Service system for electric home appliances and method thereof

• US 20030179746A1
• Filed: 02/27/2003
• Published: 09/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/04/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Lee, Sang Su, Moon, Gyeong Ho
• Application Number:
  US10/362,741
• Publication Number:
  US 20030179746A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 34/05 for wireless communication between components, e.g. for remote monitoring or control
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 34/32 characterised by graphical features, e.g. touchscreens

Abstract

Disclosed is an on-line system and service method thereof using an on-line linked Internet washer as a medium so as to enable a communication between a client at a remote place and the other client at home using various home appliances installed in each home. The present invention includes a first step of requesting a selection of a target home appliance for message transmission and a second step of transmitting a transmission message to the selected target home appliance.

Claims

1. A service system comprising:

a home appliance having a network interface for being connected on-line and message reporting means for reporting messages received from one or more registered remote clients through the network interface;

a service server network connected to the network interface so as to transmit a message transmitted from each registered remote client to the home appliance; and

a database server communicating with the service server network and having a database, in which registration information of each registered remote client for the home appliances is stored.

2. The service system of claim 1, wherein the message reporting means of the home appliance comprises at least one of a display unit and a speaker unit outputting sound.

3. The service system of claim 1, wherein the network interface of the home appliance is a data communication network interface card(NIC) for wire/wireless data communication.

4. The service system of claim 1, wherein the network interface of the home appliance is a RS-232C interface.

5. The service system of claim 1, wherein the service server network includes a remote control server being able to control the home appliance and a short message service server transferring a message transmitted from each registered remote client to the home appliance through Internet and mobile communication networks.

6. The service system of claim 1, wherein the service server network is a short message service server transferring a message transmitted from each registered remote client to the home appliance through Internet and mobile communication networks.

7. The service system of claim 1, wherein the home appliance is built to interoperate with a home automation system.

8. A service method of transmitting a message in a service system, comprising:

a first step of requesting a selection of a target home appliance for a message transmission; and

a second step of transmitting a transmission message to the selected target home appliance.

9. The service method of claim 8, further comprising a step of requesting an input of the transmission message before performing the first step.

10. The service method of claim 8, further comprising a step of requesting an input of the transmission message if the selection of the target home appliance is completed after performing the first step.

11. The service method of claim 9 or claim 10, wherein the input of the transmission message is requested in a manner that a specific screen for the input of the message is displayed on a terminal of a corresponding client.

12. The service method of claim 9 or claim 10, further comprising a step of requesting a selection of a display method of the corresponding message when the input of the transmission message is completed.

13. The service method of claim 12, wherein the selection of the display method is a selection for a display direction of characters constructing the message.

14. The service method of claim 8, further comprising a step of having the home appliance report a message reception to a home client by message reporting means.

15. The service method of claim 14, wherein message reception particulars are reported to the home client in a manner that a buzzer sound is outputted by controlling a sound output unit.

16. The service method of claim 8, the first step comprising the steps of:

requesting to input an identification of a message transmitter;

performing a control authentication for the inputted identification;

extracting particulars of home appliances owned by the control-authenticated identification by linking to a database server and displaying the extracted particulars; and

when particulars selection for one of home appliances in the displayed particulars is made, displaying selection particulars for performing a message transmission service to the corresponding home appliance together with remote control particulars of the corresponding home appliance.

17. The service method of claim 16, the step of performing the control authentication for the inputted identification, comprising the steps of:

having an authentication password for the corresponding identification be inputted thereto; and

checking whether the inputted authentication password coincides with a corresponding authentication password registered in the database server for the corresponding identification.

18. The service method of claim 8, wherein the second step is carried out using a short message server included in a service server network.

19. The service method of claim 8, the second step comprising the steps of:

checking an IP of the target home appliance; and

transmitting the corresponding message to the checked IP.

20. An Internet washer comprising:

a network interface connected to a service server network built on-line so as to transmit/receive various data;

a message reporting means for reporting a client'"'"'s operation status and a remote client'"'"'s message received through the network interface;

an operation unit on which various operations are carried out by the client; and

a control unit controlling the respective components to operate.

21. A service method of a message transmission of an Internet washer, comprising:

a first step of checking whether a short message data is received from a service server network or not; and

a second step of decoding a corresponding data, if reception of the short message data is made, so as to report the reception of a message to a corresponding client through a message reporting means.

22. The service method of claim 21, further comprising the steps of:

counting a time after completion of the second step; and

reporting again the reception of the message after lapse of a setup time if an input of a confirmation signal fails to be made by the corresponding client within the setup time,

wherein the counting and reporting steps are carried out repeatedly.

23. The service method of claim 22, further comprising a step of restoring a display unit constituting the corresponding message reporting means to an initial status if the input of the confirmation signal is made by the corresponding client within the setup time.

24. The service method of claim 23, further comprising a step of deleting the corresponding message data when the display unit returns to the initial status.

25. The service method of claim 21, wherein the reception of the message is reported to the corresponding client in a manner that the corresponding message is displayed on a display unit and a buzzer sound is outputted through a sound output unit.