JP2011228773A - Notification system - Google Patents

Abstract

Since there are many home appliances in the home, the level of noise generated from the home appliance, the frequency band of the noise, and the timing (time) at which the noise is generated vary depending on the home.
A home appliance 200 performs a reception operation at a frequency determined by using a first transmission / reception means 202 or a second transmission / reception means 203 incorporated in the home appliance 200 every predetermined time, and the home appliances around that frequency Is measured and stored in the storage unit 205. Next, the control unit 204 selects a time zone with less environmental noise generation from a plurality of measurement data stored in the storage unit 205, and selects a wireless communication implementation period between the home appliance 200 and the base station 100. .
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a notification system that distributes information by a device wireless adapter that is connected to each device and that detects a radio wave transmitted from a base station and wirelessly communicates information.

  In recent years, products shipped from manufacturers have experienced product safety problems due to secular changes, and manufacturers are also required to respond quickly to consumers and to notify and collect information on the use of such products. ing.

  At present, the only way to deal with this is to contact the dealer where the equipment was sold, mass media commercial broadcasts, recall announcement broadcasts, information from the Internet WEB site by PC owners, announcements from newspaper magazines, etc. Information is provided by announcing the recall information by the method.

  In addition, the number of devices connected to the network is increasing, and such devices are provided with a mechanism for providing information by updating programs by connecting to a dedicated server of the manufacturer. However, devices that require such network connections are generally equipped with this mechanism in devices with a large amount of information transmission such as televisions and personal computers, and are closely related to daily life such as washing machines, air conditioners, and microwave ovens. Such a mechanism is not installed in the type equipment.

  The reason for this is that such a life-oriented device has a large-scale and high-priced system, such as a contract with an Internet service provider, a personal computer or a dedicated information terminal installed in the house, and connection settings. May be troublesome. In addition, it is thought that the spread did not progress in terms of cost effectiveness.

  Furthermore, in order to connect devices to the Internet, ADSL lines and optical lines are always required as communication media, and consumers must purchase and set up devices and network routers for connection. This also means that hurdles are high for consumers who use only lifestyle-based devices.

  In view of this, a method has been proposed in which an IC tag is provided in a device instead of managing paper information, and the device is managed from the time of installation as management of electrical equipment. And what manages the maintenance, repair, maintenance, etc. of an apparatus by the information from the IC tag provided in the apparatus is also disclosed (for example, refer patent document 1).

  Another possible method is to equip home appliances in each home with a radio and discover the recall device from the base station by communicating with the radio. There are environmental noises generated from various devices in the home, and a method for preventing deterioration in communication performance due to noises has also been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 2).

JP 2008-102696 A JP 2009-019399 A

  In general, since it is considered sufficient to restrict the use of the device and notify the user of the device by the day after the announcement of the recall by the home appliance manufacturer, the radio equipment and base station installed in the home appliance In this communication, the presence of the device and the operation status are detected promptly by the occurrence of the recall, and the operation is restricted. At the same time, it is only necessary to let the user know that the home appliance is the recall target device. Therefore, the frequency of communication is at most about once a day, and the operation of the device is ensured every day. If there is an environment where the situation can be monitored, there is no problem.

  By the way, since many household appliances exist in the home and are operating according to the life patterns of the users, the equipment noise generated from the equipment varies in various ways. As a result, the level of environmental noise, the frequency band generated from the device, and the timing (time) at which the noise is generated vary depending on the home.

  Therefore, the wireless device built in the household electrical appliance measures and detects the environmental noise of at least one frequency that can communicate with the wireless device, measures the frequency and time with less environmental noise, and is the optimal frequency for communication. The communication time is determined.

  In the present invention, a wireless device incorporated in a device measures environmental noise in a band of at least one communication frequency of the wireless device at a predetermined timing, and stores the measured environmental noise in a storage unit in the local station. A communication frequency and a communication time with a high communication success rate are determined from both the stored environmental noise data and the occurrence time. At the time of communication with the base station, the device operation status, the next communication time and the communication frequency are transmitted to the base station simultaneously with the device specific information (manufacturer code, serial number, device code, country of manufacture, etc.).

  Regarding the grasping of the operation status of the recall device, immediate response such as control and monitoring of the device is not so necessary, and the location and operation status of the device are surely known. This is to accurately grasp the home where the device is located and the operation status in that home, and start using restrictions on a daily basis or notify the user that the device is recalled in the home. This is because it aims to.

