Field of the invention
This invention relates to a system and a method for operating electronic devices and more particularly this invention relates to a system and a method for controlling home appliances which are operating using AC power supply.
Background of the invention
Over the last few years, there has been a growing demand for home electronic devices, such as entertainment devices, home network devices, security devices, and automation control devices.
There are more and more such devices and systems installed within homes and buildings. The need of transmitting data or information using the electric network as a communication means has been known for a long time; this necessity is particularly felt in the so-called home automation, where the dialog among different electric users may generate significant benefits in terms of energy saving and resource sharing among devices. It is tough job to install, optimize, control, and maintain the devices and systems. Those devices and systems also required additional new wires to setup and connect to its subsystems.
The conventional home automation controf devices are very complicated to control. In addition, the home control devices also need the installation of a discrete set of control wires, dedicated switches and a user house will be damaged.
Power line communication systems and method have been used in a variety of applications, such as control of home lights, door openers, and electrical switches for many years. Power line communication systems and method are relatively inexpensive and reliable. There are many different protocols to provide power line communications.

The fact that the same electric network can perform also the role of bi-directional communication line allows for avoiding the need of employing an additional wiring system, and also ensure a full access to all electric users, even if distributed in relatively distant or locations being difficult to access to (such as a garage, an attic, a cellar, etc.). The most common data transmission systems on electric network are based on the use of the so-called power line, which use appropriate modems capable of transmitting and receiving information through specific modulation and demodulation of small electric signals being overlapped on the mains voltage, respectively. However, the relevant modems are expensive. The cost for implementing the communication system in a household electric appliance is usually too high to be directly borne by a household electric user, such as a washing machine, a refrigerator, an iron, an electric stove, and so on.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,493,267 disclosed an arrangement having a control unit, for the transfer of control commands to a working means in an apparatus, via a wire also used for the power supply to said working means. The control unit has such a design that before a control command is transmitted the control unit operates to shortly disconnect the supply voltage on the wire for a period of time required for the current in the working means to decline essentially to zero.
US Patent 6950010 has the arm of solving the above drawbacks and, in particular, to provide a method, a system and respective means for the transmission or communication of data or information on electric network, which are alternative and/or complementary to the previous ones and which can be implemented at a low cost on the mass production of household electric users, in particular household appliances. Fig 1 shows the mode of connection according to this invention. It discloses a method and system for transmitting/receiving or communicating data and information on electric power line between two electronic controlled devices, namely, and electric user (HA), in particular a household appliance, having a first electronic control system and at least a first

electric load, and a monitoring or control device (SA), having a second electronic control system, the device (SA) being located on the line between an electric power outlet and the first electric load. The transmission/reception or communication of data and information on the line is obtained by means of electric power modulation between the user (HA) and the device (SA), and/or vice-versa. However, so called Smart plug which is actually modulated / demodulates the control signals is outside the home appliances. This will again add complexity for a novice user to set it up and use it. Moreover this will increase the price of the total package.
Baud rate of communication is limited to 100 bps to 120 bps. So communicating a large number of devices will not be feasible on such a network with a large amount of data. Using this technology high definition video or audio can not be sent through the network. Moreover the communication may very slow that the user has to wait for each command to execute and get the result on screen for a considerably long time.
The user will not be getting full control over the devices they are controlling through this method since it's an add-on setup to the basic home appliances. User has to use the limited functionality offered by the smart plug depends on the connected mechanism he is using. So the smart plug will be able to do limited operations like Power ON / OFF activate a sub system etc.
W02005122629 describes a remote control system. The remote control system as described in the patent publication is used for controlling a home appliance, for example a washing machine, situated remotely from a user's life space. Further, the system comprises a monitoring device connected wirelessly or via power line to the home appliance. The monitoring device can transmit, receive data to and from the home appliance and hence can control the operation of the home appliance.

US20050267605 provides a system and method for controlling a plurality of remote devices with the help of a display device. The system as described in the patent publication, further includes a main control unit for controlling and programming the system, and a communication link for transferring various data and control signals between the main unit and the plurality of remote devices. The system as described in the patent publication, takes advantage of existing home power wiring to transmit audio, video, and control data from the main unit to the plurality of remote devices.
However, there will be only one master device, which will control all the devices. If the user wishes to shift the master control to another master (say from next room) there is no method defined for doing it. Using this existing setup user can not change the server without disturbing the network. So the user is forced to use the same communication node as SERVER all through, which is limiting the mobility and control of network user to a room where server is situated.
Object and summary of the invention
It is an object of the invention is to provide a reliable, low cost, user-friendly system and a method for operating electronic devices in a networked environment.
It is another object of the invention is to provide a system for operating electronic devices, which uses existing power line as a communication medium.
It is yet another object of the present invention to control all the electronic devices available anywhere in the home by transferring the control to any server device available on the network.
It is still another object of the present invention is to provide full control of the electronic devices to the user over the network.

