Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD OF MANAGING USE RECORD OF

HOME NETWORK DEVICES

Technical Field

[1] The present invention relates to a system and method of managing a use record of home network devices, and more particularly, to a system and method of managing a use record of home network devices which are linked with a room controller through collection and analysis of status information of the home network devices, so as to then exactly cope with customer's requirements. Background Art

[2] Companies possess various information systems to heighten public awareness, and manufacture homepages (internet websites) utilizing these information systems, to thus provide customers with information about the companies, or provide customers with information about goods of the companies. In addition, companies collect customers' opinions and achieve various activities on an on-line basis, through the internet websites. As well, companies also construct computer systems, to thus accomplish automation in all sides of processing business.

[3] However, even if companies have these systems, administrators have no methods of specially checking customers' requirements, states of products, etc. Accordingly, there is a problem that information and status possessed by the companies cannot be correctly recognized.

[4] Further, since companies have no information to exactly correspond to customers' needs, they may cause unavoidable circumstances such as customers' dissatisfaction or double burden of expenses. Disclosure of Invention Technical Problem

[5] Therefore, in order to supplement the shortcoming of the conventional art, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method of managing a use record of home network devices to thereby detect users' needs in advance and simultaneously check whether or not the home network devices normally run to then enable smoother diagnosis and trouble- shooting treatment, in which the home network devices which are respectively installed in the users' houses are connected through a room controller. Technical Solution

[6] To accomplish the above object of the present invention, there is provided a system of managing a use record of home network devices, the system comprising:

[7] a room controller which collects control and status information of the home network devices; [8] a home gateway portion which transmits the collected information to an out-of -house place;

[9] a central management server system which stores and analyzes the transmitted information and manages a use record of the home network devices; [10] a call center terminal which receives breakdown or alarm information from the central management server system and transmits the received breakdown or alarm information to a user or an after-service (A/S) system; and [11] a remote control user interface which remotely controls the home network devices through the central management server system, and enables the user to make inquiries as to a use record of the home network devices. [12] To accomplish the above object of the present invention, there is also provided a method of managing a use record of home network devices which are connected to a room controller, the method comprising the steps of: [13] (a) transmitting status information from each home network device to a home gateway portion by an electric power line through the room controller; [14] (b) collecting the status information of the home network devices and storing and analyzing the collected state information via a telephone network or Internet network, to thereby manage a use record of the home network devices; [15] (c) obtaining breakdown or alarm information from the collected state information and then notifying a user of the obtained breakdown or alarm information via a short message service (SMS) system; and [16] (d) configuring log information on use of the home network devices in the form of a user interface (UI), according to a user's request for making inquiries on a use record of the home network devices, and transmitting breakdown contents to the after- service

(A/S) system according to a user's after-service (A/S) request.

Advantageous Effects

[17] A system and method of managing a use record of home network devices according to the present invention provides an effect of collecting and analyzing status information of the home network devices which linked with a room controller and managing a use record of the home network devices, to thereby detect users' needs in advance and simultaneously enable a user to receive an after-service (A/S) accurately and quickly. Brief Description of the Drawings

[18] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system of managing a use record of home network devices according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

[19] FIG. 2 is a flowchart view for explaining a log information collection process of the

FIG. 1 system; and

[20] FIG. 3 is a flowchart view for explaining a trouble-shooting process at occurrence of breakdown of the FIG. 1 system. Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

[21] According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system of managing a use record of home network devices, the system comprising: a room controller which collects control and status information of the home network devices; a home gateway portion which transmits the collected information to an out-of-house place; a central management server system which stores and analyzes the transmitted information and manages a use record of the home network devices; a call center terminal which receives breakdown or alarm information from the central management server system and transmits the received breakdown or alarm information to a user or an after-service (A/S) system; and a remote control user interface which remotely controls the home network devices through the central management server system, and enables the user to make inquiries as to a use record of the home network devices.

