The invention relates generally to the field of control devices. In particular, the invention relates to a remote control device with password functions.
Remote control devices (often simply referred to as remote control) have been widely used nowadays for many applications, from controlling audio video equipment, lighting to access control such as opening and closing a garage door, locking and unlocking a deadbolt lock, even arming and disarming an alarm system. Some of these applications involve security measure. For example, a garage door remote control for opening a garage door, a remote control for unlocking a door, or a remote control for arming and disarming an alarm system. Most of the remote controls can be accessed by any user simply by pressing the designated buttons. Gaining access to such a remote control generally means gaining access to the controlled security device. Therefore, it is desired to have additional security measure to these remote controls so that not everyone having physical access to a remote control device can activate the remote control device or the controlled device.
It is an object of the present invention to mitigate or obviate at least one of the above mentioned disadvantages.
The present invention relates generally to a remote control device with built-in password functions. A remote control device generally has different function buttons. These function buttons can be physical buttons, or these may be “virtual” buttons, i.e., as actuatable areas provided on a graphical user interface (“GUI”). These different function buttons can be assigned to different control functions or different devices. In general, a control signal is sent in response to a function button being activated, or pressed. Control signals sent in response to different buttons being actuated can be different. These function buttons can also be used as a password entry input means. When a function button is used for entering password, no control signal is transmitted when entering password. A user first enters a password, which will be verified by the remote control device. If the entered password is incorrect, the remote control device will not transmit any signal. If the entered password is correct, subsequent pressing of a function button will cause a corresponding control signal being transmitted.
In an aspect of the invention, a remote control device is provided. The remote control device includes a plurality of function buttons, a signal transmission circuitry, and a microprocessor operatively connected to both the signal transmission circuitry and the plurality of function buttons. Each of the plurality of function buttons corresponds to a control signal. The microprocessor is configured to, in response to a function button of the plurality of function buttons being activated, generate the control signal corresponding to the function button and cause the transmission circuitry to transmit the control signal. The remote control device has a password mode and when the password mode is enabled, the microprocessor is configured to receive a password entered using one or more of the plurality of function buttons, verify that the entered password is correct, and cause the transmission circuitry to transmit the control signal in response to the function button being activated only if the password is verified successfully.
As a feature of this aspect of the invention, the remote control device includes a memory storage device for storing the password. The password mode is enabled by storing the password in the memory storage device. As another feature, the password mode is enabled or disabled by toggling a password toggle.
As another feature, the microprocessor is configured to provide a password enable function for a user to enable or disable the password mode.
As a further feature, the microprocessor is configured to provide password programming function for receiving a new password from a user entered with the plurality of function buttons and for storing the new password in its memory storage device. The password programming function may be invoked by a pre-defined combination of function button activation, such as simultaneous activation of at least two function buttons, successive activations of one or more function buttons within a pre-defined time duration, pressing one or more function buttons continuously for a pre-defined minimum duration, or combinations thereof.
In password programming mode, the microprocessor may be configured to verify a user entered password against the password stored in the memory storage device and store a new password to replace the stored password only upon successful verification of the user entered password. The microprocessor may also be configured to disable its password mode if the new password fails to satisfy certain pre-defined criteria. As a further feature, an entry not satisfying the pre-defined criteria may be defined as a command and the microprocessor may be configured to erase the password from the memory storage device upon receiving a delete command and the password mode is disabled by erasing the password.
As another feature of the aspect of the invention, the remote control device has a device identification code stored in its memory storage device, and the microprocessor is configured to change the device identification code and erase the password from the memory storage device in response to a pre-defined combination of function button activation, such as simultaneous activation of at least two function buttons, successive activations of one or more function buttons within a pre-defined time duration, pressing one or more function buttons continuously for a pre-defined minimum duration, or combinations thereof.
In other aspects the invention provides various combinations and subsets of the aspects described above.
For the purposes of description, but not of limitation, the foregoing and other aspects of the invention are explained in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
The description which follows and the embodiments described therein are provided by way of illustration of an example, or examples, of particular embodiments of the principles of the present invention. These examples are provided for the purposes of explanation, and not limitation, of those principles and of the invention. In the description which follows, like parts are marked throughout the specification and the drawings with the same respective reference numerals.
As noted, it is desirable to add password functionality, which is often conventionally provided by adding additional password buttons. This would require additional hardware change. The inventors realize that password functions can also be provided by configuring the microprocessor to be responsive to pre-defined combinations of function button activation, without having to require additional password buttons. For example, a user may invoke a password programming function by entering a combination of key activation such as simultaneous pressing of several function buttons, quick succession of pressing (i.e., successive pressing within a short pre-defined time duration) of one or more function buttons, prolonged pressing (i.e., pressing and holding) of one or more function buttons and optionally coupled with pressing of other function button(s), among others, or combinations thereof. The microprocessor is configured to be responsive to such pre-defined combinations of key activation and will enter into different programming modes in response to different combinations, as will be described in detail below.
