Air conditioner operation control system and air conditioner operation control apparatus
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Solution Overview
Problem
Air conditioners in shared mode can experience operational conflicts when multiple portable terminals send control signals based on GPS location information, leading to potential cancellation of user instructions and ignored control signals, resulting in inconvenience due to lack of immediate user notification.
Innovation Solution
An air conditioner operation control system that includes a server with a relay unit and an exclusive time setting unit, and portable terminals with location information acquisition and transmission units, which set and manage exclusive times for operational requests, ensuring that requests are only executed after the user has arrived within the control area and preventing simultaneous or unintended operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the air conditioner is set to shared mode to allow operations from multiple portable terminals, then the adaptability and versatility of the system is improved, but operational conflicts occur where later instructions overwrite earlier ones and control signals may be ignored
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by setting an exclusive time period when a control signal is received. During this exclusive time, no other control signals are accepted, preventing conflicts before they occur. The server proactively manages the operation state by establishing this protective time window in advance, ensuring that the first user's instructions are executed reliably before allowing subsequent operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The server acts as an intermediary between multiple portable terminals and the air conditioner. It receives control signals from various terminals, manages the exclusive time periods, and coordinates the relay of signals to the air conditioner. This intermediary role prevents direct conflicts between multiple terminals while maintaining the shared mode functionality, allowing multiple users to operate the system without instructional overwrites.
2Ease of operation
If the system accepts control signals from multiple portable terminals in shared mode, then the ease of operation is improved, but control signals may be ignored without immediate user notification
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback by notifying the portable terminal when a control signal is ignored due to the exclusive time period being active. When the server receives a control signal during an existing exclusive time, it sends notification information back to the terminal, informing the user that their operation request was not executed. This feedback loop maintains user awareness and prevents loss of information about the system's operational state.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the air conditioner executes operations based on GPS location information, then the adaptability to user location is improved, but operational requests from multiple terminals may conflict and cancel each other
Solution Approach 1:
The system establishes the exclusive time period as a preliminary protective measure before processing location-based operational requests. When a control signal arrives, the server proactively sets the exclusive time window, ensuring that subsequent location-based requests from other terminals during this period will be blocked. This prevents instability in the operational state caused by conflicting location-based commands from multiple users.
Data Source
AI summary
An air conditioner operation control system includes an air conditioner, a portable terminal, and a server. The server includes a relaying circuitry that receives an operational request from the portable terminal and relays the operational request received to the air conditioner and an exclusive time setting circuitry that sets a certain period between a point in time when the relaying circuitry receives the operational request and a point in time when the certain period that is predetermined expires as an exclusive time. The portable terminal includes a location information acquiring circuitry, an exclusive time acquiring circuitry that obtains the exclusive time when the location information obtained by the location information acquiring circuitry arrives in the control area from outside the control area, a transmitting circuitry that transmits the operational request from a user to the server after a lapse of the exclusive time.