Abstract:
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a general-purpose remote control method having an improved user interface which simplifies an operation of general-purpose remote control and a remote operation of household equipments in a strict meaning. SOLUTION: A readable medium has a command for displaying informations to a plurality of users of a hand-held equipment 1150, and steps executed by the command include the followings. That is, the steps comprise a step by which each user defines a list of their favorite channels and a step which receives an input for identifying the users of the hand-held equipment 1150, responds to it and displays the list corresponding to the favorite channels to the users. The users interact with the list by executing the steps, and the readable medium is provided to the hand-held equipment for transmitting command codes to the household equipments for the purpose of tuning the household equipments 1120, 1122 and 1124 to a channel expressed in the list of the favorite channels. COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT
Abstract:
A user provides to an image recognition system an image that is intended to be used to identify one or more appliances that are to be controlled by a universal controlling device. The image recognition system has access to a database of images that have been cross-referenced to appliances and configuration information for those appliances. The image recognition system uses the provided image to identify one or more appliances to be controlled and, accordingly, the configuration information for those one or more appliances so identified. The configuration information may then be provided to a user for manual provision to the universal controlling device or be provided in a form for downloading into the universal controlling device. The configuration information may also be provided to an intermediate device which has programming for use in connection with a process of configuring the universal controlling device.
Abstract:
A home control and automation system and method. The system generally includes one or more wireless remote controls (10), a plurality of appliances (12) (including network enabled appliances and traditional legacy appliances in the exemplary system), associated control centric devices (14), and associated content centric devices (16). Various methods for control and operation of appliances in the networked home control and automation environment (100) are disclosed. Specifically, methods are disclosed which enable advanced home control features such as location based control setup and operation, network enabled legacy appliances and system integration, save and recall capabilities for appliance and media states, generic command based appliance controls, dynamic/complex macro command generation, and Internet based control capabilities from remote locations are disclosed in conjunction with the system of the current invention.
Abstract:
A smart device is provided with a main remote control application that may be configured using information obtained from a QR code. The main remote control application may present images of original remote controls corresponding to devices which are controllable by the configured main remote control application. In connection with a presented image of an original remote control, the display may present icons that are representative of a subset of the buttons of the original remote control. The user interface also allows a user to select amongst the images of the original remote controls to change which appliances are to be controlled via the user interface. A pop-up remote control widget may also be provided which may be invoked without switching to the main remote control application provisioned on the smart device.
Abstract:
A method for using a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag (1030), which is attached to a VCR (15) or a TV set (14), to configure a universal remote control (10). The universal remote control (10) receives data from an RFID tag (1030) via an RF antenna (102) and a receiver associated with a decoder (104) and uses the data received from the RFID tag (1030) to map select commands to select command keys such that activation of one or more of the select command keys causes the universal remote control (10) to transmit one or more select commands to control the VCR (15) or TV set (14).
Abstract:
A remote control device is which key use is monitored is shown in Figure 1. A command key (10), representative of an appliance function, may be correlated to a target appliance (12) that is determined, as a function of the monitored key use, to be the most likely intended recipient of a command to perform that appliance function. An activity key may also be programmed so as to perform a series of actions that are representative of a sequence of monitored key uses.
Abstract:
A system and method for using a hand held device having a display to display information related to a consumer appliance. The consumer appliance is adapted to communicate with the hand-held device. In this manner, the consumer appliance can transmit signals indicative of the information to the hand-held device and the hand-held device can display in the display a representation of the information document.
Abstract:
A system and method for configuring a controlling device to allow the controlling device to generate commands for commanding operations of a new appliance which new appliance was previously unable to be supported by the controlling device. The system and method uses a definition input into the controlling device to create a new device data set for use in generating commands to command operations of the new appliance. The new device data set is a new combination of elements selected from device data sets already stored within a memory of the controlling device.
Abstract:
Metadata regarding program content is created by monitoring a manner in which a first rendering of the program content is affected by a user whereupon the metadata will include data which defines one or more segments within the program content. The data within the metadata is then usable during a second rendering of the program content to inhibit, e.g., advance over during playing or omit during copying, the rendering of the one or more segments within the program content defined by the data within the metadata.
Abstract:
A controlling device (Fig. 3), such as a remote control (100a) uses visual (130), audio, and/or tactile cues in the form of color, patterns, shapes, sounds, vibrations, etc., to indicate relationships. Relationships may be between a function key (134a-134f) and an intended target appliance for a command transmitted in response to activation of the function key, a user and the controlling device, or a room and the controlling device.