Reconfigurable remote control apparatus and method of using the same
First Claim
1. A reconfigurable remote control apparatus for use with a plurality of remotely controllable products at least one of which is responsive to signals of a different transmission protocol than another, said reconfigurable remote control apparatus comprising:
- (a) receiver means for receiving during a capture mode signals transmitted from a remote control transmitters to be emulated, said signals comprising first protocol signals having pulses separated by pauses, and second protocol signals having bursts of pulses at a carrier frequency separated by pauses;
(b) distinguishing means connected to said receiver means for distinguishing between said first protocol signals and said second protocol signals and for providing an indication of the protocol used by each transmitter to be emulated;
(c) memory means;
(d) processing means connected to said receiver means for substantially determining at least the duration of said pauses and providing to said memory means first date representative thereof when said first protocol signals are received, and for substantially determining the carrier frequency and the duration of said pulse burst and pauses between pulse bursts and providing second data representative thereof when said second protocol signals are received;
(e) transmitter means for transmitting control signals corresponding to transmitter input signals applied thereto;
(f) user operable selector means for controlling said reconfigurable remote control apparatus; and
(g) transmitter control means connected to said memory means and said user operable selector means, for addressing said memory means in response to user activation of said selector means and causing data stored in said memory means to be sent to said transmitter means to constitute said transmitter input signals.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A reconfigurable remote control apparatus and method for capturing the signals of transmission devices of at least two different protocols are provided. Because transmission devices either output signal bursts of different lengths at a carrier frequency followed by pauses of different lengths, or pulses of a relatively constant length followed by pauses of different lengths, a first determination is made as to the type of system being captured. After the system type is determined, the carrier frequency and the burst and pause lengths are determined for a burst type system, while only the pause lengths are determined for a pulse-pause type system. The captured information is preferably compressed according to a preferred compression scheme which finds and stores all possible signal lengths and all permitted adjacent signal length combinations for a particular apparatus, and composes and stores a compressed code which acts as a pointer to the stored signal length combinations. A further aspect of the invention is that a user need only press the keys of the remote unit to be captured during the capturing sequence and is prompted to do so by the apparatus of the invention.
147 Citations
22 Claims
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1. A reconfigurable remote control apparatus for use with a plurality of remotely controllable products at least one of which is responsive to signals of a different transmission protocol than another, said reconfigurable remote control apparatus comprising:
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(a) receiver means for receiving during a capture mode signals transmitted from a remote control transmitters to be emulated, said signals comprising first protocol signals having pulses separated by pauses, and second protocol signals having bursts of pulses at a carrier frequency separated by pauses; (b) distinguishing means connected to said receiver means for distinguishing between said first protocol signals and said second protocol signals and for providing an indication of the protocol used by each transmitter to be emulated; (c) memory means; (d) processing means connected to said receiver means for substantially determining at least the duration of said pauses and providing to said memory means first date representative thereof when said first protocol signals are received, and for substantially determining the carrier frequency and the duration of said pulse burst and pauses between pulse bursts and providing second data representative thereof when said second protocol signals are received; (e) transmitter means for transmitting control signals corresponding to transmitter input signals applied thereto; (f) user operable selector means for controlling said reconfigurable remote control apparatus; and (g) transmitter control means connected to said memory means and said user operable selector means, for addressing said memory means in response to user activation of said selector means and causing data stored in said memory means to be sent to said transmitter means to constitute said transmitter input signals. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A reconfigurable remote control apparatus for use with at least one remotely controllable product, said reconfigurable remote control apparatus comprising:
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(a) receiver means for receiving during a capture mode signals transmitted from a remote control transmitter to be emulated, said signals comprising first protocol signals having pulses separated by pauses, and second protocol signals having bursts of pulses at a carrier frequency separated by pauses; (b) distinguishing means connected to said receiver means for distinguishing between said first protocol signals and said second protocol signals and for providing an indication of the protocol used by said transmitter to be emulated; (c) memory means comprising at least one of a RAM and a ROM for storing prompting information and for storing received data; (d) processing means connected to said receiver means for substantially determining at least the duration of said pauses and providing to said memory means first data representative thereof when said first protocol signals are received, and for substantially determining the carrier frequency and the duration of said pulse burst and pauses between pulse bursts and providing second data representative thereof when said second protocol signals are received; (e) transmitter means for transmitting control signals corresponding to transmitter input signals applied thereto; (f) user operable selector means for controlling said reconfigurable remote control apparatus; (g) transmitter control means connected to said memory means and said user operable selector means, for addressing said memory means in response to user activation of said selector means and causing data stored in said memory means to be sent to said transmitter means to constitute said transmitter input signals; (h) prompting means for receiving prompting information from said memory means and for displaying said prompting information, wherein said prompting information is information which instructs a user to capture the key codes of the remote control transmitter to be emulated by pressing only the keys of the remote control transmitter to be emulated in a predetermined order. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16)
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17. A method of learning and storing the remote control signal codes of at least one remote control transmitter to be emulated by a reconfigurable remote control unit, said method comprising:
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(a) receiving a first transmission signal from said remote control transmitter; (b) determining whether the signal transmitted from said remote control transmitter is of a first protocol comprised of pulses separated by pauses or whether it is of a second protocol comprised of bursts of pulses at a carrier frequency separated by pauses, and generating and storing an indication of a said protocol determination; (c) when said transmitted signal is comprised of bursts of pulses at a carrier frequency separated by pauses, determining said carrier frequency and generating and storing data representing said carrier frequency; (d) receiving second transmission signals from said remote control transmitter, said second transmission signals comprising remote control signal codes; and (e) determining the length of time of said pauses when said signals are pulses separated by pauses, and the duration of said pulse burst when said signals are bursts of pulses at a carrier frequency separated by pauses, and generating and storing data representing each of said second transmission signals. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification