Information processing system, information processing method, and program

Abstract

To provide an information processing system, an information processing method, and a program that can reduce a workload associated with device registration.SOLUTION: An information processing system includes a server. The server includes an information management unit, a determination unit, and a device registration unit. The information management unit manages registration information stored in advance in the server as information for performing device registration for associating a home appliance with a user for an unregistered home appliance before the device registration is performed. When identification information for identifying a home appliance to be associated with the user is received, a determination unit determines whether the registration information and the identification information satisfy a predetermined relationship. When the determination unit determines that the predetermined relationship is satisfied, the device registration unit performs device registration of the home appliance identified by the identification information by using the registration information.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] An embodiment of the present invention relates to an information processing system, an information processing method, and a program. [Background technology]

[0002] 2. Description of the Related Art There are known home appliance systems in which device registration is performed to associate home appliances with users. In such home appliance systems, it is expected that the workload associated with device registration will be reduced. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Patent Publication No. 2021-99577 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] An object of the present invention is to provide an information processing system, an information processing method, and a program that can reduce the workload associated with device registration. [Means for solving the problem]

[0005] An information processing system according to an embodiment includes a server. The server has an information management unit, a determination unit, and a device registration unit. The information management unit manages registration information stored in advance in the server as information for performing device registration for an unregistered home appliance before device registration that associates the home appliance with a user is performed. When identification information for identifying a home appliance to be associated with the user is received, the determination unit determines whether the registration information and the identification information satisfy a predetermined relationship. When the determination unit determines that the predetermined relationship is satisfied, the device registration unit performs device registration of the home appliance identified by the identification information using the registration information. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0006] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a home appliance management system according to a first embodiment. [Diagram 2] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a refrigerator as an example of a home electric appliance according to a first embodiment. [Diagram 3] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the functional configuration of a server according to the first embodiment. [Figure 4] FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a user DB and home electric appliances according to the first embodiment. [Diagram 5] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of a terminal device according to the first embodiment. [Figure 6] FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a flow of device registration according to the first embodiment. [Figure 7] FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a home appliance information registration process according to the first embodiment. [Figure 8] FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a home appliance information registration process according to the first embodiment. [Figure 9] 5 is a diagram for explaining a process for acquiring a model and a serial number of a home electric appliance according to the first embodiment. [Figure 10] 5 is a diagram for explaining a process for acquiring a model and a serial number of a home electric appliance according to the first embodiment. [Figure 11] 5 is a diagram for explaining a process for acquiring a model and a serial number of a home electric appliance according to the first embodiment. [Figure 12] FIG. 4 is a diagram used to explain the registration process according to the first embodiment. [Figure 13] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a process for registering a home appliance in a server in the second embodiment. [Figure 14] 5A to 5C are diagrams used to explain a sharing process according to an embodiment. [Figure 15] 5A to 5C are diagrams used to explain a sharing process according to an embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0007] Hereinafter, an information processing system, an information processing method, and a program according to the embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the same reference numerals are used for configurations having the same or similar functions. Then, duplicated descriptions of those configurations may be omitted. In this application, "based on XX" means "based on at least XX" and may include cases where the configuration is based on another element in addition to XX. Also, "based on XX" is not limited to cases where the configuration is based directly on XX, but may also include cases where the configuration is based on XX that has been subjected to calculation or processing. In this application, "XX or YY" is not limited to cases where either XX or YY is used, but may also include cases where both XX and YY are used. This also applies to cases where there are three or more selective elements. XX and YY are any element (for example, any information).

[0008] In this application, "obtain" is not limited to actively obtaining information by sending a transmission request, but may also include obtaining information by passively receiving information transmitted from another device. Furthermore, "obtain" is not limited to directly obtaining target information (information to be obtained) from outside, but may also include generating and obtaining target information by performing calculations or processing on information obtained from outside. Furthermore, in this application, database is abbreviated as "DB."

[0009] (First embodiment) <1. Overall composition> 1 is a diagram showing a home appliance management system 1 according to a first embodiment. The home appliance management system 1 includes, for example, one or more home appliances 100, a server 200, and a home appliance management application AP of a terminal device 300. The network NW described below may be, for example, the Internet, a cellular network, a Wi-Fi network, a Low Power Wide Area (LPWA), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Local Area Network (LAN), or other public lines or dedicated lines, depending on the situation.

[0010] The home appliance 100 is an electric appliance mainly used at home. The home appliance 100 is a home appliance used by a user and placed in the user's residence HS. The home appliance 100 is, for example, a refrigerator, a clothes treatment machine, an air conditioner, or an oven range. The clothes treatment machine is, for example, a washing machine (including a washer-dryer) or a closet-type clothes treatment machine. However, the home appliance 100 is not limited to the above examples, and may be a robot vacuum cleaner, a microwave oven, a toaster, a rice cooker, a coffee maker, or the like.

[0011] The home appliance 100 is connected to the network NW via a wireless router 400 installed in the user's residence HS. The home appliance 100 can communicate with the server 200 or the terminal device 300 via the network NW. The home appliance 100 may be able to directly communicate with the terminal device 300 using short-range wireless communication such as Bluetooth (registered trademark).

[0012] The server 200 is a management server that manages the home appliance 100. The server 200 is configured by one or more server devices (e.g., cloud servers). The server 200 is capable of communicating with the home appliance 100 or the terminal device 300 via the network NW. The server 200 may include an information processing unit that performs edge computing or fog computing, such as an information processing unit included in a router in the network NW. The server 200 is not limited to a cloud server, and may be a computer in a user's residence HS, a home router, or the like.

[0013] The terminal device 300 is an electronic device used by a user U. The terminal device 300 is, for example, a mobile terminal device such as a smartphone or a tablet terminal device. However, the terminal device 300 is not limited to a mobile terminal device and may be a personal computer or the like.

[0014] In this embodiment, an example of an "information processing system" is realized by the home appliance management app AP of the home appliance 100, the server 200, and the terminal device 300. Note that the information processing system is not limited to the above example, and may be realized by only the server 200, or may be realized by the server 200 and at least one of the home appliance management app AP of the home appliance 100 and the terminal device 300. Each of the home appliance 100, the server 200, and the terminal device 300 is an example of a "computer." The home appliance management app AP of the terminal device 300 is an example of an "information processing unit of a terminal device."

