JP7631033B2 - Apartment Intercom System - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an intercom system for an apartment complex, and in particular to an intercom system for an apartment complex that allows users to respond to calls from a collective entrance terminal using a mobile terminal.

There is an apartment complex intercom system that allows a mobile terminal such as a smartphone to be used as a device to answer calls from a collective entrance machine.
For example, in Patent Document 1, a mobile terminal carried by a resident communicates with the collective entrance unit via a control unit that controls the operation of the collective entrance unit, the room parent unit, and the management room parent unit, allowing visitors and residents who are out to talk to each other, and making it possible to answer calls from visitors without having to operate the room parent unit.

JP 2020-53884 A

However, in the above-mentioned conventional system, which allows the use of a mobile terminal instead of a room master unit, when a call is received and the user tries to answer using the mobile terminal, the user may accidentally end the call. If this happens, the call path is cut off, and the mobile terminal is unable to re-establish the call path, meaning that the call cannot be answered.

In view of these problems, the present invention aims to provide an apartment complex intercom system that can create a call path and respond to a call even if the mobile terminal that receives a call from the apartment complex entrance unit and attempts to answer the call is mistakenly ended.

In order to solve the above problems, the invention of claim 1 provides an apartment building intercom system comprising a collective entrance unit installed at an entrance so that visitors can call and talk to residents, a room master unit installed in each dwelling unit of the apartment building to answer calls from the collective entrance unit, and a mobile terminal carried by the resident, and in which calls from the collective entrance unit can be answered by the mobile terminal via an external general-purpose network, and a communication management server is disposed on the general-purpose network for managing the transmission of call signals from the collective entrance unit to the mobile terminal and the communication between the two, the collective entrance unit receives a call operation and transmits a call signal to the room master unit of the selected dwelling unit and the communication management server, and the communication management server has a communication control unit which, upon receiving a call signal from the collective entrance unit, identifies the mobile terminal of the called dwelling unit from the call signal and performs call control on the identified mobile terminal to control the formation of a call path between the collective entrance unit and the mobile terminal, The communication control unit further recognizes when a reconnection operation is performed after a communication disconnection operation is performed on the mobile terminal that received the call, and controls the reconnection between the mobile terminal and the collective entrance unit , the collective entrance unit and the room master unit communicate between the devices via IP communication, and the mobile terminal installs an application for responding to calls from the collective entrance unit to enable communication with the collective entrance unit via the communication management server, and the communication management server has an app information storage unit that stores the applications installed on each mobile terminal in association with the dwelling unit information to which the mobile terminal belongs, and the communication control unit that receives a call signal from the collective entrance unit selects an application associated with the dwelling unit from the information in the app information storage unit based on the dwelling unit information included in the received call signal and performs call control, and when the called mobile terminal responds, a call path is formed with the collective entrance unit via the communication management server .
With this configuration, even if communication between the mobile device and the collective entrance unit is cut off by an operation on the mobile device, if a reconnection operation is performed on the mobile device, the connection can be re-established under the control of the communication management server. Therefore, even if the call is ended by mistake, the call with the visitor can be resumed, which is convenient.

In addition, since a mobile device can communicate with the collective entrance device by installing an application for communicating with the collective entrance device and registering it with the communication management server, residents do not need to register the address of the collective entrance device, etc. Also, the collective entrance device only needs to be able to communicate with the communication management server, and there is no need to register the mobile device to be called. Therefore, communication between the collective entrance device and the mobile device can be achieved with simple operations.

The invention of claim 2 is characterized in that, in the configuration described in claim 1 , the communication management server has a timer unit for limiting the time during which a mobile terminal can perform a reconnection operation to the collective entrance unit to a certain period of time, and the communication control unit disables the reconnection operation by the mobile terminal after the certain period of time has elapsed.
According to this configuration, reconnection is not possible after a certain period of time has passed, so reconnection operations can be prohibited when a visitor you wish to talk to has left and a different person is in front of the collective entrance unit, preventing privacy issues from occurring.

According to the present invention, even if communication between a mobile terminal and a collective entrance unit is cut off by an operation on the mobile terminal side, if a reconnection operation is performed on the mobile terminal side, the connection can be re-established under the control of the communication management server. Therefore, even if the call is ended by mistake, the call with the visitor can be resumed, which is very convenient.

1 is a configuration diagram showing an example of an apartment building intercom system according to the present invention; FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the communication management server.

The following describes in detail an embodiment of the present invention with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of an apartment building intercom system according to the present invention. The apartment building intercom system includes an apartment entrance unit 1 installed at the entrance of the apartment building to allow visitors to call residents, a room master unit 2 installed in each dwelling unit to respond to calls from the apartment entrance unit 1, a master unit 3 installed at the entrance of each dwelling unit to call residents, a management master unit 4 installed in the manager's room to talk to residents, a mobile terminal 5 carried by the resident, and a communication management server 6 installed outside.

