authorized group "child" is prohibited from using the household appliance. This means that children cannot operate household appliances if their parents may not be at home. To this end, it is detected whether the device that the parent usually carries is logged into the home network, that is, at home. The following scheme can also be employed: the user is allowed to use the home appliance only if the particular user is not making a call, watching a movie, or the like.

In addition, a function menu displayed on the display and/or corresponding to a specific manipulation key may be set according to the correspondence of the user to a specific authorization group. Thereby, the function or action of the home appliance provided by the user can be set on the display or on the operation keys of the home appliance. If the display is a touch screen, only the control bar corresponding to the function can be displayed. In the case where the household appliance has a mechanical operating key, manipulation of a particular operating key can be inhibited, or at least the operating key can be programmed such that it does not cause a function normally associated with the operating key when manipulated.

The invention also proposes that the function menus are not selectable for a particular authorization group, are displayed in a defined color, are not displayed at all and/or are assigned to disabled control keys. After the user is detected by the identification device of the home appliance, the corresponding authorization group is accessed from the file, and the function is available for the user to use when accessing the home appliance. Each authorization group has a list of authorizations corresponding to it. Accordingly, the input interface of the home appliance is adjusted in whole or in part, for example, by displaying the menu item in gray, not displaying (ie, hiding) the menu item at all, disabling each of the manipulation keys, or disabling the entire input device.

Finally, the invention proposes to store the authorization groups in the regional data store of the household appliance or in a data store that is not located in the household appliance, in particular in a data store of the external website server. In the case where the authorization group is stored in the own storage of the home appliance, it is ensured that the authorization group is always provided at any point in time when the home appliance is required to recognize the user. This can also be achieved by storing the authorization groups on an external server having, for example, a permanent communication connection with the home appliance in the home network. In principle, the authorization groups can also be stored on another device of the user or on the device of another user, but in this case it must be ensured that the household device can always access the device, in particular when the device is It can also be used when removing mobile devices from the home network.

In addition to the aforementioned method of operating a household appliance, the present invention also provides a household appliance having means for receiving an identification feature of a user and/or an external communication device, wherein the apparatus is adapted to identify features and saved reference features The comparison is made and, in the case of agreement, the user is allowed access to the household appliance, wherein an authorization group is stored in the storage, which determines the authorization range for access to the functions of the household appliance and corresponds to the user.

According to this technical solution, the domestic appliance is adapted to carry out the aforementioned method. The features and advantages of the home appliance correspond to the aforementioned features and advantages of the method of operation.

1‧‧‧ Household appliances

2‧‧‧Users

3‧‧‧Authorized group

4‧‧‧ display

5‧‧‧Operation keys

6‧‧‧ function menu

7‧‧‧(Regional) data storage

8‧‧‧ (external) data storage

9‧‧‧(External) (communication) equipment

10‧‧‧ cleaning components

11‧‧‧Stirring container

12‧‧‧Detection area

13‧‧‧Image inspection device

1 is a schematic view of a home appliance of a first embodiment.

2 is a schematic diagram of the comparison of the facial features of the user with the reference features of the registered user stored in the data store.

3 is a schematic view of a home appliance of a second embodiment.

The invention will now be described in detail in connection with the embodiments. Figure 1 shows a household appliance 1 constructed here as an electric kitchen appliance. The household appliance 1 has a stirring vessel 11 in which a stirring device (not shown) is provided, and a heating device (also not shown) corresponding to the stirring vessel 11 is provided. The household appliance 1 has a display 4 for displaying a function menu 6, in which the user 2 of the household appliance 1 can select a specific function of the home appliance 1, for example, operating a stirring device and/or heating device, performing recipe cooking, Select specific recipes and the like from a certain amount of available recipes. The household appliance 1 also has a control button 5, here a rotary selector switch, which is used both for the switching of the household appliance 1 and for determining the input, setting a specific rotational speed and the like. In the area before the domestic appliance 1, there is provided an image detecting device 13 here as a camera, which has a detection area 12 in which an image can be taken. The household appliance 1 also has a zone data store 7 in which the reference features of the user 2 registered on the home appliance 1 and optionally authorized to use the home appliance 1 are stored.

The household appliance 1 establishes a communication connection with the external data store 8 of the website server, in which the authorization group 3 of the user 2 is stored. The authorization groups 3 each contain a number of users 2, which have the same authorization profile for access to the functions of the home appliance 1. The home appliance 1 communicates with the external data store 8 via an internet connection, thereby enabling access to information about the authorization group 3 stored in the external storage.

In the embodiment of Fig. 1, the invention acts, for example, such that the user 2 accesses the household appliance 1 and is within the detection area 12 of the image detecting device 13. In order to be recognized by the home appliance 1, the user 2 can manually trigger the face detection, for example, via the function menu 6 displayed on the display 4. In order to perform face detection, the image detecting device 13 captures one or several images of the user 2. The images are transmitted to the analysis device of the home appliance 1 to detect the face of the user 2 in the image on the one hand, and the features of the face of the user 2 registered on the home appliance 1 on the other hand, for example, the eye, The characteristics of the nose and mouth are compared with the reference features stored in the area data storage 7 of the home appliance 1. Figure 2 shows this process.

