JP2000032153A - Home control system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] Conventionally, a PHS can be used to control electrical equipment in a house from the outdoors or indoors by using a PHS. Since there is a part, the installation positions of the electrical equipment and the PHS master or slave unit are not flexible due to optical restrictions, and a new PHS master or slave unit with an infrared light emitting unit is required, and the existing PHS There were problems such as the inability to use the parent device or the child device. According to the present invention, in a home control system that wirelessly controls home electric appliances installed in a house, a control adapter that can be easily attached to and detached from a remote control light receiving unit of an existing home electric appliance; An operation console for wirelessly controlling the control adapter is provided.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system for controlling home electric appliances in a house using a telephone line, which is used for home automation and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art While home networking is attracting attention, home bus systems and the like have been proposed and started to be used particularly for centralized management of home electric appliances or remote control.

In recent years, as wireless telephone lines such as a personal handy phone system (hereinafter, referred to as PHS) have become widespread as public networks, control systems using PHS have been proposed.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a personal handyphone system with a remote control function disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-270861.

[0005] This remote control system has a P
PHS master 410 or slave 42 connected via a telephone line to a telephone network 440 to which HS base station 430 is connected.
0 is provided with a function of outputting an infrared signal for operating an external home electric appliance 450. The tone signal sent through the PHS line is decoded by the decoding unit 412, and control is performed based on the decoding result. The unit 413 outputs an infrared signal for controlling electric equipment.

[0006]

As described above, the PHS can be used to control electric equipment in the house from outside or indoors by using the PHS. Since there is a light emitting part, electrical equipment and P
The installation position of the HS master unit or slave unit is not flexible due to optical restrictions, and a new PHS master unit or slave unit with an infrared light emitting unit is required, and the existing P
There were problems such as the inability to use the HS master unit or slave unit.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and there is no limitation on the installation positions of home electric appliances and a console such as a telephone for controlling the home electric appliances. It is an object of the present invention to provide a system that can remotely control devices.

[0008] Another object of the present invention is to provide a simple method for controlling home electric appliances, which has conventionally required complicated operations.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, in a home control system for wirelessly controlling home electric appliances installed in a house by wireless, the home electric appliance can be easily attached to and detached from a remote control light receiving section of the existing home electric appliances. A control adapter is provided, and an operation console wirelessly controls the control adapter.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a home control system showing an embodiment of the present invention.

The electrical equipment 15 already installed in the home
0, a control adapter 110 is attached. The control adapter decodes a signal transmitted from each of the PHS main phone videophone 100 or the PHS handset videophone 101 by operation, and controls home electric appliances. Output a remote control signal (infrared signal).

The home electric appliance can perform ON / OFF of the power supply or temperature setting in the case of an air conditioner, by the remote control signal.

A PHS base unit 100 having a videophone function as a console for home electrical equipment, or a PH
An S slave unit 101 is provided. When controlling electrical equipment,
Display the control menu on the videophone screen. By selecting a desired control item from the control menu, the user can easily transmit a signal for controlling the electric device.

The control adapter 110 also receives a signal from a remote controller 151 attached to an electric device and re-outputs the signal to the electric device.

Therefore, in addition to the control by the existing remote controller, the electric device can perform remote control by a signal using the home PHS network.

In addition, since the home network uses a telephone, remote control from outside the home can be performed by the telephone network 140.
Can be done via

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a control adapter of the present invention.

The control adapter 110 includes a PHS receiving unit 111, a decoder unit 112, a control unit 11
3, a transmission control unit 114, and an infrared light emitting unit 115.

The PHS receiving unit 111 converts a radio signal from the PHS base unit, PHS base unit videophone 100, PHS slave unit, or PHS slave unit videophone 101 into a voice band signal.

The decoder section 112 includes a PHS receiving section 111
A control signal for controlling the electric equipment, for example, a DTMF signal is extracted from the audio band signal from the controller, and it is determined from the control signal how to control the electric equipment.

In the control section 113, the decoder section 11
According to the determination of 2, a predetermined remote control signal for the electric device is output.

The transmission control unit 114 receives a signal from the remote controller and controls what kind of control input has been received in order to enable control from an existing remote controller attached to the electric device. Notify section 113. In the control unit 113, the transmission control unit 114 operates in the same manner as when operating on the signal from the decoder unit 112.
And outputs a predetermined remote control signal for the electric device in response to a signal from the electronic device.

When the control signal from the decoder unit 112 and the control signal from the transmission control unit 114 are congested, a predetermined remote control signal for the electric device is output according to a preset priority.

In addition to the above-described electrical means, the transmission controller 114 may have a simple configuration in which a control adapter is provided with an optical path for directly guiding infrared light from a remote controller to the infrared receiving portion of the electric device. .

The control adapter 110 has a PH
The S receiving unit 111 is a hybrid IC, the decoder unit 112
And the control unit 113 and the transmission control unit 114
It can be constituted by a chip CPU and an infrared light receiving / emitting element, and can be provided at a small size, light weight and low cost.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a method of attaching the control adapter of the present invention to an existing electric device. Since the control adapter can be configured in a small size, it can be attached to the front portions of the infrared light receiving sections of all electric devices, for example, with a simple detachable tape.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention, there is no limitation on the installation position of the home electric appliance and the operation console such as a telephone for controlling the home electric appliance. Can be constructed.

Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a system capable of easily detachable remote control without requiring modification of existing electric equipment or introduction of a new home network system.

Further, in the present invention, by using a PHS machine having a videophone function as an operation console, complicated electrical equipment control can be easily performed by a user interface using a videophone screen.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a home control system showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a control adapter according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a view illustrating an attachment of a control adapter according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 100 PHS main phone videophone 101 PHS handset videophone 110 Control adapter 111 PHS receiving unit 112 Decoder unit 113 Control unit 114 Transmission control unit 115 Infrared light emitting unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A home control system for remotely controlling home electric appliances installed in a house by wireless remote control, comprising: a control adapter which can be easily attached to and detached from a remote control light receiving section of an existing home electric appliance; On the other hand, a home control system comprising an operation console that performs wireless control. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a PHS is used as the console, a PHS receiving means, a decoding means for decoding a received tone signal, and a signal for controlling an electric device based on the decoding result. A home control system comprising: a remote control light emitting means; and a transmitting means for transmitting a signal from a remote control attached to an electric device. 3. The video telephone according to claim 1, wherein the console is connected to a telephone network via a telephone line.
A home control system characterized by using an HS machine or a PHS master machine or a PHS slave machine having a videophone function installed in a house.