Firmware may be used to program, i.e., configure a microprocessor. Firmware can be stored in the memory storage device 213 and accessed or loaded by microprocessor 207 when needed. When so programmed, function buttons on the remote control can be used for password entry. A remote control device thus may be configured to have a password mode and have the password mode enabled. With the password mode enabled, before the remote control transmits any signal, a valid password must first be entered through the same buttons that will be used for signal transmission.
When a remote control is not used, the microprocessor may be placed in sleep mode, which operates at a much slower clock speed in order to reduce current consumption and to extend battery life. At step 301, the microprocessor 207 detects whether there is any button activation. If a function button is pressed, the microprocessor will wake up, i.e., operate at a higher clock speed, such as rated clock speed. If there is no button activation, the microprocessor will continue to sleep until a button is pressed. When a function button is pressed, the microprocessor will determine at step 303 whether the remote control has its password mode enabled or disabled. A remote control device can have its password mode enabled by simply storing a password in the memory storage device and enabling this function, as will be described below. The microprocessor may also use a memory toggle, such as a register, to indicate whether it has the password mode enabled or disabled. A user can choose whether to enable or disable such password mode and the microprocessor is configured to let a user to control the enabling and disabling of password mode. How to enable or disable password mode will be described in detail later.
If the password mode is disabled, the remote control behaves like a traditional remote control. The microprocessor will treat the button pressed as a signal transmission command and jump to step 311 to transmit the corresponding signal. In other words, if password mode is not enabled, the remote control will send out signal immediately when a function button is pressed.
When the password mode is enabled, the microprocessor will expect the user to continue to enter a password at step 305. This can be done by entering a password with the function buttons 201, 203, 205 on the remote control. For example, if a password is 4 digits long and is “1231”, the user will need to press function buttons 201, 203, 205 consecutively in the following order: button 201 corresponding to digit “1”, button 203 corresponding to digit “2”, button 205 corresponding to digit “3”, and again button 201 corresponding to digit “1”. Passwords can be stored in the memory device 213 (
As indicated earlier, each function button 201, 203, 205 can be assigned to a digit. The corresponding digit is entered each time a function button is pressed. A password therefore corresponds to a sequence of pressing of these function buttons. A password may be required to meet certain pre-defined criteria. For example, a password can have several digits, usually within a pre-defined range, for instance, maximum 6 digits and minimum 2 digits. If the entered password has more digits than the pre-defined maximum length, such as 6 digits, the microprocessor 207 at step 419 will not accept such entry and it will quit from password programming mode. If the entered password has less than 2 digits, in this case, only one digit, the entered password also will not be saved as a new password. In addition, the microprocessor can be programmed to treat a single digit entry in password programming mode as a command, as will be described in detail below. If the new password meets all requirements, it will be stored in the memory storage device 213 at step 421. Once saved, the new password must be entered correctly by a user next time at step 305 before the remote control device will accept further user input (step 309) as described earlier.
As described above, the microprocessor at step 415 may treat a single digit “password” as a command. This command may be designated as a delete command to erase the current password and the microprocessor will consequently erase the password from the memory storage device at step 417. Conveniently, when the password is erased, the password mode is disabled. Of course, a disable command can also be pre-defined, in response to which the microprocessor simply toggles an enable/disable register, without deleting the stored password. Thus, the microprocessor can be configured to be responsive to special commands that are special entries in password programming mode, which do not satisfy the pre-defined criteria, such as having a length outside the pre-defined range for valid passwords. In order to avoid accidental disabling of password mode due to mistakes in entering new password, such a delete command or disable command may be selected to satisfy additional requirements, in addition to being outside the pre-defined range. For example, a user may be allowed to enter a single digit “password” in password programming mode to disable the password mode but not a “password” with more than 6 digits for deleting a password. Alternatively, a password enable/disable function can be provided, invoking of which allows a user to enable or disable the password mode.
The microprocessor is also configured to let a user to reset a password or to erase the password from the memory and also reset its device identification (ID) code at the same time.
Various examples of the invention have now been described in detail. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that numerous modifications, adaptations and variations may be made to the examples without departing from the scope of the invention. Since changes in and/or additions to the above-described best mode may be made without departing from the scope of the invention, the invention is not to be limited to those details but only by the appended claims.
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