Operational status determination device and operational status determination method

• US 8,838,400 B2
• Filed: 08/29/2011
• Issued: 09/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Inoue, Tsuyoshi, Ozawa, Jun
• Primary Examiner(s): Desta, Elias
• Application Number:
  US13/220,130
• Publication Number:
  US 20110313693A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,114 Days
• US Class Current: 702/61
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

An operation status determination device includes: a receiving unit which receives a value, as power consumption data, from which power consumption of an appliance is derivable, the power consumption being measured at predetermined time intervals; a specification unit which specifies operation start times of the appliance, based on the power consumption data received by the receiving unit; and a determination unit which determines whether or not the appliance starts operating automatically, based on each of occurrence frequencies of the operation start times specified by the specification unit.

Claims

1. An operational status determination device comprising:

a receiving unit configured to receive data on power consumption of an appliance, the power consumption being measured at predetermined time intervals;

a specification unit configured to specify operation start times of the appliance, based on the power consumption data received by said receiving unit, the operation start times occurring in a period of time; and

a determination unit configured to determine whether or not the appliance starts operating automatically, based on each of occurrence frequencies of the operation start times specified by said specification unit.

2. The operational status determination device according to claim 1,

wherein, when the occurrence frequency of the operation start time occurring in the period of time is equal to or higher than a start frequency threshold, said determination unit is configured to determine that the appliance starts operating automatically.

3. The operational status determination device according to claim 1,

wherein, when a frequency distribution of the operation start times includes an operation start time whose occurrence frequency ratio with respect to a total of the occurrence frequencies is equal to or higher than a start ratio threshold, said determination unit is configured to determine that the appliance starts operating automatically.

4. The operational status determination device according to claim 1,

wherein said specification unit is further configured to specify operation end times of the appliance, based on the power consumption data received by said receiving unit, the operation end times occurring in the period of time, and

said determination unit is further configured to determine whether or not the appliance ends operating automatically, based on each of occurrence frequencies of the operation end times specified by said specification unit.

5. The operational status determination device according to claim 4,

wherein, when the occurrence frequency of the operation end time occurring in the period of time is equal to or higher than an end frequency threshold, said determination unit is configured to determine that the appliance ends operating automatically.

6. The operational status determination device according to claim 4,

wherein, when a frequency distribution of the operation end times includes an operation end time whose occurrence frequency ratio with respect to a total of the occurrence frequencies is equal to or higher than an end ratio threshold, said determination unit is configured to determine that the appliance ends operating automatically.

7. The operational status determination device according to claim 4,

wherein said determination unit is configured to:

determine, from the frequency distribution of the operation start times of the appliance, whether operation periods starting at a same operation start time occur periodically in the period of time and, when the operation periods are determined as occurring periodically, determine that the appliance starts operating automatically; and

determine, from the frequency distribution of the operation end times of the appliance, whether operation periods ending at a same operation end time occur periodically in the period of time and, when the operation periods are determined as occurring periodically, determine that the appliance ends operating automatically.

8. The operational status determination device according to claim 4, further comprising

a daily-life determination unit configured to determine whether or not there is a problem in daily life of a user living in a house where the appliance is installed, based on at least one of the number of automatically-started operations of the appliance in a predetermined period of time and the number of automatically-ended operations of the appliance in the predetermined period of time.

9. The operational status determination device according to claim 1,

wherein said specification unit is further configured to specify lengths of operation periods of the appliance, based on the power consumption data received by said receiving unit, the operation periods occurring in the period of time, and

said determination unit is further configured to determine that the appliance ends operating automatically, when a frequency distribution of the operation period lengths includes an operation period length whose occurrence frequency ratio with respect to a total of occurrence frequencies of the operation period lengths is equal to or higher than an end ratio threshold.

10. The operational status determination device according to claim 4, further comprising

a support execution unit configured to output a signal for supporting power control of the appliance, based on a result of the determination made by said determination unit.

11. The operational status determination device according to claim 9, further comprising

a support execution unit configured to (i) estimate a type of the appliance by comparing a table stored in a memory beforehand and a result of the determination made by said determination unit, the table including, for each type of the appliance, information on whether the appliance starts operating automatically and information on the frequency distribution of the operation period lengths of the appliance, and (ii) output a signal for supporting power control of the appliance according to the estimated type, based on the result of the determination made by said determination unit.

12. The operational status determination device according to claim 10, wherein said support execution unit is configured to output a signal for disconnecting power to the appliance determined by said determination unit as not starting operating automatically.

13. The operational status determination device according to claim 10, wherein the appliance is a video recorder which operates according to a timer recording set to record a television program.

14. The operational status determination device according to claim 13,

wherein the signal for supporting the power control of the appliance is outputted from said support execution unit to control power to the video recorder, and

said support execution unit is configured to place the video recorder into a standby state during a period of time for which the timer recording is not set.

15. The operational status determination device according to claim 1, wherein said determination unit is configured to determine whether or not the appliance starts operating automatically, based on a frequency distribution of the operation start times specified by said specification unit, each of the operation start times being represented by a predetermined time unit obtained from the operation start times.

