Method for establishing control connection, mobile terminal, kit of mobile terminal and home appliance, and method for retrofitting home appliance
By setting readable information on household appliances and machine reading and identifier allocation on mobile terminals, the problem of frequent connection to the Internet in the prior art is solved, and a correct and secure control connection establishment is achieved.
Patent Information
- Application Number
- CN202380061921.6
- Authority / Receiving Office
- CN · China
- Patent Type
- Applications(China)
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Priority Date
- 2022-11-09
- Filing Date
- 2023-11-07
- Publication Date
- 2025-04-04
AI Technical Summary
In the prior art, when establishing a control connection between a mobile terminal and a household appliance, it is necessary to connect the household appliance to the Internet or a central instance every time the connection is connected, and readable information allocation errors are prone to occur, resulting in incorrect control connection settings or incompatible commands.
By setting up information that can be read from outside contactless on the household appliance, the mobile terminal performs machine reading and checks whether a data connection and machine-specific identifier allocation have been established. If not, a data connection is established to obtain an identifier and allocate it; if there is an identifier, a control connection is established using the identifier.
It realizes the information required to establish a control connection between the mobile terminal and the household appliances, without connecting the household appliances to the Internet every time the connection is avoided, and ensures the correctness and security of the control connection.
Smart Images
Figure CN119769118A_ABST
Abstract
Description
Technical Field
[0001] The present invention relates to a method for establishing a control connection between a household appliance and a mobile terminal. The household appliance may be, for example, a coffee machine, in particular, a fully automatic coffee machine. The mobile terminal may be, for example, a smart phone or a tablet computer. Background Art
[0002] In order to simplify the operation of home appliances by users, it has become possible to connect them to mobile terminals so that commands can be transmitted to the home appliances through an easy-to-use user interface on the mobile terminal.
[0003] In order to establish a favorable and secure control connection between a mobile terminal and a home appliance so as to be able to control the home appliance via the mobile terminal during normal operation, the user must first connect his mobile terminal with the home appliance (this step is also called "pairing" or "engagement"). Summary of the invention
[0004] The object of the present invention is to improve the procedure of connection between a mobile terminal and a household appliance.
[0005] A solution to this object is provided by a method for establishing a control connection between a domestic appliance and a mobile terminal having the features of claim 1 .
[0006] In particular, in order to achieve the stated object, a method of the above-mentioned type is proposed, wherein information which can be read from the outside, preferably contactlessly, can be provided on or at a household appliance or information which can be read from the outside, preferably contactlessly, can be accessed, such as non-device-specific information and / or information which is independent of a machine-specific identifier, characterized by the following steps:
[0007] - machine-reading the information using the mobile terminal,
[0008] - checking whether a data connection has been established for the information in the past and / or whether a machine-specific identifier has been assigned to the information in the past, and,
[0009] - if the result of the check is negative, establishing a preferably direct data connection between the household appliance and the mobile terminal in order to obtain a machine-specific identifier from the household appliance and to assign the identifier to the information, or,
[0010] - If the result of the check is positive, establishing said control connection using said identifier.
[0011] If no data connection has been previously established with the readable information, the information has not yet been assigned to the machine-specific identifier of the household appliance and can theoretically also be assigned to the machine-specific identifier of another household appliance. In other words, the readable information can initially be information independent of the machine-specific identifier. The advantage of this is that when assigning the readable information to the household appliance, it is not necessary to pay attention to whether the readable information (generally, information that requires the help of a tool to read) belongs to the household appliance or has been correctly assigned to the household appliance. If the readable information has been designed specifically for the household appliance or a specific model of the household appliance, this will create a potential source of error, because such household appliance-specific readable information may be assigned to the wrong household appliance, such as the wrong model and / or the wrong location. This in turn may lead to incorrect control connection settings and / or incompatible commands transmitted to the household appliance for control via the mobile terminal. Therefore, according to the present invention, the readable information can be assigned to the identifier by initially establishing a data connection between the mobile terminal and the household appliance. For example, the data connection can be automatically established preferably with the mobile terminal that is locally closest to the household appliance and / or has the strongest connection signal. After the readable information is assigned to the identifier, a control connection can be established between the mobile terminal and the household appliance, i.e., another data connection that is preferably used for normal operation. If an assignment has already been made between the readable information and the identifier, this assignment step does not need to be performed again. Thus, the identifier can be used directly here to establish a control connection. Thus, the invention makes it possible to obtain the information required for establishing a control connection between a mobile terminal and a household appliance without having to connect the household appliance to the Internet or a central instance each time a control connection is established. The invention also allows the use of simple storage devices, in particular unchangeable storage devices (such as a printer) to provide the readable information.
