Electric lock control method, electric lock control system, and program

Abstract

To prevent an electric lock from being fraudulently unlocked.SOLUTION: An electric lock control method includes a first determination step of determining whether or not a person exists in a predetermined area around the electric lock 100 based on first information generated by an electronic device, a second determination step of determining whether the first person is a person permitted to unlock the electric lock 100 based on second information about the movement of the first person when the first determination step determines that a first person exists in the predetermined area and a control step of controlling the locked-unlocked state of the electric lock 100 based on the determination result of the second determination step.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 13

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an electric lock control method for controlling an electric lock. [Background technology]

[0002] BACKGROUND ART Conventionally, a technique for controlling an electric lock is known (for example, see Patent Document 1). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-63961 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] It is desirable to prevent unauthorized persons from unlocking an electric lock through fraudulent means.

[0005] Therefore, the present disclosure aims to provide an electric lock control method, etc. that can prevent a person who is not authorized to unlock an electric lock from unlocking the electric lock in an unauthorized manner. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] An electric lock control method according to one embodiment of the present disclosure includes a first determination step of determining whether or not a person is present in a specified area around an electric lock based on first information generated by an electronic device; a second determination step of determining, if the first determination step determines that a first person is present in the specified area, whether or not the first person is authorized to unlock the electric lock based on second information regarding the movement of the first person; and a control step of controlling the locked / unlocked state of the electric lock based on the result of the determination made by the second determination step.

[0007] An electric lock control system according to one embodiment of the present disclosure includes a first judgment unit that judges whether a person is present in a specified area around an electric lock based on first information generated by an electronic device, a second judgment unit that, when the first judgment unit judges that a first person is present in the specified area, judges whether the first person is a person authorized to unlock the electric lock based on second information regarding the movement of the first person, and a control unit that controls the locking / unlocking state of the electric lock based on the result of the judgment by the second judgment unit.

[0008] A program according to one embodiment of the present disclosure is a program for causing a computer to execute an electric lock control process, the electric lock control process including a first determination step of determining whether or not a person is present in a specified area around an electric lock based on first information generated by an electronic device, a second determination step of determining whether or not the first person is authorized to unlock the electric lock based on second information regarding the movement of the first person when the first determination step determines that the first person is present in the specified area, and a control step of controlling the locked / unlocked state of the electric lock based on the result of the determination made by the second determination step. [Effects of the Invention]

[0009] According to an electric lock control method and the like relating to one aspect of the present disclosure, it is possible to prevent a person who is not authorized to unlock an electric lock from unlocking the electric lock in an unauthorized manner. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0010] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a hardware configuration of an electric lock control system according to the first embodiment. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a state in which part of the hardware configuration of the electric lock control system according to the first embodiment is installed in a building. [Figure 3]FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of the electric lock control system according to the first embodiment. [Figure 4] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram showing how the second judgment unit of embodiment 1 determines, based on acceleration information and magnetic information, whether a person present within a specified range of the electric lock is a person authorized to unlock the electric lock. [Figure 5] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram showing how the second judgment unit of embodiment 1 determines, based on acceleration information, whether a person present within a specified range of the electric lock is a person authorized to unlock the electric lock. [Figure 6] FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an image displayed by the display unit according to the first embodiment. [Figure 7] FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an image displayed by the display and operation receiving unit according to the first embodiment. [Figure 8] FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an image displayed by the display and operation receiving unit according to the first embodiment. [Figure 9] FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an image displayed by the display and operation receiving unit according to the first embodiment. [Figure 10] FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an image displayed by the display unit according to the first embodiment. [Figure 11] FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an image displayed by the display unit according to the first embodiment. [Figure 12] FIG. 12 is a sequence diagram showing an outline of an example of a typical operation performed by the electric lock control system according to the first embodiment that executes the first electric lock control process. [Figure 13] FIG. 13 is a flowchart of the first electric lock control process. [Figure 14] FIG. 14 is a flowchart of the first determination process. [Figure 15] FIG. 15 is a flowchart of the second determination process. [Figure 16] FIG. 16 is a flowchart of the first control process. [Figure 17]FIG. 17 is a block diagram showing an example of a hardware configuration of an electric lock control system according to a modified example. [Figure 18] FIG. 18 is a block diagram showing an example of a functional configuration of an electric lock control system according to a modified example. [Figure 19] FIG. 19 is a sequence diagram showing an outline of an example of a typical operation performed by an electric lock control system according to a modified example that executes the second electric lock control process. [Figure 20] FIG. 20 is a flowchart of the second electric lock control process. [Figure 21] FIG. 21 is a flowchart of the second control process. [Figure 22] FIG. 22 is a block diagram showing an example of a hardware configuration of an electric lock control system according to the second embodiment. [Figure 23] FIG. 23 is a schematic diagram showing a state in which part of the hardware configuration of the electric lock control system according to the second embodiment is installed in a building. [Figure 24] FIG. 24 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of the electric lock control system according to the second embodiment. [Figure 25] FIG. 25 is a flowchart of the third electric lock control process. [Figure 26] FIG. 26 is a flowchart of the third determination process. [Figure 27] FIG. 27 is a flowchart of the fourth determination process. [Figure 28] FIG. 28 is a block diagram showing an example of a hardware configuration of an electric lock control system according to the third embodiment. [Figure 29] FIG. 29 is a schematic diagram showing a state in which part of the hardware configuration of the electric lock control system according to the third embodiment is installed in a building. [Figure 30] FIG. 30 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of an electric lock control system according to the third embodiment. [Figure 31] FIG. 31 is a flowchart of the fourth electric lock control process. [Figure 32]FIG. 32 is a flowchart of the fifth determination process. [Figure 33] FIG. 33 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of an electric lock control system according to the fourth embodiment. [Figure 34] FIG. 34 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of an electric lock control system according to the fourth embodiment. [Figure 35] FIG. 35 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an electric lock control system according to the fourth embodiment that includes a plurality of machine learning models. [Figure 36] FIG. 36 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an electric lock control system according to the fourth embodiment that includes one machine learning model. [Figure 37] FIG. 37 is a flowchart of the fifth electric lock control process. [Figure 38] FIG. 38 is a flowchart of the sixth determination process. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0011] (How one aspect of the present disclosure was achieved) In recent years, various electronic devices in a building are connected to a gateway or router (hereinafter simply referred to as a "gateway") installed in the building. A user who uses an electronic device connected to a gateway can control the operation of the electronic device via the gateway. This improves the convenience of a user who uses an electronic device connected to a gateway compared to before the electronic device was connected to the gateway.

[0012] On the other hand, if a gateway is taken over by a third party, there is a risk that the third party may illegally control electronic devices connected to the gateway.

[0013] In particular, if the electronic device connected to the gateway is an electric lock installed on the door that serves as the entrance to the building, there is a risk that a third party may be able to gain unauthorized access to the building.

[0014] For this reason, the inventors have conducted extensive research and experiments into methods for preventing unauthorized persons from unlocking an electric lock through fraudulent means.

[0015] As a result, the inventors discovered that by controlling the locking and unlocking of an electric lock so as to prevent the electric lock from being unlocked if a person in the vicinity of the electric lock is not authorized to unlock the electric lock, it is possible to prevent the electric lock from being unlocked in an unauthorized manner by a person who is not authorized to unlock the electric lock.

[0016] Based on this knowledge, the inventors conducted further studies and experiments and came up with the electric lock control method, electric lock control system, and program disclosed below.

[0017] An electric lock control method according to one embodiment of the present disclosure includes a first determination step of determining whether or not a person is present in a specified area around an electric lock based on first information generated by an electronic device; a second determination step of determining, if the first determination step determines that a first person is present in the specified area, whether or not the first person is authorized to unlock the electric lock based on second information regarding the movement of the first person; and a control step of controlling the locked / unlocked state of the electric lock based on the result of the determination made by the second determination step.

[0018] According to the electric lock control method, if it is determined that a person in the vicinity of the electric lock is not authorized to unlock the electric lock, the locked / unlocked state of the electric lock can be controlled so that the electric lock is not unlocked.

[0019] As a result, the electric lock control method can prevent unauthorized persons from unlocking the electric lock in an unauthorized manner.

[0020] Furthermore, the electronic device may be an information terminal carried by the first person, the first information may be location information indicating the location of the information terminal, and the second information may be acceleration information indicating acceleration detected by an acceleration sensor provided in the information terminal, or step count information indicating the number of steps taken by the first person measured by the information terminal.

[0021] This makes it possible to determine whether or not the first person is authorized to unlock the electric lock based on the information related to the information terminal.

[0022] Furthermore, the electronic device may be an imaging device, the first information may be an image captured by the imaging device, and the second information may be gait information relating to the gait of the first person calculated based on the image captured by the imaging device.

[0023] This makes it possible to determine whether or not the first person is authorized to unlock the electric lock based on information related to the image captured by the imaging device.

[0024] Furthermore, the electric lock may be installed on a door at the entrance to a building, the electronic device may be a charger for charging an electric vehicle, the charger being located in the building or within a predetermined range from the building, or a distribution board that supplies power to the charger, the first information may be connection information indicating that the electric vehicle is connected to the charger, and the second information may be acceleration information indicating acceleration detected by an acceleration sensor provided in an information terminal carried by the first person.

[0025] This makes it possible to determine whether the first person is authorized to unlock the electric lock based on the information related to the charger.

[0026] In addition, in the second determination step, when the second information is input, a machine learning model that has been pre-trained to output a score indicating the likelihood that the first person is a person authorized to unlock the electric lock may be used to determine whether the first person is a person authorized to unlock the electric lock.

[0027] This allows the machine learning model to be used to determine whether the first person is authorized to unlock the electric lock.

[0028] An electric lock control system according to one embodiment of the present disclosure includes a first judgment unit that judges whether a person is present in a specified area around an electric lock based on first information generated by an electronic device, a second judgment unit that, when the first judgment unit judges that a first person is present in the specified area, judges whether the first person is a person authorized to unlock the electric lock based on second information regarding the movement of the first person, and a control unit that controls the locking / unlocking state of the electric lock based on the result of the judgment by the second judgment unit.

