JP2004023220A - Remote control device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To generate a cursor for setting various functions at a position to which a remote control is directed. <P>SOLUTION: The position of a front portion transmitting part 2a and the position of a rear portion transmitting part 2b are calculated on the basis of the irradiation angle of a signal from the front portion transmitting part 2a inputted to front portion receiving sensors 3a to 3d and on the basis of the irradiation angle of a signal from the rear portion transmitting part 2b inputted to rear portion receiving sensors 4a to 4d, respectively. The curser 6 is generated at or moved to the intersection of an extension line connecting the front and rear portion transmitting parts and a screen 5. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a device that performs various operations using a remote controller such as a television.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a variety of functions have been developed in video and audio equipment such as televisions, and accordingly, the number of operation buttons has been increased in operation equipment such as a remote controller, and the operation itself has become complicated. Against this background, there is a demand for simplification of operations when a user uses various functions.
[0003]
As one of the methods for simplifying the operation of the device, there is a method as disclosed in JP-A-8-130779.
[0004]
FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a conventional apparatus for generating a cursor for performing setting operations of various functions on a screen by a remote controller or the like. According to this method, a plurality of signals transmitted from the transmitting unit are received by receiving sensors arranged around the screen, a difference in the intensity of signals input to these receiving sensors is converted into a phase difference, and the signal is transmitted by the phase difference. Calculate the position coordinates of the point pointed to by the unit, so as to generate a cursor at the position corresponding to the calculated position coordinates on the screen, and move the cursor position on the screen to the desired position using the remote controller I have.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
The above device can detect the position of the transmitter, but cannot detect the direction of the tip of the transmitter, so to move the cursor, instead of changing the direction of the tip of the transmitter, the transmitter itself must be changed. There is a problem that must be moved. For example, if the user positions the tip of the remote controller to generate a cursor near one corner on the screen and tries to move the cursor to a diagonal corner, the orientation of the tip of the remote controller is You can't just turn it to the corner, but you have to move the remote controller itself.
[0006]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a remote control device capable of detecting a direction of a transmission unit tip and moving a cursor by changing a direction of the transmission unit tip.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above-described problems, the remote control device of the present invention has a plurality of transmission units each transmitting a signal of a different frequency to the remote controller, and corresponds to each of the transmission units provided around a screen such as a television. Calculating the position of each transmitting unit based on the detection results of the plurality of receiving units, and generating a cursor at the direction of the tip of the remote controller on the screen based on the position of the transmitting unit. It is a control device.
[0008]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for generating a cursor on a screen by a remote controller, the apparatus having a plurality of transmission units for transmitting signals of different frequencies to the remote controller, and a peripheral device such as a television. The position of each transmitting unit is calculated based on the detection results of the plurality of receiving units corresponding to each of the transmitting units, and the cursor is moved to the direction of the tip of the remote controller on the screen based on the position of the transmitting unit. For example, the user positions the tip of the remote controller so as to generate a cursor near one corner on the screen and moves the cursor to a diagonal corner. In this case, just point the tip of the remote controller at the diagonal corner. It is possible to save time and effort that must be moved.
[0009]
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the remote control device, when a signal from each transmitting unit is received by the receiving unit, a signal of a plurality of different frequencies is received by one type of receiving unit, and each signal is transmitted. When calculating the position of the unit, the operation is performed by separating each frequency, and the receiver for detecting signals of different frequencies can be integrated into one type, so that the number of parts can be reduced. Can be achieved.
[0010]
(Embodiment 1)
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 2, and 3. FIG. As an example, a television remote control system is shown.
[0011]
FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a remote control device according to the present invention, in which 1 is a remote controller, 2a and 2b are front and rear transmitters for transmitting signals of different frequencies provided in the remote controller. , 3a to 3d are reception sensors for a plurality of front transmission units provided around a screen for receiving a signal transmitted from the front transmission unit described above, and 4a to 4d are transmitted from the rear transmission unit described above. A plurality of receiving sensors for a rear transmitting unit provided around a screen for receiving a signal, 5 is a screen such as a television, 6 is a screen for setting various functions generated and moved by the remote controller described above. Shows the top cursor.