[0015] <2. Home appliances> Next, the home electric appliance 100 will be described. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of a refrigerator 100A as an example of a home appliance 100. The refrigerator 100A includes a control unit 101. The control unit 101 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 110, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 111, and a RAM (Random Access Memory) 112. The CPU 110 controls the entire refrigerator 100A. The ROM 111 stores programs executed by the CPU 110 and various data required for control. The RAM 112 temporarily stores the programs and data.

[0016] Refrigerator 100A includes an operation unit 102. Operation unit 102 accepts settings made by user U. Operation unit 102 outputs information indicating the accepted settings to control unit 101. Refrigerator 100A includes a temperature sensor 103. Temperature sensor 103 detects the temperature inside the refrigerator and outputs the detected temperature to control unit 101. Refrigerator 100A includes a door-open sensor 104. Door-open sensor 104 detects whether the door is open or closed, and outputs the detected open or closed state to control unit 101.

[0017] The refrigerator 100A includes a communication unit 105. The communication unit 105 includes an antenna and controls wireless connection with the wireless router 400 or the terminal device 300 in accordance with the wireless LAN standard. The communication unit 105 can operate in a station mode or an access point mode based on an instruction from the control unit 101. The "station mode" is a mode in which the refrigerator 100 is connected to the wireless router 400 using an SSID (Service Set Identifier) ​​and a password set in the wireless router 400, and is connected to the network NW via the wireless router 400. On the other hand, the "access point mode" is a mode in which the household electrical appliance 100 is directly connected to the network NW using an SSID and a password set in the household electrical appliance 100.

[0018] Refrigerator 100A includes refrigeration cooling mechanism 106 and freezing cooling mechanism 107. Refrigeration cooling mechanism 106 cools the refrigeration compartment in response to an instruction from control unit 101. Freezing cooling mechanism 107 cools the freezing compartment in response to an instruction from control unit 101.

[0019] In this embodiment, a two-dimensional barcode 150 is displayed on the refrigerator 100A. The two-dimensional barcode 150 is an example of an "identification mark." For example, the two-dimensional barcode 150 stores registered home appliance information including a serial number, a model name, a type name, and a MAC (Media Access Control) address.

[0020] In this application, "model name" refers to a group of products that share a certain function or feature. In this application, "model name" refers to information indicating a model when multiple models with different sizes, colors, designs, auxiliary functions, etc. are set within the same model. Note that the two-dimensional barcode 150 does not need to have at least one of the model name and the model name. For example, if the model name or the model name can be identified based on the "serial number", the two-dimensional barcode 150 does not need to have at least one of the model name and the model name.

[0021] The two-dimensional barcode 150 is displayed, for example, by attaching a sticker or the like on which the two-dimensional barcode 150 is printed to the inside or surface (for example, the inside of a refrigerator door) of the home appliance 100. In addition to or instead of the above, if the home appliance 100 is provided with a display device having a display screen, the two-dimensional barcode 150 may be displayed on the display screen based on a predetermined operation of the user U, for example, so that the user U can see it.

[0022] Furthermore, the "display information" in this application is not limited to two-dimensional barcode 150, but may be a sticker or a display on a display screen on which one or more pieces of information among a serial number, a model name, a model name, and a MAC address are displayed. From another perspective, the "display information" in this application is not limited to two-dimensional barcode 150, but may be any information capable of acquiring identification information capable of identifying home appliance 100, and the form of the information is not important.

[0023] <3. Server> Next, the server 200 will be described. 3 is a diagram showing the functional configuration of server 200. Server 200 includes a user data storage unit 201, a registration information storage unit 202, an information management unit 203, a determination unit 204, a device registration unit 205, and a memory unit 206. User data storage unit 201, registration information storage unit 202, information management unit 203, determination unit 204, and device registration unit 205 are realized by one or more hardware processors, such as a CPU, mounted on server 200 executing programs.

[0024] The storage unit 206 is realized by, for example, a combination of a RAM, a ROM, an Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM (EEPROM), a Solid State Drive (SSD), a Hard Disk Drive (HDD), etc. The storage unit 206 stores a user DB 211 and a home appliance DB 212.

[0025] The user data storage unit 201 registers user data in the user DB 211 of the memory unit 206. "User data" is information indicating a user U (e.g., a user U who uses the home appliance 100) to be associated with the home appliance 100. "User data" includes the name, account ID, password, and the like of the user U. When the user U performs user registration, the user U inputs the user data to the terminal device 300, and the user data is transmitted from the terminal device 300 to the server 200, whereby the user data storage unit 201 acquires the user data.

[0026] Before registering the home appliance 100, the registration information storage unit 202 stores home appliance information of the home appliance 100 in the home appliance DB 212 of the storage unit 206 as registration information. In this application, "device registration" refers to registration that associates the home appliance 100 with a user U who uses the home appliance 100. By performing device registration, the user U can configure or operate the home appliance 100 associated with the user U by using the home appliance management application AP of the terminal device 300.

[0027] In this application, the term "registration information" refers to information for performing device registration for an unregistered home appliance 100 before the device registration is performed. The registration information is stored in advance in the server 200 before the device registration is performed. The registration information is home appliance information including, for example, a serial number, a model name, a model name, and a MAC (Media Access Control) address. The registration information is, for example, the same information as the information obtainable from the two-dimensional barcode 150 described above. However, the registration information is not limited to being the same as the information obtainable from the two-dimensional barcode 150.

[0028] The information management unit 203 manages registration information that is stored in advance in the home appliance DB 212 before device registration of the home appliance 100. For example, when device registration of the home appliance 100 is performed, the information management unit 203 sequentially acquires the registration information of the plurality of home appliances 100 that have been stored in advance from the home appliance DB 212 and transfers it to the determination unit 204.

[0029] In this embodiment, the home appliance DB 212 is provided with a determination flag for each home appliance 100. The information management unit 203 sets the determination flag corresponding to a home appliance 100 for which device registration has not been performed, among the home appliances 100 whose registration information (home appliance information) is stored in the home appliance DB 212, to "unusable". When the determination flag is set to "unusable", use of the registration information (home appliance information) for purposes other than device registration, such as settings or operations related to the operation of the home appliance 100, is restricted. Then, when device registration has been performed, the information management unit 203 releases the usage restriction and changes the determination flag to "available".

