JPH06245267A - Device control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily control plural multi-medium devices with different control commands. CONSTITUTION:When an abstract command in common to devices 6, 7 being controlled systems is entered from a control command input section through a part number connecting to an RS232C communication control section 5 for the devices 6, 7, a control command conversion section 3 obtains a device type corresponding to a port number from a device information management section 2, references a control command reference table based on the device type and converts the entered abstract command into a real control command and provides the converted real control command and the port number to the RS232C communication control section 5, which sends the real control command to a device corresponding to the port number thereby controlling the device 6 or 7.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a video tape recorder (hereinafter referred to as "VTR device"), a laser disc player (hereinafter referred to as "VTR device") connected by a serial line such as an RS232C line and controlled by different individual control commands. LD
Device. The "laser disk" is a registered trademark owned by Pioneer Corporation. ) And other audio / visual equipment (hereinafter referred to as “AV equipment”).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, by writing an address to a specific track on a tape for a VTR device and controlling it by a computer such as a personal computer via a serial line such as an RS232C line, it is possible to control the reproduction from a specific address. Has become.

Similarly, the LD device also realizes access to a specific frame by transmitting a command from a computer.

With the advent of AV equipment capable of computer control via a serial line such as the RS232C line,
Multimedia applications have come to be created in various fields such as education and business.

However, in reality, AV devices such as VTR devices and LD devices use different control commands for each company. Therefore, for example, if it is attempted to create a more advanced multimedia application by controlling a plurality of AV devices in which VTR devices and LD devices coexist or in which VTR devices and LD devices manufactured by a plurality of companies coexist, There is no problem if the AV device is a unified control command, but if the plurality of AV devices to be controlled are AV devices manufactured by a plurality of companies, the control commands of the respective AV devices are different, and thus the creation is difficult. There is a problem.

On the other hand, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 3-58768.
According to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4 publication, if the processing order of the step data input section is changed, the processing order of the control command and the control command sequence of the command input section can be freely changed and the change instruction is output to the execution section. Describes a VTR control command generator capable of changing the playback display.

However, the AV equipment which can be controlled by this VTR control command generation device can control only one multimedia equipment. Further, when creating a multimedia application that controls a plurality of multimedia devices, it is necessary to create a multimedia application that considers a plurality of connected multimedia devices. Moreover, when the control commands of the respective multimedia devices are different, it is necessary to re-describe the control commands of the respective multimedia devices, and the above problem cannot be solved.

[0008]

As described above, in a device control system for controlling a plurality of multimedia devices, control commands for the multimedia devices may differ between different multimedia devices or even among multimedia devices of the same type. In this case, there is a problem that it is not easy to create a multimedia application because it is necessary to create a control program for each of a plurality of multimedia devices that are connected and controlled.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to eliminate such a problem and provide a device control system capable of easily controlling a plurality of multimedia devices having different control commands.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is an equipment control system for controlling a plurality of equipments controlled by different individual control commands via a serial line, and an abstracted control common to the plurality of equipments. The correspondence information is referred to on the basis of the storage unit that stores the correspondence information indicating the correspondence between the abstract command that is a command and the individual control command, and the input abstract command and device designation information. And processing means for converting the abstract command into a corresponding individual control command and performing transmission processing to a corresponding device.

[0011]

According to the present invention, when controlling a plurality of devices controlled by different individual control commands via a serial line, an abstract command which is an abstracted control command common to the plurality of devices and the individual command The correspondence information indicating the correspondence relationship with the control command is stored in the storage means, and the processing means refers to the correspondence information based on the input abstract command and device designation information, and the abstract Since the command is converted into the corresponding individual control command and transmitted to the corresponding device, it is possible to easily control a plurality of devices having different control commands.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a multimedia device control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, the multimedia device control system includes an abstract command common to multimedia devices and an RS to which the multimedia device is connected.
Control command input unit 1 for inputting port number of 232C line, type of multimedia device currently connected to each port of RS232C line (hereinafter referred to as "device type")
A) and a port number as a pair, a device information management unit 2, a control command reference table 4 in which correspondence relationships between abstract commands and actual control commands of each multimedia device are stored, control The device type is obtained from the device information management unit 2 and the control command reference table 4 based on the abstract command and the port number input from the command input unit 1, and the abstract command is converted into an actual control command of the device type. RS232C communication control unit 5, which transmits the control command conversion unit 3 to output, the actual control command output from the control command conversion unit 3 to the specified device type, the VTR device 6 connected to the RS232C communication control unit 5, and the RS232C communication The LD device 7 connected to the controller 5 and the outputs of the VTR device 6 and the LD device Composed of the video display device 8 for displaying output data.

