JP6165410B2 - Air conditioner remote control device - Google Patents

Description

  The present embodiment relates to a remote control device for an air conditioner.

  Conventionally, an air conditioner has been operated by communication with a remote control device. For example, turning on or off the air conditioner, changing the set temperature and the air volume, and the like are input by a remote operation device operated by the user. In recent years, in order to make the operation of the air conditioner by such a remote operation device easier, a remote operation device using voice recognition has been proposed (see Patent Documents 1 and 2).

  However, these remote control devices only employ voice recognition as an alternative to button operation in conventional remote control devices. In other words, the user simply performs an operation using a voice instead of the button operation by inputting the voice corresponding to the button provided together with the visual information of the remote control device on hand.

JP 2000-74465 A JP 04-278141 A

  Therefore, the problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a remote control device for an air conditioner that inputs an operation to the air conditioner while eliminating visual information.

  The remote control device for an air conditioner of this embodiment instructs an indoor unit to be operated remotely. The remote control device includes a casing, a microphone, a voice recognition unit, a transmission signal generation unit, a substrate, a transmission element, a control unit, and a battery housing unit. The microphone is accommodated in the casing and acquires sound. The voice recognition means recognizes the voice acquired by the microphone. The transmission signal generation unit extracts a command corresponding to the voice recognized by the voice recognition unit, and generates a transmission signal instructing the indoor unit based on the extracted command. The substrate is housed in the casing, has an upper upper surface and a lower lower surface in the direction of gravity, and is equipped with voice recognition means and transmission signal generation means. The transmission elements are arranged at three equal intervals on a virtual circumference on the upper surface of the substrate, are provided upward with respect to the upper surface of the substrate, and output the transmission signal generated by the transmission signal generating means to the indoor unit To do. The control unit is mounted on the substrate and controls the microphone, the voice recognition unit, the transmission signal generation unit, and the transmission element. The battery housing part is provided below the substrate in the direction of gravity and houses a battery serving as a power source for power supplied to the control unit.

The schematic diagram which shows the structure of the air conditioner by one Embodiment. The disassembled perspective view which shows schematic structure of the remote control of the air conditioner by one Embodiment The schematic perspective view which shows the external appearance of the remote control of the air conditioner by one Embodiment The block diagram which shows the electrical schematic structure of the air conditioner by one Embodiment. The schematic diagram which shows arrangement | positioning of the transmission / reception unit in the remote control of the air conditioner by one Embodiment The schematic diagram which shows arrangement | positioning of the transmission / reception unit in the remote control of the air conditioner by one Embodiment Schematic which shows the flow of a process of the air conditioner by one Embodiment. Schematic which shows the flow of the battery power supply process of the air conditioner by one Embodiment Schematic which shows the flow of the commercial power supply process of the air conditioner by one Embodiment

Hereinafter, a remote control device for an air conditioner according to an embodiment (hereinafter, the remote control device is referred to as a “remote control”) will be described with reference to the drawings.
As shown in FIG. 1, the air conditioner 10 is comprised from the remote control 11, the indoor unit 12, and the outdoor unit which is not shown in figure. The remote controller 11 is used as a pair with the indoor unit 12. The remote controller 11 outputs a transmission signal to the indoor unit 12. The air conditioner 10 receives a transmission signal from the remote controller 11 by the indoor unit 12 and operates based on the received transmission signal. The remote controller 11 according to the present embodiment is used in a state where it is placed on a table such as a table 13.

  The remote controller 11 includes a casing 20 as shown in FIG. The casing 20 is divided into an upper case 21, a side piece 22, a lower case 23, and a battery lid 24 from above in the direction of gravity. The upper case 21, the side piece 22, the lower case 23, and the battery lid 24 are fitted together to form an integral casing 20 as shown in FIG. Specifically, the upper case 21 is integrally fitted with the lower case 23 with the side piece 22 sandwiched therebetween. Further, the battery lid 24 is fitted to an end portion on the opposite side to the upper case 21 of the lower case 23. In the case of this embodiment, the lower case 23 is inserted inside the side piece 22.

