Abstract:
A method of controlling a remote controlled system includes the steps of: A. establishing corresponding relationships between a detector and home appliances; B. measuring a specific physical quantity with the detector; C. determining if the measured physical quantity is abnormal; and D. controlling the corresponding home appliances to perform certain operations according to the corresponding relationships if the measured physical quantity is abnormal, whereby, the physical quantity measured by a common detector can be feedbacked to multiple home appliances, which effectively reduces the number of the required detectors.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    1. Technical Field 
         [0002]    The present invention relates generally to controlling home appliances, and more particularly to a method of controlling a remote controlled system. 
         [0003]    2. Description of Related Art 
         [0004]    It is convenient to control home appliances with remote controls, since a user no longer has to go to where a home appliance is to control it. However, with the increase in the number of remote controls in any modern home, identifying a particular remote control for a home appliance among others when needed has become increasingly challenging, particularly since some remote controls even look alike. A user may thus find it inconvenient to distinguish the paring relationships between each different home appliance and its corresponding remote control. 
         [0005]    Hence, one kind of relay apparatus which can be communicated through a wireless network is introduced to solve the problem. By using electronic devices such as tablet computers or smart phones, a user is able to transmit control commands to a relay apparatus, and the relay apparatus then converts the received control commands into corresponding control signals to be sent to specific home appliances. In this way, one electronic device is capable of controlling multiple home appliances, and thereby eases the trouble of dealing with too many remote controls. 
         [0006]    A problem persists with such remote control systems insofar as the home appliances communicated with the same relay apparatus are not synchronized with each other. For example, a detector wirelessly connected to a relay apparatus measuring certain physical quantity is not synchronized to relay abnormal readings of its detector to an electronic device for display, and thus there is no feedback relayed to other home appliances for proceeding any corresponding operations. An ongoing disadvantage of remotely controlled home appliances is there lack of feedback between detectors in response to abnormal readings such that operations are synchronized to correspond and proceed according to the abnormal conditions detected and may, therefore, incur unnecessary cost. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0007]    In view of the above, a primary objective of the present invention is to provide a method of controlling a remote controlled system, comprising feedback readings of detectors to other home appliances. 
         [0008]    The present invention provides a method of controlling a remote controlled system, wherein the remote controlled system includes at least a detector and a feedback between a plurality of home appliances. The method includes the steps of: A. Establishing corresponding relationships between the detector and at least one of the home appliances; B. Measuring a specific physical quantity with the detector; C. Determining if the physical quantity measured by the detector is abnormal; and D. Controlling at least one of the home appliances to perform operations based on the corresponding relationships if the physical quantity is abnormal. 
         [0009]    With the method provided in the present invention, when the physical quantity measured by the detectors is found abnormal, the information can be feedbacked to the corresponding home appliances. The method requires fewer detectors than the conventional way of controlling home appliances. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0010]    The present invention will be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of some illustrative embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which 
           [0011]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram showing the remote controlled system of a first preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0012]    As shown in a preferred embodiment of the present invention illustrated in  FIG. 1 , a remote controlled system for coordinating detection of abnormal concentrations by multiple home appliances includes a plurality of detectors (a carbon monoxide detector  10  and a smoke detector  12  in the preferred embodiment), a plurality of home appliances (a water heater  14 , a fireplace  16 , a gas regulator  18 , a ventilation device  20 , and an air conditioner  22  in the preferred embodiment), a relay apparatus  24 , an electronic device which is a tablet computer  26  as an example, and a server  30  at a far end. The detectors, home appliances, and the relay apparatus  24  are installed at a near end thereof. 
         [0013]    Each detector is respectively used to detect a specific physical quantity specifically including a physical quantity detected by the carbon monoxide detector  10  is the concentration of carbon monoxide, while the physical quantity detected by the smoke detector  12  is the concentration of smoke particles. 
         [0014]    The carbon monoxide detector  10  and the smoke detector  12  are respectively electrically connected to a control device  102 ,  122 . Each of the control devices  102 ,  122  has a wireless signal transmission circuit  102   a ,  122   a , which communicates to the relay apparatus  24  with signals. Each of the control device  102 ,  122  respectively stores an ID code corresponding to the belonging detector  10 ,  12 . 
