JP6979429B2 - Controls, control methods, and programs - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to control devices, control methods, and programs.

Conventionally, a technique for controlling each of a plurality of devices by performing wireless communication with a plurality of devices has been known. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a control device that controls lighting and the like of a plurality of lighting devices by performing wireless communication with a plurality of lighting devices.

Specifically, in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, in order to light a plurality of lighting devices all at once, each lighting device performs a carrier sense for communicating with a control device. The control device calculates the communication waiting time from the response time of the carrier sense of each lighting device, and notifies each lighting device of the timing for turning on the lights all at once.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2016-58197

In the above technique, the controller needs to pre-register the number of luminaires to identify the final ACK response. Therefore, it is difficult to change the number of lighting devices to be controlled during control, and it is considered that there is room for improvement in terms of control flexibility.

The present invention has been made in view of these points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a technique for increasing flexibility when controlling a plurality of devices via wireless communication.

The first aspect of the present invention is a control device capable of communicating with a plurality of devices via a wireless communication line. This device has a synchronization instruction unit that transmits a time synchronization instruction signal instructing time synchronization with the time synchronization server to each of the plurality of devices, and a control for controlling two or more of the plurality of devices. A control signal generation unit that generates a time-stamped control signal by adding a time stamp indicating the time of operation start to the signal, and a control signal transmission unit that transmits the time-stamped control signal to each of the two or more devices. , Equipped with.

The control device may further include a longest delay time acquisition unit that acquires the longest delay time among the delay times related to communication with each of the plurality of devices, and the control signal generation unit may include the two or more control signal generation units. The time stamp may be added to the control signal to generate the time stamped control signal so that the operation start time of the device is later than the lapse of the longest delay time.

The control signal may be data generated by packetizing serial communication data.

The plurality of devices may be assigned a telephone number for uniquely identifying each device in advance, and the control signal transmission unit may be specified based on the telephone number via a mobile phone communication line. The time stamped control signal may be transmitted to two or more devices.

The synchronization instruction unit may transmit a time synchronization instruction signal instructing time synchronization with the same time synchronization server to each of the plurality of devices.

The plurality of devices may be lighting devices that emit or turn off light under the control of the time-stamped control signal.

The second aspect of the present invention is a control method. In this method, a step in which a processor of a control device capable of communicating with a plurality of devices via a wireless communication line transmits a time synchronization instruction signal instructing time synchronization with the time synchronization server to each of the plurality of devices. A step of adding a time stamp indicating an operation start time to a control signal for controlling two or more of the plurality of devices to generate a time stamped control signal, and the time stamped control signal. The step of transmitting to each of the two or more devices is executed.

A third aspect of the present invention is a program. This program has a function of transmitting a time synchronization instruction signal instructing time synchronization with a time synchronization server to a computer capable of communicating with a plurality of devices via a wireless communication line, and the plurality of devices. A function to generate a time-stamped control signal by adding a time stamp indicating an operation start time to a control signal for controlling two or more of the devices, and the two or more time-stamped control signals. The function to send to each device and to execute.

In order to provide this program or to update a part of the program, a computer-readable recording medium on which the program is recorded may be provided, or the program may be transmitted over a communication line.

It should be noted that any combination of the above components and the conversion of the expression of the present invention between methods, devices, systems, computer programs, data structures, recording media and the like are also effective as aspects of the present invention.

According to the present invention, it is possible to increase the flexibility when controlling a plurality of devices via wireless communication.

It is a figure for demonstrating the outline of the synchronous control system which concerns on embodiment. It is a figure which shows typically the functional structure of the control device which concerns on embodiment. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the flow of the control process executed by the control apparatus which concerns on embodiment. It is a figure which shows typically an example of the use scene of the control device which concerns on embodiment. It is a figure which shows typically the data structure of the telephone number database which concerns on embodiment.