  The remote controller 11 includes a substrate 25 accommodated in the casing 20 as shown in FIG. The substrate 25 is accommodated in a space formed between the upper case 21 and the lower case 23 with the side piece 22 interposed therebetween. In the present embodiment, the substrate 25 has an upper surface 26 on the upper side and a lower surface 27 on the lower side in the direction of gravity, and is formed in a rectangular shape corresponding to the outer shape of the lower case 23. The substrate 25 has an outer shape slightly smaller than the lower case 23 and the side piece 22 attached to the lower case 23. The upper case 21 sandwiching the side piece 22 with the lower case 23 is narrowed in outer diameter as the distance from the lower case 23 increases, that is, the upper end in the direction of gravity. Further, the outer diameter of the battery cover 24 attached to the lower case 23 is narrowed as the distance from the lower case 23 increases, that is, the lower end in the direction of gravity. As a result, the casing 20 is formed in a quadrangular pyramid shape whose outer diameter decreases from the lower case 23 accommodating the substrate 25 toward the upper and lower sides in the direction of gravity as shown in FIG. More precisely, the casing 20 is formed in a quadrangular frustum shape with the upper end and the lower end cut off. The inclination angle of the upper case 21 and the inclination angle of the battery lid 24 may be the same or different.

  The upper case 21 is made of a material that transmits infrared rays and covers the upper side of the substrate 25. The upper case 21 does not display visual information such as characters and pictograms except for trademarks and logo marks as shown in FIG. In other words, the upper case 21 does not display information such as visual characters and figures that serve as a reference for commands instructing the air conditioner 10 such as “power supply” and “set temperature”. Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the lower case 23 and the battery lid 24 form a battery housing portion 28 therebetween. The battery housing unit 28 houses a battery 29 serving as a power source.

  In addition to the above, the remote controller 11 includes a control unit 30, a microphone 31, a transmission element 32, a reception element 33, a speaker 34, and a mechanical switch 35 as shown in FIG. The control unit 30 is mounted on the substrate 25. In the case of this embodiment, the control unit 30 is mounted on the lower surface 27 of the substrate 25. The microphone 31 acquires sound from outside the remote controller 11. The microphone 31 is mounted on the substrate 25 accommodated in the casing 20. The microphone 31 acquires sound through the microphone hole 36 provided in the upper case 21 as shown in FIG.

  The transmission element 32 and the reception element 33 constitute an integral transmission / reception unit 37 as shown in FIG. The transmission / reception unit 37 includes, for example, a transmission element 32 composed of an infrared LED that emits infrared light and a reception element 33 composed of a photodiode that receives infrared light. The transmission element 32 constituting the transmission / reception unit 37 outputs a transmission signal to the indoor unit 12 by irradiating infrared rays. Moreover, the receiving element 33 receives the signal output from the indoor unit 12 by receiving infrared rays. Thereby, the remote controller 11 and the indoor unit 12 communicate with each other wirelessly using infrared rays. The speaker 34 is provided on the substrate 25 and emits sound when energized. The speaker 34 is provided on the lower case 23 side of the substrate 25 as shown in FIG. The sound emitted from the speaker 34 is emitted to the outside through the speaker hole 38 of the lower case 23. The speaker 34 corresponds to a notification unit in the claims.

  The mechanical switch 35 has a switch body 41 and a switch plate 42 as shown in FIG. The switch plate 42 is disposed inside an opening 43 provided at the upper end of the upper case 21. The switch plate 42 is elastically supported by the side piece 22. Accordingly, the switch plate 42 can reciprocate in the vertical direction at the upper end of the upper case 21. The substrate 25 has a switch body 41 below the switch plate 42. When the switch plate 42 is pushed downward, mechanical input is performed to the switch body 41.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the transmission / reception unit 37 is provided on the upper surface 26 of the substrate 25, that is, the surface on the upper case 21 side of the substrate 25. When a virtual circle is drawn on the upper surface of the substrate 25, the transmission / reception units 37 are arranged at three equal intervals on the circumference of the virtual circle. That is, the three transmission / reception units 37 are arranged at an angular interval of 120 °. Further, as shown in FIG. 6, each transmission / reception unit 37 is provided upward with respect to the upper surface 26 of the substrate 25. That is, the irradiation center axis and the light reception center axis of each transmission / reception unit 37 are inclined upward with respect to the upper surface 26 of the substrate 25.