[0030] In this embodiment, the registration information is stored in advance in the home appliance DB 212 of the server 200 by an operator of the manufacturer of the home appliance 100 before the sale of the home appliance 100. For example, the registration information storage unit 202 receives the registration information from another terminal device or another server operated by the operator based on an operation of the operator, and stores the received registration information in the home appliance DB 212 in advance.

[0031] Alternatively, before the home appliance 100 is registered, the registration information may be information acquired from an identification display (e.g., two-dimensional barcode 150) displayed on the home appliance 100, which is received from the terminal device 300 as registration information and stored in advance in the home appliance DB 212 of the server 200. For example, the registration information storage unit 202 may receive the registration information from the terminal device 300 operated by the user U based on an operation of the user U, and store the received registration information in advance in the home appliance DB 212. This will be described in detail later.

[0032] When identification information for identifying the home appliance 100 to be associated with the user U is received, the determination unit 204 determines whether or not the identification information and the registration information previously stored in the home appliance DB 212 satisfy a predetermined relationship. For example, the determination unit 204 determines whether or not the identification information received from the home appliance 100 to be registered (or the identification information received from the wireless router 400 of the network including the home appliance 100 to be registered) and the registration information previously stored in the home appliance DB 212 satisfy a predetermined relationship at the time of appliance registration. When the determination result of the above determination is positive, the determination unit 204 performs appliance registration of the home appliance 100.

[0033] In this application, "identification information" refers to information for identifying a home appliance 100 (home appliance 100 performing device registration) to be associated with a user U. The identification information is not limited to identification information as long as it is information capable of identifying the home appliance 100. The identification information is, for example, a MAC address of a wireless module of the home appliance 100. Alternatively / in addition to this, the identification information may be information including a serial number of the home appliance 100. "Information including a serial number" may be, for example, information indicating only the serial number, information including a serial number and a model name, information including a serial number and a model name, or information including a serial number, a model name, and a model name. The identification information is information with less content than the registration information (home appliance information) described later.

[0034] The identification information is information (e.g., "MAC address" or "information including serial number") stored in a storage unit (e.g., ROM 111) of home appliance 100, and is transmitted from home appliance 100 to server 200 when user U performs a predetermined operation (e.g., an operation on home appliance 100 or an operation in home appliance management application AP). Alternatively, the identification information may be information that can be acquired from an identification display (e.g., two-dimensional barcode 150) displayed on home appliance 100 by photographing the identification display with an imaging unit of terminal device 300, and is transmitted from terminal device 300 to server 200 when user U performs a predetermined operation (e.g., an operation in home appliance management application AP).

[0035] "Satisfying a specified relationship" means that some information included in the registration information stored in advance in the home appliance DB 212 matches the received identification information. "Satisfying a specified relationship" means, for example, that a MAC address included in the registration information matches the MAC address received as the identification information. Alternatively, "Satisfying a specified relationship" may mean, for example, that information including a serial number included in the registration information (e.g., serial number and model) matches information including a serial number received as the identification information (e.g., serial number and model).

[0036] The device registration unit 205 acquires the determination result of the determination unit 204. When the determination result of the determination unit 204 is positive, the device registration unit 205 performs device registration of the home appliance 100 by using the registration information for which the determination result is positive. For example, when the device registration unit 205 identifies a record in the home appliance DB 212 in which registration information matching the identification information is stored, the device registration unit 205 performs device registration of the home appliance 100 by associating the registration information (home appliance information) identified by the identification information with a user account.

[0037] Fig. 4 is a diagram for explaining the user DB 211 and the home appliance DB 212. As shown in Fig. 4, the user DB 211 stores, as user data, for example, a user ID, a user account name, a password, an email address, a registration date of the user account, a shared account (an account of another user who shares the home appliance 100), an account type, and a date of last login. The user DB 211 is generated when a user performs user registration.

[0038] The home appliance DB 212 stores, as home appliance information, for example, a device ID for identifying the home appliance 100 in the database, the serial number of the home appliance 100, the model name of the home appliance 100, the model name of the home appliance 100, the MAC address of the wireless module of the home appliance 100, the registration date of the appliance, the name (nickname) of the home appliance set by the user U, the location where the home appliance 100 is installed, and the above-mentioned determination flag.

[0039] <4. Terminal device> Next, the terminal device 300 will be described. 5 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the terminal device 300. The terminal device 300 includes, for example, an operation unit 301, a display unit 302, an imaging unit 303, a communication unit 304, a home appliance management application AP, and a storage unit 315. The home appliance management application AP also includes a determination result acquisition unit 311 and a display control unit 312. In other words, the determination result acquisition unit 311 and the display control unit 312 are software function units included in the home appliance management application AP.

[0040] The operation unit 301 includes an operation button provided on the terminal device 300 or a touch panel arranged on the display unit 302. The operation unit 301 accepts operations of a user U performed in relation to the home appliance management application AP.

[0041] The display unit 302 has a display device including a display screen such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) or an EL (Electro Luminescence) display. The display unit 302 displays various information on the display screen based on processing by the home appliance management application AP.

[0042] The imaging unit 303 includes a camera built into the terminal device 300, and acquires an image of the two-dimensional barcode 150 displayed on the home appliance 100. As described above, the two-dimensional barcode 150 stores home appliance information of the home appliance 100. The imaging unit 303 acquires the home appliance information of the home appliance 100 by capturing an image of the two-dimensional barcode 150 attached to the home appliance 100.

[0043] The communication unit 304 is, for example, a wireless communication module that can be connected to the wireless router 400. The communication unit 304 can communicate with the home appliance 100 or the server 200 via the network NW.

[0044] When the determination unit 204 of the server 200 determines whether the registration information and the identification information satisfy a predetermined relationship, the determination result acquisition unit 311 acquires, from the server 200, a determination result indicating whether the registration information and the identification information satisfy a predetermined relationship. The determination result may be acquired directly from the server 200 to the terminal device 300, or may be acquired from the server 200 to the terminal device 300 via the home appliance 100. The determination result acquisition unit 311 sends this determination result to the display control unit 312. The determination result is positive when the registration information related to the home appliance 100 to be registered as a device is registered in the home appliance DB 212 of the server 200 in advance, and is negative when the registration information is not registered.