<Outline of the embodiment>
The outline of the embodiment will be described. The control device according to the embodiment synchronizes the time of each device to be controlled by using the time synchronization server, and then transmits a control signal with a time stamp indicating the timing of starting the operation to each device. Since the times of the devices are synchronized with each other, the operations of the devices are naturally synchronized if they operate according to the time stamp included in the control signal received from the control device.

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an outline of the synchronous control system S according to the embodiment. The synchronization control system S according to the embodiment includes a control device 1, a time synchronization server T, and a plurality of devices D to be controlled by the control device 1. The control device 1, the time synchronization server T, and each device D are connected to each other via the wireless communication network N in such a manner that they can communicate with each other. The wireless communication network N is, for example, a communication line including a mobile phone communication line and the Internet.

FIG. 1 shows an example in which the control target of the control device 1 is two lighting devices. However, the control target of the control device 1 is not limited to the lighting equipment, and may be other equipment. Further, the number of devices D to be controlled by the control device 1 is not limited to 2, and may be 3 or more.

Hereinafter, the outline of the processing flow in the synchronous control system S according to the embodiment will be described in the order of (1) to (7), and the numbers correspond to (1) to (7) in FIG.

(1) The control device 1 transmits a time synchronization instruction signal instructing time synchronization with time synchronization to each device D via the wireless communication network N by the same time synchronization server T.
(2) Each device D adjusts the time by using the same time synchronization server T, triggered by receiving the time synchronization instruction signal.
(3) Each device D receives time information from the same time synchronization server T, and adjusts the time of the internal clock (not shown) provided by each device D. As a result, the time of each device D is synchronized.

(4) Each device D transmits information indicating that the time adjustment has been completed to the control device 1.
(5) The control device 1 assigns a time stamp indicating the time of operation start of each device D to generate a control signal with a time stamp.
(6) The control device 1 transmits a time-stamped control signal to each device D.

(7) Each device D operates according to the time stamp included in the time stamped control signal. Since the time of each device D is synchronized, each device D can operate in synchronization. Once each device D has completed time synchronization, the control device 1 can operate each device D in synchronization only by transmitting a time stamped control signal to each device D. Therefore, the control device 1 can change the device D for transmitting the time-stamped control signal, and can also change the operation timing of each device D. Therefore, the control device 1 can increase the flexibility when controlling a plurality of devices D via the wireless communication network N.

<Functional configuration of the control device 1 according to the embodiment>
FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing a functional configuration of the control device 1 according to the embodiment. The control device 1 includes a storage unit 2 and a control unit 3. In FIG. 2, the arrows indicate the main data flows, and there may be data flows not shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, each functional block shows not a hardware (device) unit configuration but a functional unit configuration. Therefore, the functional block shown in FIG. 2 may be mounted in a single device, or may be mounted in a plurality of devices separately. Data can be exchanged between functional blocks via any means such as a data bus, a network, and a portable storage medium.

The storage unit 2 includes a ROM (Read Only Memory) that stores a BIOS (Basic Input Output System) of a computer that realizes the control device 1, a RAM (Random Access Memory) that is a work area of the control device 1, and an OS (Operating System). ), An application program, and a large-capacity storage device such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or SSD (Solid State Drive) that stores various information referred to when the application program is executed.

The control unit 3 is a processor such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) or GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) of the control device 1, and is a synchronization instruction unit 30 and a control signal generation unit by executing a program stored in the storage unit 2. It functions as 31, a control signal transmission unit 32, and a maximum delay time acquisition unit 33.

Note that FIG. 2 shows an example in which the control device 1 is composed of a single device. However, the control device 1 may be realized by a plurality of processors, memory, and other computational resources, such as a cloud computing system. In this case, each unit constituting the control unit 3 is realized by executing a program by at least one of a plurality of different processors.

As described above, the control device 1 can communicate with a plurality of devices D via the wireless communication network N. The synchronization instruction unit 30 transmits a time synchronization instruction signal instructing time synchronization with the time synchronization server T to each of the plurality of devices D connected via the wireless communication network N. The time synchronization server T can be realized by using a known NTP (Network Time Protocol) server. Alternatively, the time synchronization server T may realize time synchronization of each device D by using a known PTP (Precision Time Protocol).

