CN101013979A - Digital family system - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a digital home system, which includes a main controller, a remote control terminal matched with the main controller and various household devices. The main controller supports an open standard communication protocol, and has the function of storing and translating instruction codes. Each household device has a unique address, and the communication protocol supported by it overlaps with the communication protocol supported by the main controller. Connect each household device to the main controller directly or through the corresponding adapter, and at the same time load the corresponding instruction code comparison table to the main controller, and send the corresponding operation instructions to the main controller through the remote control terminal to realize the control of all household devices. The home device to be controlled or its corresponding adapter operates accordingly. The system of the present invention realizes interconnection communication, unified control and resource sharing among various household devices, and the main controller of the system of the present invention adopts an open standard communication protocol, so that there is no interlocking constraint between it and the household devices.

Description

A digital home system

technical field

The invention relates to digital network networking technology, in particular to a digital home system.

Background technique

At present, all kinds of household equipment in the home, such as computers, TVs, refrigerators, water heaters, air conditioners, and electric lights, are generally used alone. Different equipment is equipped with separate remote controls or switches for control. Without a complete network, it is impossible to realize Unified control and full resource sharing, easy to operate.

The existing digital home system generally adopts a master-slave structure or a peer-to-peer structure, but no matter what kind of structure, all devices in the digital home are required to follow the same proprietary protocol, because there are multiple digital home system camps using multiple These mutually incompatible protocols force users to choose sides when purchasing household electrical appliances, severely restricting the range of choices for users, which in turn restricts the development of the digital home.

Invention patent 02126052.4 discloses a digital home network system, which is used to control the interconnection and resource sharing of more than one household devices. The above household devices are respectively connected to the gateway directly or through an adapter device. With this system, all kinds of household equipment can be connected to the same network for unified control. This technical solution is a typical 'island-type' solution. All devices that want to access the system must support the proprietary protocol of the system. If the protocol is not disclosed, it means that the interface part can only be provided by the protocol controller; even if the protocol To be clear, since the developed products can only be applied to the system, it is very doubtful how many manufacturers are willing to develop supporting products when the market share of the system does not reach a certain standard. As a consumer, in order to get the experience of the digital home, you have to give up too many choices for supporting facilities. The biggest possibility is that you give up because of the trouble. This should be an important reason why the digital home is always popular.

Contents of the invention

The invention provides a digital home system that can connect various household devices into the same network, communicate with each other through the network, control in a unified way, and share resources.

A digital home system, which is used to connect various household devices into the same network to realize interconnection communication and resource sharing, including:

The main controller supports open standard communication protocols, and is equipped with management monitoring and command code translation software, command code comparison table storage area and network interface, which are used to realize command translation between different household devices, control between household devices or between household devices and external networks Establish a communication path between them to realize data transmission:

The remote control terminal matched with the main controller realizes the remote control of various household devices through the main controller.

More than one household device, each household device has a unique address, the communication protocol supported overlaps with the communication protocol supported by the main controller, and a wired or wireless physical communication link can be established with the main controller;

Each household device is connected to the main controller directly or through the corresponding adapter, and at the same time, the corresponding instruction code comparison table is input into the storage area of the instruction code comparison table of the main controller, and the remote control terminal is sent to the main controller to control the correspondence of each household device. The main controller receives and recognizes the operation command, calls the corresponding command code comparison table of the household equipment, and realizes the operation of the household equipment to be controlled or its corresponding adapter.

Multiple main controllers with identical functions can exist in the system to achieve high reliability.

Multiple remote control terminals with different functions can exist in the system at the same time to realize distributed control.

The instruction code comparison table can be loaded to the main controller by the user or through the network, and the main controller supports loading multiple instruction code comparison tables at the same time.

The matching between the remote terminal and the main controller is realized by loading the command code comparison table corresponding to the remote control terminal to the main controller.

The remote control terminal has a soft keyboard function.