[0029] According to the electric lock control system, if it is determined that a person in the vicinity of the electric lock is not authorized to unlock the electric lock, the locking / unlocking state of the electric lock can be controlled so that the electric lock is not unlocked.

[0030] As a result, the electric lock control system can prevent unauthorized persons from unlocking the electric lock in an unauthorized manner.

[0031] A program according to one embodiment of the present disclosure is a program for causing a computer to execute an electric lock control process, the electric lock control process including a first determination step of determining whether or not a person is present in a specified area around an electric lock based on first information generated by an electronic device, a second determination step of determining whether or not the first person is authorized to unlock the electric lock based on second information regarding the movement of the first person when the first determination step determines that the first person is present in the specified area, and a control step of controlling the locked / unlocked state of the electric lock based on the result of the determination made by the second determination step.

[0032] According to the program, if it is determined that a person in the vicinity of an electric lock is not authorized to unlock the electric lock, the locking / unlocking state of the electric lock can be controlled so that the electric lock is not unlocked.

[0033] As a result, the program can prevent unauthorized persons from unlocking the electric lock using fraudulent methods.

[0034] A specific example of an electric lock control system according to one aspect of the present disclosure will be described below with reference to the drawings. Each embodiment shown here represents a specific example of the present disclosure. Therefore, the numerical values, shapes, components, component arrangement and connection, steps (processes), and step order shown in the following embodiments are merely examples and are not intended to limit the present disclosure. Furthermore, each figure is a schematic diagram and is not necessarily an exact illustration. In each figure, substantially identical components are assigned the same reference numerals, and redundant explanations are omitted or simplified.

[0035] (Embodiment 1) The following describes an electric lock control system according to embodiment 1. This electric lock control system determines whether a person is present near an electric lock and whether that person is not authorized to unlock the electric lock, and controls the locked / unlocked state of the electric lock based on the determination result.

[0036] <Configuration> FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a hardware configuration of an electric lock control system 1 according to the first embodiment.

[0037] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a state in which part of the hardware configuration of the electric lock control system 1 is installed in a building 200. As shown in FIG.

[0038] As shown in FIG. 1, the electric lock control system 1 includes an electric lock 100, a home gateway 110, a server device 120, an information terminal 130, the Internet 140, and an in-building network 150.

[0039] The electric lock 100 is connected to an in-building network 150, receives a control signal transmitted from a home gateway 110 via the in-building network 150, and switches between a locked state and an unlocked state based on the received control signal.

[0040] In the first embodiment, the electric lock 100 will be described as being installed on a door 210 at the entrance of a building 200 as a lock for locking and unlocking the door 210, as shown in FIG.

[0041] For example, building 200 may be a residence, and door 210 may be a front door to building 200, which is a residence.

[0042] Here, the electric lock 100 is described as a lock that locks and unlocks the door 210, but it is not necessarily limited to a lock that locks and unlocks the door 210. The electric lock 100 may be, for example, a lock that locks and unlocks the door of a passenger car, or a lock that locks and unlocks a safe.

[0043] The home gateway 110 is installed in the building 200 and is connected to the in-building network 150 constructed in the building 200 and the Internet 140, and relays communications between devices connected to the in-building network 150 and between devices connected to the in-building network 150 and devices connected to the Internet 140.

[0044] The home gateway 110 includes a communication interface, a touch panel, a processor, and a memory, and realizes various functions by the processor executing programs stored in the memory.

[0045] The information terminal 130 is a portable terminal connected to the Internet 140 .

[0046] In the first embodiment, the information terminal 130 is described as a smartphone that includes an acceleration sensor and a magnetic sensor, has a GPS function, and is carried by the person 220.

[0047] In the first embodiment, the information terminal 130 is described as being a smartphone carried by the person 220, but the information terminal 130 is not necessarily limited to a smartphone as long as it is capable of communicating with the server device 120 and the home gateway 110 and is a terminal carried by the person 220. The information terminal 130 may be, for example, a wearable device or a pedometer.

[0048] The information terminal 130 further includes a communication interface, a touch panel, a processor, and a memory, and realizes various functions by the processor executing programs stored in the memory.

[0049] The information terminal 130 calculates the position of the information terminal 130 using the GPS function, detects acceleration using the acceleration sensor, and detects magnetism using the magnetic sensor every predetermined period T1 (for example, every second).

[0050] The server device 120 is a so-called computer device and is connected to the Internet 140 .

[0051] The server device 120 includes a communication interface, an input interface, a display, a processor, and a memory, and realizes various functions by the processor executing programs stored in the memory.

[0052] FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the electric lock control system 1. As shown in FIG.

[0053] As shown in Figure 3, the electric lock control system 1 includes an operation reception unit 31, a sensing information storage unit 32, a transmission unit 33, a reception unit 34, a display unit 35, a reception unit 21, a first judgment unit 22, a second judgment unit 23, a transmission unit 24, a display unit 25, a reception unit 11, a control unit 12, a display and operation reception unit 13, a transmission unit 14, a reception unit 101, and a locking / unlocking unit 102.

[0054] The operation reception unit 31, the sensing information storage unit 32, the transmission unit 33, the reception unit 34, and the display unit 35 are realized by the information terminal 130, the reception unit 21, the first judgment unit 22, the second judgment unit 23, the transmission unit 24, and the display unit 25 are realized by the server device 120, the reception unit 11, the control unit 12, the display and operation reception unit 13, and the transmission unit 14 are realized by the home gateway 110, and the reception unit 101 and the locking / unlocking unit 102 are realized by the electric lock 100.

[0055] In the first embodiment, it is described that the first determination unit 22 and the second determination unit 23 are realized by the server device 120, and the control unit 12 is realized by the home gateway 110, but the first determination unit 22, the second determination unit 23, and the control unit 12 may each be realized by any of the information terminal 130, the server device 120, and the home gateway 110.

[0056] The sensing information storage unit 32 stores the position of the information terminal 130 calculated using the GPS function, the acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor, and the magnetism detected by the magnetic sensor.

[0057] The operation receiving unit 31 receives an operation on the information terminal 130 by a user who uses the information terminal 130 .

[0058] When the operation receiving unit 31 receives an operation from a user using the information terminal 130 requesting the unlocking of the electric lock 100, the transmitting unit 33 (1) transmits to the home gateway 110 an unlock request signal requesting the unlocking of the electric lock 100, and (2) by referring to the data stored in the sensing information storage unit 32, transmits to the server device 120 location information indicating the location of the information terminal 130 at the time the operation was received, acceleration information indicating the acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor during a predetermined period T2 (e.g., one hour) in the past from the time the operation was received, and magnetic information indicating the magnetism detected by the magnetic sensor during a predetermined period T2 in the past from the time the operation was received.

[0059] The receiving unit 21 receives the position information, acceleration information, and magnetic information transmitted from the information terminal 130.

[0060] When the receiving unit 21 receives location information from the information terminal 130, the first judgment unit 22 judges whether or not a person 220 carrying the information terminal 130 is present within a predetermined range around the electric lock 100 (for example, within 2 m from the electric lock 100) based on the location information received by the receiving unit 21.

[0061] The first judgment unit 22 may, for example, calculate the distance between the position of the information terminal 130 indicated by the position information and the position of the electric lock 100 stored in advance, and if the calculated distance is less than a predetermined threshold, make a judgment that affirms that a person 220 carrying the information terminal 130 is present within a predetermined range around the electric lock 100, and if the calculated distance is greater than the predetermined threshold, make a judgment that denies that a person 220 carrying the information terminal 130 is present within a predetermined range around the electric lock 100.

[0062] When the first judgment unit 22 determines that a person 220 carrying an information terminal 130 is present within a specified range around the electric lock 100, the second judgment unit 23 determines whether the person 220 is person A who is authorized to unlock the electric lock 100 based on the acceleration information and magnetic information received by the receiving unit 21.

[0063] For example, if the building 200 is a residence, the person A who is permitted to unlock the electric lock 100 is a resident of the residence. Also, if the building 200 is an office building, the person A who is permitted to unlock the electric lock 100 is an employee of a company that operates in the office building.

[0064] In the following, the second determination unit 23 will be described as determining whether or not the person 220 is person A based on magnetic information in addition to acceleration information, but the second determination unit 23 does not necessarily have to be limited to a configuration that determines whether or not the person 220 is person A based on acceleration information and magnetic information, as long as it is configured to determine whether or not the person 220 is person A based at least on acceleration information.

[0065] The second judgment unit 23 may, for example, use acceleration information and magnetic information to estimate the movement path of person 220 over a predetermined period T2 from the time when an operation requesting unlocking of electric lock 100 was received, calculate the difference between the estimated movement path and a typical movement path of person A that is stored in advance, and determine that person 220 is person A if the calculated difference is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold, and determine that person 220 is not person A if the calculated difference is greater than the predetermined threshold.

[0066] Here, the difference between the estimated movement route and the typical movement route may be, for example, the cumulative value of the difference in distance between a position on the estimated movement route and a position on the typical movement route for each minute.

[0067] A typical travel route of person A may be, for example, the route taken from person A's workplace to building 200, which is person A's residence, before leaving work.

[0068] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of how the second determination unit 23 determines whether or not the person 220 is person A based on the acceleration information and magnetic information.

[0069] As shown in FIG. 4, the second determination unit 23 first maps a typical movement route A of person A that is stored in advance, a typical movement route B of person A that is stored in advance, a typical movement route C of person A that is stored in advance, and the estimated movement route on a map of the area around the building 200.

[0070] Next, the second determination unit 23 selects, from among the travel route A, the travel route B, and the travel route C, the travel route that is most similar to the estimated travel route.

[0071] Then, the difference between the selected travel path and the estimated travel path is calculated, and if the calculated difference is equal to or smaller than a predetermined threshold, it is determined that person 220 is person A, and if the calculated difference is greater than the predetermined threshold, it is determined that person 220 is not person A.

[0072] In addition, when the second determination unit 23 is configured to determine whether or not the person 220 is person A based on the acceleration information, the second determination unit 23 may, for example, determine that the person 220 is person A when the difference between the absolute value of the acceleration indicated by the acceleration information (for example, the square root of the sum of the squares of the accelerations in each of the three-dimensional directions) and the absolute value of the acceleration in a typical movement path of the person A that is stored in advance is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold, and may determine that the person 220 is not person A when the difference is greater than the predetermined threshold.

