TWI698215B - Program, and home appliance system with program and operation terminal and home appliance with program - Google Patents

Abstract

[Question] Provide a home appliance that manages operation rights not limited to servers. [Solution] A program that causes the operation terminal to display the operation screen used to send commands to home appliances. The operation screen has operation buttons corresponding to the commands, and can switch the operation buttons to a depressible state and an unavailable state. In the pressed state, the color of the operation button in this program is different between the depressible state and the non-depressable state. When the operation button is in the non-depressable state, it will be ordered according to the reason why it cannot be pressed. The operation terminal executes at least 2 types of cause notification states.

Description

Programs, and home appliances systems with programming and programming operation terminals and home appliances

The present invention relates to a program, and a household electrical appliance system with a program and an operating terminal and household electrical appliances.

In recent years, household appliances such as vacuum cleaners, washing machines, refrigerators, and air conditioners have become connectable to wide-area networks such as the Internet, and information or operations of household appliances can be obtained from outside the house. When operating a home appliance from an operation terminal such as a smart phone, it is conceivable that a certain type of operation is made unacceptable depending on the state of the home appliance and the like.

Patent Document 1 reduces the visibility of an invalid GUI whose operation instruction is invalid. [Prior Art Document] [Patent Document]

[Patent Document 1] JP 2016-42654 A

[The problem to be solved by the invention]

In Patent Document 1, it is impossible to easily notify the user of the reason why the GUI becomes invalid. [Technical means to solve the problem]

The present invention, created in view of the above circumstances, is a program, 　　 is to make the operation terminal display an operation screen used for sending commands to home appliances, 　　 the operation screen has operation buttons corresponding to the commands, and 　　 can set the aforementioned operation buttons Switch to the depressible state and the depressible state. This program is characterized by 　　 in the aforementioned depressible state and the aforementioned non-depressible state, the color of the aforementioned operation button is different, 　　 when the aforementioned operation button is In the case of a state that cannot be pressed, in response to the reason why the button cannot be pressed, the operation terminal is caused to perform at least two types of cause notification modes.

Hereinafter, the embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. [Example 1]

Fig. 1 is a model diagram of the home appliance system of the embodiment. The home appliance system consists of a wide area network 2, operation terminals 3, 5, a wireless LAN router 4, and home appliances 6.

[Operation terminals 3, 5] "Operation terminals 3, 5, for example, are owned by users of household electrical appliances 6, respectively, preferably portable terminals. The operation terminals 3 and 5 are devices that can communicate with the household electrical appliances 6 in order to utilize the wide area network protocol and the wireless communication protocol. In the case of communication using the wireless communication protocol, the wireless LAN router 4 can communicate with the home appliance 6.

In this embodiment, among the operation terminals 3 and 5, the terminal not located in the wireless communication circle with the wireless LAN router 4 is called the first operation terminal 3, and the terminal located in the wireless communication circle is called the second operation terminal 5. . In addition, for simplicity, the area within the communication circle with the wireless LAN router 4 is called "inside the house", and the area outside the communication circle is called "outside the house".

[Wireless LAN router 4] 　　 Wireless LAN router 4, in order to use the wide area network protocol and wireless communication protocol, the information sent to the wireless LAN router 4 is forwarded to other devices (operating terminals 3, 5, home appliances 6) ) Of the machine.

[Household appliances 6] 　　Household appliances 6 are devices that can communicate with the operation terminals 3 and 5 through communication with the wireless LAN router 4 using the wireless communication protocol. As the household electrical appliance 6, for example, a vacuum cleaner, a washing machine, a refrigerator, an air conditioner, etc. can be exemplified, but there is no particular limitation.

The household electrical appliance 6 can accept start, drive, and drive end, as well as their reservations, through the operation of switches or buttons provided in the household electrical appliance 6, or through operations from the operating terminals 3, 5 through communication It is a request (command) to adjust the operation during driving.

The household electrical appliance 6 includes a transmission/reception unit 61, a determination unit 63 that determines whether each button of an operation screen described later can be pressed, and a processing unit 62 that interprets the request and executes processing.