The main controller can also integrate an Ethernet interface, a telephone control module, a home gateway, a modem and a network switch to expand the functions of the main controller.

The system of the present invention realizes interconnection communication, unified control and resource sharing among various household devices, and the main controller of the system of the present invention adopts an open standard communication protocol, so that it and the household devices are no longer locked to each other, any device, As long as the supported communication protocol overlaps with the communication protocol supported by the main controller, and the corresponding command code comparison table is disclosed, the matching and interactive operation with the main controller can be realized through the configuration at the time of application, without the need to configure the main controller before leaving the factory. Default configuration.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic block diagram of the structure of the system of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is the workflow schematic diagram of master controller of the present invention;

Fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of the application mode of the system of the present invention.

Detailed ways

As shown in Figure 1, a digital home system is used to connect various household devices to the same network to realize interconnection communication and resource sharing. The system includes a main controller 1, a remote control terminal 2 matching the main controller 1 and All kinds of household equipment.

The main controller 1 supports open standard communication protocols, such as 802.11b, 802.3, IPv6, etc., and is provided with management monitoring and instruction code translation software 11, instruction code comparison table storage area 12, wired network interface 13 and wireless network interface 14, for Realize command translation between different household devices, control the establishment of communication channels between household devices or between household devices and external networks, and realize data transmission. The main controller 1 can also be integrated with an Ethernet interface, a telephone control module, a home gateway, a modem, and a network switch, etc., and has the functions of external network access, a security gateway, and an internal switch.

Each household device has a unique address, and the supported communication protocol overlaps with the communication protocol supported by the main controller 1 , such as 802.11b, 802.3, IPv6, etc., and can establish a wired or wireless physical communication link with the main controller 1 .

The communication mode between the remote terminal 2 and the main controller 1 can be infrared or WLAN, etc. Similarly, the matching between the remote terminal and the main controller 1 is realized by loading the main controller 1 with the instruction code comparison table corresponding to the remote terminal 2 . The corresponding relationship with the main controller 1 needs to be manually set by the user to eliminate nearby interference.

The remote control terminal 2 has a soft keyboard function, that is, the function of each key is completely different according to the selected function. For the convenience of users, the remote control terminal 2 generally has a display device capable of providing dynamic keyboard functions and status display.

When constructing the digital home system of the present invention, each household device is connected to the main controller 1 directly or through a corresponding adapter, and at the same time, the corresponding instruction code comparison table is loaded to the instruction code comparison table of the main controller 1 by the user or through the network Similarly, the storage area 12 realizes the matching between the remote terminal 2 and the main controller 1 by loading the main controller 1 with the instruction code comparison table corresponding to the remote control terminal 2 .

After building the system, power on the main controller 1. As shown in Figure 2, the main controller 1 first enters the self-inspection, identifies and registers the connected wireless networking devices and wired networking devices, and monitors after the self-inspection is completed. Whether there is a household device or a remote control terminal to send a communication request, if so, receive the request command and determine the type of device sending the request, call the command code comparison table corresponding to the requesting device to extract the corresponding command and data, and call the corresponding command according to the type of the command object The command code comparison table forwards the command to the device to be controlled, realizes the control, and returns the command execution status information of the request source.

Assuming that a TV and a printer are connected to the switch integrated in the main controller 1 at the same time (if the main controller 1 is not integrated, it can also be realized by connecting an external switch through the Ethernet interface of the main controller 1), the commands of the TV and the printer The code comparison table has also been loaded into the main controller and set correspondingly. When the TV is selected through the remote control terminal 2, the remote control terminal 2 becomes a TV remote control, and the TV can be remotely controlled normally; Just select it again.

It should be noted that the remote control terminal 2 only communicates with the main controller 1, so the remote control of any device only needs to be operated on the main controller 1. If it is an infrared remote control, it needs to aim at the infrared receiving window of the main controller 1 during operation. If it is a WLAN remote control, the main controller 1 can be placed almost anywhere in the home. At the same time, multiple remote controllers can be set up to facilitate operations in different locations to achieve distributed control.

