Appliance control system and method using mobile communications terminal, and home gateway
First Claim
1. An appliance control system in which an arbitrary electrical home appliance in a predetermined local area can be remotely controlled using a mobile communications terminal, the system comprising:
- a database storing at least a piece of appliance control information needed to define a signal for directly controlling any one of various types of electrical home appliances;
at least one electrical home appliance operable to retain, as storage location information, information about access to the database that stores the own appliance control information of the electrical home appliance;
a home gateway connecting with the electrical home appliance via a local area network, and operable to collectively control the storage location information retained by the electrical home appliance connected thereto;
a mobile communications terminal operable to remotely control the electrical home appliance based on the appliance control information stored in the database using the storage location information collectively controlled by the home gateway; and
a network connecting among the database, the home gateway, and the mobile communications terminal.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Provided is an appliance control system and method for remotely controlling various types of electrical home appliances using a mobile communications terminal, and a home gateway. To operate the electrical home appliances which vary in manufacturer and type, a database 71 in a database center 7 stores each corresponding appliance control program. In a household area 3, the electrical home appliance(s) 4 are connected to a home gateway 6 via a household network 5. The home gateway 6 collectively controls information about the storage locations of the appliance control programs on the database 71 together with various types of information about the electrical home appliances 4. A mobile communications terminal 2 refers to the home gateway 6 so as to acquire from the database 71 only the appliance control program of any electrical home appliance 4 which a user desires to operate. Through interpretation and execution of thus acquired appliance control program, any desired operation is instructed to the electrical home appliance 4.
68 Citations
20 Claims
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1. An appliance control system in which an arbitrary electrical home appliance in a predetermined local area can be remotely controlled using a mobile communications terminal, the system comprising:
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a database storing at least a piece of appliance control information needed to define a signal for directly controlling any one of various types of electrical home appliances;
at least one electrical home appliance operable to retain, as storage location information, information about access to the database that stores the own appliance control information of the electrical home appliance;
a home gateway connecting with the electrical home appliance via a local area network, and operable to collectively control the storage location information retained by the electrical home appliance connected thereto;
a mobile communications terminal operable to remotely control the electrical home appliance based on the appliance control information stored in the database using the storage location information collectively controlled by the home gateway; and
a network connecting among the database, the home gateway, and the mobile communications terminal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. An appliance control method for remotely controlling an arbitrary electrical home appliance in a predetermined local area using a mobile communications terminal in a system wherein a network connects a database storing at least a piece of appliance control information needed to define a signal for directly controlling any one of various types of electrical home appliances;
- a home gateway connecting with at least one of the electrical home appliances operable to retain, as storage location information, information about access to the database that stores the own appliance control information of the electrical home appliance via a local area network; and
the mobile communications terminal, whereinthe home gateway, after connecting with the electrical home appliance via the local network, acquires and manages the storage location information retained by the electrical home appliance connected thereto, and using the storage location information managed by the home gateway, the mobile communications terminal remotely controls the electrical home appliance based on the appliance control information stored in the database. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
- a home gateway connecting with at least one of the electrical home appliances operable to retain, as storage location information, information about access to the database that stores the own appliance control information of the electrical home appliance via a local area network; and
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15. A home gateway connecting, via a network, a database for storing at least a piece of appliance control information needed to define a signal for directly controlling any one of various types of the electrical home appliances;
- and a mobile communications terminal operable to remotely control the electrical home appliance based on the appliance control information stored in the database, wherein
at least one of the electrical home appliances operable to retain, as storage location information, information about access to the database that stores the own appliance control information of the electrical home appliance is connected via a local area network, and the storage location information retained by the connected electrical home appliance is acquired and managed. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
- and a mobile communications terminal operable to remotely control the electrical home appliance based on the appliance control information stored in the database, wherein
Specification