Patent Application
20050009173
The invention relates to a system for remote control of at least two controllable devices, the system comprising a remote control device with communicating means for communicating to the controllable devices a user-specified command produced by the remote control device.
The invention also relates to a method of remote control of at least two controllable devices, the method comprising the step of communicating a user-specified command to the controllable devices.
An embodiment of such a system is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,748,263.
Well known remote control systems include consumer electronics products, such as a television set (TV), videocassette recorder (VCR), which are remote-controllable devices and can receive user commands produced by means of a remote control device. Sometimes, such remote control systems involve two or more controllable devices, which may be identical. When the controllable devices are situated fairly close to each other, a signal of the remote control device may reach not only the targed-controllable device, but also another controllable device. Both devices will receive the signal and respond to it. This situation may occur in the showrooms of shops, exhibition pavilions, studios with professional electronics equipment, home theaters and other places with controllable devices, like TVs, VCRs, digital versatile disk (DVD) recorders, etc.
It is known to communicate to a group of apparatuses by assigning unique addresses to the apparatuses and indicating these addresses at the apparatuses themselves. Consequently, these apparatuses are unique and not identical. It is also already known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,673 to communicate between apparatuses with the help of using applications stored in these apparatuses. Thus, current remote control systems with a one-directional communication do not allow control of the identical remote-controllable devices without using special software, introducing any differences or hardware changes into the identical apparatuses or storing the unique pre-assigned addresses in said identical devices.
For many consumer electronics products, an infrared light is commonly used as a carrier for wireless communication. Thus, it is also necessary to develop a remote control system that can be adapted to operate with the infrared devices.
It is an object of the invention to provide a system for remote control of at east two controllable devices of the kind defined in the opening paragraph, which will be able to identify identical controllable devices and control them independently of each other.
The object of the invention is realized in that:
In this way, the system of the invention comprises the coding device and the decoding device and allows control of identical devices. It is assumed that the controllable devices could be conventional controllable devices and are not necessarily identical.
There are many possibilities for implementation of the system of the present invention. The coding and decoding devices could be designed as devices which are not dependent on the implementation of the remote control device and controllable devices. Thus, the coding device includes receiving means for obtaining the command from the remote control device and could be manufactured as a separate device. Similarly, the decoding device includes transmitting means and may be separate from the controllable device. It is also supposed that the receiving and transmitting means of the coding and decoding devices are suitable to communicate with the receiving and transmitting means of the remote control device and controllable devices.
Another possibility for implementation of the system of the present invention may be to design the coding device and the decoding devices in combination with the remote control device and the controllable devices, respectively. For example, the communicating means of the remote control device may be combined with the transmitting means of the coding device, and the communicating means of the controllable device may be combined with the receiving means of the decoding device.
The object of the invention is also realized in that the method of the invention comprises the further steps of:
The method of the invention describes steps of operation of the system for remote control of at least two controllable devices.
These and other aspects of the invention will be further elucidated with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Referring now to the drawings,
The remote control device 6 may have a number of keys, which generally include numerical keys, function keys and means 7 for selecting a device identifier associated with the controlled device, like the controllable device 4 or 5. An extra switch on the remote control device or coding device could implement said means for selection of the device identifiers. The decoding devices 2,3 may include means 8,9 for setting further device identifiers associated with the controlled devices 4, 5.
In
The remote control device 6 produces the user-specified command 10. The coding device 1 comprises input means 11, coding means 12 and transmitting means 13. Thus, the coding device 1 may obtain the user-specified command 10 using the input means 11. Then, the coding means add to the user-specified command the selected device identifier, which can be assigned to the specific controllable device or a group of the controllable devices. The transmitting means 13 of the coding device 1 further transmit a signal 20 incorporating the user-specified command and the device identifier to be received by the decoding devices.
