Patent Application
20050168658
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for the control of a home electronics system comprising a plurality of components.
Home entertainment components such as TV, VCR, DVD and audio receiver are sold as individual products. Brands compete on the basis of features and other factors. Products incorporate standardised signal interfaces (RCA, Scart, etc.) to facilitate interconnection between brands. However, each product is essentially controlled as a standalone equipment with its own user interface and, usually, dedicated remote controller. The user of a home electronics system ends up with a host of remote controllers. To control a particular product, the user must locate the correct remote controller and remember which keys to press to invoke the desired function; indeed some functions require more than one product to be set-up, in turn requiring the use of more than one remote controller. Another issue is that, as the number of product features increases, the tendency is for manufacturers to use display based user interfaces so as to limit the number of keys on remote controllers; the result is that individual products (and their associated remote controllers) are increasingly operated using generic commands such as ‘menu’, ‘cursor_up’/_down/_left/_right, ‘OK’, etc. Thus, there may be a duplication of generic commands across the set of remote controllers the user may possess; a duplication which has not been exploited.
To date, the universal remote control has become a popular means to control a plurality of products; however, these have the disadvantage that the user has to remember to change (product) mode in order to change control to another product.
International patent a WO00/70578, as signed to the present applicant, discloses a system and method for controlling multiple home electronics devices. It describes the use of a single remote control (e.g. the TV remote) to control a device controller which in turn controls other home devices in addition to the TV; in response to receiving commands from the remote control, the device controller generates and transmits commands suitable for controlling any of the home devices. A disadvantage of this system (and also of the universal remote control, discussed earlier) is the requirement to involve the user in initialisation and (as required, for example when adding a device to the system) updating procedures to ensure that commands are correctly translated. This can be a significant burden for a user.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome these and other disadvantages through an improved method and apparatus for controlling a home electronics system.
In accordance with the present invention there is provided a method for controlling a home electronics system comprising a plurality of components, the method being managed independently of a user and invoked on receipt of a command, the method comprising the steps of:
The method of the present invention removes from the user the burden of configuring the system (for example, initialisation and/or updating of the configuration as components are added to or removed from the system). The mechanism used to achieve this may include a received command recognition capability whereby commands addressed to the system can be correctly received, decoded and identified; and a system context sensing capability whereby the status of the home electronics system can be monitored to identify one or more presently operative components and detect subsequent changes as and when they occur.
The system context may be changed using a variety of methods, including but not limited to manual control of a component by means of its local user interface, or remote control by means of explicit commands.
Also in accordance with the present invention there is provided an apparatus arranged to control a home electronics system, the apparatus being managed independently of a user, the apparatus comprising:
The apparatus of the invention may receive any type of command, for example issued by the user or on his/her behalf. One example is a keypress on a local keypad of a component in the system. For instance, when the overall system is in ‘standby’, the user may depress the ‘ON’ key on the local TV keypad; the apparatus of the invention may receive and adapt this command and in response may issue one or more ‘on’ commands specific to the other system components thereby bringing them out of standby mode in preparation for operation.
Another type of command that might be received by the apparatus is a remote control command. One example, is an infrared remote control command associated with a component in the home electronics system. In this case, the apparatus might only perform a simple adaption whereby the command is forwarded to the component using an appropriate medium, as available to the apparatus and discussed in more detail below. A further example might be where the user is viewing a VCR playback. He/she grasps the physically nearest remote control (say, a DVD remote) and presses the ‘stop’ command on the remote control. The apparatus receives this command and, using a command recognition capability as discussed earlier, it may recognise and decode the low level data encoding, for example by using a built-in decoder suitable to decode known remote control data protocols (for example, in the case of infrared including, but not limited to, pulse position and Philips RC5/6); it may then identify the command (‘DVD stop’ in this example), for example by reference to a built-in store containing data corresponding to command encoding formats. The apparatus may then sense the present operating status of the system (i.e. VCR Play). Based on these data, the apparatus could adapt the ‘DVD stop’ command into a substitute command suitable for interpretation by the relevant VCR as a ‘stop’ command. In this example the received command may utilise a different data encoding method relative to the substitute command. The substitute command may then be sent to a system component, in this case the relevant VCR, via, any suitable means including, but not limited to, wired (for example Project50, D2B, IEEE1394/HAVi, USB, RS232, or similar), infrared (for example pulse position, RC5/6) or radio (for example Bluetooth, ZigBee, HomeRF, WiFi, IEEE802.11, HiperLAN); for example, the adapted command might be sent as a suitably encoded infrared ‘stop’ command to the VCR, thereby emulating the infrared remote controller of the VCR.
