The following relates generally to controlling devices and, more particularly, to a configurable controlling device having an associated editor program for use in configuring, among other things, the user interface and functionality of the controlling device.
Editor programs for configuring a controlling device, such as a hand held remote control, are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,211,870 illustrates and describes a controlling device which is programmable from a PC using an advanced, object-oriented user interface. More particularly, multiple user selectable screen objects may be created on the PC and transferred to the controlling device. The screen objects include screen layout and descriptions of soft keys to be displayed on a graphic display of the controlling device, as well as commands associated with the screen object, the soft keys and/or programmable keys on the remote control unit. The user may then select any of the screen objects once they have been transferred to the controlling device to control the operation of various appliances.
Similarly, PCT published application no. WO 00/39772 discloses a universal, programmable remote control device which has programming that enables an end-user to customize the remote control device through editing or programming of the control functionalities of the remote control device. The programming is achieved via a PC. In this manner, the control configuration created via an editor on the PC can be downloaded into the device. It is additionally disclosed that the PC has emulator software to test the configuration before downloading. It is to be understood that WO 00/39772 generally discloses the editor for the Philips' “Pronto” brand remote control.
Increasingly, such programmable controlling devices are utilized in environments which include networked and/or interactive appliances. While these known controlling devices and associated editor programs do continue to work for their intended purpose in such environments, programming of these controlling devices has become increasingly tedious and in many instances cannot be accomplished without a detailed knowledge of the exact configuration of the target appliance network or, in some cases, without the physical presence of a fully operational appliance network during the programming process.
The following generally discloses an editor program for use in configuring a user interface of a controlling device, together with a configurable controlling device such as a hand-held remote control unit. The editor program allows a user to create on a personal computer for downloading to the controlling device a graphical user interface comprised of user interface pages having icons which icons, when activated on the controlling device, cause the controlling device to perform a function, such as to transmit a command to an appliance, to change the user interface display, etc. The editor program provides, among other things, for selection and placement of icons onto user interface display pages, assignment of commands to function keys (both iconic and hard keys), assignment of backgrounds to user interface pages or groups of pages, creation of icon-activated user-defined command sequences, pre-rendering of user interface pages prior to downloading of the user interface to the controlling device, etc. Advantageously, in an exemplary embodiment the user interface editor and the operating software of the controlling device may also support the creation and editing of n-state widgets, which are unitary GUI objects comprising one or more touch activated areas together with one or more display graphics (not necessarily in a one-for-one relationship) and which are capable of both initiating parameterized command functions in response to touch inputs, as well as receiving and acting upon status responses from target appliances. Each of the attributes of an n-state widget (touch area(s), command functions, display data, response behavior) are abstracted from the others and may be independently edited, and not all are required to be present in a given instance of such a widget.
In a further advantageous embodiment, the user interface editor may provide for the creation of virtual devices, that is, appliances which are defined in terms of abstract functionality without any attachment to a physical network address, command transmission format, etc. Using such virtual devices, a complete graphical user interface system may be designed and implemented independently of actual target appliance and network specifications. Upon download of such GUI programming into a compatible controlling device, the operating software of the controlling device may guide a user through a setup process in which virtual devices are linked to physical appliances present in that controlling device's environment. In this manner, graphical user interface system development is enabled without necessitating the physical presence of target appliances, as well as the creation of template GUIs which may be reused multiple times in different appliance environments.
The various advantages, features, properties and relationships of this improved user interface editor and controlling device system will be obtained from the following detailed description and accompanying drawings which set forth illustrative embodiments which are indicative of the various ways in which the principles thereof may be employed.
For use in better understanding the user interface editor and configuration distribution system and related methods described hereinafter reference may be had to the following drawings in which:
The following discloses a controlling device having a face panel on which is carried a user interface activatable to cause transmission of at least one command to at least one appliance. Turning now to the figures, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements,
Turning now to
The non-volatile read/write memory 206, for example an EEPROM, battery-backed up RAM, Smart Card, memory stick, or the like, may be provided to store setup data and parameters as necessary. It is to be additionally understood that the memory devices may take the form of any type of readable media, such as, for example, ROM, RAM, SRAM, FLASH, EEPROM, Smart Card, memory stick, a chip, a hard disk, a magnetic disk, and/or an optical disk. Still further, it will be appreciated that some or all of the illustrated memory devices 202, 204, and 206 may be physically incorporated within the same IC chip as the microprocessor 200 (a so called “microcontroller”) and, as such, they are shown separately in
To cause the controlling device 100 to perform an action, the controlling device 100 is adapted to be responsive to events, such as a sensed user interaction with the key matrix 216, receipt of a data or signal transmission, etc. In response to an event appropriate instructions within the memory may be executed. For example, when a command key is activated on the controlling device 100, the controlling device 100 may retrieve a command code corresponding to the activated command key from memory 204 or 206 and transmit the command code to a device in a format recognizable by the device. It will be appreciated that the instructions within the memory can be used not only to cause the transmission of command codes and/or data to the appliances but also to perform local operations. While not limiting, other local operations that may be performed by the controlling device 100 include execution of pre-programmed macro command sequences, displaying information/data, manipulating the appearance of a graphical user interface presented on a local LCD display 218, etc., and in an exemplary embodiment illustrative of the instant inventive concepts, managing the linkage between virtual devices defined by a GUI editing program and real devices present in the controlled environment. For convenience and economy of development effort, the software programming of controlling device 100 may utilize an underlying operating system such as, for example, Microsoft's “Windows CE” or “Windows Mobile” brand operating systems.
