Home appliance information management apparatus, home appliance information sharing method, and home appliance information sharing system

• US 9,641,596 B2
• Filed: 12/26/2012
• Issued: 05/02/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Unagami, Yuji, Haga, Tomoyuki, Matsuzaki, Natsume
• Primary Examiner(s): Srivastava, Vivek
• Assistant Examiner(s): CELANI, NICHOLAS P
• Application Number:
  US14/113,258
• Publication Number:
  US 20140250183A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,588 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• 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 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 12/281 indicating a format for calling an appliance service function in a home automation network for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/283 Processing of data at an internetworking point of a home automation network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5166 in combination with interactive voice response systems or voice portals, e.g. as front-ends

Abstract

A management apparatus which collects, from a home appliance, home appliance information which is information related to the home appliance and provides a user with to-be-provided information which is information obtained from the collected home appliance information, includes: a managing unit which manages the home appliance information; and a home appliance information holding unit which holds, in association with each other, (i) the home appliance information and (ii) share information which is for sharing the home appliance information and is associated with the user. The managing unit refers to data held by the home appliance information holding unit when a request for to-be-provided information is issued by the user, obtains the home appliance information held in association with share information identical to the share information associated with the user, and provides the user with to-be-provided information obtained from the obtained information.

Claims

1. A home appliance information management apparatus which collects, from a home electrical appliance, home appliance information which is information related to the home electrical appliance, and provides users of the home electrical appliance with to-be-provided information which is information obtained from the collected home appliance information, the home appliance information management apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a first non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having stored thereon executable instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the home appliance information management apparatus to;

manage the home appliance information;

receive user identification information of each user of the users of the home electrical appliance;

receive identification information of the home electrical appliance;

receive information set by each user of the home electrical appliance, the information set by each user including first information set by a first user of the users, and other information set by at least one other user of the users different from the first user;

hold, in a second non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, the user identification information of each user, the identification information of the home electrical appliance, the information set by each user, and the home appliance information, thereby registering the home electrical appliance with the home appliance information management apparatus, the information set by each user being information for allowing sharing of the collected home appliance information between the users of the home electrical appliance, and the home appliance information including operation history collected from the home electrical appliance, for each user of the users who operates the home electrical appliance; and

when a request for providing the to-be-provided information is issued by the first user;

refer to a home appliance information list stored in the second non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, the home appliance information list holding, in association with each other, the user identification information of each user, the identification information of the home electrical appliance, the information set by each user, and the home appliance information;

compare the first information set by the first user with the other information set by the at least one other user;

determine if the first information set by the first user is identical to the other information set by the at least one other user;

when the first information set by the first user is determined to be identical to the other information set by the at least one other user, obtain, as the to-be-provided information, collected home appliance information of the first user and collected home appliance information of the at least one other user; and

when the first information set by the first user is determined to not be identical to the other information set by the at least one other user, obtain, as the to-be-provided information, the collected home appliance information of the first user.

2. The home appliance information management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the home appliance information management apparatus to further:

connect, via a communication network, to a gateway terminal which receives the home appliance information from the home electrical appliance, and receive the home appliance information from the gateway terminal;

store, in the second non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, latest information set by each user in association with gateway identification information for identifying the gateway terminal, the latest information set by each user including latest first information set by the first user, the first user being associated with the gateway terminal; and

when receiving the home appliance information from the gateway terminal, store, in the second non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, the received home appliance information as home appliance information of the first user associated with the gateway identification information and the latest first information set by the first user.

3. The home appliance information management apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the home appliance information management apparatus to further:

transmit, when receiving a control command for the home electrical appliance from the user, the control command for controlling the home electrical appliance to the gateway terminal when the first information set by the first user is the latest first information set by the first user.

4. The home appliance information management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the home appliance information management apparatus to further:

connect, via a communication network, to a gateway terminal which receives the home appliance information from the home electrical appliance, and is configured to receive the home appliance information from the gateway terminal;

store, in the second non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, when registering the gateway terminal with the home appliance information management apparatus, the first information set by the first user in association with gateway identification information for identifying the gateway terminal, the first information set by the first user registered in association with the gateway terminal; and

when receiving the other information set by the at least one other user and the home appliance information from the gateway terminal, store, in the second non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, the received home appliance information as home appliance information of the at least one other user associated with the other information set by the at least one other user, when the received other information set by the at least one other user is identical to the first information set by the first user.

5. The home appliance information management apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the home appliance information management apparatus to further:

transmit, when receiving a control command for the home electrical appliance from the user, the control command for controlling the home electrical appliance to the gateway terminal only when the first information set by the first user matches the other information set by the at least one other user received from the gateway terminal.

6. The home appliance information management apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the home appliance information management apparatus to further:

store, in the second non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, when storing, in the second non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, identification information of the home electrical appliance, the first information set by the first user.

7. The home appliance information management apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the home appliance information management apparatus to further:

hold, in the second non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, as the information set by each user, identification information of a group of the users who are to be provided with the to-be-provided information, in association with the home appliance information; and

when the request for providing the to-be-provided information is issued by the first user, refer to the home appliance information list stored in the second non-transitory computer-readable recording medium and provide the first user with the to-be-provided information.

8. The home appliance information management apparatus according to claim 7,

wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the home appliance information management apparatus to further:

store, in the second non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, the information set by each user when storing, in the second non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, the identification information of the home electrical appliance in association with the first user;

receive second user identification information of the user identification information for identifying a second user of the users when the first user selects the second user as a user who is to be provided with second information identical to the first information set by the first user; and

store, in the second non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, in association with the second user, the first information set by the first user.