Next, the electrical configuration of the remote controller 11 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.
The remote controller 11 includes the control unit 30, the microphone 31, the transmission element 32, the reception element 33, the speaker 34, and the mechanical switch 35 described above. The control unit 30 is constituted by a microcomputer having a CPU, a ROM and a RAM (not shown), and controls the entire remote controller 11 according to a computer program stored in the ROM. The control unit 30 is connected to the storage unit 51 and constitutes a voice recognition unit 52, a transmission signal generation unit 53, and a restriction release unit 54. The voice recognition unit 52, the transmission signal generation unit 53, and the restriction release unit 54 may be realized in hardware as an integrated circuit integrated with the control unit 30, and software is executed by executing a computer program stored in the ROM. May be realized. The storage unit 51 includes a rewritable storage medium such as a flash memory. This storage unit 51 may be shared with ROM and RAM.

  The voice recognition unit 52 recognizes the voice acquired from the microphone 31. That is, the voice recognition unit 52 recognizes a voice such as a voice uttered by the user. The transmission signal generation unit 53 extracts a command corresponding to the voice recognized by the voice recognition unit 52, and generates a transmission signal instructing the indoor unit 12 based on the extracted command. For example, when the user utters “hot” voice, the voice recognition unit 52 recognizes “hot” uttered by the user as voice. Then, the transmission signal generation unit 53 extracts a command “decrease the set temperature by 1 ° C.” from the recognized “hot” voice. In this case, the transmission signal generation unit 53 extracts a command “decrease the set temperature by 1 ° C.” corresponding to “hot” from a plurality of commands stored in the storage unit 51. The transmission signal generation unit 53 generates a transmission signal for instructing the indoor unit 12 based on the command “decrease the set temperature by 1 ° C.”. The generated transmission signal is transmitted from the transmission element 32 of the transmission / reception unit 37 to the indoor unit 12.

  The control unit 30 is connected to the mechanical switch 35. When there is an input to the mechanical switch 35, that is, when there is an operation from the user to the mechanical switch 35, the control unit 30 detects the operation of the mechanical switch 35. The control unit 30 is connected to the speech synthesizer 55. The voice synthesizer 55 synthesizes voice based on the voice data stored in the storage unit 51. The synthesized voice is output to the speaker 34 as an electrical signal. As a result, the speaker 34 emits the voice synthesized by the voice synthesis unit 55.

  The remote controller 11 operates using the battery 29 accommodated in the battery accommodating portion 28 as a power source. In addition to this, the remote controller 11 operates using a commercial power source as a power source. In this case, the commercial power is converted from alternating current to direct current having a predetermined voltage via the AC adapter 56, for example, and supplied to the remote controller 11. The remote controller 11 has a power supply circuit unit 57. The electric power supplied from the battery 29 or the commercial power supply is supplied to the control unit 30 via the power supply circuit unit 57. The control unit 30 identifies whether the power supplied from the power supply circuit unit 57 is from the battery 29 housed in the battery housing unit 28 or from the commercial power source.

  When the power supply circuit unit 57 recognizes that power is being supplied from the commercial power source, the control unit 30 always activates the voice recognition unit 52. That is, when power is supplied from a commercial power source, the control unit 30 always energizes the speech recognition unit 52 that consumes power, and controls the standby state in which speech recognition can always be performed. On the other hand, when the control unit 30 recognizes that the battery 29 is powered by the power supply circuit unit 57, the control unit 30 recognizes a mechanical input to the mechanical switch 35 and then activates the voice recognition unit 52. As described above, the voice recognition unit 52 consumes power. For this reason, when the battery 29 is used as a power source, if the voice recognition unit 52 is set in a standby state, the battery 29 is easily consumed. Therefore, when the battery 29 is used as a power source, the control unit 30 puts the voice recognition unit 52 into a sleep state until there is a mechanical input to the mechanical switch 35, thereby suppressing battery consumption. When the control unit 30 uses the battery 29 as a power source and receives an input to the mechanical switch 35, the control unit 30 activates the voice recognition unit 52 to enter a standby state. At the same time, if there is no voice input within a predetermined time set in advance, the control unit 30 shifts the voice recognition unit 52 to the sleep state again.

