Home appliance maintenance support system and home appliance maintenance support program

Abstract

To collect log data relating to malfunctions in home appliances in a timely manner and to realize diagnosis of the malfunctions further suited to actual conditions.SOLUTION: A home appliance maintenance support system comprises: a log data collection unit 32 for collecting log data indicating the operation status of a home appliance group 2; an event detection unit for starting to detect an event of a home appliance if a malfunction is detected in the home appliance group 2; a log data collection condition setting unit 35 for changing log data collection conditions in the log data collection unit in response to the detection of the event; and a diagnostic unit 34 for analyzing event information indicating the detected event of the home appliance and / or log data collected according to the changed collection conditions and outputting diagnostic information indicating a diagnostic result of diagnosing the malfunction of the home appliance.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a technique for supporting the management of various devices such as home appliances, and in particular, the maintenance of such devices. [Background technology]

[0002] Currently, when a problem such as a breakdown occurs in a home appliance, an operator or a serviceman may handle the problem. In this case, the operator or the serviceman checks the behavior and log data of the home appliance and takes action. For example, the operator performs so-called remote support using an operator terminal. Patent Document 1 has been proposed as an example of such support.

[0003] Patent Document 1 discloses that when an operator uses an operator terminal 150 to provide remote support for an electrical appliance 10, the contact information for the administrator who manages the electrical appliance is identified from an administrator information database 250, the administrator is notified of the operator's information, and the remote support is initiated only after access permission is received from an administrator terminal 300 used by the administrator, thereby giving the administrator a sense of security when providing remote support (summary). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] JP 2013-239020 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] When providing remote support, the problem must be dealt with from an operator terminal in a remote location, which may result in insufficient support. In such cases, a service technician must visit the customer to deal with the problem. As a result, it takes a long time to deal with the problem. This is because log data related to the problem cannot be collected and used sufficiently.

[0006] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to more appropriately collect and make available log data relating to malfunctions in home appliances. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] The configuration of the present invention for solving the above-mentioned problems is a home appliance maintenance support system having a log data collection unit that collects log data indicating the operating status of a home appliance, an event detection unit that starts detecting an event of the home appliance upon detection of a malfunction in the home appliance, a log data collection condition setting unit that changes the collection conditions of the log data in the log data collection unit in response to the detection of the event, and a diagnosis unit that analyzes event information indicating the detected event of the home appliance and / or the log data collected according to the changed collection conditions, and outputs diagnostic information indicating the diagnostic results of diagnosing the malfunction of the home appliance.

[0008] The present invention also includes a home appliance maintenance support program for causing a computer to function as a log data collection unit that collects log data indicating the operating status of a home appliance, an event detection unit that starts detecting an event of the home appliance on condition that a malfunction in the home appliance is detected, a log data collection condition setting unit that changes the collection conditions of the log data in the log data collection unit in response to the detection of the event, and a diagnosis unit that analyzes event information indicating the detected event of the home appliance and / or the log data collected according to the changed collection conditions, and outputs diagnosis information indicating a diagnosis result of diagnosing the malfunction of the home appliance. Here, the computer includes a user terminal used by a user, a home appliance maintenance support device, or a combination of these.

[0009] Furthermore, the present invention also includes the above-mentioned home appliance maintenance support system, and a home appliance maintenance support method using the home appliance maintenance support system and each of the devices and subsystems that constitute the home appliance maintenance support system. Effect of the Invention

[0010] According to the present invention, log data relating to malfunctions in home appliances can be collected in a timely manner, and malfunctions can be diagnosed in a more realistic manner. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0011] [Figure 1] 1 is a system configuration diagram of a home appliance maintenance support system according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 2] 1 is a functional block diagram of a user terminal 1 in one embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 3] 1 is a hardware configuration diagram of a user terminal 1 in one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 4] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing user management information 111 used in one embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 5] FIG. 12 is a diagram showing home appliance management information 112 used in one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 6] 2 is a functional block diagram of a home appliance 2A according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. [Figure 7] 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of a home appliance maintenance support device 3 in one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. [Figure 8A] 1 is a flowchart (part 1) showing a processing flow of maintenance support in one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 8B] 11 is a flowchart (part 2) showing the processing flow of maintenance support in one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 9] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an event information display screen 1090 in one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 10] 10 is a flowchart showing a process flow of diagnosis processing in step S21 in one embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0012] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below. In this embodiment, a plurality of home appliances is managed as a representative of devices. As an example of management, the maintenance of the home appliances is supported. In this embodiment, maintenance means dealing with problems that occur in the home appliances, and includes various types of care such as repair, part replacement, cleaning, and disassembly.

[0013] 1 is a system configuration diagram of a home appliance maintenance support system in this embodiment. The home appliance maintenance support system has a user terminal 1 and a home appliance maintenance support device 3, which manage a group of home appliances 2. In the following, each home appliance constituting the group of home appliances 2 will be referred to as a home appliance 2A.

