System and method for controlling home appliances

• US 20030018776A1
• Filed: 07/12/2002
• Published: 01/23/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Yoon, Sang Chul, Jeon, Duck Goo
• Granted Patent: US 7,256,704 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A system and method for controlling a plurality of home appliances provided in a building, wherein home appliance built-in communication modules are each adapted to convert information in an Ethernet standard format into that of a home appliance standard format and adapters are provided to connect the home appliance built-in communication modules to a phoneline network alliance (PNA) provided in the building to transmit and receive information therebetween. The home appliances can be controlled over a network using an existing telephone line. The adapters allow interconnection of the plurality of home appliances with no distance limitations.

Claims

1. A home appliance control system comprising:

at least one home appliance provided in a building and controlled in response to control information transmitted over the Internet, said home appliance generating information about its controlled status and transmitting the generated status information over the Internet;

a phoneline network alliance provided in the building;

an external Internet network provided outside of the building;

phoneline network alliance connection means for connecting said home appliance to said phoneline network alliance such that said home appliance transmits and receives said status information and control information via said phoneline network alliance; and

networking means for connecting said phoneline network alliance connection means to said external Internet network and controlling the connection such that said phoneline network alliance is connected to said external Internet network.

2. The home appliance control system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said phoneline network alliance connection means includes:

a computing device for assigning a private Internet protocol (IP) address to said home appliance;

a first adapter for converting formats of information transmitted and received between said computing device and said phoneline network alliance into an Ethernet standard format and a standard format of said phoneline network alliance, respectively;

a second adapter for converting formats of information transmitted and received between said home appliance and said phoneline network alliance into the Ethernet standard format and the phoneline network alliance standard format, respectively; and

a home appliance built-in communication module for storing said private IP address assigned by said computing device, connecting said second adapter to said home appliance and converting data of said Ethernet standard format from said second adapter into that of a standard format of said home appliance.

3. The home appliance control system as set forth in claim 2, wherein said second adapter is connected to said home appliance built-in communication module to connect said home appliance to said phoneline network alliance so as to enable transmission and reception of data of said Ethernet standard format between said home appliance and said phoneline network alliance.

4. The home appliance control system as set forth in claim 2, wherein said first adapter is configured to connect said computing device to said networking means and said phoneline network alliance, respectively, and to convert formats of data transmitted and received between said computing device and said networking means into said Ethernet standard format, a format of data transmitted from said computing device to said phoneline network alliance into said phoneline network alliance standard format, and a format of data transmitted from said phoneline network alliance to said computing device into said Ethernet standard format, respectively.

5. The home appliance control system as set forth in claim 2, wherein said computing device has a public IP address such that it is accessible by said external Internet network.

6. The home appliance control system as set forth in claim 2, wherein said home appliance built-in communication module is configured to receive said control information through said second adapter, to convert a format of the received control information into said home appliance standard format only when it contains information regarding the same private IP address as that stored therein, and transfer the resulting control information to said home appliance.

7. The home appliance control system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said networking means includes:

a gateway acting as an ingress for connecting said external Internet network to said phoneline network alliance; and

a hub for transferring data from said gateway to said phoneline network alliance connection means.

8. A method for controlling at least one home appliance provided in a building, comprising:

converting a format of information sent from an external Internet network provided outside of the building into a standard format of a phoneline network alliance provided in the building;

transmitting said information converted into the standard format of said phoneline network alliance over said phoneline network alliance;

converting the information transmitted over said phoneline network alliance into an Ethernet standard format; and

controlling said home appliance according to said information converted into the Ethernet standard format.

9. The method as set forth in claim 8, further comprising:

converting the phoneline network alliance standard format into an Ethernet standard format, after converting the Ethernet standard format of said information converted into a standard format of said home appliance such that said converted information is processable by said home appliance.

10. The method as set forth in claim 8, further comprising:

assigning a private Internet protocol (IP) address to said home appliance; and

storing the assigned private IP address in said home appliance;

whereby said information converted from the phoneline network alliance standard into an Ethernet standard format contains information regarding the same private IP address as that stored in said home appliance.

11. A home appliance control system comprising:

at least one home appliance provided in a building and controlled in response to control information transmitted over the Internet, said home appliance generating information about its controlled status and transmitting the generated status information over the Internet;

a phoneline network alliance provided in the building;

an external Internet network provided outside of the building;

phoneline network alliance connection equipment that connects said home appliance to said phoneline network alliance such that said home appliance transmits and receives said status information and control information via said phoneline network alliance; and

networking equipment that connects said phoneline network alliance connection equipment to said external Internet network and controls the connection such that said phoneline network alliance is connected to said external Internet network.

12. The home appliance control system as set forth in claim 11, wherein said phoneline network alliance connection equipment includes:

a computing device that assigns a private Internet protocol (IP) address to said home appliance;

a first adapter configured to convert the format of information transmitted from said computing device to said phoneline network alliance into an Ethernet standard and to convert the format of information received by said computing device from said phoneline network alliance into a standard format of said phoneline network alliance;

a second adapter configured to convert the format of information transmitted from said home appliance to said phoneline network alliance into the Ethernet standard and to convert information received by said home appliance from said phoneline network alliance into the phoneline network alliance standard format; and

a home appliance built-in communication module configure to store said private IP address assigned by said computing device, to connect said second adapter to said home appliance, and to convert data of said Ethernet standard format from said second adapter into that of a standard format of said home appliance.

13. The home appliance control system as set forth in claim 12, wherein said second adapter is connected to said home appliance built-in communication module and connects said home appliance to said phoneline network alliance so as to enable transmission and reception of data in said Ethernet standard format between said home appliance and said phoneline network alliance.

14. The home appliance control system as set forth in claim 12, wherein said first adapter connects said computing device to said networking equipment and said phoneline network alliance and converts the format of data transmitted between said computing device and said networking equipment into said Ethernet standard format, converts the format of data transmitted from said computing device to said phoneline network alliance into said phoneline network alliance standard format, and converts the format of data transmitted from said phoneline network alliance to said computing device into said Ethernet standard format, respectively.

15. The home appliance control system as set forth in claim 12, wherein said computing device has a public IP address such that it is accessible by said external Internet network.

16. The home appliance control system as set forth in claim 12, wherein said home appliance built-in communication module is configured to receive said control information through said second adapter, to convert the format of the received control information into said home appliance standard format only when it contains information regarding the same private IP address as that stored therein, and to transfer the resulting control information to said home appliance.

17. The home appliance control system as set forth in claim 11, wherein said networking including includes:

a gateway configured to act as an ingress for connecting said external Internet network to said phoneline network alliance; and

a hub configured to transfer data from said gateway to said phoneline network alliance connection equipment.

19. The method as set forth in claim 18, further comprising:

converting the phoneline network alliance standard format into an Ethernet standard format, after converting the Ethernet standard format of said information converted into a standard format of said home appliance such that said converted information is processable by said home appliance.

20. The method as set forth in claim 18, further comprising:

assigning a private Internet protocol (IP) address to said home appliance; and

storing the assigned private IP address in said home appliance;

whereby said information converted from the phoneline network alliance standard into an Ethernet standard format contains information regarding the same private IP address as that stored in said home appliance.

18. A method comprising:

providing at least one home appliance and a phoneline network alliance in a building;

converting a format of information sent from an external Internet network provided outside of the building into a standard format of the phoneline network alliance;

transmitting said information converted into the standard format of said phoneline network alliance over said phoneline network alliance;

converting the information transmitted over said phoneline network alliance into an Ethernet standard format; and

controlling said home appliance according to said information converted into the Ethernet standard format.