Maintenance service system for home electric appliances

Abstract

A maintenance service system for home electric appliances is disclosed which comprises a home electric appliance, a portable terminal which can communicate with said home electric appliance and an information providing server which can communicate with said portable terminal.

1 - 13 . (canceled).  
     
     
         14 . A maintenance service system for home electric appliances comprising: 
 a home electric appliance, a portable terminal which can communicate with said appliance, and an information providing server which can communicate with said portable terminal, wherein said portable terminal, when it is notified of a malfunction from said appliance or the operator of said portable terminal requests, receives an abnormality diagnosing program executed in said portable terminal from said information providing server, and, as a result, executes said abnormality diagnosing of said appliance, whereby the result of the abnormality diagnosing is displayed in the portable terminal.    
     
     
         15 . A maintenance service system for appliances according to  claim 14 , wherein said abnormality diagnosing program carries out a question concerning the malfunction judgment of said appliance to the operator of said portable terminal and notifies the information providing server the response result from said operator or maintains said response result in the said portable terminal.  
     
     
         16 . A maintenance service system for appliances according to  claim 15 , wherein said abnormality diagnosing program, according to the response result from said operator, transmits a control signal to continue the interrupted processing to said home electric appliance.  
     
     
         17 . A maintenance service system for appliances according to  claim 14 , wherein according to the result of the abnormality diagnosing of the abnormality diagnosing program, when repair is needed for said home electric appliance, the estimate of the content of the repair and repair cost is displayed on said portable terminal.  
     
     
         18 . A maintenance service system for appliances according to  claim 17 , wherein, when the estimated amount of said repair cost is larger than the specified value specified by the operator of said portable terminal or the administrator of or said information providing server or the developer of said abnormality diagnosing program, information on buying a substitutive appliance can be acquired according to the demand of the operator of said portable terminal.  
     
     
         19 . A maintenance service system for appliances according to  claim 17 , wherein by comparing the repair fee and the market value of said appliance with the market value of a new appliance having the similar function to said appliance, information on the buying of said new appliance can be acquired.  
     
     
         20 . A maintenance service system for appliances according to  claim 14 , wherein depending upon the result of the abnormality diagnosis by said abnormality diagnosing program, in case where a repair should be needed for said appliance, the date when said appliance is repaired is specified by the operator of said portable terminal and it is notified to said information providing server.  
     
     
         21 . A maintenance service system for appliances according to  claim 14 , wherein said appliance has a standby power source for notifying said portable terminal of a malfunction.  
     
     
         22 . A maintenance service system for appliances according to  claim 14 , wherein when the failure diagnosis of said appliance is carried out by the failure diagnosis program according to the demand of the operator of said portable terminal, the candidate of an appliance which becomes an object, is displayed on said portable terminal, said candidate being selected by priority from the nearest one by location to the operator of said portable terminal spatially.  
     
     
         23 . A maintenance service system for appliances according to  claim 14 , wherein after the malfunction of said appliance is detected, the return method for it is displayed on said portable terminal.  
     
     
         24 . A maintenance service system for appliances according to  claim 14 , wherein said portable terminal receives the failure diagnosis program from said appliance.