[0073] Here, the difference between the absolute value of the acceleration on a typical movement route and the absolute value of the acceleration indicated by the acceleration information may be, for example, the cumulative value of the difference between the absolute value of the acceleration on a typical movement route and the absolute value of the acceleration indicated by the acceleration information for each minute.

[0074] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example of how the second determination unit 23 determines whether the person 220 is person A based on the acceleration information.

[0075] As shown in FIG. 5, the second determination unit 23 first maps, on the time axis, the absolute values of acceleration along a typical movement route of person A stored in advance and the absolute values of acceleration indicated by the acceleration information.

[0076] Then, the difference between the absolute value of acceleration on a typical movement path and the absolute value of acceleration indicated by the acceleration information is calculated, and if the calculated difference is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold, it is determined that person 220 is person A, and if the calculated difference is greater than the predetermined threshold, it is determined that person 220 is not person A.

[0077] In a typical travel route, when person A gets on a train and the train departs, a sudden increase in acceleration and characteristic acceleration due to train vibrations appear. Also, when the train stops, person A gets off the train and starts walking, a sudden increase in acceleration and characteristic acceleration due to walking appear.

[0078] Returning to FIG. 3, the description of the electric lock control system 1 will be continued.

[0079] The display unit 25 displays an image based on the determination result by the second determination unit 23.

[0080] FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an image displayed by the display unit 25. As shown in FIG.

[0081] As shown in FIG. 6, for example, when the second judgment unit 23 judges that the person 220 is not person A, the display unit 25 displays an image on a map of the area around the building 200, superimposing an alarm indicating that an abnormality has been detected in the building 200.

[0082] This allows the electric lock control system 1 to notify the user of the server device 120 that an abnormality in the building 200 has been detected.

[0083] Returning to FIG. 3, the description of the electric lock control system 1 will be continued.

[0084] The transmission unit 24 transmits the determination result information indicating the determination result by the second determination unit 23 to the home gateway 110.

[0085] The receiving unit 11 receives the unlocking request signal transmitted from the information terminal 130 and the determination result information transmitted from the server device 120.

[0086] The control unit 12 controls the locking / unlocking state of the electric lock 100 based on the determination result by the second determination unit 23.

[0087] More specifically, when the receiving unit 11 receives an unlock request signal from the information terminal 130, and when the receiving unit 11 receives judgment result information from the server device 120, if the received judgment result information indicates that the person 220 has been judged to be person A, the control unit 12 outputs a first unlock signal indicating that the electric lock 100 is to be in an unlocked state, and if the received judgment result information indicates that the person 220 has been judged to be not person A, the control unit 12 does not output the first unlock signal but instead outputs a warning signal indicating that an unlock request signal has been sent from the information terminal 130 carried by a person other than person A, thereby controlling the locked / unlocked state of the electric lock 100.

[0088] The display and operation reception unit 13 displays an image showing the locked / unlocked state of the electric lock 100 controlled by the control unit 12.

[0089] The display and operation reception unit 13 also receives operations relating to locking and unlocking the electric lock 100 by a user of the home gateway 110 .

[0090] FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an image displayed by the display and operation receiving unit 13. As shown in FIG.

[0091] Here, the image shown in FIG. 7 is an example of an image that is displayed when the electric lock 100 is in the locked state.

[0092] Returning to FIG. 3, the description of the electric lock control system 1 will be continued.

[0093] The display and operation reception unit 13 also displays an image indicating the security level related to locking and unlocking of the electric lock 100.

[0094] The display and operation receiving unit 13 also receives an operation by a user of the home gateway 110 to change the security level related to locking and unlocking the electric lock 100.

[0095] FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an image displayed by the display and operation receiving unit 13. As shown in FIG.

[0096] 8 is an example of an image to be displayed when the security level for locking and unlocking the electric lock 100 has two levels, Level 1 and Level 2. Here, Level 1 is a security level in which, when a warning signal is output from the control unit 12, an image indicating that a warning signal has been output is displayed on the display and operation receiving unit 13 and the display unit 35, while the electric lock 100 is unlocked. Level 2 is a security level in which, when a warning signal is output from the control unit 12, an image indicating that a warning signal has been output is displayed on the display and operation receiving unit 13 and the display unit 35, while the electric lock 100 is not unlocked.

[0097] Returning to FIG. 3, the description of the electric lock control system 1 will be continued.

[0098] The display and operation reception unit 13 also displays a log of the locking and unlocking of the electric lock 100.

[0099] FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an image displayed by the display and operation receiving unit 13. As shown in FIG.

[0100] Returning to FIG. 3, the description of the electric lock control system 1 will be continued.

[0101] Furthermore, when the security level related to locking and unlocking of the electric lock 100 is Level 1 and a warning signal is output from the control unit 12, the display and operation receiving unit 13 displays an image indicating that a warning signal has been output. Then, the display and operation receiving unit 13 outputs a second unlocking signal indicating that the electric lock 100 is to be put into an unlocked state.

[0102] Furthermore, when the security level related to locking and unlocking of the electric lock 100 is level 2 and a warning signal is output from the control unit 12, the display and operation receiving unit 13 displays an image indicating that a warning signal has been output. Then, the display and operation receiving unit 13 does not output a second unlocking signal.

[0103] At this time, the display and operation receiving unit 13 displays a message prompting the user using the home gateway 110 to either allow or not allow the electric lock 100 to be unlocked, and if an operation to allow the electric lock 100 to be unlocked is received from the user using the home gateway 110, the display and operation receiving unit 13 may output a second unlocking signal, and if an operation to not allow the electric lock 100 to be unlocked is received, the display and operation receiving unit 13 may not output the second unlocking signal.

[0104] When the control unit 12 outputs a warning signal, the transmission unit 14 transmits the warning signal output from the control unit 12 to the information terminal 130.

[0105] In addition, when the control unit 12 outputs a first unlocking signal, the transmission unit 14 transmits the first unlocking signal output from the control unit 12 to the electric lock 100, and when the display and operation receiving unit 13 outputs a second unlocking signal, the transmission unit 14 transmits the second unlocking signal output from the display and operation receiving unit 13 to the electric lock 100.

[0106] The receiving unit 34 receives the warning signal transmitted from the home gateway 110 .

[0107] The display unit 35 displays an image prompting the user of the information terminal 130 to perform an operation to request unlocking of the electric lock 100.

[0108] Furthermore, when the receiver 34 receives a warning signal, the display unit 35 displays an image indicating that a warning signal has been output.

[0109] FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an image displayed on the display unit 35 to prompt an operation to unlock the electric lock 100.

[0110] FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an image displayed by the display unit 35, indicating that a warning signal has been output.

[0111] Returning to FIG. 3, the description of the electric lock control system 1 will be continued.

[0112] The receiving unit 101 receives the first unlocking signal and the second unlocking signal transmitted from the transmitting unit 14.

[0113] The locking / unlocking unit 102 puts the electric lock 100 into an unlocked state when the receiving unit 101 receives the first unlocking signal and when the receiving unit 101 receives the second unlocking signal.

[0114] <Operation> The operation of the electric lock control system 1 configured as above will be described below.

[0115] The electric lock control system 1 performs a first electric lock control process that controls the locking / unlocking state of the electric lock 100. The first electric lock control process is started, for example, when the person 220 performs an operation on the information terminal 130 that he or she carries to start the first electric lock control process. The operation to start the first electric lock control process may be, for example, an operation to start a predetermined application installed on the information terminal 130.

[0116] FIG. 12 is a sequence diagram showing an outline of an example of a typical operation performed by the electric lock control system 1 that executes the first electric lock control process.

[0117] As shown in FIG. 12, when a person 220 operates the information terminal 130 that he or she carries to request unlocking of the electric lock 100 (step S10), the information terminal 130 sends an unlock request signal to the home gateway 110 (step S20) and sends location information, acceleration information, and magnetic information to the server device 120 (step S30).

[0118] When the server device 120 receives the location information, acceleration information, and magnetic information, it determines whether a person is present near the electric lock and whether that person is person A (step S40), and transmits the determination result to the home gateway 110 (step S50).

[0119] After receiving the unlock request, if the home gateway 110 receives a determination result that (1) a person is present near the electric lock and that the person is person A, it transmits an unlock signal (first unlock signal or second unlock signal) to the electric lock 100 (step S60). Then, the electric lock 100 switches itself to an unlocked state (step S70).

[0120] After receiving the unlock request, if the home gateway 110 receives a determination result that (2) a person is present near the electric lock and that the person is not person A, it transmits a warning signal to the information terminal 130 (step S80). Then, the information terminal 130 displays an image indicating that a warning signal has been output (step S90).

[0121] FIG. 13 is a flowchart of the first electric lock control process.

[0122] As shown in Figure 13, after the first electric lock control process is started, when person 220 performs an operation on the information terminal 130 he or she carries to request unlocking of electric lock 100, the transmitter 33 sends an unlock request signal to the home gateway 110 (step S100) and transmits location information, acceleration information, and magnetic information to server device 120 (step S110).

[0123] When the receiver 21 receives the position information, acceleration information, and magnetic information transmitted from the transmitter 33, the electric lock control system 1 executes a first determination process (step S120).

[0124] 14 is a flowchart of the first determination process. The first determination process is a process for determining whether or not a person 220 who owns an information terminal 130 is present within a predetermined range of the electric lock 100 based on location information.

[0125] The first determination process is started when the receiver 21 receives the position information, acceleration information, and magnetic information transmitted from the transmitter 33.

[0126] As shown in Figure 14, when the first judgment process is started, the first judgment unit 22 calculates the distance between the position of the information terminal 130 indicated by the position information and the position of the electric lock 100 stored in advance (step S200), and determines whether the calculated distance is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold value (step S210).

[0127] In the processing of step S210, if the calculated distance is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold (step S210: Yes), the first judgment unit 22 makes a positive judgment that a person 220 carrying an information terminal 130 is present within a predetermined range around the electric lock 100 (step S220).

[0128] In the processing of step S210, if the calculated distance is not less than a predetermined threshold (step S210: No), the first judgment unit 22 makes a judgment that there is no person 220 carrying an information terminal 130 within a predetermined range around the electric lock 100 (step S230).

