Decoding multiple remote control code sets

• US 20080098426A1
• Filed: 03/08/2007
• Published: 04/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Saturn Licensing LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Candelore, Brant L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,077,263 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4221 Dedicated function buttons, e.g. for the control of an EPG, subtitles, aspect ratio, picture-in-picture or teletext
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4355 involving reformatting operations of additional data, e.g. HTML pages on a television screen optimising the visualization of content for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/9577; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/066; media handling at the source in data packet switching networks H04L65/764
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73

Abstract

A method of processing remote control commands at a control device consistent with certain embodiments involves at the control device, receiving commands directed to the control device; at the control device, receiving a command directed to a source device, the source device being operative to provide video content to a display; and at the control device, interpreting the command directed to the source device in order to track a state of operation of the source device. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.

Claims

1. A method of processing remote control commands at a control device, comprising:

at the control device, receiving commands directed to the control device;

at the control device, receiving a command directed to a source device, the source device being operative to provide video content to a display;

at the control device, interpreting the command directed to the source device in order to track a state of operation of the source device; and

at the control device, carrying out an optical character recognition (OCR) process on video content produced by the source device.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the command directed to the source device comprises a sequence of commands.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the command directed to the source device comprises a selection command preceded by a Sequence of navigation commands.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the interpreting is can-led out by optical character recognition (OCR) processing a frame of video corresponding to a menu in order to determine that the sequence of navigation commands leads to a selection command that causes the source device to enter a known state of operation or inactivity.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the OCR processing is carried out on a selected segment of the video frame.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the OCR process is enabled to detect special symbols in the video frames.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the commands directed toward the control device and toward the source device comprises of one of infrared remote control commands and RF remote control commands.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the source device comprises one of a television set top box, an IPTV adapter, a set back box, a blu-ray disc player, a personal video recorder and a video tape player.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising passing the command from the control device to the source device.

10. A tangible computer readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed on a programmed processor, carry out a process according to claim 1.

11. A method of processing remote control commands at a control device, comprising:

at the control device, receiving commands directed to the control device;

at the control device, receiving a command directed to a source device that determines that the source device is to enter a state of inactivity, the source device being operative to provide video content to a display;

at the control device, interpreting the command directed to the source device such that the source device is being instructed to enter the state of inactivity;

at the control device, determining that no command has been received within an established time period that changes a source of video to the display to a source of content other than the video source; and

as a result of the determining, placing the display into an energy conserving standby state.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the command directed to the source device comprises a command to switch the source device to an off or standby state.

13. The method according to claim 11, wherein the command directed to the source device comprises a sequence of commands:

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the command directed to the source device comprises a selection command preceded by a sequence of navigation commands.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the interpreting is carried out by optical character recognition (OCR) processing a frame of video corresponding to a menu in order to determine that the sequence of navigation commands leads to a selection command that causes the source device to enter the state of inactivity.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the OCR processing is carried out on a selected segment of the video frame.

17. The method according to claim 11, wherein the OCR process is enabled to detect special symbols in the video frames.

18. The method according to claim 11, wherein the commends directed toward the control device and toward the source device comprises of one of infrared remote control commands and RF remote control commands.

19. The method according to claim 11, wherein the source device comprises one of a television set top box, an IPTV adapter, a set back box, a blu-ray disc player, a personal video recorder and a video tape player.

20. The method according to claim 11, further comprising passing the command from the control device to the source device.

21. A tangible computer readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed on a programmed processor, carry out a process according to claim 11.

22. A method of processing remote control commands at a digital television, comprising:

at the digital television, receiving commands directed to the digital television;

at the digital television, receiving a command directed to a source device that determines that the source device is to enter a state of inactivity, the source device being operative to provide video content to the digital television;

at the digital television, interpreting the command directed to the source device such that the source device is being instructed to enter the state of inactivity;

at the digital television, determining that no command has been received within an established time period that changes a source of video to the digital television to a source other than the video source; and

as a result of the determining, placing the digital television into an energy conserving standby state.

23. The method according to claim 22, wherein the command directed to the source device comprises a command to switch the source device to an off or standby state.

24. The method according to claim 22, wherein the command directed to the source device comprises a sequence of commands.

25. The method according to claim 24, wherein the command directed to the source device comprises a selection command preceded by a sequence of navigation commands.

26. The method according to claim 25, wherein the interpreting is carried out by optical character recognition (OCR) processing a frame of video corresponding to a menu in order to determine that the sequence of navigation commands leads to a selection command that causes the source device to enter the state of inactivity.

27. The method according to claim 26, wherein the OCR processing is carried out on a selected segment of the video frame.

28. The method according to claim 22, wherein the OCR process is enabled to detect special symbols in the video frames.

29. The method according to claim 22, wherein the commands directed toward the digital television and toward the source device comprises of one of infrared remote control commands and RF remote control commands.

30. The method according to claim 22, wherein the source device comprises one of a television set top box, an IPTV adapter, a set back box, a blu-ray disc player, a personal video recorder and a video tape player.

31. The method according to claim 22, further comprising passing the command from the control device to the source device.