System and method for providing operation of internet powered universal remote controller

• US 7,639,170 B2
• Filed: 08/25/2006
• Issued: 12/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hangzhou Bremax Technology Co., Ltd., Hangzhou Silan Microelectronics Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Hangzhou Bremax Technology Co., Ltd., Hangzhou Silan Microelectronics Company Limited
• Inventors: Zhang, Bin, Chen, Xiangdong, Li, Wenjie
• Primary Examiner(s): Edwards, Jr.; Timothy
• Application Number:
  US11/510,112
• Publication Number:
  US 20070046494A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,222 Days
• Field of Search: 340/825.69, 340/825.72, 341/173, 341/176, 398/106, 398/112, 348/734
• US Class Current: 341/176
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/281 indicating a format for calling an appliance service function in a home automation network for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2814 Exchanging control software or macros for controlling appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving configuration of the network and network elements H04L41/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/282 based on user interaction within the home receiver circuitry for displaying additional information being controlled by a remote control apparatus H04N21/42204

Abstract

A system and method for the network operation of a universal remote controller (URC) and the URC for realizing said system have been disclosed in the invention, said system comprises: a user service subsystem, a data storing and exchanging device and a user operation subsystem. The network operation method for said URC comprises: collecting the parameters of an existing user'"'"'s remote controller (RC) via a RC sampling device, analyzing and processing the parameter data as a code program, and transferring to the server device via the Internet in order to store and exchange the data; reading the required program from the server device by the URC via the user terminal device and the Internet to realize the function of the URC. In said URC, the URC is provided with a USB interface circuit for downloading the data on the network into the URC. The invention solves the problem of a number of confused RCs in modern families The network services of the URC can be provided so that a uniform way can be found for the after-service of a plurality of types of RCs.

Claims

1. A system for the network operation of the URC, said system comprising:

a user service subsystem for collecting the code-model information of a RC, encoding said information into a code data and program having a data format which can be used directly, and uploading said code data and program to the server device via the Internet;

a server device, said server device is connected with the user service subsystem and a user operation subsystem via the Internet, and is used for receiving, storing, exchanging and uploading the data for generating the web page and the code data and program; and

a user operation subsystem, this part comprises a URC and a user terminal device, and is used for providing the users with the services for the URC on the network via the Internet;

wherein said URC comprises a memory, said memory can be divided into several areas based on the addresses, a space having a certain size is used as the storing space of one RC, in this way, code data and programs of several types of RCs can be stored individually in said memory.

2. The system as described in claim 1, wherein said user service subsystem is composed of a sampling device, a code detecting device and a programming and uploading device, wherein the sampling device refers to a device used for collecting the data from prototype devices, said prototype devices are various types of RCs from different factories, said code detecting device is supplied by the service provider.

3. The system as described in claim 2, wherein said sampling device is connected with the code detecting device, and is used for storing the infrared signal information collected from a prototype RC to be sampled into a RAM via an infrared receiving circuit;

the code detecting device is connected with the RC sampling device and the programming and uploading device, and is used for analyzing and processing the collected code-model information to convert to a format to be used directly;

the programming and uploading device is connected with the code detecting device, and connected simultaneously with a data storing/exchanging device via the Internet, and is used for converting the code-model data into the specific programs and storing these programs into said server device.

4. The system as described in claim 1, wherein said server device comprises a data storing/exchanging device.

5. The system as described in claim 1, wherein said user terminal device is a device for the users to connect the network to realize the operation of said service, while said URC is a device used by the user for realizing the remote control of the electronic home appliances, and the function of said device can be updated by downloading the program data from said server device, the method for connecting between the URC and the network is to connect interface by interface through a USB interface in the URC and the user terminal device used for connecting the network, if the infrared signals can be received and transmitted directly by the user terminal device, then the communication can also be realized directly by an infrared transmitting and receiving device.

8. A URC for realizing the system as described in claim 1, wherein said device comprises:

a keyboard matrix, said keyboard matrix comprises the keyboard matrix regions of the RCs of two or more types of consumable electronic products, and can combine different types of keyboard matrix regions based on the requirements, wherein each keyboard matrix region comprises the basic keyboard content required by said consumable electronic product;

a MCU kernel, used for processing the transmission of the program data while downloading the program, communicating with the interface circuit and controlling the operation of the E²PROM for storing data, during the procedure of using the RC, the program in the E²PROM can be processed directly to realize the function of the RC, said MCU kernel is connected with the keyboard matrix;

E²PROM, used for storing the program to be saved while downloading the program, and for outputting the stored program when sending the codes, said E²PROM is connected with the MCU kernel; and

an interface circuit, used as an interface circuit for connecting while downloading the program data, said USB interface circuit is connected with the MCU kernel

wherein said E²PROM can be divided into several areas based on the addresses, a space having a certain size is used as the storing space for one RC, in this way, code data and programs of several types of RCs can be stored individually in E²PROM.

9. The device as described in claim 8, wherein said keyboard matrix comprises a VCD/DVD keyboard matrix region, a VCR keyboard matrix region, a TV keyboard matrix region, and a common keyboard matrix region.

10. The device as described in claim 8, wherein said interface circuit is a USB interface circuit.

11. The device as described in claim 8, wherein said interface circuit can also be an infrared receiver.

12. The device as described in claim 8, wherein said URC also comprises an infrared transmitter used for sending the code-model during the code sending operation, it is driven by a transistor, and said infrared transmitter is connected with the MCU kernel.

13. The device as described in claim 8, wherein said interface circuit, E²PROM, and MCU kernel can be realized by integrating in one integrated circuit.

6. A method for the network operation of the URC, comprising the steps of:

collecting the parameters of an existing user'"'"'s RC via a RC sampling device;

analyzing and processing the parameters of the user'"'"'s RC collected by the sampling device via the code detecting device to allow the code-model parameters to be accurate and detailed;

inputting the data obtained by the code detection to the programming and uploading device, converting the code-model data into the specific programs and transferring to the server device via the Internet in order to be used for data storing and exchanging, said server device being used as a platform for data exchanging; and

reading the required program from the server device by the URC via the user terminal device and the Internet to realize the function of the URC;

wherein said URC comprises a memory, said memory can be divided into several areas based on the addresses, a space having a certain size is used as the storing space of one RC, in this way, code data and programs of several types of RCs can be stored individually in said memory.

7. The method as described in claim 6, wherein said step for reading the required program is:

firstly, to initialize internally the MCU circuit, then to detect whether E²PROM can operate correctly or not, the object of the detection is to decide whether the operation of reading and writing the fixed contents at the specific addresses can be performed by E²PROM before the program jumping to E²PROM, if not, then it will jump to the standby state and will be indicated by an error lamp at this time, if it can operate correctly, then whether the USB port is connected or not will be detected, if it is connected, then the USB transmission operation will be performed to input the program data into the MCU kernel via the USB interface protocol, and then to assign to the corresponding locations in the E²PROM based on the entry addresses.