Apparatus and method for controlling household electronic appliances using broadcasting middleware in home network environment

• US 20070118863A1
• Filed: 07/12/2006
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Park, Jun-Hee, Moon, Kyeong-Deok, Son, Young-Sung
• Application Number:
  US11/485,759
• Publication Number:
  US 20070118863A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2818 from a device located outside both the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; arrangements for transmitting signals characterised by the use of a wireless eletrical link G08C17/00; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with remote control systems H04M11/007
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2849 Audio/video appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4131 home appliance, e.g. lighting, air conditioning system, metering devices home automation data switching networks exchanging configuration information on appliance services H04L12/2807
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

Provided are an apparatus and a method for controlling household electronic appliances using a broadcasting middleware in a home network environment. The apparatus, includes: a data separator for receiving broadcasting signals in a broadcasting receiving unit and separating broadcasting data and control data out of the broadcasting signals; a broadcasting data analyzer for analyzing the control data obtained in the data separator; an application program executor for executing an application program based on the control data analyzed in the broadcasting data analyzer; and a home network controller for receiving a control command from the application program executer and controlling the household electronic appliances of a home network.

Claims

1. An apparatus for controlling household electronic appliances using a broadcasting middleware in a home network environment, comprising:

a data separating means for receiving broadcasting signals in a broadcasting receiving unit and separating broadcasting data and control data out of the broadcasting signals;

a broadcasting data analyzing means for analyzing the control data obtained in the data separating means;

an application program executing means for executing an application program based on the control data analyzed in the broadcasting data analyzing means; and

a home network controlling means for receiving a control command from the application program executing means and controlling the household electronic appliances of a home network.

2. The apparatus as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

a data scrambling means for scrambling the broadcasting data and the control data for controlling the household electronic appliances in a broadcasting transmitter.

3. The apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the data separating means transmits the broadcasting data obtained from the separation to a module for processing the broadcasting data.

4. The apparatus as recited in claim 3, wherein the application program executing means executes a broadcasting-related TV user interface application program and a home network application program based on the control data.

5. The apparatus as recited in claim 3, wherein the home network controlling means includes:

a home network database for collecting and storing information on state of the household electronic appliances in the home network.

6. The apparatus as recited in claim 3, wherein the application program executing means is the TV user interface application program executed on the home network by collecting the control data from the broadcasting data analyzing means, forming a control command in a control logic module and a control execution module, which are internal processes, transmitting the control command to a command execution module of the home network application program in the home network controlling means, and executing the control command of the command execution module on the home network.

7. The apparatus as recited in claim 3, wherein the application program executing means is the TV user interface application program executed on the home network by collecting the control data from the broadcasting data analyzing means, transmitting a command for controlling an embedded home network application program, forming a control command in a control logic module and a control execution module, which are internal processor of the embedded home network application program, and executing the control command on the home network.

8. The apparatus as recited in claim 3, wherein the household electronic appliances controlling apparatus using the broadcasting middleware provides information change on the home network and information change of the service to the user through a screen in real-time, and the user controls and monitors the household electronic appliances on the home network through the screen.

9. A method for controlling household electronic appliances using a broadcasting middleware in a home network environment, comprising the steps of:

a) initializing a system of a broadcasting receiving unit, receiving broadcasting signals and separating the broadcasting signals into broadcasting data and control data;

b) determining a kind of the control data by transmitting the broadcasting data among the broadcasting data and the control data to a broadcasting middleware, restoring the broadcasting data, and executing the control data in an application program execution engine; and

c) controlling the household electronic appliances by connecting the control data to an embedded home network application program when the control data are of a TV user interface application program, and controlling the household electronic appliances by connecting the control data to a command execution module of the home network application program when the control data are of a broadcasting control application program.