9. The home appliance information management apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the home appliance information management apparatus to further:

store, in the second non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, first identification information of the user identification information for the first user associated with the identification information of the home electrical appliance when storing, in the second non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, the identification information of the home electrical appliance; and

receive second user identification information of the user identification information for identifying a second user of the users and store, in the second non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, the second user identification information for identifying the second user, in association with the identification information of the home electrical appliance, when the first user selects the second user as a user who is to be permitted to store, in the second non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, the identification information of the home appliance.

10. The home appliance information management apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the home appliance information management apparatus to further:

store, in the second non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, first user identification information of the user identification information for the first user associated with identification information of the home electrical appliance when storing, in the second non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, the identification information of the home electrical appliance;

transmit second user identification information of the user identification information for identifying a second user of the users, for asking the first user whether or not registration is permitted when storing, in the second non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, the identification information of the home electrical appliance in association with the second user; and

store, in the second non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, the second user identification information of the second user in association with the identification information of the home electrical appliance only when receiving permission for registration from the first user.

11. A home appliance information sharing system comprising:

a mobile terminal; and

the home appliance information management apparatus according to claim 1, which collects, from the home electrical appliance, the home appliance information which is information related to the home electrical appliance, and provides the first user with the to-be-provided information which is information obtained from the collected home appliance information.

15. The home appliance information management apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the first information set by the first user is a share code or a share password.

16. The home appliance information management apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the home appliance information apparatus to further:

control the home electrical appliance based on remote control by a mobile terminal of the user.

17. The home appliance information management apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein the gateway terminal manages the home electrical appliance, and

the executable instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the home appliance information management apparatus to further:

permit registration of the home electrical appliance managed by the gateway terminal only when the received other information set by the at least one other user matches the first information set by the first user.

18. The home appliance information management apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the home appliance information management apparatus to further:

provide the latest information set by each user with a flag; and

determine which information set by each user is the latest information set by each user based on the flag.

12. A home appliance information sharing method for collecting, from a home electrical appliance, home appliance information which is information related to the home electrical appliance, and providing users of the home electrical appliance with to-be-provided information which is information obtained from the collected home appliance information, the home appliance information sharing method comprising:

receiving user identification information of each user of the users of the home electrical appliance;

receiving identification information of the home electrical appliance;

receiving information set by each user of the home electrical appliance, the information set by each user including first information set by a first user of the users, and other information set by at least one other user of the users different from the first user;

holding, in a second non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, the user identification information of each user, the identification information of the home electrical appliance, the information set by each user, and the home appliance information, thereby registering the home electrical appliance with the home appliance information management apparatus, the information set by each user being information for allowing sharing of the collected home appliance information between the users of the home electrical appliance, and the home appliance information including operation history collected from the home electrical appliance, for each user who operates the home electrical appliance; and

when a request for providing the to-be-provided information is issued by the user;

referring to a home appliance information list stored in the second non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, the home appliance information list holding, in association with each other, the identification information of each user, the identification information of the home electrical appliance, the information set by each user, and the home appliance information;

comparing the first information set by the first user with the other information set by the at least one other user;

determining if the first information set by the first user is identical to the other information set by the at least one other user;

when the first information set by the first user is determined in the determining to be identical to the other information set by the at least one other user, obtaining, as the to-be-provided information, collected home appliance information of the first user and collected home appliance information of the at least one other user; and

when the first information set by the first user is determined in the determining to not be identical to the other information set by the at least one other user, obtaining, as the to-be-provided information, the collected home appliance information of the first user.

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

the home appliance information sharing method according to claim 12.

14. An integrated circuit for collecting, from a home electrical appliance, home appliance information which is information related to the home electrical appliance, and providing users with to-be-provided information which is information obtained from the collected home appliance information, the integrated circuit comprising:

a managing circuit configured to manage the home appliance information,

wherein the managing circuit is configured to;

receive user identification information of each user of the users of the home electrical appliance;

receive identification information of the home electrical appliance;

receive information set by each user of the home electrical appliance, the information set by each user including first information set by a first user of the users, and other information set by at least one other user of the users different from the first user;

hold, in a home appliance information holding circuit, the user identification information of each user, the identification information of the home electrical appliance, the information set by each user, and the home appliance information, thereby registering the home electrical appliance with the home appliance information management apparatus, the information set by each user being information for allowing sharing of the collected home appliance information between the users of the home electrical appliance, and the home appliance information including operation history collected from the home electrical appliance, for each user of the users who operates the home electrical appliance; and

when a request for providing the to-be-provided information is issued by the user, the managing circuit is configured to;

refer to a home appliance information listed stored in the home appliance information holding circuit which holds, in association with each other, the user identification information of each user, the identification information of the home electrical appliance, the information set by each user, and the home appliance information;

compare the first information set by the first user with the other information set by the at least one other user;

determine if the first information set by the first user is identical to the other information set by the at least one other user;

when the first information set by the first user is determined to be identical to the other information set by the at least one other user, obtain, as the to-be-provided information, collected home appliance information of the first user and collected home appliance information of the at least one other user; and

when the first information set by the first user is determined to not be identical to the other information set by the at least one other user, obtain, as the to-be-provided information, the collected home appliance information of the first user.