[0012]
FIG. 2 is a circuit block diagram of the remote control device according to the present invention, in which 3a to 3d and 4a to 4d are a reception sensor for a front transmission unit and a reception sensor for a rear transmission unit, respectively, as described above. 9a is a coordinate calculating means 1 for calculating the position coordinates of the front transmitting section 2a, 9b is a coordinate calculating means 2 for calculating the position coordinates of the rear transmitting section 2b, and 10 is a coordinate for calculating the coordinates where the cursor on the screen should be positioned. The calculation means 3 and 11 are cursor movement control means for generating or moving a cursor based on the calculation result of the coordinate calculation means 310.
[0013]
First, signals of different frequencies are respectively transmitted from the front transmission unit 2a and the rear transmission unit 2b provided in the remote controller 1, and the signals transmitted from the front transmission unit 2a include a plurality of signals provided around the screen 5. And the signals transmitted from the rear transmitter 2b are input to a plurality of rear transmitter receivers 4a to 4d provided around the screen 5, respectively. . Each of the reception sensors 3a to 3d for the front transmission unit detects the irradiation angle of the signal input from the front transmission unit 2a by a method described later, and based on the detected irradiation angle, the coordinate calculation unit 19a detects the irradiation angle of the screen 5. The position coordinates of the front transmitter 2a in the front space are calculated. The reception sensors 4a to 4d for the rear transmission unit also detect the irradiation angles of the signals input from the rear transmission unit 2b, respectively, similarly to the above-described reception sensors 3a to 3d for the front transmission unit, and detect the irradiation angles. Is used to calculate the position coordinates of the rear transmitter 2b in the space in front of the screen 5 by the coordinate calculator 29b. The coordinate calculating unit 310 obtains an extension of a straight line connecting the front transmitting unit 2a and the rear transmitting unit 2b based on the position coordinates of the front transmitting unit 2a and the rear transmitting unit 2b calculated as described above, and calculates the tip of the remote controller. The intersection of this extension line and the screen 5 is calculated as the direction of the part. The cursor movement control means 11 generates or moves the cursor 6 at the intersection of the screen 5 and an extension of the straight line connecting the front transmission unit 2a and the rear transmission unit 2b.
[0014]
Next, an example of a method of detecting the irradiation angle in the receiving sensors 3a to 3d and 4a to 4d will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 12 denotes a receiving sensor main body, which is the same as the aforementioned 3a to 3d and 4a to 4d. 13 is a central part of the receiving sensor, 14 is an example of a signal line transmitted from the transmitting part, 15 is a perpendicular to a screen passing through the central part 13 of the receiving sensor, and 16 is a vertical direction of a screen passing through the central part 13 of the receiving sensor. Is a horizontal straight line. When the signal transmitted from the transmitting unit is input from the direction of 14 toward the center 13 of the receiving sensor, the angle between the input signal line and the screen passing through the center 13 of the receiving sensor and the perpendicular 15 is ρ, Assuming that the angle between a straight line projected from the straight line of the input signal line on the same plane as the screen and a straight line 16 extending in the vertical direction of the screen passing through the central portion 13 of the receiving sensor is θ, the input to the receiving sensor main body 12 is assumed. The irradiation angle to be detected is detected as the two values of ρ and θ described above. In the present embodiment, the irradiation angle is detected based on the two values of ρ and θ, but any method may be used as long as the irradiation angle from the receiving sensor can be detected.
[0015]
(Embodiment 2)
Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. Note that the same components as those in the above-described embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted.
[0016]
In FIG. 4, reference numerals 7a to 7d denote a plurality of front and rear transmitting unit receiving sensors provided around the screen for receiving signals transmitted from the front transmitting unit 2a and the rear transmitting unit 2b.