As contemplated in the above referenced and related U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 11/357,681 and 11/218,900 and provisional applications 60/608,183 and 60/705,926, the graphical user interface (“GUI”) and certain functionalities of controlling device 100 may be defined via a software based editing tool 300 which may be supplied as an application program to be installed on a PC 302 running an operating system, for example, a Microsoft “Windows” brand operating system, as generally illustrated in
Editor application 300 may be offered by the manufacturer of the controlling device 100 on a CD ROM, for download from a Web site, etc., as appropriate for installation on a PC of the user's choice. Once the editor application is installed on the user's PC 302, the controlling device GUI may be created or revised using the editor application, stored locally as a file 310 on PC 302 and/or caused to be downloaded into controlling device 100 via a hardwired connection 304, a wireless link 306 (e.g., WiFi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, etc.) or any other convenient means. Additionally, it will be appreciated that the editor application 300, although primarily resident on the user's local PC 302, may also be adapted to access additional data items from remotely located servers via the Internet 308, from appliances linked to the PC 302 via a home network, etc. Examples of such items may include, without limitation, IR command codes (e.g., to allow for support of new appliances), data which indicates operations supported by an appliance, device model number cross-references (e.g., for entering into the controlling device for set-up purposes as disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,587,067), operational software updates for controlling device 100, etc. It will also be appreciated that in such an environment data may also be uploaded from PC 302 to a centralized repository, e.g., a remotely located, Internet accessible server. Such uploaded information may include, for example, current user configurations, learned IR code data, etc., and may be comprised of or derived from data stored locally on PC 302 (for example, file 310) and/or data retrieved from controlling device 100 during the times controlling device 100 is coupled to PC 302.
Certain aspects of the operation of exemplary controlling device 100 will now be discussed in conjunction with
Controlling device 100 may include both a touch activated LCD screen 218 with soft keys (or other form of touch panel) and several groups of hard buttons 414, 416, 418, 420. The hard buttons groups might comprise, for example, a volume control group 416 (e.g., volume up, down, and mute), a channel changing group 418 (e.g., channel up, down, and return), a navigation group embodied in disk 414 (e.g., for menu navigation and selection including up, down, left, right, and enter/select), and/or a row of programmable keys 420 (e.g., keys for supporting macros or other to-be-configured functions).
Upon start of operation, or any time the “Home” button 422 (e.g., on the side of the device) is activated, an exemplary Home Page GUI 400 may be presented within the display. The illustrated, exemplary home Page 400 includes five touch-activated buttons. By way of example only, touching icon 402 may be used to initiate the activity of watching cable TV by causing controlling device 100 to transmit the commands required to power on cable STB 104, power on TV 102, select the TV input to which the cable STB is connected, and then cause the controlling device GUI to transition to a page (e.g., display having soft keys, an EPG, or the like) from which cable STB channel selection may be input (for further tuning, retrieving related content information, etc.). Touching icon 404 may be used to similarly cause the controlling device to place the entertainment system into a condition suitable for watching a DVD movie, while touching icon 406 may be used to cause the controlling device to place the system into a condition suitable for listening to music. Touching icon 410 may be used to cause the controlling device to transition to another page 800 of the GUI (an example of which is shown in
Turning now to
Main project panel 902, used to display the current GUI page being edited (Home Page 400 in this illustration) together with a representation 922 of the hard keys (keys 414 through 420) available on target controlling device 100;
Project View panel 904, used to display all currently defined GUI pages in a tree structure form (which may, as depicted in the exemplary embodiment shown, have collapse [−] and expand [+] functionality including selective expansion of individual nodes and/or a collapse all/expand all feature) where the GUI page to be edited may be selected (e.g., by clicking on a link) from within the tree structure list and wherein the GUI page being displayed in the Main project panel 902 may be indicated by a highlight 918 (the Home Page in the instant illustration);
Properties panel 906, used to display a list of (and allow editing of—for example by text entry, selection from drop down menus, etc.) the properties (such as the caption text and font attributes, symbol position, button type, etc.) associated with a presently selected GUI icon or hard key image within Main project panel 902 (GUI icon or soft key 404′ with label “DVD Movie” in this illustration, as indicated by the highlight (dotted line) around icon 404′ displayed in Main project panel 902);