  The restriction release unit 54 receives a mechanical input from the mechanical switch 35. The control unit 30 normally limits voice recognition by the voice recognition unit 52. Then, when a mechanical input from the user is input to the mechanical switch 35, the restriction release unit 54 releases the restriction on voice recognition in the voice recognition unit 52. That is, when there is a mechanical input from the user to the mechanical switch 35, the restriction release unit 54 releases the restriction of the voice recognition unit 52, and the voice recognition unit 52 starts voice recognition. When the remote controller 11 is in a standby state in which voice recognition is always possible, for example, when the user utters a voice unintentionally, the remote controller 11 misrecognizes the emitted voice and is based on the voice misrecognized by the indoor unit 12. There is a risk of transmitting a transmission signal. Therefore, after the user operates the mechanical switch 35 and the restriction of the voice recognition unit 52 is released by the restriction release unit 54, the control unit 30 starts voice recognition in the voice recognition unit 52. That is, the control unit 30 requests the operation of the restriction release unit 54 by mechanical input to the mechanical switch 35 as a premise for the voice recognition by the voice recognition unit 52.

Next, the operation of the air conditioner 10 using the remote controller 11 having the above configuration will be described.
(Main routine)
First, a main routine which is a basic processing flow of the remote controller 11 will be described. When the power source of the remote controller 11 is “ON” (S101), the control unit 30 determines whether or not the power source is the battery 29 (S102). When the power source is the battery 29 (S102: Yes), the control unit 30 proceeds to the battery power source process shown in FIG. 8 (S103). On the other hand, when the power source is a commercial power source (S102: No), the control unit 30 shifts to the commercial power source process shown in FIG. 9 (S104). The control unit 30 repeats the processing after S102 until the power source of the remote controller 11 is turned off (S105).

(Battery power supply processing)
Next, the battery power supply process in S103 of FIG. 7 will be described based on FIG.
When shifting to the battery power supply process, the control unit 30 determines whether or not there is an input to the mechanical switch 35 (S201). That is, the control unit 30 determines whether or not the user has operated the mechanical switch 35, that is, whether or not the mechanical switch 35 has been pushed down. When determining that there is an input to the mechanical switch 35 (S201: Yes), the control unit 30 activates the voice recognition unit 52 (S202). Thereby, the voice recognition unit 52 shifts to a standby state (S203). Therefore, the voice recognition unit 52 is in a state where it can accept voices uttered by the user.

  When the control unit 30 shifts the voice recognition unit 52 to the standby state, the control unit 30 determines whether or not it is within a preset standby time from the input to the mechanical switch 35 (S204). When the control unit 30 determines that the elapsed time from the input to the mechanical switch 35 is within the standby time (S204: Yes), the control unit 30 determines whether there is an audio input from the microphone 31 (S205). When the control unit 30 determines that there is a voice input from the microphone 31 (S205: Yes), the voice recognition unit 52 recognizes the voice input from the microphone 31 (S206).

  The control unit 30 extracts a command corresponding to the voice based on the recognized voice (S207). That is, the transmission signal generation unit 53 extracts a command corresponding to the recognized voice from the commands stored in the storage unit 51. For example, when recognizing the user's voice “hot”, the control unit 30 extracts a command “decrease the set temperature by 1 ° C.”. Further, in this case, when the transmission signal generation unit 53 recognizes not only the voice “hot” but also the voice related to “hot” such as “lower the set temperature” or “high room temperature”, the “set temperature is set to 1”. It may be configured to extract an instruction “decrease in degrees Celsius”. It should be noted that the extraction of the command “decrease the set temperature by 1 ° C.” based on “hot” is an example. For example, the transmission signal generation unit 53 extracts a command “turns on the air conditioner power” from the user's voice “switch-on” or “air volume of the indoor unit” from the user's voice “strong wind”. Various appropriate commands can be extracted based on the user's voice, such as extracting commands such as “increase”. On the other hand, if the control unit 30 determines that no sound is input from the microphone 31 (S205: No), the control unit 30 returns to S204 and waits for the sound input until the standby time has elapsed.

  When the transmission signal generation unit 53 extracts a command corresponding to the recognized voice, the transmission signal generation unit 53 generates a transmission signal instructing the indoor unit 12 based on the command (S208). When the transmission signal is generated, the transmission element 32 of the transmission / reception unit 37 transmits the transmission signal to the indoor unit 12 (S209). Based on the transmission signal transmitted from the remote controller 11, the indoor unit 12 changes the set temperature, turns on / off the operation, or adjusts the air volume. When a transmission signal is transmitted from the transmission / reception unit 37 to the indoor unit 12, the control unit 30 returns to the main routine shown in FIG.