[0129] When the processing of step S220 is completed and when the processing of step S230 is completed, the electric lock control system 1 ends the first determination processing.

[0130] Returning to FIG. 13, the description of the first electric lock control process will be continued.

[0131] When the first judgment process of step S120 is completed, the second judgment unit 23 checks whether the judgment in the first judgment process is a positive judgment that a person 220 carrying an information terminal 130 is present within a specified range around the electric lock 100 (step S130).

[0132] In the processing of step S130, if the judgment in the first judgment processing is a positive judgment that a person 220 carrying an information terminal 130 is present within a specified range around the electric lock 100 (step S130: Yes), the electric lock control system 1 executes the second judgment processing (step S140).

[0133] 15 is a flowchart of the second determination process. The second determination process is a process for determining whether or not a person 220 who is within a predetermined range around the electric lock 100 is person A who is permitted to unlock the electric lock 100, based on acceleration information and magnetic information.

[0134] The second determination process is started when the determination in the first determination process is affirmative that the person 220 carrying the information terminal 130 is present within a predetermined range around the electric lock 100.

[0135] As shown in FIG. 15, when the second judgment process starts, the second judgment unit 23 estimates the movement path of the person 220 from the acceleration information and magnetic information (step S300), calculates the difference between the estimated movement path and a typical movement path of person A that is stored in advance (step S310), and calculates whether the calculated difference is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold value (step S320).

[0136] In the processing of step S320, if the calculated difference is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold (step S320: Yes), the second judgment unit 23 makes a positive judgment that the person 220 within a predetermined range around the electric lock 100 is person A who is authorized to unlock the electric lock 100 (step S330).

[0137] In the processing of step S320, if the calculated difference is not less than the predetermined threshold value (step S320: No), the second judgment unit 23 makes a judgment that the person 220 within a predetermined range around the electric lock 100 is not person A who is authorized to unlock the electric lock 100 (step S340).

[0138] When the processing of step S330 is completed and when the processing of step S340 is completed, the electric lock control system 1 ends the second determination processing.

[0139] Returning to FIG. 13, the description of the first electric lock control process will be continued.

[0140] When the second determination process of step S140 is completed, the electric lock control system 1 executes the first control process (step S150).

[0141] 16 is a flowchart of the first control process, which controls the locked / unlocked state of the electric lock 100 based on the determination result of the second determination process.

[0142] The first control process is started when the second determination process is completed.

[0143] As shown in FIG. 16, when the first control process is started, the control unit 12 determines whether the receiving unit 11 has received an unlock request signal transmitted from the information terminal 130 (step S400).

[0144] In the processing of step S400, if the receiving unit 11 has received an unlocking request signal (step S400: Yes), the control unit 12 checks whether the judgment result of the second judgment processing is a positive judgment that the person 220 within a specified range around the electric lock 100 is person A who is authorized to unlock the electric lock 100 (step S405).

[0145] In the processing of step S405, if the judgment is positive that the person 220 within a specified range around the electric lock 100 is person A who is authorized to unlock the electric lock 100 (step S405: Yes), the control unit 12 outputs a first unlocking signal (step S410).

[0146] When the control unit 12 outputs a first unlocking signal, the transmission unit 14 transmits the first unlocking signal output from the control unit 12 to the electric lock 100. The reception unit 101 then receives the first unlocking signal transmitted from the transmission unit 14. The locking / unlocking unit 102 then sets the electric lock 100 to an unlocked state (step S415).

[0147] In the processing of step S405, if the judgment is not positive that the person 220 within a specified range around the electric lock 100 is person A who is authorized to unlock the electric lock 100 (step S405: No), the control unit 12 outputs a warning signal (step S420).

[0148] When a warning signal is output from the control unit 12, the display and operation receiving unit 13 displays an image indicating that a warning signal has been output (step S425), and the transmitting unit 14 transmits the warning signal output from the control unit 12 to the information terminal 130.

[0149] When the receiver 34 receives the warning signal transmitted from the transmitter 14, the display 35 displays an image indicating that a warning signal has been output.

[0150] When the display and operation reception unit 13 displays an image indicating that a warning signal has been output in the process of step S425, it checks whether the security level related to locking and unlocking of the electric lock 100 is level 1 (step S430).

[0151] In the processing of step S430, if the security level is not level 1 (step S430: No), that is, if the security level is 2, the display and operation reception unit 13 displays a message prompting the user using the home gateway 110 to either allow or disallow the unlocking of the electric lock 100.

[0152] If the display and operation reception unit 13 receives an operation from the user using the home gateway 110 to allow or disallow the unlocking of the electric lock 100 in response to a display prompting the user to either allow or disallow the unlocking of the electric lock 100 (step S435: Yes), or if the security level is level 1 in the processing of step S430 (step S430: Yes), the display and operation reception unit 13 outputs a second unlocking signal (step S440).

[0153] When the second unlock signal is output from the display and operation reception unit 13, the transmission unit 14 transmits the second unlock signal output from the display and operation reception unit 13 to the electric lock 100. Then, the reception unit 101 receives the second unlock signal transmitted from the transmission unit 14. Then, the locking / unlocking unit 102 sets the electric lock 100 to an unlocked state (step S445).

[0154] If the display and operation reception unit 13 does not receive an operation from the user of the home gateway 110 to permit unlocking of the electric lock 100 in response to a display prompting the user to permit or not permit unlocking of the electric lock 100 (step S435: No), the display and operation reception unit 13 does not output a second unlock signal (step S450). Therefore, the locking / unlocking unit 102 does not set the electric lock 100 to an unlocked state (step S455).

[0155] When the processing of step S415 is completed, when the processing of step S445 is completed, when the processing of step S455 is completed, or when the receiving unit 11 has not received an unlock request signal in the processing of step S400 (step S400: No), the electric lock control system 1 terminates its first control processing.

[0156] Returning to FIG. 13, the description of the first electric lock control process will be continued.

[0157] In the processing of step S130, if the judgment in the first judgment processing is not a judgment that affirms that a person 220 carrying an information terminal 130 is present within a specified range around the electric lock 100 (step S130: No), or if the first control processing of step S150 has ended, the electric lock control system 1 ends its first electric lock control processing.

[0158] <Consideration> As described above, the electric lock control system 1 configured as described above can determine whether person 220 is person A based on the difference between the estimated movement path of person 220 and the typical movement path of person A stored in advance.

[0159] As a result, the electric lock control system 1 determines whether a person 220 is present near the electric lock 100 and whether the person 220 is authorized to unlock the electric lock 100, and controls the locking / unlocking state of the electric lock based on the determination result.

[0160] Therefore, the electric lock control system 1 can prevent unauthorized persons from unlocking the electric lock 100 through fraudulent methods.

[0161] In the first embodiment, it has been described that the information terminal 130 transmits acceleration information to the server device 120, and the second determination unit 23 determines, based on the acceleration information, whether or not the person 220 is person A who is permitted to unlock the electric lock 100. In contrast, as another configuration example, the information terminal 130 may be configured to calculate step count information indicating the change in the number of steps per unit time of the person 220 based on the acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor, transmit the calculated step count information to the server device 120, and the second determination unit 23 may determine, based on the step count information, whether or not the person 220 is person A who is permitted to unlock the electric lock 100. In this case, the second determination unit 23 may, for example, calculate the similarity between the change in the number of steps per unit time of person 220 indicated by the step count information and the change in the typical number of steps per unit time of person A stored in advance, and determine that person 220 is person A if the calculated similarity is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, and determine that person 220 is not person A if the calculated similarity is less than the predetermined threshold.

[0162] Furthermore, in the first embodiment, information terminal 130 may be equipped with an angular velocity sensor instead of the magnetic sensor. In this case, information terminal 130 transmits angular velocity information indicating the angular velocity detected by the angular velocity sensor instead of the magnetic information. Then, second determination unit 23 calculates the movement route of person 220 carrying information terminal 130 based on the acceleration information and the angular velocity information.

[0163] In the first embodiment, the electric lock control system 1 has been described as having the configuration illustrated in FIG. 1 as an example. However, the electric lock control system 1 does not necessarily have to be limited to the configuration illustrated in FIG. 1 as long as it can achieve similar functions. For example, instead of including the in-building network 150, the electric lock control system 1 may have a first in-building network and a second in-building network, and may further include a router. In this case, for example, the router may be connected to the Internet 140 and the first in-building network, the home gateway 110 may be connected to the first in-building network and the second in-building network, the electric lock 100 may be connected to the second in-building network, and the information terminal 130 may be connected to the first in-building network.

[0164] (Variation) Hereinafter, an electric lock control system according to a modification in which the configuration of the electric lock control system 1 according to the first embodiment is partially changed will be described.

[0165] The electric lock control system 1 is an example of a system in which unlocking the electric lock 100 requires an active operation to request the information terminal 130 to unlock the electric lock 100.

[0166] In contrast, the electric lock control system according to the modified example is an example of a system in which unlocking the electric lock 100 does not require active operation of the information terminal 130 to request unlocking of the electric lock 100.

[0167] Here, for the electric lock control system relating to the modified example, the components that are similar to those of the electric lock control system 1 have already been explained, so they will be assigned the same symbols and their detailed explanations will be omitted, and the explanation will focus on the differences from the electric lock control system 1.

[0168] <Configuration> FIG. 17 is a block diagram showing an example of a hardware configuration of an electric lock control system 1A according to a modified example.

[0169] As shown in FIG. 17, the electric lock control system 1A is configured by changing the home gateway 110 of the electric lock control system 1 according to embodiment 1 to a home gateway 110A and changing the information terminal 130 to an information terminal 130A.

[0170] The home gateway 110A has the same hardware configuration as the home gateway 110, but some of the software it executes has been changed from that of the home gateway 110. As a result, some of the functions realized by the home gateway 110A have been changed from the functions realized by the home gateway 110.

[0171] Information terminal 130A has the same hardware configuration as information terminal 130, but some of the software it executes has been changed from that of information terminal 130. As a result, some of the functions realized by information terminal 130A have been changed from the functions realized by information terminal 130.

[0172] The information terminal 130A is carried by the person 220, similar to the information terminal 130.