16. The operational status determination device according to claim 15, wherein the appliance uses an electronic program guide, and the predetermined time unit representing each of the operation start times is a value indicating minutes of the operation start time or seconds of the operation start time.

17. The operational status determination device according to claim 15, wherein the predetermined time unit is smaller than a minimum time unit settable to cause the appliance to start operating automatically.

18. The operational status determination device according to claim 15,

wherein, when the operation start times in the period of time include an operation start time whose occurrence frequency or whose frequency ratio with respect to a total of the occurrence frequencies is increased by a predetermined value or more as a result of a reduction in a time unit representing the operation start time, said determination unit is configured to use a reduced time unit as the predetermined time unit.

19. The operational status determination device according to claim 18,

wherein, when a highest occurrence frequency among the occurrence frequencies of the operation start times or a ratio of the highest occurrence frequency with respect to the total of the occurrence frequencies is increased by the predetermined value or more as the result of the reduction in the time unit, said determination unit is configured to use the reduced time unit as the predetermined time unit.

20. The operational status determination device according to claim 15,

wherein, when a difference in the occurrence frequency between predetermined elements each representing the operation start time is increased by a predetermined value or more as a result of a reduction in a time unit, said determination unit is configured to use a reduced time unit as the predetermined time unit.

21. The operational status determination device according to claim 20, wherein, when a difference between a first highest occurrence frequency and a second highest occurrence frequency of the operation start times, among the operation start times in the period of time, is increased by the predetermined value or more as the result of the reduction in the time unit, said determination unit is configured to use the reduced time unit as the predetermined time unit.

22. The operational status determination device according to claim 15, wherein said determination unit is configured to determine whether or not the appliance starts operating automatically, based on an operation start time, among the operation start times specified in the period of time, whose occurrence frequency ratio with respect to a total of the occurrence frequencies is equal to or higher than a predetermined ratio.

23. The operational status determination device according to claim 10, wherein said support execution unit is further configured to specify, among a plurality of appliances, a master appliance operating alone and a slave appliance operating in conjunction with the master appliance, based on a temporal relationship between overlapping operation periods of the appliances, the overlapping operation periods not starting or ending automatically.

24. The operational status determination device according to claim 23, wherein, when the master appliance is OFF and the slave appliance is ON, said support execution unit is configured to send a signal for turning OFF the slave appliance.

25. The operational status determination device according to claim 24, wherein, when the slave appliance is an appliance that starts operating automatically, said support execution unit is configured not to send the signal for turning OFF the slave appliance.

26. The operational status determination device according to claim 24, wherein, when the slave appliance is an appliance that starts operating automatically, said support execution unit is further configured to send a signal for reducing power consumption of the slave appliance in a period where the slave appliance is capable of starting operating automatically.

27. The operational status determination device according to claim 1, further comprising a daily-life determination unit configured to determine that there is a problem in daily life of a user living in a house where the appliance is installed, when it is determined, from a result of the determination made by said determination unit, that the appliance does not operate except when operating automatically.

28. The operational status determination device according to claim 27,

wherein said receiving unit is configured to receive power consumption data on a plurality of appliances,

said specification unit is configured to specify operation start times for each of the appliances, based on the power consumption data received by said receiving unit, the operation start times occurring in the period of time,

said determination unit is configured to determine, for each of the appliances, whether or not the appliance starts operating automatically, based on each of occurrence frequencies of the operation start times specified by said specification unit,

said operational status determination device further comprises

a supervisory unit configured to specify, among the appliances, an appliance to be monitored, based on a result of the determination made by said determination unit, and

said daily-life determination unit is configured to determine whether there is a problem in the daily life of the user, based on a result of the determination made by said determination unit regarding the appliance specified to be monitored by said supervisory unit.

29. The operational status determination device according to claim 28, wherein said supervisory unit is configured to specify the appliance to be monitored, when the result of the determination made by said determination unit indicates that an occurrence frequency of non-automatic operations of the appliance is equal to or higher than a predetermined value.

30. The operational status determination device according to claim 1,

wherein the appliance uses an electronic program guide, and

said determination unit is configured to determine that the appliance starts operating automatically, when an operation start time, among the operation start times specified in the period of time, is identical to a start time of a television program indicated in the electronic program guide.

31. An operation status determination method comprising:

receiving a value, as power consumption data, from which power consumption of an appliance is derivable, the power consumption being measured at predetermined time intervals;

specifying operation start times of the appliance, based on the power consumption data received in said receiving, the operation start times occurring in a period of time; and

determining whether or not the appliance starts operating automatically, based on each of occurrence frequencies of the operation start times specified in said specifying.

32. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium for use in a computer, the recording medium having a computer program recorded thereon for causing the computer to execute:

receiving a value, as power consumption data, from which power consumption of an appliance is derivable, the power consumption being measured at predetermined time intervals;

specifying operation start times of the appliance, based on the power consumption data received in said receiving, the operation start times occurring in a period of time; and

determining whether or not the appliance starts operating automatically, based on each of occurrence frequencies of the operation start times specified in said specifying.