The transceiver 61 receives requests (commands) from the operation terminals 3 and 5 or information specific to the operation terminals 3 and 5 (operation terminal information), and responds with the result of the determination by the determination unit 63 or the result of the processing by the processing unit 62 , Sent to the operation terminal 3, 5.

The processing unit 62 interprets the request, and causes the household electrical appliance 6 to perform processing corresponding to the request. For example, when the requirement is to drive the home appliance 6, the home appliance 6 is driven according to this. In addition, it is possible to comply with various requirements such as shooting by the shooting department installed in the household electrical appliance 6 and returning of shooting data.

The transmitting and receiving unit 61 is, for example, a wireless communication board, and the determining unit 63 and the processing unit 62 can be configured by, for example, a processor.

[Command from operation terminal 3, 5] 　　 In the operation terminal 3, 5, a program (application program) that can perform commands to the home appliance 6 is installed. The application program is configured to send the command using the wide area network protocol when it wants to order the home appliance 6 from outside the house, and it is configured to send the command through the wireless LAN router 4 through the wireless communication protocol when it wants to order from the house command. Of course, in the case of a house, it can also be switched to communication using the wide area network protocol by the user's choice.

FIG. 2 is an operation screen displayed by a program installed in the operation terminal 5 in the house of this embodiment, and is a screen when the household electrical appliance 6 is stopped. The operation screen displays buttons that can send commands in response to pressing. The judging unit 63 of this embodiment can obtain the status of the household electrical appliance 6 (for example, the execution status of a command or the position of the household electrical appliance 6), or the position of the operating terminal 3, 5 (for example, it can determine the in-house Or outside the house), and determine whether each operation button can be pressed/unpressed for the operation terminal 3, 5, and change the display of the operation screen.　　 As an example of a command, for example, a start reservation, a start command, an end reservation, an end command, automatic (autonomous) drive command, manual drive command, reservation status and other information of the home appliance 6 can be viewed. Among them, for example, manual drive commands (such as commands to advance or jump from the current position), because the commander has a high degree of freedom, so from a safety point of view, it can be designed to be only a command from the house ( In-house mode) is feasible. In addition, for example, it is also possible to design that only information viewing is possible from both inside and outside the house, and requests related to the operation of the home appliance 6 are only accepted from inside the house. In this way, it is designed to be executed only in the indoor mode depending on the type of the command, thereby reducing the risk of someone other than the user of the household electrical appliance 6 improperly asking him to execute the command. This setting may be configured to be changed when the operation terminals 3 and 5 are located in the house, or may be changed by operating a switch or the like provided in the household electrical appliance 6.

[Command button] 　　 Various buttons are displayed on the operation screen described later. Explain these buttons first. The 　　 start/stop button 81 is displayed to be pressable regardless of whether the operation terminals 3 and 5 are located inside or outside the house. If the start/stop button 81 is pressed, an instruction to make the self-propelled electric vacuum cleaner drive (clean) autonomously will be sent. When this command reaches the transmitting and receiving unit 61, the processing unit 62 starts the content of the command, that is, the cleaning done by the autonomous driving. Even if another button is pressed, the flow from the reception of the command from the transmitting and receiving unit 61 to the execution of the processing unit 62 is the same. The start/stop button 81 will switch to the display of "stop" during the operation of the self-propelled electric vacuum cleaner. By pressing the start/stop button 81 again, the operation of the self-propelled electric vacuum cleaner will stop. In addition, while the command made by the home button 82 or the fixed-point button 85 is being executed, the display will be switched to "stop". If the start/stop button 81 is pressed during this period, the command will be cancelled and stopped.

The home button 82 is displayed to be depressible regardless of whether the operation terminals 3 and 5 are located inside or outside the house. If the home button 82 is pressed, the self-propelled electric vacuum cleaner starts to return to a place previously set as home, such as a charging station, for autonomous walking. In this embodiment, the signal from the charging station is explored and the signal is connected to the charging station at the same time. In addition, it can also be configured to register a plurality of places that can be set as homes in advance, and select which place to set as homes when sending a command from the home button. The home button 82 becomes inoperable when the self-propelled electric vacuum cleaner is connected to the charging station. Whether you are at home can be displayed on the status display part 121 described later.