[0173] FIG. 18 is a block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the electric lock control system 1A.

[0174] As shown in Figure 18, the electric lock control system 1A is configured by removing the operation reception unit 31 from the electric lock control system 1, changing the transmission unit 33 to a transmission unit 33A, changing the reception unit 11 to a reception unit 11A, and changing the control unit 12 to a control unit 12A.

[0175] The transmitter 33A transmits to the server device 120, every predetermined period T3 (e.g., one minute), location information indicating the location of the information terminal 130A at the current time, acceleration information indicating the acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor during a predetermined period T2 from the current time to the past, and magnetic information indicating the magnetism detected by the magnetic sensor during a predetermined period T2 from the current time to the past.

[0176] The receiving unit 11A receives the determination result information transmitted from the server device 120.

[0177] The control unit 12A controls the locking / unlocking state of the electric lock 100 based on the determination result by the second determination unit 23.

[0178] More specifically, when the receiving unit 11A receives judgment result information from the server device 120, if the received judgment result information indicates that the person 220 has been determined to be person A, the control unit 12A outputs a first unlocking signal indicating that the electric lock 100 is to be unlocked, and if the received judgment result information indicates that the person 220 has been determined to be not person A, the control unit 12A controls the locked / unlocked state of the electric lock 100 by outputting a warning signal without outputting the first unlocking signal.

[0179] <Operation> The operation of the electric lock control system 1A having the above configuration will be described below.

[0180] The electric lock control system 1A performs a second electric lock control process in which some of the processes in the first electric lock control process according to the first embodiment are changed.

[0181] The first electric lock control process is a process that requires an active operation to request the information terminal 130A to unlock the electric lock 100 in order to unlock the electric lock 100. In contrast, the second electric lock control process is a process that does not require an active operation to request the information terminal 130A to unlock the electric lock 100 in order to unlock the electric lock 100.

[0182] FIG. 19 is a sequence diagram showing an outline of an example of a typical operation performed by the electric lock control system 1A that executes the second electric lock control process.

[0183] As shown in FIG. 19, information terminal 130A carried by person 220 transmits position information, acceleration information, and magnetic information to server device 120 every predetermined period T3 (step S30A).

[0184] When the server device 120 receives the location information, acceleration information, and magnetic information, it determines whether a person is present near the electric lock and whether that person is person A (step S40A), and transmits the determination result to the home gateway 110A (step S50A).

[0185] (1) When the home gateway 110A receives a determination result that a person is present near the electric lock and that the person is person A, the home gateway 110A transmits an unlock signal (first unlock signal or second unlock signal) to the electric lock 100 (step S60A). Then, the electric lock 100 switches itself to an unlocked state (step S70A).

[0186] When the home gateway 110 receives a determination result that a person is present near the electric lock A and that the person is not person A, the home gateway 110 does not send an unlock signal (first unlock signal or second unlock signal) to the information terminal 130A (step S80A). As a result, the electric lock 100 does not enter the unlocked state.

[0187] FIG. 20 is a flowchart of the second electric lock control process.

[0188] As shown in Figure 20, the second electric lock control process is a process in which the processing of step S100 is deleted from the first electric lock control process of embodiment 1, the first control processing of step S150 is changed to the second control processing of step S550, the processing of step S560 is added, and a loop path from step S130: No to step S110 and a loop path from step S560: Yes to step S110 are added.

[0189] As shown in FIG. 20, when the second electric lock control process is started, the transmitter 33A transmits the position information, acceleration information, and magnetic information to the server device 120 (step S110).

[0190] When the receiver 21 receives the position information, acceleration information, and magnetic information transmitted from the transmitter 33A, the electric lock control system 1A executes a first determination process (step S120).

[0191] When the first determination process in step S120 is completed, the second electric lock control process proceeds to step S130.

[0192] In the processing of step S130, if the judgment in the first judgment processing is a positive judgment that a person 220 carrying an information terminal 130A is present within a specified range around the electric lock 100 (step S130: Yes), the second electric lock control processing proceeds to the second judgment processing (step S140).

[0193] When the second determination process of step S140 ends, the second electric lock control process proceeds to the second control process (step S550).

[0194] FIG. 21 is a flowchart of the second control process.

[0195] 21, the second control process is a process in which the process of step S400 is deleted from the first control process according to embodiment 1. Therefore, since the second control process has already been described, its description will be omitted here.

[0196] Returning to FIG. 20, the second electric lock control process will be described.

[0197] When the second control process of step S550 is completed, the transmitter 33A checks whether a predetermined period T3 has elapsed since the position information, acceleration information, and magnetic information were transmitted in the previously executed process of step S110 (step S560).

[0198] In the process of step S560, if the predetermined period T3 has not elapsed (step S560: No), the transmission unit 33A waits until the predetermined period T3 has elapsed (step S560: No is repeated).

[0199] In the processing of step S560, if a predetermined period T3 has elapsed (step S560: No is repeated, then step S560: Yes), or in the processing of step S130, if the judgment in the first judgment processing is not a positive judgment that a person 220 carrying an information terminal 130A is present within a predetermined range around the electric lock 100 (step S130: No), the second electric lock control processing proceeds to the processing of step S110.

[0200] <Consideration> As described above, the electric lock control system 1A of the above configuration, like the electric lock control system 1 of embodiment 1, determines whether a person 220 is present in the vicinity of the electric lock 100 and whether the person 220 is authorized to unlock the electric lock 100, without the need for any active operation to request unlocking of the electric lock 100, and controls the locking / unlocking state of the electric lock based on the determination result.

[0201] In this way, according to the electric lock control system 1A, similar to the electric lock control system 1 of embodiment 1, it is possible to prevent persons who are not authorized to unlock the electric lock 100 from unlocking the electric lock 100 in an unauthorized manner.

[0202] (Embodiment 2) Hereinafter, an electric lock control system according to a second embodiment will be described, which is configured by partially changing the configuration of the electric lock control system 1 according to the first embodiment.

[0203] The electric lock control system 1 was an example of a system that determines whether a person 220 is present within a specified range around the electric lock 100 based on location information, and determines whether the person 220 is person A based on acceleration information.

[0204] In contrast, the electric lock control system of embodiment 2 is an example of a system that determines whether or not a person 220 is present within a predetermined range around the electric lock 100 based on an image captured by an imaging device, and determines whether or not the person 220 is person A based on gait information related to the gait of the person 220 calculated based on the image captured by the imaging device.

[0205] Here, for the electric lock control system of embodiment 2, the components that are similar to those of electric lock control system 1 have already been explained, so they will be assigned the same symbols and their detailed explanations will be omitted, and the explanation will focus on the differences from electric lock control system 1.

[0206] <Configuration> FIG. 22 is a block diagram showing an example of a hardware configuration of an electric lock control system 1B according to the second embodiment.

[0207] FIG. 23 is a schematic diagram showing a state in which part of the hardware configuration of the electric lock control system 1B is installed in a building 200. As shown in FIG.

[0208] As shown in Figure 22, the electric lock control system 1B is configured by changing the server device 120 to a server device 120B, changing the information terminal 130 to an information terminal 130B, and adding an imaging device 160 to the electric lock control system 1 of embodiment 1.

[0209] Server device 120B has the same hardware configuration as server device 120, but some of the software it executes has been changed from that of server device 120. As a result, some of the functions realized by server device 120B have been changed from the functions realized by server device 120.

[0210] Information terminal 130B has the same hardware configuration as information terminal 130, but some of the software it executes has been changed from that of information terminal 130. As a result, some of the functions realized by information terminal 130B have been changed from the functions realized by information terminal 130.

[0211] The information terminal 130B is carried by the person 220, similar to the information terminal 130.

[0212] 23, the imaging device 160 is installed in the building 200 and captures an image of a predetermined range around the electric lock 100. The imaging device 160 is connected to the in-building network 150 and transmits the captured image to the home gateway 110.

[0213] The imaging device 160 may be, for example, a surveillance camera, or a camera built into an intercom with a camera installed near the door 210.

[0214] FIG. 24 is a block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the electric lock control system 1B.

[0215] As shown in Figure 24, the electric lock control system 1B is configured by removing the sensing information storage unit 32 from the electric lock control system 1, changing the transmission unit 33 to a transmission unit 33B, changing the reception unit 21 to a reception unit 21B, changing the first judgment unit 22 to a first judgment unit 22B, changing the second judgment unit 23 to a second judgment unit 23B, and adding a reception unit 41, an image storage unit 42, and a transmission unit 43.

[0216] The receiving unit 41, the image storage unit 42, and the transmitting unit 43 are realized by the imaging device 160.

[0217] When the operation receiving unit 31 receives an operation from the user of the information terminal 130B requesting the electric lock 100 to be unlocked, the transmitting unit 33B transmits an unlock request signal to the imaging device 160 and the home gateway 110.

[0218] The receiving unit 41 receives the unlock request signal transmitted from the information terminal 130B.

[0219] The image storage unit 42 stores images captured by the imaging device 160. The imaging device 160 may capture an image every 0.1 seconds, for example, and the image storage unit 42 may store images captured over the past 24 hours, for example.

[0220] When the receiving unit 41 receives an unlocking request signal from the information terminal 130B, the transmitting unit 43 refers to the images stored in the image memory unit 42 and transmits images captured within a predetermined period T4 (e.g., 1 minute) from the present time to the server device 120B.

[0221] The receiving unit 21B receives the image transmitted from the imaging device 160.

[0222] When the receiving unit 21B receives an image from the imaging device 160, the first judgment unit 22B judges, based on the received image, whether or not a person 220 carrying an information terminal 130B is present within a predetermined range around the electric lock 100 (for example, within 2 m from the electric lock 100).

[0223] For example, if a person is captured in the latest image among the images received by the receiving unit 21B, the first judgment unit 22B may make a positive judgment that a person 220 carrying the information terminal 130B is present within a specified range around the electric lock 100, and if no person is captured in the latest image, the first judgment unit 22B may make a negative judgment that a person 220 carrying the information terminal 130B is present within a specified range around the electric lock 100.