  On the other hand, when determining that there is no input to the mechanical switch 35 in S201 (S201: No), the control unit 30 maintains the voice recognition unit 52 in a stopped state (S210). Therefore, even if a voice is emitted from the user, the voice recognition unit 52 does not perform voice recognition. As a result, the voice uttered by the user is invalidated. The control unit 30 returns to S201 while maintaining the voice recognition unit 52 in the stopped state, and waits for an input to the mechanical switch 35.

  If the control unit 30 determines that the standby time has elapsed from the input to the mechanical switch 35 in S204 (S204: No), the control unit 30 shifts the voice recognition unit 52 to a stopped state (S211). That is, the control unit 30 stops the voice recognition by the voice recognition unit 52 when a considerable time has elapsed since the mechanical switch 35 is operated, that is, when a preset standby time has elapsed. Thereby, long-time activation of the voice recognition unit 52 with relatively large power consumption is avoided, and consumption of the battery 29 is reduced. When the voice recognition unit 52 shifts to the stop state in S211, the control unit 30 returns to S201 and waits for an input to the mechanical switch 35.

(Commercial power supply processing)
Next, the commercial power supply process in S104 of FIG. 7 will be described based on FIG. In addition, description is abbreviate | omitted about the process which is common with a battery power supply process.
When shifting to the commercial power supply process, the control unit 30 activates the voice recognition unit 52 (S301), and shifts the voice recognition unit 52 to a standby state (S302). When the commercial power source is used as the power source in the remote controller 11, it is not necessary to consider the consumption of the battery 29. For this reason, the control unit 30 activates the voice recognition unit 52 with relatively large power consumption, and always places the voice recognition unit 52 in a standby state.

  The control unit 30 determines whether or not there is an input to the mechanical switch 35 with the voice recognition unit 52 in the standby state (S303). When determining that there is an input to the mechanical switch 35 (S303: Yes), the control unit 30 determines whether or not it is within the standby time from the input to the mechanical switch 35 (S304). When the control unit 30 determines that the time elapsed from the input to the mechanical switch 35 is within the standby time (S304: Yes), the control unit 30 determines whether there is an audio input from the microphone 31 (S305). When the control unit 30 determines that there is a voice input from the microphone 31 (S305: Yes), the voice recognition unit 52 recognizes the voice input from the microphone 31 (S306).

  Based on the recognized voice, the control unit 30 extracts a command corresponding to the voice (S307). That is, the transmission signal generation unit 53 extracts a command corresponding to the recognized voice from the commands stored in the storage unit 51. On the other hand, if the control unit 30 determines that no sound is input from the microphone 31 (S305: No), the control unit 30 returns to S304 and waits for the sound input until the standby time elapses.

  When the transmission signal generation unit 53 extracts a command corresponding to the recognized voice, the transmission signal generation unit 53 generates a transmission signal instructing the indoor unit 12 based on the command (S308). When the transmission signal is generated, the transmission element 32 of the transmission / reception unit 37 transmits the transmission signal to the indoor unit 12 (S309). The indoor unit 12 is operated based on a transmission signal transmitted from the remote controller 11. When a transmission signal is transmitted from the transmission / reception unit 37 to the indoor unit 12, the control unit 30 returns to the main routine shown in FIG.

  On the other hand, when determining that there is no input to the mechanical switch 35 in S303 (S303: No), the control unit 30 invalidates the voice recognized by the voice recognition unit 52 (S310). That is, although the voice recognition unit 52 is always activated and is in a standby state, the recognized voice is invalidated even if the voice is recognized as long as there is no input to the mechanical switch 35. As a result, the voice uttered by the user is invalidated. The control unit 30 returns to S303 while maintaining the voice recognition unit 52 in the standby state, and waits until there is an input to the mechanical switch 35. If the control unit 30 determines in S304 that the standby time has elapsed from the input to the mechanical switch 35 (S304: No), the control unit 30 returns to S303 while maintaining the voice recognition unit 52 in the standby state, and then returns to the mechanical switch 35. Wait for input.