At least one room master unit 2 and management master unit 4 is installed in each dwelling unit or manager's room, but here two of each are shown. Reference numeral 8 denotes a HUB, and each device is connected to the LAN via communication line L1. Communication between devices is carried out via IP (Internet Protocol). Furthermore, a communication management server 6 is placed on an external general-purpose network N, and the collective entrance unit 1 is connected to the general-purpose network N via a GW (Gateway) adapter 7, enabling communication with the communication management server 6.

The collective entrance device 1 is equipped with a camera 11 for capturing images of visitors, an operation unit 12 for selecting or inputting the residence to be called, a display unit 13 for displaying the call destination, etc., a microphone 14 and speaker 15 for making calls, a call button 16, etc.

The room master unit 2 is equipped with a call button 21 for answering calls, a microphone and speaker for making calls, a monitor 23 for displaying images captured by the camera, an operation unit 24 for performing various operations, etc.

The mobile terminal 5 can be, for example, a smartphone, and application software (hereinafter referred to as the "intercom app") for communicating with the collective entrance unit 1 is downloaded and installed from the communication management server 6 via the general-purpose network N. At that time, dwelling unit information such as the dwelling unit number of the resident who is the operator is sent from the mobile terminal 5 to the communication management server 6, and is registered in association with the intercom app.
The intercom app installed on the mobile terminal 5 is an app for communicating between the collective entrance unit 1 and the mobile terminal 5, and is application software that enables communication using VoIP technology. By using VoIP technology, the mobile terminal 5 communicates with the collective entrance unit 1 without relying on a telephone number.

Fig. 2 shows a functional block diagram of the communication management server 6. As shown in Fig. 2, the communication management server 6 includes an application information storage unit 61, a timer unit 62 that manages the time when reconnection is possible, a server CPU 63 that controls communication between the collective entrance device 1 and the mobile terminal 5 and also controls the communication management server 6, a server communication IF 64 that communicates with the collective entrance device 1 and the mobile terminal 5 via the general-purpose network N, and the like.
In the application information storage unit 61, an intercom application for each mobile terminal 5 is registered in association with an apartment number (room master unit ID). When a call signal is received, a call is made to the intercom application associated with the called apartment, and the mobile terminal 5 performs a call operation by this call control. In other words, a call signal is sent to the mobile terminal 5.

The called mobile terminal 5 can recognize from the ringtone and call display that the call is from the collective entrance unit 1. The called mobile terminal 5 is registered in a call history storage unit (not shown), and connection operations can be performed from the mobile terminal 5 based on the registered history information.

The operation of the apartment complex intercom system configured as described above is as follows: However, the operation of operating the apartment complex entrance unit 1 to call a resident, the room master unit 2 of the called residence sounding a ring tone, the operation of establishing a conversation path when the room master unit 2 responds to the call, the operation of transmitting the image captured by the camera 11 in response to the call and displaying it on the monitor 23 of the room master unit 2, and other operations are the same as those of the conventional system, and therefore will not be described here.
Here, the operation of responding to a call from the collective entrance device 1 using the mobile terminal 5, and the operation of reconnecting (reconnecting the call) after ending the call using the mobile terminal 5 will be described.

When the collective entrance unit 1 is operated, an apartment is selected and a call is made, the call signal and the image captured by the camera 11 are transmitted to the room master unit 2 of the selected apartment, and at the same time, are also transmitted to the communication management server 6 via the GW adapter 7 and the general-purpose network N.
The communication management server 6 that receives the call signal reads the intercom app associated with the dwelling unit information included in the call signal from the app information storage unit 61, and makes a call using the read intercom app. This call calls the mobile terminal 5 associated with the called room master unit 2 via the general-purpose network N. Also, the image captured by the camera 11 is transmitted.

When the mobile terminal 5 receives the call, it performs a calling operation, and a message is displayed on the display unit 51 indicating that the call is coming from the collective entrance device 1 , and further the image captured by the camera 11 is displayed on the display unit 51 .
When the mobile terminal 5 is operated to answer, a response signal is sent to the communication management server 6, and the communication management server 6, which receives the response signal, establishes a call path between the collective entrance unit 1 and the mobile terminal 5 via itself. The collective entrance unit 1 terminates sending the call signal to the room master unit 2 upon receiving the call path establishment.

The above is an explanation of the operation when using the mobile terminal 5 instead of the room master unit 2 to answer a call from the collective entrance unit 1, but when trying to answer a call from the collective entrance unit 1 with the mobile terminal 5, there are cases where the call is ended by mistake, or the call is ended by mistake while answering. In such cases, the call can be re-attempted by the following operation.
The user operates the mobile terminal 5 to open the incoming call history, selects the collective entrance unit 1 as the call destination, and performs a connection operation. This operation causes the mobile terminal 5 to transmit a reconnection signal to the communication management server 6 in order to reconnect with the collective entrance unit 1.

