Remote control of a plurality of devices

• US 9,251,702 B2
• Filed: 08/19/2010
• Issued: 02/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Signify Holding B.V. (Signify N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Inventors: Geeraerts, Sam
• Primary Examiner(s): Bahta, Kidest
• Application Number:
  US13/392,539
• Publication Number:
  US 20120185064A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,993 Days
• Field of Search: 700/17, 700/83, 700/71, 314/173, 314/174, 709/208, 709/221, 709/212, 340/12.25, 340/12.54, 455/31
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/50 Receiving or transmitting feedback, e.g. replies, status updates, acknowledgements, from the controlled devices
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 25/02 by signalling back receiving station to transmitting station
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/04 Arrangements for synchronous operation

Abstract

A system and method are described for controlling a plurality of devices (150) by a remote control apparatus (105). The remote control apparatus (105) transmits a same sequence of commands individually to each of the plurality of devices (150) to execute a relative increase or decrease of a parameter thereof with a certain value. There is two-way communication between the remote control apparatus (105) and the devices (150). The devices (150) acknowledge the correct reception of a command by transmitting an acknowledgement message to the remote control apparatus (105). The remote control apparatus (105) repeats the transmission of a command to a device (150) in case of not receiving an acknowledgement message from the device (150). In this way, it is guaranteed that all controlled devices (150) receive the same commands and the controlled parameters thereof are kept in synchronization.

Claims

1. A remote control apparatus for controlling a plurality of devices, the remote control apparatus comprising:

a transmitter transmitting a sequence of commands individually to each of the plurality of devices, each of the commands of the sequence instructing the respective device to execute an increase or decrease of a parameter thereof with a certain value; and

a controller generating the commands and controlling the transmission of the sequence of commands, the controller controlling the transmitter to repeat the transmission of a command to a device in case of not receiving an acknowledgement message from the device, the repeat of the transmission of the command to the device based upon a function of the time period needed to transmit one or more of the commands.

2. The remote control apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the controller controls the transmitter to transmit a command of the sequence to each of the plurality of devices before starting the transmission of a next command of the sequence and, in case of not receiving the acknowledgement from one or more devices after transmission of the command, to transmit the command first to all devices to which the command has not been transmitted yet and thereafter repeat the transmission of the command to the one or more devices from which no acknowledgement has been received.

3. The remote control apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the controller controls a value of the increase or decrease instructed by the commands as a function of the time period needed to transmit one or more commands of the sequence of commands to each of the plurality of devices.

4. The remote control apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the value of the increase or decrease is proportional to the time period.

5. The remote control apparatus according to claim 3, wherein, for an initial command, the controller controls the value of the increase or decrease instructed by the command based on conditions of a transmission medium over which the command will be transmitted and based on the amount of devices to which the command will be transmitted.

6. The remote control apparatus according to claim 3, wherein for commands subsequent to the initial command the controller controls the value of the increase or decrease based on a monitored time period needed to transmit one or more previous commands to the plurality of devices.

7. The remote control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, for a final command, the controller sets the increase or decrease to a predetermined value.

8. The remote control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the commands are transmitted as long as this is requested by a user.

9. A system comprising a remote control apparatus according to claim 1 and a plurality of devices controlled by the remote control apparatus, the devices comprising:

a receiver receiving the sequence of commands from the remote control apparatus instructing the device to execute the increase or decrease of the parameter thereof with the certain value,

a transmitter; and

a controller controlling the execution of the increase or decrease of the parameter, according to the value of each of the commands of the sequence and generating the acknowledgement message to be transmitted by the transmitter in case of correctly receiving the command.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein if the value of the increase or decrease according to the command is larger than a threshold value, the controller smoothes the increase or decrease.

11. The system according to claim 9, wherein the controller controls the execution of the increase or decrease according to the value of each of the commands of the sequence and a scaling factor.

12. A remote control apparatus for controlling a plurality of devices, the remote control apparatus comprising:

a processor having memory with instructions for controlling the transmission of a sequence of commands through a transmitter, the processor configured by the instruction to transmit the sequence of commands individually to each of the plurality of devices;

each of the commands of the sequence instructing the respective device to execute an increase or decrease of a parameter for the respective device by a certain value;

the processor configured by the instruction to generate the commands and control the transmission of the sequence of commands, the processor controlling the transmitter to repeat the transmission of a command to a device in case of not receiving an acknowledgement message from the device, the increase or decrease of the parameter for the respective device modified as a function of the time period needed to transmit one or more commands of the sequence of commands.

13. A remote control apparatus for controlling a plurality of devices, the remote control apparatus comprising:

a processor having memory with instructions for controlling the transmission of a sequence of commands through a transmitter, the processor configured by the instruction to transmit the sequence of commands individually to each of the plurality of devices;

each of the commands of the sequence instructing the respective device to execute an increase or decrease of a parameter for the respective device by a certain value;

the processor configured by the instruction to generate the commands and control the transmission of the sequence of commands;

wherein the processor controls a value in the memory of the increase or decrease instructed by the commands as a function of the time period needed to transmit one or more commands of the sequence of commands to each of the plurality of devices.