Home Appliance Control System for Automatic Link Generation

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing methods for controlling home appliances are either cumbersome, requiring pre-determination of which appliances to control and how, or lack user-specific control capabilities, leading to inconsistent settings and user-independent control that does not adapt to individual needs.

Innovation Solution

An electronic device control apparatus and method that receives and accumulates operational status data, manages link information to associate trigger and linked devices, extracts relevant data, generates control information based on operational statuses, and enables associated control, allowing for precise and user-specific control of home appliances.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If sequential operations on home appliances are used to set associated control, then control settings can be stored, but the setting constructor must determine in advance which appliances to control and how, increasing complexity and requiring re-operation if errors occur

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontrol setting accuracyVSAvoidsetting operation complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system automatically generates associated control settings by monitoring operational status data from appliances and using link information management means to determine relationships between appliances. This eliminates the need for the setting constructor to manually determine which appliances to control and how, as the system performs this function automatically based on observed operational patterns.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The system receives operational status data from appliances and uses this feedback to automatically generate appropriate associated control settings. The link information management means analyzes the operational status and automatically determines control relationships, eliminating the need for manual pre-determination and reducing setting complexity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

2Adaptability or versatility

If model table acquisition from server is used, then user-independent uniform control is enabled, but diverse control meeting individual user needs cannot be achieved

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveuser-specific control capabilityVSAvoidcontrol consistency

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system maintains link information that is specific to each user's appliances and operational patterns, allowing customized associated control settings for each user while still operating within the home network environment. This enables diverse control meeting individual user needs without compromising the overall system architecture.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The system separates the model table acquisition function (providing uniform control framework) from the link information management function (providing user-specific customization). This segmentation allows the system to maintain both user-independent uniform control capabilities and user-specific adaptive control capabilities simultaneously.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

3Ease of operation

If manual sequential operations are performed to set associated control, then control settings can be established, but time is lost and errors require re-operation

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesetting easeVSAvoidsetting time

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system automatically generates associated control settings by monitoring operational status data and using link information management means to determine appliance relationships. This eliminates the need for manual sequential operations, significantly reducing both the time required for setting and the potential for errors requiring re-operation.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs preliminary analysis of operational status data and link information to automatically generate appropriate control settings before user intervention is needed. This preliminary automatic generation eliminates the need for time-consuming manual sequential operations and reduces errors that would require re-operation.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentUS7822489B2Electronic device control apparatus, method for controlling electronic device, electronic device control program, and computer-readable recording medium having recorded electronic device control program

Publication Date: 2010.10.26 PANASONIC HOLDINGS CORP

AI summary

A device communication portion receives operational status data, and an operational status accumulation portion accumulates the operational status data. A link information management portion manages operational status link information containing trigger device information to specify the operational status of a single home appliance among plural home appliances and linked device information to specify another home appliance that activates in association with the operational status of the single home appliance. An operational status read portion extracts operational status data corresponding to the operational status in the trigger device information and extracts operational status data corresponding to the linked device information. An associated control information setting portion generates associated control information containing the operational status of the single home appliance and used as the condition to start the associated control of a single electronic device and another electronic device and the content of control on the another home appliance.