INFORMATION NOTIFICATION APPARATUS AND INFORMATION DISPLAYING METHOD

• US 20150296276A1
• Filed: 08/22/2013
• Published: 10/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: UNAGAMI, Yuji, ISOGAI, Kazunori, OHMORI, Motoji, UMETANI, Hideo, SASAGAWA, Michiko
• Granted Patent: US 9,749,714 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom

Abstract

An information notification apparatus includes: a communication unit which receives first device information and first history information from a first device and then transmits notification; an information collection database which holds, based on the first device information received by the communication unit, the received first history information in association with the held first device information; a determination unit which determines need to transmit notification of the first device when information included in the first history information held in the information collection database satisfies a condition; a display device designation unit which designates, based on destination information and the received first device information, a display device on which notification of the first device is to be displayed; and a generation unit which generates notification when the determination unit determines need to transmit the notification of the first device, wherein the communication unit transmits the generated notification to the designated display device.

Claims

1-11. -11. (canceled)

12. An information notification apparatus comprising:

a communication unit configured to receive, from each of a plurality of devices which operate on receipt of an input from a user, a device information item uniquely identifying the each of the devices, and history information of the devices, the history information including at least one of (i) a control information item for the each of the devices and (ii) a state information item indicating a state for the each of the devices;

an information collection database which holds, in association with each other, an information item of the user owning the each of the devices, the device information item for the each of the devices, and the history information of the devices received by the communication unit;

a determination unit configured to determine that it is necessary to transmit notification of a first device when information held in the information collection database satisfies a predetermined condition, the first device being one of the devices;

a display device designation unit configured to designate, when the determination unit determines that it is necessary to transmit the notification of the first device, a second device on which the notification of the first device is to be displayed, based on the history information of the devices held in the information collection database, the second device being one of a plurality of display devices; and

a generation unit configured to generate the notification when the determination unit determines that it is necessary to transmit the notification of the first device,

wherein the communication unit is further configured to transmit the generated notification to the display device designated by the display device designation unit.

13. The information notification apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the display device designation unit is configured to designate, among the devices, a device whose history information indicating operation at time closest to current time is held in the information collection database as the second device.

14. The information notification apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the display device designation unit is configured to:

designate a device as the second device, when among the devices, the device whose history information indicating operation at time closest to current time is held in the information collection database has a display function; and

designate another device as the second device, when among the devices, the other device whose history information indicating operation at time closest to current time is held in the information collection database does not have a display function.

15. The information notification apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the history information received by the communication unit includes a time information item indicating time about the at least one of (i) the control information item for the each of the devices and (ii) the state information item indicating the state for the each of the devices.

16. The information notification apparatus according to claim 12, further comprising a timepiece capable of obtaining a time information item,

wherein the information collection database obtains, from the timepiece, a time information item indicating time when the communication unit received the history information, when a time information item is not included in the history information received by the communication unit, and holds, in association with each other, the history information and the obtained time information item.

17. The information notification apparatus according to claim 12, further comprising a position information identification unit configured to identify a position of the user,

wherein the determination unit is configured to determine that it is necessary to transmit the notification of the first device when (i) information included in the history information held in the information collection database satisfies a predetermined condition and (ii) the identified position of the user is a position previously determined as the position in which the user is capable of responding to the notification.

18. The information notification apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the position of the user is identified using information from a global positioning system (GPS) included in a terminal owned by the user.

19. The information notification apparatus according to claim 17, wherein when the first device is an electrically assisted pedal cycle,

(i) the determination unit is configured to determine that it is necessary to transmit the notification to the user when the position information identification unit identifies that the user is at home, and

(ii) the generation unit is configured to generate, as the notification, information about a remaining battery level of the electrically assisted pedal cycle.

20. The information notification apparatus according to claim 17, wherein when the first device is an air conditioner,

(i) the determination unit is configured to determine that it is necessary to transmit the notification to the user when the position information identification unit identifies that the user is not at home, and

(ii) the generation unit is configured to generate, as the notification, information notifying that the air conditioner is operating.