[0045] The display control unit 312 controls the display contents to be displayed on the display screen of the display unit 302. When performing device registration, the display control unit 312 causes the display unit 302 to display information corresponding to the model name of the home appliance 100 (for example, information including the model name and / or information guiding an operation according to the model) as a screen related to device registration. For example, when the two-dimensional barcode 150 displayed on the home appliance 100 is photographed by the imaging unit 303 during device registration, the display control unit 312 acquires the model name of the home appliance 100 from the two-dimensional barcode 150. Then, the display control unit 312 causes the display unit 302 to display information corresponding to the acquired model name.

[0046] Furthermore, the display control unit 312 performs different display depending on whether or not registration information corresponding to the home appliance 100 to be registered as a device has been registered in advance in the home appliance DB 212 of the server 200, based on the determination result acquired by the determination result acquisition unit 311. That is, if the home appliance information corresponding to the home appliance 100 to be registered as a device has been registered in advance as registration information in the home appliance DB 212 of the server 200, the determination result is positive, and if not, the determination result is negative.

[0047] When the determination result is positive, the display control unit 312 causes the display screen to display a display content corresponding to performing device registration using registration information registered in advance in the home appliance DB 212 of the server 200. On the other hand, when the determination result is negative, the display control unit 312 causes the display screen to display a display content indicating that registration information is not registered in advance in the home appliance DB 212 of the server 200 and to prompt the user to register the registration information in advance. For example, when home appliance information of the home appliance 100 targeted for device registration is not registered in the home appliance DB 212 of the server 200 as registration information in advance, the display control unit 312 causes the display screen to display a guide prompting the user to photograph the two-dimensional barcode 150 attached to the home appliance 100 as registration information and to store the home appliance information (for example, the serial number, model name, model name, and MAC address of the home appliance 100) in advance in the server 200 as registration information.

[0048] For example, based on information including a model name of home appliance 100, which is a part of information acquired from an identification display (e.g., two-dimensional barcode 150) displayed on home appliance 100, display control unit 312 causes a registration screen corresponding to the model name to be displayed on the display screen as a screen related to device registration. Furthermore, when the determination result is negative, display control unit 312 causes a guidance to be displayed on the display screen to encourage information acquired from the identification display and more than the part of information to be saved in advance in server 200 as registration information.

[0049] The storage unit 315 is realized by, for example, a combination of a RAM, a ROM, an EEPROM, an SSD, etc. The storage unit 315 stores an application program APP for managing the home appliance 100. The CPU or the like of the terminal device 300 executes the application program APP to realize a home appliance management application AP.

[0050] <5. Device registration process> Next, the flow of device registration will be described. FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the flow of device registration of the home appliance 100. Note that FIG. 6 shows an example in which home appliance information is stored in advance in the server 200 as registration information by the user U before device registration. Alternatively, as described above, the home appliance information (registration information) may be stored in advance in the server 200 by an operator of the manufacturer. Also, as a prerequisite for the processing of FIG. 6, it is assumed that user registration (setting of a user account, etc.) is completed and communication is possible between the terminal device 300 and the server 200. The operation of the terminal device 300 described below is carried out according to, for example, guidance displayed by the display control unit 312 of the home appliance management application AP.

[0051] After purchasing the home appliance 100, the user U performs a registration process to register home appliance information as registration information in step S1. In the home appliance information registration process in step S1, the user U performs a reading process of the two-dimensional barcode 150 displayed on the home appliance 100 using, for example, the imaging unit 303 of the terminal device 300, and acquires the home appliance information (for example, the serial number, model name, model name, and MAC address of the home appliance 100) from the two-dimensional barcode 150 (step S101).

[0052] Next, the terminal device 300 transmits the home appliance information acquired from the two-dimensional barcode 150 to the server 200 via the wireless router 400 and the network NW. The registration information storage unit 202 of the server 200 receives the home appliance information transmitted from the terminal device 300, and registers the home appliance information in the home appliance DB 212 as registration information (step S102). In the home appliance information registration process of step S1, the home appliance information of the home appliance 100 to be registered is stored in advance in the home appliance DB 212 of the server 200 as registration information.

[0053] 7 and 8 are explanatory diagrams of the home appliance information registration process in step S1. As shown in Fig. 7, the user U uses the imaging unit 303 of the terminal device 300 to capture an image of the two-dimensional barcode 150 displayed on the purchased home appliance 100. As a result, information such as "serial number", "model name", "model name", and "MAC address" is acquired from the two-dimensional barcode 150 as the home appliance information of the home appliance 100. The terminal device 300 transmits this home appliance information to the server 200 via the wireless router 400 and the network NW.

[0054] Here, it is assumed that the home appliance information sent from the terminal device 300 to the server 200 is (serial number=M1, model name=M2, model name=M3, MAC address=M4). In this case, as shown in Fig. 8, the server 200 generates a record in which the home appliance information is arranged, and stores it as registration information 252a in the home appliance DB 212. At this time, the server 200 also sets the above-mentioned determination flag to "unusable".

[0055] In this way, when the user U performs the process of registering the home appliance information after purchasing the home appliance 100, the home appliance information is stored as registration information 252 in the home appliance DB 212 of the server 200. The registration information 252 stored in the home appliance DB 212 at this stage is home appliance information of the unregistered home appliance 100. Therefore, the determination flag of the home appliance DB 212 is set to "unusable" so that the use of the home appliance information for purposes other than device registration is restricted. This completes the advance preparation for device registration. This process can be performed independently of the processes from step S2 onwards.

[0056] Returning to FIG. 6, a series of processes related to device registration of the home appliance 100 will be described. In device registration of the home appliance 100, in step S2, the user U selects the type of the home appliance 100 (refrigerator, washing machine, air conditioner, etc.) for which device registration is to be performed on a registration screen of the home appliance management application AP. Then, in step S3, the user U performs, for example, a process of acquiring the "model name" and "serial number" of the home appliance 100. Here, the "model name" and the "serial number" are acquired, for example, in order to display the "model name" and the "serial number" on a registration screen of a step described below. For example, by acquiring the "model name", the display control unit 312 can display a registration screen according to the model (for example, a registration screen taking into consideration the position and / or state of an operation unit (such as an operation unit for connecting to the wireless router 400) according to the model) as a registration screen of a step described below. In the process of acquiring the type and serial number of the home appliance in step S3, the user U performs a process of reading the two-dimensional barcode 150 attached to the home appliance 100 by the terminal device 300. If the home appliance information read in step 1 is stored, the display control unit 312 may obtain necessary information (for example, the "model name" and the "serial number") from the stored home appliance information.