The control signal generation unit 31 assigns a time stamp indicating the operation start time of each device D to the control signal for controlling two or more devices D among the plurality of devices D, and outputs a control signal with a time stamp. Generate. The control signal transmission unit 32 transmits the time-stamped control signal generated by the control signal generation unit 31 to each of the two or more devices D to be controlled.

Here, the control signal generation unit 31 may select the device D to be controlled by reading the information stored in advance in the storage unit 2, or may select the device D as the control target at the timing of generating the time stamped control signal. The device D to be used may be selected each time.

Each D that receives the time stamped control signal from the control device 1 synchronizes the time with the time synchronization server T in advance. Therefore, by operating according to the time stamp included in the time stamped control signal received from the control device 1, each device D can operate in cooperation. Further, the control device 1 can flexibly change the device D to be controlled by selecting each device D for transmitting the time stamped control signal each time. As described above, the control device 1 according to the embodiment can flexibly control a plurality of devices D via the wireless communication network N.

Here, it takes a certain amount of time to communicate between the control device 1 and each device D. Therefore, the control signal generation unit 31 adds a time stamp to the control signal in consideration of the time required for communication between the control device 1 and the device D. At this time, if the time required for communication between the control device 1 and the device D can be accurately measured, the control signal generation unit 31 can set the operation start time more precisely.

Therefore, the longest delay time acquisition unit 33 acquires the longest delay time among the delay times related to communication with each of the plurality of devices D. Specifically, the longest delay time acquisition unit 33 measures the round-trip time of each device D to be controlled a plurality of times, and divides the average value into two to obtain the device D. Estimate the communication delay time between. After that, the maximum delay time acquisition unit 33 acquires the maximum length of the communication delay time of each device D as the maximum delay time.

The control signal generation unit 31 adds a time stamp to the control signal and generates a control signal with a time stamp so that the operation start time of the two or more devices D to be controlled is later than the lapse of the maximum delay time. do. As a result, the control signal generation unit 31 can be operated in synchronization with the other device D even if the device D has the longest communication delay time.

In general, a plurality of different time synchronization servers T may exist on the wireless communication network N. Although it is considered that the time accuracy of each time synchronization server T is high, it is preferable that each device D adjusts the time by the same time synchronization server T from the viewpoint of time synchronization. Therefore, the synchronization instruction unit 30 may transmit a time synchronization instruction signal instructing time synchronization with the same time synchronization server T to each of the plurality of devices D.

Specifically, the synchronization instruction unit 30 includes a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) associated with a single time synchronization server T in the time synchronization instruction signal and transmits the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) to each device D. The device D connects to the time synchronization server T according to the URL included in the time synchronization instruction signal received from the control device 1, and executes time adjustment. As a result, the control device 1 can further improve the accuracy of time synchronization of each device D.

<Processing flow of control method executed by control device 1>
FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of the control process executed by the control device 1 according to the embodiment. The process in this flowchart starts, for example, when the control device 1 is activated.

The synchronization instruction unit 30 transmits a time synchronization instruction signal instructing time synchronization with the time synchronization server T to each of the plurality of devices D to be controlled (S2). The longest delay time acquisition unit 33 acquires the delay time of communication with each device D (S4). Until the maximum delay time acquisition unit 33 acquires the communication delay time from all the devices D (No in S6), the maximum delay time acquisition unit 33 continues to acquire the delay time.

When the communication delay time is acquired from all the devices D (Yes in S6), the longest delay time acquisition unit 33 acquires the longest delay time, which is the longest delay time among the acquired delay times (S8). The control signal generation unit 31 adds a time stamp to the control signal and generates a control signal with a time stamp so that the operation start time of the two or more devices D to be controlled is later than the lapse of the maximum delay time. (S10). The control signal transmission unit 32 transmits the time-stamped control signal generated by the control signal generation unit 31 to each of the two or more devices D to be controlled (S12).

