Method and apparatus for automatic control of electronic equipment

• US 4,475,153 A
• Filed: 10/19/1981
• Issued: 10/02/1984
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/1980
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Nakamura, Tadahiko, Kihara, Nobutoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Ruggiero, Joseph F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): MACDONALD, ALLEN R
• Application Number:
  US06/312,870
• Time in Patent Office: 1,079 Days
• Field of Search: 364/143, 364/144, 364/145, 364/146, 364/400, 364/569, 358/335, 358/337, 235/462, 235/463, 235/494, 340/309.1, 340/309.4, 369/19, 360/69
• US Class Current: 700/16
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 15/006 for operating at a number of different times cigar or cigarette receptacles or boxes with means for limiting the frequency of smoking A24F15/005
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10881 constructional details of hand-held scanners
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 15/026 by using processor, e.g. microcomputer
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/24 for reducing noise control of amplification in general, e.g. dependent upon noise level H03G
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 31/006 with video camera or receiver
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/00813 magnetic tapes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus

Abstract

An electronic device, such as a video tape recorder (VTR), is set into a desired, but complex mode, such as automatic recording of a desired program, by manual scanning with an optical wand or other scanning instrument of one or more code groups printed on a selection card. Respective selection cards have code groups thereon for selecting, for example, mode, channel, day of week, recording start time (including AM or PM), and recording end time. Code signals provided from the scanning instrument are processed in a data processing circuit, which can be provided as a microprocessor and included in the VTR to provide control signals to the VTR in response to information contained in the scanned code groups. Alternatively, a combination of an FM receiver and high fidelity audio recorder can be set into an auto record mode or other complex operating mode by scanning of selection cards with a scanning instrument associated with such combination.

Claims

1. Apparatus for controlling a receiver and recorder in combination, the receiver receiving broadcasts of high-fidelity music programs, said recorder being selectably settable into tape bias conditions corresponding to respective types of magnetic recording tape, the receiver and recorder in combination having a plurality of modes including a mode for automatically recording a received broadcast music program;

comprising;

a mode selection card bearing function code groups corresponding respectively to said modes;

a channel selection card bearing channel code groups corresponding respectively to the broadcast music programs;

a start-time select card bearing code groups corresponding to respective times of the day at which a program is to begin;

an end-time select card bearing code groups corresponding respective times of the day at which a program is to end;

a tape-select card bearing code groups corresponding to the respective tape bias conditions;

a scanning instrument for manually scanning the code groups of the mode selection card, the channel selection card, the tape-select card, the start-time select card, and the end-time select card and producing electrical representations of the scanned code groups; and

automatic code processing means for receiving said electrical representations and providing selecting signals in response thereto to said receiver and recorder in combination to select the mode thereof, to tune said receiver, to preset times for the recorder and receiver to be turned on and off, and to select the desired tape bias condition.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising for selectively setting said recorder into a noise-reduction mode wherein pre-emphasis and/or compression is carried out on the audio signal prior to recording, and upon playback a corresponding de-emphasis and/or expansion is carried out, a noise-reduction select card bearing at least one code group corresponding to said noise-reduction mode, with said automatic code processing means selecting the noise-reduction mode in response to scanning of said associated code group by said scanning instrument.