[0057] In this embodiment, the information on the "model name" and the "serial number" acquired from the two-dimensional barcode 150 is transmitted from the terminal device 300 to the server 200 via the wireless router 400 and the network NW (step S302). The determination unit 204 of the server 200 determines whether or not the home appliance information of the home appliance 100 to be registered is stored as the registration information 252 in the home appliance DB 212 based on the information on the "model" and the "serial number", and returns the determination result to the terminal device 300 (step S303). When the terminal device 300 receives the determination result indicating that the home appliance information of the home appliance 100 to be registered is not stored as the registration information in the home appliance DB 212, it causes the display unit 302 to display a guidance display on the display unit 302 encouraging advance preparations including "taking a picture of the two-dimensional barcode and transmitting the registration information to the server 200".

[0058] 9 to 11 are diagrams for explaining the process of acquiring the model name and serial number of the home appliance in step S3. As shown in Fig. 9, the user U captures the two-dimensional barcode 150 displayed on the purchased home appliance 100 using the imaging unit 303 of the terminal device 300. This acquires the "model name" and "serial number" of the home appliance 100. The terminal device 300 transmits the "model name" and "serial number" to the server 200 via the wireless router 400 and the network NW.

[0059] When the determination unit 204 of the server 200 receives the "model name" and "serial number" of the home appliance 100 from the terminal device 300, the determination unit 204 determines whether the home appliance 100 corresponding to the "model name" and "serial number" sent from the terminal device 300 is registered in the home appliance DB 212. For example, assume that the information sent from the terminal device 300 is (serial number=M1, model name=M3). In this case, as shown in FIG. 8, the home appliance 100 of the record of (serial number=M1, model name=M3) is stored as registration information 252a in the home appliance DB 212. In this way, when there is registration information 252 of the "model name" and "serial number" of the home appliance equal to the information of the "model name" and "serial number" of the home appliance 100 received from the terminal device 300, the server 200 transmits a determination result of "information for registration present" to the terminal device 300 as shown in FIG. 9. On the other hand, if there is no registration information 252 for the model name and serial number of the home appliance that is equal to the information on the model name and serial number of the home appliance 100 received from the terminal device 300, the server 200 transmits a determination result of “no registration information” to the terminal device 300, as shown in FIG. 10.

[0060] The display control unit 312 of the terminal device 300 causes the contents to be displayed on the display screen 302a of the display unit 302 to differ depending on whether the determination result from the server 200 is positive or negative. For example, when the terminal device 300 receives a determination result of "no registration information" from the server 200, it causes the display unit 302 to display a guidance display for making advance preparations, including a message "urging the user to transmit registration information to the server 200", as shown in Fig. 11 .

[0061] When a guidance display such as that shown in FIG. 11 is displayed, the user U reads the two-dimensional barcode 150 using the terminal device 300, sends the “serial number,” “model name,” “machine name,” and “MAC address” to the server 200, and stores them in the home appliance DB 212 as registration information.

[0062] In addition, the information acquired by photographing the two-dimensional barcode 150 in step S1 is "serial number", "model name", "model name", and "MAC address" (all information of the two-dimensional barcode 150), whereas the information acquired by photographing the two-dimensional barcode 150 in step S301 is "model" and "serial number" information, which is part of the information including the model name of the two-dimensional barcode 150. When the two-dimensional barcode is photographed in step S301, if not only part of the information including the model name but also "serial number", "model name", "model name", and "MAC address" (all information of the two-dimensional barcode) are acquired and stored in the terminal device 300, it is not necessary to perform the reading process of the two-dimensional barcode 150 again by the terminal device 300. In this case, the information stored in the terminal device 300 (all information of the two-dimensional barcode 150) may be sent to the server 200 and stored in the home appliance DB 212 as registration information.

[0063] Moreover, the determination by the determination unit 204 may be made on only the "serial number" instead of the "model name" and the "serial number", or on the MAC address. Moreover, the process of S302 may be omitted, and the process of device registration may proceed as follows. For example, the process of S302 is not performed (i.e., the determination result is not acquired), and the process from step S3 to step S6 proceeds on the premise that advance preparations have been performed. Then, when the identification information (e.g., MAC address) is transmitted from the home appliance 100 to the server 200 in step S7 described later, the determination unit 204 of the server 200 determines whether there is registration information that matches the identification information, and may transmit the determination result to the terminal device 300 directly or via the home appliance 100 in step 303. Then, the display control unit 312 of the terminal device 300 may perform the processes described in FIG. 9 and FIG. 10 according to the above-mentioned determination result.

[0064] Returning to FIG. 6, the device registration of the home appliance 100 will be further described. In the device registration of the home appliance 100, next, in step S4, the user U selects the following on the registration screen of the home appliance management application AP: The user inputs the name of the home appliance 100 and the installation location of the home appliance 100. The "name of the home appliance 100" can be arbitrarily set by the user U, such as "kitchen refrigerator", for example.

[0065] Next, the user U selects a connection method from a selection screen for the connection method between the home appliance 100 and the wireless router 400 (step S5). The selectable "connection methods" include, for example, a simple connection using a Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) button and a normal connection without using a WPS button. When the user U selects a connection method, a connection process between the wireless router 400 and the home appliance 100 is started (step S6). The wireless router 400 and the home appliance 100 are connected as follows. In the following, a case where a normal connection is selected as the connection method will be described as an example.

[0066] First, the terminal device 300 is connected to the wireless router 400. At this time, the SSID (Service Set Identifier) ​​and password of the wireless router 400 are held in the terminal device 300 (step S601).

[0067] The user U switches the communication unit 105 of the home appliance 100 from station mode to AP mode (access point mode), thereby enabling the home appliance 100 and the terminal device 300 to be directly connected wirelessly.

[0068] When the home appliance 100 and the terminal device 300 are connected, the terminal device 300 transmits the SSID and password of the wireless router 400 that it has stored to the home appliance 100. At this time, the terminal device 300 also transmits a user account to the home appliance 100 (step S602).

[0069] When home appliance 100 receives the SSID and password of wireless router 400 from terminal device 300, home appliance 100 returns from AP mode to station mode, and wirelessly connects to wireless router 400 using the SSID and password received from terminal device 300 (step S603).