Meanwhile, in the communication management server 6, upon receiving the call end operation from the portable terminal 5, under the control of the server CPU 63, the communication path between the collective entrance unit 1 and the portable terminal 5 is disconnected, but at the same time, the timer unit 62 is activated to begin counting a fixed period of time, such as 60 seconds.
Thereafter, when a reconnection signal is received from the mobile terminal 5, it recognizes that the signal is from the mobile terminal 5 that made the call using the intercom app, and if the count of the timer unit 62 has not elapsed a set period of time, it performs reconnection control and transmits a connection signal to the collective entrance unit 1. When the collective entrance unit 1 receives the connection signal, if it is in standby mode, it starts up the camera 11 and starts transmitting captured video.
Incidentally, the control by which the collective entrance unit 1 receives this connection signal and outputs the image captured by the camera 11 is a control that has conventionally been possible by operating the room master unit 2.

The output captured image is sent to the mobile terminal 5 via the communication management server 6 and displayed. When the resident who is the operator of the mobile terminal 5 checks the image and confirms the presence of a visitor, the resident can then perform a specific call operation to re-establish a call path with the collective entrance unit 1, making it possible to resume the call.

However, if the collective entrance unit 1 that received the connection signal is being operated by another visitor and is in use, the image is sent to the mobile terminal 5. A signal that connection is not possible is then returned, and a message to that effect is displayed on the mobile terminal 5. This message allows the resident operating the mobile terminal 5 to recognize from the displayed image and the message indicating that connection is not possible that they are in a situation where they cannot make a call, and they will end the call.

In this way, even if the communication between the mobile terminal 5 and the collective entrance device 1 is cut off by an operation on the mobile terminal 5 side, if a reconnection operation is performed on the mobile terminal 5 side, the communication can be reconnected under the control of the communication management server 6. Therefore, even if a call is ended by mistake, the call with the visitor can be resumed, which is convenient.
Furthermore, since the mobile terminal 5 can communicate with the collective entrance unit 1 by installing an application for communicating with the collective entrance unit 1 and registering it in the communication management server 6, the resident does not need to register the address of the collective entrance unit 1. Furthermore, the collective entrance unit 1 only needs to be able to communicate with the communication management server 6, and does not need to register the called mobile terminal 5. Therefore, communication between the collective entrance unit 1 and the mobile terminal 5 can be achieved with a simple operation.
Furthermore, since reconnection is not possible after a certain time has passed, reconnection operation can be prohibited at a timing when a visitor who wants to talk has left and a different person is in front of the collective entrance unit 1, thereby preventing the occurrence of privacy problems.

1: Collective entrance unit, 2: Room master unit, 5: Mobile terminal, 6: Communications management server, 11: Camera, 61: Application information storage unit, 62: Timer unit, 63: Server CPU (communications control unit), N: General-purpose network.

Claims (2)

An apartment complex intercom system comprising a collective entrance unit installed at an entrance so that visitors can call and talk to residents, a room master unit installed in each dwelling unit of the apartment complex so as to respond to calls from the collective entrance unit, and a mobile terminal carried by the resident, and capable of responding to calls from the collective entrance unit by the mobile terminal via an external general-purpose network,
A communication management server is disposed on the general-purpose network, which manages the transmission of a call signal from the collective entrance device to the mobile terminal and the communication between the two devices;
The common entrance unit transmits a call signal to the room master unit and the communication management server of the selected dwelling unit in response to the call operation, and
the communication management server has a communication control unit which, upon receiving a call signal from the collective entrance device, identifies the mobile terminal of the called dwelling unit from the call signal, performs call control on the identified mobile terminal, and controls the formation of a call path between the collective entrance device and the mobile terminal;
The communication control unit further recognizes that a reconnection operation is performed after a communication disconnection operation is performed on the mobile terminal that received the call, and controls a reconnection between the mobile terminal and the collective entrance device ,
The collective entrance unit and the living room master unit communicate with each other by IP communication, and the mobile terminal installs an application for responding to a call from the collective entrance unit to enable communication with the collective entrance unit via the communication management server.
the communication management server has an application information storage unit that stores the application installed for each of the mobile terminals in association with dwelling unit information to which the mobile terminal belongs;
The communication control unit, which has received a call signal from the collective entrance device, selects the application associated with the dwelling unit from the information in the application information storage unit based on the dwelling unit information included in the received call signal, and performs call control;
An intercom system for an apartment building, comprising : a communication management server that receives a call from a mobile terminal and, when the mobile terminal responds, establishes a communication path between the mobile terminal and the apartment entrance unit via the communication management server . the communication management server has a timer unit for limiting the time during which the mobile terminal can perform a reconnection operation to the collective entrance device to within a certain period of time;
2. The intercom system according to claim 1 , wherein the communication control unit disables a reconnection operation by the mobile terminal after a certain period of time has elapsed.

Images