1. Technical field
The present invention relates to a remote control system for controlling home appliances from outside the home and a gateway apparatus used for the remote control system, and in particular, to the system and apparatus capable of controlling the home appliances from outside the home with easier operations.
2. Related art
In recent years, in order to build a system in which home appliances are connected to a network built inside the home (home network) so as to be controlled those appliances, standardization for protocols of the home network that use IEEE 1394, BLUETOOTH, and/or power lines is now in progress. The home appliances have already been partly mutual-connected for linked usage, and home appliances can be connected to personal computers or to other home appliances (such that a floor type of VTR is connected to a video camera).
A Japanese Patent publication No. 3016350 discloses a system for a home appliance control interface, in which there is provided a personal computer for operating home appliances and an image indicative of rooms in which the home appliances are placed.
Another Japanese Patent publication No. 3014532 discloses a home automation system. In this system, the layout view of rooms of a house is displayed on a personal computer used for controlling home appliances, such as a bath and air conditioner. For example, when a user performs operations on the layout view of the air conditioner, contents of operations for a wind direction, wind amount, setting of temperature, necessity for dehumiditification and/or others are displayed on the view. Based on a selected content to be operated, the system is able to actuate the air conditioner. In this home automation system, the personal computer is connected to a second personal computer through a telephone line, so that a user is able to give data to the second personal computer to control the home appliances from a distance.
With regard to a control interface for home appliances, remote control devices have long been used. Japanese Patent publication 6-32509 discloses a remote control apparatus, in which replacement of ROMs allows a plurality of appliances to be controlled. This remote control apparatus has a display unit for displaying figures illustrating operation panels of the appliances to be controlled. Pressing a key on an operation panel that has been displayed enables control of a desired appliance.
Further, the Internet has widely become popular in recent years, and use of a home computer and portable terminals or mobile terminals makes it possible to have access to the Internet from any place. To control a personal computer with functions for home appliances (e.g., a personal computer with the functions for a TV tuner and picture recording) via the Internet has already been conducted. Practically, a portable terminal is used outside to send to a mail box on the Internet an electronic mail in which pieces of information indicating instructions to control a home appliance are written. On the other hand, a home personal computer is actuated to regularly access the electronic mail box. If the home personal computer finds an electronic mail containing the information in relation to instructions of control, the function of the personal computer is activated.
In this configuration, the portable terminal extracts a function, operation data for reserving picture recording, and a start time and an end time of recording of a broadcast channel. And the portable terminal uses these pieces of information to produce the information about the control instructions that can be interpreted by a program installed in the personal computer. The produced information is then sent out with the electronic mail.
For a further example of accessing a computer system via a communication network, a system has been known in which terminals control a host computer based on programs on API (application programming interface) specifications that include communication protocol processing.
However, the conventional systems have given no consideration to a direct connection of a home network to the Internet, because there are differences in protocols between the home network connected to home appliances and an outside computer network (e.g., Internet) connected to the home network. In addition, the home appliances are not equipped with the API capable of receiving control commands sent from outside the home via the Internet and operating the home appliances. Therefore, there is a problem that the conventional systems are unable to remote-control home appliances from outside the home via the Internet, though the Internet itself has now considerably become popular.
Moreover, in the case of conventional remote-control techniques, there is a possibility that conflicts occur between direct operations and remote operations toward a certain home appliance.
Still further, there is a fear that an immoral user might perform a remote control to give home appliances a breakdown or information about the leakage of privacy.