JPH0376497A - Remote controller for home bus system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To simplify the structure of a remote controller and to facilitate the remote controller operation by selecting a desired item among items displayed on a display section selected sequentially so as to set a desired device and its operating state. CONSTITUTION:A control section 21 extracts initial picture information from a menu recording section 24 and sends it to a display section 17. When the instruction of device selection is sent from a photodetector section 18 to the control section 21 of the controller 5, the control section 21 extracts name information of the device to be operated from a menu recording section 24 and displays it on the display section 17. Then the horizontal and vertical directions of a cursor button 13 are operated to select a desired item. Suppose that a video recording item is selected, the control section 21 extracts items such as video recording data, channel and video recording speed and displays them on the display section 17. Thus, since the selection of various equipments and its operating setting by the mother remote controller 4 are always displayed on the display section 17, so long as the display section 17 is observed for the operation, misoperation is prevented in advance.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a remote control device for remotely controlling various electrical devices, and more specifically, a single remote control device can remotely control a plurality of electrical devices. The present invention relates to a remote control device for a home bus system that can be operated and display the details of the operation.

[Conventional technology]

2. Description of the Related Art Equipment such as television receivers, video players, and video disc players are often each equipped with a remote control device (hereinafter referred to as a remote control device) so that they can be operated arbitrarily from a remote location. Each of these remote control devices is dedicated, and if you intend to combine these devices into a system from the beginning, you can prepare a remote control device dedicated to that system in advance and use one remote control device. It can be totally controlled by the device. However, if each device is made by a different manufacturer, each device has its own remote control device, and each remote control signal (hereinafter referred to as a remote control signal) is different, so each remote control device is not compatible. There is no gender. Therefore, for example, when using a video player, first use the television receiver's remote control to turn on the power, switch to the video channel, then use the video player's remote control to turn on the power, and A method is used in which an instruction for playback or recording is given, and if the volume is inappropriate, the volume of the television receiver is adjusted again using the remote control device of the television receiver. Therefore, the above 3
When using one device, three remote control devices must be used.

In order to improve this shortcoming, in recent years multiple video and audio devices, known as a home bus system, are connected by wire to a central control device on the base, and these devices can also be remotely controlled using a remote control device on the top base, called a mother remote control. equipment is provided. The remote control device in this home bus system includes a storage device that stores remote control signals dedicated to each device for each model, an instruction section that instructs the device to be controlled, and a remote control signal receiving section that sends remote control signals to the remote control signal receiving section of each device. It has a transmitting section that emits. Therefore, by installing each of these transmitting sections near the receiving section of each device, it is possible to select a device to be instructed and instruct a desired operation using one remote control device.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, for example, in a television receiver,
There are multiple types of remote control signals such as power on/off, channel switching, volume adjustment, and timer operation. In addition, video players have many types of remote control signals such as playback, recording, rewind, fast forward, slow playback, stop motion, and several weeks' worth of recording schedules, and the storage device of one remote control device stores each of these signals. In order to store remote control signals, not only a large-capacity storage device is required, but also a large number of operation buttons. Furthermore, an accurate control device is required to accurately output an intended signal from a large amount of stored information. Therefore, the structure of the remote control device becomes complicated, and there is a drawback that it is prone to malfunction. Particularly when a compact disc player, tape deck, etc. are incorporated, further complexity is unavoidable. Further, since the remote control device cannot confirm the instructions given by the remote control device, it often happens that the operator only realizes that an erroneous operation has been made when a device other than the desired device is activated.

Therefore, the purpose of this invention is to store remote control signal settings and various remote control signals for each device in a home bus system, display instruction contents to prevent erroneous operation, and transmit only certain signals from the remote control device. To provide a remote control device for a home bus system with a simplified structure.

[Means to solve the problem]

The present invention is a remote control device for remotely controlling each device via the home bus system in a home bus system where various audio/video devices are centrally controlled by a common control device, and which displays 5 character information. A display section, a menu recording section that stores multiple pieces of information for one screen of this display section, a remote control signal setting section that stores and outputs multiple remote control signals set for each device, and a menu recording section that stores multiple pieces of information for one screen of this display section; A mother remote control section outputs a signal for selecting the selected item as a wireless signal, and a command signal from the mother remote control section pulls out necessary information from the menu recording section and displays it on the display section, and a predetermined remote control signal is set as the remote control signal. The device is characterized in that it has a control section that controls the remote control signal receiving section of the corresponding device.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention shown in the drawings will be described. In FIG.
This AV equipment 1 is connected to a home bus controller 2, and can be centrally operated by the home bus controller 2. The home bus controller 2 is connected to a control device 5 that controls remote control signals from a mother remote control device 4 and a plurality of remote control signal light emitting sections 3 for remote control provided for each device of the AV device 1. There is. The mother remote control device 4 has a power on button 11. It has a power off button 12, a cursor button 13, a cancel button 14, an on cover button 15, a mute button 16, and a signal output section that outputs a remote control signal representing the operation of these buttons as an infrared signal. The control device 5 includes a display section 17 configured with a liquid crystal panel or the like, and a light receiving section 18 that receives remote control signals from the mother remote control device 4.