In the case where the facial features of the individual of the user 2 are found to be consistent with the reference features, the person of the user 2 can be inferred. Based on this, the analysis device of the household appliance 1 initiates communication with an external data store 8 (i.e., a website server) that stores a number of users 2's authorization group 3. Users 2 having different authorization profiles are classified into the authorization group 3, wherein each authorization group 3 is allowed to select different functions of the home appliance 1. The authorization group 3 can be, for example, a group of children, which is only allowed to use the restricted functional range of the home appliance 1, and the second authorization group 3 is a group of adults, which is allowed to use the entire functional range of the home appliance 1. . The user 2 detected by the home appliance 1 is compared with the user 2 stored in the authorization group 3. In the case that the identified user 2 is found to be consistent with the user 2 in the authorization group 3, the corresponding authorization file of the relevant authorization group 3 is transmitted to the home appliance 1. Subsequently, the authorization file is analyzed by the analysis device of the home appliance 1, whereby the function menu 6 displayed on the display 4 is adjusted so that only the authorization group 3 of the home appliance 1 and the user 2 can be The corresponding function is accessed. Here, the user 2 is, for example, an adult who is allowed to use all the functions of the home appliance 1. Therefore, the most abundant function menu 6 is displayed on the display 4.

Fig. 3 shows another embodiment of the invention in which the household appliance 1 is a cleaning robot. The household appliance 1 has a motor fan unit and several cleaning elements 10 which are not shown in detail in a conventional manner, and only one of the cleaning elements can be recognized in FIG. The household appliance 1 is equipped with an image detecting device 13, that is, also equipped with a camera, and is equipped with a display 4 for displaying a function menu 6 for operating the home appliance 1. The household appliance 1 establishes a communication connection with the first external device 9, here for example a tablet computer. A number of authorization groups 3 containing users 2 are stored on this external device 9. Here, a communication connection is realized between the home appliance 1 and the external device 9 via a home network (Wlan). The image detecting device 13 has a detection area 12 in which a second external device 9, i.e. the user 2 of the mobile phone, is located. In the example shown, the user 2 is a child who has only limited access rights for the household appliance 1. The device 9 of the user 2 has an identification feature so that the user 2 can be recognized by the home appliance 1. In the case of the device 9 constructed as a mobile phone, the identification feature is, for example, an optical code, in particular a bar code or QR-Code permanently applied to the top side of the housing of the device 10, thus the user 2 (ie , children) do not need to take other steps to display their code. Alternatively, the code can also be displayed on the display 4 of the device 9. The image detecting device 13 detects its code, which is then transmitted by the home appliance 1 to the other device 9 through the home network. The computing device of the external device 9 then analyzes the code and checks if the included features are consistent with the stored reference features. In the case where the consistency is found and the user 2 (or the device 9 of the user 2) is identified, it is determined which of the authorization groups 3 stored in the device 9 belongs to the user 2. In this way, the function of the home appliance 1 corresponding to the authorization group 3 can be transmitted to the control device of the home appliance 1, where its function is stored in the area data storage 7 as appropriate and used for adjustment on the display 4. The function menu 6 displayed. In the example shown, several functions are disabled for the user 2, wherein their functions are no longer selectable within the function menu 6, or the manipulation of the manipulation keys 5 is no longer possible to control the corresponding control keys 5. The function. In addition, the authorization of the authorization group 3 can be set to set the authorization according to a specific business day, clock time, or external conditions such as climatic conditions. For example, the user 2 can be prohibited from operating the home appliance 1 during the lunch break.

Although the illustrated embodiment only depicts a particular home appliance 1, it is a matter of course that the home appliance 1 can also be a lawn mower, a polishing apparatus, a cleaning device held by the user 2, or the like. Furthermore, the reference features of the authorization group 3 and the user 2 can be stored in the area data storage 7 of the home appliance 1, in the data storage 8 outside the Internet-based server, or in the external device 9 which is not the home appliance 1 itself. .

Furthermore, access to the functions of the home appliance 1 is allowed, and may also involve the manager status of the home appliance 1, thereby allowing the user 2 of the specific authorization group 3 to modify the configuration of the home appliance 1, and approving other users 2 to become home appliances 1 registered personnel. In addition, the administrator user can classify other users 2 in the authorization group 3 and decide whether to allow them to access the functions of the home appliance 1.

Claims (10)

 A method of operating a household appliance, wherein an identification feature of an external communication device (9) of one of a user (2) and/or a user (2) is received and compared with the stored reference feature, and wherein, in the case of agreement Allowing or disallowing the user (2) access to the home appliance (1), characterized in that: a number of authorization groups (3) are defined, which determine the scope of authorization for access to the functions of the home appliance (1), and Among them, the user (2) is assigned to the authorization group (3).    The method of claim 1, wherein the face of the user (2) is analyzed by a face detection routine, wherein the facial features of the user (2) are compared with the stored reference features.    The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein a personal authorization file is created for each user (2), and wherein the user (2) is assigned to the authorization group (3) according to the authorization file of the user.    The method of any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the user (2) is obtained for configuring the household appliance (1) and/or for using the household appliance (1) with a defined functional range, in particular It is an authorization for causing a defined control command to operate the home appliance (1).    The method of claim 4, wherein the configuration of the home appliance (1) comprises defining an authorization group (3) and/or assigning the user (2) to the authorization group (3).    The method of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the user (2) is unable to implement one or several or all of the functions of the household appliance (1) in the case of belonging to a particular authorization group (3).    The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the age of the corresponding user (2), and/or the working day, and/or the time of day, and/or the clock time, and/or the The location of the household appliance (1), and/or other equipment (9) in the environment of the household appliance (1), and/or climatic conditions, defines the authorization of a particular authorization group (3).    The method of any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the display is displayed on a display (4) and/or with a specific manipulation key according to the correspondence of the user (2) to the specific authorization group (3) ( 5) Corresponding one function menu (6).    The method of claim 8, wherein the function menu (6) is a non-selectable function for a specific authorization group (3), displayed in a defined color, not displayed at all, and/or assigned to the disabled Manipula key.    The method of any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the authorization group (3) is stored in the area data storage (7) of the household appliance (1) or stored in a household appliance ( The data storage (8) in 1) is stored in particular in the data storage (8) of the external website server.