JP2001128261A - Remote control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve a problem of a conventional remote control system where a remote controller and electronic apparatus cannot share information and the electronic apparatuses cannot share information unless a leased line is used. SOLUTION: The operation of an electronic apparatus 1 is controlled based on a 1st control information signal 5 outputted from a transmission circuit of a remote controller 3. The electronic apparatus 1 and the remote controller 3 can share information by transmitting a 1st information signal 4 of a system of the electronic apparatus 1 to a reception circuit of the remote controller 3. Then the transmission circuit of the remote controller 3 transmits a 2nd control information signal 7 to control the operation of the electric apparatus to the reception circuit of an electric apparatus 2, through the use of the 1st information signal 4, a 2nd information signal 6 outputted from the electric apparatus 2 or the information owned by the remote controller 3. Thus, the electronic apparatus 1, 2 are interlocked and share the information with the remote controller 3.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a remote control device for controlling electric equipment.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a remote control device has transmitted information in one direction from a remote controller to an electric device.

[0003] A conventional remote control device will be described below.

FIG. 2 shows a configuration diagram of a conventional remote control device. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 10 denotes an electric device that is remotely operated, such as a video tape recorder or an air conditioner, and is provided with a receiving unit that receives a signal transmitted from a remote controller 11 described later. Reference numeral 11 denotes a remote controller provided with an operation unit for controlling the electric device 10, and a signal is transmitted to the electric device 10 by wireless transmission of infrared rays or the like. Reference numeral 12 denotes a control information signal transmitted from the remote controller 11 to the electric device 10.

The operation of the conventional remote control device configured as described above will be described below.

When the user operates an operation unit (not shown) provided on the remote controller 11, the control information signal 12 output from the remote controller 11 is transmitted to the electric device 10 by a radio signal such as infrared rays. You. The transmitted control information signal 12 is received by a receiving unit (not shown) provided in the electric device 10, and various operations are controlled by the control information signal.

[0007]

However, in the above-described conventional configuration, the remote control 11 can transmit the control information signal to the electric device 10 to synchronize them, but the electric device has its own. Information cannot be synchronized with the remote controller.

For example, when trying to reproduce a video tape with a video tape recorder, it is necessary to switch the input of the television receiver to the external input mode. Conventionally, the remote control of the television receiver is operated to switch the television receiver to the external input mode, and then the video tape recorder is instructed to reproduce the video tape using the remote control of the video tape recorder. In such an operation,
It was necessary to operate each of the two remote controllers, which was very complicated. In addition, there is a remote control that can operate both the television receiver and the video tape recorder, but the number of remote controls has only been reduced to one, and the number of operations itself has not changed, which also reduces operability. It was a problem.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems and to provide a remote control device for sharing information of a remote controller with an electric device and for linking the electric devices by sharing the information. .

[0010]

According to the present invention, there is provided a remote control device for transmitting and receiving a remote control signal between an electric device and a remote control.
The remote control includes transmitting means for transmitting and outputting a remote control signal and receiving means for receiving a remote control signal from the electric device. The electric device includes a transmitting means for transmitting and outputting a remote control signal to the remote control, and the remote control. And a receiving means for receiving a remote control signal from a remote controller.

[0011] With this configuration, it is possible to obtain a remote control device for sharing information between the electric device and the remote controller and for linking the electric devices by sharing the information.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention is a remote control device for transmitting and receiving a remote control signal between an electric device and a remote control, wherein the remote control transmits and outputs a remote control signal. Transmitting means for receiving a remote control signal from the electrical device, and receiving means for transmitting and outputting a remote control signal to the remote control, and receiving means for receiving a remote control signal from the remote control. It has the function of sharing information of the remote controller with the electric device and linking the electric devices by sharing the information.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIG.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a remote control device according to the present invention.
And 2 are first and second electric devices having a receiving unit for receiving control information from outside and a transmitting unit for transmitting information on electric devices to the outside, such as a television receiver, a video tape recorder, It is equivalent to an air conditioner.
Note that although the present embodiment has been described assuming that there are two electric devices, at least one electric device may be provided, and a plurality of electric devices may be provided. Reference numeral 3 denotes a remote controller capable of remotely controlling the first and second electric devices.
Transmitting means for transmitting a control information signal for controlling the operation of the first electric equipment 1 and the second electric equipment 2, and receiving means for receiving the information of the first electric equipment 1 and the second electric equipment 2. Have. Here, signals transmitted and received between the remote controller 3 and the first and second electric devices 1 and 2 include, for example, radio signals such as infrared rays. Further, the signal transmitted from the remote controller 3 may be transmitted to one of the plurality of electric devices, or may be transmitted to the plurality of electric devices at one time. 4 is a first information signal transmitted from the first electric device 1 to the remote controller 3, 5 is a first control information signal transmitted from the remote controller 3 to the first electric device 1, 6 is a second electric device A second information signal transmitted from the remote controller 3 to the remote controller 3 is composed of a second control information signal transmitted from the remote controller 3 to the electric device 2. The same effect can be obtained in the case of q electrical devices (q = 1, 2, 3,...: Q is a positive integer).

The operation of the remote control device of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described below with reference to FIG.

First, the operation of the first electric device 1 is controlled based on the first control information signal 5 output from the transmission means of the remote controller 3. Further, the information of the remote controller 3 can be shared with the first electrical device 1 by transmitting the information held by the first electrical device 1 as the first information signal 4 and receiving the information by the receiving means of the remote controller 3. . Next, second control information for controlling the operation of the electric device using the first information signal 4, the second information signal 6 output from the second electric device 2, or the information held by the remote controller 3 The signal 7 is transmitted from the transmitting means of the remote controller 3 to the receiving means of the second electric device 2. Thereby, the first electric device 1 and the second electric device 2 can be linked and the information with the remote controller 3 can be shared.

