JP2002183001A - Control equipment, controlled equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To reduce the memory consumption of a controller device storing a user interface program (havlet). And user interface program (havlet
) Reduced download time. SOLUTION: A digital television 11 which is an FAV is a BTV.
The DCM 127 of the DVHS 12, which is an AV, is stored in the memory 111.
To memorize. The BAV includes a plurality of user interface programs (havlets) 121, 122, 123, and profile information 124 indicating what user interface program the user interface program is.
The FAV stores the user interface program desired by the user in the memory 111 using the profile information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device used in a network, and more particularly to a control program for controlling a controlled device in which a control device and a controlled device are connected on a network, and a control program for controlling the controlled device. The controlled device itself has a user interface program,
The present invention relates to a control device and a controlled device used in a control system for transmitting a signal from the controlled device to the control device as needed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various standardizations of a home network technology for connecting home appliances in a home to mutually control and transmit / receive data have been performed. One of the specifications of such a home network is HAVi (Home Audio / Video Int) jointly developed by Japanese and European manufacturers.
eroperability) standards (URL http://www.havi.org)
There is.

FIG. 2 shows an example of HAVi devices connected by an IEEE 1394 network.

In this example, a digital television 21 which is a controller device, a CS tuner 22 which is a device (controlled device) controlled by the controller device, and a VTR (hereinafter, referred to as DVHS) 23 of a digital VHS system.
Are connected by an IEEE 1394 network.

In the HAVi standard, the controller device is
AV (Full Audio / Video device), controlled device BA
V (Basic Audio / Video device).

One of the features of the HAVi standard is that the controlled device itself stores a BAV control program (hereinafter referred to as DCM) in a memory or the like in the device. DCM in CS tuner 22 and DVHS 23
Is uploaded and stored in the memory 211 of the controller device (digital television 21) via the IEEE1394 network. As a result, a controlled device (CS tuner 22, DVHS) is transmitted from the controller device (digital television 21) via the IEEE1394 network.
23) is realized.

[0007] Since this DCM is described in Java language, the controller device is a HAVi standard compliant FAV.
Then, the DCM described in the Java language can be executed on any FAV, and the interconnectivity is guaranteed.

The BAV has a user interface program (hereinafter, referred to as “havlet”) specific to the device in addition to the DCM, which is stored in a memory or the like in the device. This havlet is also uploaded and stored in the memory 311 of the digital television 21, which is a FAV, via the IEEE1394 network. Thus, the user can control the DVHS 23 in the living room via the digital television 21 in the bedroom, for example. At this time, the screen of the digital television 21 in the bedroom displays the DV in the living room.
The user interface screen acquired from the HS 23 is displayed, and the operation can be performed using the remote controller of the digital television 21.

Now, in the current HAVi standard (Ver. 1.0), there can be only one havlet in BAV.
For example, in the case of a DVHS device, the operation of the device (Play, Stop, P
ause, FF, Rew, etc.) screen, recording reservation screen, device setting screen, etc. It is conceivable to have multiple user interface screens, but it is necessary to store programs that realize all these functions as one unit. is there. For this reason, the digital television 21 which is a FAV is compatible with the CAV which is a BAV.
When downloading a havlet from the S tuner 22 and the DVHS 23, the entire havlet is downloaded.

FIG. 3 shows a device configuration diagram based on the HAVi standard (Ver. 1.0). In the system shown in FIG. 3, the digital television 31 which is a FAV and the DVHS 32 which is a BAV are IEEE
They are connected by a 1394 network.

The DVHS 32, which is a BAV, is a controlled device, and has one DCM as its own control program and one havlet as a user interface program.

A digital television 31 which is a FAV is a controller device, and a DCV 32 which is a BAV and
M and havlet are stored in the memory 311 of the digital television 31.
Download and store.

A user interface is displayed on the screen of the digital television 31 which is an FAV, and B is transmitted via the DCM stored in the memory 311 in accordance with the operation of the interface screen of the digital television 31 by the user.
The control of DVHS32 which is AV is performed.

First, in the HAVi standard (Ver. 1.0), FAV uses the following GetHavletCodeUnitProfile method to create a BA.
V also obtains the profile information of the havlet (hereinafter referred to as profile information). This profile information is hav
Information indicating the characteristics of let. The API is IDL (Interface Definition Language)
This is shown in the description method according to e). By this method call, the version information of the havlet to be acquired (the second line of the above program), the file size (the third
(Line 4), the memory size required for installation (line 4 of the program), the work memory size (line 5 of the program), and the size of the packet to be transmitted at one time (line 6 of the program).

However, the current HAVi standard (Ver. 1.0)
According to the specification, profile information (profile) is havl
It does not include information on the function of et.