(Notification process)
The control unit 30 notifies whether or not communication of the transmission signal is established between the remote controller 11 and the indoor unit 12 in S209 in the battery power supply process shown in FIG. 8 and in S309 in the commercial power supply process shown in FIG. . Specifically, when transmission of a transmission signal from the remote controller 11 to the indoor unit 12 is achieved, the control unit 30 emits sound corresponding to the transmitted transmission signal from the speaker 34. For example, when transmission of a transmission signal corresponding to a command “decrease the set temperature by 1 ° C.” is achieved, a sound such as “decrease the set temperature” is emitted from the speaker 34. At this time, the control unit 30 extracts voice data “lower the set temperature” corresponding to the transmission signal “lower the set temperature by 1 ° C.” from the plurality of voice data stored in the storage unit 51. Then, the control unit 30 generates an electrical signal based on the extracted audio data corresponding to the extracted “lower the set temperature”, and outputs the generated electrical signal to the speaker 34. As a result, the speaker 34 emits a sound “lower the set temperature”. On the other hand, when communication of a transmission signal is not established between the remote controller 11 and the indoor unit 12, the control unit 30 emits a sound such as “communication failed”. In the case of the above example, the control unit 30 and the speaker 34 correspond to notification means in the claims.

  In addition, instead of the speaker 34 that emits the sound as described above, the control unit 30 may notify whether or not transmission signal communication has been established by visual means such as an LED provided in the remote controller 11, for example. Good. In this case, for example, the control unit 30 blinks the green LED when communication of the transmission signal is established between the remote controller 11 and the indoor unit 12, and blinks the red LED when communication is not established. In addition, the notification unit that notifies the user of communication may be provided with visual means such as an LED in the indoor unit 12 without being limited to the remote controller 11. In this case, the control unit 30 notifies whether or not communication of the transmission signal has been established by visual means such as an LED provided in the indoor unit 12.

  In the remote controller 11 of the air conditioner 10 according to the embodiment described above, the casing 20 does not display visual information on an operation instructed to the air conditioner 10. That is, the casing 20 does not visually display information related to the operation of the air conditioner 10 except for information such as trademarks. The remote controller 11 according to the embodiment recognizes the voice acquired by the microphone 31 by the voice recognition unit 52 and outputs the transmission signal generated by the transmission signal generation unit 53 to the indoor unit 12 based on the recognized voice. Thereby, the user emits a sensory sound that does not depend on visual information toward the remote controller 11, and operates the air conditioner 10 with this sound. Therefore, the air conditioner 10 can be operated by uttering sensuous and intuitive words without relying on visual information.

  By the way, the remote controller 11 from which visual information is excluded is used by being permanently placed on a table 13 such as a dining table or a living table. Therefore, the user's operation that is held by the user like a conventional remote controller and directs the transmitting element toward the indoor unit is omitted. Thereby, the positional relationship between the remote controller 11 and the indoor unit 12 is fixed regardless of whether or not there is an operation. As a result, depending on the positional relationship between the transmission element 32 and the indoor unit 12, communication from the transmission element 32 to the indoor unit 12 becomes difficult, and there is a possibility that the operation of the air conditioner 10 by the user will not be at will. Therefore, in the remote controller 11 of the air conditioner 10 according to the embodiment, the transmission / reception units 37 including the transmission elements 32 are arranged at three equal intervals on the virtual circumference on the upper surface 26 of the substrate 25. The transmission / reception unit 37 including these transmission elements 32 is provided so as to be inclined upward with respect to the upper surface 26 of the substrate 25. The transmission element 32 of the remote controller 11 irradiates light for communication in an angle range of about 60 ° around the irradiation axis. Therefore, by arranging the transmission elements 32 at three positions at equal intervals on the virtual circumference, the transmission elements 32 output transmission signals from the remote controller 11 to almost the entire range. Thereby, even if the positional relationship between the remote controller 11 and the indoor unit 12 is fixed, the transmission signal output from the transmission element 32 of the remote controller 11 is received by the indoor unit 12. Therefore, the communication accuracy between the remote controller 11 and the indoor unit 12 can be increased.

