Tethered digital butler consumer electronic remote control device and method

• US 8,494,132 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2011
• Issued: 07/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NexStep, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NexStep, Inc.
• Inventors: Stepanian, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Anwah, Olisa
• Application Number:
  US13/047,445
• Publication Number:
  US 20120056713A1
• Time in Patent Office: 862 Days
• Field of Search: 455/403, 713/186, 725/11, 725/6, 382/124, 379/88.17, 379/102.03, 370/352
• US Class Current: 379/102.03
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1684 Constructional details or arrangements related to integrated I/O peripherals not covered by groups G06F1/1635 - G06F1/1675
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1698 the I/O peripheral being a sending/receiving arrangement to establish a cordless communication link, e.g. radio or infrared link, integrated cellular phone details of antennas disposed inside a computer H01Q1/2266
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0231 Cordless keyboards
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/02 using a radio link
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72415 for remote control of appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7246 by connection of exchangeable housing parts
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/422 Input-only peripherals , i.e. input devices connected to specially adapted client devices, e.g. global positioning system [GPS] input devices also receiving signals from specially adapted client devices H04N21/4104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42201 biosensors, e.g. heat sensor for presence detection, EEG sensors or any limb activity sensors worn by the user input arrangements for interaction with the human body based on nervous system activity detection G06F3/015
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4333 Processing operations in response to a pause request
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4405 involving video stream decryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4623 Processing of entitlement messages, e.g. ECM [Entitlement Control Message] or EMM [Entitlement Management Message] arrangements for conditional access to broadcast information or to broadcast-related services H04H60/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/04 Key management, e.g. using generic bootstrapping architecture [GBA]

Abstract

The present invention relates to a tethered digital butler consumer electronics product and method. The tethered digital butler, of a price and form factor suitable for consumer electronics markets of developed and developing countries, includes a communications and multi-media console and a wireless remote. The remote may resemble a handheld personal computer (HPC), a palm-held personal computer (PPC or PDA) or a smart phone, but has a low cost and feature set supported by the console that is novel in the consumer electronics market. In particular, this disclosure relates to combining telephone service, device control and, optionally, a fingerprint reader for easy user identification/authorization and personalization. As another option, a camera can be incorporated into the remote, thereby enabling video conferencing and other visual features. Alternatively, the remote may be packaged separately from a console and sold to interact with capabilities of a communications and console, set-top box, multi-media PC or other consumer electronics device from a different source, such as one running on a Windows, OS X or Linux platform, with or without telephone capabilities. The remote may include a media reader and remote USB port.

Claims

1. A remote control device with slaved audio reproduction, the device including:

a wireless link transceiver;

at least one slaved audio output built into the remote control;

a trigger control built into the remote control;

hardware resources coupled between the wireless link transceiver, the slaved audio output and the trigger control;

a stack running on the hardware resources and exchanging packets with a gateway device; and

a decoder logic running on the hardware resources, logically coupled to the stack, adapted to receive the packets processed by the gateway device into a remote control device format and to decode the remote control device format into signals to drive the slaved output;

wherein the remote control

depends on the gateway device to transcode audio output from VoIP to the remote control device format, and

relies on the gateway device to respond to control signals sent by the remote control device in the packets.

2. The remote control device of claim 1, further including a memory card reader coupled to the hardware resources.

3. The remote control device of claim 2, wherein the memory card reader is presented by the remote control device to the gateway device as local to the gateway device.

4. The remote control device of claim 1, wherein the slaved audio output is a speaker.

5. The remote control device of claim 1, further including:

a digital rights management port, coupled to the hardware resources and adapted to couple electrically with a device that stores a DRM key; and

a DRM logic running on the hardware resources, logically coupled to the stack, adapted to exchange with the gateway device messages related to the DRM key when coupled to the digital rights management port.

6. The remote control device of claim 5, wherein the digital rights management port is a memory stick reader.

7. A remote control device with slaved audio input, the device including:

a wireless link transceiver;

at least one slaved audio input built into the remote control;

a trigger control built into the remote control;

hardware resources coupled between the wireless link transceiver, the digital rights management port, the slaved audio input and the trigger control;

a stack running on the hardware resources and exchanging packets with a gateway device; and

an encoder logic running on the hardware resources, logically coupled to the stack, adapted to encode signals from the slaved audio input into a remote control audio format, and adapted to send audio packets in the remote control audio format to the gateway device;

wherein the remote control

depends on the gateway device to transcode input from the slaved audio input to VoIP from the remote control device format, and

relies on the gateway device to respond to control signals sent by the remote control device in the packets.

8. The remote control device of claim 7, further including a memory card reader coupled to the hardware resources.

9. The remote control device of claim 7, wherein the remote control further includes voice recognition logic running on the hardware resources.

10. The remote control device of claim 7, wherein the slaved audio input is a microphone.

11. A remote control device with slaved audio and video reproduction, the device including:

a wireless link transceiver;

slaved audio and video outputs, including at least one slaved audio output and one slaved video display built into the remote control;

a trigger control built into the remote control;

hardware resources coupled between the wireless link transceiver, the slaved audio output, the slaved video display and the trigger control;

a stack running on the hardware resources and exchanging packets with a gateway device; and

a decoder logic running on the hardware resources, logically coupled to the stack, adapted to receive the packets processed by the gateway device into a remote control device format and to decode the remote control device format into signals to drive the slaved outputs;

wherein the remote control

depends on the gateway device to transcode audio and video from a streaming audio and video format to the remote control device format, wherein the streaming audio and video format is at least one of MPEG 2, MPEG 4, or IP-TV, and

relies on the gateway device to respond to control signals sent by the remote control device in the packets at least to select among audio and video for the remote control device to receive.

12. The remote control device of claim 11, wherein the remote control further depends on the gateway device to transcode audio output from VoIP to the remote control device format.

13. The remote control device of claim 11, wherein the remote control further includes a an HTML decoder logic running on the hardware resources that decodes at least a subset of HTML and renders decoded content to the slaved video display.

14. The remote control device of claim 13, wherein the HTML decoder logic further decodes at least a subset of JavaScript and executes the JavaScript.

15. The remote control device of claim 11, wherein the HTML decoder logic further decodes at least a subset of JavaScript and executes the JavaScript.

16. The remote control device of claim 11, wherein the remote control further receives streaming media directly from a server.

17. The remote control device of claim 11, further including a memory card reader coupled to the hardware resources.

18. The remote control device of claim 13, wherein the memory card reader is presented by the remote control device to the gateway device as local to the gateway device.

19. The remote control device of claim 11, wherein the slaved audio ouput is a speaker.

20. The remote control device of claim 11, further including:

a digital rights management port, coupled to the hardware resources and adapted to couple electrically with a device that stores a DRM key; and

a DRM logic running on the hardware resources, logically coupled to the stack, adapted to exchange with the gateway device messages related to the DRM key when coupled to the digital rights management port.