Patent ID: 7222153

Claim:
An appliance located-states accumulating method of accumulating data of a positional relation of individual positions where a plurality of appliances mutually connected through a network are located, comprising: (a) receiving different classes of state change information from a plurality of different classes of appliances through said network, the state change information being indicative of differing classes of operating state changes of the different classes of appliances; (b) calculating an occurrence time difference from occurrence times when the differing classes of operating state changes have been detected as having occurred with respect to differing appliances of the differing classes of appliances, in accordance with occurrence time information indicative of occurrence times of the operating state changes included in the state change information; and (c) acquiring distance between appliances which incur the operating state changes, based on the calculated occurrence time difference; wherein said acquiring calculates the positional relation in accordance with the occurrence time difference of the operating state changes occurred in two appliances and relationship weight information indicative of a distance between the two appliances; and wherein said relationship weight information is a value calculated by a predetermined expression in accordance with two elements including: number of times of occurring the operating state changes; and the occurrence time difference of the operating state changes occurred in the two appliances.