  In the remote controller 11 according to the embodiment, the control unit 30 always activates the voice recognition unit 52 when commercial power is supplied. On the other hand, when power is supplied from the battery 29, the control unit 30 activates the voice recognition unit 52 after the mechanical switch 35 is operated. The voice recognition unit 52 consumes power even when in a standby state for recognizing the user's voice. For this reason, if the voice recognition unit 52 is always activated, that is, when the voice recognition unit 52 is always energized, the battery 29 is consumed quickly. Therefore, when power is supplied from the battery 29, the control unit 30 activates the voice recognition unit 52 in response to an operation of the mechanical switch 35 while avoiding power consumption by stopping the voice recognition unit 52. On the other hand, if it is assumed that the mechanical switch 35 is operated, the convenience of the user is reduced when a voice command is input. Therefore, when using a commercial power source that does not need to consider the consumption of the battery 29, the control unit 30 always activates the voice recognition unit 52. Therefore, it is possible to achieve both avoidance of consumption of the battery 29 and convenience.

  The remote controller 11 according to the embodiment includes a transmission / reception unit 37 including a reception element 33 on the upper surface 26 of the substrate 25. Thus, the remote controller 11 not only outputs a transmission signal from the transmission element 32 to the indoor unit 12 but also receives a signal output from the indoor unit 12 by the reception element 33. As a result, the remote controller 11 can communicate with the indoor unit 12 in both directions. Therefore, information can be shared between the remote controller 11 and the indoor unit 12.

  The remote controller 11 according to one embodiment includes a speaker 34. When a user inputs a voice operation to the remote controller 11, a transmission signal based on the input voice is communicated between the remote controller 11 and the indoor unit 12. At this time, in order to facilitate confirmation of whether or not the communication between the remote controller 11 and the indoor unit 12 has been reliably performed, the control unit 30 emits a sound indicating that the communication has been established from the speaker 34. Therefore, even with the remote controller 11 that does not use a mechanical operation, it can be easily confirmed whether or not an operation input has been performed.

  In the remote controller 11 according to the embodiment, the control unit 30 starts voice recognition in the voice recognition unit 52 on the condition that the mechanical switch 35 is operated. In the indoor environment where the remote controller 11 is placed, various voices are generally flying. Therefore, if the voice recognition unit 52 always recognizes the voice, the voice that is not intended to be operated is recognized, and an unintended transmission signal may be output to the indoor unit 12. Therefore, the control unit 30 is conditional on the operation of the mechanical switch 35 as a premise of voice recognition in the voice recognition unit 52. As a result, even when a conversation or the like that is not intended for the operation is performed by the user or the like, it is possible to reduce an erroneous operation transmission signal from the remote controller 11 to the indoor unit 12. Therefore, even when operating the air conditioner 10 only by voice, erroneous operation of the air conditioner 10 can be reduced. In particular, the safety of the air conditioner 10 can be enhanced by making the operation of the mechanical switch 35 a condition when the operation is highly important, such as turning on or off the power supply of the air conditioner 10. In this case, according to the command, a command that requires the operation of the mechanical switch 35 and a command that does not require the operation of the mechanical switch 35 may be distinguished.

(Other embodiments)
The remote controller 11 according to the above-described embodiment has been described as an example having a quadrangular pyramid shape. However, the remote controller 11 may have a conical shape or a spherical shape whose outer diameter decreases upward and downward from the substrate 25 on which the control unit 30 is provided. In this case, the substrate 25 may be formed in a circular shape according to the outer shape of the remote controller 11, or may be formed in a rectangular shape that can be accommodated in the casing 20 as in the above example. Thus, the external shape of the remote controller 11 can be set to an arbitrary shape in order to improve the design.