The decoding devices 2, 3 comprise receiving means 14, 15, decoding means 16, 17 and output means 18, 19. The user-specified command and the device identifier 20 are being received by the receiving means 14, 15 of the decoding devices 2, 3. Then the decoding means 16, 17 extract the received device identifier and compare it with the further device identifier, which identifies the associated controllable device. The decoding means refrain from further operation with the received user-specified command if said identifiers do not match. If the received device identifier and the further device identifier, which identifies the associated controllable device, do match, the output means of the decoding device further supply the received user-specified command to the associated controllable device.
As is shown in
The coding and decoding devices can be implemented separately from the remote control device and controllable devices. In this case, the coding device may include receiving means for obtaining the user-specified command from the remote control device, and the decoding device may include transmitting means for supplying the user-specified command to the controllable device. However, there is a requirement that said receiving means of the coding device can communicate with the transmitting means of the remote control device and said transmitting means of the decoding device can communicate with the receiving means of the controllable device.
In this way, the coding or decoding devices can be realized as is shown in
The embodiment depicted in
An alternative to having the microcontroller 32, which can implement the coding or decoding means, is to build the coding and decoding functions directly into the program stored in the read-only memory 42. This would eliminate the need for the microcontroller 32. Of course, other hardware to perform the coding or decoding functions may also be used.
The described system of the present invention allows cost-effective implementations with the additional advantages of using the infrared communication. The remote control device may be the conventional remote control device producing infrared signals that are received by the controllable device. The controllable devices may include televisions, VCRs or other electronic appliances or devices capable of receiving the infrared signals. Accordingly, the coding device may be designed to receive the infrared signals produced by the remote control device. The infrared signals produced by the transmitting means of the decoding device can be adapted to transmit the same key characteristic (such as frequency and duration) as the infrared signals produced by the remote control device. Thus, said decoding device can communicate with the controlled device in the same way as the conventional remote control device would communicate with the controllable device.
Other implementations, which provide similar functions, could be substituted for the aforementioned implementations without departing from the scope of the present invention.
The method of the invention describes steps of operation of the system for remote control of at least two controllable devices: adding to the user-specified command a device identifier for identification of at least one of the controllable devices and transmitting the device identifier and the user-specified command.
Obviously, different frame structures may be used to compose a message including the device identifier and the user-specified command. For example, a header incorporating the device identifier may be added to the message with the user-specified command. Any digital, symbol or other format may be used for implementation of the device identifiers.
The method further comprises steps being executed at the decoding device: receiving the device identifier and the user-specified command; then extracting the device identifier, comparing said extracted device identifier with a further device identifier for identification of the controllable device. The method provides the steps of refraining from further operation with the received user-specified command if said identifiers do not match, and supplying the user-specified command to the controllable device if the identifiers do match.
The steps of receiving and sending the user-specified command or the device identifier and user-specified command could be modified accordingly for the system of the present invention. Thus, the step of supplying the user-specified command to the controllable device may comprise a step of transmitting the user-specified command to the controllable device. Also, the step of obtaining the user-specified command from the remote control device may comprise a step of receiving the user-specified command from the remote control device.
Before the afore-mentioned steps, the device identifiers have to be assigned to the associated controllable devices or to the groups of the controllable devices and then indicated in the decoding device. The device identifier could be indicated in the coding device with the help of the means for selecting the device identifiers, and in the decoding device with the help of the means for setting the further device identifiers associated with the controlled device. Various switches, buttons, keys, other hardware realizations or program products could implement these means for selecting and setting device identifiers.
The invention makes it possible to control many controllable devices by using the one remote control device with the means for selecting of the device identifiers. When each device identifier is associated with the only one controllable device, a user can select the associated device identifier at the remote control device and control this controllable device independently of the rest of them.
The remote control system of the present invention also allows the use of more than one remote control device equipped with the coding device. It is also possible to use the remote control devices equipped with the coding devices and the conventional remote control devices at the same time in the system.
The various program products may implement the functions of the system and method of the present invention and may be combined in several ways with the hardware or located in different devices. Variations and modifications of the described embodiment are possible within the scope of the inventive concept.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 012046124 | Nov 2001 | EP | regional |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IB02/04604 | 10/31/2002 | WO |