At this time, if the user wants to print a certain TV picture, if this action is completed by the main controller 1, then the main controller 1 needs to define (or adopt a standard) printing protocol, and simultaneously needs a data stream transmission standard. This requirement will generate relatively high equipment matching requirements in the early stage, so this action can also be completed by the direct interaction between the TV and the printer. This is the matter of the interaction standard between the TV manufacturer and the printer manufacturer, so as to avoid the initial matching of the main controller. Too high a requirement leads to the tragedy of being left out in the cold. Of course, in the later stage, especially after the emergence of de facto standards, loading the driver protocol through the main controller will benefit all three parties.

The present invention will be further described below by taking the transformation of a traditional TV set into an IPv6 TV set meeting the above requirements as an example.

In traditional TV sets with remote control functions, the remote control decoding chip first parses out the key values of the remote control pressed by the user, and then sends corresponding instructions to the executive mechanism to form corresponding actions.

When transforming, first an adapter is needed, one end of which supports the standard IPv6 protocol, and the other end outputs the same output value as the remote control decoding chip, and at the same time establishes a command code comparison table between the input value and the output value of the IPv6 end; at this time, the remote control decoding chip and its Relevant circuits and attachment mechanisms can be cut off.

Connect the IPv6 end of the adapter to the switch end of the main controller, and at the same time load the command code comparison table into the main controller and establish address association.

Through the same method, the matching between the main controller and the remote control terminal is realized.

When in use, selecting and controlling the TV through the remote control terminal is actually choosing to use the command code comparison table for controlling the TV, and sending the operation command to the main controller, and the main controller transmits the command to the adapter through the IPv6 link. The adapter outputs the action value to the TV, that is, the control is realized.

From the above description, it can be seen that the system does not involve the core interests of TV manufacturers, and only a small amount of adjustments are required for existing technologies and production equipment, and TV manufacturers and controller manufacturers are many-to-many The relationship between computers and printers is like the current relationship between computers and printers. There is no mutual locking problem, and it can provide users with the greatest choice opportunities, which is conducive to user acceptance and promotion.

Considering the user's difficulty in using it, the main controller manufacturer should establish a support website from the very beginning, establish a connection agreement, and make full use of the online support function, so that users can simply obtain support through the Internet without complicated operations. The early publicity appeared as an alternative to remote controls, gateways, firewalls, and switches to gain an entry point, and then gradually expand functions in order to achieve a virtuous circle.

The difference between the main controller and the set-top box is that the application scope of the set-top box is specific, the depth is more than enough but the breadth is not enough, the initial cost of popularization is too high, it is difficult to find a suitable entry point, and there is a tendency to be integrated into the TV.

The difference between the remote control terminal and the universal remote control is that the remote control terminal only communicates with the master controller, and the master controller is responsible for establishing communication with specific devices. At the same time, the main controller takes the remote control terminal as its special node, which will greatly expand the functions of the remote control terminal, including but not limited to remote control basic functions (TV, air conditioner, lighting, etc.), game terminals, telephone terminals, emergency call terminals, etc. .

Fig. 3 shows the structure of a kind of implementation mode of this system structure, as shown in the figure, the information of entering and leaving the house includes analog TV signal, digital TV signal (actually only one of them may exist, for convenience of explanation, list simultaneously out), Internet broadband, telephone, etc. As shown in the figure, all traditional electrical equipment can continue to be used through corresponding conversion adapters, while gateways, modems, network switches, etc. all use existing standard products, so the equipment related to this architecture is limited to conversion adapters and integration Converting adapters for home appliances, etc.