Based on the profile information, the FAV determines whether it is possible to download and execute a havlet on its own device. If it is determined that the FAV can be executed, the havlet entity is obtained (downloaded) using the following GetHavletCodeUnit method.

According to HAVi standard (Ver. 1.0) by FAV
Download havlet using the following API
Using the API of the DCM downloaded to the. When there are a plurality of FAVs on the network, downloading from a DCM on another FAV is conceivable. However, when there is one FAV, the description is as described above. In this method, if you specify the range of bytes to be fetched, you will get the specified part of the havlet entity. The second line indicates that the value of the first byte of the havlet is obtained, and the third line indicates that the value of the last byte of the havlet is obtained.

FAV uses the above two APIs for hav
Get let. With the current specification, it is only possible to specify the byte range of a havlet, so it is not possible to download only certain functional parts of a havlet.

That is, if the user operates the device (for example, in the case of a DVHS device, Play, S
Even if you only want to perform top, Pause, FF, Rew, etc.), you need to download one havlet that has all the recording reservation screens and device setting screens that are not necessary for device operation.

For this reason, the conventional control device has a problem in that the amount of memory consumed by the controller device for storing the user interface program (havlet) is extremely wasteful. Further, there is a problem that the download time of the user interface program (havlet) is wasted.

[0021]

As described above, the conventional control device has a problem that the controller device wastes a large amount of memory for storing a user interface program (havlet). Further, there is a problem that the download time of the user interface program (havlet) is wasted.

[0022]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a control device and a controlled device are connected on a network, and a control program for controlling the controlled device and the control program. The controlled device user interface program is provided in the controlled device itself,
In the controlled device used in the control system transmitting to the control device as necessary, a plurality of the user interface programs are stored, and the requested user interface program is transmitted to the control device by a request from the control device. User interface program means for outputting; and characteristic means for storing characteristic information for selecting the user interface program and outputting the characteristic information to the control device in response to a request from the control device. To provide controlled equipment.

[0023] Further, there is provided a controlled device, wherein the characteristic information includes information of a character string representing a function of a user interface program.

Further, the controlled device conforms to the HAVi standard, and the user interface program has a h
avlet, and havelet and characteristic information are FA
Provided is a controlled device characterized in that the device exists in a V, IAV or BAV.

In the present invention, a control device and a controlled device are connected on a network, and a control program for controlling the controlled device and a user interface program of the controlled device include the controlled device itself. Provided in a control device used in a control system that transmits the control device to the control device as necessary, and in the present invention, characteristic information for selecting the plurality of user interface programs input from the controlled device. A control device, comprising: a characteristic information unit that reads a predetermined user interface program from the plurality of user interface programs from the controlled device according to the read characteristic information. provide.

Further, the present invention provides a control device, wherein the characteristic information includes character string information representing a function of a user interface program.

The control device conforms to the HAVi standard, and the user interface program has
t, and havelet and characteristic information are FAV, IA
V or a control device characterized by being present in a BAV.

[0028]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS (First Embodiment) FIG. 1 shows a system configuration diagram of the present embodiment. The configuration of the device is the same as that of FIG.
The HS 12 is connected via an IEEE 1394 network.

The DCM 127 of the DVHS 12 is an IEEE1
When connected via the 394 network, the data is transferred and recorded in the memory 111 in the digital television 11.

The difference from the conventional example shown in FIG.
3 h of t121, havlet 122, havlet 123
avlet is included and each havlet
The point is that profile information 124, profile information 125, and profile information 126 are provided for 121, havlet 122, and havlet 123.

In BAV, profile information is, for example, "
havlet.pfl "in the following format: havlet version, havlet file size, havl
The actual size of et and the work size used by havlet have the same meaning as the specifications of the current HAVi standard (Ver. 1.0).

The index value is a value for identifying and specifying a specific havlet in the BAV, and there must be no duplication in the BAV. For example, the first havlet has index value 1 and the second havlet has index value 2. The value of the index value itself has no particular meaning, and is used by the GetHavletCodeUnit API described later.
Used to specify a specific havlet from V. havl
et file name is havlet corresponding to index value
File name, and the function name of havlet is a character string indicating the function of havlet corresponding to the index value.

Assuming that the above is one record, the number of records of havlets existing in the BAV is continuously "havlet.pfl
".

Each havlet file is stored in "havlet.p
fl "(havlet file name:
50 bytes). Here, the method of storing the profile information and the havlet may be set, for example, at a fixed address in a ROM (Read Only Memory) in the BAV, and the present invention is limited to the case where the profile information and the havlet exist as files in the BAV. Not, BA
In addition to V, it may exist in FAV and IAV.

In the present embodiment, a new structure is added to the current HAVi standard (Ver. 1.0) and the API is changed in order to support a plurality of havlets.
The API may be distinguished from the current specification by using another name.