[0224] When the first judgment unit 22B determines that a person 220 carrying an information terminal 130B is present within a specified range around the electric lock 100, the second judgment unit 23B determines, based on the image received by the receiving unit 21B, whether or not the person 220 is person A who is authorized to unlock the electric lock 100.

[0225] For example, the second determination unit 23B may calculate the gait characteristics of person 220 based on the image received by the receiving unit 21B, calculate the difference between the calculated gait characteristics and typical gait characteristics of person A that are stored in advance, and determine that person 220 is person A if the calculated difference is equal to or smaller than a predetermined threshold, and determine that person 220 is not person A if the calculated difference is greater than the predetermined threshold.

[0226] <Operation> The operation of the electric lock control system 1B having the above configuration will be described below.

[0227] The electric lock control system 1B performs a third electric lock control process in which some processes are changed from the first electric lock control process according to the first embodiment.

[0228] The first electric lock unlocking process is a process that determines whether or not a person 220 is present within a predetermined range around the electric lock 100 based on position information, and determines whether or not the person 220 is person A based on acceleration information. In contrast, the third electric lock control process is a process that determines whether or not a person 220 is present within a predetermined range around the electric lock 100 based on an image captured by the imaging device 160, and determines whether or not the person 220 is person A based on gait information related to the gait of the person 220 calculated based on the image captured by the imaging device 160.

[0229] FIG. 25 is a flowchart of the third electric lock control process.

[0230] As shown in Figure 25, the third electric lock control process is a process in which the processing of step S100 is changed to processing of step S600, the processing of step S110 is changed to processing of step S610, the processing of step S120 is changed to processing of step S620, the processing of step S130 is changed to processing of step S630, and the processing of step S140 is changed to processing of step S640 from the first electric lock control process of embodiment 1.

[0231] As shown in FIG. 25, after the third electric lock control process is started, when the person 220 performs an operation on the information terminal 130B that he or she carries to request unlocking of the electric lock 100, the transmitter 33B transmits an unlock request signal to the home gateway 110 and the imaging device 160 (step S600).

[0232] When the receiving unit 41 receives the unlock request signal transmitted from the information terminal 130B, the transmitting unit 43 transmits to the server device 120B images taken during a predetermined period T4 from the present time to the past (step S610).

[0233] When the receiving unit 21B receives the image transmitted from the imaging device 160, the electric lock control system 1B executes a third determination process (step S620).

[0234] FIG. 26 is a flowchart of the third determination process.

[0235] As shown in FIG. 26, the third determination process is the same as the first determination process according to the first embodiment except that step S200 is deleted and step S210 is changed to step S710.

[0236] The third determination process is started when the receiving unit 21B receives an image transmitted from the imaging device 160.

[0237] As shown in FIG. 26, when the third determination process starts, the first determination unit 22B determines whether or not a person appears in the latest image among the images received by the receiving unit 21B (step S710).

[0238] In the process of step S710, if a person appears in the latest image among the images received by the receiving unit 21B (step S710: Yes), the third determination process proceeds to the process of step S220.

[0239] In the process of step S710, if the latest image among the images received by the receiving unit 21B does not include a person (step S710: No), the third determination process proceeds to the process of step S230.

[0240] When the processing of step S220 is completed and when the processing of step S230 is completed, the electric lock control system 1B ends the third determination processing.

[0241] Returning to FIG. 25, the third electric lock control process will be explained.

[0242] When the third judgment process of step S620 is completed, the second judgment unit 23B checks whether the judgment in the third judgment process is a positive judgment that a person 220 carrying an information terminal 130B is present within a specified range around the electric lock 100 (step S630).

[0243] In the processing of step S630, if the judgment in the third judgment processing is a positive judgment that a person 220 carrying an information terminal 130B is present within a specified range around the electric lock 100 (step S630: Yes), the electric lock control system 1B executes the fourth judgment processing (step S640).

[0244] FIG. 27 is a flowchart of the fourth determination process.

[0245] As shown in FIG. 27, the fourth determination process is a process in which the processing of step S300 in the second determination process of embodiment 1 is changed to processing of step S800, and the processing of step S310 is changed to processing of step S810.

[0246] 27, when the fourth determination process starts, second determination unit 23B calculates gait characteristics of person 220 based on the image received by receiving unit 21B (step S800), and calculates the difference between the calculated gait characteristics and pre-stored typical gait characteristics of person A (step S810). Then, the fourth estimation process proceeds to the processing of step S320.

[0247] When the processing of step S330 is completed and when the processing of step S340 is completed, the electric lock control system 1B ends the fourth determination processing.

[0248] Returning to FIG. 25, the third electric lock control process will be explained.

[0249] When the fourth determination process of step S640 is completed, the third electric lock control process proceeds to the first control process (step S150).

[0250] In the processing of step S630, if the judgment in the third judgment processing is not a positive judgment that a person 220 carrying an information terminal 130B is present within a specified range around the electric lock 100 (step S630: No), or if the first control processing of step S150 has ended, the electric lock control system 1B ends its third electric lock control processing.

[0251] <Consideration> As described above, the electric lock control system 1B can determine whether the person 220 is person A based on the difference between the calculated gait characteristics of the person 220 and the typical gait characteristics of person A that are stored in advance.

[0252] As a result, the electric lock control system 1B, like the electric lock control system 1 of embodiment 1, determines whether a person 220 is present near the electric lock 100 and whether that person 220 is authorized to unlock the electric lock 100, and controls the locking / unlocking state of the electric lock based on the determination result.

[0253] Therefore, according to the electric lock control system 1B, similar to the electric lock control system 1 according to embodiment 1, it is possible to prevent persons who are not authorized to unlock the electric lock 100 from unlocking the electric lock 100 in an unauthorized manner.

[0254] (Embodiment 3) Hereinafter, an electric lock control system according to a third embodiment will be described, which is configured by partially changing the configuration of the electric lock control system 1 according to the first embodiment.

[0255] The electric lock control system 1 was an example of a system that determines whether a person 220 is present within a specified range around the electric lock 100 based on location information, and determines whether the person 220 is person A based on acceleration information.

[0256] In contrast, the electric lock control system of embodiment 3 is an example of a system that determines whether or not a person 220 is present within a specified range around the electric lock 100 based on connection information indicating that the electric vehicle used by the person is connected to a charger, and determines whether or not the person 220 is person A based on acceleration information.

[0257] Here, for the electric lock control system of embodiment 3, components that are similar to those of electric lock control system 1 have already been explained, so they will be assigned the same symbols and their detailed explanations will be omitted, and the explanation will focus on the differences from electric lock control system 1.

[0258] <Configuration> FIG. 28 is a block diagram showing an example of a hardware configuration of an electric lock control system 1C according to the third embodiment.

[0259] FIG. 29 is a schematic diagram showing a state in which part of the hardware configuration of the electric lock control system 1C is installed in a building 200. As shown in FIG.

[0260] As shown in Figure 28, the electric lock control system 1C is configured by changing the server device 120 to a server device 120C, changing the information terminal 130 to an information terminal 130C, and adding a charger 170 to the electric lock control system 1 of embodiment 1.

[0261] Server device 120C has the same hardware configuration as server device 120, but some of the software it executes has been changed from that of server device 120. As a result, some of the functions realized by server device 120C have been changed from the functions realized by server device 120.

[0262] Information terminal 130C has the same hardware configuration as information terminal 130, but some of the software it executes has been changed from that of information terminal 130. As a result, some of the functions realized by information terminal 130C have been changed from the functions realized by information terminal 130.

[0263] The information terminal 130C is carried by the person 220, similar to the information terminal 130.

[0264] 29, the charger 170 is placed in a building 200 and charges a drive battery mounted on an electric vehicle 300 used by a person 220. The charger 170 may be installed, for example, near the building 200 (for example, in a parking lot within a predetermined range of the building 200).

[0265] The charger 170 is connected to the in-building network 150 and detects that the electric vehicle 300 is connected.

[0266] Here, the electric vehicle 300 may be, for example, an electric vehicle or a hybrid vehicle.

[0267] The charger 170 receives power from, for example, a distribution board 180 shown in Figure 29. The distribution board 180 may be connected to, for example, the in-building network 150.

[0268] FIG. 30 is a block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the electric lock control system 1C.

[0269] As shown in Figure 30, the electric lock control system 1C is configured by changing the transmitting unit 33 to a transmitting unit 33C, changing the receiving unit 21 to a receiving unit 21C, changing the first determination unit 22 to a first determination unit 22C, changing the second determination unit 23 to a second determination unit 23C, and adding a receiving unit 51, a connection detection unit 52, and a transmitting unit 53 to the electric lock control system 1.

[0270] The receiving unit 51 , the connection detecting unit 52 , and the transmitting unit 53 are realized by the charger 170 .

[0271] When the operation receiving unit 31 receives an operation from a user using the information terminal 130C requesting unlocking of the electric lock 100, the transmitting unit 33C (1) transmits an unlocking request signal to the charger 170 and the home gateway 110, and (2) transmits acceleration information and magnetic information to the server device 120C.

[0272] The receiving unit 51 receives the unlock request signal transmitted from the information terminal 130C.

[0273] The connection detection unit 52 detects that the electric vehicle 300 is connected to the charger 170.

[0274] For example, if the charger 170 is a charger compatible with ECHONET Lite (registered trademark), the connection detection unit 52 may detect that the electric vehicle 300 has been connected to the charger 170 by using a vehicle connection confirmation property.

[0275] When the receiving unit 51 receives an unlocking request signal from the information terminal 130C, if the connection detection unit 52 detects that the electric vehicle 300 has been connected to the charger 170 within a predetermined period T5 (e.g., 3 minutes) from the time of reception, the transmitting unit 53 transmits connection information indicating that the electric vehicle 300 has been connected to the charger 170 to the server device 120C.

[0276] Receiving unit 21C receives the acceleration information and magnetic information transmitted from information terminal 130C, and the connection information transmitted from charger 170.

[0277] When the receiving unit 21C receives connection information transmitted from the charger 170, the first judgment unit 22C judges, based on the received connection information, whether or not a person 220 carrying an information terminal 130C is present within a predetermined range around the electric lock 100 (for example, within 2 m from the electric lock 100).

[0278] More specifically, when the receiving unit 21C receives connection information from the charger 170, the first determining unit 22C determines that a person 220 carrying the information terminal 130C is present within a predetermined range around the electric lock 100.

