Abstract:
A system and a method for integrating electronic apparatuses, e.g. information appliances, are provided. The present invention detects and stores the functions of each electronic apparatus in advance. When one of the electronic apparatuses transmits a signal to execute a particular function, the present invention determines which electronic apparatus is the most suitable to execute the function and sends the signal to the very electronic apparatus without manual operations.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
         [0001]    This Application claims priority to Taiwan Patent Application No. 092114370 filed on May 28, 2003.  
         FIELD OF INVENTION  
         [0002]    The present invention relates to a system and a method for integrating electronic apparatuses, and more specifically relates to a system and a method for integrating information appliances.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0003]    Most of the appliance products currently available in the market emphasize built-in artificial intelligence, i.e. they have capability to regulate their functions according to changes in the environment. One example is that an intelligent air conditioner can regulate the amount of cold air emission according to the room temperature. Another example is that an intelligent refrigerator can ring an alarm bell to remind users if the refrigerator door is open for a certain period of time.  
           [0004]    Some systems claim to integrate these intelligent appliances. However, these systems require manual instructions to achieve true integration. As FIG. 1 shows, all intelligent appliances  105 ,  107 , . . . ,  113  are connected to a terminal  103  through an intranet  101 . A user can input instructions via the terminal  103  to access any of the intelligent appliances  105 ,  107 , . . . ,  113  and integrate the use of them. For example, although a TV set  107  has its own audio output equipment, one can still instruct the terminal  103  to retrieve the audio signals of the TV set  107  and to transmit them to an audio player  109  for better audio quality.  
           [0005]    The terminal  103  might be a personal computer or a microprocessor embedded in one of the intelligent appliances  105 ,  107 , . . . ,  113 . Regardless of the terminal&#39;s structure, this system of the prior art requires a user to input instructions manually to transmit signals among the intelligent appliances  105 ,  107 , . . . ,  113 . Besides, such a system cannot make an appropriate decision itself in terms of transmitting signals to the most appropriate intelligent appliance according to a user&#39;s location.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0006]    The present invention provides a system and a method for integrating information appliances. The system and the method detect and store the functions of the information appliances in advance. When one of the information appliances generates a signal, the present invention analyzes the signal and then transmits it to one of the information appliances appropriately without manual inputs.  
           [0007]    The system of the present invention connects a plurality of information appliances through an intranet. Each information appliance includes an appliance I/O module, a function module and a generation module. The appliance I/O module, connected to the intranet, is configured as an I/O interface with the other information appliances. The function module is configured to store a first piece of information, which includes all functions of the corresponding information appliance. The generation module is configured to generate a second piece of information, which includes instructions for execution generated by the corresponding information appliance.  
           [0008]    The system further includes an integrated platform for integrating the functions of the plurality of information appliances and delivering signals in between. The integrated platform includes a platform I/O module, an identification module and a transmission module. The platform I/O module, connected to the intranet, is configured as an I/O interface of the integrated platform The identification module, according to the first piece of information, is configured to identify and store the function(s) of each information appliance. The transmission module, according to the functions stored in the identification module, is configured to selectively transmit the second piece of information to one of the plurality of information appliances as appropriate.  
           [0009]    The method of the present invention, according to the aforementioned system, includes the following steps. The system retrieves the first piece of information of each of the information appliances connected to the intranet and stores function information of the information appliances. When one of the information appliances generates an output signal, i.e. the second piece of information, to execute a particular function, the integrated platform receives and analyzes the output signal and transmits it to one of the information appliances appropriately according to an attribute of the output signal.  
