This invention relates generally to a television remote control and, more particularly, to a television remote control system and method with alphanumeric input.
Many televisions have associated remote controls. A viewer actuates keys or buttons on the remote to control various television settings. For example, a viewer might actuate power, channel, volume, and mute keys to control a television's power, channel, volume, and mute settings, respectively. The remote might additionally include numeric keys (e.g., 0-9 buttons) for directly inputting specific channels and navigation buttons (e.g., up, down, left, right, and select) for controlling menus displayed on the television. And the remote control might include miscellaneous buttons (e.g., play, pause, rewind, fast forward, and rewind) for controlling devices external to the television, e.g., video cassette players and recorders, satellite receivers, digital video disk players, compact disk players, and the like.
Interactive televisions often contain a wide variety of simultaneously executing applications as well as displaying broadcast content. For example, interactive televisions allow the display of broadcast content on one window while simultaneously executing an application running in another window. Typical remote controls are adequate for controlling common television functions, such as the functions we describe above, but are often inadequate for the additional advanced functions associated with interactive televisions.
Many interactive televisions run applications that require alphanumeric input, such as would be available on a personal computer executing the same applications. While remote controls often include numeric keys (e.g., 0-9 buttons) for the direct entry of specific channels as we describe above, they do not include alphabetic, punctuation, space, and other special characters often necessary to control advanced applications and/or functions on an interactive television. For example, alphanumeric input might be necessary to run a word processing or search application running on an interactive television.
Prior interactive televisions include soft keyboards that graphically display an alphanumeric keyboard on the television screen. The viewer uses navigation buttons (e.g.., up, down, left, right, and select) to traverse the soft keyboard and select the desired letter or character. Soft keyboards are inefficient and time consuming because several keystrokes are necessary to actuate a single letter.
Other interactive televisions implement telephone-style input by associating a single remote control key to a group of alphabetic letters, the first letter being actuated by a single press of the key, the second letter being actuated by a second press of the key, the third letter being actuated by the third press of the key, and so on. For example, the letters “a,” “b,” and “c” are associated with a particular key, e.g., the number 2. A single press of the number 2 key selects the letter “a” while two presses selects the letter “b” and three presses selects the letter “c.” As with soft keyboards, telephone-style input is inefficient and time consuming because several keystrokes are necessary to actuate a single letter.
Accordingly, a need remains for an improved television system and method with alphanumeric input.
The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention(s) will become more readily apparent from the detailed description of invention embodiments that references the following drawings.
The plurality of control keys 204 might comprise a power key 210 to turn the television on and off and a plurality of navigational keys including up key 214, down key 216, right key 212, left key 218, and select key 220. The plurality of control keys 204 might further comprise a plurality of numeric keys 222 that include the numerals 0-9.
The plurality of control keys 204 might further comprise external device control keys 224 used by the viewer 10 to control devices (not shown) external to the television, e.g., video cassette players and recorders, satellite receivers, digital video disk players, compact disk players, and the like. The external device control keys 224 might include keys 226-232 that the viewer 10 actuates to identify the device that is to be controlled by the remote 200, including television (TV) key 226, video cassette recorder (VCR) key 228, satellite (SAT) key 230, and digital video disk (DVD) player key 232. A person of reasonable skill in the art should understand that external devices other than the ones listed might be controlled with the remote 200 using dedicated external device control keys such as VCR key 228, SAT key 230, DVD key 232, and the like. The external device control keys 224 might further include reverse key 234, stop key 236, play key 238, and forward key 240. A person of reasonable skill in the art should understand that control keys 204 other than the ones shown might be necessary to control external devices associated with the television 100.
The bottom portion 201 includes a plurality of alphanumeric keys 202 also used by the viewer to operate the television 100. More particularly, the alphanumeric input is often necessary to operate applications and functions associated with interactive televisions. These applications might include Java language applications available to the television 100 via an associated personal computer (not shown) or a removable media card (not shown) inserted into the television 100. For example, a word processing application (not shown) might be launched on the television 100 that requires alphanumeric input to create document and other like files. For another example, a searching application (not shown) might be launched on the television 100 that requires alphanumeric input to identify a search term. A person of reasonable skill in the art should recognize applications in languages other than Java that might necessitate alphanumeric input. A person of reasonable skill should recognize other mechanisms to make available the applications to the television 100 other than the personal computer or removable media card we mention above.