[0017]
In FIG. 5, reference numerals 8a to 8d denote frequency separation means for separating signals input at different frequencies in the reception sensors 7a to 7d for each frequency.
[0018]
Signals transmitted at different frequencies from the front transmission unit 2a and the rear transmission unit 2b of the remote controller are input to the reception sensors 7a to 7d that also serve as the front and rear transmission units. The receiving sensors 7a to 7d detect the irradiation angles of the signals from the front transmitting unit 2a and the rear transmitting unit 2b, respectively, and input the signals to the frequency separation units 8a to 8d. The frequency separating units 8a to 8d separate the frequency of the signal transmitted from the front transmitting unit 2a and the frequency of the signal transmitted from the rear transmitting unit 2b, and input them to the 9a coordinate calculating unit 1 and the 9b coordinate calculating unit 2, respectively. The position coordinates of the front transmission unit 2a and the rear transmission unit 2b are calculated in the same manner as described above, and the position coordinates of the cursor are calculated based on the calculated position coordinates and displayed on the screen.
[0019]
【The invention's effect】
According to the remote control device of the present invention, since the cursor is positioned on the screen at the direction of the tip of the remote controller, for example, the user positions the tip of the remote controller so that the cursor is generated near one corner on the screen. If you try to move the cursor to the diagonal corner with the remote controller, you can simply point the tip of the remote controller to the diagonal corner, eliminating the need to move the remote controller, and Can be made more convenient for the user.
[0020]
Further, in the invention of the second embodiment, the receiving units that detect signals of different frequencies can be integrated into one type, so that the number of components can be reduced and the cost of the device can be reduced.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a remote control device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a circuit block diagram of the remote control device according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. FIG. 4 shows an example of a detection method. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a remote control device according to a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a circuit block diagram of a remote control device according to the second embodiment of the present invention. Block diagram of a remote control device
REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 Remote controller 2a Remote controller front transmitter 2b Remote controller rear transmitter 3a-3d Receiving sensors 4a-4d for front transmitter Receiving sensor 5 for rear transmitter 5 Screen such as television 6 Cursor on screen 7a to 7d Receiving sensors 8a to 8d serving as front and rear transmission units Frequency separation unit 9a Coordinate calculation unit 1
9b Coordinate calculation means 2
10 Coordinate calculation means 3
11 Cursor moving means 12 Reception sensor body 13 Reception sensor center part 14 Signal line transmitted from transmission part 15 Perpendicular line to the same plane as screen passing through center of reception sensor 16 Straight line passing through center of reception sensor and parallel to vertical direction of screen

Claims (4)

An image display device for generating a cursor on a screen by a remote controller, the image display device having a plurality of transmission units for transmitting signals of different frequencies to the remote controller, wherein each of the transmission units is provided around a screen of the image display device such as a television. The position of each transmitting unit is calculated based on the detection results of the plurality of receiving units corresponding to the unit, and a cursor is generated at the destination of the tip of the remote controller on the screen based on the position of the transmitting unit. And a remote control device. A remote controller, a plurality of transmission units for transmitting signals of different frequencies provided in the remote controller, and provided around a screen of an image display device such as a television for receiving a signal from the transmission unit. A plurality of receiving units corresponding to the respective transmitting units, means for calculating the position of each transmitting unit based on the detection result in the receiving unit, and calculating the direction of the tip of the remote controller to move a cursor on the screen. A remote control device comprising: means for calculating position coordinates to be generated; and control means for generating and moving the cursor on the position coordinates calculated by the means for determining the position coordinates for generating the cursor. When a signal from each transmission unit is received by the reception unit, one type of reception unit receives signals of a plurality of different frequencies, and when calculating the position of each transmission unit, separates each frequency and performs an operation. The remote control device according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The remote control device according to claim 2, further comprising: a receiving unit that receives a plurality of signals of different frequencies; and a frequency separation unit that separates the received plurality of signals of different frequencies.

Images