As shown in FIG. 2, the control device 5 includes a control unit 21 made up of a microcomputer, etc., and a code storage device made up of a memory etc. that stores code numbers for identifying devices such as television receivers and video players. 22, a memory 23 for temporarily storing the remote control signal from the mother remote control device 4 and controlling the control unit 21 in accordance with it, and a menu recording section comprising a memory for storing the menu displayed on the display section 17, etc. 24, and a signal instruction section 25 that creates and outputs a remote control signal dedicated to the corresponding device according to instructions from the control section 21. The display section 17 and the light receiving section 18 are also connected to the control section 21 . In the menu recording section 24, the input button 1 of the mother remote control device 4 is first recorded.
By pressing 5, the initial screen displayed on the display unit 17 includes items such as device selection, date and time settings, etc., the next screen includes items that can be operated for each device, and hiragana and katakana. Character information such as , alphabets, etc. is recorded.

Next, this configuration will be explained in more detail along with its operation, taking as an example the case where a recording instruction is given to a video player.The home bus controller 2 is turned on, the power on button 11 of the mother remote controller 4 is pressed, and then Press the input button 15 on the mother remote control device 4. The on signal of the input capo button 15 is transmitted as an optical signal, received by the light receiving section 18 of the control device 5, and applied to the control section 21. The control unit 21 extracts initial screen information from the menu recording unit 24 and sends it to the display unit 17. As a result, items such as device selection, date and time settings, etc. are displayed on the display section 17 in the form of horizontal writing, for example. Select the desired item and device selection item, and press the input button 15.
Press. The device selection instruction is sent from the light receiving unit 18 to the control device 5.
The control unit 21 displays name information of the device to be operated from the menu recording unit 24 on the drawer 1 display unit 17. Here, move the cursor on the display section 17 to select the video player, and press the button 1 again.
Press 5. As a result, the control section 21 displays the selection of the video player on the display section 17, stores the selection of the video player in the memory 23, reads video player-related information from the video player menu recording section 24, and displays the selected video player on the display section 17. Send to 17th. As a result, the display unit 17 displays items such as playback, recording, fast forwarding, rewinding, and stopping of the video player.

Here, operate the cursor button 13 in the up, down, left and right directions again to match the desired item. Now, if you select the recording item, the control unit 21 stores the recording instruction in the memory 23, and also displays more detailed information setting items regarding recording from the menu recording unit 24, such as recording date and time, channel, recording speed, etc. The item is pulled out and displayed on the display section 17. In the case of recording date and time, January, Sunday, morning, afternoon, etc. are displayed in advance, and numbers are displayed in the margin screen below. In accordance with that order, first select the desired number of months by moving the cursor button 13 up and down, and press the input button 15. This numerical information is sent from the control unit 21 to the memory 23, and the memory 23 stores what channel is to be recorded from what hour and what minute in the morning or afternoon of what month and day.

Since this stored information is sequentially displayed on the display section 17, the operator can give accurate instructions while looking at the display screen. When the control unit 21 detects that all the conditions for recording have been set, the control unit 21 extracts information indicating whether the settings have been completed or whether corrections are to be made from the menu recording unit 24 and displays it on the display unit 17. Finally, when one of these two pieces of information, for example, end is selected by the cursor button 13, the control unit 21 sequentially pulls out the stored information from the memory 23, and the control unit 21 sequentially retrieves the information stored in the code storage unit 22 regarding the recording of the video player. Pull out the code and send the remote control signal information of the corresponding modulation frequency to the signal instruction unit 25.
send to In accordance with this remote control signal information, the signal instruction section 25 sends a predetermined remote control signal to the remote control transmission section of the home bus controller 2, operates the light emitting section 3, and instructs the video player to make a predetermined setting. Note 1. The signal instruction section 25 may generate a remote control signal for each light emitting section 3 to directly operate each light emitting section 3.

In this way, the selection of various devices and their operation settings by the mother remote control device 4 are always displayed on the display section 17, so as long as the operation is performed while looking at the display section 17, erroneous operations can be prevented in advance.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the remote control device for a home bus system of the present invention is configured to set a desired device and its operating state by selecting a desired item from among the items displayed on the display section that changes sequentially. Therefore, the remote control signal output from the remote control device is only the setting signal of the display item. Therefore, the number of types of remote control signals can be reduced, the structure of the remote control device can be simplified, and even if the number of devices is increased. There is no need to increase the number of remote control signals accordingly. In addition, since the instruction items are sequentially displayed on the display section, remote control operation is facilitated and erroneous operations can be prevented.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram for schematically explaining an entire embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a control device thereof. In the drawings, 1 is an AV device, 2 is a home bus controller, 3 is a light emitting unit, 4 is a mother remote control device, 5 is a control device, 13 is a cursor button, 17 is a display unit, 18 is a light receiving unit, 21 is a control unit, 22 is a code storage section, 23 is a memory, 24 is a menu recording section, and 25 is a signal instruction section. Figure 1 et al.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In a home bus system in which various audio/video devices are centrally controlled by a common control device, a remote control device for remotely controlling each of the devices via the home bus system, and displaying text information. a menu recording section that stores a plurality of pieces of information for one screen of this display section; a remote control signal setting section that stores and outputs a plurality of remote control signals set for each device; a mother remote control section that outputs a signal for selecting an item displayed on the section as a wireless signal; and an instruction signal from the mother remote control section that extracts necessary information from the menu recording section and displays it on the display section;
and a control section that controls the predetermined remote control signal to be extracted from the remote control signal setting section and sent to the remote control signal receiving section of the corresponding device. .