JP2000067119A - Home automation system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] To provide an inexpensive home automation with a high degree of freedom. SOLUTION: One-way millimeter wave band non-procedural wireless communication and wired phase one-way communication are used.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to home automation for connecting various electric appliances in a home to a home controller and centrally managing them.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Home automation, which connects various electrical devices in a home to a home controller and centrally manages the devices, has become widespread. In addition to device operation control, information distribution control is managed by the home automation. Things have begun.

For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-300564 discloses the above example, and FIG. 6 shows one example.
Here, the transmission and reception of an information signal by wireless communication that can cope with a free arrangement of electric devices in a home is described. A broadcast network 60, a CATV network 61, a telephone line 62, and the like are connected to a network termination (NT).
From the home controller (HC) integrated with it,
In addition to the operation control of each device, information such as TV broadcast to each device is simultaneously transmitted from the antenna as a radio signal.

[0004]

As shown in FIG. 6, in the case where the operation of an electric device is controlled by an antenna directly installed in the HC and at the same time the information distribution is performed, the operation control is performed by interfering with a similar system of a neighbor. To prevent this, it is necessary to perform a procedure for recognizing the ID of each device and communication using a certain protocol so that the oscillation of each device does not overlap and cause a reception failure, and an interface unit (IFU) for electronic devices is created at low cost There is a disadvantage in that the entire system cannot be made expensive.

[0005] In addition, from an antenna installed in a home controller, a frequency that is not shielded by a building such as a wall needs to be about 5 GHz or less in order to transmit the signal to the entire home. If a BS or CS broadcast is to be transmitted at the same time as a terrestrial radio broadcast network, the communication band becomes 1 to 2 GHz. In the above-mentioned frequency band, only communication using weak radio waves that does not require legal permission is actually used. This is impossible and has become a fatal drawback in home automation systems that require reliable equipment control.

Furthermore, communication in the band of about 1 to 2 GHz at about 5 GHz has too large a fractional band, which makes it difficult to design a high-frequency circuit.

On the other hand, it is possible to distribute only the channel to be received by the receiver from the home controller and to save the radio frequency band. However, this method is a technique which is being developed one after another in recent television receivers. There is a problem that complicated functions such as program recording and multi-screen display cannot be handled.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems,
The communication bandwidth is small, and reliable device control is possible.
It is to provide a high-performance and inexpensive home automation system.

[0009]

The home automation system of the present invention systematizes a plurality of electric devices, centrally manages the system and information by a home controller, and operates between the home controller and the electric devices. In a home automation system having a function of transmitting and receiving information signals, transmission and reception of information signals between the home controller and at least one or more of the electric devices have a plurality of communication paths, and among the plurality of paths, The path having the largest communication capacity is one-way non-procedural wireless communication using the millimeter wave band from the home controller to the electric device, and one of the other paths is wired one-way communication. .

That is, information signals relating to the operation control of the electric equipment are communicated between the home controller and the electric equipment using a wire, preferably a power line, and a large amount of information from the outside such as a television and a large amount of information such as images are transmitted. It is performed by one-way non-procedural wireless communication.

In addition, the home automation system of the present invention converts a continuous multi-channel information block of an information signal of one-way non-procedural wireless communication or a block obtained by dividing the block into a plurality of blocks in response to a request from the electric device. The transmission of information is controlled in block units.

Further, the home automation system of the present invention is characterized in that a transmitter not using one-way non-procedural wireless communication is automatically determined and transmission is stopped.

Each information signal of the one-way non-procedural wireless communication includes terrestrial broadcasting, BS broadcasting, CS broadcasting, cable television, TV telephone, Internet information, home controller control computer screen / audio, entrance camera / audio,
It may be either a computer screen or audio.

When scrambling each information signal of the one-way nonprocedural wireless communication, it is preferable to communicate the descrambling information using a wired path.

When a TV phone, Internet information, home controller control computer screen / sound, entrance camera / sound, computer screen / sound (personal information other than broadcast) are transmitted by one-way non-procedural wireless communication, a broadcast information signal is transmitted. It is preferable to transmit using an empty channel and using the same modulation scheme as broadcasting on the channel frequency.