         [0015]    In addition, the control device  102  connected to the carbon monoxide detector  10  stores a critical value and an abnormal value which is lower than the critical value, wherein the concentration of carbon monoxide higher than the critical value is high enough to cause immediate harm, and if the concentration of carbon monoxide exceeds the abnormal value yet not reaches the critical value, it is not really harmful but still not good for anyone to stay in such circumstance for too long. Once the control device  102  finds out that the concentration of carbon monoxide measured by the detector  10  exceeds the critical value, it sends out an critical signal to the relay apparatus  24  through the wireless signal transmission circuit  102   a ; if the control device  102  determines that the concentration of carbon monoxide measured by the carbon monoxide detector  10  is between the abnormal value and the critical value, it sends out a warning signal to the relay apparatus  24 . Furthermore, if the control device  102  finds out that the concentration of carbon monoxide stays between the abnormal value and the critical value for a certain period of time, it also sends out the critical signal for safety reasons. 
         [0016]    Similarly, the control device  122  connected to the smoke detector  12  also stores a critical value and an abnormal value for the concentration of smoke particles, wherein the concentration of smoke particles higher than the critical value means a fire hazard is taking place. If the control device  122  finds out that the concentration of smoke particles detected by the detector  12  exceeds the critical value, it sends out a critical signal to the relay apparatus  24  through the wireless signal transmission circuit  122   a.    
         [0017]    In the preferred embodiment, the home appliances  14 ,  16 ,  18 ,  20 ,  22  can be classified into two types, which are gas appliances and electric equipment. More specifically, the water heater  14 , the fireplace  16 , and the gas regulator  18  belong to the type of gas appliances, while the ventilation device  20  and the air conditioner  22  belong to the type of electric equipment. Each of the home appliances  14 ,  16 ,  18 ,  20 ,  22  includes a control device  142 ,  162 ,  182 ,  202 ,  222  to control the operations thereof; each of the control devices  142 ,  162 ,  182 ,  202 ,  222  has a wireless signal receiving circuit  142   a ,  162   a ,  182   a ,  202   a ,  222   a  to receive control commands, and the control device  142 ,  162 ,  182 ,  202 ,  222  of each of the home appliances  14 ,  16 ,  18 ,  20 ,  22  controls the home appliances  14 ,  16 ,  18 ,  20 ,  22  to perform operations correspondingly. The home appliances  14 ,  16 ,  18 ,  20 ,  22  perform a specific operation after receiving an abnormal operation command, which will be described in details later. Each of the control devices  142 ,  162 ,  182 ,  202 ,  222  stores an ID code corresponding to the belonging home appliance  14 ,  16 ,  18 ,  20 ,  22 . 
         [0018]    In a preferred embodiment, the water heater  14  and the fireplace  16  are installed indoors, and they are communicated to a same gas pipe P. The water heater  14  includes burner  144  and blower  146  connected to burner  144 , wherein the burner  144  burns gas and the blower  146  can be controlled by the control device  142  to change its rotational speed to regulate the air amount flowing into burner  144  for combustion. Water heater  14  further includes an exhaust pipe (not shown) to vent the exhaust gas generated due to burning gas. 
         [0019]    In addition to burner  164 , blower  166 , and an exhaust pipe (not shown), the fireplace  16  further includes an oxygen depletion sensor (ODS)  168 , which has an oxygen concentration detector  168   a , and the physical quantity measured by the oxygen concentration detector  168   a  is the oxygen concentration while the fireplace  16  is burning gas. The control device  162  of fireplace  16  also stores a critical value and an abnormal value which is higher than the critical value. Similarly, if control device  162  finds out that the oxygen concentration measured by the oxygen concentration detector  168   a  is lower than the critical value, it sends out a critical signal to the relay apparatus  24  through the wireless signal transmission circuit  162   a ; if control device  162  determines that the oxygen concentration is between the critical value and the abnormal value, it sends out an abnormal signal. Since the oxygen concentration detector  168   a  is one kind of detectors, control device  162  also stores an ID code corresponding to the oxygen concentration detector  168   a.    
         [0020]    The gas regulator  18  is installed at a source of the gas pipe P, wherein control device  182  controls a valve (not shown) of the gas regulator  18  to open or close the gas pipe P. 
         [0021]    The ventilation device  20  is installed at a vent of a building, wherein ventilation device  20  includes an exhaust fan  204 , and control device  202  thereof controls the exhaust fan  204  to operate to provide indoor and outdoor air exchange. The control device  222  controls the operation of air conditioner  22  to adjust room temperature. 
         [0022]    The relay apparatus  24  has a memory  242  and a wireless transceiver circuit  244 , wherein memory  242  stores interaction information, which designates corresponding interactions between each of the detectors and at least one of the home appliances. The wireless transceiver circuit  244  communicates with control devices  102 ,  122 ,  142 ,  162 ,  182 ,  202 ,  222 . 