[0014] For this purpose, the user terminal 1, the group of home appliances 2, and the home appliance maintenance support device 3 are connected to each other. For this purpose, they may be connected via a router 5 or a network 6, or may be connected directly using a short-range communication function. Then, the user terminal 1 and the home appliance maintenance support device 3 work together to detect a malfunction or the possibility of a malfunction in any of the group of home appliances 2 (hereinafter, simply described as a malfunction occurring), and change the log data collection conditions of the target home appliance 2A accordingly. As a result, it becomes possible to deal with the malfunction in a timely manner, including diagnosis. Below, each of these devices, including the group of home appliances 2, will be described.

[0015] First, the user terminal 1 is an information processing device used by a user of the group of home appliances 2 to be maintained. Therefore, the user terminal 1 can be realized by various computers such as a smartphone, a tablet, a mobile phone, or a PC. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the user terminal 1 in this embodiment. The user terminal 1 has a communication unit 101, an image capturing unit 102, a sound collecting unit 103, a log data collecting unit 104, a fault detecting unit 105, a diagnosis unit 106, a log data collecting condition setting unit 107, an input unit 108, an output unit 109, and a storage unit 110.

[0016] First, the communication unit 101 has a function of communication via the router 5 and the network 6 and a function of short-distance wireless communication. The photographing unit 102 is realized by a camera or the like and acquires an image of the surroundings. The sound collecting unit 103 is realized by a microphone or the like and acquires a sound of the surroundings. The photographing unit 102 and the sound collecting unit 103 are specific examples of an event detection unit that detects an event of the home appliance 2A when a malfunction occurs in the home appliance group 2. Therefore, the image and the sound correspond to the event of the home appliance 2A. The event detection unit starts detecting an event on the condition that there is a malfunction in the home appliance group 2. Here, the event detection unit may start detection using a result of the malfunction detected by the malfunction detection unit 105 described later, or may start detection in response to an operation from a user who recognizes the occurrence of the malfunction. The event information indicates a symptom of the malfunction, such as a failure symptom in the home appliance 2A.

[0017] Furthermore, the log data collection unit 104 collects log data indicating the operating status of the group of home appliances 2 from the group of home appliances 2. Furthermore, the malfunction detection unit 105 detects the occurrence of a malfunction in the group of home appliances 2 based on the collected log data.

[0018] Furthermore, the diagnosis unit 106 creates event information indicating the event detected by the event detection unit, and performs diagnosis such as identifying a way to deal with the malfunction using at least one of the event information and the log data. Here, the event information is information indicating the symptoms (including failure symptoms) of the malfunction that has occurred in the home appliance 2A. Examples of the event information that can be used include abnormal noise, water leakage, power failure / not powering on, and no response from the display operation unit 209. The diagnosis unit 106 can also be treated as an event detection unit, in which case the diagnosis result is used as event information. Furthermore, the diagnosis unit 106 estimates the conditions under which the malfunction occurs by analyzing at least one of the event information and the log data. The conditions under which the malfunction occurs can include time of day, temperature, humidity, and the like. Furthermore, the conditions under which the malfunction occurs include environmental conditions that are common to other home appliances. The environmental conditions include malfunctions in the electrical wiring of the house or the like in which the group of home appliances 2 is used. The diagnosis unit 106 can then perform a diagnosis by regarding the conditions under which the malfunction occurs as the cause of the malfunction.

[0019] Furthermore, the log data collection condition setting unit 107 specifies the collection conditions for log data when a predetermined condition is satisfied. This specification includes changing the collection conditions that have already been set. The predetermined conditions include the detection of an event by the event detection unit and operations from the user. The log data collection condition setting unit 107 specifies the collection conditions in accordance with predetermined rules. These predetermined rules include improving the collection conditions that have already been set. This improvement refers to improving the quality of the log data to be collected, and includes finer granularity, shortening the collection cycle, and increasing the number and types of log data to be collected.

[0020] The predetermined rule also includes setting collection conditions according to event information detected by the event detection unit. For example, the type of data to be collected is specified according to the frequency of the sound collected by the sound collection unit 103. This allows the content of the malfunction to be estimated from the frequency, and by collecting log data according to the malfunction, a more reliable diagnosis can be realized. The predetermined rule also includes setting collection conditions according to the occurrence conditions of the malfunction estimated by the diagnosis unit 106. Then, the log data collection unit 104 collects log data of the home appliance 2A in which the malfunction has occurred according to the specified collection conditions.

[0021] Here, at least one of log data collection unit 104 to log data collection condition setting unit 107 may be omitted by providing a function corresponding to group of home appliances 2 or home appliance maintenance support device 3.

[0022] Furthermore, the input unit 108 accepts various operations from the user. Furthermore, the output unit 109 outputs the diagnosis result of the diagnosis unit 106 and the like. The input unit 108 and the output unit 109 may be integrated into one unit, such as a touch panel. Furthermore, the storage unit 110 stores user management information 111 and home appliance management information 112. These pieces of information will be described after the implementation example of the user terminal 1.