To meet the above-mentioned objective the present invention provides a system for operating electronic devices comprising:
at least one electronic device each having a device main processor, an
unique device code and a protocol version number;
at least one server each having a graphical user interface for
controlling said electronic devices by generating control signals for
each of said electronic device;
a communication network for:
- transferring of data among electronic devices,
- quick and effective communication of data between the electronic
devices and the server, and
- controlling the electronic devices from remote location; and
an external device for activating said electronic devices by generating enabling signals.
It is another aspect of the present invention to provide a method for operating electronic devices comprising the steps of:
establishing a communication network;
connecting the electronic devices and a server in the communication
network;
activating said server and generating an enabling signal to a particular
device code correspond to each of said electronic devices available on
the network by an external device ;
communicating unique device code and protocol version number of
each electronic device to the server responsive to said enabling signal
for establishing a connection between said server and said electronic
device and among electronic devices available on the network;

displaying a list of the electronic devices available on the network on
OSD of said server;
generating a status signal by the electronic device to the server about
the current status of the electronic device;
displaying the status of the electronic device on the onscreen display
of the server; and
Generating a control signal to the electronic device responsive to the
status signal of said electronic device by an external device to control
the operation of the electronic device.
Brief description of the accompanying drawings:
These and other aspects of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like designations are used to designate substantially identical elements.
Figure 1 illustrates a system for communicating data and information on electric power line between two electronic controlled devices.
Figure 2a and 2b represent the setup according to the present invention.
Figure 3 illustrates a layout of a communication network used in the present
system.
Figure 4 illustrates a flow chart for performing the method of the present
invention.
Detailed description of the invention

Figure 1 depicts the mode of connection between a monitoring device and a generic electric user according to the prior art as illustrated in the background section.
Figure 2a and 2b represent the setup according to the present invention. A
server (201) and number of electronic devices (202.1, 202.2 202.N) are
connected each other through a power line (203). The central server is a display device like a television, monitor etc. There may be a plurality of servers on the network to control all the electronic devices available anywhere in the home, which are connected to the network.
Server will be keeping track of each and every device details in a built in database so that it can transfer the control of all PLC devices to another server device present on the same network if it is required by the user. User can switch the server to any other device with server functions by copying the database to a new device. This will increase the versatility of the system to the next level. For example User may start controlling devices through the television placed in Drawing room and when he shifted to bed room the control can also be shifted to the Television inside his bed room by just a press of button.
Figure 3 illustrates a layout of a communication network used in the present system. Each electronic device having a device main processor (301) connected to a PLC (Power Line Communication) SOC (System On a Chip) processor (302) through a communication lines or I2C lines (303). The system of the present invention having following features in the communication network:
1. Physical layer for the network;
2. Data layer; and
3. Communication protocol.
Physical layer:

This layer includes all physical medium of message transfer from one device to another. A supporting chip has to be incorporated to the existing platforms which will be responsible for sending and receiving data messages from one PLC device to another. Any normal 8-bit general purpose Microcontrollers like Philips LPC series can perform this operation with the help of a custom made communication protocol on firmware and supporting modem circuits on board. But this result into a longer development cycle time.
An alternate way to address to speed up development period is make use of SOC solutions available in market for PLC communication. The add-on modules can be easily integrated to the existing systems with minimal changes in Hardware and software. A typical configuration of physical layer in a PLC network is represented in the figure 3.
Data Link Layer
A Communication Bridge has to be established between the PLC SOC and the main device-processor. PLC-SOC will receive messages from the power line, strip off all unwanted data with respect to the Main processor (for example byte counts, checksum etc) from the message and pass it to the server's processor. The same way Main processor may send the data to PLC SOC, which will pack the data with necessary control bytes (Byte count, Checksum, Control byte etc) and transmit it over the power line with specific device address.
This message passing between the main processor and the PLC SOC has to be implemented fresh. This can be easily done using the Built in I2C protocol or any other internal device communication protocols using DART of the processors. Only the message format has to be finalized. This message format should be less complex to implement in low end (8 bit) processors and it should be having future expansion options too.