The plurality of alphanumeric keys 202 might include alphabetic keys 244, numeric keys 242, punctuation keys 246, space key 248, and special character keys (e.g., ALT key 250). The plurality of alphanumeric keys 202 might be arranged in a QWERTY fashion. The remote 200 includes an encoder 208 and a transmitter 206 shown in
The transmitter 206, in turn, transmits the control codes 252 or the alphanumeric codes 254 to the television 100. The transmitter 206 transmits the codes 252 and 254 using any of a variety of well known transmitting technologies, e.g., infrared and radio wave technology. The transmitter 206 uses a signaling protocol to transmit the codes 252 and 254. For example, the transmitter 206 might use a serial binary scheme, i.e., a stream of ones and zeros, to communicate with the television 100. Certain binary patterns might be reserved to indicate that a new message is ready to be sent. After a code (e.g., codes 252 and/or 254) are transmitted, other bits might follow that indicate error detection or correction or transmission completion. The transmission signaling method used by the transmitter 206 might vary in ways well known to those skill in the art and will not be explained in any further detail.
The transmitter 206 might include one or several transmitting devices oriented in one or more directions. In the remote 200 shown in
The control keys 204 might be located on the top portion 302 (
The viewer 10 opens or flips the top portion 302 on the hinges 306 to expose the alphanumeric keys 202 on the bottom portion 304. Since the alphanumeric keys 202 are aligned in a second direction, the viewer will typically rotate the remote 200 to the second direction when it wishes to actuate the alphanumeric keys 202. For example, the viewer 10 will rotate the remote by 90 degrees when the alphanumeric keys 202 are aligned substantially orthogonal to the control keys 204.
The remote 200 includes the encoder 208 and the transmitter 206 shown in
In an embodiment, the first and second transmitting devices 308 and 310 are infrared LEDs. The first and second infrared LEDs 308 and 310 might be oriented in the first and second directions, e.g., substantially orthogonal to each other.
In another embodiment, the first and second transmitting devices 308 and 310 are directional antennas that transmit the control and alphanumeric codes 254 and 252 via radio waves. The directional antennas 308 and 310 might be aligned in the first and second directions, e.g., substantially orthogonal to each other. By so orienting the first and second directional antennas 308 and 310, one or the other antenna sends a stronger signal to the television 100 depending on the remote 200's orientation. For example, the first directional antenna 308 will send a stronger signal to the television 100 (relative to the second directional antenna 310) when the remote is aligned in the first direction while the second directional antenna 310 will send a stronger signal the to the television 100 (relative to the first directional antenna 308) when the remote is aligned in the second direction.
The first directional antenna 308 might transmit using a first frequency carrier signal while the second directional antenna 310 might transmit using a second frequency carrier signal. The first carrier signal might be the same or different from the second frequency carrier signal. Where the first carrier signal is the same as the second carrier signal, the encoder 208 encodes the control keys 204 with unique control codes 254, different than the alphanumeric codes 252 it encodes the alphanumeric keys 202. Doing so allows the television 100 to distinguish whether the viewer 10 has pressed an alphanumeric key 202 or a control key 204.
The first transmitting device 308 might transmit the control codes 254 while the second transmitting device transmits the alphanumeric codes 252. In an embodiment, the first transmitting device 308 might transmit the control codes 254 while oriented in the first direction while the second transmitting device 310 might transmit the alphanumeric codes 252 while oriented in the second direction.
In another embodiment, a single multidirectional or omni directional antenna might be used in place of the first and second directional antennas. That is, a single antenna that operates well in both the first and second directions replaces the first and second directional antennas.
Alternatively, the first and second transmitting devices 308 and 310 might transmit responsive to whether the top portion 302 is open. For example, the first transmitting device 308 might only transmit control codes 254 when the top portion 302 is closed while the second transmitting device 310 might only transmit alphanumeric codes 252 when the top portion 302 is open. Such a configuration allows the encoder 208 to encode the control keys 204 with the same codes as it uses to encode the alphanumeric keys 202. Put differently, the encoder 206 might encode a control key 204 with the same code as it uses for an alphanumeric key 202 since the television 100 can differentiate them by identifying from which transmitter it receives the codes.
Alternatively, only a single transmitter 206 is necessary if the remote 200 detects the top portion 302 is open.