For example, when the first electric device 1 is a television receiver and the second electric device 2 is a video tape recorder, when the video tape recorder attempts to reproduce a video tape, It is necessary to switch the input to the external input mode. Conventionally, the remote control of the television receiver is operated to switch the television receiver to the external input mode, and then the video tape recorder is instructed to reproduce the video tape using the remote control of the video tape recorder. In such an operation, it is necessary to operate each of the two remote controllers, which is very complicated. In addition, there is a remote control that can operate both the television receiver and the video tape recorder, but the number of remote controls has only been reduced to one, and the number of operations itself has not changed. Was.

In the present embodiment, first, when a playback button is pressed on the remote controller 3 to issue a playback operation command, the control information is converted into a second control information signal 7 in the second electrical equipment 2.
Is sent to the video tape recorder. The second device 2 shifts to a reproducing operation according to the control information signal, and converts the information signal as a second information signal 6 to the remote controller 3 to switch the television receiver as the first electric device 1 to the external input mode. Send. The remote controller 3 receives the second information signal 6 and transmits a control signal for switching to the external input mode as a first control information signal 5 to the television receiver as the first electric device 1. The first electrical device 1 is switched to the external input mode by the first control signal 5, and the video reproduced by the video tape recorder, which is the second device 2, is satisfactorily reproduced by the television, which is the first device 1. The image is displayed on the screen of the receiver.

As described above, the television receiver and the video tape recorder can cooperate with each other. When the video tape recorder is operated to reproduce the video tape, the input switching of the television receiver can be automatically switched. it can.

Although the present embodiment has been described based on the reproducing operation, any operation or control of a video tape recorder which requires operation of a television receiver can be similarly performed. Further, in the present embodiment, the configuration has been described as an example in order to achieve cooperation between the television receiver and the video tape recorder. However, it is needless to say that the present invention is also effective when used for other electric devices.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the first
By providing this remote control device in a system in which information cannot be shared between the electric device 1 and the second electric device 2,
Information can be shared, and the operations of the devices and the operation of the remote controller can be linked.

In addition, when the electric device 1 is a video device, by transmitting time information of the video device to the remote controller, it is possible to eliminate a time lag when performing scheduled recording, so that the scheduled time can be reduced. You can start recording. Therefore, the time lag can be eliminated by linking the electric device 1 and the remote controller 3.

In the description of the present embodiment, two electric devices such as the first and second electric devices are controlled, but signals are transmitted and received between one electric device and the remote controller. There is also a configuration to perform.

For example, by transmitting an information signal from a video tape recorder to a remote controller, a user can confirm various information on a display unit provided on the remote controller. When recording reservation information, counter information, and the like are transmitted to the remote control, it becomes effective when the video tape recorder is used while housed in a rack or the like. That is,
When stored in a rack, the display section of the video tape recorder may be difficult to see. For example, when an arbitrary program is manually searched, the counter is difficult to see and operability is reduced. Therefore, according to the present embodiment, the counter can be displayed on the display unit provided on the remote controller, so that the user can check the counter information at hand. In addition, although the function of displaying OSD on the television receiver has been generalized for the information of the set recording reservation, there is a case where the user does not want to display the OSD while watching another program on the television receiver. . At this time,
By transmitting the scheduled recording information (recording time, recording channel, etc.) to the remote control from the video tape recorder and confirming it on the display unit provided on the remote control, the scheduled recording can be performed while watching other programs on the television receiver. Can be confirmed.

When this configuration is used for an air conditioner,
Conventionally, only the desired temperature and air volume settings were transmitted from the remote controller to the air conditioner. However, there is an error between the temperature set by the user and the actual perceived temperature. In order to understand the degree, it was troublesome to look at the thermometer. Therefore,
In this configuration, by providing the air conditioner with a temperature sensor and transmitting the current room temperature information from the air conditioner to the remote controller, the user can easily check the room temperature by looking at the display unit provided on the remote controller. The effect can be obtained.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention, information can be shared by providing this remote control device between electric devices that cannot share information, and the operation of the remote control can be linked between the devices and the remote control device. The excellent effect that it can be obtained is obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a remote control device according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional remote control device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 1st electric equipment 2 2nd electric equipment 3 remote control 4 1st information signal 5 1st control information signal 6 2nd information signal 7 2nd control information signal

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A remote control device for transmitting and receiving a remote control signal between an electric device and a remote control, wherein the remote control receives a remote control signal from the electric device by transmitting means for transmitting and outputting a remote control signal. And receiving means,
The remote control device according to claim 1, wherein the electrical device includes a transmission unit that transmits and outputs a remote control signal to the remote control, and a reception unit that receives a remote control signal from the remote control. 2. A remote control device comprising a remote controller capable of remotely controlling n (n = natural number) electrical devices, wherein the remote controller transmits a signal to the n electrical devices; Receiving means for receiving signals output from the n electrical devices. 3. A first and a second apparatus comprising: a transmitting unit for transmitting an information signal of an electric device; and a receiving unit for receiving a control signal.
Electrical equipment, and a remote control including a transmitting means and a receiving means for transmitting and receiving information signals and control signals between the first and second electrical equipment, the remote control device, the first and the second A remote control device for receiving an information signal from the first electric device and transmitting a control signal to the second electric device in order to link the second electric device.