INTELLIGENT INFRARED REMOTE PAIRING

• US 20100052870A1
• Filed: 09/03/2008
• Published: 03/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: King, Nicholas Vincent
• Granted Patent: US 8,736,427 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/286.20
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/385 for adaptation of a particular data processing system to different peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 23/04 using light waves, e.g. infrared
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/0775 Performance monitoring and measurement of transmission parameters

Abstract

Systems and methods for associating a remote controller with a device are provided. The systems and methods generally relate to receiving a request from a remote controller to pair the remote controller to a device at several devices and determining at each of the several devices the strength of the wireless pairing request signal received by that device. If a device determines that its received signal is the strongest, the device may be paired with the remote controller. If instead a device determines that its received signal is not the strongest, it may ignore subsequent communications received from the remote controller.

Claims

1. A method for pairing a remote controller with an electronic device in communication with at least one other electronic device, comprising:

receiving a pairing request from a remote controller;

detecting an attribute associated with the reception of the request;

comparing the detected attribute with an attribute detected by the at least one other electronic device; and

pairing the remote controller with the electronic device associated with the largest detected attribute.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the at least one other electronic device has a larger detected attribute; and

ignoring a subsequent communication from the remote controller.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the detected attribute is larger than the attribute detected by the at least one other electronic device; and

storing the remote controller identifier to pair the remote controller.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising directing the at least one other electronic device to ignore subsequent communications from the remote controller.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising broadcasting the detected attribute to the at least one other electronic device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein broadcasting further comprises broadcasting a remote controller identifier associated with the remote controller from which the pairing request is received.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein broadcasting further comprises broadcasting an electronic device identifier associated with the electronic device receiving the pairing request.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the attribute comprises the strength of the received signal.

9. A system for pairing a remote controller with an electronic device, the system comprising:

a communications network;

a remote controller is operative to provide a pairing request; and

a plurality of electronic devices in communication via the communications network, wherein each of the plurality of electronic devices is operative to;

receive the pairing request;

determine a characteristic of the received pairing request;

broadcast the determined characteristics to the other of the plurality of electronic devices; and

determine whether to be paired with the remote controller based on the determined characteristics

10. The system of claim 9, wherein each of the plurality of electronic devices is further operative to:

receive characteristics of the pairing request received by the other of the plurality of electronic devices; and

determine which of the determined characteristics and the received characteristics are larger.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein one of the plurality of electronic devices is further operative to:

detect that the determined characteristics are larger than the received characteristics; and

pair with the remote controller in response to detecting.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein one of the plurality of electronic devices is further operative to:

detect that the received characteristics are larger than the determined characteristics; and

ignore subsequent communications received from the remote controller.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the characteristics comprise the strength of the received pairing request.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein each of the plurality of electronic devices is further operative to:

assign a value to the determined strength of signal; and

broadcast the assigned value to the other of the plurality of electronic devices.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein each of the plurality of electronic devices is further operative to broadcast a remote controller identifier associated with the remote controller and an electronic device identifier associated with the electronic device broadcasting.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein each of the plurality of electronic devices is further operative to:

receive a broadcast from at least one of the plurality of electronic devices;

determine that the pairing request was not received; and

ignore subsequent communications received from the remote controller.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein each of the plurality of electronic devices is further operative to assign a low value to the strength of signal associated with electronic devices that did not broadcast the determined strength of signal.

18. An electronic device operative to be paired with a remote controller, the electronic device in communication with a plurality of electronic devices, the electronic device comprising control circuitry and a receiver, the control circuitry operative to:

direct the receiver to receive a pairing request from the remote controller;

detect the strength of signal of the received pairing request;

broadcast the detected strength of signal to the plurality of electronic devices;

receive a strength of signal detected by at least one of the plurality of electronic devices from the at least one of the plurality of electronic devices;

compare the detected strength of signal and the received strength of signal; and

selectively pair the device with the remote controller in response to comparing.

19. The electronic device of claim 18, wherein the control circuitry is further operative to:

determine that no transmission was received from the at least one of the plurality of electronic devices; and

pair the electronic device with the remote controller.

20. The electronic device of claim 18, wherein the control circuitry is further operative to:

receive a transmission comprising a remote controller identifier and a strength of signal from one of the plurality of electronic devices;

determine that the receiver received no communication from a remote controller associated with the remote controller identifier of the received transmission; and

ignore subsequent transmissions received from the remote controller associated with the remote controller identifier.

21. The electronic device of claim 18, wherein the control circuitry is further operative to store the remote controller identifier associated with the received pairing request in storage.

22. A computer readable media for pairing a remote controller with an electronic device in communication with at least one other electronic device, the computer readable media comprising computer logic recorded thereon for:

receiving a pairing request from a remote controller;

detecting an attribute associated with the reception of the request;

comparing the detected attribute with an attribute detected by the at least one other electronic device; and

pairing the remote controller with the electronic device associated with the largest detected attribute.