Communication protocol
A series of ASICs designed for PLC. The IT800 series of ASIC firmware are equipped with SCP (Simple Control Protocol) integrated into a single ASIC which will enable a universal protocol for communication over power line. SCP protocol is a royalty free communication protocol, which is compatible with TCP/IP too. This will enable the system of the present invention internet compatible which will be a useful feature, at a later stage to control all the devices at home through internet.
Figure 4 illustrates a flow chart for performing the method of the present invention.
According to the method of the present invention every electronic device will have a device address of its own. As soon as the Television or display device, which can work as server turned on will search for all PLC devices present on network. To accomplish this server will broadcast a universal message over the network as soon as it starts working. Any other PLC device turned on in the network will accept this command and send back its own device id and protocol version number to the server. The protocol version number will help the server to decide on the command set which it can use to communicate with an old device which is having less number of control messages (reverse compatibility). By this way the server will add all devices available on network. Once a communication is established between a server and an electronic device, the electronic deice has to inform all the changes happened in its status to the server on which the server will decide what action should be taken. Automatic pop up messages will seek user input directly on screen, which may in turn communicated back to the electronic device in the form of control messages. Server will be having a special OSD which will list all devices names present on network. The user can select any on of them to give an explicit control message to it. As soon as an electronic device is selected by the user all available operations which can be executed on

the remote device will be listed out on screen. Using remote controller or external device or local key board of the server, user can send message to the device immediately. After the command is executed at the remote electronic device, a status message will be passed over to the server to inform the successful operation of the previous command. Till the time the server receives this message it will suppress further control messages to that particular device.
A communication network is established in step 401 for the system of the present invention. The communication network comprising a physical layer, a data layer and a communication protocol. The physical layer transfer the data or message among electronic devices. The data layer helps in quick and effective communication of data between the electronic devices and the server. The communication protocol controls the electronic devices from remote location. A plurality of electronic devices and servers are connected to the network in step 402. In step 403, the server is switched on or activated. As soon as the server gets activated, it will search for all the electronic devices available on the network. In step 404 connections between the server and the electronic devices as well as among electronics devices are established. To perform this task the server will broadcast an universal message over the network as soon as it starts working. All the electronic devices turned on the network will accept this command and send backs its own device id and protocol version number to the server. After all the electronic devices available on the network are added to the database of the server, the server displays all these electronic devices on the OSD (ON Screen Display) in step 405. The user can select any of the electronic device form the OSD as per his/her requirement to give an explicit control message to it. As soon as the user selects an electronic device ail available operations, which can be executed on the remote device will be listed out on screen. Using remote controller or external device or local keyboard of the server, user can send message to the device immediately. Then the current status of the electronic device is sent to the server in step 406.The server will display the status of the electronic devices on the OSD of the server in step 407.

The server generates a control signal to the electronic device by an external device or a remote controller to control the operation of the electronic devices in step 408.
In an embodiment of the invention instead of using third party ASICS the entire protocol can be implemented in a general purpose 16 bit processor. It will be considerably cheaper than an ASIC but requires more time to develop it.
The protocol used in this invention is SCP (simple control protocol) which can be extended to communicate with internet protocols and GSM protocols. In another embodiment of the present invention, this can be implemented so the user can control his devices on the move. A wireless stand alone master remote can also be implemented based on this technology where a base unit will accept all commands from the AC mains line and transmit it through air to the wireless remote.
Another improvement can be done is in terms of communication speed. If the speed of communication is fast we will be able to send and receive High Definition Video (HDV) and audio through the power line. This will avoid the use extra wiring as in current setups. In home theaters the speakers can be made with a built in single channel amplifier which will accept only the audio channel data addressed to it from the power line and reproduce the sound. This is a cheaper alternative of currently running RF audio communication for speakers. RF communication may create harmful interference with medical equipments in hospitals so rarely used for networking. This technology can be safely used in hospitals since it will not create any interference with the highly sensitive medical equipments without altering the wiring.
An example of a system according to the present invention: User has switched ON the washing machine and left it for washing the cloths. Washing machine will send a status message to TV for notifying about its current status. Seeing that

Washing machine is loading water, Television will send a command to Room air conditioner to recollect the room temperature at the time when it was turned ON and inform the Television. When television gels a reply message from air-conditioner, it will pop up a message in television, asking the user whether he wants to adjust the water temperature in washing machine for an optimum wash (Sharing of temperature gauge of AC with washing machine over network through PLC). According to the user selection on TV remote, a command message will be sent to Washing machine to set the water temperature. After washing is finished the washing machine will inform the user that washing is finished and you can remove the cloths now.
All documents cited in the description are incorporated herein by reference. The present invention is not to be limited in scope by the specific embodiments and examples which are intended as illustrations of a number of aspects of the invention and any embodiments which are functionally equivalent are within the scope of this invention. Those skilled in the art will know, or be able to ascertain using no more than routine experimentation, many equivalents to the specific embodiments of the invention described herein. These and all other equivalents are intended to be encompassed by the following claims.

