Passive remote control system

• US 6,531,964 B1
• Filed: 02/25/1999
• Issued: 03/11/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Loving, Sean Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Zimmerman, Brian
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dalencourt, Yves
• Application Number:
  US09/257,315
• Time in Patent Office: 1,475 Days
• Field of Search: 340/825.72, 340/825.54, 340/825.56, 340/825.69, 340/825.24, 340/825.25, 341/176, 342/42, 342/51, 348/734, 359/142, 379/102, 379/101
• US Class Current: 340/12.51
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10881 constructional details of hand-held scanners
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/04 using magnetically coupled devices
• CPC Class Codes: H03J 9/02 using radio transmission; using near-field transmission

Abstract

A passive remote control device (20, 50) is powered remotely by a radio frequency exciter/receiver (14, 42) and used in a remote control system (100, 200) to control operation of a controlled device (10, 40), such as, for example, a television, video game controller, VCR, or CD player. The remote control device and the exciter/receiver communicate without wires via electrostatic or electromagnetic radiation. No line of sight connection to the passive remote control unit is required. No power source is integrated with the remote control device. The remote control device has a plurality of keys (22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32) or control members that are manually actuated. Depression of a key or button, or other actuation of a control member, causes a response signal associated with that key to be generated. The response signal relates to an operation for the controlled device.

Claims

1. A remote control system, comprising:

an exciter associated with a controlled device, the exciter producing an electrostatic excitation field and employing electrostatic radio frequency communication; and

a remote control device, capacitively coupled to the exciter, and powered by the electrostatic excitation field, for remotely communicating with the exciter via a capacitive interface for controlling operations of the controlled device.

2. The remote control system of claim 1, wherein the remote control device has at least one manually actuated element used for controlling operations of the controlled device.

3. The remote control system of claim 1, wherein the controlled device is selected from a group consisting of:

a television, a radio receiver, a videocassette recorder, a compact disc player, a record player, a video game system, a computer cursor controller, a printer, and a facsimile machine.

4. The remote control system of claim 1, wherein the excitation field is produced by an excitation signal.

5. The remote control system of claim 4, wherein the excitation signal has a frequency of 125 KHz.

6. The remote control system of claim 5, wherein the remote control device produces a response field when a selected one of a plurality of keys is actuated.

7. The remote control system of claim 6, wherein the response field is produced by a response signal.

8. The remote control system of claim 7, wherein the response signal has a frequency of 62.5 KHz.

9. The remote control system of claim 1, wherein the remote control device has at least one manually actuated element and produces a response field when said at least one manually actuated element is actuated.

10. The remote control system of claim 1, wherein the remote control device has a circuit and at least one manually actuated element, wherein the at least one manually actuated element selectively places the circuit in one of a closed circuit configuration and an open circuit configuration.

11. The remote control system of claim 1, wherein the remote control device comprises:

a circuit having a closed circuit configuration and an open circuit configuration;

an electrostatic antenna; and

at least one actuated element that is capable of placing the circuit in the closed circuit configuration and coupling the electrostatic antenna to produce a pulse code signal.

12. The remote control system of claim 1, wherein the remote control device comprises:

a first circuit having a closed circuit configuration and an open circuit configuration;

an electrostatic antenna;

a code storing circuit that stores a code; and

at least one actuated element operable to place the first circuit in the closed circuit configuration and to couple the electrostatic antenna to produce a pulse code signal corresponding o he code stored in the code storing circuit.

13. The remote control system of claim 1, wherein the remote control device includes at least one of the following:

a directional keypad, a power on/off key, a channel selector, a channel advance key, a joystick, and a non-alphanumeric input key.

20. The remote control system of claim 1 wherein the remote control device is not required to be within a line of sight of at least one of the controlled device

14. A remote control system powered by an excitation field, the remote control system comprising:

a controlled device;

an exciter coupled to the controlled device, the exciter producing an electrostatic excitation field generated by electrostatic radiation;

a remote control device, powered capacitively by the electrostatic excitation field, in signal communication with the exciter such that the remote control device produces an electrostatic response signal; and

at least one manually actuated element on the remote control device, the manually actuated element being coupled to a radio frequency identification circuit such that actuation of the manually actuated element causes the remote control device to produce a predetermined response signal for controlling an operation of the controlled device.

15. The remote control system of claim 14 wherein the manually actuated element is selected from a group consisting of:

a numeric button, a joystick, a directional keypad, a power on/off button, and device selector.

16. The remote control system of claim 15 wherein the controlled device is selected from a group consisting of:

a television, a radio receiver, a videocassette recorder, a compact disc player, a record player, a video game system, a computer cursor controller, a printer, and a facsimile machine.

17. The remote control system of claim 14 wherein the at least one radio frequency identification circuit is a single radio frequency identification circuit comprising:

a decoder coupled to the plurality of manually actuated elements to decode a depressed manually actuated element;

control logic coupled to the decoder to determine a selected modulation based on the depressed manually actuated element; and

a modulator coupled to the control logic to receive the selected modulation and provide a modulated signal to an antenna, the modulated signal being determined by the selected modulation.

18. A method of controlling a controlled device with a remote control device, the method comprising the steps of:

generating an electrostatic excitation field via electrostatic radiation;

powering the remote control device capacitively with the electrostatic excitation field;

actuating a manually actuated element on the remote control device to produce an electrostatic response signal;

receiving the electrostatic response signal at the controlled device; and

determining an operation to be performed by the controlled device based on the response signal.

19. A method of controlling a controlled device with a remote control device, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving an excitation signal via electrostatic radiation;

powering the remote control device capacitively with the excitation signal; and

producing an electrostatic response signal to control an operation of the controlled device.