[0023] Next, an implementation example of the user terminal 1 will be described. As described above, the user terminal 1 can be realized by various computers such as a smartphone, a tablet, a mobile phone, or a PC. Fig. 3 is a hardware configuration diagram of the user terminal 1 in this embodiment. In Fig. 3, the user terminal 1 has a camera 121, a microphone 122, a touch panel 123, a processing device 124, a communication device 125, and a storage device 126, which are connected to each other via a communication path.

[0024] First, camera 121 is an example of the imaging unit 102 and has an imaging function. Microphone 122 is an example of the sound collection unit 103 and has a sound collection function. Touch panel 123 is configured to serve both input unit 108 and output unit 109 in Fig. 2, and accepts user operations and displays various information such as diagnosis results. Note that touch panel 123 may be configured separately as an input device and an output device.

[0025] Moreover, the processing device 124 can be realized by a processor such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), and executes calculations according to a home appliance maintenance support program 127 stored in a storage device 126 described later.

[0026] The home appliance maintenance support program 127 is composed of a log data collection module 128, a malfunction detection module 129, a diagnosis module 130, and a log data collection condition setting module 131 for each function. Each of these modules may be realized as an individual program or a partial combination. Furthermore, the home appliance maintenance support program 127 may be realized as one function of an integrated management application that manages the group of home appliances 2 and also has functions such as replacement and operation.

[0027] Here, the configuration shown in FIG. 2, which performs the same functions as each module, is as follows. Log data collection module 128: Log data collection unit 104 Fault detection module 129: fault detection unit 105 Diagnostic module 130: diagnostic unit 106 Log data collection condition setting module 131: Log data collection condition setting unit 107 Therefore, the processing device 124 executes the processes of the log data collecting unit 104, the fault detecting unit 105, the diagnosing unit 106, and the log data collection condition setting unit 107 in accordance with the home appliance maintenance support program 127. The home appliance maintenance support program 127 can be stored in the storage device 126 described later or other storage media.

[0028] 2, and has a function of communication via router 5 and network 6 and a function of short-distance wireless communication. Storage device 126 corresponds to storage device 110 in FIG. 2, and stores the above-mentioned home appliance maintenance support program 127, user management information 111, and home appliance management information 112. For this reason, storage device 126 may be realized by a main storage device such as a memory and a secondary storage device (storage medium) that is a so-called storage. Note that the secondary storage device may be realized by an external HDD (Hard Disk Drive), SSD (Solid State Drive), memory card, or the like.

[0029] Here, the user management information 111 and the home appliance management information 112 will be described. Fig. 4 is a diagram showing the user management information 111 used in this embodiment. The user management information 111 is information about the user of the user terminal 1. For this reason, as shown in Fig. 4, the user management information 111 has items such as user, address, contact information, and owned home appliances. Here, the user information is information for identifying the user, such as the user's name and membership number.

[0030] Moreover, the address indicates the address of the user. Moreover, the contact information indicates the contact information of the user, and may be a telephone number or an email address. The owned home appliance is information indicating the home appliance 2A used by the user. Here, the user management information 111 can be used to manage and authenticate the user in the home appliance maintenance support program 127. It is to be noted that the user management information 111 may be omitted.

[0031] 5 is a diagram showing home appliance management information 112 used in this embodiment. The home appliance management information 112 is information for managing the group of home appliances 2. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, the home appliance management information 112 has items such as a home appliance ID, log data, event information, malfunction / occurrence condition, and collection condition / type for each home appliance (2A).

[0032] First, the home appliance ID is identification information for identifying the individual home appliance 2A, but may be included in the item of the home appliance. The log data is log data indicating the operation status of the home appliance 2A (for example, the microwave oven 21). The log data of this embodiment is collected according to collection conditions such as a predetermined cycle, each time the appliance is operated, etc.

[0033] Moreover, the event information indicates an event detected by the event detection unit when a malfunction occurs. Moreover, the malfunction / occurrence condition indicates the contents of the malfunction that occurred in the home appliance 2A and the occurrence condition, which is the situation when the malfunction occurred. The malfunction is identified from log data such as an error code of the home appliance 2A. Moreover, the occurrence condition can be detected by a sensor or the like when the malfunction occurs. The collection condition / type indicates the collection condition of the log data, and for example, the period, the air temperature, the inside temperature, etc. are used. The type indicates the type of log data to be collected, but this type can be omitted and all types (data) can be targeted. Note that, when using the user management information 361 or the home appliance management information 362 described later, at least one of the user management information 111 and the home appliance management information 112 can be omitted. This concludes the description of the user terminal 1 including the user management information 111 and the home appliance management information 112, and returning to FIG. 1, the description of the home appliance maintenance support system will be continued.

