Information processing device, method and server for determining type of electric appliance

A computer-implemented method for controlling an information processing device to which electric appliances are communicably connected, the information processing device having a processor associated therewith, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving a data packet for processing by the information processing device from an electric appliance, the received data packet containing information for determining a type of the electric appliance;
• storing a definition file corresponding to each of a plurality of types of electric appliances for access by the information processing unit, wherein each definition file contains defining data based on at least two kinds of data packets, and storing a score associated with each of the at least two kinds of data packets for each definition file;
• scoring by comparing the received data packet with each of the at least two kinds of data packets contained in each definition file and assigning a score based on the stored scores associated with each of the at least two kinds of data packets, wherein the scoring is implemented by the processor associated with the information processing unit;
• extracting a definition file having a highest score provided at the previous step of scoring;
• and
• determining from the defining data of the extracted definition file the type of the electric appliance from which the data packet is received in the receiving step, wherein the extracting and determining are implemented by the processor associated with the information processing unit.

A system for determining a type of an electric appliance comprising:

• an information processing device to which electric appliances are communicably connected;
• and
• a unit recognition server communicably connected with the information processing device,
• the information processing device comprising:
• means for receiving a data packet from an electric appliance from which a type of the electric appliance is determined, the received data packet containing information for determining the type of the electric appliance;
• and
• means for requesting a determination of the type of the electric appliance by transmitting the received data packet to the unit recognition server,
• the unit recognition server comprising:
• means for storing a definition file corresponding to each of a plurality of types of electric appliances, wherein each definition file contains defining data based on at least two kinds of data packets, the means for storing also storing a score associated with each of the at least two kinds of data packets for each definition file;
• means for scoring that compares the received data packet with each of the at least two kinds of data packets contained in each definition file and performs scoring for each definition file based on the stored scores associated with each of the at least two kinds of data packets in response to a request from the information processing device;
• and
• means for determining a type of an electric appliance that extracts a stored definition file having a highest score provided by the means for scoring and determines from the defining data of the extracted definition file the type of the electric appliance from which the means for receiving received the data packet and transmits the determination of the type of the electric appliance to the information processing device.

A unit recognition server communicably connected with an information processing device to which electric appliances are communicably connected, comprising:

• means for receiving a data packet that receives from the information processing device a data packet that is transmitted by an electric appliance from which a type of the electric appliance is determined, the received data packet containing information for determining the type of the electric appliance;
• means for storing a definition file corresponding to each of a plurality of types of electric appliances, wherein each definition file contains defining data based on at least two kinds of data packets, that also stores a score associated with each of the at least two kinds of data packets for each definition file;
• means for scoring that compares the received data packet with each of the at least two kinds of data packets contained in each definition file and performs scoring for each definition file based on the stored scores associated with each of the at least two kinds of data packets in response to a request from the information processing device;
• and
• means for determining a type of an electric appliance that extracts a stored definition file having a highest score provided by the means for scoring and determines from the defining data of the extracted definition file the type of the electric appliance from which the data packet was transmitted to the means for receiving and transmits the defining data for the type of the electric appliance to the information processing device.

A computer-implemented method for controlling a system comprising an information processing device to which electric appliances are communicably connected and a unit recognition server communicably connected with the information processing device and having a processor associated therewith, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving from an electric appliance a data packet for processing by the information processing device, the received data packet containing information for determining a type of the electric appliance;
• requesting a determination of the type of the electric appliance by transmitting the received data packet from the information processing device to the unit recognition server;
• storing a definition file corresponding to each of a plurality of types of electric appliances for access by the unit recognition server, wherein each definition file contains defining data based on at least two kinds of data packets, and storing a score associated with each of the at least two kinds of data packets for each definition file;
• scoring by comparing the received data packet with each of the at last two kinds of data packets for each definition file so as to perform scoring for each definition file based on each of the at least two kinds of data packets in response to a request from the information processing device, wherein the scoring is implemented by the processor;
• and
• extracting a stored definition file having a highest score provided at the previous step of scoring and determining from the defining data of the extracted definition file the type of the electric appliance from which the received data packet is received and transmitting the determination of the type of the electric appliance from the unit recognition server to the information processing device, wherein the extracting and determining are implemented by the processor.

An information processing device to which electric appliances are communicably connected, comprising:

• means for receiving a data packet that receives a data packet from an electric appliance, wherein the data packet is a broadcast packet or multicast packet, the received data packet containing information for determining a type of the electric appliance;
• means for storing a definition file corresponding to each of a plurality of types of electric appliances, wherein each definition file contains defining data based on at least two kinds of data packets, that also stores a score associated with each of the at least two kinds of data packets for each definition file;
• means for scoring that compares the received data packet with each of the at least two kinds of data packets contained in each definition file and performs scoring for each definition file based on the stored scores associated with each of the at least two kinds of data packets;
• and
• means for determining a type of an electric appliance that extracts a stored definition file having a highest score provided by the means for scoring and determines from the defining data of the extracted definition file the type of the electric appliance from which the means for receiving received the data packet.