[22] According to another aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a method of managing a use record of home network devices which are connected to a room controller, the method comprising the steps of: (a) transmitting status information from each home network device to a home gateway portion by an electric power line through the room controller; (b) collecting the status information of the home network devices and storing and analyzing the collected state information via a telephone network or Internet network, to thereby manage a use record of the home network devices; (c) obtaining breakdown or alarm information from the collected state information and then notifying a user of the obtained breakdown or alarm information via a short message service (SMS) system; and (d) configuring log information on use of the home network devices in the form of a user interface (UI), according to a user's request for making inquiries on a use record of the home network devices, and transmitting breakdown contents to the after-service (A/S) system according to a user's after-service (A/S) request. Mode for the Invention

[23] Hereinbelow, a system and method of managing a use record of home network devices according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[24] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system of managing a use record of home network devices according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The system of managing a use record of home network devices shown in FIG. 1 includes:

home network devices 10 including various kinds of devices and sensors which are installed in a building such as a house or office; a room controller 20 which is linked in communication with the home network devices 10 by power line or by wire, to thereby control the home network devices 10 and collect status information of the home network devices 10; and telephone network/Internet home gateways 30A and 30B which are linked in communication with the room controller 20 by power line, transmit the collected status information to an out-of-house place, and receive control instruction from the out-of-house place.

[25] In addition, the system of FIG. 1 also includes: a central management server system

40 which is linked with the in-house home gateways 30A and 30B via a telephone network such as a PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) network or the Internet network, receives breakdown/alarm information and a log of use/state information of the home network devices 10, stores and analyzes the transmitted information and manages a use record of the home network devices 10; a call center terminal 50 which receives breakdown or alarm information from the central management server system 40 and transmits the received breakdown or alarm information to a user or an after- service (A/S) system 60; and a remote control user interface 70 which remotely controls the in-house home network devices 10 through the central management server system 40, and enables the user to make inquiries as to a use record of the home network devices 10.

[26] Here, the central management server system 40 includes: a private branch exchanger

(PBX) 41 such as unPBX which changes breakdown/alarm information of a tone signal mode that is transferred through the PSTN network to a packet mode; a management server 43 which transfers control instruction that is applied from the remote control user interface 70 to the Internet home gateway 30B, receives log/ state/breakdown/alarm information that is transferred from the Internet home gateway 30B and manages a use record of the home network devices 10; and a database (DB) 45 which stores the collected information.

[27] The management server 43 includes: an authentication module 431 which executes user authentication with respect to log information; an information processor 432 which analyzes and processes log/state/breakdown/alarm information; a web server 433 that supports Internet connection; a remote control processing module 434 which handles a request from the remote control user interface 70.

[28] An operation of managing a use record of the home network devices in the FIG. 1 system having the above-described structure will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

[29] In the case of an in-house user, he or she manipulates the room controller 20 directly.

Otherwise, in the case of an out-of-house user, he or she remotely manipulates and

controls the in-house home network devices 10, via the remote control user interface 70 such as a personal computer (PC), a cellular phone, or a personal digital assistant (PDA). The remote control user interface 70 connects to the central management server system 40, and sends control instruction to the Internet home gateway 30B through the central management server system 40. The management server 43 of the central management server system 40 transmits the control instruction to the in-house home gateway 30B through the Internet network. The in-house Internet home gateway 30B transmits the received control instruction in communication to the room controller 20 by power line. The room controller 20 controls operation of a corresponding device among the linked home network devices 10 according to the input control instruction. Various kinds of in-house devices and sensors, that is, home network products of a boiler, lighting devices, an intrusion detection sensor, a gas circuit breaker, a door lock, etc., are linked with the room controller 20.

[30] On the other hand, the room controller 20 receives status information from the linked home network devices 10 and transfers the received status information to the home gateways 30A and 30B. The telephone network home gateway 30A collects breakdown or alarm information of the home network devices 10 and transmits the collected breakdown or alarm information to the out-of -house central management server system 40 via a PSTN network. Since the information transferred via the PSTN network is a tone signal of a phone call, the central management server system 40 changes the information of the tone signal to information of an appropriate packet mode through a private branch exchanger 41 such as UnPBX and stores the change result in a database (DB) 45. The Internet home gateway 30B collects log, state, breakdown or alarm information of the home network devices 10 and transfers the collected information to the out-of-house central management server system 40 through the Internet network. Since the information transferred through the Internet network is of a packet mode, the management server 43 of the central management server system 40 stores the received information in the database (DB) 45 as it is. The information processor 432 of the management server 43 analyzes a use record of log, state, breakdown, alarm, etc., from the information stored in the database (DB) 45 and also stores the analyzed result in the database (DB) 45 to thereby make a user to always make inquiries for the use record. That is, a user may connect to the web server 433 of the management server 43 through the remote control user interface 70, and inquire for the user record of the log, breakdown, etc., which have been stored in the database (DB) 45. As an example, the management server 43 analyzes a heating record of a boiler and stores data contents for the heating record as defined in the following Table 1 in the database (DB) 45. A user checks a present boiler heating operation state through an inquiry for reference of the heating record data contents of Table 1 that is

stored in the database (DB) 45, and controls an operational state in an energy saving direction. [31] Table 1