           [0010]    If the system further includes a sensor for detecting the location of a user, the step of transmitting the output signal further includes the steps of determining which information appliances are able to execute the output signal, sensing the location of the user, and, according to the location of the user, transmitting the output signal to one of the available information appliances. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0011]    [0011]FIG. 1 illustrates the information appliance connections of the prior art;  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 2 illustrates the system of the present invention;  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 3 illustrates the block diagram of an information appliance of the present invention;  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 4 illustrates the integrated platform of the present invention;  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 5 illustrates the flow chart of the method provided by the present invention;  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 6 illustrates the flow chart of selecting an appropriate information appliance when the system includes sensors;  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 7 illustrates a first embodiment of the present invention; and  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 8 illustrates a second embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0019]    [0019]FIG. 2 shows a system for integrating information appliances provided by the present invention. A plurality of information appliances  203 ,  205 , . . . ,  211 , not limited to the information appliances shown in FIG. 2, are connected together through an intranet  201  and are able to communicate with one another via an integrated platform  213 . The system also includes an interface  215  and a sensor  217 . The interface  215 , connected to the integrated platform  213  via the intranet  201 , is configured for a user to monitor the statuses of the plurality of information appliances  203 ,  205 , . . . ,  211 , or for a user to input instructions manually. The sensor  217 , connected to the integrated platform  213  via the intranet  201 , is configured to detect the location of the user so that the integrated platform  213  can transmit signals to the most appropriate information appliance or the information appliance closest to the user according to the location of the user.  
         [0020]    The integrated platform  213  may be connected to the Internet  219 . When being outside of the intranet  201 , the user might utilize a computer  221  to connect to the Internet  219  so that he can access the integrated platform  213  to monitor or control the plurality of information appliances  203 ,  205 , . . . ,  211 . Alternatively, the user might utilize a mobile phone  225  via the protocol of the prior art between a GSM system  223  and the Internet  219  to monitor or control the plurality of information appliances  203 ,  205 , . . . ,  211  from a remote terminal outside the intranet  201 .  
         [0021]    As FIG. 3 shows, an information appliance  3  incorporated in the system of the present invention, e.g. one of the information appliances  203 ,  205 , . . . ,  211  in FIG. 2, includes an appliance I/O module  301 , a function module  303  and a generation module  305 . The appliance I/O module  301 , connected to the intranet  201  of FIG. 2, is configured as an I/O interface of the information appliance  3 . It is noted that the number of input and output terminals of the appliance I/O module  301  is based on its functionality. The function module  303  is configured to store a first piece of information that includes function information of the information appliance  3 . The first piece of information is stored in a certain format readable by the integrated platform  213 . The generation module  305  includes a memory  307  for storing all instructions the information appliance  3  might generate. When the information appliance  3  generates an output signal, the generation module  305  selects appropriate instructions from the memory  307  to form a second piece of information. The second piece of information is then transmitted to the integrated platform  213  via the appliance I/O module  301 . For example, a TV set  205  shown in FIG. 2 mainly deals with video and audio signals so its appliance I/O module  301  includes a VGA input terminal for inputting video signals, an AV input terminal for inputting audio signals and at least one output terminal for outputting the first piece of information and the second piece of information. The first piece of information stored in the function module  303  of the TV set  205  records that video and audio signals are available for the TV set  305 , and is transmitted to the integrated platform  213 . When video or audio signals are generated by the other information appliances, the integrated platform  213  will receive these signals and determine which information appliance is the most suitable to execute them If the TV set  205  is determined to be the most suitable, the integrated platform  213  sends the video or audio signals to the VGA input terminal or the AV input terminal of the appliance I/O module  301  of the TV set  205  to display on the TV set  205 . Alternatively, if the TV set  205  needs to output video or audio signals in a certain situation, the generation module  305  of the TV set  205  generates a second piece of information, including information of the video or audio signals, and then transmits it to the integrated platform  213  through the output terminal of the appliance I/O module  301 .  
         [0022]    As FIG. 4 shows, an integrated platform  4 , i.e. the integrated platform  213  in FIG. 2, includes a platform I/O module  401 , an identification module  403  and a transmission module  405 . The platform I/O module  401 , connected to the intranet  201  and the Internet  219 , is configured as an I/O interface of the integrated platform  4 . The identification module  403  receives the first piece of information from the function module  303  of the information appliance  3  shown in FIG. 3 and, according to the first piece of information, identifies and stores the functions of the information appliance  3 . The transmission module  405  is configured to receive the second piece of information from the information appliance  3  and, according to the characteristic of the second piece of information and the function information stored in the identification module  403 , selectively transmit the second piece of information to an appropriate information appliance for execution. Before transmitting, the transmission module  405  converts the format of the second piece of information into the format recognizable by the appropriate information appliance.  
