Display device

• US 8,745,532 B2
• Filed: 01/29/2009
• Issued: 06/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Yamao, Takahiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham, Linh K
• Application Number:
  US12/597,000
• Publication Number:
  US 20100131897A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,951 Days
• Field of Search: 715764-769
• US Class Current: 715/811
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/30 Authentication, i.e. establishing the identity or authorisation of security principals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/305 by remotely controlling device operation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/412 Layout analysis of documents structured with printed lines or input boxes, e.g. business forms or tables
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 19/00 Electric signal transmission systems G08C17/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/30 User interface
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/42 Transmitting or receiving remote control signals via a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2809 indicating that an appliance service is present in a home automation network monitoring functionality H04L43/0817; discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services, H04L67/51
• 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 12/282 based on user interaction within the home receiver circuitry for displaying additional information being controlled by a remote control apparatus H04N21/42204

Abstract

The display device allows easily operating plural controlled devices connected to a network. The display device includes a communication unit communicating with controlled devices X1 through Xn connected to a network; an information acquiring unit acquiring operation-related information from controlled devices X1 through Xn through the communication unit; an information classifying unit classifying URL information into plural function groups based on operation information contained in operation-related information; a menu generating unit generating a menu page for each of the function groups; a display unit displaying the menu page generated by the menu generating unit; and a page operation unit operating the menu page.

Claims

1. A display device network-connected to a plurality of controlled devices, comprising:

an information acquiring unit acquiring operation-related information from the plurality of controlled devices, the operation-related information containing operation information for at least one operation function and uniform resource location (URL) information corresponding to the operation information;

an information classifying unit classifying the URL information into a plurality of function groups based on the operation information, the plurality of function groups including a first function group related to viewing functions of at least one of the plurality of controlled devices and a second function group related to operation setting functions of at least one of the plurality of controlled devices;

wherein the viewing function of the at least one controlled device enables a user to view an image generated by the controlled device, and wherein the operation setting function of the at least one controlled device enables the user to change a setting of the controlled device;

a menu generating unit generating a menu page for each of the function groups, wherein one of the function groups of the plurality of controlled devices is selected prior to selection of the controlled device;

a display unit displaying each menu page; and

a page operation unit accessing the corresponding URL information by operating the respective menu page.

2. The display device of claim 1,

wherein the operation information has priority, and

wherein the menu generating unit generates the menu page based on the priority.

3. The display device of claim 2, further comprising:

an operation history information storing unit storing the URL information accessed by the page operation unit as operation history information,

wherein the menu generating unit generates the menu page based on the operation history information stored in the operation history information storing unit based on the priority.

4. The display device of claim 3, further comprising:

a layout control unit changing a display aspect of a menu item in the menu page based on the operation history information.

5. The display device of claim 1,

wherein the information acquiring unit further acquires operation-corresponding information created by correlating key information for a remote controller of the controlled device with operation command information, and

wherein the display unit displays a remote controller screen generated by the menu generating unit based on the operation-corresponding information, and the controlled device is operated by using operation command information corresponding to a key in the remote controller screen.

6. A display method for a display device connected to a plurality of controlled devices via a network, the display method comprising:

acquiring operation-related information from the plurality of controlled devices, the operation-related information containing operation information for at least one operation function and uniform resource location (URL) information corresponding to the operation information;

classifying the URL information into a plurality of function groups based on the operation information, the plurality of function groups including a first function group related to viewing functions of at least one of the plurality of controlled devices and a second function group related to operation setting functions of at least one of the plurality of controlled devices;

wherein the viewing function of the at least one controlled device enables a user to view an image generated by the controlled device, and wherein the operation setting function of the at least one controlled device enables the user to change a setting of the controlled device;

generating a menu page for each of the function groups, wherein one of the function groups of the plurality of controlled devices is selected prior to selection of the controlled device;

displaying each menu page; and

accessing the corresponding URL information by operating the respective menu page.