When a TV phone, Internet information, a computer screen / sound of a home controller control, a front camera / sound, and a computer screen / sound are transmitted by one-way non-procedural wireless communication, an empty channel of a broadcast information signal is automatically set. It is preferable to transmit using an empty channel and transmit the channel frequency signal to an electric device used as a wired signal.

Further, TV telephone, Internet information,
Home controller control When the computer screen / audio, entrance camera / audio, and computer screen / audio are transmitted by one-way non-procedural wireless communication, the broadcast information signal is automatically identified as a free channel of a channel set to a different frequency from the broadcast information signal. Then, it is preferable that the signal is transmitted at the channel frequency, converted to a preset frequency for each signal by the reception interface unit, and used by the electric equipment.

Preventing unnecessary leakage of radio waves by dividing a frequency band into blocks and controlling transmission for each block, and automatically determining an unused transmitter and stopping transmission. Can be.

Further, by communicating the descrambling signal using a wired signal, it is possible to prevent information leakage when wireless communication is used.

[0020]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. Embodiment 1 FIG. 1 shows an example of a home automation system according to the present invention. As information from outside, an IF signal from a BS broadcast receiving antenna / converter, an IF signal from a CS broadcast receiving antenna / converter, a signal from a terrestrial broadcast receiving antenna / antenna-direct amplifier, CA
Four types of information of the TV line signal come in.

Each of the information signals is connected to the NT, and the integrated HC controls the power supply of the antenna / converter of those information sources and controls the information distribution at the same time.

Large-capacity signals, such as video and audio signals, distributed from the HC are distributed to each floor or each room by a coaxial cable 1, converted to millimeter waves by a transmitter 2, and transmitted from an antenna of the transmitter to electric equipment. Sent.

FIG. 2 shows how the signals are arranged on the frequency axis at this time. The unit of the horizontal axis is megahertz (MH)
z). An example is shown in which each information source is a continuous channel as a block, and the CS broadcast is divided into three blocks and each is controlled. FIG. 2A shows a state in which the terrestrial broadcast, the BS broadcast IF, and the CS broadcast IF are arranged on a coaxial cable, and FIG. This shows a state converted by frequency. The signal is extracted by performing the reverse conversion on the electric equipment on the receiving side. According to the present embodiment, it is very preferable because it can be used in a conventional electric device as it is.

FIGS. 2 (3) and 2 (4) show the distribution of information on the lower frequency side of the BS and CS frequencies therein. It is preferable in design that information is selected as shown in FIG. By distributing only necessary information, unnecessary radio interference to neighbors can be minimized. Furthermore, synchronizing the power supply of the information source device has an energy saving effect.

The reason for using millimeter waves in this system is that radio waves from the same adjacent system that interfere with reception are limited to those from adjacent houses, and those farther away do not greatly affect attenuation. In order for information signals of general broadcasting and the like to be seen as ghosts due to interference, a distance of 100 m is required, which is not a problem in the present system.

Next, an internal information source will be described.
As an internal information source, a reproduction video 3, a computer 4 (connected to a telephone line via a modem / telephone 5) and the like can be connected to the HC. These output screens and audio can be distributed and used inside the home in the same manner as external information by inserting them into the appropriate free channels of the above-mentioned broadcasts using the same modulation scheme. These devices are also managed by the HC.

In addition, unlike the general broadcast signal, when the same frequency is used in the same adjacent system, interference occurs in the information signal transmitted from each individual, so it is preferable to automatically determine an available channel. The determination of the vacant channel may be performed by the HC, but it is preferable that the IFU of each electric device detect the radio wave use status.

In the present embodiment, power line carrier using the power line 6 is used for communication of wired information signals. Electrical equipment
It is connected to the power line 6 through the outlet 14 and is controlled by a signal superimposed on the power line. Alternatively, a video / audio signal distribution request signal is transmitted to the HC. Also, on the power line,
In order to prevent the home automation signal from leaking outside, a band filter 7 is attached.

Next, the electric equipment shown in FIG. 1 will be described.
Reference numeral 8 denotes a television with a built-in interface dedicated to this system. Wired (power line) signals and wireless antennas are directly connected to the device. When the power is turned on, a necessary video / audio signal distribution request signal is transmitted to the HC through the power line, and the HC transmits the video / audio signal through the millimeter wave line.