21. The information notification apparatus according to claim 12, further comprising a pattern extraction unit configured to extract a use pattern when the user uses the first device, by referring to the history information held in the information collection database,

wherein the determination unit is further configured to determine that it is necessary to transmit the notification which encourages use of the first device indicated by the use pattern when determining, from the history information, that the first device indicated by the use pattern extracted by the pattern extraction unit is not used,

the generation unit is configured to generate the notification which encourages use of the first device, and

the communication unit is configured to transmit the generated notification to the display device designated by the display device designation unit.

22. The information notification apparatus according to claim 12, wherein:

the information included in the history information is a value indicating a remaining battery level of the first device when the first device is an electrically assisted pedal cycle; and

the predetermined condition indicates whether or not the remaining battery level is no more than a predetermined value indicating a level necessary to recharge the first device.

23. The information notification apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the display device designation unit is configured to designate the second device among the devices, based on information about whether or not power is ON, in the history information.

24. The information notification apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the display device designation unit is further configured to designate the second device, based on history of being associated with a device which displays information about the first device in the past.

26. The information notification apparatus according to claim 12, wherein:

the generation unit is configured to generate information which encourages control of the first device, along with the notification; and

the communication unit is configured to transmit information which encourages control of the first device, along with the notification.

27. The information notification apparatus according to claim 26, wherein:

the generation unit is further configured to generate a control command of the first device; and

the communication unit is further configured to transmit an operation command to control the first device, based on the control command.

28. The information notification apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the communication unit is configured to transmit, to the second device or another device, information alerting that notification is displayed on the second device.

29. The information notification apparatus according to claim 28, wherein the other device is an illumination device, and the alerting information is information that the illumination device is turned ON.

30. An information displaying method in a system which controls a plurality of devices each of which operates on receipt of an input from a user, an information notification apparatus which obtains an information item about an operation state from the each of the devices, and a plurality of display devices each of which obtains and displays an information item about an operation state of at least a first device among the devices from the information notification apparatus, the information displaying method comprising:

determining that it is necessary to notify the information item about the operation state of the first device when the information item about the operation state of the first device satisfies a predetermined condition;

notifying the operation state of the first device among the display devices by designating the first display device on which notification is to be displayed;

displaying the notified information item about the operation state of the first device on the designated first display device;

determining that it is necessary to notify an information item about an operation state of a second device when the information item about the operation state of the second device among the devices satisfies a predetermined condition, the second device being different from the first device;

designating and notifying a second display device on which notification of the operation state of the second device among the display devices is to be displayed, the second display device being different from the first display device;

displaying the notified information item about the operation state of the second device on the designated second display device; and

displaying, on the first display device, that the operation state of the second device is displayed on the second display device, along with the information item about the notified operation state of the first device.

31. An information displaying method in a system which controls a plurality of devices each of which operates on receipt of an input from a user, an information notification apparatus which obtains an information item about an operation state from the each of the devices, and a plurality of display devices each of which obtains and displays an information item about an operation state of at least a first device among the devices from the information notification apparatus, the information displaying method comprising:

displaying, on another area in a screen of one of the display devices, a list of icons indicating the display devices owned by the user and a list of icons indicating the devices owned by the user; and

designating, by receiving, in the screen, a user operation of associating an icon indicating a first display device with an icon indicating the first display device on which notification of the operation state of the first device, among the icons indicating the display devices, is to be displayed, the first display device as a display device, among the display devices, on which notification of the operation state of the first device is to be displayed.

32. The information displaying method according to claim 31, wherein, after the designating, the icon of the first device is displayed near the first display device.

33. The information displaying method according to claim 31, wherein the designating is performed by dragging the icon of the first device to a position of the icon of the first display device, and by superimposing the icon of the first device on the icon of the first display device.