A yet further type of command is one received from an external wired bus (including, but not limited to, USB, Scart, IEEE1394/HAVi), a wired network (including, but not limited to, Ethernet, RS232, PSTN, ISDN, ADSL) or a wireless network (infrared including, but not limited to, pulse position, RC5/6 and radio including, but not limited to, Bluetooth. ZigBee, HomeRF, WiFi, IEEE802.11, HiperLAN).
Commands and other data may be exchanged with an Internet server via a modem. One example is where the apparatus arranges to automatically download data from an Internet server in response to detecting a new component in the system. To ensure operation with new command codes defined in future products, the apparatus might be remotely programmed, for example via an Internet server, on detecting a new component in the system, without involving the user. Such updating might be achieved by the apparatus sending to the Internet server a representation of a received command associated with the new system component, which command the apparatus cannot decode. The Internet server could then respond with data comprising a set of commands corresponding to the component, which set could then be downloaded and stored by the apparatus for use in decoding future received commands.
It can readily be noted that the apparatus may adapt the received commands at a variety of levels including simple transfer (that is, without code conversion) of a command from one medium to another (for example from IR to wired); alternatively, or in addition, the command may be converted from one data protocol to another data protocol (for example from RC5 to Project50). Moreover, the received commands may also be generic in that they are not able, per se, to address (command) a specific component until adapted by the apparatus, examples include ‘play’ ‘stop’, ‘cursor<direction>’, ‘OK’, etc.; such commands could, for example, emanate from a special proprietary remote control or other user device.
A home electronics system may comprise a plurality of components and an apparatus unit embodying the invention. An existing system might be upgraded by the addition of an apparatus unit connected to the components of the system by any suitable means, for example using a Scart interface. In general, an apparatus unit may utilise one or more interfaces to receive commands, to sense an operative component in the system and to send commands. The apparatus unit might be integrated within a component of the system. Preferably, such a component would be a TV receiver.
In any of the above scenarios the apparatus unit may sense an operative component by analysing the characteristics of its A/V signal output. For example, it is well known in the art that video playback from VCRs exhibits specific attributes such as the end-of-field head-switching transient and also synchronisation jitter. The apparatus unit could detect such attributes and thereby deduce that a VCR component was presently operative as a source in the system. Other sources may also exhibit particular attributes, for example an analogue video source derived from a tuner as opposed to a DVD player might perhaps be distinguished by the absence of VBI teletext in the latter case. However, the above distinctions are all implicit indicators and thus can be prone to interpretation error possibly resulting in a non-robust functioning of the system. It is of course preferred that an explicit scheme is used to indicate the operative component within the system. One technique might be to use a dedicated identification methodology comprising means to indicate to the apparatus an operative component. Such schemes however are not very attractive commercially, in that they may tie a user to purchasing components of a specific brand and/or possibly make obsolete the user's existing equipment. It is therefore preferable to utilise an existing digital data scheme identifying an operative component, the apparatus is then able to sense the operative component by decoding the digital data. Suitable examples include, but are not limited to, Project50 and IEEE1394/HAVi. In a preferred embodiment, the system components and apparatus unit are interconnected using Project50. In this case, the apparatus unit may be able to explicitly sense a component operative in the system, for example by monitoring and interpreting the Project50 message traffic between components of the system. In addition, Project50 may also be used to deliver and send commands to/from the apparatus unit, as discussed earlier.
Further features and advantages will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
Within the following description of embodiments of the present invention, the term ‘home electronics system’ refers to any system comprising a collection of A/V components, including, but not limited to, TV, VCR, DVD player, recordable DVD, AV receiver and other components including, but not limited to, security system components (sensors, actuators, etc.), personal computers, PC peripherals, home appliances, information appliances and the like. The term ‘Project50’ refers to versions, as defined from time to time, of the IEC AV-Link specification for signalling using Pin10 of a Scart connection. At the time of filing of the present application, the DMI specification is emerging; it is to be noted that all references herein to the term ‘Project50’ include the definition of ‘Project50’ as incorporated in the DMI specification or any other subsequent formats, in addition to the aforementioned AV-Link specification. The term ‘operative component’ means a component within the home electronics system which is, for example playing media or is the most recently controlled component.