The control command input unit 1 may be composed of a keyboard or the like, or may be connected to another device to transfer data or programs.

Next, the control operation of this multimedia equipment control system will be described.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing a control processing procedure of the control command conversion unit 3.

In FIG. 2, first, the control command input unit 3
From the multimedia device to be controlled, that is, the port number of the RS232C communication controller 5 to which the VTR device 6 and the LD device 7 are connected, and the VT described by the abstract command.
When an abstract command sequence for controlling the R device 6 or the LD device 7 is input (step 101), the control command conversion unit 3 acquires the device type associated with the port number from the device information management unit 2 ( Step 10
2). Then, the control command conversion unit 3 acquires the pointer of the control command reference table associated with the acquired device type (103). Further, the control command conversion unit 3 refers to the command table in the control command reference table 4 corresponding to the acquired pointer, and converts the input abstract command string into an actual control command string in the command table ( Step 104). Further, the converted actual control command string and port number are output to the RS232C communication control unit 5.

As a result, the RS232C communication controller 5
Transmits the information of the actual control command sequence converted to the RS232C line corresponding to the port number, and the VTR device 6 or LD device 7 which is a multimedia device is controlled.

Next, an example of a concrete port number and abstract command will be described.

Here, the port number of the LD device 7 connected to the RS232C communication control section 5 is set to "1", and the VTR is set.
The port number of the device 6 is “2”.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the contents of the relationship information between the port numbers and device types managed by the device information management unit 2.

As shown in FIG. 3, the device information management unit 2
Has the relationship information between the port number and the device type. For example, the port number “1” corresponds to the device type “LDA company LD”, that is, the LD device 7. Also, the port number “2” corresponds to the device type “B Company VTR”, that is, the VTR device 6.

Therefore, from the control command input unit 1, "1
When "PLAY" is input, the control command conversion unit 3
Determines that "1" is the port number and "PLAY" is the abstract command. Therefore, the control command conversion unit 3
Inquires of the device information management unit 2 about the device type corresponding to the port number “1”, and the device type “A company L
Get D ".

Here, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of the control command reference table 4. The control command reference table 4 has a double structure, and is composed of a device type, a pointer corresponding to the device type, and a command table that is a conversion relationship between an abstract command corresponding to the pointer and an actual control command. .

The control command conversion unit 3 obtains the pointer P1 corresponding to the device type "Company LD" obtained from the device information management unit 2 based on the control command reference table 4, and the pointer P1 is obtained. By referring to the command table T1 which is a conversion table of the abstract command of the device type and the actual control command corresponding to, the actual control command “PL” corresponding to the abstract command “PLAY” is acquired and converted.

Here, from the control command input unit 1, "2
When "PLAY" is input, the device type "B company VTR" is acquired from the port number "2", and
A pointer P2 corresponding to this device type is obtained,
Based on the command table T2 corresponding to the pointer P2, the abstract command "PLAY" is changed to the actual control command "P1".
Is converted to.

The abstract commands in the command tables T1 and T2 are commands common to the multimedia devices as described above. For example, "PLAY" means reproduction and "STOP" means stop. Other "F
"WD" means fast-forward, "RWD" means reverse, "REC" means recording, and "SEARCH" means search.

By thus defining the abstract command in advance, it is possible to easily control a plurality of multimedia devices with one abstract command.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, when controlling a plurality of devices controlled by different individual control commands via a serial line, an abstracted control command common to the plurality of devices is provided. And the correspondence information indicating the correspondence between the individual control command and the individual control command are stored in the storage means, and the processing means performs the correspondence based on the input abstract command and device designation information. Since the related information is referred to and the abstract command is converted into the corresponding individual control command to be transmitted to the corresponding device, it is possible to easily control a plurality of devices having different control commands. Have.

In particular, since an abstract command that does not depend on different control commands of a plurality of devices is used, the user can create a device control program without being aware of the control commands of each device, and the burden on the user is reduced. Has the advantage.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a multimedia device control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a control processing procedure of a control command conversion unit 3.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the relationship information content between a port number and a device type managed by a device information management unit 2.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration contents of a control command reference table 4.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Control command input unit 2 Device information management unit 3 Control command conversion unit 4 Control command reference table 5 RS232C communication control unit 6 VTR device 7 L
D device 8 Video display device

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A device control system for controlling a plurality of devices controlled by different individual control commands via a serial line, wherein an abstract command which is an abstracted control command common to the plurality of devices, and Storage means for storing correspondence relationship information indicating correspondence relationship with individual control commands, and reference to the correspondence relationship information on the basis of input abstract command and device designation information, and individual correspondence corresponding to the abstract command A device control system, comprising: a processing unit that converts the control command to the corresponding device and performs transmission processing to the corresponding device.