[0012] Advantageous further developments of the invention are described below, which can be combined with the features of claim 1 alone or in combination with the features of other further developments described and / or claimed herein.
[0013] According to an advantageous development of the method, when checking whether a data connection has been established in the past for the information, in particular whether a data connection different from a control connection has been established, it can be checked whether a machine-specific identifier assigned to the information exists in the mobile terminal and / or on an external memory (e.g. a server) and / or in the household appliance. Alternatively or additionally, it is also possible to verify information about whether a successful check has occurred in the past, for example by reading a corresponding control bit. This can be used, for example, to determine the connection data.
[0014] According to a possible embodiment, the assignment between the readable information and the identifier can be stored on the mobile terminal. The advantage of this is that the user only needs to link his mobile terminal to the household appliance once using the method, and then can use the same mobile terminal to access the established control connection to control the household appliance. In addition, it can be considered that by performing the method once, the user can establish a control connection with the same household appliance in other locations when necessary, without having to establish a control connection with the same household appliance again. For example, it can be provided here that the household appliance reads the mobile terminal.
[0015] Alternatively or additionally, the assignment of identifier to information can also be stored in the domestic appliance, in particular as part of readable information.
[0016] According to another advantageous embodiment, when establishing a data connection, the household appliance is preferably manually selected from a list of available connection participants in the mobile terminal. This allows the user to select which household appliance should establish a control connection according to the method.
[0017] According to another advantageous embodiment, the assignment of identifiers to information can be stored in the mobile terminal. As already described above, this has the advantage that the user only needs to link his mobile terminal to the household appliance once using the method and can then control the household appliance using the established control connection.
[0018] In order to be able to reestablish a control connection between the mobile terminal and the household appliance safely and / or as quickly as possible after the initial setup, it is advantageous if the identifier contains connection data. For example, it can be a preferably coded identifier of the household appliance.
[0019] Furthermore, it may be particularly advantageous if the information contains a separate string that can uniquely identify the information, in particular to facilitate the establishment of a secure control connection between the mobile terminal and the household appliance. For example, the string can be randomly generated. Using a separate string can easily avoid confusion or erroneous assignment.
[0020] If after reading the information, it is automatically checked whether the relevant application for operating the control connection has been installed, it will be particularly advantageous. Specifically, it can be provided that if the application is not installed, a connection with the Internet is established to obtain the application, and / or if the application is installed, the application is called.
[0021] According to an advantageous further development, the information can be selected independently of the identifier. The information can thus be transmitted to the mobile terminal via a variety of different signal transmitters and read by it. Basically, the mobile terminal only needs to have a receiving device to receive and evaluate the information.
[0022] Furthermore, the machine-specific identifier can be stored and / or pre-stored in the information. The identifier is preferably or is stored on an NFC tag. Particularly preferably, the user can store the identifier in the information by executing the method for establishing a control connection described herein and / or claimed below. A user who subsequently machine-reads the information for the first time does not need to execute the entire method for establishing a control connection, but can thereby establish a control connection more quickly, because in this embodiment of the invention, the assignment of the information to the identifier is stored directly in the information.
[0023] In order to be able to perform the method as position-independent as possible, the establishment of a data connection and / or the establishment of a control connection can be performed locally. Specifically, if the mobile terminal and / or the household appliance is disconnected from the Internet, a data connection and / or a control connection can be established.
[0024] According to an advantageous refinement, the information can be read mechanically and / or magnetically and / or electromagnetically and / or acoustically and / or optically. Particularly preferably, the information can be stored on an RFID tag (also called an NFC tag) and / or in an optically readable code, in particular a one-dimensional code or a two-dimensional matrix code.
[0025] According to a further advantageous development, the assignment of identifiers to information can be stored in an accessible manner on an external memory, in particular on a server. Thus, the assignment can be stored centrally and retrieved from the external memory when the information is read again. This thus enables, for example, the assignment stored on the external memory to be accessed and used also by a new mobile terminal, preferably without the need to carry out the described complete method for establishing a control connection on this new terminal itself.