[0070] When the wireless connection between the wireless router 400 and the home appliance 100 is completed, the MAC address of the home appliance 100 is sent as the above-mentioned identification information from the wireless router 400 to the server 200. At this time, the user account is also sent from the wireless router 400 to the server 200 (step S7). In other words, the MAC address and the user account are sent from the home appliance 100 to the server 200 in a state in which the MAC address (identification information) and the user account are associated with each other.

[0071] The determination unit 204 of the server 200 searches the home appliance DB 212 for registration information corresponding to the home appliance information of the home appliance 100 to be registered, based on the MAC address of the home appliance 100 received from the wireless router 400. The server 200 also identifies the user U who uses the home appliance 100, based on the user account sent from the wireless router 400.

[0072] 12 is an explanatory diagram of the registration process in step S7. As described above, when the home appliance 100 and the wireless router 400 are connected in step S603, the home appliance 100 transmits a user account together with the MAC address of the home appliance 100 to the wireless router 400. The user account and the MAC address are transmitted to the server 200 via the network NW.

[0073] 6, home appliance information is stored as registration information 252 in home appliance DB 212 of server 200. Server 200 refers to the received MAC address (identification information) and searches home appliance DB 212 for registration information 252 corresponding to the identification information. For example, assume that registration information 252a as shown in FIG. 8 is stored in home appliance DB 212 and the MAC address of "M4" is sent to server 200 as identification information. In this case, server 200 searches for registration information 252a as shown in FIG. 8 as registration information corresponding to the identification information. Then, as shown in FIG. 12, server 200 associates searched registration information 252 with user account 251 of user U who uses home appliance 100, thereby completing device registration of home appliance 100.

[0074] Furthermore, when the device registration of the home electric appliance 100 is completed, the information management unit 203 of the server 200 cancels the unusable state of the determination flag and changes it to "available."

[0075] When the server 200 completes the device registration of the home appliance 100 by associating the registration information 252 of the home appliance 100 with the user account 251 of the user U who uses the home appliance 100, the server 200 transmits a registration completion notification to the MAC address of the home appliance 100 (step S8). This completion notification is received by the home appliance 100 via the network NW and the wireless router 400. When the home appliance 100 receives the completion notification, the device registration is completed (step S9).

[0076] As described above, in this embodiment, before the connection between the home appliance 100 and the server 200 is completed, the home appliance information is stored in advance in the home appliance DB 212 of the server 200 as registration information. In this case, the information of the home appliance 100 is sent from the terminal device 300 (or another device) to the server 200 before the connection of the home appliance 100 is completed, so that the information of the home appliance 100 can be sent stably. In contrast, if a process of transmitting the home appliance information of the home appliance 100 to the server 200 is performed after the home appliance 100 and the server 200 are connected, there are many steps until the transmission of the home appliance information is completed, and errors are likely to occur, so that the device registration of the home appliance 100 may fail.

[0077] On the other hand, in this embodiment, when registering the device, after the home appliance 100 is connected, for example, the MAC address of the home appliance 100 that performs the device registration is sent to the server 200 as identification information. The server 200 searches for registration information having information that matches the identification information from the registration information stored in the home appliance DB 212 in advance, and associates it with the user account. This completes the device registration. In such a device registration process, the information to be sent to the server 200 after the connection of the home appliance 100 is completed is only information for identifying the user U and information for identifying the home appliance 100. Therefore, the home appliance information can be registered more reliably regardless of the communication environment between the home appliance 100 and the server 200. This reduces the possibility of device registration failing.

[0078] After the connection of home appliance 100 is completed, the "name of home appliance" and "installation location of home appliance" input in step S4 are sent from home appliance 100 to server 200 via wireless router 400 and network NW, and are recorded in home appliance DB 212. In addition, the "name of home appliance" and the "installation location of home appliance" may be sent from terminal device 300 to server 200 via wireless router 400 and network NW.

[0079] Second embodiment Next, a description will be given of the second embodiment. Fig. 13 shows a process for registering the home appliance 100 in the server 200 in the second embodiment.

[0080] In the above-described first embodiment, as shown in step S1 of FIG. 6, when a user U purchases a home appliance 100, the user U reads the two-dimensional barcode 150 displayed on the purchased home appliance 100 using the terminal device 300, transmits the home appliance information to the server 200, and stores it in the home appliance DB 212 as registration information.

[0081] 13, before the sale of the home appliance 100, an operator of the manufacturer of the home appliance 100 stores the home appliance information as registration information in the home appliance DB 212 of the server 200 in advance. The other configurations are the same as those of the first embodiment.

[0082] When the registration information is stored in advance in the home appliance DB 212 by an operator of the manufacturer, the operator of the manufacturer may read the two-dimensional barcode 150 of the home appliance 100 and store the information in advance in the home appliance DB 212 of the server 200. When the manufacturer has retained data on the home appliance information of each home appliance 100, the registration information may be stored in the home appliance DB 212 of the server 200 directly from the retained data.

[0083] (Application example) As described above, in the first and second embodiments, device registration is performed to associate a user account with registration information of the home appliance 100 used by the user U. In such a configuration, when sharing the home appliance 100, no additional preparation work is required in advance.

[0084] 14 and 15 are diagrams for explaining the sharing process. As shown in FIG. 14, when a user P uses a home appliance P, a user account 251p of the user P is associated with registration information 252p used by the user P. Now, assume that a user Q wants to share the home appliance P. In this case, if approval is obtained from the sharing source user P, an association with a user account 251q of the user Q is added to the registration information 252p as part of the user data of the user P, as shown in FIG. 15. In this way, sharing can be set up simply by adding an association to a user account.

[0085] (Modification) In the above-described embodiment, the MAC address of the home appliance 100 is used as the identification information, but the identification information may be in any form as long as it is information that can individually identify the home appliance 100. The identification information may be, in addition to the MAC address, information including, for example, a serial number or a model, or may be only the serial number.

[0086] In the above example, the home appliance information is acquired by photographing the two-dimensional barcode 150 by the imaging unit 303 of the terminal device 300, and a part of the acquired home appliance information is transmitted as identification information from the terminal device 300 to the server 200 via the wireless router 400 and the network NW. Alternatively, information stored in the storage unit (ROM 111 or RAM 112) of the home appliance 100 may be used as the home appliance information. That is, when the wireless connection between the home appliance 100 and the wireless router 400 is completed in step S603, a part of the home appliance information stored in the storage unit (ROM 111 or RAM 112) of the home appliance 100 may be transmitted as identification information from the home appliance 100 to the server 200 via the wireless router 400 and the network NW.