         [0023]    According to the aforementioned system, the present invention further provides a method for integrating a plurality of information appliances. Now referring to FIG. 2 and FIG. 5, in step  501  the integrated platform  213  receives and stores function information, i.e. the first piece of information, of the plurality of information appliances  203 ,  205 , . . . ,  211 . In step  503 , one of the plurality of information appliances  203 ,  205 , . . . ,  211  generates an output signal, i.e. a second piece of information, and transmits it to the integrated platform  213 . In step  505 , the integrated platform  213  analyzes the attribute of the output signal. In step  507 , the integrated platform  213  determines which information appliance is the most suitable to process the output signal and transmits the output signal to the most suitable information appliance according to the attribute of the output signal.  
         [0024]    More specifically, step  507  further includes the following steps shown in FIG. 6. In step  601 , the integrated platform  213  determines which information appliances are able to execute the output signal. In step  603 , the integrated platform  213  senses the user&#39;s location via the sensor  217 . In step  605 , the integrated platform  213  selects the most suitable information appliance and transmits the output signal to it according to the location of the user.  
         [0025]    A first embodiment of the present invention is a system for integrating information appliances at home. As FIG. 7 shows, the information appliances in the house includes a TV set  703 , an audio player  705 , a refrigerator  707 , sensors  709 ,  711 , . . . ,  719 , a telephone  721 ,  723 , . . . ,  729  and a computer  731 . These information appliances  703 ,  705 , . . . ,  731  are all connected to an integrated platform  735  through an intranet (not shown). When a user  701  turns on a disc reader, such as a DVD player, of the computer  731  to access data with video and audio signals, such as a movie recorded on a DVD disc, the integrated platform  735  first senses the location of the user  701  via the sensors  709 ,  711 , . . . ,  719  and then transmits the video signals retrieved by the disc reader to the TV set  703  and transmits the audio signals retrieved by the disc reader to the audio player  705 . Therefore, the user  701  can enjoy the movie played in the computer  731  without having to sit in front of the computer  731 .  
         [0026]    Besides, if the function module of the refrigerator  707  records a reminder function, i.e. the refrigerator  707  can send an audio or video signal to warn the user  701  when the refrigerator door is open for a certain period of time, the integrated platform  735  receives a reminder signal from the refrigerator  707  and detects the location of the user  701  via the sensors  709 ,  711 , . . . ,  719 . Once determining the location of the user  701 , the integrated platform  735  transmits the reminder signal to the TV set  703  to display the warning on the screen or to the audio player  705  to issue a sound reminding the user  701  that the refrigerator door is open.  
         [0027]    Similarly, if a phone call reaches the house, the integrated platform  735  can make the telephone  725  ring so that the user  701  can answer it from the nearest phone.  
         [0028]    The above exemplary functions do not need configuration on the user&#39;s part. The integrated platform  735  automatically detects all functions of the information appliances in the intranet and optimizes the utilization of the information appliances. Moreover, the user  701  can monitor the status of each of the information appliances or input instructions manually via the interface  733 , e.g. adjusting the volume of the audio player  705 . The user  701  in a remote place can also monitor the status of each of the information appliances as long as the integrated platform  735  is connected to the Internet.  
         [0029]    A second embodiment of the present invention, as FIG. 8 shows, is applied for an energy company to monitor utility statuses on the client ends. A gas meter  801  installed in each of the client ends is an information appliance of the present invention and is connected to an intranet  803 . A gas company  809  sends a message, via the Internet  807 , to ask an integrated platform  805  to report the gas meter back. The integrated platform  805  retrieves the information from the gas meter  801  through the intranet  803  and returns the information to the gas company  809 . Therefore, the gas company  809  may get gas meter information without spending much time and manpower. The above-mentioned system of the second embodiment can also be applied to other energy companies, such as an electricity company.  
         [0030]    The above description of the preferred embodiments is expected to clearly expound the characteristics of the present invention but not expected to restrict the scope of the present invention. Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the system may be made while retaining the teaching of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the bounds of the claims.