Method of accumulating appliance located states and apparatus using the same

• US 20020091812A1
• Filed: 12/18/2001
• Published: 07/11/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Ando, Nobuyoshi, Mitsuyoshi, Naoki, Kawano, Katsumi, Kobayashi, Nobuhisa
• Granted Patent: US 7,222,153 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2213/0038 System on Chip
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2809 indicating that an appliance service is present in a home automation network monitoring functionality H04L43/0817; discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services, H04L67/51

Abstract

An appliance located states accumulating method includes the steps of, receiving state information indicating operating state changes of the appliances constituted of a distributed computer through a network, calculating an occurrence time difference from the state changes occurred in the appliances in accordance with occurrence time information indicative of occurrence times of the state changes included in the state information, and calculating the positional relation of the positions, where the appliances occur the state changes, from the calculated occurrence time difference, thereby accumulating the positional relation of the installed appliances.

Claims

1. An appliance located states accumulating method of accumulating data of a positional relation of positions where a plurality of appliances mutually connected through a network are located, comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving state information indicative of operating state changes of the appliances constituted of a distributed computer through said network;

(b) calculating an occurrence time difference from the state changes occurred in the appliances in accordance with occurrence time information indicative of occurrence times of the state changes included in the state information; and

(c) calculating the positional relation of the positions, where the appliances occur the state changes, from the calculated occurrence time difference.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein said step (c) calculates the positional relation in accordance with the occurrence time difference of the state changes occurred in the two appliances and relationship weight information indicative of a distance between the two appliances with both previously stored.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein said relationship weight information is a value calculated by a predetermined expression in accordance with two elements:

number of times of occurring the state changes; and

the occurrence time difference of the state changes occurred in the two appliances.

4. An apparatus constituted of a plurality of appliances mutually connected through a network and for accumulating data of a positional relation of positions where the appliances are located, comprising:

a reception means receiving state information indicating operating state changes of the appliances constituted of a distributed computer through said network;

calculation means calculating an occurrence time difference from the state changes occurred in the appliances in accordance with occurrence time information indicative of occurrence times of the state changes included in the state information; and

calculation means calculating the positional relation of the positions, where the appliances occur the state changes, from the calculated occurrence time difference.

5. An apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said calculation means calculates the positional relation in accordance with the occurrence time difference of the state changes occurred in the two appliances and relationship weight information indicative of a distance between the two appliances with both previously stored.

6. An apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising storing means for storing the occurrence time difference of the state changes occurred in the two appliances and the relationship weight information indicative of the distance between the two appliances.

7. An apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the relationship weight information is a value calculated by a predetermined expression in accordance with two elements:

number of times of occurring the state changes; and

the occurrence time difference of the state changes occurred in the two appliances.