[0034] The group of home appliances 2 is a plurality of home appliances 2A that are maintenance targets and are used by users in a house or the like. In FIG. 1, a microwave oven 21, a refrigerator 22, a vacuum cleaner 23, an IH cooker 24, an air purifier 25, and a washing machine 26 are shown as the home appliances 2A, but the home appliances 2A are not limited to these. Here, the information processing configuration of each of these home appliances 2A will be described. FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram of the home appliances 2A in this embodiment. Since each of the home appliances 2A in the group of home appliances 2A executes common information processing, their functions will be described collectively.

[0035] The home appliance 2A has a control unit 201, a communication unit 208, a display operation unit 209, an operating unit 210, and a sensor 211. These are connected to each other via a communication path. Each component will be described below.

[0036] First, the control unit 201 creates control signals for implementing the functions of each home appliance 2A, such as cooking and laundry, to control the operation of the home appliance 2A, and executes other information processing. For this purpose, the control unit 201 has a control signal creation unit 202, a log data collection unit 203, a fault detection unit 204, a diagnosis unit 205, a log data collection condition setting unit 206, and a storage unit 207.

[0037] The control signal creation unit 202 creates a control signal for executing a function such as cooking according to an operation from a user to the display operation unit 209 or a control command from the user terminal 1. Although the description is omitted in Figs. 2 and 3, it is preferable that the user terminal 1 has a function for creating a control command. Also, the log data collection unit 203, the fault detection unit 204, the diagnosis unit 205, and the log data collection condition setting unit 206 have the same functions as the log data collection unit 104, the fault detection unit 105, the diagnosis unit 106, and the log data collection condition setting unit 107, respectively. Therefore, the description of these functions is omitted. The log data collection unit 203 collects log data from the operation unit 210 and the sensor 211. The log data includes the operation status of the operation unit 210 and the status of the home appliance 2A, such as the temperature at that time.

[0038] Furthermore, the functions of fault detection unit 204, diagnosis unit 205, and log data collection condition setting unit 206 can be provided in user terminal 1 or home appliance maintenance support device 3, and at least one of them can be omitted. Furthermore, storage unit 207 stores collected log data and collection conditions. Note that control unit 201 can be realized by an MPU (Micro-Processing Unit). Therefore, each of control unit 201, control signal creation unit 202, log data collection unit 203, fault detection unit 204, diagnosis unit 205, and log data collection condition setting unit 206 can be realized by dedicated hardware or software such as a program.

[0039] The communication unit 208 also has a function of communicating via the router 5 and the network 6 and a function of short-range wireless communication. The communication unit 208 notifies the user terminal 1 and the home appliance maintenance support device 3 of log data and receives a control command from the user terminal 1.

[0040] Furthermore, the display operation unit 209 receives operations for the home appliance 2A from the user, and outputs an error message indicating the details of a malfunction (for example, an error) that has occurred in the home appliance 2A. The operation unit 210 operates according to the control signal created by the control signal creation unit 202. Furthermore, the sensor 211 measures the status of the home appliance 2A, including the operation unit 210, the operation time (date and time), and the temperature and humidity during operation. Furthermore, the sensor 211 measures power supply information such as the temperature inside the home appliance 2A, the power consumption, and the current value (input value) from the outlet. For this reason, it is desirable to prepare a plurality of sensors 211 for each measurement target. This concludes the description of the home appliance 2A, and next, the home appliance maintenance support device 3 will be described with reference to FIG. 1.

[0041] 1, home appliance maintenance support device 3 includes a communication unit 31, a log data collection unit 32, a malfunction detection unit 33, a diagnosis unit , a log data collection condition setting unit 35, and a storage unit .

[0042] First, the communication unit 31 connects to the group of home appliances 2 and the user terminal 1 via the network 6. The log data collection unit 32, the fault detection unit 33, the diagnosis unit 34, and the log data collection condition setting unit 35 have the same functions as the log data collection unit 104, the fault detection unit 105, the diagnosis unit 106, and the log data collection condition setting unit 107, respectively. Therefore, the description of these functions will also be omitted.

[0043] The storage unit 36 ​​also stores user management information 361 and home appliance management information 362. The user management information 361 is information having the same items as the user management information 111. However, it also includes information on users other than the specific user shown as user A in FIG. 4. That is, the user management information 361 is information on multiple users. The home appliance management information 362 is also information having the same items as the home appliance management information 112. However, it also includes information on home appliances owned by users other than the specific user shown as user A in FIG. 4. That is, the home appliance management information 362 is information on home appliances of multiple users. When the user terminal 1 stores the user management information 111 and the home appliance management information 112, at least one of these pieces of information can be omitted.

[0044] The home appliance maintenance support device 3 is also connected to a maintenance support terminal 4 used by an operator or a serviceman. The maintenance support terminal 4 receives operation instructions from the operator or the serviceman and displays information corresponding to the instructions. For this reason, the maintenance support terminal 4 can be realized by an information processing device (computer) such as a smartphone, a tablet, or a PC. The maintenance support terminal 4 displays the user management information 361 and the home appliance management information 362 including the collected log data, so that the operator or the serviceman can check the state of the malfunction in the home appliance 2A. The maintenance support terminal 4 may be connected to the home appliance maintenance support device 3 via the network 6, or may be connected directly. The maintenance support terminal 4 may be omitted.

