Appliance number setting member for home network system

• US 20030208623A1
• Filed: 09/28/2001
• Published: 11/06/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Brother Industries Limited)
• Original Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Brother Industries Limited)
• Inventors: Maeda, Masataka
• Application Number:
  US09/967,423
• Publication Number:
  US 20030208623A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/245
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/25296 Identification module, type connected I-O, device
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2642 Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2807 Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving network analysis for automatically determining the actual topology of a network H04L41/12; hardware or software tools for network management using graphical user interfaces H04L41/22; address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/604 Address structures or formats
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5038 for local use, e.g. in LAN or USB networks, or in a controller area network [CAN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

Each of appliance number setting seals 51 to 58 includes a non-conductive seal body 61. The front surface of the non-conductive seal body 61 is formed with text that indicates the type, location, and distinction number of network appliance 20. The rear surface of the non-conductive seal body 61 is provided with at least one seal-side conductive plate 65. When the seal-side conductive plate 65 is attached to contact groups 43, 44, and 45 of the network appliance, electrical characteristic of the contact groups 43, 44, and 45 change, so the network appliance 20 is allotted with an appliance number corresponding to the conductive pattern of the seal-side conductive plate 65.

Claims

1. A network system comprising:

a plurality of network appliances, each network appliance distinguishing between other network appliances based on appliance numbers allotted to the network appliances; and

a plurality of appliance number setting members each having a front surface inscribed with visible information of a network appliance, the appliance number setting members being for setting a different appliance number to each network appliance, wherein each network appliance is applied with at least one of the plurality of appliance number setting members.

2. The network system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a memory medium storing an appliance number list representing correspondence relationship between:

the appliance numbers that the appliance number setting members allot to the network appliances; and

the visible information formed on the appliance number setting members.

3. The network system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the visible information represents at least one of type, location, and number of the network appliance.

4. The network system as claimed in claim 3, further comprising a controller for controlling the plurality of network appliances, the controller including a network appliance display that retrieves the appliance numbers of the network appliances and the appliance number list from the memory medium, and displays at least one of type and location of each network appliance based on the appliance number list.

5. The network system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the appliance number setting members each have a rear surface made from a non-conductive material formed with a conductive pattern that corresponds to the visible information formed on the front surface, the appliance number setting member being mounted onto the network appliance with the conductive pattern abutting the network appliance.

6. The network system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the network appliance includes a plurality of contacts that change electrical characteristic when abutted by the conductive patterns of the appliance number setting members.

7. The network system as claimed in claim 5, further comprising a controller for controlling the plurality of network appliances, the controller detecting the electrical characteristic of the plurality of contacts of the network appliance, as a digital value.

8. The network system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the controller detects the visible information of the appliance number setting members based on the detected visible value.

9. A network appliance controller for controlling the plurality of network appliances in the network system of claim 3, comprising:

a network appliance display that retrieves the appliance numbers of the network appliances and the appliance number list from the memory medium, and displays at least one of type and location of each network appliance based on the appliance number list.

10. An appliance number setting member comprising:

a body having a front surface formed with visible information of a network appliance to allot an appliance number corresponding to the visible information to a network appliance.

11. The appliance number setting member as claimed in claim 10, wherein the body has a non-conductive rear surface formed with a conductive pattern that corresponds to the visible information.

12. The appliance number setting member as claimed in claim 10, wherein the visible information represents at least one of type, location, and number of the network appliance.

13. A network appliance in a network system, comprising:

a plurality of contacts that change electrical characteristic when abutted by a conductive pattern of a appliance number setting member, thereby being allotted to an appliance number corresponding to the conductive pattern.