One end of the conversion adapter is a standard network communication protocol, such as 802.11b, 802.3, etc., which is directly connected to the network switch, and the other end is used to send control commands to home appliances. Translating, can ensure the 'knowledge' of home appliances. Conversion adapters can come from two ways: integrated conversion adapters can only come from household equipment manufacturers, while external conversion adapters can be provided by household equipment manufacturers or by third parties. One of the most understandable supporting solutions is to use a conversion adapter to reset the remote control signal receiving device of traditional household equipment. The key point is that the conversion adapter neither involves the core advantages or interests of household equipment manufacturers, nor does it involve technology or patent thresholds. In fact, it is a purely universal signal transmission device, which can avoid a series of problems caused by the interlocking of household equipment and conversion adapters (you can imagine the embarrassing situation of the traditional home appliance remote control being damaged, but there is no replacement remote control).

The main controller can also integrate an Ethernet interface, a telephone control module, and the home gateway, modem, and network switch in the previous figure to form a complete home control center. The format of the command code comparison table is defined and made public by the main controller manufacturer. Since the promotion of the main controller depends to a large extent on the type of matching conversion adapter, there is no commercial reason for the disclosure of the command code comparison table format and attracting third-party matching. It should be emphasized that it is not necessary to disclose the format of the instruction code comparison table. If it is disclosed and supported by the conversion adapter manufacturer, the operation of inserting the instruction code comparison table into the main controller can be simplified; if it is not disclosed, the conversion adapter manufacturer can use The format of the instruction manual provides a comparison table of instruction codes, which are manually set by the user on the main controller. Similarly, even if the main controller manufacturer discloses the format, the conversion adapter manufacturer can also provide the command code comparison table in its own way, and the user can set it on the main controller by himself. This mechanism ensures that the main controller and the conversion adapter (including digital appliances integrating the function of the conversion adapter) do not lock each other.

The remote control terminal 2 can be regarded as a kind of household equipment that communicates wirelessly. The special feature is that its initial matching with the main controller needs to be manually set in an open standard way to eliminate nearby interference and ensure safety. Since the remote control terminal 2 needs to control a variety of household devices, and the command codes of each device vary widely, it is difficult to display on the remote control terminal with fixed buttons. Therefore, the remote control terminal 2 generally has a display device to indicate different button functions under different options. At the same time, the existence of the display device also brings rich imagination to expand the functions of the remote controller beyond the conventional functions. There is also no mutual locking constraint between the main controller and the remote control terminal.

The following is an example of the application of the system of the present invention. We describe a scenario of gradually establishing a digital home system:

Initially, we had a conventional TV.

In order to experience the digital home, we purchased a main controller with management monitoring and instruction code translation software 11, instruction code comparison table storage area 12 and wired or wireless network communication modules 13, 14, of which the limited network communication module 13 supports IEEE802 .3 protocol, the wireless network communication module 14 supports IEEE802.11b/g protocol. At this moment, the memory area of the command code comparison table of the main controller is empty, that is, the main controller does not 'know' any equipment at present. The main controller comes with a remote controller that supports IEEE802.11b/g protocol.

Next, a wireless communication link is established, and the command code comparison table of the remote controller is put into the main controller, so that the main controller and the remote controller are fully matched.

The command code comparison table is a text file, assuming 'F1' means TV, 'F2' means air conditioner, in 'F1' state '1' means power on, '2' means 'switch to AV'; in 'F2' state Next '1' means power on, '2' means power off and so on.

In order to connect a traditional TV to the main controller and accept the remote control through the main controller, an adapter needs to be configured. One end of the adapter supports 802.3 and is connected to the main controller through a network cable, and the other end simulates the original TV remote control. Output. Its command code comparison table is also a text file, assuming it receives the main controller'A' signal, it will output the 'start' signal to the remote control receiving window of the TV; when it receives the main controller'B' signal, it will Outputs 'Switch to AV' signal etc. to the remote control receiving window of the TV. We also put the instruction code comparison table into the main controller to establish the matching between the adapter and the main controller.