  In the present invention, the wireless device built in the home appliance measures and detects environmental noise around the home appliance at predetermined time intervals within its own communicable frequency range, and creates an environmental noise map at each predetermined time. Referring to this environmental noise map, a communication time with low environmental noise and a high communication success rate is selected. Initially, data communication is started between the base station and the device-equipped radio using scheduled communication, but the radio installed in the device measures the frequency of the environmental noise and the time when the environmental noise is low every day. Thus, communication reliability is improved by selecting a communication time and a communication frequency with a high communication success rate and performing communication.

System block configuration diagram in Embodiment 1 of the present invention Operational Flowchart of Recall Radio Embedded in Home Appliance of the Present Invention

1st invention is comprised as a household appliance mounted side apparatus with the radio | wireless transmitter / receiver with a built-in apparatus with a communication frequency of at least 2 or more, a microcomputer, a time measuring means, and a memory | storage means, and the base station side is mentioned above. The base station is equipped with a radio that can transmit and receive with a radio signal having a communication frequency of at least two radios. At the beginning of home appliance installation, the radio built in the home appliance is a radio at the base station at a predetermined time, for example, in general, when a householder does not use the home appliance and there is little noise from the device at midnight. Communicates and transmits the operating status of the on-board device and device-specific information to the base station. Thereafter, a radio built in the home appliance receives a radio wave condition around the home appliance at every predetermined time, and detects device noise at the communication frequency. A device noise map using the communication frequency and time as parameters can be created by detecting device noise at at least two frequencies, not the communication frequency alone.

  Based on this map, a time with a low device noise is selected as well as a communication frequency with a low device noise, and the next communication time is promised when communicating with the base station. As a result, it is possible to perform communication by selecting a frequency and time that are less affected by device noise.

  For example, if there is one of the communication frequencies of the radio and the base station mounted on the device in the ISM band frequency band, the device is a device that uses high frequency high power in the ISM band band, such as a microwave oven. In this case, if you select another frequency as the communication frequency, or select a time when the device is not used for communication, the influence on the communication signal due to the use of the microwave oven is almost completely eliminated. Signal transmission becomes possible.

  Also, when household appliances generate noise at a specific frequency due to built-in microcomputers, high-speed memory, various drivers, etc., and the noise matches the communication frequency, By communicating avoiding the frequency at which communication is possible and the generation time of noise generated by the operation of devices operating in the vicinity, it is possible to perform highly reliable communication without being affected by device noise.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 shows an overall system configuration diagram of a notification system according to the present invention. The notification system according to the present invention includes a base station 100 and a home appliance 200.

  The base station 100 includes an antenna 101 for performing wireless communication with the home appliance 200, a first transmission / reception unit 102 and a second transmission / reception unit 103 connected to the antenna 101, and a control unit 104 for controlling the transmission / reception unit. Yes.

  The home appliance 200 also includes an antenna 201 for performing wireless communication with the base station 100, a first transmission / reception unit 202 and a second transmission / reception unit 203 connected to the antenna 201, a control unit 204 for controlling the transmission / reception unit, and a storage A means 205 and a time measuring means 206 are included.

  Here, the first transmission / reception means 102 provided in the base station 100 and the first transmission / reception means 202 provided in the home appliance 200 perform wireless communication at a predetermined frequency. Further, the second transmission / reception means 103 provided in the base station 100 and the first transmission / reception means 203 provided in the home appliance 200 are wirelessly communicated at a frequency different from the frequency used between the first transmission / reception means 102 and the first transmission / reception means 202. Shall be performed.

  When power is supplied to the home appliance 200 after the normal use position is determined by installation or installation of the home appliance 200, the first transmission / reception means 202 and the second transmission / reception means 203 receive at different frequencies at predetermined times. To investigate the reception environment around the home appliance 200.

  As a reception environment, various home appliances operate around the home appliance 200, and the third-order, fifth-order, or higher-order harmonic noise of the basic operating frequency generated from the switching element when these devices operate. May have occurred.

  In addition, since the home life pattern differs for each home, for example, if there is a home where home appliances are concentrated and used from 6 am to 10 am, the later time (from 8 am to 12 am) In some cases, similar home appliances are used in a concentrated manner. In addition, not only in the morning but also at night, some equipment may be used and environmental noise around the equipment may increase.

  However, in recent years, with the diversification of lifestyle patterns, the form of using low-priced late-night power is increasing, and the time zone in which home appliances are considered to be most non-operating is not always the midnight time zone. In addition, each family's action time varies depending on the family, but it is often the same life pattern with a fixed period such as a weekly unit. It shall be possible.