Each port of the apparatus may utilise additional circuitry in order to interface to wired and/or wireless media as discussed earlier; such circuitry is well known to the skilled person and, by way of, example, an embodiment is described below with respect to
Concerning the system status information signal input at port 216. This signal might be an analogue video signal sourced by an operative component in the system. Characteristics of the signal might be checked by the data processing unit, individually or in combination, to deduce the identity of the operative component. For example, a VCR video output may be characterised by synchronisation jitter and/or the head-switching transient near the end of a field interval; either or both these characteristics might be analysed to deduce that the present playout is from a VCR. In the case of a DVD analogue video output, this signal might be considered to very closely resemble an analogue broadcast signal (received via terrestrial, cable or satellite); a distinguishing feature of DVD playout might be characterised by the absence of VBI signals such as teletext, VPS and/or broadcaster insertion test signals (for example ‘staircase’, or ‘pulse and bar’). These characteristics may be tested to deduce the playout is from a DVD player.
Alternatively the system status information signal applied at port 216 may comprise digital data. To minimise processing overhead in the apparatus, a preferred method is one in which the system status information signal includes an easily decodable identifier indicating an operative component. It will be apparent to the skilled person that many suitable schemes may be devised; however, new or proprietary schemes may not be quickly or commercially accepted in the market and moreover will be incompatible with the existing population of (so called ‘legacy’) components in the field. A preferred method is where the system status information signal is Project50. The data processing unit may monitor and analyse Project50 traffic available at port 216 to explicitly determine an operative component in the system. This has the advantage that an existing, rather than new, signalling scheme may be utilised and that legacy Project50-enabled components already in the field may also be included. For non-Project50-enabled products, the implicit deduction methods described earlier may be used, thereby ensuring that any home electronics system is compatible with the method of the invention.
As discussed, the data processing unit may generate commands to send to components in the system in response to the receipt of a command. It may employ a variety of strategies in order to identify and associate a command encoding suitable for a specific component in the system. One strategy is for the data processing unit to send a command repeatedly to a component, each repeat using a different command encoding in turn until it senses the component successfully responding to the command; whereupon it may store the relevant encoding type associated with the component in the store 214. Another strategy is for the data processing unit to monitor remote control commands sent by the user to a component; the data processing unit may receive and identify the command and associate it with a component by sensing the response of a component to the command. These strategies may be especially effective when component response is sensed by monitoring Project50 messages. The above strategies are useful where the commands are sent from the apparatus via infrared or radio. However, sending commands from the apparatus using infrared or radio has practical limitations of line-of-sight and/or range; in addition such commands must be targeted at a specific component and this may cause problems for example where there are identical components in the system and infrared/radio command encoding schemes do not accommodate such duplicate components. A preferred embodiment is where commands are sent via a system level protocol rather than component level protocol, such that a particular component is uniquely identified within the system, regardless of the number, type or brand of components in the system. As discussed earlier, a custom remote control can be used to apply system level commands to the apparatus; similarly, the apparatus can also send commands (via a suitable medium) to specific components of the system using system level commands. A preferred embodiment is to send commands to components of the system using Project50. An alternative preferred embodiments is to send commands to components using IEEE1394/HAVi.
In order to achieve the goal of ensuring zero involvement by the user in initialising and/or updating the apparatus, a preferred embodiment may arrange to decode and identify infrared remote control commands of all major CE brands and specific component types (TV, VCR, etc.) within those brands. In addition, the apparatus may also be arranged to decode and identify commands received via other media such as wired or radio; in particular via Project50 or IEEE1394/HAVi. In another configuration, the apparatus may alternatively or additionally include decoding and identification of generic remote control commands associated with a custom, remote controller supplied with the apparatus. Such a custom remote control might include generic function keys such as ‘menu’, ‘cursor’ (up/down/left/right), ‘OK’, etc. It is noted that, unlike prior art solutions, the user is not required at any time (i.e. at initial installation or at any subsequent occasion, for example when adding a new component to the system) to identify to the apparatus any configuration information whatsoever (for example the identities of the components in the system and/or the commands they use). A further advantage over the prior art is that a user may on any occasion operate the system using any remote control available to hand which contains the required function key(s).
The interconnection means 308 may comprise any suitable bus or networking means (wired or wireless) or any combination thereof. Wired schemes include, but not limited to, RS232, USB, Ethernet, Project50, IEEE1394/HAVi. Wireless schemes include, but not limited to, Bluetooth, IEEE802.11, ZigBee, HomeRF, WiFi, other low power radio (e.g. 868 MHz, 915 MHz), IrDA, infrared remote control. With reference to the example of
Alternatively the present example utilises Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) messages carried over the High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI). The drivers 512 suitably interface the CEC bus to the system status signal port (see
The foregoing implementations are presented by way of example only and represent a selection of a range of implementations that can readily be identified by a person skilled in the art to exploit the advantages of the present invention.
In the description above and with reference to
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0208317.8 | Apr 2002 | GB | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IB03/01188 | 3/21/2003 | WO |
