Home device, remote control system and program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9960927-B2
Application number	US-201414888738-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 16, 2014
Priority date	May 23, 2013
Publication date	May 1, 2018
Grant date	May 1, 2018

Abstract

A controller of an in-home controller receives, via a terminal communicator, input data related to a manager registration transmitted from a terminal device. The controller performs a manager registration based on the received input data. Also, the controller generates user registration request data containing a user ID and a password extracted from the received input data, a controller ID read from data storage. The controller transmits the generated user registration request data to an external server via a wide-area communicator.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An in-home controller for use in a home, the in-home controller comprising:
a first communicator configured to communicate with a terminal device;
a second communicator configured to communicate with a server located outside the home;
a manager registry configured to accept a manager registration operation by a user via the terminal device and perform a manager registration based on information inputted by the user during the manager registration operation;
a data transmitter configured to, when the manager registration operation is accepted,
determine whether the second communicator and the server are in a communicative state with each other;
if the second communicator and the server are determined to be in the communicative state with each other, transmit data to the server via the second communicator, the data containing (i) information included in the information inputted by the user and (ii) a controller identification of the in-home controller, and
if the second communicator and the server are determined to be in a non-communicative state with each other, not transmit the data to the server via the second communicator, and thereafter upon the non-communicative state changing to the communicative state, transmit the data to the server via the second communicator; and

a device controller, the device controller is configured to
when the manager registration is completed by the manager registry, upon the device controller receiving, from the terminal device, control request data related to control of an electrical device installed in the home,
control the electrical device according to content of the control request data.

2. The in-home controller according to claim 1 , wherein the information inputted by the user during the manager registration includes a user identification and a password.

3. The in-home controller according to claim 1 , wherein
the first communicator communicates with the terminal device using short-range communication during the manager registry accepting the manager registration operation by a user; and
the second communicator communicates with the server using wide-area communication.

4. A remote control system comprising an in-home controller for use in a home, a terminal device, and a server located outside the home,
the in-home controller comprising:
a first communicator configured to communicate with the terminal device;
a second communicator configured to communicate with the server;
a manager registry configured to accept a manager registration operation by a user via the terminal device and perform a manager registration based on information inputted by the user during the manager registration operation;
a data transmitter configured to, when the manager registration operation is accepted,
determine whether the second communicator and the server are in a communicative state with each other;
if the second communicator and the server are determined to be in the communicative state with each other, transmit data to the server via the second communicator, the data containing (i) information included in the information inputted by the user and (ii) a controller identification of the in-home controller, and
if the second communicator and the server are determined to be in a non-communicative state with each other, not transmit the data to the server via the second communicator, and thereafter upon the non-communicative state changing to the communicative state, transmit the data to the server via the second communicator; and

a device controller configured to
when the manager registration is completed by the manager registry, upon the device controller receiving, from the terminal device, control request data related to control of an electrical device installed in the home,
control the electrical device according to content of the control request data,

the server comprising:
a third communicator configured to communicate with the in-home controller and the terminal device;
a database in which customer information is registered; and
a server controller configured to update, upon receiving the data from the in-home controller via the third communicator, the database based on content of the received data.

5. The remote control system according to claim 4 , wherein, in the server,
the customer information registered in the database includes a user identification, a password and an identification of the in-home controller, and
the server controller is configured
to search the database for relevant customer information using the user identification and the password extracted from the data,
when the relevant customer information exists in the database, to update the identification of the in-home controller included in the customer information to the controller identification extracted from the data, and
when the relevant customer information does not exist in the database, to register, in the database, customer information newly generated based on the content of the data.

6. The remote control system according to claim 4 , wherein
the first communicator communicates with the terminal device using short-range communication during the manager registry accepting the manager registration operation by a user; and
the second communicator communicates with the server using wide-area communication.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having stored thereof a program that causes a computer, including a communication interface for communicating with a sever located outside a home, to function as:
a manager registry configured to accept a manager registration operation by a user via a terminal device and perform a manager registration based on information inputted by the user during the manager registration operation; and
a data transmitter configured to, when the manager registration operation is accepted,
determine whether the communication interface and the server are in a communicative state with each other;
if the communication interface and the server are determined to be in the communicative state with each other, transmit data to the server via the communication interface, the data containing (i) information included in the information inputted by the user and (ii) a controller identification of itself,
if the communication interface and the server are determine to be in a non-communicative state with each other, not transmit the data to the server via the communication interface, and thereafter upon the non-communicative state changing to the communicative state, transmit the data to the server via the communication interface; and

a device controller configured to
when the manager registration is completed by the manager registry, upon the device controller receiving, from the terminal device, control request data related to control of an electrical device installed in the home,
control the electrical device according to content of the control request data.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium according to claim 7 , wherein
the communication interface communicates with the server using wide-area communication.

Assignees

• Mitsubishi Electric Corp

Inventors

• Yabe Masaaki
• Maruyama Ichiro
• Minezawa Satoshi
• Yoshikawa Toshiaki
• Yano Hirotoshi
• Iizawa Daisuke
• Tanaka Kenichiro
• Ogino Takashi

Classifications

• H04L12/2818

  from a device located outside both the home and the home network (access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; arrangements for transmitting signals characterised by the use of a wireless eletrical link G08C17/00; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with remote control systems H04M11/007) · CPC title

• H04L12/2809 Primary

  indicating that an appliance service is present in a home automation network (monitoring functionality H04L43/0817; discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services, H04L67/51) · CPC title

• G08C17/00

  Arrangements for transmitting signals characterised by the use of a wireless electrical link · CPC title