  When the noise in the communication environment is measured repeatedly at a predetermined time for a predetermined number of days, and the device noise (noise level at the communication frequency of the device) generated by each home-specific life pattern is measured, the control means 204 Time information (time) and noise data are stored in the storage means 205.

  Then, the control unit 204 calculates the average of the predetermined number of days by totaling the device noise data stored in the storage unit 205, and selects the time zone with the smallest device noise in the communication frequency band of the radio. At that time, communication is performed with the base station 100 to perform data transmission.

  The first transmission / reception means 102 and the first transmission / reception means 202, the second transmission / reception means 103 and the second transmission / reception means 203 have different frequencies. For example, one is an ISM band (2.4 GHz band) and the other is a 900 MHz band. It is preferable to do.

  Many of the radio frequency bands are allocated for communications and broadcasting and cannot be used without a license. However, many home appliances such as microwave ovens generate or use weak electromagnetic waves. . Therefore, the 2.4 GHz band, which is an ISM band, is used as a band that can be freely used by such home appliances, and the frequency of the 2.4 GHz band is affected by a microwave oven or the like. This ISM band is used in WI-FI wireless LANs in addition to microwave ovens.

  On the other hand, the frequency in the 900 MHz band is greatly affected by the harmonics of the fundamental frequency when a processor built in a personal computer or TV having a fundamental frequency of 300 MHz and 400 MHz is nearby.

  Therefore, in the time zone used at home, for example, when the microwave oven is frequently used for cooking or reheating before meals, communication is performed using the 900 MHz band, and conversely, a personal computer or TV is used. It is expected to reduce the influence from home appliances by performing communication using the ISM band during the reserved time zone. In addition, since the timing of using each home electric appliance varies in each home, the ambient noise at the communication frequency of the radio is measured and collected by a radio built in the home appliance for a predetermined period. As a result, it is possible to grasp which period of environmental noise around the home appliance is longer or smaller in time or day of the week.

  And communication success rate is improved by performing communication with the radio | wireless machine incorporated in the household appliances, and a base station by setting to a time zone with a little environmental noise, and a day of the week.

In other words, the storage means 205 measures and collects environmental noise for each day and hour at each of two or more frequencies, and statistically calculates which time zone of which day of the week has low environmental noise at each frequency. Thus, the frequency and day / time with less environmental noise are determined.

  As a result, it is possible to absorb a difference in life time that differs from home to home, and to select a time zone in which the home appliance is not used most in each home and perform highly reliable communication.

  Next, a processing flow performed by the home appliance 200 will be described with reference to FIG. First, when the control unit 204 detects that the home appliance 200 is installed and turned on, wireless communication with the base station 100 is performed via the first transmission / reception unit 202 and the second transmission / reception unit 203 at a preset time. This is performed (step S201). In this wireless communication, information stored in the storage unit 205 may be transmitted, or control information from the base station 100 may be received to control the operation of the home appliance.

  Next, the control unit 204 determines whether or not communication with the base station 100 has been performed a predetermined number of times (step S202). In step S202, if communication has been performed a predetermined number of times or more, the first transmission / reception means 202 or the second transmission / reception means 203 incorporated in the home appliance 200 performs a reception operation at a predetermined frequency at every predetermined time. The environmental noise around the home appliance is measured and stored in the storage unit 205 (step S203).

  Next, the control unit 204 selects a time zone with less environmental noise generation from a plurality of measurement data stored in the storage unit 205, and selects a wireless communication implementation period between the home appliance 200 and the base station 100. (Step S204).

  When the time zone selected in step S204 is reached, the control unit 204 performs data communication with the base station 100 via the first transmission / reception unit 202 or the second transmission / reception unit 203 (step S205).

  In the present embodiment, the case where both the base station 100 and the home appliance 200 are provided with transmission / reception means has been described as an example. However, the frequency of the internal transmitter can be changed in a programmable manner by one transmission / reception means. It is also possible to communicate at a plurality of different frequencies.

  As described above, according to the notification system according to the present invention, home appliances can perform communication by selecting a frequency and time that are less affected by device noise.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Base station 101 Antenna 102 1st transmission / reception means 103 2nd transmission / reception means 104 Control means 200 Home appliance 201 Antenna 202 1st transmission / reception means 203 2nd transmission / reception means 204 Control means 205 Storage means 206 Timekeeping means

Claims (1)

A wireless device that communicates at two or more frequencies, a time measuring means, and a storage means are provided, and at a communication frequency, noise at a communication frequency around the wireless device is measured and stored at a predetermined time interval obtained from the time measuring means. A notification system for selecting time and frequency with less noise that adversely affects communication from data stored in the means and stored in the storage means.

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