Remote controller, remote control system, and method for displaying detailed information

• US 8,193,901 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2007
• Issued: 06/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Ota, Motoari, Misawa, Takeshi, Miyashita, Takeshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Zimmerman, Brian
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yang, James
• Application Number:
  US11/724,301
• Publication Number:
  US 20070217650A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,909 Days
• Field of Search: 340/825, 340/825.57, 340/825.62, 340/825.69, 34042613-42615, 340/1.1, 340/12.1, 340/12.15, 340/3.1, 340/3.71, 348/143
• US Class Current: 340/3.71
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72415 for remote control of appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/52 including functional features of a camera

Abstract

The present invention relates to a technology which acquires information specific to a device by an image pickup element and remotely controls a desired device based on the acquired device-specific information. Particularly, the present invention relates to a technology which displays information for performing detailed remote control easily. In the present invention, it is intended to display information about manipulation of a desired device as needed and to facilitate remote manipulation of the device. As a result, according to an aspect of the present invention, since detailed information of a desired device can be selected to be viewed, detailed information of each of multiple devices can be easily identified by a single controller as needed.

Claims

1. A remote controller, comprising:

an acquisition section which continuously acquires, by an image pickup element, an image comprising a device to be remotely controlled, and device-specific information optically transmitted from the device, the device-specific information comprising detailed information about control of the device and a header identifying a hierarchy of the detailed information;

a display section which superimposes the image and the device-specific information which are continuously acquired by the acquisition section to display the superimposed image and the device-specific information;

an instruction accepting section which accepts, from a user, instructions of selection of the device-specific information to a desired device to be remotely controlled from among devices whose device-specific information is acquired and selection of a desired control content with respect to the desired device whose device-specific information is selected;

a remote control section which transmits a remote control signal corresponding to the desired control content selected at the instruction accepting section to the desired device whose device-specific information is selected at the instruction accepting section; and

a remote control signal control section which converts the device-specific information optically transmitted from the device to digital data, said digital data comprising converted information of the detailed information about control of the device and the header identifying the hierarchy of the detailed information,

wherein the display section determines whether there is the hierarchy of the detailed information about control of the desired device whose device-specific information is selected based on the header according to a selection of the device-specific information at the instruction accepting section, and displays the detailed information for each hierarchical layer in the hierarchy according to a determination result of whether there is the hierarchy of the detailed information about control of the desired device,

wherein the instruction accepting section accepts, from the user, instructions of selection of the desired control content with respect to the device whose device-specific information is selected from among the detailed information displayed for said each hierarchical layer in the hierarchy, and

wherein the remote control section transmits the remote control signal corresponding to the desired control content selected from among the detailed information displayed for said each hierarchical layer in the hierarchy to the device whose device-specific information is selected at the instruction accepting section.

2. The remote controller according to claim 1, wherein the instruction accepting section accepts selection of desired detailed information from detailed information about control of the device displayed on the display section, and

wherein the remote control section transmits a remote control signal corresponding to the desired control content defined by the detailed information selected at the instruction accepting section to the device whose device-specific information is selected at the instruction accepting section.

3. The remote controller according to claim 1, wherein the display section displays the detailed information about control of the selected device for said each hierarchical layer in the hierarchy.

4. The remote controller according to claim 2, wherein the display section displays the detailed information about control of the selected device for said each hierarchical layer in the hierarchy.

7. The remote controller according to claim 1, wherein the remote control section identifies detailed information of each of said devices.

8. The remote controller according to claim 1, wherein the remote control section performs a detailed remote control of said devices.

9. The remote controller according to claim 1, wherein the desired device whose device-specific information is selected allows the remote controller to identify the hierarchy of the detailed information by superimposing the header identifying the hierarchy of the detailed information.

10. The remote controller according to claim 1, wherein the device continuously transmits the device-specific information as an optical signal.

11. The remote controller according to claim 10, wherein the optical signal comprises an infrared signal.

12. The remote controller according to claim 1, wherein the detailed information about control of the device is optically transmitted from the device.

13. The remote controller according to claim 1, wherein the remote control section comprises an optical signal transmitting device comprising a light-emitting diode.