[0279] When the first judgment unit 22C determines that a person 220 carrying an information terminal 130C is present within a specified range around the electric lock 100, the second judgment unit 23C determines whether the person 220 is person A who is authorized to unlock the electric lock 100 based on the acceleration information and magnetic information received by the receiving unit 21C.

[0280] In the following, the second determination unit 23C will be described as determining whether or not person 220 is person A based on magnetic information in addition to acceleration information, but the second determination unit 23C does not necessarily have to be limited to a configuration that determines whether or not person 220 is person A based on acceleration information and magnetic information, as long as it is configured to determine whether or not person 220 is person A based at least on acceleration information.

[0281] The second determination unit 23C may, for example, estimate the movement characteristics of person 220 from acceleration information and magnetic information, calculate the difference between the estimated movement characteristics and the typical movement characteristics of the electric vehicle 300 in which person A rides, which are stored in advance, and determine that person 220 is person A if the calculated difference is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold, and determine that person 220 is not person A if the calculated difference is greater than the predetermined threshold.

[0282] <Operation> The operation of the electric lock control system 1C having the above configuration will be described below.

[0283] The electric lock control system 1C performs a fourth electric lock control process in which some processes are changed from the first electric lock control process according to the first embodiment.

[0284] The first electric lock unlocking process is a process that determines whether or not a person 220 is present within a predetermined range around the electric lock 100 based on location information, and determines whether or not the person 220 is person A based on acceleration information. In contrast, the fourth electric lock control process is a process that determines whether or not a person 220 is present within a predetermined range around the electric lock 100 based on connection information, and determines whether or not the person 220 is person A based on acceleration information.

[0285] FIG. 31 is a flowchart of the fourth electric lock control process.

[0286] As shown in Figure 31, the fourth electric lock control process is a process in which the processing of step S100 is changed to processing of step S900, the processing of step S110 is changed to processing of step S910, the processing of step S140 is changed to processing of step S940, the processing of step S120 and the processing of step S130 are deleted, and processing of step S920, processing of step S921, and processing of step S922 are added from the first electric lock control process of embodiment 1.

[0287] As shown in Figure 31, after the fourth electric lock control process is started, when the person 220 performs an operation on the information terminal 130C that he or she carries to request unlocking of the electric lock 100, the transmitter 33C transmits an unlock request signal to the charger 170 and the home gateway 110 (step S900), and transmits acceleration information and magnetic information to the server device 120C (step S910).

[0288] When the receiving unit 51 receives the unlocking request signal transmitted from the information terminal 130C, the transmitting unit 53 checks whether the connection detecting unit 52 has detected that the electric vehicle 300 has been connected to the charger 170 within a predetermined period T5 from the time of reception (step S920).

[0289] In the process of step S920, if it is detected that the electric vehicle 300 is connected to the charger 170 (step S920: Yes), the transmitter 53 transmits connection information to the server device 120C (step S921).

[0290] When the receiving unit 21C receives the connection information transmitted from the charger 170, the first judgment unit 22C makes a positive judgment that a person 220 carrying the information terminal 130C is present within a predetermined range around the electric lock 100 (step S922).

[0291] When the process of step S922 ends, the electric lock control system 1C executes a fifth determination process (step S940).

[0292] FIG. 32 is a flowchart of the fifth determination process.

[0293] As shown in FIG. 32, the fifth determination process is a process in which the processing of step S300 in the second determination process of embodiment 1 is changed to processing of step S1000, and the processing of step S310 is changed to processing of step S1010.

[0294] 32, when the fifth determination process starts, the second determination unit 23C estimates the movement characteristics of the person 220 from the acceleration information and magnetic information (step S1000), and calculates the difference between the estimated movement characteristics and the typical movement characteristics of the electric vehicle 300 in which person A rides, which are stored in advance (step S1010).Then, the fifth determination process proceeds to the processing of step S320.

[0295] When the processing of step S330 is completed and when the processing of step S340 is completed, the electric lock control system 1C ends the fifth determination processing.

[0296] Returning to FIG. 31, the fourth electric lock control process will be explained.

[0297] When the fifth determination process of step S940 is completed, the fourth electric lock control process proceeds to the first control process (step S150).

[0298] In the processing of step S920, if it is not detected that the electric vehicle 300 has been connected to the charger 170 (step S920: No), or if the first control processing of step S150 has ended, the electric lock control system 1C ends its fourth electric lock control processing.

[0299] <Consideration> As described above, the electric lock control system 1C having the above configuration can determine whether the person 220 is person A based on the difference between the estimated movement characteristics of the person 220 and the typical movement characteristics of the electric vehicle 300 in which person A rides, which are stored in advance.

[0300] As a result, the electric lock control system 1C, like the electric lock control system 1 of embodiment 1, determines whether a person 220 is present near the electric lock 100 and whether that person 220 is authorized to unlock the electric lock 100, and controls the locking / unlocking state of the electric lock based on the determination result.

[0301] Therefore, according to the electric lock control system 1C, similar to the electric lock control system 1 according to embodiment 1, it is possible to prevent unauthorized persons from unlocking the electric lock 100.

[0302] In the fourth embodiment, it has been described that the charger 170 detects that the electric vehicle 300 has been connected to the charger 170, and the charger 170 transmits connection information to the server device 120C. However, as another configuration example, the distribution board 180 that supplies power to the charger 170 may detect that the electric vehicle 300 has been connected to the charger 170, for example, based on fluctuations in the current flowing through the charger 170, and the distribution board 180 may transmit the connection information to the server device 120C.

[0303] (Fourth embodiment) Hereinafter, an electric lock control system according to a fourth embodiment will be described, which is configured by partially changing the configuration of the electric lock control system 1 according to the first embodiment.

[0304] The electric lock control system 1 was an example of a system that estimates the movement path of person 220 from acceleration information, calculates the difference between the estimated movement path and a typical movement path of person A that is stored in advance, and determines whether person 220 is person A based on the calculated difference.

[0305] In contrast, the electric lock control system of embodiment 4 is an example of a system that, when acceleration information is input, determines whether person 220 is person A by using a machine learning model that has been pre-trained to output a score indicating the likelihood that person 220 is person A.

[0306] Here, for the electric lock control system of embodiment 4, components that are similar to those of electric lock control system 1 have already been explained, so they will be assigned the same symbols and their detailed explanations will be omitted, and the explanation will focus on the differences from electric lock control system 1.

[0307] <Configuration> FIG. 33 is a block diagram showing an example of a hardware configuration of an electric lock control system 1D according to the fourth embodiment.

[0308] As shown in FIG. 33, an electric lock control system 1D is configured by changing the server device 120 of the electric lock control system 1 according to the first embodiment to a server device 120D.

[0309] Server device 120D has the same hardware configuration as server device 120, but some of the software it executes has been changed from that of server device 120. As a result, some of the functions realized by server device 120D have been changed from the functions realized by server device 120.

[0310] FIG. 34 is a block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the electric lock control system 1D.

[0311] As shown in FIG. 34, the electric lock control system 1D is configured by changing the second determination unit 23 of the electric lock control system 1 to a second determination unit 23D and adding a machine learning model 26.

[0312] The machine learning model 26 is a pre-trained machine learning model that, when acceleration information is input, outputs a score indicating the likelihood that the person carrying the information terminal 130 is person A, who is authorized to unlock the electric lock 100.

[0313] The machine learning model 26 is, for example, a learning model that uses a neural network. The machine learning model 26 may be realized, for example, by a processor included in the server device 120D executing a program stored in a memory included in the server device 120D.

[0314] Hereinafter, machine learning model 26 will be described as a machine learning model that has been pre-trained to output a score indicating the likelihood that the person carrying information terminal 130 is person A when magnetic information is input in addition to acceleration information; however, machine learning model 26 does not necessarily have to be limited to a configuration in which it is a machine learning model that has been pre-trained to output a score indicating the likelihood that the person carrying information terminal 130 is person A when acceleration information and magnetic information are input, as long as it is a machine learning model that has been pre-trained to output a score indicating the likelihood that the person carrying information terminal 130 is person A when at least acceleration information is input.

[0315] The machine learning model 26 may be pre-trained, for example, by having person A carry the information terminal 130 and moving along one or more typical travel routes of person A, using one or more pieces of acceleration information and magnetic information transmitted from the information terminal 130 as correct answer data.

[0316] The machine learning model 26 may be trained in advance by, for example, the server device 120D, or may be trained in advance by a device other than the server device 120D.

[0317] If there are multiple persons A who are authorized to unlock the electric lock 100, the electric lock control system 1D may be provided with multiple machine learning models 26 corresponding to each of the multiple persons A.

[0318] FIG. 35 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an electric lock control system 1D having a plurality of machine learning models 26 corresponding to a plurality of persons A, respectively.

[0319] In addition, if there are multiple persons A who are authorized to unlock the electric lock 100, the electric lock control system 1D may be equipped with a single machine learning model 26 that outputs multiple scores corresponding to each of the multiple persons A.

[0320] FIG. 36 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an electric lock control system 1D including one machine learning model 26 that outputs multiple scores corresponding to multiple persons A, respectively.

[0321] Returning to FIG. 34, the explanation of the electric lock control system 1D will be continued.

[0322] When the first judgment unit 22 determines that a person 220 carrying an information terminal 130 is present within a specified range around the electric lock 100, the second judgment unit 23D uses a machine learning model to determine whether the person 220 is person A.

[0323] More specifically, the second judgment unit 23D inputs the acceleration information and magnetic information received by the receiving unit 21 into the machine learning model 26, thereby obtaining a score output from the machine learning model 26, and if the likelihood that the person 220 is person A indicated by the obtained score is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, it judges that the person 220 is person A, and if it is less than the predetermined threshold, it judges that the person 220 is not person A.

[0324] In addition, if the machine learning model 26 is a machine learning model that has been pre-trained to output a score indicating the likelihood that the person carrying the information terminal 130 is person A when acceleration information is input, the second judgment unit 23D inputs the acceleration information received by the receiving unit 21 to the machine learning model 26, thereby obtaining the score output from the machine learning model 26, and if the likelihood that the obtained score indicates that person 220 is person A is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, it will determine that person 220 is person A, and if it is less than the predetermined threshold, it will determine that person 220 is not person A.

