METHOD FOR CONNECTING A HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCE TO A WIRELESS HOME NETWORK

Abstract

The invention pertains to a method for connecting a household appliance (1) to a wireless home network (2), wherein the household appliance (1) makes available a temporary network (3) with a hotspot identification (4), wherein a user terminal (5) is connected to the household appliance (1) via the temporary network (3) by utilizing the hotspot identification (4), wherein the user terminal (5) transmits network access information (16) to the household appliance (1), and wherein the household appliance (1) closes the temporary network (3) after the reception of the network access information (16) and logs on to the home network (2) by utilizing the received network access information (16). In order to enhance methods known from the prior art, it is proposed that the hotspot identification (4) of the temporary network (3) is randomly generated by means of a random character generator (6).

Claims

1: A method for connecting a household appliance (1) to a wireless home network (2), wherein the household appliance (1) makes available a temporary network (3) with a hotspot identification (4), wherein a user terminal (5) is connected to the household appliance (1) via the temporary network (3) by utilizing the hotspot identification (4), wherein the user terminal (5) transmits network access information (16) to the household appliance (1), and wherein the household appliance (1) closes the temporary network (3) after the reception of the network access information (16) and logs on to the home network (2) by utilizing the received network access information (16), wherein the hotspot identification (4) of the temporary network (3) is randomly generated by means of a random character generator (6) and output in the form of an optical code (7).

2: The method according to claim 1, wherein the random character generator (6) generates the hotspot identification (4) immediately before the temporary network (3) is established or at the moment the temporary network (3) is established.

3: The method according to claim 1. wherein the hotspot identification (4) is generated in the form of a sequence of randomly selected numerals and/or letters and/or special characters.

4: The method according to claim 1, wherein hotspot identification (4) is displayed on a screen (8) of the household appliance (1) in the form of a two-dimensional code, particularly a QR code (Quick Response code).

5: The method according to claim 4, wherein the optical code (7) is received by means of an image sensor (9) of the user terminal (5).

6: The method according to claim 4, wherein the optical code (7) is processed by means of an application installed on the user terminal (5) and the hotspot identification (4) is extracted from the optical code (7).

7: The method according to claim 1, wherein the hotspot identification (4) becomes invalid no later than at the time, at which the temporary network (3) is closed.

8: A household appliance (1) with a hotspot device (10) for making available a temporary network (3) and with a device for making available a hotspot identification (4) for accessing the temporary network (3), wherein the device for making available the hotspot identification (4) features a random character generator (6), which is designed for generating the hotspot identification (4) of randomly selected numerals and/or letters and/or special characters, wherein the household appliance (1) features a screen (8) for displaying a two-dimensional optical code containing the hotspot identification (4).

9: The household appliance (1) according to claim 8, wherein the two-dimensional optical code (7) is a QR code (Quick Response code).

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] The invention is described in greater detail below with reference to exemplary embodiments. In the drawings:

[0018] FIG. 1 shows a household appliance and a home network with an access point and a user terminal,

[0019] FIG. 2 shows the transmission of hotspot identification and network access information via a temporary network of the household appliance,

[0020] FIG. 3 shows the process of connecting the household appliance to the home network, and

[0021] FIG. 4 shows the home network with the household appliance, the access point and the user terminal.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0022] FIG. 1 shows a home network 2, in this example a conventional Wi-Fi network, with an access point 14 and a user terminal 5. FIG. 1 furthermore shows a household appliance 1 that, however, is not yet logged on to the home network 2. The household appliance 1, the user terminal 5 and the access point 14 feature Wi-Fi radio modules for the communication. In this case, the household appliance 1 is a self-traveling cleaning apparatus, namely a vacuuming robot. The user terminal 5 is a smartphone.