9 is a refrigerator compatible with home automation. For a refrigerator, a washing machine, an electronic lock, and other devices that do not handle image / audio information, only a wired signal line having a small information transmission capacity may be used. Therefore, the interface unit (IFU) 10 naturally has a wireless signal receiving circuit. There is nothing.

Reference numeral 11 denotes a home automation compatible television. A wired (power supply) signal and a wireless antenna are connected to the IFU 12, and control between HC devices is performed by a wired signal. The HC distributes a large amount of information such as image and sound by a wireless signal. Here, a keyboard 13 for input is further connected to the IFU, and the keyboard input is communicated as a wired signal when operating a computer connected to the HC. It is preferable that the control of the home controller itself or the control of each device through the home controller is similarly operated through the keyboard. At this time, if the image and audio information such as an operation explanation screen synchronized with the keyboard operation is wirelessly distributed from the HC and the operation is performed with the keyboard while watching the screen, a dedicated control device is not required and the cost can be reduced. At the same time, operation becomes very easy.

In the case of a device that is not compatible with the home controller, the IFU detects that the device has been turned on.
By transmitting a request for distributing video / audio signals required by the device to C, it is possible to use inexpensive general electric devices.

As the electric equipment, other than video equipment,
Electrical equipment such as audio equipment is possible.

In the present embodiment, the HC and the electric equipment are connected for transmission and reception using a wired signal, and further, a function of non-procedural one-way communication in a millimeter wave band from the home controller to the electric equipment is provided. ing.

Therefore, in the home automation system of the present embodiment, the information capacity of the wiring of the wired signal can be reduced, and even in advanced information technology in recent years, the communication of the equipment through the simple wiring such as power line transportation has a margin. Control becomes possible, and wireless equipment can be manufactured at very low cost because of non-procedural communication. In addition, there is no need to install a dedicated information outlet or the like, and it is possible to easily cope with a newly built house as well as an existing house.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 3 shows an example in which an unused antenna is determined and transmission is stopped. The names of the respective parts conform to FIG. The home controller HC sends a control signal to each transmitter 2 so as to sequentially oscillate the identification signal, and the transmitter sequentially transmits the identification signal accordingly. Interface unit (IFU)
When the identification signal is received at 12, it is transmitted to the home controller using a wired signal. The home controller determines that the transmitter corresponding to the signal from the IFU 12 is in use, and sends a signal to the transmitter to stop the other transmitters.

When the apparatus is newly started, it is sufficient to operate all the transmitters once and stop unnecessary transmission in the same manner. The easiest way to control the transmitter from the home controller is to superimpose the signal on the coaxial cable.

(Embodiment 3) Since the reproduction-only video and the computer image / audio signal shown in FIG. 1 may handle personal AV information, it is necessary to scramble the information to prevent eavesdropping. There are cases. However, when a similar system enters a neighbor, the descrambling method is the same, and it is necessary to set a code serving as a key on the transmitting / receiving side. However, even in that case, the worst case cannot be denied the possibility of decryption and eavesdropping.
To avoid that, you need to periodically change the key code.

FIG. 4 shows an example in which the code change is automated by transmitting a key code by wire (power line 6) every fixed period. Changing the key within a short period of time is very important in a society where personal privacy will be respected in the future, since even a simpler scrambling method is less likely to be eavesdropped.

This system differs from other general wireless communication systems in that it does not use a method for preventing interference such as time division between each device or an adjacent system, channels, CDMA, etc. It is important to prevent unnecessary radio wave leakage and wiretapping as in the first, second, and third modes.

(Embodiment 4) TV phone, Internet information, home controller control computer screen
Audio, entrance camera / audio, computer screen / audio,
When transmitting by one-way non-procedural wireless communication, the broadcast information signal is automatically determined to a vacant channel of a channel set to a different frequency, and transmitted at that channel frequency,
An example in which a signal is converted into a preset frequency for each signal by a reception interface unit and used by an electric device will be described.

FIG. 5A shows the use status of the transmission frequency. The HC detects a vacant frequency A and transmits an Internet screen as a signal of a coaxial cable as shown in FIG. In the transmitter, the signal is converted into a millimeter wave band as shown in FIG. Here, it is assumed that the user has set in advance to view the Internet screen on three channels (free channels) of the VHF broadcast. The HC transmits the difference between the transmission frequency and the frequency of the three channels by a wired signal, and the IFU uses the information to change the signal of the Internet information to the frequency of the three channels. Output.