[0045] The router 5 is a device that mediates communications between the user terminal 1 and the group of home appliances 2, but may be omitted. The network 6 connects the above-mentioned devices and can be realized by a wide area network such as the Internet or a combination of the wide area network and a local network.

[0046] Next, a hardware configuration as an implementation example of the home appliance maintenance support device 3 will be described. The home appliance maintenance support device 3 can be realized by a computer such as a server or a cloud system. Fig. 7 is a hardware configuration diagram of the home appliance maintenance support device 3 in this embodiment. In Fig. 7, the home appliance maintenance support device 3 has a processing device 301, a communication device 302, a memory 303, and a secondary storage device 304, which are connected to each other via a communication path.

[0047] First, the processing device 301 can be realized by a processor such as a CPU, and executes calculations according to a home appliance maintenance support program 305 stored in a secondary storage device 304 described later. Also, the communication device 302 corresponds to the communication unit 31 in Fig. 1, connects to the network 6, and communicates with other devices such as the user terminal 1.

[0048] 1. In memory 303, information used for processing by home appliance maintenance support program 305 and processing device 301 stored in secondary storage device 304 is deployed. Secondary storage device 304 can be realized by a so-called storage. Secondary storage device 304 stores home appliance maintenance support program 305, user management information 361, and home appliance management information 362. Secondary storage device 304 may be realized by various storage media such as an external hard disk drive (HDD), solid state drive (SSD), or memory card, or may be realized by a device separate from home appliance maintenance support device 3, such as a file server.

[0049] Here, home appliance maintenance support program 305 is composed of a log data collection module 306, a malfunction detection module 307, a diagnosis module 308, and a log data collection condition setting module 309 for each function. Each of these modules may be realized as an individual program or a partial combination. Furthermore, home appliance maintenance support program 305 may be realized as one function of an integrated management program that manages the group of home appliances 2, and also has functions such as membership management, replacement, and operation.

[0050] Here, the configuration shown in FIG. 1 which performs the same functions as each module is as follows. Log data collection module 306: Log data collection unit 32 Fault detection module 307: fault detection unit 33 Diagnostic module 308: diagnostic unit 34 Log data collection condition setting module 309: Log data collection condition setting unit 35 Therefore, the processing device 301 executes the processes of the log data collection unit 32, the fault detection unit 33, the diagnosis unit 34, and the log data collection condition setting unit 35 in accordance with the home appliance maintenance support program 305.

[0051] Here, the home appliance maintenance support program 305 executes the same process as the home appliance maintenance support program 127 of the user terminal 1. The home appliance maintenance support program 305 can be stored in the secondary storage device 304 or other storage media.

[0052] The home appliance maintenance support device 3 is used by manufacturers and retailers of the home appliances 2A, and these retailers manage users as members and also manage each home appliance 2A. For this reason, the home appliance maintenance support device 3 may be realized as a home appliance management device that comprehensively manages home appliances.

[0053] This concludes the description of the configuration of this embodiment, and the processing flow will now be described. Figs. 8A and 8B are flowcharts showing the processing flow for maintenance support in this embodiment. Below, the configuration of the user terminal 1 will be described using the configuration shown in Fig. 2, the configuration of the home appliance 2A will be described using the configuration shown in Fig. 6, and the configuration of the home appliance maintenance support device 3 will be described using the configuration shown in Fig. 1. Note that the home appliance 2A is a representative configuration of the group of home appliances 2, and the number of home appliances therein may be one or more.

[0054] 8A, operation unit 210 of home appliance 2A operates. In addition, in step S2, log data collection unit 203 collects log data of home appliance 2A. The above is the steady-state processing, and steps S1 and S2 are executed as appropriate.

[0055] When a malfunction occurs in any of the home appliances in the group of home appliances 2, a maintenance support function is activated, and the processes in and after step S3 are started. In step S3, in response to an operation by a user who recognizes the occurrence of the malfunction, an event detection unit represented by the image capture unit 102 and the sound collection unit 103 starts detecting an event in the home appliance 2A. Note that step S3 may be executed on the condition that log data of the home appliance 2A notified from the home appliance 2A or a malfunction detected using the log data is received.

[0056] In addition, in step S4, the event detection unit detects an event occurring in the home appliance 2A. For example, the image capture unit 102 captures an image of the home appliance 2A, and the sound collection unit 103 collects a sound emitted by the home appliance 2A. Note that the image capture in this step may be a moving image or a still image.

