Lighting system having a remotely controlled electric lamp and an infrared remote controller with improved infrared filter
First Claim
1. In a lighting system of the type having an electric lamp and a remote controller for controlling the electric lamp, the remote controller including a transmitter which transmits information via modulated infrared light and a receiver which receives the infrared light, the receiver including means for demodulating the information therefrom,decoding means for decoding the demodulated information coupled to the receiver and including filter means, the filter means for operating on the demodulated information for removing noise caused by infrared light from the electric lamp, the demodulated information including a plurality of leading and trailing edges, the transmitted information having a data element defined in the demodulated information by a leading edge followed by a trailing edge within a predetermined time range, and the noise is present in the demodulated information as a leading edge followed by a trailing edge at random time intervals, and said filter means filters noise from the demodulated information by determining which leading and trailing edges correspond to noise and which leading and trailing edges correspond to the date element, and wherein the filter means is software within a microcontroller which controls operation of the electric lamp.
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Abstract
A lighting system having an electric lamp controlled by an infrared remote controller. The remote controller incorporates a commercially available transmitter and receiver which reliably functions in the presence of infrared noise having frequencies at and about the carrier frequency of the transmitted signal. The remote controller receiver outputs a demodulated signal and a filter acts on the demodulated signal to remove noise present in the demodulated signal caused by the electric lamp by comparing measured time intervals between leading and trailing edges of the demodulated signal to predetermined values defining data elements.
77 Citations
36 Claims
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1. In a lighting system of the type having an electric lamp and a remote controller for controlling the electric lamp, the remote controller including a transmitter which transmits information via modulated infrared light and a receiver which receives the infrared light, the receiver including means for demodulating the information therefrom,
decoding means for decoding the demodulated information coupled to the receiver and including filter means, the filter means for operating on the demodulated information for removing noise caused by infrared light from the electric lamp, the demodulated information including a plurality of leading and trailing edges, the transmitted information having a data element defined in the demodulated information by a leading edge followed by a trailing edge within a predetermined time range, and the noise is present in the demodulated information as a leading edge followed by a trailing edge at random time intervals, and said filter means filters noise from the demodulated information by determining which leading and trailing edges correspond to noise and which leading and trailing edges correspond to the date element, and wherein the filter means is software within a microcontroller which controls operation of the electric lamp.
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11. In a remote control system of the type including a transmitter which transmits information via a modulated infrared light and a receiver which receives the infrared light from said transmitter, the receiver including means for demodulating the transmitted information therefrom, the improvement comprising:
decoding means coupled to the receiver and including filter means for operating on the demodulated information for removing noise caused by an electric lamp emitting infrared light, the demodulated information including a plurality of leading and trailing edges, the transmitted information having a data element defined in the demodulated information by a leading edge followed by a trailing edge within a predetermined time range, and the noise is present in the demodualted information as a leading edge followed by a trailing edge at random time intervals, and said filter means filters noise from the demodulated information by determining which leading and trailing edges correspond to noise and which leading and trailing edges correspond to the date element, and wherein the filter means is software in a microcontroller which controls operation of an appliance. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A receiver for an infrared remote controller operated in the presence of an electric lamp which emits infrared light, said receiver comprising:
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means for receiving an infrared transmission signal which includes information encoded by modulation of the transmission signal, said receiving means also being responsive to the infrared light from the electric lamp; demodulating means for demodulating the infrared signals received by said receiving means; filtering means for filtering noise in the demodulated signals caused by the infrared light from the electric lamp; and decoding means for decoding the transmitted information from the demodulated signals, the demodulated information including a plurality of leading and trailing edges, the transmitted information having a data element defined in the demodulated information by a leading edge followed by a trailing edge within a predetermined time range, and the noise is present in the demodulated information as a leading edge followed by a trailing edge at random time intervals, and said filter means filters noise from the demodulated information by determining which leading and trailing edges correspond to noise and which leading and trailing edges correspond to the data element, and wherein the filtering means is software in a microcontroller which controls the electric lamp. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A method of transmitting and receiving information with an infrared transmission signal in the presence of an electric lamp operated at high frequency, said method comprising the steps of:
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transmitting an infrared transmission signal having a carrier frequency within the frequency range of the electric lamp and modulating the transmission signal to transmit information; receiving the infrared transmission signal and infrared light from the electric lamp; demodulating the received signal and producing a demodulated signal including a plurality of leading and trailing edges, the transmitted information has a data element defined in the demodulated signal by a leading edge followed by a trailing edge within a predetermined time range, and the noise is present in the demodulated signal as a leading edge followed by a trailing edge at time intervals outside of the predetermined time range; and decoding and filtering noise from the demodulated signal caused by high frequency infrared light from the electric lamp the filtering step including the step of determining which leading and trailing edges correspond to noise and which leading and trailing edges correspond to the data element, and wherein the step of decoding and filtering is performed by software within a microcontroller which controls operation of an appliance. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. A microcontroller for controlling an electric lamp including a filter in the form of software in the microcontroller and a decoding device for filtering a signal which includes a plurality of leading and trailing edges, the signal including a data element defined by a leading edge followed by a trailing edge within a predetermined time range and noise present in the signal as a leading edge followed by a trailing edge at random time intervals, wherein the filter comprises:
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detecting means for detecting the leading and trailing edges in the signal; measuring means coupled to the detecting means for measuring the time interval between a detected leading edge and subsequently detected trailing edges; comparing means coupled to the measuring means for comparing the measured time intervals to said predetermined time range; and means for accepting the detection of a trailing edge as the data element if a measured time interval is within the predetermined time range defining the data element and for rejecting the detection of a trailing edge as noise if the measured time interval falls outside of the predetermined time range, said means for accepting and rejecting being coupled to the comparing means. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36)
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Specification