[0325] <Operation> The operation of the electric lock control system 1D having the above configuration will be described below.

[0326] The electric lock control system 1D performs a fifth electric lock control process in which some processes are changed from the first electric lock control process according to the first embodiment.

[0327] The first electric lock unlocking process is a process that estimates the movement path of person 220 from acceleration information, calculates the difference between the estimated movement path and a typical movement path of person A that is stored in advance, and determines whether person 220 is person A based on the calculated difference. In contrast, the fifth electric lock control process is a process that determines whether person 220 is person A by using a machine learning model that has been trained in advance to output a score indicating the likelihood that person 220 is person A when acceleration information is input.

[0328] FIG. 37 is a flowchart of the fifth electric lock control process.

[0329] As shown in FIG. 37, the fifth electric lock control process is a process in which the process of step S140 in the first electric lock control process according to the first embodiment is changed to a process of step S1140.

[0330] As shown in Figure 37, in the processing of step S130, if the judgment in the first judgment processing is a positive judgment that a person 220 carrying an information terminal 130 is present within a specified range around the electric lock 100 (step S130: Yes), the electric lock control system 1 executes the sixth judgment processing (step S1140).

[0331] FIG. 38 is a flowchart of the sixth determination process.

[0332] As shown in FIG. 38, the sixth determination process is a process in which the processing of step S300 in the second determination process of embodiment 1 is changed to processing of step S1200, the processing of step S310 is changed to processing of step S1210, and the processing of step S320 is changed to processing of step S1220.

[0333] 38, when the sixth determination process is started, the second determination unit 23D inputs the acceleration information and magnetic information received by the receiving unit 21 to the machine learning model 26 (step S1200). Then, the machine learning model 26 outputs a score indicating the likelihood that the person 220 who is within a predetermined range around the electric lock 100 is person A who is permitted to unlock the electric lock 100.

[0334] When the score is output from the machine learning model 26, the second judgment unit 23D acquires the score output from the machine learning model 26 (step S1210), and determines whether the likelihood that the person 220 is person A, indicated by the acquired score, is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold (step S1220).

[0335] In the process of step S1220, if the likelihood that person 220 is person A is equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold (step S1220: Yes), the sixth determination process proceeds to the process of step S330.

[0336] In the process of step S1220, if the likelihood that person 220 is person A is not equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold (step S1220: No), the sixth determination process proceeds to the process of step S340.

[0337] When the processing of step S330 is completed and when the processing of step S340 is completed, the electric lock control system 1D ends the sixth determination processing.

[0338] Returning to FIG. 37, the explanation of the fifth electric lock control process will be continued.

[0339] When the sixth determination process of step S1140 is completed, the fifth electric lock control process proceeds to the first control process (step S150).

[0340] In the processing of step S130, if the judgment in the first judgment processing is not a judgment that affirms that a person 220 carrying an information terminal 130 is present within a specified range around the electric lock 100 (step S130: No), or if the first control processing of step S150 has ended, the electric lock control system 1D ends its fifth electric lock control processing.

[0341] <Consideration> As described above, the electric lock control system 1D configured as described above can determine whether the person 220 is person A or not by using the pre-trained machine learning model 26.

[0342] As a result, the electric lock control system 1D, like the electric lock control system 1 of embodiment 1, determines whether a person 220 is present near the electric lock 100 and whether that person 220 is authorized to unlock the electric lock 100, and controls the locking / unlocking state of the electric lock based on the determination result.

[0343] Therefore, according to the electric lock control system 1D, similar to the electric lock control system 1 according to embodiment 1, it is possible to prevent unauthorized persons from unlocking the electric lock 100.

[0344] (supplement) As described above, the first to fourth embodiments and modifications have been described as examples of the technology disclosed in this application. However, the present disclosure is not limited to these first to fourth embodiments and modifications. As long as they do not deviate from the spirit of the present disclosure, various modifications that would occur to a person skilled in the art may be made to the present embodiments or modifications, or forms constructed by combining components of different embodiments or modifications may also be included within the scope of one or more aspects of the present disclosure.

[0345] One aspect of the present disclosure may be not only such an electric lock control system 1, etc., but also an electric lock control method having steps corresponding to characteristic components included in the electric lock control system 1, etc. Another aspect of the present disclosure may be a computer program that causes a computer to execute each characteristic step included in the electric lock control method. Another aspect of the present disclosure may be a computer-readable non-transitory recording medium on which such a computer program is recorded. [Industrial Applicability]

[0346] The present disclosure is widely applicable to systems for controlling electric locks, etc. [Explanation of symbols]

[0347] 1, 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D Electric Lock Control System 11, 11A, 21, 21B, 21C, 34, 41, 51, 101 Receiver 12, 12A control section 13 Display and operation reception section 14, 24, 33, 33A, 33B, 33C, 43, 53 Transmitter 22, 22B, 22C First judgment section 23, 23B, 23C, 23D Second Judgment Section 25, 35 Display section 26 Machine Learning Models 31 Operation reception section 32 Sensing information storage unit 42 Image storage unit 52 Connection detection unit 100 Electric Lock 102 Locking / unlocking section 110, 110A Home Gateway 120, 120B, 120C, 120D Server equipment 130, 130A, 130B, 130C Information terminal 140 Internet 150 In-building network 160 Imaging device 170 charger 180 Distribution board 200 buildings 210 Door 220 People 300 electric vehicle

Claims

1. a first determination step of determining whether or not a person is present in a predetermined area around the electric lock based on first information generated by the electronic device; a second determination step of determining, when it is determined by the first determination step that a first person is present in the predetermined area, whether or not the first person is authorized to unlock the electric lock based on second information regarding the movement of the first person; a control step of controlling the locking / unlocking state of the electric lock based on the result of the determination by the second determination step, The electric lock can be set to one of at least two security levels, the at least two security levels include a first security level and a second security level; In the control step, In the second determination step, if it is determined that the first person is a person authorized to unlock the electric lock, the electric lock is set to an unlocked state; In the second determination step, if it is not determined that the first person is a person authorized to unlock the electric lock, When the security level of the electric lock is preset to the first security level, the electric lock is set to an unlocked state; When the security level of the electric lock is preset to the second security level, an input is received as to whether or not to permit unlocking of the electric lock; When an input permitting unlocking of the electric lock is received, the electric lock is put into an unlocked state; When an input that does not permit unlocking of the electric lock is received, the electric lock is not put into an unlocked state. Electric lock control method.

2. the electronic device is an information terminal carried by the first person, the first information is location information indicating a location of the information terminal, The second information is acceleration information indicating acceleration detected by an acceleration sensor provided in the information terminal, or step count information indicating the number of steps taken by the first person measured by the information terminal. The electric lock control method according to claim 1.

3. the electronic device is an imaging device, the first information is an image captured by the imaging device, The second information is gait information relating to the gait of the first person calculated based on an image captured by the imaging device. The electric lock control method according to claim 1.

4. The electric lock is installed on the entrance door of the building, the electronic device is a charger for charging an electric vehicle, the charger being located in the building or within a predetermined range from the building, or a distribution board that supplies power to the charger; the first information is connection information indicating that the electric vehicle is connected to the charger, The second information is acceleration information indicating acceleration detected by an acceleration sensor provided in an information terminal carried by the first person. The electric lock control method according to claim 1.

5. In the second determination step, when the second information is input, a machine learning model that has been trained in advance to output a score indicating the likelihood that the first person is a person authorized to unlock the electric lock is used to determine whether the first person is a person authorized to unlock the electric lock. The electric lock control method according to claim 1.

6. a first determination unit that determines whether or not a person is present in a predetermined area around the electric lock based on first information generated by the electronic device; a second determination unit that, when the first determination unit determines that a first person is present in the predetermined area, determines whether the first person is a person authorized to unlock the electric lock based on second information regarding the movement of the first person; and a control unit that controls the locking / unlocking state of the electric lock based on the result of the determination by the second determination unit, The electric lock can be set to one of at least two security levels, the at least two security levels include a first security level and a second security level; The control unit When the second determination unit determines that the first person is a person authorized to unlock the electric lock, the electric lock is set to an unlocked state; When the second determination unit does not determine that the first person is a person authorized to unlock the electric lock, When the security level of the electric lock is preset to the first security level, the electric lock is set to an unlocked state; When the security level of the electric lock is preset to the second security level, an input is received as to whether or not to permit unlocking of the electric lock; When an input permitting unlocking of the electric lock is received, the electric lock is put into an unlocked state; When an input that does not permit unlocking of the electric lock is received, the electric lock is not put into an unlocked state. Electric lock control system.

7. A program for causing a computer to execute an electric lock control process, The electric lock control process includes: a first determination step of determining whether or not a person is present in a predetermined area around the electric lock based on first information generated by the electronic device; a second determination step of determining, when it is determined by the first determination step that a first person is present in the predetermined area, whether or not the first person is authorized to unlock the electric lock based on second information regarding the movement of the first person; a control step of controlling the locking / unlocking state of the electric lock based on the result of the determination by the second determination step, The electric lock can be set to one of at least two security levels, the at least two security levels include a first security level and a second security level; In the control step, In the second determination step, if it is determined that the first person is a person authorized to unlock the electric lock, the electric lock is set to an unlocked state; In the second determination step, if it is not determined that the first person is a person authorized to unlock the electric lock, When the security level of the electric lock is preset to the first security level, the electric lock is set to an unlocked state; When the security level of the electric lock is preset to the second security level, an input is received as to whether or not to permit unlocking of the electric lock; When an input permitting unlocking of the electric lock is received, the electric lock is put into an unlocked state; When an input that does not permit unlocking of the electric lock is received, the electric lock is not put into an unlocked state. program.

8. In the control step, if it is not determined in the second determination step that the first person is a person authorized to unlock the electric lock, a warning signal is output. The electric lock control method according to claim 1.

9. the electronic device is an information terminal carried by the first person, the first information is location information indicating a location of the information terminal, The warning signal is an image showing an alarm on a map around the location of the information terminal indicated by the location information. The electric lock control method according to claim 8.

Images