[0026] The invention also relates to a mobile terminal, in particular a smartphone or a tablet computer, having means for executing the method described and / or claimed herein.
[0027] The present invention also relates to a kit comprising a mobile terminal as described and / or claimed herein and a household appliance, in particular a coffee machine, wherein information for executing the method as described and / or claimed herein can preferably be stored on the household appliance, in particular in an RFID tag and / or a two-dimensional matrix code.
[0028] The invention also relates to a method for retrofitting a household appliance with a machine-specific identifier and / or information for carrying out a method as described herein and / or claimed below. This enables a user to subsequently assign preferably non-specific information to his household appliance and associate it with the machine-specific identifier of his household appliance. This can be achieved, for example, by an NFC tag attached to the household appliance or at least arranged in the vicinity. This has the advantage that the user can also retrofit his household appliance later, for example after the household appliance has been put into operation for the first time, in order to be able to set up a better alternative control by establishing a control connection. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0029] The invention will now be described in more detail by means of a number of embodiments, but the invention is not limited to these embodiments. Further embodiments result from the combination of the features of one or more claims with each other and / or with one or more features of the embodiments.
[0030] In the attached figure:
[0031] Figure 1 A first possible embodiment variant of the method according to the invention for establishing a control connection between a household appliance and a mobile terminal is shown, wherein an NFC tag is used as a carrier of readable information for establishing a data connection, wherein the assignment of an identifier to the information is carried out and stored on the mobile terminal, and wherein the control connection between the household appliance and the mobile terminal is ultimately established via another preferably wireless data connection, such as WiFi or BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy);
[0032] Figure 2 A second possible embodiment variant of the method according to the invention for establishing a control connection between a household appliance and a mobile terminal is shown, wherein an NFC tag is used as a carrier of readable information for establishing a data connection, wherein the assignment of identifiers to the information is stored on an external memory, and wherein the control connection between the household appliance and the mobile terminal is ultimately established via another, preferably wireless data connection, such as WiFi or BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy);
[0033] Figure 3 A third possible embodiment variant of the method according to the invention for establishing a control connection between a household appliance and a mobile terminal is shown, wherein an NFC tag is used as a carrier of readable information to establish a data connection, wherein the assignment of an identifier to the information is stored on the mobile terminal, and wherein the control connection between the household appliance and the mobile terminal is ultimately established via another preferably wireless data connection, such as WiFi or BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy). DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0034] Figures 1 to 3An embodiment of a method according to the invention for establishing a control connection 1 between a household appliance 2 and a mobile terminal 3 is respectively shown in a schematic manner.
[0035] The domestic appliance 2 can be designed, for example, as a coffee machine, for example preferably as a fully automatic coffee machine.
[0036] The domestic appliance 2 has at least one data connection device for establishing a data connection 7 in order to be able to connect to a mobile terminal 3 , in particular a local mobile terminal, ie a mobile terminal located in the reception area of the domestic appliance, and / or a network and / or the Internet.
[0037] The mobile terminal 3 can be designed as a smartphone, for example. The mobile terminal 3 has at least one data connection device for establishing a data connection 7 in order to be able to connect to a correspondingly equipped, in particular local, domestic appliance and / or a network and / or the Internet.
[0038] Figures 1 to 3 An embodiment is shown in which the household appliance 2 and the mobile terminal 3 can be connected to each other via NFC and / or WiFi and / or BLE data connection devices.
[0039] The method according to the invention is used to establish a control connection 1 between a mobile terminal 3 and a domestic appliance 2 which is operated via the mobile terminal 3 .
[0040] For this purpose, information 4 is arranged or accessible on or near the domestic appliance 2, for example on or near a housing part, which information 4 can preferably be read contactlessly using a mobile terminal 3. The information 4 does not necessarily have to be provided directly on the domestic appliance 2, but only requires that the user explicitly assign the information 4 to the domestic appliance 2.
[0041] Therefore, in this step, the information 4 is machine-read 5. However, the information 4 may also be stored in other forms, such as a graphically scannable matrix code. Further, the information 4 may be randomly generated information 4, such as a randomly generated character identifier or string.
