Remote control apparatus

• US 7,412,292 B2
• Filed: 11/09/2004
• Issued: 08/12/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Takechi, Hideaki, Hirose, Koji, Koshino, Toshiharu, Miyahara, Kazuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham; Thomas K
• Application Number:
  US10/578,156
• Publication Number:
  US 20070088824A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,372 Days
• Field of Search: 700/9, 700/18, 700/23, 700/65, 700/83, 700/86, 700/169
• US Class Current: 700/65
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• 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 21/25816 involving client authentication restricting access to computer systems by authenticating users using a predetermined code G06F21/33; cryptographic authentication protocols H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26291 for providing content or additional data updates, e.g. updating software modules, stored at the client deployment, distribution, installation, update of software G06F8/65; error detection or correction during software upgrading G06F11/1433; arrangements for updating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/25
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/433 Content storage operation, e.g. storage operation in response to a pause request, caching operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/173 with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal

Abstract

The present invention provides a remote control apparatus comprising a controlled appliance and a server being connected via communication means, in which if data stored in the server is present, a notice command is promptly issued to the corresponding controlled appliance, and the controlled appliance having received the notice command automatically transmits a data acquisition request and receives the data stored in the server, whereby complicated operation by the user is not necessary and the capacity of the storage device of the server can be suppressed significantly.

Claims

1. A remote control apparatus comprising a controlled appliance and a server being connected via communication means, said controlled appliance comprising:

a communication control part that carries out communication,

a notice receiving part that receives a notice command indicating that data has arrived at said server,

an appliance unique data management part that manages appliance unique data being unique to each controlled appliance,

a data acquisition request transmission part that transmits a data acquisition request to said server on the basis of the notice command received by said notice receiving part,

a data receiving part that receives data from said server,

a data storage control part that controls the data storage destination of the data received by said data receiving part, and

a data storage part that stores the data transmitted from said data storage control part, and said server comprising;

a communication control part that carries out communication,

a data filing part that saves and stores data,

a data management part that manages stored data,

an appliance management part that stores appliance unique data for identifying said controlled appliance,

a notification part that notifies said controlled appliance that data is present in said data filing part, and

a data transmission part that receives an acquisition request command from said controlled appliance and transmits the data stored in said data filing part to said controlled appliance, wherein

when data is stored in the data filing part of said server, a notice command indicating data acquisition is transmitted to said controlled appliance, the controlled appliance having received the notice command transmits an acquisition request to said server, and the data stored in the data filing part of said server is received and stored in said data storage part.

2. The remote control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said controlled appliance is equipped with an appliance unique data transmission part that transmits appliance unique data, and said server is equipped with an appliance unique data receiving part that receives the appliance unique data and notifies said appliance management part as means for storing appliance unique data in said appliance management part of said server.

3. The remote control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

said controlled appliance is equipped with an appliance control part that controls said controlled appliance itself, and an appliance state judgment part that judges the state of said appliance control part, and

said data acquisition request transmission part judges the state of said appliance using said appliance state judgment part when said notice receiving part has received a notice command, and transmits a data acquisition request after detecting a state in which data acquisition can be carried out.

4. The remote control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said data filing part is a text data storage part that stores text data, such as character information.

5. The remote control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said controlled appliance according to claim us equipped with a data display part that receives data from said data receiving part and displays the data.

6. The remote control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein image data and text data being used as a pair are stored as set data in said data filing part, said data receiving part of said controlled appliance receives all the image data and text data being used as set data, and then said data storage part stores said image data and said text data as set data.

7. The remote control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said controlled appliance is equipped with a data display part that receives data from said data receiving part and displays the data, image data and text data being used as a pair are stored as set data in said data filing part, said data receiving part of said controlled appliance receives all the image data and text data being used as set data, and then said data display part displays said image data and said text data as set data.

8. The remote control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said server is equipped with a receiving part that receives electronic mail to which image data is attached and an analyzing part that analyzes said received electronic mail to store data in said data filing part.

9. The remote control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said server is equipped with an inter-server communication part operating as means for communicating with other servers to store data in said data filing part.

10. The remote control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said controlled appliance is equipped with a notice display part that carries out display showing that a notice indicating that image data is stored in said server is received by said notice receiving part.

11. The remote control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said controlled appliance is equipped with a notice display part that carries out display showing that a notice indicating that image data is stored in said server is received by said notice receiving part, and an operation part that creates an image data receiving command, wherein

said data acquisition request transmission part transmits an image data acquisition request based on the image data receiving command of said operation part while the display is carried out on said notice display part.

12. The remote control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said data storage control part is configured so at to sort and store data in a different folder or a different recording medium depending on the type of received image data.

13. The remote control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said controlled appliance is equipped with a file management part that is configured so that when set data comprising image data and text data stored as a pair in said data storage part is moved or erased, the image data and text data used as a pair are moved or erased simultaneously.