[0023] The household appliance 1 features a not-shown navigation and self-localization device, by means of which the household appliance 1 can orient itself and travel within an environment. The navigation and self-localization device evaluates measuring data of a distance measuring device 12, which in this case consists, for example, of an all-around laser scanner in the form of a laser triangulation system. The distance measuring device 12 measures distances from obstacles and room boundaries. This measuring data is preferably compared with measuring data of an odometry sensor that measures the distance traveled by the household appliance 1. The information on obstacles and room boundaries of the environment is processed into an environment map of the household appliance 1, by means of which the household appliance 1 can orient itself in the environment. The household appliance 1 also features a cleaning element 11 for treating a surface to be cleaned. In this case, the cleaning element 11 consists, for example, of a bristle roller that is driven by an electric motor. The household appliance 1 furthermore features multiple motor-driven wheels 13 that serve for the progressive motion of the household appliance 1 within the environment. In addition, a screen 8 for displaying various information is arranged on an upper side of the household appliance 1.

[0024] The user terminal 5 features a screen 15 and an image sensor 9, namely a camera. The screen 15 is preferably a touchscreen that serves for displaying various information and keys. The keys can be actuated by pressing thereon. An application for communicating and cooperating with the household appliance 1 is installed on the user terminal 5.

[0025] The situation illustrated in FIG. 1 shows a time, at which the household appliance 1 is not yet logged on to the home network 2. In order to log on to the home network 2, the household appliance 1 requires network access information 16 for the access point 14. In order to obtain this network access information, the household appliance 1 establishes a temporary network 3, to which the user terminal 5 can connect. This situation is illustrated in FIG. 2.

[0026] FIG. 2 shows the temporary network 3 of the household appliance 1 with a user terminal 5. The hotspot device 10 of the household appliance 1, for example a network module with access point function, establishes the temporary network 3 with a hotspot identification 4, which is generated by means of a random character generator 6. This hotspot identification 4 serves as SSID of the temporary network 3. The random character generator 6 generates the hotspot identification 4 of randomly selected characters, which in this example form a random sequence of letters and numbers, namely the hotspot identification 4 XY123. A computing unit of the household appliance 1 subsequently transforms the hotspot identification 4 into an optical code 7, in this case a QR code, which contains the hotspot identification 4 in encoded form. The optical code 7 is displayed on the screen 8 of the household appliance 1. In order to connect the user terminal 5 to the temporary network 3, it is moved into the vicinity of the household appliance 1 in such a way that the image sensor 9 of the user terminal 5 points at the screen 8 of the household appliance 1 and the optical code 7 lies within the scanning range of the image sensor 9. The application installed on the user terminal 5 is opened and controls the image sensor 9. Subsequently, the image sensor 9 detects the optical code 7 and forwards this optical code to a computing unit of the user terminal 5, which extracts the hotspot identification 4 from the optical code 7. The user terminal 5 can now log on to the temporary network 3 of the household appliance 1 by means of this hotspot identification 4. The user terminal 5 then transmits network access information 16 to the household appliance 1 via the temporary network 3. The transmission of the hotspot identification 4 and the network access information 16 takes place by means of the Wi-Fi radio modules of the user terminal 5 and the household appliance 1. In this example, the network access information 16 is the character sequence Access Point ABC##. This network access information serves for logging on the household appliance 1 to the home network 2.

[0027] The hotspot device 10 closes the temporary network 3 after the transmission via the temporary network 3 of the household appliance 1 illustrated in FIG. 2 has been completed. Subsequently, the household appliance 1 logs on to the home network 2 as shown in FIG. 3. For this purpose, the household appliance 1 particularly transmits the previously received network access information 16 Access Point ABC## to the access point 14 of the home network 2. The access point 14 checks if the network access information 16 is correct and allows the household appliance 1 to log on to the home network 2 if the network access information matches.

[0028] FIG. 4 shows the home network 2 after the household appliance 1 has logged on thereto. The access point 14 and the user terminal 5, as well as the access point 14 and the household appliance 1, communicate with one another in this home network 2.

LIST OF REFERENCE SYMBOLS

[0029] 1 Household appliance

[0030] 2 Home network

[0031] 3 Temporary network

[0032] 4 Hotspot identification

[0033] 5 User terminal

[0034] 6 Random character generator

[0035] 7 Optical code

[0036] 8 Screen

[0037] 9 Image sensor

[0038] 10 Hotspot device

[0039] 11 Cleaning element

[0040] 12 Distance measuring device

[0041] 13 Wheel

[0042] 14 Access point

[0043] 15 Screen

[0044] 16 Network access information