[0087] Furthermore, when the MAC address of home appliance 100 is used as the identification information, the MAC address may be read from communication unit 105 of home appliance 100 and used. That is, when the wireless connection between home appliance 100 and wireless router 400 is completed in step S603, the MAC address may be read from communication unit 304 of home appliance 100 and transmitted as identification information from home appliance 100 to server 200 via wireless router 400 and network NW.

[0088] That is, the identification information and the information transmitted to the server 200 when identifying the device may include the following combinations. (1) When the identification information is a MAC address and the user U performs a predetermined operation (for example, when the user U performs a predetermined operation on the operation unit 102 of the home appliance 100, or when the user U performs a predetermined operation on the home appliance management application AP), for example, in response to the home appliance 100 and the wireless router 400 being connected based on the predetermined operation by the user U, the MAC address stored in the home appliance 100 is transmitted from the home appliance 100 to the server 200 as the identification information. (2) When the identification information is a serial number (or a model name and a serial number) and the user U performs a specified operation (for example, when the user U performs a specified operation on the operation unit 102 of the home appliance 100, or when the user U performs a specified operation on the home appliance management application AP), for example, in response to the home appliance 100 and the wireless router 400 being connected based on the specified operation by the user U, the serial number (or the model name and the serial number) stored in the home appliance 100 is transmitted from the home appliance 100 to the server 200 as identification information. (3) The identification information is a MAC address, and the MAC address acquired from the two-dimensional barcode 150 of the home appliance 100 is transmitted as the identification information from the terminal device 300 to the server 200 based on, for example, a predetermined operation by the user U on the home appliance management application AP. (4) The identification information is a serial number (or a model name and a serial number), and the serial number (or the model name and a serial number) obtained from the two-dimensional barcode 150 of the home appliance 100 is transmitted from the terminal device 300 to the server 200 as the identification information based on, for example, a specified operation by the user U on the home appliance management application AP.

[0089] (advantage) The present embodiment is an information processing system including a server 200. The server 200 includes an information management unit 203 for managing registration information stored in advance in the server 200 as information for performing device registration for an unregistered home appliance 100 before device registration for associating the home appliance 100 with a user U is performed, a determination unit 204 for determining whether or not the registration information and the identification information satisfy a predetermined relationship when identification information for identifying the home appliance 100 to be associated with the user U is received, and a device registration unit 205 for performing device registration of the home appliance 100 identified by the identification information using the registration information when the determination unit 204 determines that the predetermined relationship is satisfied. In such a configuration, before device registration, home appliance information required for device registration of the home appliance 100 is stored in advance in the server 200 as registration information, and device registration of the home appliance 100 is performed when the registration information and the identification information satisfy a predetermined relationship at the time of registration. In this embodiment, before connecting the home appliance 100 and the server 200, the home appliance information required for device registration of the home appliance 100 is stored in the server 200 as registration information, so that the number of registration failures of the home appliance 100 can be reduced, and the workload associated with device registration can be reduced.

[0090] In this embodiment, "a predetermined relationship is satisfied" means that a portion of information included in the registration information matches the identification information. In this embodiment, the home appliance information required for registering the home appliance 100 is set as the registration information, and a portion of information included in the registration information is set as the identification information. With this configuration, it is possible to identify the home appliance information by determining that a portion of information included in the registration information matches the identification information.

[0091] In this embodiment, the registration information includes the serial number, model name, model type, and MAC address of the wireless module of the home appliance 100. In this embodiment, the serial number, model name, model type, and MAC address of the home appliance 100 are used as the registration information, so that the home appliance information required for device registration of the home appliance 100 can be stored in advance in the server 200.

[0092] In this embodiment, the identification information is a MAC address of a wireless module of the home appliance 100. In this embodiment, the server 200 can identify the registration information of the home appliance 100 that performs device registration by comparing the MAC address included in the registration information with the MAC address received as the identification information.

[0093] In this embodiment, the identification information is information including a serial number of the home appliance 100. In this embodiment, the server 200 can identify the registration information of the home appliance 100 that performs device registration by comparing the serial number of the home appliance 100 included in the registration information with the serial number received as the identification information.

[0094] In this embodiment, the identification information is information stored in a storage unit of the home appliance 100, and is information transmitted from the home appliance 100 to the server 200 when the user U performs a predetermined operation. In this embodiment, by using the information stored in the storage unit of the home appliance 100 and transmitted to the server 200 as the identification information, the server 200 can identify the home appliance information.

[0095] In this embodiment, the identification information is information that can be acquired from an identification display (e.g., two-dimensional barcode 150) displayed on home appliance 100 by capturing an image of the identification display by imaging unit 303 of terminal device 300, and is information that is transmitted from terminal device 300 to server 200 when a user performs a predetermined operation. In this embodiment, the identification information can be easily acquired by capturing an image of the identification display displayed on home appliance 100.

[0096] In this embodiment, the registration information is information that is stored in advance in server 200 by an operator of the manufacturer of home appliance 100 before the sale of home appliance 100. In this embodiment, by storing the registration information in advance in server 200 by an operator of the manufacturer of home appliance 100 before the sale of home appliance 100, home appliance information required for registering home appliance 100 can be stored in server 200 as registration information before a user performs device registration.

[0097] In this embodiment, the information processing system includes an information processing unit 310 of a terminal device 300. Before device registration, the information processing unit 310 transmits information acquired from an identification display displayed on the home appliance 100 to the server 200 to have the server 200 store the information in advance as registration information. In this embodiment, home appliance information obtained by photographing the identification display displayed on the home appliance 100 by the imaging unit 303 of the terminal device 300 can be stored in the server 200 as registration information before device registration. With this configuration, the registration information can be easily registered in the server 200.

[0098] In this embodiment, before device registration is performed, the information management unit 203 manages the registration information in a state in which the use of the registration information for purposes other than device registration is restricted, and after device registration is performed, the information management unit 203 releases the restriction on the use of the registration information. In this embodiment, by releasing the restriction on the use of the registration information after device registration is performed, the information can be used for purposes other than device registration. This makes it possible to prevent home appliance information before device registration from being used.