When the control signal transmission unit 32 transmits a time-stamped control signal to each of the two or more devices D, the process in this flowchart ends. The control device 1 continues to control the device D by continuing the above processing.

<Usage scene of control device 1 according to the embodiment>
Subsequently, a usage scene of the control device 1 according to the embodiment will be described.

The control device 1 according to the embodiment is used for transmitting data for serial communication such as RS232 (Recommended Standard 232). In conventional serial communication, for example, a printer and a PC (Personal Computer) have a one-to-one communication between a source and a destination connected by a cable or the like. On the other hand, the control device 1 according to the embodiment packetizes the data for conventional serial communication and transmits it to the device D to be controlled via the wireless communication network N.

FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing an example of a usage scene of the control device 1 according to the embodiment. In FIG. 4, the control device 1 and the device D are connected to each other via the wireless communication network N. Here, the control device 1 includes a computer C and a communication terminal I, and the device D includes a lighting device L and a communication terminal I. The communication terminal I is a device having a wireless communication function, and its operation is controlled by executing a known OS for a mobile communication terminal.

The communication terminal I is provided with an interface for a serial communication line. Therefore, communication can be performed between the computer C and the communication terminal I, and between the lighting device L and the communication terminal I using a protocol for serial communication. Here, each of the plurality of devices D includes a lighting device L that emits light or turns off under the control of a time-stamped control signal.

In the example shown in FIG. 4, the computer C and the communication terminal I are different devices. However, the computer C and the communication terminal I may be integrated. Similarly, in the example shown in FIG. 4, the lighting device L and the communication terminal I are different devices, but the lighting device L may function as the device D by itself including the function of the communication terminal I. ..

The control signal generation unit 31 generates a control signal by packetizing serial communication data for controlling the lighting of the lighting device L. The control signal transmission unit 32 transmits the packetized control signal to each device D via the wireless communication network N. The communication terminal I included in the device D reproduces serial communication data based on the received control signal. The communication terminal I transmits serial communication data to the lighting device L via the serial communication line. The lighting device L can perform an operation of turning on or off based on the received serial communication data.

In this way, the control device 1 packetizes the conventional serial communication data and transmits it to the device D, thereby controlling each of the plurality of lighting devices L, which could only communicate on a one-to-one basis in the past. A signal can be transmitted. As a result, the control device 1 can operate a plurality of lighting devices L in synchronization while using the conventional lighting device L. If the device D is adopted for the illumination of a television, a concert, a play, a theme park, or the like and controlled by the control device 1, it is possible to synchronize the lighting of a plurality of lighting devices L in accordance with, for example, music.

In FIG. 4, when the communication terminal I includes a function for reading a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card and a SIM card, the control signal generation unit 31 is based on a telephone number assigned to each SIM card. Each communication terminal I may be specified. In this case, each of the plurality of devices D is assigned a telephone number for uniquely identifying each device D in advance.

FIG. 5 is a diagram schematically showing a data structure of a telephone number database according to an embodiment. The telephone number database is stored in the storage unit 2 and is managed by the control signal generation unit 31.

As shown in FIG. 5, each device D is assigned a telephone number as well as a device identifier for uniquely identifying each device D. For example, in FIG. 5, the device D whose device identifier is DID00001 is assigned 080-aaaa-bbbb as a telephone number. The control signal transmission unit 32 transmits a time-stamped control signal to two or more devices D specified based on the telephone number via the mobile phone communication line. As a result, the control device 1 can transmit the time-stamped control signal to the plurality of devices D by diverting the equipment of the existing mobile phone communication line.

<Effects of the control device 1 according to the embodiment>
As described above, according to the control device 1 according to the embodiment, it is possible to increase the flexibility when controlling a plurality of devices D via the wireless communication network N.

