System and method for configuring controlling device functionality

• US 9,641,785 B2
• Filed: 06/13/2016
• Issued: 05/02/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Universal Electronics, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Universal Electronics, Inc.
• Inventors: Barnett, Brian, Hatambeiki, Arsham, Xu, Rex, Perez, Jesus
• Primary Examiner(s): Harold, Jefferey
• Assistant Examiner(s): Monshi, Samira
• Application Number:
  US15/180,188
• Publication Number:
  US 20160295153A1
• Time in Patent Office: 323 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/21 Programming remote control devices via third means
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/92 Universal remote control
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41265 having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204
• 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 21/42216 for quick navigation, e.g. through an EPG
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42221 Transmission circuitry, e.g. infrared [IR] or radio frequency [RF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42227 the keys being reprogrammable, e.g. soft keys
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43635 HDMI
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4424 Monitoring of the internal components or processes of the client device, e.g. CPU or memory load, processing speed, timer, counter or percentage of the hard disk space used error monitoring in general G06F11/30; arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/32; diagnosis, testing or measuring for television receivers H04N17/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4516 involving client characteristics, e.g. Set-Top-Box type, software version or amount of memory available
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/485 End-user interface for client configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/775 between a recording apparatus and a television receiver

Abstract

A controlling device is automatically configured to issue a communication directly to a first controllable appliance to control a functional operation of the first controllable appliance in the event that the first controllable appliance is determined to be unresponsive to a command communication transmitted to the first controllable appliance via a digital communications link or to issue a communication to a second controllable appliance to control the functional operation of the first controllable appliance via a digital communications link in the event that first controllable appliance is determined to be responsive to a command communication transmitted to the first controllable appliance via a digital communications link.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a media source device; and

a controlling device in communication with the media source device via a first communications link;

wherein the media source device is programmed to provide to the controlling device via the first communications link a message having data which indicates whether a media sink device coupled to the media source device is responsive or unresponsive to a command communication transmitted to the media sink device by the media source device via a second communications link between the media source device and the media sink device and wherein the controlling device is programmed to use the data within the message to automatically configure the controlling device such that the controlling device will respond to an activation of an input element of the controlling device by issuing a communication directly to the media sink device via a third communications link between the controlling device and the media sink device to control the functional operation of the media sink device when the data in the message indicates that the media sink device is unresponsive to the command communication and by issuing a communication directly to the media source device via the first communications link to cause the media source device to issue a command to control the functional operation of the media sink device via the second communications link in the event that data indicates that the media sink device is responsive to the command communication.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the media source device comprises an Internet connected media streaming device.

3. The system as recited in claim 2, wherein the media sink device comprises a television.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the media source device comprises a set-top box device.

5. The system as recited in claim 4, wherein the media sink device comprises a television.

6. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the media source device is programmed to transfer media to the media sink device via the second communications link.

7. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the functional operation comprises an input selection functional operation.

8. The system as recited in claim 7, wherein the input selection functional operation causes a selection by the media sink device of a specific one of a plurality of input ports of the media sink device.

9. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the first communications link comprises a wireless communications link.

10. The system as recited in claim 9, wherein the wireless communications link comprises a radio frequency communications link.

11. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the second communications link comprises a wired communications link.

12. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the third communications link comprises a wireless communications link.

13. The system as recited in claim 12, wherein the wireless communications link comprises an infrared communications link.