The movement button 83 is displayed as depressible in the second operation terminal 5 system located in the house, and is displayed as depressible in the first operation terminal 3 system located outside the house. Among the movement buttons 83, if the forward button 831 is pressed, the self-propelled electric vacuum cleaner starts to move forward, if the right rotation button 832 is pressed, it starts to rotate right, if the slightly back button 833 is pressed, it starts to move backward, and if the left rotation button is pressed 834 began to rotate left. The movement button 83 is ideally operated in a state where the user can confirm the position or state of the self-propelled electric vacuum cleaner, so it is designed to be operable only in the house (the second operation terminal 5). The slightly retract button 833 is a function of returning to the previous position (for example, 1 unit of the main body) for the self-propelled electric vacuum cleaner in operation. Even in the house, it can only be operated during the operation of the self-propelled electric vacuum cleaner.

The search button 84 is displayed as depressible in the second operation terminal 5 system located in the house, and displayed as not depressible in the first operation terminal 3 system located outside the house. If the search button 84 is pressed, the self-propelled electric vacuum cleaner emits sound or light.

[Operation screen] The various buttons displayed on the 　　 operation screen can be designed as virtual buttons such as touch panels displayed on the operation terminals 3 and 5. By touching these imaginary buttons, the operation terminals 3, 5, etc. are processed to send the functions or commands corresponding to the buttons to the household electrical appliances 6, etc., which are expressed as "pressing" buttons for simplicity. In this embodiment, the buttons in the depressible state, such as the home button 82 in FIG. 2, are displayed in a darker color. In addition, the buttons in the undepressable state are displayed in a darker color, such as the slightly back button 833 in FIG. 2 The example is generally displayed in a lighter color. That is, the depressible state or the unavailable state is displayed in a visually distinguishable state. Hereinafter, a well-known self-propelled electric vacuum cleaner as an example of the household electrical appliance 6 is set.

On the operation screen, a start/stop button 81, a home button 82, a move button 83 composed of a forward button 831, a right rotation button 832, a slight back button 833, and a left rotation button 834 are displayed, and a search button 84, Point button 85. The actions or functions that are sent by the pressing of the buttons to be executed by the household electrical appliance 6 will be described later, but the actions or functions realized by a part of the button may be when the user is located near the household electrical appliance 6 It is better to be able to perceive that the action or function is in progress (action or function realized by the first type of command).

It is better to perform in a state where you can perceive actions or functions, for example, it is better to perform in an environment where you can perceive household electrical appliances 6 (for example, manual operation is better in an environment where you can see, when you make a sound It is better to be located in the same house, etc. when it occurs. When the action or function is exerted, the household electrical appliance 6 is in a specific position or condition.

In addition, as other actions or functions (that is, actions or functions that are realized by the second type of instructions), for example, the home appliance 6 can be moved around autonomously, and the home appliance can be moved around autonomously in order to explore the rules. The person at the destination (for example, a charging station) designates such a self-disciplined driving mode or schedule to output the state of the household electrical appliance 6 in a manner that can be output by the operation terminal 3, 5.

As the buttons corresponding to the action or function of the first type of command in this embodiment, move button 83, search button 84, and fixed-point button 85 can be mentioned, which are displayed as unavailable from the first operation terminal 3 located outside the house. Press. At this time, there will be no new objects (colors, etc.) around the buttons that are displayed as unpressible. That is to say, in this embodiment, when a certain button becomes unavailable due to the position of the operating terminal (agreement), no special display will be made (the first reason notification mode).　　 In addition, buttons corresponding to actions or functions that do not require perceptual (the second type) are displayed as pushable regardless of whether they are inside or outside the house.

Fig. 3(a) is the operation screen displayed by the program installed in the operation terminal 5 in the house of the present embodiment, and shows the function for notifying the user of the location of the home appliance 6 for the home appliance 6 The picture of the situation on the way. Although the self-propelled electric vacuum cleaner can be driven autonomously to clean, it may be caught by gaps in furniture and become immobile during driving. In this case, there is a risk that the user cannot find where the self-propelled electric vacuum cleaner is. However, by pressing the search button 84, the user located in the house can easily find where the self-propelled electric vacuum cleaner is.