First, a new structure HavletProfile is defined. In addition to the profile information of the havlet included in the HAVi standard (Ver. 1.0), this structure includes "na
An array of wstring type "me" has been added (wstring <50> name on the 8th line of the profile below).
Stores character string information indicating the purpose of let etc. This havlet
Applications include, for example, device operation screens, recording reservation screens,
This is a device setting screen or the like.

Further, a "handle" parameter is provided as an index value of which havlet represents the profile information (long handle in the second line of the profile below).
) The HavletProfile structure has the following configuration (underlined parameters are additional parameters compared to the HAVi standard (Ver.1.0)). In the case of this embodiment, the API for acquiring profile information of the havlet, GetHavletCodeUnitProfile, is
It becomes PI. When this method is called, Havle
You get an array of tProfile structures. In this, BAV
Contains profile information for each of the havlets that exist in the.

[0038] In the FAV, download from the BAV based on the information obtained by GetHavletCodeUnitProfile.
Determine the havlet. The method is such that a plurality of user interface programs such as a device operation screen, a recording reservation screen, a device setting screen, etc., which are character strings of a name record of profile information, are presented to the user, and a user interface program selected by the user. For hav
Download let from BAV.

When the FAV downloads a havlet, the following API is used (the underlined portion indicates the HAVi standard (Ver.
1.0) and added parameters). This GetHavletCodeUnit is compatible with the current HAVi standard (Ve
r. 1.0) input parameters for the API
"handle" is added (underlined part on the second line of the API). This parameter must be preceded by GetHavletCodeUnitPr
handle included in profile information obtained by ofile
A handle value that indicates the specific havlet you want to download from the record. As a result, only the user interface program selected by the user can be obtained.

The havlet obtained using the above API is:
It is executed on the FAV and displayed on the screen on the FAV as a user interface program selected by the user.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, a plurality of havlets can be registered in the controlled device (BAV), and the controller device (FAV) can download only the necessary havlets from the BAV device. Becomes possible.

The FAV determines which hav among a plurality of havlets
B to determine whether to download let
The BAV has profile information describing information of each of a plurality of havlets existing in the AV device.

[0043]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The control device has multiple user interface programs (h
avlet), only the necessary user interface program (havlet) can be downloaded when necessary.
The memory consumption for storing t) can be significantly reduced, and the download time of the user interface program (havlet) can be significantly reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining a configuration of a control device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining a configuration of a conventional control device.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram for explaining a configuration of a conventional control device.

[Explanation of symbols]

11: Digital TV, 12: DVHS VTR,
111 ... memory, 121, 122, 123 ... havlet, 1
24, 125, 126 ... profile information, 127 ... D
CM.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI theme coat ゛ (reference) H04Q 9/00 301 H04Q 9/00 301E 321 321E F term (reference) 5B069 AA01 BA03 BB16 CA19 LA02 5B089 GA12 GA23 GB03 HA18 JA34 JB09 KA03 KA11 KB04 KC26 LB04 LB14 5C025 DA01 DA08 5E501 AA19 AC37 BA05 CA03 CC02 DA14 EB05 FA13 5K048 BA02 BA12 DC04 EB02 FC01 HA01 HA02

Claims (6)

[Claims] A control device and a controlled device are connected on a network, and a control program for controlling the controlled device and a user interface program of the controlled device are provided in the controlled device itself, and are required. In the controlled device used in the control system for transmitting to the control device in response, storing a plurality of the user interface program,
User interface program means for outputting the requested user interface program to the control device in response to a request from the control device; storing characteristic information for selecting the user interface program; and storing the characteristic information in the control device. And a characteristic means for outputting to the control device in response to a request from the controlled device. 2. The controlled device according to claim 1, wherein the characteristic information includes information of a character string representing a function of a user interface program. 3. The controlled device conforms to the HAVi standard, and the user interface program has a hav
let, and havelet and characteristic information are FAV,
3. The controlled device according to claim 1, wherein the controlled device exists in an IAV or a BAV. 4. A control device and a controlled device are connected on a network, and a control program for controlling the controlled device and a user interface program of the controlled device are provided in the controlled device itself, and A control device used in a control system that transmits the control device to the control device, wherein: the characteristic information means for reading characteristic information for selecting the plurality of user interface programs input from the controlled device; And a user interface program means for reading a predetermined user interface program from the plurality of user interface programs from the controlled device in accordance with the control program. 5. The control device according to claim 4, wherein the characteristic information includes information of a character string representing a function of a user interface program. 6. The control according to claim 4, wherein the control device conforms to the HAVi standard, the user interface program is a havellet, and the havellet and the characteristic information are present in an FAV, an IAV, or a BAV. machine.