We Claim:
1. A system for operating electronic devices comprising:
at least one electronic device each having a device main processor, an
unique device code and a protocol version number;
at least one server each having a graphical user interface for
controlling said electronic devices by generating control signals for
each of said electronic device;
a communication network for:
- transferring of data among electronic devices,
- quick and effective communication of data between the electronic
devices and the server, and
- controlling the electronic devices from remote location; and
an external device for activating said electronic devices by generating enabling signals.
2. A system for operating electronic devices as claimed in claim 1, wherein
k
the electronic devices are consumer home appliances.
3. A system for operating electronic devices as claimed in claim 1, wherein
the server is a display device.
4. A system for operating electronic devices as claimed in claim 1, wherein
the communication network comprising a physical layer, a data link layer and a
communication protocol.
5. A system for operating electronic devices as claimed in claim 1, wherein
the external device is a remote controller or a keyboard.
6. A system for operating electronic devices as claimed in claim 4, wherein
the physical layer comprising a microcontroller for bi-directional communication
of data between the electronic devices.
7. A system for operating electronic devices as claimed in claim 6, wherein
the microcontroller performs the bi-directional communication of data by a
custom made communication protocol on firmware and supporting modem
circuits on board.
8. A system for operating electronic devices as claimed in claim 4, wherein
the physical layer comprising a system on a chip (SOC) for increasing the speed
of communication of data between electronic devices.
9. A system for operating electronic devices as claimed in claim 4, wherein
the data link layer comprising a communication protocol for bi-directional
communication of data between the device main processor of the electronic
device and the processor of server by the SOC.
10. A system for operating electronic devices as claimed in claim 4, wherein
communication protocol comprising a series of Application Specific Integrated
Circuit (ASIC).
11. A system for operating electronic devices as claimed in claim 10, wherein
the series of ASIC are equipped with Simple Control Protocol (SCP) integrated
into a single ASIC for controlling the electronic devices from the remote location
through internet.
12. A system for operating electronic devices as claimed in claim 1, wherein
the server comprising a MODEM circuit for modulating and demodulating digital
data from the electric power supply line and transmitting said data to the device
main processors of the electronic devices.
13. A system for operating electronic devices as claimed in claim 12, wherein
the MODEM comprising a processing unit for verifying the arrival of data to the
proper address destination and retransmitting said data incase of failure.
14. A system for operating electronic devices as claimed in claim 1, wherein
the server comprising an On Screen Display (OSD) for displaying the list of all
electronic devices.
15. A system for operating electronic devices as claimed in claim 1, wherein
each server having a built in database for keeping track of electronic devices and
transferring the details of said electronic devices to another server.
16. A system for operating electronic devices as claimed in claim 1, wherein
said communication protocol comprising a 16 bit processor for controlling the
electronic devices.
17. A system for operating electronic devices as claimed in claim 1, wherein
said communication protocol comprises internet protocol and GSM protocol for
remotely controlling the electronic devices by a wireless remote controller.
18. A method for operating electronic devices comprising the steps of:
establishing a communication network;
connecting the electronic devices and a server to the communication
network;
activating said server and generating an enabling signal to a particular
device code correspond to each of said electronic device available on
the network by an external device ;
communicating unique device code and protocol version number of
each of electronic device to the server responsive to said enabling
signal for establishing a connection between said server and said
electronic device and among electronic devices available on the
network;
displaying a list of the electronic devices available on the network on
OSD of said server;
generating a status signal by the electronic device to the server about
the current status of the electronic device;
displaying the status of the electronic device on the onscreen display
of the server; and
generating a control signal to the electronic device responsive to the
status signal of said electronic device by an external device to control
the operation of the electronic device.
9. A method for operating electronic devices as claimed in claim 1, wherein the communication network is established for:
- transferring of data among electronic devices,
- quick and effective communication of data between the electronic
devices and the server, and
- controlling the electronic devices from remote location

20. A system for operating electronic devices, substantially as herein
described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
21. A method for operating electronic devices, substantially as herein
described with reference to the accompanying drawings.