If the search button 84 of this embodiment is pressed, the self-propelled electric vacuum cleaner will continue to emit sound from the mounted speaker. The sounding time can be a predetermined length or can be set by the user. While the sound is being emitted by the search button 84, the search button 84 corresponding to the command being executed will be designed not to be pressed, and for example, the periphery of the search button 84 will be lit with the first color C1 (for example, green) or Flashing (the second reason notification status).

FIG. 3(b) is an operation screen displayed by the program installed in the operation terminal 5 in the house of the present embodiment, which is on the way of displaying the function of cleaning the surroundings of the household electrical appliances 6 for the household electrical appliances 6 Picture of the situation. The fixed-point button 85 is displayed as depressible in the second operation terminal 5 system located in the house, and displayed as not depressible in the first operation terminal 3 system located outside the house. If the fixed-point button 85 is pressed, the self-propelled electric vacuum cleaner will perform a concentrated cleaning action near the current position. Before the execution of this concentrated cleaning action is completed, the fixed-point button 85 corresponding to the command being executed will become unavailable, and for example, the periphery of the fixed-point button 85 will light up or flash in the first color C1 (the second reason is reported State).

In the situation of FIG. 3(a), none of the home button 82, the move button 83, and the pointing button 85 is affected by the command (seeking button 84) being executed. In other words, the home button 82, the move button 83, and the fixed-point button 85, even if they are pressed while the command made by the find button 84 is being executed, will still be the same as the situation where the command made by the find button 84 is not executed. Execute the same command. Such a button will not be specially displayed in this embodiment (the first influence notification aspect).

In the situation of FIG. 3(b), the movable button 83 that should be depressible is designed to be depressible due to the execution of the command of the fixed-point button 85. That is, the move button 83 cannot be pressed when the command made by the fixed-point button 85 is being executed (command cannot be sent), and it can be pressed when the command made by the fixed-point button 85 is not being executed. In this way, the moving button will be affected by the fact that it can be pressed and cannot be pressed due to the fixed-point button 85. Like this, in this embodiment, whether the pressing of a certain button will be affected by other buttons is indicated by, for example, lighting or blinking of the second color C2 on the periphery (the second influence notification state ). The second color C2 may be the same color as the first color C1 or a different color.

Fig. 3(c) is the operation screen displayed by the program installed in the operation terminal 5 in the house of the present embodiment, which is on the way of displaying the function of self-disciplined drive for the household electrical appliance 6 toward a specific location The picture under the circumstances. By pressing the home button 82 while the self-propelled electric vacuum cleaner is, for example, traveling autonomously to return to the charging station, the home button 82 becomes unpressible and the periphery of the home button 82 will light up in the first color C1 or Flashing (the first reason notification status).

In the situation of Figure 3(c), although the self-propelled electric vacuum cleaner of this embodiment will accept the command made by the move button 83, once the command is over, it will resume to execute the command made by the home button 82 ( Towards a specific place again). In other words, the move button 83 will temporarily make it do an action that takes precedence over the command of the home button 82 when the command made by the home button 82 is being executed. Like this, in this embodiment, it is a button that sends a command that can be given priority to a command made by a certain button. For example, the periphery is illuminated or flashed by the third color C3 (third color C3). Affect the notification status). The third color C3 may be the same as or different from the first color C1 or the second color C2. If the color is the same, it can be designed into a simple user interface, which can give the user a refreshing impression. If it is a different color (at least a plurality of colors), rich information can be given to the user.

[Command Processing of Operation Terminal and Home Appliances 6] 　　 Fig. 4 is a schematic block diagram of information exchanges between the operation terminal and home appliances in this embodiment. The wireless LAN router 4 illustrated in FIG. 1 is originally arranged between the communication unit 105 and the transceiver unit 61, but it is omitted here.

The operation terminals 3 and 5 have: a touch sensor unit 101 that recognizes the pressed button in the operation screen, an operation judgment unit 102 that recognizes the command corresponding to the pressed button, and transmits the recognized command To the communication unit 105 that receives the status of the household electrical appliance 6 or the household electrical appliance 6, and based on the received status of the household electrical appliance 6, it manages the display status management of whether each button can be pressed or not, the cause notification, or the execution or non-execution of the impact notification as described above. Section 103, a display control section 104 that controls the display of the operation screen in response to the management of the display state management section 103. The operation screen is displayed on the screen of the touch panel etc. which the operation terminal 3, 5 has.