[Table 1] [Table ]

[32] Besides, contents about the home network data are stored in the database (DB) 45 other than the heating data. These are shown in the following Table 2. [33] Table 2 [Table 2] [Table ]

[34] The management server 43 transfers breakdown or alarm information to the call center terminal 50, and notifies a user or an after-service (A/S) system 60 of the breakdown or alarm information, to thereby enable the user or the after-service (A/S) system 60 to perform a quick and accurate after-service (A/S) for the corresponding home network devices 10. That is, the call center terminal 50 receives the breakdown or alarm information from the database (DB) 45, and transmits contents of the breakdown or alarm information to a cellular phone of the user through a short message service (SMS) or to a personal digital assistant (PDA) of an A/S engineer. Because the A/S engineer received the contents of the breakdown or alarm information before he or she visits a home where any of the home network devices 10 have been troubled, he or she can do a correct after-service (A/S) without asking a customer of the contents of the breakdown or alarm information during visiting.

[35] Meanwhile, a log information collection process about user information will be described with reference to FIG. 2. [36] In FIG. 2, the room controller 20 collects log information through power line com-

munication with the home network devices 10 (step 201). The Internet home gateway 3OB creates data about log information collected by the room controller 20 (step 202). The Internet home gateway 30B transmits the created log data to the management server 43 of the central management server system 40 through the Internet network (step 203). The management server 43 stores the received log data in the database (DB) 45 (step 204). The management server 43 reads the log data stored in the database (DB) 45, according to a user's log data inquiry request through the remote control user interface 70 of a personal computer (PC) or a cellular phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), etc., and changes the read log data into a suitable user interface (UI) to then be provided for the user (step 205). The management server 43 deletes the stored log information periodically on a first-come-first-delete basis, in order to secure a storage space for the database (DB) 45 (step 206).

[37] FIG. 3 illustrates a process when breakdown occurs in the home network devices 10.

When breakdown occurs in the home network devices 10 (step 301), the home gateways 30A and 30B having received the breakdown or alarm information through the room controller 20 create breakdown data (step 302). That is, the home gateways 30A and 30B create breakdown or alarm information collected by the room controller 20 as breakdown data. Otherwise, the home gateways 30A and 30B communicate with the home network devices 10 periodically, and then judges as device breakdown if it is not communicated any more between the room controller 20 and the home network devices 10, to thus create breakdown data. The home gateways 30A and 30B transmit the created breakdown data to the central management server system 40 through the PSTN network or the Internet network (step 303). The central management server system 40 receives the breakdown data and stores the received breakdown data in the database (DB) 45 (step 304), and simultaneously changes the received breakdown data into a suitable user interface (UI) to then be transferred to the call center terminal 50, so as to be used as data necessary when a call center counselor consults (step 305). The call center terminal 50 transmits the breakdown data to the user as needed by a short message service (SMS) and notifies the user of the occurrence of the breakdown of the home network devices 10 (step 306). The user who has been notified of the SMS breakdown data can consult with a call center counselor through a call-back (step 307), and the call center terminal 50 transmits the breakdown data to the A/S system 60 upon the user's A/S request (step 308), so that an A/S engineer can visit a home where any of the home network devices 10 have been troubled and trouble-shoots the corresponding troubled home network devices 10 (step 309).

[38] As described above, a system and method of managing a use record of home network devices, according to the present invention receives breakdown, log, and status information of various kinds of devices and sensors which are linked with an in-house

home controller, through home gateways to then be centrally managed, and thus immediately recognize occurrence of breakdown of the home network devices. In addition, the system and method of managing a use record of home network devices, according to the present invention, enables any troubled home network devices to be A/S-executed without explaining an A/S engineer about the breakdown contents one by one. Further, the present invention provides the user or the A/S engineer with an effect of making him or her grasp a use record of the troubled product at a look.

[39] As described above, the present invention has been described with respect to a particularly preferred embodiment. However, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and it is possible for one who has an ordinary skill in the art to make various modifications and variations, without departing off the spirit of the present invention. Thus, the protective scope of the present invention is not defined within the detailed description thereof but is defined by the claims to be described later and the technical spirit of the present invention. Industrial Applicability

[40] As described above, the system and method of managing a use record of home network devices, according to the present invention can be used for a product information system, a customer A/S system, etc., of websites or homepages of companies.