Remote controller, remote control system, and method for displaying detailed information

Abstract

The present invention relates to a technology which acquires information specific to a device by an image pickup element and remotely controls a desired device based on the acquired device-specific information. Particularly, the present invention relates to a technology which displays information for performing detailed remote control easily. In the present invention, it is intended to display information about manipulation of a desired device as needed and to facilitate remote manipulation of the device. As a result, according to an aspect of the present invention, since detailed information of a desired device can be selected to be viewed, detailed information of each of multiple devices can be easily identified by a single controller as needed.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a remote control system according to a first embodiment;

FIGS. 2A and 2B are diagrams for illustrating a concept of device-specific information and detailed information transmitted from a device;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a remote controller;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart which illustrates a flow of a guide navigation mode process;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart which illustrates a flow of a process for displaying detailed information display process;

FIG. 6 is a diagram which shows an appearance in which information specific to a selected device is highlighted;

FIG. 7 is a diagram which shows an appearance in which detailed information received from a device (TV);

FIG. 8 is a diagram which shows an appearance in which desired detailed information is selected from detailed information received from a device (audio), and detailed information of a lower hierarchical layer of the selected detailed information is displayed;

FIG. 9 is a diagram which shows an appearance in which desired detailed information is selected from detailed information received from a device (DVD player), and detailed information of a lower hierarchical layer of the selected detailed information is displayed;

FIG. 10 is a schematic block diagram of a remote control system according to a second embodiment;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a DVD player which is an example of a device; and

FIG. 12 is a flowchart which illustrates a flow of a remote control process according to the second embodiment.

Claims

1. A remote controller, comprising: an acquisition section which continuously acquires, by an image pickup element, an image whose object is a target device to be remotely controlled, device-specific information optically transmitted from the device, and detailed information about control of the device;a display section which superimposes the image and the device-specific information which are continuously acquired by the acquisition section to display the superimposed image;an instruction accepting section which accepts, from a user, instructions of selection of information specific to a desired device to be remotely controlled from among devices whose such specific information is acquired and selection of a desired control content with respect to the device whose specific information is selected; anda remote control section which transmits a remote control signal corresponding to the control content selected at the instruction accepting section to the device whose specific information is selected at the instruction accepting section,wherein the display section displays detailed information about control of the device whose specific information is selected according to the selection of the specific information at the instruction accepting section.

2. The remote controller according to claim 1, wherein the instruction accepting section accepts selection of desired detailed information from detailed information about control of the device displayed on the display section, andwherein the remote control section transmits a remote control signal corresponding to a control content defined by the detailed information selected at the instruction accepting section to the device whose specific information is selected at the instruction accepting section.

3. The remote controller according to claim 1, wherein the display section displays the detailed information about control of the selected device for each hierarchical layer.

4. The remote controller according to claim 2, wherein the display section displays the detailed information about control of the selected device for each hierarchical layer.

5. A remote control system, comprising: a device which optically transmits specific information and detailed information about control of the device;an acquisition section which continuously acquires, by an image pickup element, an image whose object is the device, the device-specific information optically transmitted from the device, and the detailed information about control of the device;a display section which superimposes the image and the device-specific information which are continuously acquired by the acquisition section to display the superimposed image;an instruction accepting section which accepts, from a user, instructions of selection of information specific to a desired device to be remotely controlled from among devices whose such specific information is acquired and selection of a desired control content with respect to the device whose specific information is selected; anda remote control section which transmits a remote control signal corresponding to the control content selected at the instruction accepting section to the device whose specific information is selected at the instruction accepting section,wherein the display section displays detailed information about control of the device whose specific information is selected according to the selection of the specific information at the instruction accepting section.

6. A method for displaying detailed information, comprising the steps of: continuously acquiring, by an image pickup element, an image whose object is a target device to be remotely controlled, device-specific information optically transmitted from the device, and detailed information about control of the device;accepting, from a user, an instruction of selection of information specific to a desired device from among devices whose such specific information is acquired; anddisplaying detailed information about control of the device whose specific information selected according to the selection of the specific information.