[0057] Furthermore, in step S5, log data collection condition setting unit 107 displays the event information on output unit 109. To this end, log data collection condition setting unit 107 creates multiple pieces of event information. At this time, log data collection condition setting unit 107 may create the event information from an event detected by the event detection unit, or may create event information related to a malfunction that is likely to occur in the corresponding home appliance 2A based on past history. Then, log data collection condition setting unit 107 displays the created multiple pieces of event information on output unit 109.

[0058] Here, the display screen of the event information in step S5 will be described. Fig. 9 is a diagram showing a display screen 1090 of the event information in this embodiment. The display screen 1090 is a screen displayed on the output unit 109 of the user terminal 1, and uses (fault) symptoms as an example of event information. The display screen 1090 displays symptoms so that the user can select or specify them. For this purpose, the display screen 1090 has a home appliance identification area 1091, a symptom selection area 1092, a details input area 1093, an occurrence interval input area 1094, and a content input area 1095.

[0059] The home appliance identification area 1091 is an area showing the home appliance 2A in which a malfunction has occurred. In the example of Fig. 9, a refrigerator 22 is shown as the home appliance 2A. The symptom selection area 1092 shows failure symptoms as event information, and displays a plurality of symptoms so that the user can select one of them. In the example of Fig. 9, symptom 1 = cold air leakage and symptom 2 = no switch response are displayed as failure symptoms.

[0060] Furthermore, the detailed input area 1093 accepts input of text indicating symptoms from the input unit 108 in response to a user's operation. Note that the input to the detailed input area 1093 may be the user's voice input via the sound collection unit 103. Furthermore, input to the detailed input area 1093 may be limited to a case where there is no corresponding symptom in the symptom selection area 1092.

[0061] The occurrence interval input area 1094 is an area for inputting the interval at which the symptom occurs. The content input area 1095 is an area for registering content indicating an event detected by the event detection unit, such as an image captured by the image capture unit 102 or a sound collected by the sound collection unit 103. These contents can be graphically registered by treating them as files. This concludes the explanation of step S5.

[0062] In step S6, the input unit 108 accepts a selection from the user for the multiple pieces of event information displayed. In the example of Fig. 9, the selection is accepted for symptom 1 = cold air leakage and symptom 2 = switch no response. This selection may include selecting each option (symptom) other than just one of them, or selecting none of them as not applicable.

[0063] The following are examples of home appliance 2A and its symptoms: Refrigerator: Cold air leaks, ice maker does not make ice, ice is cloudy, refrigerator door opens by itself, door does not close Washing machine: Water leaks, poor spinning, abnormal sounds (strange noises), drying problems Rice cooker: Door malfunction, abnormal noise (strange noise), water leak, not heating IH cooker, microwave: abnormal sound (strange noise), not heating Common: Power won't turn on, switch unresponsive Then, in step S7, the log data collection condition setting unit 107 specifies the collection conditions for log data according to the selected event information. For this purpose, for example, the user terminal 1 holds information indicating the correspondence between the event information and the collection conditions, and the collection conditions for log data are specified using this information. Note that the display and selection of the event information in steps S5 and S6 may be omitted, and the log data collection condition setting unit 107 may specify the collection conditions.

[0064] Furthermore, in step S8, the log data collection condition setting unit 107 notifies the corresponding home appliance 2A of the specified collection condition via the communication unit 101. Furthermore, in step S9, the log data collection condition setting unit 107 notifies the home appliance maintenance support device 3 of a diagnosis request for the corresponding home appliance 2A via the communication unit 101. This diagnosis request desirably includes the home appliance ID of the corresponding home appliance 2A, an event detected by the event detection unit, or information about this event.

[0065] In step S10, communication unit 208 of home appliance 2A accepts the collection conditions notified in step S8. Then, in step S11, log data collection condition setting unit 206 sets the accepted collection conditions in storage unit 207 as collection conditions of home appliance 2A.

[0066] In step S12, the log data collection unit 203 determines whether or not there is log data that meets the set collection conditions in the log data (history log data) already collected in the storage unit 207. If there is such log data, the process proceeds to step S13. If there is not, the process proceeds to step S14.

[0067] Then, in step S13, log data collection unit 203 extracts the corresponding log data from storage unit 207. Furthermore, in step S14, log data collection unit 203 collects current log data of home appliance 2A in accordance with the set, i.e., changed, collection conditions.

[0068] In response to this, in step S15, the log data collection unit 203 notifies the home appliance maintenance support device 3 of the log data extracted in step S13 and the log data collected in step S14 via the communication unit 208. Here, this step may be performed via the user terminal 1. In this case, the log data collection unit 104 of the user terminal 1 transfers the log data notified from the home appliance 2A to the home appliance maintenance support device 3 using the communication unit 101. Furthermore, when collection of the log data of the home appliance 2A is executed at predetermined intervals, it is desirable to execute step S15 in accordance with the intervals. Furthermore, it is desirable to include the home appliance ID of the home appliance 2A in step S15.