The household electrical appliance 6 has: a judgment unit 63 for judging the status of the execution of its own command or the command from the operation terminal 3, 5, a processing unit 62 for causing the household electrical appliance 6 to execute the command obtained through the judgment unit 63, and the household electrical appliance 6 The state of the household electrical appliance 6 is sent to the transmitting and receiving unit 61 of the operation terminal 3, 5 by executing the command or the like. The determining unit 63 can distinguish which type of command is being executed by the household electrical appliance 6 and whether the command is being executed or not. In addition, the determination unit 63 can determine the protocol used by the operation terminals 3 and 5. Therefore, as described above, the type of command executed by the household electrical appliance 6, whether the command is being executed or not, and the position of the operation terminal 3, 5 are identified, and the setting or cause notification state of whether to press the operation button is determined based on them. How to set the status of impact notification.

2‧‧‧Wide area network 3‧‧‧First operation terminal 4‧‧‧Wireless LAN router 5‧‧‧Second operation terminal 6‧‧‧Home appliances (self-propelled electric vacuum cleaner) 61‧‧‧Transceiver Department 62‧‧‧Processing part 63‧‧‧Judging part

[Figure 1] A model diagram of the home appliance system of Example 1.　　 [FIG. 2] The operation screen displayed by the program installed in the operation terminal in the house of the first embodiment is the screen when the home appliance is stopped. [Figure 3(a)] The operation screen displayed by the program installed in the operation terminal in the house of the first embodiment is on the way of displaying the function for notifying the user of the location of the home appliance for the home appliance The picture under the circumstances. [Fig. 3(b)] The operation screen displayed by the program installed in the operation terminal in the house of the first embodiment is for the case where the home appliance is on the way of displaying the function for intensive cleaning around the home appliance The picture. [Fig. 3(c)] The operation screen displayed by the program installed in the operation terminal in the house of the first embodiment is on the way of displaying the function of self-discipline driving to a specific place for home appliances. Picture of the situation.　　 [Fig. 4] A schematic block diagram of the information exchange between the operation terminal and household electrical appliances in the first embodiment.

81‧‧‧Start/Stop button

82‧‧‧Home button

83‧‧‧Move button

84‧‧‧Find button

85‧‧‧Spot button

C1‧‧‧The first color

Claims (6)

A program that causes the operation terminal to display the operation screen used to send commands to home appliances. 　　 The operation screen has operation buttons corresponding to the commands, and 　　 can switch the aforementioned operation buttons to a depressible state and an unpressible state The feature of this program is that 　　 in the aforementioned depressible state and the aforementioned non-depressible state, the color of the aforementioned operation button is different, 　　 when the aforementioned operation button is in the non-depressible state, you should press The aforementioned operating terminal executes at least two types of cause notification modes for the reasons that cannot be followed. For example, the program described in item 1 of the scope of patent application, in which, as the aforementioned operation button, there is an operation button that will affect the command executed by the aforementioned home appliance in response to the pressing of a certain operation button, 　　 in response to the aforementioned influence, Make the aforementioned operation terminal execute the aforementioned cause notification mode and at least two types of influence notification mode. For example, the program described in item 2 of the scope of patent application, in which, as the aforementioned impact notification status, it is executed: the second impact notification status, which informs that the content of the order is changing; and the third impact notification status In this way, it will be notified of the fact that it has been executed prior to the current command being executed by the aforementioned household electrical appliances. Such as the program described in any one of items 1 to 3 of the scope of patent application, in which each type of the aforementioned notification aspect is notified by displaying the same color. Such as the program described in any one of items 1 to 3 of the scope of patent application, wherein each type of the aforementioned notification aspect is notified by displaying a different color. A household electrical appliance system having: a program as described in any one of items 1 to 5 in the scope of the patent application; and an operating terminal with the program installed; and a household electrical appliance communicating with the operating terminal.

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