14. The remote controller according to claim 1, wherein the remote control signal control section transmits an optical signal, on which a control code and data indicated by the remote controller are superimposed, to the device.

15. The remote controller according to claim 14, wherein the control code comprises a speech code.

16. The remote controller according to claim 1, wherein the desired device identifies itself to the image pickup element by identifying a position from which the device-specific information is transmitted.

17. The remote controller according to claim 16, wherein the desired device superimposes at least one of an identification number, a serial number, a manufacturer number, a type number, and a model with a pilot signal indicating the position from which the device-specific information is transmitted, and continuously transmits the device-specific information as an optical signal to the acquisition section.

5. A remote control system, comprising:

a device which optically transmits device-specific information and detailed information about control of the device;

an acquisition section which continuously acquires, by an image pickup element, an image comprising the device, and the device-specific information optically transmitted from the device, the device-specific information, comprising the detailed information about control of the device and a header identifying a hierarchy of the detailed information;

a display section which superimposes the image and the device-specific information which are continuously acquired by the acquisition section to display the superimposed image and the device-specific information;

an instruction accepting section which accepts, from a user, instructions of selection of the device-specific information to a desired device to be remotely controlled from among devices whose device-specific information is acquired and selection of a desired control content with respect to the desired device whose device-specific information is selected;

a remote control section which transmits a remote control signal corresponding to the desired control content selected at the instruction accepting section to the desired device whose device-specific information is selected at the instruction accepting section; and

a remote control signal control section which converts the device-specific information optically transmitted from the device to digital data, said digital data comprising converted information of the detailed information about control of the device and the header identifying the hierarchy of the detailed information,

wherein the display section determines whether there is the hierarchy of the detailed information about control of the desired device whose device-specific information is selected based on the header according to a selection of the device-specific information at the instruction accepting section, and displays the detailed information for each hierarchical layer in the hierarchy according to a determination result of whether there is the hierarchy of the detailed information about control of the desired device,

wherein the instruction accepting section accepts, from the user, instructions of selection of the desired control content with respect to the desired device whose device-specific information is selected from among the detailed information displayed for said each hierarchical layer in the hierarchy, and

wherein the remote control section transmits the remote control signal corresponding to the desired control content selected from among the detailed information displayed for said each hierarchical layer in the hierarchy to the device whose device-specific information is selected at the instruction accepting section.

18. The remote control system according to claim 5, wherein the desired device identifies itself to the image pickup element by identifying a position from which the device-specific information is transmitted.

19. The remote control system according to claim 18, wherein the desired device superimposes at least one of an identification number, a serial number, a manufacturer number, a type number, and a model with a pilot signal indicating the position from which the device-specific information is transmitted, and continuously transmits the device-specific information as an optical signal to the acquisition section.

6. A remote controlling method, comprising:

continuously acquiring, by an image pickup element, an image comprising a device to be remotely controlled, and device-specific information optically transmitted from the device, the device-specific information comprising detailed information about control of the device and a header identifying a hierarchy of the detailed information;

converting the device-specific information optically transmitted from the device to digital data, said digital data comprising converted information of the detailed information about control of the device and the header identifying the hierarchy of the detailed information;

accepting, from a user, an instruction of selection of the device-specific information to a desired device from among devices whose device-specific information is acquired;

determining whether there is the hierarchy of the detailed information about control of the desired device whose device-specific information is selected based on the header according to a selection of the device-specific information at an instruction accepting section, and displaying the detailed information for each hierarchical layer in the hierarchy according to a determination result of whether there is the hierarchy and the device-specific information;

accepting, from the user, instructions of selection of a desired control content with respect to the desired device whose device-specific information is selected from among the detailed information displayed for said each hierarchical layer; and

transmitting a remote control signal corresponding to the desired control content selected from among the detailed information displayed for said each hierarchical layer in the hierarchy to the desired device whose device-specific information is selected at the instruction accepting section.

20. The method according to claim 6, wherein the desired device identifies itself to the image pickup element by identifying a position from which the device-specific information is transmitted, in which the desired device superimposes at least one of an identification number, a serial number, a manufacturer number, a type number, and a model with a pilot signal indicating the position from which the device-specific information is transmitted, and continuously transmits the device-specific information as an optical signal to the acquisition section.