The remote 200 includes first and second transmitting devices 308 and 310. We explained the operation of the first and second transmitting devices 308 and 310 above with reference to
The viewer 10 positions the remote 200 in the first direction when he actuates the control keys 204. The encoder 206 encodes the control keys 204 with control codes 254 that it provides to the first transmitting device 308. The first transmitting device 308, in turn, transmits the control codes 254 to the television 100.
The viewer 10 rotates the remote 200 to the second direction (e.g., substantially orthogonal to the first direction) when he actuates the alphanumeric keys 202. The encoder 206 encodes the alphanumeric keys 202 with alphanumeric codes 252 that it provides to the second transmitting device 310. The second transmitting device 310, in turn, transmits the control codes to the television 100. As with previous embodiments, the control codes 254 might be the same or different than the alphanumeric codes 252. The television 100 might be capable of distinguishing a same code as being an alphanumeric code 252 by identifying the second transmitting device 310.
A television processor 106 provides basic control functions and viewer input interfaces for television 100. Television processor 106 receives viewer commands, both from buttons located on the television itself (TV controls) and from a handheld remote control (
Based on the viewer commands, television processor 106 controls an analog tuner/input select section 108, and also supplies viewer inputs to a digital video/graphics processor 120 over a Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) command channel. Television processor 106 is also capable of generating basic On-Screen Display (OSD) graphics, e.g., indicating which input is selected, the current audio volume setting, etc. Television processor 106 supplies these OSD graphics as a TV OSD signal to LCD panel driver 104 for overlay on the display signal.
Analog tuner/input select section 108 allows television 100 to switch between various analog (or possibly digital) inputs for both video and audio. Video inputs can include a radio frequency (RF) signal carrying broadcast television, digital television, and/or high-definition television signals, NTSC video, S-Video, and/or Red Green Blue (RGB) component video inputs, although various embodiments may not accept each of these signal types or may accept signals in other formats (such as PAL). The selected video input is converted to a digital data stream, DV In, in CCIR656 format (or other formats) and supplied to a media processor 110.
Analog tuner/input select section 108 also selects an audio source, digitizes that source if necessary, and supplies that digitized source as Digital Audio In to an Audio Processor 114 and a multiplexer 130. The audio source can be selected—independent of the current video source—as the audio channel(s) of a currently tuned RF television signal, stereophonic or monophonic audio connected to television 100 by audio jacks corresponding to a video input, or an internal microphone.
Media processor 10 and digital video/graphics processor 120 provide various digital feature capabilities for television 100, as will be explained further in the specific embodiments below. In some embodiments, processors 110 and 120 can be TMS320DM270 signal processors, available from Texas Instruments, Inc., Dallas, Tex. Digital video/graphics processor 120 functions as a master processor, and media processor 110 functions as a slave processor. Media processor 110 supplies digital video, either corresponding to DV In or to a decoded media stream from another source, to digital video/graphics processor 120 over a DV transfer bus.
Media processor 10 performs MPEG (Motion Picture Expert Group) coding and decoding of digital media streams for television 100, as instructed by digital video/graphics processor 120. A 32-bit-wide data bus connects memory 112, e.g., two 16-bit-wide×1M synchronous DRAM devices connected in parallel, to processor 110. An audio processor 114 also connects to this data bus to provide audio coding and decoding for media streams handled by media processor 110.
Digital video/graphics processor 120 coordinates (and/or implements) many of the digital features of television 100. A 32-bit-wide data bus connects memory 122, e.g., two 16-bit-wide×1M synchronous DRAM devices connected in parallel, to processor 120. A 16-bit-wide system bus connects processor 120 to media processor 110, an audio processor 124, flash memory 126, and removable PCMCIA cards 128. Flash memory 126 stores boot code, configuration data, executable code, and Java code for graphics applications, etc. PCMCIA cards 128 can provide extended media and/or application capability. Digital video/graphics processor 120 can pass data from the DV Transfer bus to LCD panel driver 104 as is, but processor 120 can also supercede, modify, or superimpose the DV Transfer signal with other content.
Multiplexer 130 provides audio output to the television amplifier and line outputs (not shown) from one of three sources. The first source is the current Digital Audio In stream from analog tuner/input select section 108. The second and third sources are the Digital Audio Outputs of audio processors 114 and 124. These two outputs are tied to the same input of multiplexer 130, since each audio processor is capable of tri-stating its output when it is not selected. In some embodiments, processors 114 and 124 can be TMS320VC5416 signal processors, available from Texas Instruments, Inc., Dallas, Tex.