Remote control system and method having reduced vulnerability to noise

• US 20070069918A1
• Filed: 06/28/2006
• Published: 03/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: You, Byeong-Gyun
• Granted Patent: US 8,179,244 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/825.690
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/40 Remote control systems using repeaters, converters, gateways
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 23/04 using light waves, e.g. infrared

Abstract

A remote control system and method having reduced vulnerability to noise. In an environment having noise at a frequency of infrared signals transmitted by a remote controller, errors and malfunctions in a remote control receiving device such as a set top box are controlled by selectively transmitting an entire code including header pulses and data pulses, or a repeat code including header pulses, data pulses and repeater pulses from the remote controller, and receiving and using the entire code or repeat code at the remote receiving device.

Claims

1. A remote control system comprising:

a remote controller for transmitting either one of a remote control signal including header pulses and data pulses, and a remote control signal including header pulses, data pulses, and repeater pulses having a first pulse length or a second pulse length depending on whether the transmission is an original transmission or a retransmission; and

a remote control receiver for receiving and decoding the remote control signal and selectively processing instructions corresponding to the remote control signal.

2. The remote control system according to claim 1, wherein the remote control receiver comprises:

a signal decoding module for extracting numeric data by decoding the received remote control signal and checking a time when the remote control signal is decoded and a length of the repeater pulses;

a signal analysis module for determining whether or not to process instructions corresponding to the numeric data using the decoding time and the length of the repeater pulses; and

a main processor for processing the instructions corresponding to the numeric data.

3. The remote control system according to claim 2, wherein the signal analysis module comprises:

a signal mapping module for transmitting instructions mapped to the numeric data to the main processor;

an entire signal processing module for activating the signal mapping module when the repeater pulses have a first pulse length and the difference between the time when the remote control signal is decoded and the time when an immediately preceding remote control signal is decoded is longer than a period of the remote control signal; and

a repeat code processing module for activating the signal mapping module when the repeater pulses have a second pulse length and the numeric data generated by decoding the remote control signal is different from numeric data generated by decoding an immediately preceding remote control signal.

4. The remote control system according to claim 3, wherein the first pulse length is 4.5 ms and the second pulse length is 2.25 ms.

5. A remote control receiver comprising:

an infrared port for receiving at least one of a remote control signal including header pulses and data pulses, and a remote control signal including header pulses, data pulses, and repeater pulses having a first pulse length or a second pulse length depending on whether the transmission is an original transmission or a retransmission;

a signal decoding module for extracting numeric data by decoding the received remote control signal and checking a time when the remote control signal is decoded and a length of the repeater pulses;

a signal analysis module for determining whether or not to process instructions corresponding to the numeric data using the decoding time and the length of the repeater pulses; and

a main processor for processing the instructions corresponding to the numeric data.

6. The remote control receiver according to claim 5, wherein the signal analysis module comprises:

a signal mapping module for transmitting instructions mapped to the numeric data to the main processor;

an entire signal processing module for activating the signal mapping module when the repeater pulses have a first pulse length and the difference between the time when the remote control signal is decoded and the time when an immediately preceding remote control signal is decoded is longer than a period of the remote control signal; and

a repeat code processing module for activating the signal mapping module when the repeater pulses have a second pulse length and the numeric data generated by decoding the remote control signal is different from numeric data generated by decoding an immediately preceding remote control signal.

7. A remote controller comprising a signal encoding module for transmitting either one of a remote control signal including header pulses and data pulses, and a remote control signal including header pulses, data pulses, and repeater pulses having a first pulse length or a second pulse length depending on whether the transmission is an original transmission or a retransmission.

8. A remote control system comprising:

a remote controller for repeatedly transmitting an entire code including header pulses and data pulses in a predetermined time; and

a remote control receiver for receiving and decoding the entire code, and selectively processing instructions corresponding to the entire code using the decoding time.

9. The remote control system according to claim 8, wherein the remote control receiver comprises:

a signal decoding module for extracting numeric data by decoding the received entire code, and checking the decoding time;

a signal analysis module for determining whether or not to process instructions corresponding to the numeric data using the decoding time; and

a main processor for processing the instructions corresponding to the numeric data.

10. The remote control system according to claim 9, wherein the signal analysis module comprises:

a signal mapping module for transmitting instructions mapped to the numeric data to the main processor; and

an entire signal processing module for activating the signal mapping module when the difference between a time when the entire code is decoded and a time when an immediately preceding entire code is decoded is higher than an entire code period.

11. A remote control receiver comprising:

an infrared module for receiving an entire code including header pulses and data pulses;

a signal decoding module for extracting numeric data by decoding the received entire code, and checking the decoding time;

a signal analysis module for determining whether or not to process instructions corresponding to the numeric data using the decoding time; and

a main processor for processing the instructions corresponding to the numeric data.