         [0023]    Tablet computer  26  communicates with the relay apparatus  24  with WiFi signals through an access point (AP)  28 , wherein tablet computer  26  can be used to control the home appliances through the relay apparatus  24 . Tablet computer  26  has an alarm unit such as screen  262 , which is shown as an example. 
         [0024]    Server  30  communicates with the AP  28  through Internet to communicate with the relay apparatus  24 . The server  30  is provided by a manufacturer of the remote controlled system, wherein the server has a database, which stores the ID codes corresponding to a plurality of detectors available from the manufacturer and a plurality of home appliances. In other words, the database stores information about the corresponding relationship between the ID codes and the detectors or the home appliances. 
         [0025]    The method provided in the present invention includes the following steps: 
         [0026]    First, the relay apparatus  24  transmits the ID codes corresponding to the detectors and the home appliances at the near end to server  30 , and server  30  determines what interactions are possible between the detectors at the near end and the home appliances available from the manufacturer based on the information stored in the database. The ID codes of the home appliances and the detectors at the near end which are able to take interactions are recorded in this way, and therefore the corresponding relationships between the detectors and the home appliances at the near end are established and noted. Such information is then transmitted back to relay apparatus  24  and to be stored in memory  242 . The herein stored information is the aforementioned interaction information. 
         [0027]    For example, the interaction information stored in the memory  242  of the relay apparatus  24  includes the corresponding relationships between the carbon monoxide detector  10  and water heater  14 , fireplace  16 , and ventilation device  20 . Furthermore, corresponding relationship between the oxygen concentration detector  162   a  of fireplace  16  and ventilation device  20 , the corresponding relationships between smoke detector  12  and the water heater  14 , fireplace  16 , gas regulator  18 , and air conditioner  22  are also included in the interaction information. 
         [0028]    If control device  102  connected to carbon monoxide detector  10  finds out that the concentration of carbon monoxide measured by the carbon monoxide detector  10  reaches the abnormal value, it sends out the warning signal to the relay apparatus  24 . The warning signal carbon monoxide detector  10  relays to apparatus  24  triggers transmit of a corresponding warning signal to tablet computer  26 . This enables screen  262  can display a warning message to inform the user that the concentration of carbon monoxide is abnormally high. If the concentration of carbon monoxide stays between the abnormal value and the critical value for a certain period of time, or if the concentration of carbon monoxide reaches the critical value, control device  102  sends out the critical signal. After receiving the critical signal, according to the interaction information stored in memory  242 , the relay apparatus  24  transmits the abnormal operation command to the corresponding home appliances, namely, the water heater  14 , the fireplace  16 , and the ventilation device  20 . Consequently, blowers  144 ,  146  of water heater  14  and fireplace  16  are controlled to increase their rotational speed. Exhaust fan  204  is also switched on to exhaust the carbon monoxide out more effectively for safety reasons. At the same time, relay apparatus  24  also transmits the critical signal to tablet computer  26  for displaying, and the user can be informed that the concentration of carbon monoxide is high enough to be harmful. 
         [0029]    Similarly, if control device  162  of the fireplace  16  finds out that the oxygen concentration measured by the oxygen concentration detector  168   a  is lower than the abnormal value, it sends out the warning signal to be displayed on tablet computer  26  through relay apparatus  24 . If the oxygen concentration is between the abnormal value and the critical value, or if it reaches the critical value, the critical signal is sent out, and relay apparatus  24  transmits the abnormal operation command to ventilation device  20  based on the interaction information, which switches on exhaust fan  204  to create indoor and outdoor air exchange to increase the indoor oxygen concentration. Again, relay apparatus  24  also transmits the critical signal to tablet computer  26  for displaying, and the user can be informed that the oxygen concentration is abnormal. 
         [0030]    If control device  122  connected to smoke detector  12  finds out that the concentration of smoke particles is higher than the critical value, it means there is a fire hazard taking place, and the critical signal is sent to the relay apparatus  24 . After that, the relay apparatus  24  transmits the abnormal operation command to water heater  14 , the fireplace  16 , gas regulator  18 , and air conditioner  22  according to the interaction information, which makes water heater  14 , fireplace  16 , gas regulator  18 , and air conditioner  22  stop operating, and gas regulator  18  is also controlled to close gas pipe P. 
         [0031]    In summary, the method of controlling a remote controlled system provided in the present invention takes the physical quantities measured by common detectors as a basis of controlling home appliances. In light of this, the method requires fewer detectors than conventional remote control systems. 
         [0032]    It must be pointed out that the embodiment described above is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention. All equivalent methods which employ the concepts disclosed in this specification and the appended claims are contemplated to fall within the scope of the present invention.