Gallery panel 908, used to display graphic images which may be dragged and dropped onto the GUI pages being edited wherein the Gallery choices may include sets of icons for use as buttons, page backgrounds, symbols for labeling buttons, key groups (to allow a group of related key icons, e.g. a numeric pad, to be dragged into place in a single operation), to allow pre-defined themes to be applied to single pages or groups of pages, or in an exemplary embodiment to allow home control interface items such as n-state widgets to be dragged and dropped onto GUI pages being edited, and wherein the Gallery in use (when multiple, organized Galleries are provided) is selected via tabs 914 according to the exemplary embodiment shown;
Actions panel 910, used to display a list of (and allow editing of—for example by dragging and dropping to change the order, by deleting selected items, etc.) the actions to be performed by controlling device 100 when the currently selected icon (in the Main panel 902) is activated by a user when the user interface is provided to the controlling device (e.g., in the example presented, it can be seen that activating the “DVD Movie” icon 404′ will: (1) transmit a “Power On” command to DVD player 106, (2) transmit a “Power On” command to TV set 102, (3) wait one second for the devices to stabilize, then (4) transmit a “Component 2” input selection command to TV 102, (5) transmit “DVD” input selection command to Audio Receiver 108, and finally (6) jump to GUI page 700 corresponding to the DVD transport controls (illustrated in
Devices panel 912 which is preferably used to display a listing of all remote control commands available for each of the appliances setup to be controlled by controlling device 100 wherein the list of commandable functions for a given appliance to be displayed may be selected from a drop down list 916 (which in the illustrative example would comprise a TV 102, a cable STB 104, a DVD player 106, and an audio receiver 108) and wherein the commandable functions so displayed may be assigned to any icon displayed in main project panel 902 by simply clicking and dragging a commandable function icon to, for example, a desired location with a listing of functions displayed in the Actions panel 910 and/or over an icon displayed in the Main panel (where it would be added, for example, to the top or bottom of the listing of commands within the Action panel display).
The operation of an exemplary editing program 300 used to create the above-disclosed, illustrative “Home control” GUI page 800 will be now described in further detail with reference to
As mentioned earlier, an n-state widget, such as 4-state lighting control widget 1008, may comprise multiple touch areas, actions, images, and status responses all of which are independently variable. Once placed on a GUI page as described above, in an exemplary embodiment of editing program 300 double clicking image 1008 may initiate a widget configuration wizard 1100 superimposed on the standard PC screen display 1150 of editor application 300 as illustrated in
Turning now to
Turning now to
In some embodiments, certain n-state widgets may be defined which do not include all the attributes described in the previous example, i.e., image, touch control output, status input, and status response. By way of illustration, an exemplary current temperature display widget of a thermostat control, such as 1018 in
Turning now to
As is apparent from the above, multiple n-state widgets may be defined to monitor and react to the same status of a target appliance. Accordingly, in some embodiments the required appliance polling functionality of controlling device 100 may be implemented as a single instance associated with the target appliance definition, and independent of the widgets which utilize the response data. In this manner a single polling sequence may retrieve the required status data on a periodic basis and cache the response value(s) for use as needed by particular widgets, e.g., when displayed, thereby minimizing overhead on the network or other communication link(s) used for appliance command and status messaging. In an exemplary embodiment, the polling parameters may thus be configured in GUI editor application 300 as a characteristic of the target appliance representation, and not as a characteristic of individual widgets. By way of example, clicking on an “edit device” icon 1016 in devices panel 912 may invoke an exemplary device properties configuration wizard 1600 for the current device, as illustrated in
When a user of exemplary editor program 300 has completed creation and/or modification of a GUI configuration, the GUI configuration may be subsequently transferred to a controlling device 100 either via a physical connection (e.g., a cable 304, a docking station, etc.) or via a wireless connection 306 (e.g., WiFi, Bluetooth, Z-wave, Zigbee, or any other suitable protocol), for example by clicking “Download project” tab 924. Prior to downloading, editor program 300 may pre-process certain elements of the project file 310 data into a data structure 311 which may be in a format more suitable for direct use within controlling device 100, as described in greater detail in previously referenced U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/218,900.