[0069] In step S16, the communication unit 31 of the home appliance maintenance support device 3 accepts the diagnosis request notified in step S9. In step S17, the communication unit 31 accepts the log data notified in step S15. The order of steps S16 and S17 does not matter. In particular, when step S15 is executed via the user terminal 1, the diagnosis request and the notification of the log data from the user terminal 1 may be performed together.

[0070] Next, the description of the maintenance support process flow will be continued with reference to FIG. 8B. In step S18, the log data collection unit 32 determines whether or not there is history log data that meets the set collection condition in the home appliance management information 112, similar to step S12. If there is history log data, the process proceeds to step S19. If there is no history log data, the process proceeds to step S20.

[0071] Furthermore, in step S19, similarly to step S13, the log data collection unit 32 extracts the corresponding log data from the home appliance management information 112. Then, in step S20, the log data collection unit 32 merges the log data accepted in step S17 and the log data extracted in step S19. This process means identifying a target for the diagnosis process in step S21. Also, steps S12, S14, S18, and S19 may be omitted, and the use of the log data history may be omitted.

[0072] Furthermore, in step S21, the diagnostic unit 34 executes diagnostic processing for the home appliance 2A using the target log data. At this time, it is desirable to further use event information included in the diagnostic request. Here, an example of the diagnostic processing in step S21 will be described with reference to Fig. 10. Fig. 10 is a flowchart showing the processing flow of the diagnostic processing in step S21 in this embodiment.

[0073] 10, the diagnosis unit 34 estimates the cause and occurrence conditions of a malfunction in the target home appliance using at least one of the merged log data and event information. For this purpose, the diagnosis unit 34 may cooperate with the malfunction detection unit 33. For example, the malfunction detection unit 33 detects a malfunction in the home appliance 2A using the log data and the event information. Then, the diagnosis unit 34 estimates the cause and occurrence conditions of the detected malfunction.

[0074] In step S212, the diagnosis unit 34 determines whether multiple home appliances 2A are experiencing a malfunction. If multiple home appliances 2A are experiencing a malfunction (YES), the process proceeds to step S213. If a single home appliance 2A is experiencing a malfunction (NO), the process proceeds to step S215.

[0075] Furthermore, in step S213, the diagnosis unit 34 determines whether the estimated occurrence condition or cause of the malfunction is common to the multiple home appliances 2A. Here, "common" may mean that all of the multiple home appliances 2A are common, or that a predetermined number or a percentage or more of the home appliances 2A are common. As a result, if they are common (YES), the process proceeds to step S214. If they are not common (NO), the process proceeds to step S215.

[0076] Furthermore, in step S214, the diagnosis unit 34 estimates that the cause of the malfunction is an environmental condition. As described above, the environmental condition is something that is common to a plurality of home appliances 2A, and includes a malfunction in the electrical wiring of a house or the like.

[0077] Also, in step S215, the diagnosis unit 34 uses the log data collection condition setting unit 206 to determine whether the log data collection conditions need to be reset, that is, changed. At this time, the log data collection condition setting unit 206 determines whether the collection conditions need to be reset based on the relationship between the collection conditions specified in step S7 and the occurrence conditions and causes of the malfunction estimated in step S211. That is, it is determined whether log data about the estimated malfunction can be collected under the collection conditions specified in step S7. For example, even if log data about a malfunction that occurs around 7:00 every day is collected under collection conditions such as midnight, it is difficult to use it as information useful for diagnosis. As a result, if resetting is required (YES), the process proceeds to step S216. If resetting is not required (NO), the process proceeds to step S217.

[0078] Furthermore, in step S216, the diagnostic unit 34 creates a reset command for resetting the collection conditions. Then, in step S217, the diagnostic unit 34 creates diagnostic information including the cause of the malfunction, log data, and the like. At this time, the diagnostic information may include the reset command created in step S216. This concludes the explanation of Fig. 9, and we will return to Fig. 8B and continue the explanation of step S22 and subsequent steps.

[0079] In step S22, the diagnosis unit 34 outputs diagnosis information. That is, at least one of the following (1) and (2) is executed. (1) The diagnosis unit 34 notifies the user terminal 1 of diagnosis information using the communication unit 31. (2) The diagnosis unit 34 causes the maintenance support terminal 4 to display the diagnosis information.

[0080] Here, in the case of a malfunction that can be dealt with by the user, only (1) may be executed. Furthermore, the contents of the diagnostic information in (1) and the diagnostic information in (2) may be changed. For example, the diagnostic information in (1) may be simplified information or expressed in a way that can be understood by people other than experts. Furthermore, the diagnostic information in (1) may include contact information for a serviceman or operator. Furthermore, (2) allows a serviceman or operator to check the diagnostic information in a timely manner, enabling more appropriate handling of the malfunction. For example, it may be possible to deal with the user remotely or to appropriately decide whether to visit the serviceman or operator.