Although the present invention has been described above using the embodiments, the technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the scope described in the above embodiments, and various modifications and changes can be made within the scope of the gist. be. For example, all or part of the device can be functionally or physically distributed / integrated in any unit. Also included in the embodiments of the present invention are new embodiments resulting from any combination of the plurality of embodiments. The effect of the new embodiment produced by the combination has the effect of the original embodiment together.

<Modification example>
In the above, the case where the device D synchronizes with the time synchronization server T with the time synchronization instruction signal transmitted by the control device 1 as an opportunity has been described. Alternatively or in addition to this, the device D may voluntarily connect to the time synchronization server T at the time of startup, a predetermined time of the day, or the like to adjust the time. Thereby, even if the control device 1 omits transmitting the time synchronization instruction signal to the device D, it can be guaranteed that the plurality of devices D are time-synchronized.

1 ... Control device 2 ... Storage unit 3 ... Control unit 30 ... Synchronization instruction unit 31 ... Control signal generation unit 32 ... Control signal transmission unit 33 ... Maximum delay time acquisition unit C ... Computer D ... Equipment I ... Communication terminal L ... Lighting equipment N ... Wireless communication network S ... Synchronization control system T ... Time synchronization server

Claims (7)

A control device that can communicate with multiple devices via a wireless communication line.
A synchronization instruction unit that transmits a time synchronization instruction signal instructing time synchronization with the time synchronization server to each of the plurality of devices.
The longest delay time acquisition unit that acquires the longest delay time among the delay times related to communication with each of the plurality of devices, and
Together with the maximum delay time acquiring unit is selected each time two or more devices for transmitting control signals for controlling the device from the plurality of devices that measure the delay time, giving a time stamp indicating the time of the operation start A control signal generator that generates a time-stamped control signal,
A control signal for transmitting the time-stamped control signal to each of the two or more devices selected by the control signal each time so that the operation start time of the two or more devices is later than the lapse of the longest delay time. With the transmitter
A control device equipped with. The control signal is data generated by packetizing serial communication data.
The control device according to claim 1. A telephone number for uniquely identifying each device is assigned to each of the plurality of devices in advance.
The control signal transmission unit transmits the time-stamped control signal to the two or more devices specified based on the telephone number via the mobile phone communication line.
The control device according to claim 1 or 2. The synchronization instruction unit transmits a time synchronization instruction signal instructing time synchronization with the same time synchronization server to each of the plurality of devices.
The control device according to any one of claims 1 to 3. The plurality of devices are lighting devices that emit or turn off light under the control of the time-stamped control signal.
The control device according to any one of claims 1 to 4. The processor of the control device that can communicate with multiple devices via the wireless communication line,
A step of transmitting a time synchronization instruction signal instructing time synchronization with the time synchronization server to each of the plurality of devices, and a step of transmitting the time synchronization instruction signal.
The step of acquiring the longest delay time among the delay times related to communication with each of the plurality of devices, and
A step of selecting two or more devices for transmitting a control signal for controlling the device from the plurality of devices whose delay times have been measured each time.
A step to generate a control signal with a time stamp by adding a time stamp indicating the time of operation start, and
A step of transmitting the time stamped control signal to each of the two or more devices selected each time so that the operation start time of the two or more devices is later than the lapse of the longest delay time.
Control method to execute. For computers that can communicate with multiple devices via wireless communication lines
A function to send a time synchronization instruction signal instructing time synchronization with the time synchronization server to each of the plurality of devices,
A function to acquire the longest delay time among the delay times related to communication with each of the plurality of devices, and
A function to select two or more devices for transmitting a control signal for controlling the device from the plurality of devices whose delay times have been measured each time.
A function to generate a control signal with a time stamp by adding a time stamp indicating the time of operation start, and
A function of transmitting the time-stamped control signal to each of the two or more devices selected each time so that the operation start time of the two or more devices is later than the lapse of the longest delay time.
A program to execute.

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