As mentioned earlier, in certain self-configuring networks such as for example a Z-wave wireless mesh network for home control and automation based on components available from Zensys Inc., final appliance network addresses, etc., may only be determinable by a controlling device at the time that the controlling device is physically introduced into the network. Accordingly, in some embodiments a GUI configuration downloaded into an exemplary controlling device 100 may include generic virtual devices created as placeholders during the editing process. Turning now to
Upon activation of “Link” icon 1704, in an exemplary embodiment a user may be presented with a display 1800 as illustrated in
Alternatively, to cancel an existing linkage a user may touch the checkbox associated with an already configured virtual device, for example checkbox 1810 corresponding to the link 1806, followed by actuation of the “Break” icon 1816. In confirmation of such an action, the linkage indicator 1806 may be changed to an “unlinked” symbol similar to that illustrated at 1808 and an entry corresponding to the newly-detached physical node “4” added to the list of available ecosystem nodes displayed in area 1804. In some embodiments, a “Reset” icon 1822 may also be provided, actuation of which may break all existing links—to be used, for example, when relocating a controlling device to an entirely new environment.
Before a link between a virtual equivalent of an appliance and an intended target appliance is finalized for use within an operational configuration of the controlling device 100, a user may be afforded an opportunity to ascertain if controlling device 100 is communicating with an intended target appliance or an appropriate appliance node either before or after a virtual device to physical node linkage is established. In an exemplary embodiment this may be achieved by selection of either an already-linked virtual device from the list in area 1802 (e.g., Multilevel Lighting node 1810) or selection of one unlinked item from each of areas 1802 and 1804 (e.g., Generic Thermostat 1811 and Z-wave ecosystem node “3” 1812), followed by actuation of “Test” icon 1818. In the embodiment illustrated, this may result in display of a page 1850 which lists the features and status of the selected appliance (node “4”, Multilevel Lighting, in the illustrated case.) From this display, a user may ascertain the node ID 1864 and associated (or to be associated) virtual device 1862, the type(s) of service 1854 available from this appliance node, and the current status of the appliance node 1870. Further, the user may exercise the appliance by selecting a parameter value from drop-down table 1860 and actuating the “Set” icon 1858 to cause transmission of that value to the appliance node. Subsequently, the changed status of the appliance may be verified by actuation of the “Get” icon 1856 which may cause the status display 1870 to be updated by retrieval of a new value from the appliance node. By way of specific example, if multilevel lighting node “4” corresponded to dimmer outlet 114 of
In the event that appliance services or responses are not as expected or desired, if an already-linked virtual device/appliance node pair was under test, the link may be immediately broken by actuation of “Break” icon 1868. After completion of all desired testing, controlling device 100 may be returned to its previous state (i.e., screen 1800) by actuation of “Back” icon 1868.
In the event that a similar or compatible controlling device has already been configured with a set of virtual device to physical device linkages appropriate for the current ecosystem, upon introducing an additional controlling device 100 into the environment a user may select the “synchronize” option 1702, which mode may be used to transfer a copy of the exiting linkage assignments from the previously configured other controlling device to the newly-introduced controlling device. In order to accomplish this, both controlling devices may placed into the linkage initialization mode illustrated in
While various concepts have been described in detail, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications and alternatives to those concepts could be developed in light of the overall teachings of the disclosure. For example, while the embodiments presented above are described in the context of universal remote controls (i.e., controlling devices capable of commanding the operation of multiple classes of appliances devices from multiple manufacturers) as being most broadly representative of controlling devices in general, it will be appreciated that the teachings of this disclosure may be equally well applied to other controlling devices of narrower capability, and also to any general or specific purpose device requiring a visual interface (i.e., display screens, signage devices, teleprompters, etc.) without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Still further, it will be appreciated that the user interfaces described herein need not be limited to controlling devices but can be utilized in connection with any device having input elements wherein it is desired to convey information concerning such input elements. For example, the user interface may be utilized with devices such as calculators, phones, appliances, etc. having input elements having associated information conveying images in the form of alphanumeric and/or symbolic labels. It will also be understood that modification, editing, or updating of configuration settings may be performed either by a user or though any automated computing processes as are well known in the art. As such, the particular concepts disclosed are meant to be illustrative only and not limiting as to the scope of the invention which is to be given the full breadth of the appended claims and any equivalents thereof.
All documents cited within this application for patent are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
This application claims the benefit of and is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/673,271, filed on Nov. 9, 2012, which application claims the benefit of and is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 12/629,423, filed on Dec. 2, 2009, which application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/201,021, filed on Dec. 5, 2008, and which also claims the benefit of and is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/357,681, filed Feb. 16, 2006, which in turn is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/218,900 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,266,777), filed on Sep. 2, 2005, which in turn claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Nos. 60/608,183, filed on Sep. 8, 2004, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/705,926, filed on Aug. 5, 2005. Each of these applications is incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
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