[0042] In principle, the information 4 can be supplemented with specific connection parameters after the first establishment of the data connection 7 in order to achieve a secure and unique identification. However, the connection parameters mentioned can also be stored together with the assignment 11 of the identifier 10 to the information 4, which will be described in more detail below, preferably without changing the original information 4.
[0043] exist Figure 1-Figure 3 In the embodiment shown, the readable information 4 is stored in the NFC tag (RFID tag) and may, for example, include a randomly generated number or identifier. If the mobile terminal 3 is equipped with NFC and the NFC tag is activated, a data connection 7 may be established between the NFC tag paired with the household appliance 2 and the mobile terminal 3.
[0044] When establishing the data connection 7, the user can be prompted on the mobile terminal 3 to select the household appliance 2 to be connected. For this purpose, a list of all connection participants that are within the reception range of the mobile terminal 3 can be displayed, from which the user can manually select. It is also conceivable that an automatic setup of the data connection 7 can be performed, for example, when only one connection participant is within the reception range of the mobile terminal 3.
[0045] By means of the step of establishing the data connection 7 described above, a checking step 8 is started on the mobile terminal 3, preferably automatically, in order to check whether the software required for controlling the household appliance 2 via the mobile terminal 3 is installed (in Figure 1 The application is abbreviated as JOE). The software can be used to transmit operating commands to the household appliance 2.
[0046] If the software has not been installed on the mobile terminal 3 , the user is prompted to install the software on the mobile terminal 3 or the software is automatically installed.
[0047] If the software has been correctly installed, the software is started on the mobile terminal 3 using the steps described above.
[0048] This is followed by a further check step 9 in which a check is made whether a data connection 7 has already been established in the past for the read information 4 and / or whether a machine-specific identifier 10 has already been assigned to the information 4 in the past.
[0049] If the result of this check 9 is negative, i.e. if no data connection 7 was established in the past for the read information 4 and / or no machine-specific identifier 10 was assigned, a preferably direct data connection 7 is first established between the domestic appliance 2 and the mobile terminal 3 in order to obtain the machine-specific identifier 10 from the domestic appliance 2.
[0050] In a subsequent assignment step 11 , an identifier 10 is assigned to the information 4 and this assignment 11 is stored.
[0051] According to an optional embodiment variant, provision can be made that, after a single execution of the method for establishing a control connection 1, the machine-specific identifier 10 and / or its assignment 11 to the information 4 is stored in the information 4. Thus, a later reading of the information 4 by another mobile terminal 3 allows the control connection 1 to be established directly by the other mobile terminal 3, without having to carry out the previously described intermediate step for establishing a data connection 7 to obtain the machine-specific identifier 10.
[0052] However, if the result of the check 9 is positive, i.e. if a data connection 4 has already been established in the past, a control connection 1 is established 12 between the household appliance 2 and the mobile terminal 3 using the identifier 10. To this end, the identifier 10 may contain connection data required for establishing the control connection 1, without which preferably it would not be possible to establish the control connection 1.
[0053] The aforementioned information 4 can in principle be independent of the identifier 10. Only by the assignment step 11 are the two linked to one another.
[0054] The storage of the assignment 11 between the read information 4 and the machine-specific identifier 10 can be stored locally, ie in the household appliance 2 and / or in the mobile terminal 3, such as Figure 1 and Figure 3 The embodiment shown. This embodiment variant has the advantage that, when the information 6 is read again by the mobile terminal 3, it can be determined by a check step 9 whether the data connection 7 has already been successfully established in the past. Therefore, for this check step 9, the household appliance 2 and / or the mobile terminal 3 do not need to be connected to the external memory 5 and / or the Internet. The local data connection 7 between the two devices is sufficient to finally establish the control connection 1.
[0055] Figure 2 Another embodiment is shown, in which, according to Figure 1 and Figure 3 In contrast to the exemplary embodiment of WO 2005 / 050664, the assignment 11 between the information 4 and the machine-specific identifier 10 is not stored locally, but rather the assignment 11 is stored in an external memory 5 , for example a server.
[0056] In this case, it is only possible to check 9 whether a data connection 7 has already been established in the past for reading in the information 4 if there is a connection between the domestic appliance 2 and / or the mobile terminal 3 and the external memory 5 or if the assignment 11 is additionally also stored locally in the domestic appliance 2 and / or the external terminal 3 .
