Tuning a signal receiver

• US 20010017672A1
• Filed: 12/12/2000
• Published: 08/30/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/1999
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: US Philips Corporation (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: US Philips Corporation (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Verhaeghe, Jeroen
• Application Number:
  US09/734,772
• Publication Number:
  US 20010017672A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/734
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4221 Dedicated function buttons, e.g. for the control of an EPG, subtitles, aspect ratio, picture-in-picture or teletext
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4383 Accessing a communication channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/44 Receiver circuitry for the reception of television signals according to analogue transmission standards H04N5/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/50 Tuning indicators; Automatic tuning control

Abstract

A method and an arrangement are disclosed for tuning a signal receiver such as a broadcast television receiver. The receiver includes a (remote) control device (7) having conventional channel selection keys (71,72) for manually selecting a channel or program. The receiver keeps a list of three or more selected channels in a history memory (5). The remote control device (7) further includes a recall key (74) for cyclically tuning the receiver to the listed channels. The channel being removed from the list in response to a manual channel selection is preferably the least recently viewed channel, so that the most recently viewed channels are recalled by the recall key.

Claims

1. A method of tuning a signal receiver, comprising the steps of:

tuning the receiver to a selected channel representing one of a plurality of receivable signals in response to a channel selection command identifying said selected channel;

keeping a list of at least three selected channels in a history memory,

storing the selected channel in said history memory in response to the channel selection command, and

cyclically tuning the receiver to the listed channels in response to successive operations of a user-operable recall command.

2. A method as claimed in

claim 1

, wherein the step of storing the selected channel in response to the channel selection command includes removing the least recently selected channel from said history memory.

3. A method as claimed in

claim 1

, wherein the step of storing the selected channel in response to the channel selection command includes removing, from said history memory, the channel to which the receiver was least recently tuned.

4. A method as claimed in

claim 2

or

3

, wherein the step of cyclically tuning comprises tuning the receiver to the listed channels in reverse order of selection.

5. A method as claimed in

claim 2

or

3

, wherein the step of cyclically tuning comprises tuning the receiver to the listed channels in reverse order of previous tuning.

6. A signal receiver comprising:

tuning means (1) for tuning the receiver to a channel representing one of a plurality of receivable signals;

user-operable input means (7) for selecting a channel in response to a channel selection command (71,72);

a history memory (5) for keeping a list of at least three selected channels, and

control means (4) arranged in response to the channel selection command to store the selected channel in said history memory, and further arranged to control the tuning means to cyclically tune the receiver to the listed channels in response to successive operations of a user-operable recall command.