JP2002297889A - Method and system for recognizing information specific to domestic electrical products - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make accurately specifiable an object to be repaired and reduce the troublesome labor of a person who is requesting repair by allowing a person, who receives the request for repair, to be able to obtain the model name, serial number, date of manufacture, and type of color of the product when the repair of the a domestic electrical product is requested. SOLUTION: This system is provided with a storage means 4 having an information specific to the electrical appliance products stored therein and a transmission means 5 for transmitting the specific information. The transmission means of the domestic electrical product is connected to an in-house wiring NT1, and the person who receives the request for repair of the domestic electrical product can acquire the specific information through an information communication network NT2.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a model name, a serial number, a manufacturing date, a color type, etc., attached to home electric appliances such as a refrigerator, a washing machine, a television receiver and the like which are operated in a general household. And a system for recognizing the unique information of a home appliance, which enables a repair contractor such as a manufacturer of the home appliance to know the unique information through a communication line.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, home appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines, and television receivers are deteriorated in durability due to aging of built-in components and cause various failures. When a failure occurs, the large-sized product as described above is not easily transported, so that a so-called service person is requested to perform a business trip repair.

By the way, when accepting a repair request at a repair contractor's service center, it is necessary to accurately grasp the model name in order to prepare a repair manual and repair tools.
Furthermore, it is necessary to know the serial number and the color type of the product in order to procure repair parts. Therefore, when a home appliance manufacturer receives an on-site repair request from a service center or the like,
The service center collects information and asks the client about the product type, failure status, model name, serial number, date of manufacture, color type, etc., and prepares for repair.

[0004] However, the model name, serial number, date of manufacture, and the like are sometimes displayed in small characters or stamps, which are difficult for low-sighted people to read, and many include English characters. Especially, it is not easy to communicate to the elderly. Also,
The repair requester does not always recognize the display location of the unique information, and it has been difficult to transmit the unique information. Furthermore, when the repair requester was visited without accurately grasping the specific information of the product, an unreasonable result that the product was made by another company was sometimes encountered.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and when a request for repair of a home appliance is received, a repair contractor can provide a model name, a serial number, and a manufacturing number of the home appliance. The date, the color type, and the like can be known so that the repair target can be specified and the trouble of the repair requester can be reduced.

[0006]

According to the present invention, when a failure or the like occurs in a home appliance, a user of the home appliance notifies the repair contractor of a request for repair, and receiving the notification. The repair commissioner operates an information terminal device to prompt transmission of the unique information attached to the home appliance, and the repair commissioner receives the unique information,
Thereby, a first method of identifying the home appliance,

When the repair contractor operates the information terminal device to urge the transmission of the unique information attached to the home appliance, a specific operation for permitting the transmission of the unique information to the home appliance is performed. The two methods,

[0008] The transmission means of the home appliance, comprising storage means for storing the unique information of the home appliance, and transmission means for transmitting the unique information, is connected to the home wiring to repair the home appliance. The problem is solved by a first system that enables a trustee to obtain the unique information via an information communication network.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an outline of the system of the present invention, showing a state of disposition of home appliances in a general home A and a state in which the home appliances are connected to a repair contractor B via an information communication network.

In FIG. 1, as an example of a home appliance,
Reference numeral 1 denotes a television receiver, reference numeral 2 denotes a refrigerator, and reference numeral 3 denotes a washing machine, each of which has a function of transmitting unique information as shown in FIG. That is, reference numeral 4 in FIG. 2 denotes a solid-state memory (ROM), which stores unique information at the time of factory shipment. Here, the unique information is arbitrarily selected from contents that can sufficiently recognize the product, such as a model name, a serial number, a manufacturing date, a color type, and the like, according to the type of the product.

Reference numeral 5 denotes a transmitting device, which is a home network NT using an existing power line in the home.
1 to read out the unique information stored in the solid-state memory 4 and supply power lines L1, L2, L3 and outlets 6, 7,.
8 to the home network NT1.