[0057] However, storing the assignment 11 on the external memory 5 has the advantage that when reading the information 4 in the reading step 6, new mobile terminals 3 that have not previously read the assignment information 4 and / or mobile terminals 3 that have not stored the assignment 11 locally can still access the stored assignment 11 of the identifier 10 and the information 4. Thus, by establishing a connection 14 to the external memory 5, the assignment 11 can be received 15 and then the control connection 1 can be established on this basis.
[0058] Reference numerals list
[0059] 1 Control Connection
[0060] 2 Home appliances
[0061] 3 Mobile Terminals
[0062] 4 Readable information
[0063] 5 External Memory
[0064] 6 Read information
[0065] 7 Data Connection
[0066] 8 Check whether the application for operating the control connection is installed and install the application if necessary.
[0067] 9 Check whether a data connection has been established in the past and / or whether a machine-specific identifier has been assigned to the message in the past
[0068] 10 Get the machine specific identifier
[0069] 11 Assigning identifiers to information
[0070] 12 Establishing a control connection
[0071] 13 Allocation of storage identifiers and information
[0072] 14 Establishing a connection with the server
[0073] 15 Allocation of receiver identifiers and information
[0074] 16 Information modified
Claims
1. A method for establishing a control connection (1) between a household appliance (2) and a mobile terminal (3), the household appliance (2) being in particular a coffee machine, and the mobile terminal (3) being in particular a smartphone, wherein: Information (4) which can be read from the outside and is independent of the machine-specific identifier (10) is provided on or at the household appliance (2) or information (4) which can be read from the outside and is independent of the machine-specific identifier (10) is accessible, characterized by the following steps: - machine reading (6) the information (4) using the mobile terminal (3), - checking (9) whether a data connection has already been established in the past for said information (4) and whether a machine-specific identifier (10) has been assigned to said information (4), and, - if the result of the check is negative, establishing a preferably direct data connection (7) between the household appliance (2) and the mobile terminal (3) in order to obtain a machine-specific identifier (10) from the household appliance (2) and to assign (11) the identifier (10) to the information (4), or, - If the result of the check is positive, establishing (12) said control connection using said identifier (10).
2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that During the check (9) whether a data connection (7) has already been established in the past for the information (4), it is checked whether a machine-specific identifier (10) associated with the information (4) and / or information about a past successful check is present in the mobile terminal (3) and / or in an external memory (5), in particular on a server, and / or in the domestic appliance (2).
3. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that When establishing the data connection (7), the household appliance (2) is preferably selected manually from a list of available connection participants in the mobile terminal (3).
4. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that The assignment (11) of the identifier (10) to the information (4) is stored in the mobile terminal (3) and / or the household appliance (2), in particular in the contactlessly readable information (4).
5. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that The identifier (10) contains connection data.
6. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that The information (4) contains a separate string of characters that can uniquely identify the information.
7. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that After reading (6) the information (4), it is automatically checked (8) whether an associated application for operating the control connection is installed, in particular, if not installed, a connection to the Internet is established to obtain the application, and / or if installed, the application is called.
8. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that The information (4) can be selected independently of the identifier (10) and / or the identifier (10) can be stored and / or can be pre-stored in the information (4), preferably the identifier (10) is an NFC tag or is stored on an NFC tag.
9. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that The establishment of the data connection (7) and / or the establishment (12) of the control connection (1) can be performed locally, in particular when the mobile terminal (3) and / or the household appliance (2) are disconnected from the Internet.
10. The method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that The information (4) can be read mechanically and / or magnetically and / or electromagnetically and / or acoustically and / or optically. Preferably, the information (4) is stored on an RFID tag and / or in a two-dimensional matrix code.
11. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that The assignment (11) of the identifier (10) to the information (4) is stored in an accessible manner on an external memory (5), in particular on a server.
12. A mobile terminal (3), in particular a smartphone, having means for carrying out the method according to one of the preceding claims.
13. A kit comprising a mobile terminal (3) according to claim 12 and a household appliance (2), in particular a coffee machine, wherein: Preferably, information (4) which can be used to carry out the method according to one of claims 1 to 11 is stored on the household appliance (2), preferably wherein: The information (4) can be read mechanically and / or magnetically and / or electromagnetically and / or acoustically and / or optically.
14. A method for retrofitting a domestic appliance (2) by means of a machine-specific identifier (10) and / or information (4) for carrying out the method according to one of claims 1 to 11.