[0099] In this embodiment, the information processing system includes an information processing unit 310 of the terminal device 300. The information processing unit 310 includes a determination result acquisition unit 311 that acquires a determination result indicating whether or not the registration information and the identification information satisfy a predetermined relationship from outside the terminal device, and a display control unit 312 that changes the content to be displayed on the display screen depending on whether the determination result is positive or negative. In this embodiment, if the registration information is not stored in the server 200 at the time of device registration, the user U can be notified of this.

[0100] In this embodiment, terminal device 300 includes display screen 302a. When the determination result is negative, display control unit 312 causes the display screen to display guidance prompting the user to save information acquired from the identification display displayed on home appliance 100 in advance as registration information in server 200. In this embodiment, when registration information is not saved in server 200 at the time of device registration, it is possible to prompt the user to save information acquired from the identification display in server 200 in advance as registration information.

[0101] In the present embodiment, the display control unit 312 displays, as a screen related to device registration, a registration screen corresponding to the model of the home appliance 100 on the display screen based on part of information acquired from an identification display displayed on the home appliance 100 and including the model of the home appliance 100, and when the determination result is negative, displays on the display screen 302a a guide to prompt the user to save in advance, as registration information, more information than the part of information acquired from the identification display in the server 200. In the present embodiment, when registration information is not saved in the server 200 at the time of device registration, the user can be prompted to save in advance, as registration information, information acquired from the identification display in the server 200.

[0102] According to at least one embodiment described above, the information processing system includes a device registration unit that performs device registration of the home appliance identified by the identification information by using registration information stored in advance in the server when the determination unit determines that the predetermined relationship is satisfied. With this configuration, it is possible to reduce the workload related to device registration.

[0103] Although some embodiments of the present invention have been described, these embodiments are presented as examples and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. These embodiments can be implemented in various other forms, and various omissions, substitutions, and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. These embodiments and their modifications are included in the scope of the invention and its equivalents described in the claims, as well as in the scope and spirit of the invention. [Explanation of symbols]

[0104] 100... home appliance, 200... server, 202... registration information storage unit, 203... information management unit, 204... determination unit, 205... device registration unit, 300... terminal device, 303... imaging unit, 400... wireless router.

Claims

1. An information processing system including a server, The server, an information management unit that manages registration information stored in advance in the server as information for performing device registration for an unregistered home appliance before device registration that associates the home appliance with a user; a determination unit that, when identification information for identifying a home appliance to be associated with the user is received, determines whether the registration information and the identification information satisfy a predetermined relationship; a device registration unit that performs device registration of the home electric appliance identified by the identification information by using the registration information when the determination unit determines that the predetermined relationship is satisfied; With Information processing system.

2. The predetermined relationship being satisfied means that a part of the information included in the registration information matches the identification information. The information processing system according to claim 1 .

3. The registration information includes a serial number, a model name, a model name, and a MAC (Media Access Control) address of a wireless module of the home appliance.

3. The information processing system according to claim 1 or 2.

4. The identification information is a Media Access Control (MAC) address of a wireless module of the home appliance.

3. The information processing system according to claim 1 or 2.

5. The identification information is information including a serial number of the home appliance.

3. The information processing system according to claim 1 or 2.

6. The identification information is information stored in a storage unit of the home appliance and is information transmitted from the home appliance to the server when the user performs a predetermined operation.

3. The information processing system according to claim 1 or 2.

7. The identification information is information that can be acquired from the identification display displayed on the home appliance by capturing an image of the identification display by an imaging unit of a terminal device, and is information that is transmitted from the terminal device to the server when the user performs a predetermined operation.

3. The information processing system according to claim 1 or 2.

8. The registration information is information that is stored in advance in the server by an operator of a manufacturer of the home appliance before the home appliance is sold.

3. The information processing system according to claim 1 or 2.

9. The information processing system includes an information processing unit of a terminal device, The information processing unit transmits information acquired from an identification display displayed on the home appliance to the server before the appliance registration is performed, so that the information is stored in the server as the registration information in advance.

3. The information processing system according to claim 1 or 2.

10. The information management unit managing the registration information in a state in which use of the registration information for purposes other than the device registration is restricted before the device registration is performed; After the device registration is completed, the restriction on the use of the registration information is lifted.

3. The information processing system according to claim 1 or 2.

11. The information processing system includes an information processing unit of a terminal device, The information processing unit includes: a determination result acquisition unit that acquires, from outside the terminal device, a determination result indicating whether the registration information and the identification information satisfy a predetermined relationship; a display control unit that causes content to be displayed on a display screen of the terminal device to differ between a case where the determination result is positive and a case where the determination result is negative; Including, 3. The information processing system according to claim 1 or 2.

12. the terminal device includes a display screen; When the determination result is negative, the display control unit causes the display screen to display a guidance message prompting the user to store in advance, in the server, information acquired from an identification display displayed on the home appliance as the registration information. The information processing system according to claim 11.

13. The display control unit is displaying, on the display screen as a screen related to the device registration, a registration screen corresponding to a model name of the home appliance based on information obtained from an identification display displayed on the home appliance, the information including the model name of the home appliance; If the determination result is negative, displaying on the display screen a guide to prompt the user to store in advance in the server, as the registration information, information that is obtained from the identification display and that is more than the part of the information. The information processing system according to claim 11.

14. One or more computers With respect to an unregistered home appliance before device registration for associating the home appliance with a user is performed, determining whether or not registration information previously stored in a server as information for performing the device registration and identification information for identifying a home appliance to be associated with the user satisfy a predetermined relationship; When it is determined that the predetermined relationship is satisfied, performing device registration of the home appliance identified by the identification information by using the registration information. An information processing method comprising the steps of:

15. A computer, which is a terminal device having a display screen, a determination result acquisition unit that acquires, from outside the terminal device, a determination result indicating whether or not registration information stored in advance in a server as information for performing device registration for an unregistered home appliance before device registration that associates the home appliance with a user satisfies a predetermined relationship with identification information for identifying the home appliance to be associated with the user; a display control unit that causes the content displayed on the display screen to differ depending on whether the determination result is positive or negative; A program to achieve this.

16. A computer which is a terminal device having a display screen, acquire, from outside the terminal device, a determination result indicating whether or not registration information stored in advance in a server as information for performing device registration for an unregistered home appliance before device registration that associates the home appliance with a user satisfies a predetermined relationship with identification information for identifying a home appliance to be associated with the user; The content displayed on the display screen is made different between a case where the determination result is positive and a case where the determination result is negative. An information processing method comprising the steps of:

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