System and method for universal remote control

• US 20080094245A1
• Filed: 10/10/2006
• Published: 04/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Hardacker, Robert, Iwamura, Ryuichi, Shintani, Peter, Tu, Edgar Allan
• Granted Patent: US 7,719,438 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/4.32
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 19/28 using pulse code
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/21 Programming remote control devices via third means
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/92 Universal remote control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2807 Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving network analysis for automatically determining the actual topology of a network H04L41/12; hardware or software tools for network management using graphical user interfaces H04L41/22; address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/282 based on user interaction within the home receiver circuitry for displaying additional information being controlled by a remote control apparatus H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2849 Audio/video appliances

Abstract

Control information is exchanged between a component and a remote control device or a server using RFID or using network discovery procedures. The control information if gathered by the server is provided to the remote. In this way, the need to manually program the remote with component code information is eliminated.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

at least one remote control device;

at least one server;

at least one display presenting content from the server; and

at least one component having associated component information necessary for the remote control device to control the component, the component information being provided to the remote control device automatically over at least one network path associated with the system to eliminate the need to manually program the remote control device with the component information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the component is a camera.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the component is a DVD player or PVR or set-top box or personal computer or CD/MD player/recorder.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the network path is an RFID path, the remote control device having a remote RFID reader/writer and the component having a component RFID assembly carrying the component information for reading thereof by the remote control device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the network path is an RFID path, the server having a server RFID reader/writer and the component having a component RFID assembly carrying the component information for reading thereof by the server, the server sending the component information to the remote control device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the server communicates with the component over a home network, the server obtaining the component information automatically by means of network discovery protocol and providing the component information to the remote control device.

7. A method comprising:

automatically obtaining for a remote control device, over a communications path, component information from a component in a home network; and

using the remote control device to control the component at least in part by accessing the component information.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the component is a camera.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the component is a DVD player or PVR or set-top box or personal computer or CD/MD player/recorder.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein at least a portion of the communications path is an RFID path, the remote control device having a remote RFID reader/writer and the component having a component RFID assembly carrying the component information for reading thereof by the remote control device.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein at least a portion of the communications path is an RFID path, the server having a server RFID reader/writer and the component having a component RFID assembly carrying the component information for reading thereof by the server, the server sending the component information to the remote control device.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the server communicates with the component over a home network, the server obtaining the component information automatically by means of network discovery protocol and providing the component information to the remote control device.

13. A home network, comprising:

at least one server;

at least one display presenting video from the server;

at least one remote control device wirelessly inputting signals to the server;

at least one component sending video information to the server over a home network path and receiving commands from the remote control device, the remote control device being operably capable to control the component by means of component information; and

means within a dwelling hosting the home network for automatically providing the component information to the remote control device.

14. The network of claim 13, wherein the component is a camera.

15. The network of claim 13, wherein the component is a DVD player or PVR or set-top box or computer or CD/MD player.

16. The network of claim 13, wherein the remote control device has a remote RFID reader/writer and the component has a component RFID assembly carrying the component information for reading thereof by the remote control device to establish the means for automatically providing.

17. The network of claim 13, wherein the server has a server RFID reader/writer and the component has a component RFID assembly carrying the component information for reading thereof by the server, the server sending the component information to the remote control device to establish the means for automatically providing.

18. The network of claim 13, wherein the server communicates with the component over a home network path, the server obtaining the component information automatically by means of network discovery protocol and providing the component information to the remote control device to establish the means for automatically providing.

19. A system comprising:

at least one server having a server RFID component;

at least one display presenting content from the server; and

at least one client having a component RFID component, the server and component exchanging an encryption key and/or information necessary to generate the encryption key using the RFID components and subsequently encrypting at least some communication using the encryption key.