[0081] In step S23, the diagnosis unit 34 notifies the home appliance 2A of a command to reset the collection conditions created in step S216 using the communication unit 31. In step S24, the communication unit 208 of the home appliance 2A accepts the resetting command. Then, in step S25, the log data collection condition setting unit 206 sets, in the storage unit 207, collection conditions according to the resetting command.

[0082] This concludes the description of the processing flow of this embodiment. According to this embodiment, when a malfunction occurs, more appropriate log data and event information can be used, enabling more appropriate handling. The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, the processing subject of the maintenance support processing flow is not limited to the above example, and at least a part of the processing of the user terminal 1 can be executed by the home appliance 2A or the home appliance maintenance support device 3. Similarly, at least a part of the processing of the home appliance 2A or the home appliance maintenance support device 3 may be executed by another device such as the user terminal 1. In addition, the home appliance maintenance support program 127 and the home appliance maintenance support program 305 that cause the user terminal 1 and the home appliance maintenance support device 3, which are computers, to function are also aspects of the present invention. [Explanation of symbols]

[0083] 1...user terminal, 101...communication unit, 102...image capture unit, 103...sound collection unit, 104...log data collection unit, 105...fault detection unit, 106...diagnosis unit, 107...log data collection condition setting unit, 108...input unit, 109...output unit, 110...storage unit, 111...user management information, 112...home appliance management information, 2...group of home appliances, 2A...home appliance, 201...control unit, 202...control signal creation unit, 203...log data collection unit, 204...fault detection unit , 205...diagnosis unit, 206...log data collection condition setting unit, 207...storage unit, 208...communication unit, 209...display operation unit, 210...operation unit, 211...sensor, 3...home appliance maintenance support device, 31...communication unit, 32...log data collection unit, 33...fault detection unit, 34...diagnosis unit, 35...log data collection condition setting unit, 36...storage unit, 361...user management information, 362...home appliance management information, 4...maintenance support terminal, 5...router, 6...network

Claims

1. A log data collection unit that collects log data indicating an operation status of the home appliance; An event detection unit that starts detecting an event of the home appliance on condition that a malfunction in the home appliance is detected; a log data collection condition setting unit that changes a collection condition of the log data in the log data collection unit in response to the detection of the event; A home appliance maintenance support system having a diagnostic unit that analyzes event information indicating a detected event of the home appliance and / or log data collected according to the changed collection conditions, and outputs diagnostic information indicating the diagnostic results of diagnosing a malfunction of the home appliance.

2. The home appliance maintenance support system according to claim 1, The log data collection condition setting unit is a home appliance maintenance support system that improves the log data collection conditions.

3. The home appliance maintenance support system according to claim 2, The improvement of the collection conditions includes finer granularity of the log data, shorter collection cycles, and an increase in the number and types of log data to be collected.

4. The home appliance maintenance support system according to claim 1, Further, an input unit is provided for receiving an operation from a user who recognizes the occurrence of the malfunction, The event detection unit of the home appliance maintenance support system starts detecting the event in response to an operation from the user.

5. The home appliance maintenance support system according to claim 4, Further, an output unit for displaying a plurality of pieces of event information is provided, The input unit receives a selection from the user regarding the plurality of pieces of event information.

6. The home appliance maintenance support system according to claim 1, In the home appliance maintenance support system, the event detection unit is at least one of an imaging unit that captures an image of the home appliance, a sound collection unit that collects sounds generated by the home appliance, and a diagnosis unit that diagnoses the home appliance.

7. Computer, A log data collection unit that collects log data indicating an operation status of the home appliance; An event detection unit that starts detecting an event of the home appliance on condition that a malfunction in the home appliance is detected; a log data collection condition setting unit that changes a collection condition of the log data in the log data collection unit in response to the detection of the event; A home appliance maintenance support program for functioning as a diagnostic unit that analyzes event information indicating a detected event of the home appliance and / or log data collected according to the changed collection conditions, and outputs diagnostic information indicating the diagnostic results of diagnosing a malfunction of the home appliance.

8. The home appliance maintenance support program according to claim 7, The log data collection condition setting unit is a home appliance maintenance support program that improves the log data collection conditions.

9. 9. The home appliance maintenance support program according to claim 8, The improvement of the collection conditions includes finer granularity of the log data, shorter collection cycles, and increased number and types of log data to be collected.

10. The home appliance maintenance support program according to claim 7, The computer is further caused to function as an input unit that receives an operation from a user who recognizes the occurrence of the malfunction; The event detection unit is a home appliance maintenance support program that starts detecting the event in response to an operation from the user.

11. The home appliance maintenance support program according to claim 10, The computer is further caused to function as an output unit that displays a plurality of pieces of event information; The input unit receives a selection from the user regarding the plurality of pieces of event information.

12. The home appliance maintenance support program according to claim 7, A home appliance maintenance support program, wherein the event detection unit is at least one of an imaging unit that captures an image of the home appliance, a sound collection unit that collects sounds generated by the home appliance, and a diagnosis unit that diagnoses the home appliance.

Images