12. A remote controller comprising a signal encoding module for repeatedly transmitting an entire code including header pulses and data pulses in a predetermined time in preparation for an error.

13. A remote control system comprising:

a remote controller for repeatedly transmitting a code including header pulses, data pulses, and repeater pulses having a first pulse length or a second pulse length depending on whether the transmission is an original transmission or a retransmission, in a predetermined time; and

a remote control receiver for receiving and decoding the code, and selectively processing instructions corresponding to the code using the pulse length of the repeater pulses.

14. The remote control system according to claim 13, wherein the remote control receiver comprises:

a signal decoding module for extracting numeric data by decoding the received code, and checking the pulse length of the repeater pulses;

a signal analysis module for determining whether or not to process instructions corresponding to the numeric data using the pulse length of the repeater pulses; and

a main processor for processing the instructions corresponding to the numeric data.

15. The remote control system according to claim 14, wherein the signal analysis module comprises:

a signal mapping module for transmitting instructions mapped to the numeric data to the main processor; and

a repeat code processing module for activating the signal mapping module when the repeater pulses have a first pulse length, and when the repeater pulses have a second pulse length and the numeric data generated by decoding the code is different from numeric data generated by decoding an immediately preceding code.

16. The remote control system according to claim 15, wherein the first pulse length is 4.5 ms and the second pulse length is 2.25 ms.

17. A remote control receiver comprising:

an infrared port for receiving a code including header pulses, data pulses, and repeater pulses having a first pulse length or a second pulse length according to whether or not a transmission is an original transmission or a retransmission;

a signal decoding module for extracting numeric data by decoding the code and checking the length of the repeater pulses;

a signal analysis module for determining whether or not to process instructions corresponding to the numeric data using the length of the repeater pulses; and

a main processor for processing the instructions corresponding to the numeric data.

18. A remote controller comprising a signal encoding module for repeatedly transmitting codes including header pulses, data pulses, and repeater pulses having different pulse lengths depending on whether the transmission is an original transmission or a retransmission, in preparation for an error.

19. The remote controller according to claim 18, wherein the signal encoding module transmits repeater pulses having a pulse length of 4.5 ms in the original transmission and repeater pulses having a pulse length of 2.25 ms in the retransmission.

20. A remote control method comprising the steps of:

transmitting either one of a remote control signal including header pulses and data pulses, and a remote control signal including header pulses, data pulses, and repeater pulses having a first pulse length or a second pulse length depending on whether the transmission is an original transmission or a retransmission; and

receiving and decoding the remote control signal, and selectively processing instructions corresponding to the remote control signal using a time when the remote control signal is decoded and the repeater pulses.

21. The method according claim 20, wherein the step of selectively processing the instructions corresponding to the remote control signal includes the steps of:

extracting numeric data by decoding the received remote control signal and checking the decoding time and the length of the repeater pulses;

processing the instructions corresponding to the numeric data when the repeater pulses have a first pulse length and the difference between the time when the remote control signal is decoded and the time when an immediately preceding remote control signal is decoded is longer than a period of the remote control signal; and

processing the instructions corresponding to the numeric data when the repeater pulses have a second pulse length and the numeric data generated by decoding the remote control signal is different from numeric data generated by decoding the immediately preceding remote control signal.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein the first pulse length is 4.5 ms and the second pulse length is 2.25 ms.

23. A remote control method comprising the steps of:

transmitting, at a remote controller, an entire code including a header pulse signal and a data pulse signal repeatedly in a predetermined time; and

receiving and decoding the entire code, and selectively processing instructions corresponding to the entire code using the decoding time.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein the step of selectively processing the instructions corresponding to the entire code includes the steps of:

extracting numeric data by decoding the received entire code, and checking the decoding time; and

processing the instructions corresponding to the numeric data when the difference between the time when the entire code is decoded and a time when an immediately preceding entire code is decoded is longer than a period of the entire code signal.

25. A remote controlling method comprising the steps of:

repeatedly transmitting, at a remote controller, codes including header pulses, data pulses, and repeater pulses having a first pulse length or a second pulse length according to whether a transmission is an original transmission or a retransmission, in a predetermined time; and

receiving and decoding the codes, and selectively processing instructions corresponding to the codes using the length of the repeater pulses.

26. The method according to claim 25, wherein the step of selectively processing the instructions corresponding to the codes includes the steps of:

extracting numeric data by decoding each received code, and checking the length of the repeater pulses; and

processing the instructions corresponding to the numeric data when the repeater pulses have a first pulse length and when the repeater pulses have a second pulse length and the numeric data generated by decoding the code is different from numeric data generated by decoding an immediately preceding code.

27. The method according to claim 26, wherein the first pulse length is 4.5 ms and the second pulse length is 2.25 ms.