When we use the remote controller to send the 'F1' command to the main controller, the main controller's subsequent communication with the remote controller will enter the TV control mode, and when it receives the '2' command from the remote controller, it will send Send out the 'B' command, then the adapter will send a 'switch to AV' signal to the remote control receiving window of the TV to realize the control of the TV.

Then, we add an air conditioner that directly supports this digital home system. The air conditioner is connected to the main controller through the 802.11b protocol, and at the same time loads its command code comparison table into the main controller to establish a match with the main controller. The command code comparison table shows that 'C' means power on, 'D' means power off, and the remote controller sends 'F2' to the main controller, so that the main controller enters the air-conditioning control mode for the subsequent communication with the remote controller. When the controller '2' command is issued, the main controller directly sends the 'D' command to the air conditioner to realize the shutdown of the air conditioner.

In order to increase multi-point control, we add a 'compatible' remote control, which has the function of a handheld game console in addition to the basic remote control function. Its command code comparison table is also inconsistent with the original remote control. Both 'F1' and 'F2' are given to the game console, 'F11' means the air conditioner, '1' means power on, and '9' means power off. After matching with the main controller, you can use the 'F1' and 'F2' functions to play games normally. When you want to turn on the air conditioner, press 'F11', and then press '1' to achieve the purpose of turning on.

In the above scenario, the protocols that the adapter and the digital air conditioner need to follow are all general standard protocols, and the command code comparison table that needs to be provided can only be in the format of a text manual, without any other restrictions.

It can be seen from the above scenario description that there is no lock-in relationship between the various components in the system, and professional manufacturers can develop, upgrade or provide additional functions independently. At the same time, it does not restrict consumers' freedom of choice, and it is completely possible to gradually set up matching after purchasing.

From a cost perspective, newly launched digital home appliances will be integrated without the need for adapters. However, the large number of existing traditional home appliances provides independent manufacturers with the opportunity to produce conversion adapters, just like the universal remote control currently on the market.

Claims (7)

1. A digital home system, which is used to connect various household devices into the same network to realize interconnection communication and resource sharing, which is characterized in that it includes: The main controller (1) supports open standard communication protocols, and is equipped with management monitoring and command code translation software (11), a command code comparison table storage area (12) and a network interface for realizing command translation between different household devices, Control the establishment of communication paths between household devices or between household devices and external networks to realize data transmission; The remote control terminal (2) matched with the main controller realizes the remote control of various household devices through the main controller (1); More than one household device, each household device has a unique address, the supported communication protocol overlaps with the communication protocol supported by the main controller (1), and can establish a wired or wireless physical communication link with the main controller (1); Each household device is connected to the main controller (1) directly or through a corresponding adapter, and at the same time, the corresponding instruction code comparison table is input into the instruction code comparison table storage area (12) of the main controller (1), and the remote control terminal ( 2) Send the main controller (1) to control the operation instructions corresponding to each household device, the main controller (1) receives and recognizes the operation command, calls the instruction code comparison table corresponding to the household equipment, and realizes the control of the household equipment or its corresponding adapter to operate. 2. The digital home system according to claim 1, characterized in that: multiple main controllers with identical functions can exist in the system at the same time to achieve high reliability. 3. The digital home system according to claim 1, characterized in that: multiple remote control terminals with different functions can exist in the system at the same time to realize distributed control. 4. The digital home system according to claim 1, characterized in that: the instruction code comparison table can be loaded to the main controller by the user or through the network, and the main controller supports simultaneous loading of multiple instruction code comparison tables. 5. The digital home system according to claim 1, characterized in that: the matching between the remote terminal and the main controller is realized by loading the command code comparison table corresponding to the remote control terminal to the main controller. 6. The digital home system as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that: said remote control terminal has a soft keyboard function. 7. The digital home system according to claim 1, characterized in that: said main controller can also integrate Ethernet interface, telephone control module, home gateway, modem and network switch, etc. to expand the functions of the main controller.

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