  Further, the control unit 30 of the remote controller 11 according to an embodiment may be configured to add an identification code to a transmission signal to be transmitted to the indoor unit 12 depending on whether or not there is a mechanical input to the mechanical switch 35. Specifically, the control unit 30 transmits a post-instruction transmission signal based on the voice recognized by the transmission signal generation unit 53 when the voice recognition unit 52 recognizes the voice after mechanical input from the mechanical switch 35. Generated by the signal generator 53. At this time, the transmission signal generation unit 53 assigns an identification code indicating that the transmission signal is voice-recognized after being input to the mechanical switch 35 to the transmission signal to be transmitted to the indoor unit, and sets it as the post-instruction transmission signal. On the other hand, when the voice recognition unit 52 recognizes the voice before the mechanical switch 35 has a mechanical input, the control unit 30 generates a pre-instruction transmission signal based on the recognized voice in the transmission signal generation unit 53. At this time, the transmission signal generation unit 53 assigns an identification code indicating that the transmission signal is voice-recognized before input to the mechanical switch 35 to the transmission signal transmitted to the indoor unit 12 and To do. As a result, the indoor unit 12 that has received the transmission signal determines whether it is a post-instruction transmission signal after input to the mechanical switch 35 or a pre-instruction transmission signal before input to the mechanical switch 35. Identification becomes possible. As a result, the indoor unit 12 can prioritize the post-instruction transmission signal when receiving a transmission signal that causes a flaw in the command at the same time from the remote controller 11. Therefore, unintended operation of the air conditioner 10 due to the user's unexpected speech can be reduced.

  As mentioned above, although several embodiment of this invention was described, these embodiment was shown as an example and is not intending limiting the range of invention. These novel embodiments can be implemented in various other forms, and various omissions, replacements, and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. These embodiments and modifications thereof are included in the scope and gist of the invention, and are included in the invention described in the claims and the equivalents thereof.

  In the drawings, 10 is an air conditioner, 11 is a remote control (remote control device), 12 is an indoor unit, 20 is a casing, 25 is a substrate, 28 is a battery housing unit, 30 is a control unit (notification means), 31 is a microphone, 32 is a transmission element, 33 is a reception element, 34 is a speaker (notification means), 35 is a mechanical switch (instruction input means, restriction release means), 52 is a voice recognition section (voice recognition means), and 53 is a transmission signal generation section ( Reference numeral 54 denotes a transmission signal generation unit), and a restriction release unit (restriction release unit).

Claims (6)

A remote control device for an air conditioner that instructs an indoor unit to operate remotely,
A mechanical switch that accepts a mechanical input to start speech recognition on itself;
A casing that is provided with at least a part of the mechanical switch and does not display visual information that serves as a reference for an instruction to instruct the air conditioner;
A microphone that is housed in the casing and obtains sound;
Voice recognition means for recognizing voice acquired by the microphone;
Various appropriate instructions are extracted based on the voice recognized by the voice recognition means, and a transmission signal generating means for generating a transmission signal instructing the indoor unit based on the extracted instructions;
A substrate housed in the casing, having an upper upper surface and a lower lower surface in the direction of gravity, and on which the voice recognition means and the transmission signal generation means are mounted;
Three places are arranged at equal intervals on a virtual circumference on the upper surface of the substrate, provided upward with respect to the upper surface of the substrate, and the transmission signal generated by the transmission signal generating means is output to the indoor unit A transmitting element to
A control unit mounted on the substrate, for controlling the microphone, the voice recognition means, the transmission signal generation means, and the transmission element;
A battery accommodating portion for accommodating a battery which is provided below the substrate in the direction of gravity and serves as a power source for power supplied to the control unit;
Commercial power supply means for supplying commercial power to the control unit;
With
The control unit always activates the voice recognition unit when commercial power is supplied from the commercial power supply unit, and recognizes a mechanical instruction to the mechanical switch when power is supplied from the battery. remote control device for an air conditioner start the speech recognition means the following. The remote control device for an air conditioner according to claim 1, further comprising a receiving element that is mounted on an upper surface of the substrate and receives a signal output from the indoor unit. The remote control device for an air conditioner according to claim 2, further comprising notification means for notifying whether communication between the transmission element and the indoor unit and communication between the indoor unit and the reception element are established. The remote control device for an air conditioner according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the casing has a quadrangular pyramid shape whose outer diameter decreases from a portion accommodating the substrate toward an upper side and a lower side in a gravity direction. The remote control device for an air conditioner according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the casing has a conical shape in which an outer diameter decreases from a portion accommodating the substrate toward an upper side and a lower side in a gravity direction. The control unit includes a post-instruction transmission signal generated based on voice recognition after mechanical input to the mechanical switch is included in a transmission signal transmitted to the indoor unit, and mechanical input to the mechanical switch. The remote control device for an air conditioner according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein an identification code for identifying a pre-instruction transmission signal generated based on a previous voice recognition is assigned.

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