Measurement of IR emissions and adjustment of output signal

• US 9,883,179 B2
• Filed: 07/16/2014
• Issued: 01/30/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dish Technologies LLC (Dish Network Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Echostar Technologies LLC (Echostar Corporation)
• Inventors: Bly, Jr., Allan Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): YENKE, BRIAN P
• Application Number:
  US14/333,290
• Publication Number:
  US 20160021368A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,294 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 17/04 for receivers

Abstract

Various arrangements for monitoring and mitigating infrared (IR) interference from a display device are presented. IR emissions from a display device are measured the IR signaling characteristics may be adjusted to mitigate interference from the emissions. Calibration methods may be used determine display emission characteristics by displaying test patterns and video clips. Characteristics of the display patterns and video clips may be correlated to high IR emissions.

Claims

1. A television receiver configured to mitigate IR interference from a display device, the television receiver comprising:

one or more processors;

a non-transitory memory communicatively coupled with and readable by the one or more processors and having stored therein processor-readable instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to;

monitor for error rates on received IR signals from an IR remote control; and

when the monitored error rates are determined to satisfy a threshold, automatically initiate a calibration mode comprising;

generate test patterns for display on the display device, the test patterns configured to induce infrared (IR) emissions from the display device;

measure, by a sensor at the television receiver, IR emissions during the display of the test patterns;

determine IR emission characteristics;

determine an effect of the IR emission characteristics on one or more commands received from the IR remote;

determine an IR configuration based at least in part based on the IR emission characteristics, the IR configuration comprising settings for IR signaling to mitigate interference from the IR emissions;

initiate the IR configuration;

scan incoming programming content with an inactive tuner, wherein the scanning identifies content with image or video characteristics similar to the test patterns that were determined to cause interference with received IR command signals; and

adjust the IR configuration to account for the identified content prior to display of the identified content.

2. The television receiver configured to mitigate IR interference from a display device of claim 1, wherein the settings are optimized to reduce power for IR signaling.

3. The television receiver configured to mitigate IR interference from a display device of claim 1, wherein the IR configuration comprises IR power level settings.

4. The television receiver configured to mitigate IR interference from a display device of claim 1, wherein the IR configuration comprises IR signal encoding settings.

5. The television receiver configured to mitigate IR interference from a display device of claim 1, wherein the processor-readable instructions, when executed, further cause the one or more processors to correlate IR emissions with specific patterns displayed on the display device.

6. The television receiver of claim 1, wherein the generated test patterns include multiple images or clips, and wherein the measuring further comprises:

sensing IR emissions with at least one sensor of the television receiver;

capturing and recording the sensed IR emissions during each image or clip of the multiple images or clips of the generated test patterns; and

correlating the captured and recorded IR energy to each image or clip of the multiple images or clips of the generated test patterns.

7. The television receiver of claim 6, wherein the processors are further caused to:

analyze the correlations for each image or clip of the multiple images or clips of the generated test patterns; and

determine display conditions that result in IR emissions levels from the display device that disrupt one or more commands from the IR remote.

8. The television receiver of claim 7, wherein the processors are further caused to assign an available tuner of the television receiver to:

scan incoming programming to be displayed by the display device for image or video signals that exhibit the determined display conditions that result in IR emissions levels from the display device that disrupt one or more commands from the IR remote;

identify content with image or video characteristics similar to the determined display conditions that result in high IR emissions from the display device; and

adjust the IR configuration to account for the identified content prior to display of the identified content.

9. The television receiver of claim 8, wherein the IR configuration determination further comprises:

determining for the IR remote issuing the IR signaling the lowest energy requirements at which error rates on reception of IR signals are below a threshold;

adding a margin on energy requirement for the IR remote control of at least 10% power; and

transmitting the IR configuration to the IR remote control via a backchannel communication path.

10. The television receiver of claim 1, wherein initiating the IR configuration comprises prompting a user to physically move the television receiver or a mechanical device coupled with an IR sensor.

11. A method for mitigating IR interference from a display device, the method comprising:

initiating a calibration mode;

generating test patterns for display on the display device, the test patterns configured to induce infrared (IR) emissions from the display device;

measuring by a television receiver IR emissions during the displaying of the test patterns;

determining IR emission characteristics that cause interference with received IR command signals;

determining an IR configuration based at least in part based on the IR emission characteristics, the configuration comprising settings for IR signaling to mitigate the IR emissions;

initiating the IR configuration;

scanning incoming programming content currently being displayed with an inactive tuner, wherein the scanning identifies content with image or video characteristics similar to the test patterns that were determined to cause IR emission characteristics that cause interference with received IR command signals; and

adjusting the IR configuration to account for the identified content prior to display of the identified content.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving IR signals during the calibration mode, the IR signals processed according to the IR configuration; and

determining error rates of the IR signals.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising adjusting the IR configuration to reduce the error rates.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the IR configuration comprises IR power level settings.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the IR configuration comprises IR signal encoding settings.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising correlating IR emissions with specific patterns displayed on the display device.