FIG. 5 (5) shows an example of the circuit in that case. The millimeter wave signal received by the antenna 20 is amplified by the amplifier 21 and divided into a broadcast signal band 22 and a personal information band 23. The broadcast signal band 22 is always converted to the same frequency by a fixed local oscillator 24 and output to an IF signal terminal 26 through a filter 25.

The personal information band is converted to an IF frequency in order to extract only a target frequency, and the IF filter 27
, Is converted back to the frequency of the desired three channels,
The signal is output to the IF signal terminal 26 through the filter 25.

[0045]

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an inexpensive home automation system capable of controlling distribution of information to an electric device that handles a large amount of information without sacrificing the degree of freedom of arrangement of the electric device.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an example of a home automation system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows how signals are arranged on a frequency axis.

FIG. 3 shows an example in which an unused antenna is determined and transmission is stopped.

FIG. 4 shows an example of automating code changes.

FIG. 5 shows a state of automatic determination of an empty channel and conversion of a channel frequency, and a circuit example thereof.

FIG. 6 is an example of a conventional home automation system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Coaxial cable 2 Transmitter 3 Playback video 4 Computer 5 Modem / telephone 6 Power line 7 Band filter 8 TV with built-in interface 9 Refrigerator 10, 12 Interface unit 11 Home automation compatible TV 13 Keyboard 14 Outlet 20 Antenna 21 Amplifier 22 Broadcast signal band 23 Personal Information band 24 Local oscillator 25 Filter 26 IF signal terminal 27 IF filter 60 Broadcasting network 61 CATV network 62 Telephone line

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A home automation system having a function of systematizing a plurality of electric devices, centrally managing the system and information by a home controller, and transmitting and receiving information signals between the home controller and the electric devices. The transmission and reception of the information signal between the home controller and at least one or more of the electrical devices has a plurality of communication paths, and among the plurality of paths, a path having the largest communication capacity is transmitted from the home controller to the home controller. A home automation system, which is a one-way non-procedural wireless communication using a millimeter wave band to the electric device, and one of the other routes is a wired one-way communication. 2. A transmission control of information of a continuous multi-channel information block of an information signal of one-way non-procedural wireless communication or a block obtained by dividing the block into a plurality of blocks in response to a request from the electric device in units of blocks. The home automation system according to claim 1, wherein 3. The home automation system according to claim 1, wherein a transmitter not using one-way non-procedural wireless communication is automatically determined and transmission is stopped. 4. Each information signal of the one-way non-procedural wireless communication is:
Terrestrial broadcasting, BS broadcasting, CS broadcasting, cable television, T
4. A V-phone, Internet information, home controller control computer screen / voice, entrance camera / voice, computer screen / voice.
A home automation system according to any of the preceding claims. 5. When scrambling each information signal of one-way nonprocedural wireless communication, descrambling information is communicated using a wired path.
A home automation system according to any of the preceding claims. 6. Broadcast information when a TV phone, Internet information, home controller control computer screen / sound, entrance camera / sound, computer screen / sound (personal information other than broadcast) is transmitted by one-way nonprocedural wireless communication. The home automation system according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the signal is transmitted using an available channel of the signal and using the same modulation scheme as that for broadcasting at the channel frequency. 7. When a TV phone, Internet information, home controller control computer screen / sound, entrance camera / sound, computer screen / sound is transmitted by one-way non-procedural wireless communication, an empty channel of a broadcast information signal is automatically set. The home automation system according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the transmission is performed using an available channel, and the channel frequency signal is transmitted to an electric device used as a wired signal. 8. When a TV phone, Internet information, a home controller control computer screen / voice, a front camera / voice, and a computer screen / voice are transmitted by one-way non-procedural wireless communication, a frequency different from a broadcast information signal is used. 4. The system according to claim 1, wherein an empty channel of the set channel is automatically determined, transmitted at the channel frequency, converted to a predetermined frequency for each signal by a reception interface unit, and used by an electric device.
6. The home automation system according to any one of 5.