Reference numeral 9 denotes a telephone, which is connected to an end of a home network NT1 and is connected to an information communication network NT2 such as a digital telephone line so that digital signals transmitted by the home network can be transferred outdoors. Have been.

The contractor B has a telephone 10 and an information terminal device 11 such as a personal computer, and a product information server 12 operated by the information terminal device. The telephone 10 and the information terminal device 11 are:
Both are connected to the information communication network NT2, and can communicate with the outside and exchange information. The product information server 12 has a plurality of home appliances, such as a model name, a serial number, a manufacturing date, a color type, and the like. Is stored.

The home appliance unique information recognition system according to the present invention is configured as described above. Here, the flow of the processing to be performed when a failure actually occurs will be described with reference to FIG. In the state where the system of FIG. 1 is constructed, for example, if a failure occurs in the television receiver 1, the user first connects to the repair contractor B with the telephone 9 in step S1, and the television receiver 1 Notify that is out of order.

[0015] The contractor B receives the notification of the failure on the telephone 10, grasps the failure state based on the explanation from the user of the home appliance in step S 2, and starts operating the information terminal device 11 in step S 3. . That is, each home appliance is accessed from the information terminal device 11 via the information communication network NT2 and the home network NT1 in step S4.

The home appliance thus accessed is operated by the transmitting device 5 to read the unique information from the solid-state memory 4 and start transmitting the unique information. Then, the unique information is transmitted to the repair contractor B via the home network NT1 and the information communication network NT2, and is downloaded to the information terminal device 11 in step S5. Note that the transmission of the unique information from the home appliance is performed by performing a specific operation on the home appliance, for example, in the case of a refrigerator, by allowing two doors to be opened at the same time so that the transmission is permitted. Access from trustees can be restricted. In the case of a television receiver, a dedicated switch may be provided and operated.

The unique information downloaded as described above becomes a search keyword of the product information server 12, and further a search keyword "TV receiver" for designating a product from the keyboard of the information terminal device 11, or a product code number or the like is input. Then, a search is executed in step S6.

When the search is completed in this way, the specification of the faulty product is completed in step S7, and the model name, serial number, manufacturing date, color type, and the like are displayed on the display of the information terminal device 11. The repair consignee B can specifically identify the faulty product and prepare for the repair.

[0019]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the requester of the home appliance repair need only provide an overview of the failure to the repair contractor, and the model of the failed home appliance is required. The unique information such as name, serial number, date of manufacture, color type, etc. can be easily specified by the repair contractor, so that the repair contractor not only responds promptly, but also The troublesome trouble of checking can be saved. In addition, a correct request can be made without giving any anxiety to a repair requester who is unfamiliar with decoding English characters and the like.

In the present invention, a television receiver, a refrigerator, and a washing machine have been described as examples of the present invention.
It can be easily applied to various home appliances such as a microwave oven, a hot water supply device, an air conditioner, and a clothes dryer.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an outline of a system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a system built in a home appliance implementing the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in the system of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 TV receiver 2 Refrigerator 3 Washing machine 4 Solid-state memory 5 ················································································································································ / ··· Product information server NT1 ········ Home network NT2 ······· Information communication network L1 · L2 · L3 ··· Power supply line

Claims (3)

[Claims] When a failure or the like occurs in a home appliance, a user of the home appliance notifies the repair contractor of a request for repair, and the repair contractor receiving the notification operates the information terminal device. Operating a step of prompting transmission of the unique information attached to the home appliance, and a step of receiving the unique information by the repair consignee, whereby the home appliance is specified. A method for recognizing unique information of home appliances. 2. When the repair contractor operates the information terminal device to prompt transmission of the unique information attached to the home appliance,
2. The method for recognizing unique information of a home appliance according to claim 1, wherein a specific operation for allowing the transmission of the unique information is performed on the home appliance. 3. The transmission means of a home appliance, comprising: storage means for storing unique information of a home appliance; and transmission means for transmitting the unique information, wherein the transmission means of the home appliance is connected to a home wiring;
A home appliance specific information recognition system, wherein the home appliance repair contractor can obtain the specific information via an information communication network.