JP2009218973A - Remote control apparatus and remote control system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a remote control apparatus and remote control system capable of avoiding setting by a user from being increased or processing in the system from being complicated and capable of starting a search within a short time after losing. <P>SOLUTION: The remote control apparatus 10 is a remote control apparatus 10 for remotely controlling a television receiver 1, including a control unit 12 which confirms reception of an interval change request signal transmitted from the television receiver 1 in a first period, confirms reception of a search request signal transmitted from the television receiver 1 in a second period, switches to the reception confirmation in the second period upon receipt during the reception confirmation in the first period, and reports reception to the outside via a sound source playback unit 17 upon the reception during the reception confirmation in the second period. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a remote control device and a remote control system for remotely controlling home electric appliances such as a television receiver.

  In recent years, many home appliances come with a remote control device, but due to the nature of the usage of the remote control device (can be operated from anywhere in the room), it is often misplaced somewhere, and in the worst case it is lost. May be invited.

  In view of this, a technique has been proposed that achieves both a function of searching for a remote control device using wireless communication and a power-saving property that is generally required for a battery-operated remote control device. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1).

JP 2005-192029 A

  However, in the case of the technique described in Patent Document 1, it is necessary to set conditions for remote control search and time management according to the conditions, and the increase in settings by the user and system processing are somewhat complicated. There was a problem of becoming. In addition, since it may take time until the remote control apparatus is not operated until the search mode is entered, there is a problem in that it cannot be immediately searched after being lost.

  The present invention has been made to solve such problems, and avoids an increase in setting by the user and complicated processing of the system, and a search can be started in a short time after being lost. An object of the present invention is to provide a remote control device and a remote control system that can be used.

  A remote control device according to the present invention is a remote control device for remotely operating a controlled device, wherein a first reception confirmation means for confirming reception of an interval change request signal transmitted from the controlled device in a first cycle, Second reception confirmation means for confirming reception of the search request signal transmitted from the control device in the second period, and reception for operating the second reception confirmation means in response to reception by the first reception confirmation means In response to the reception by the period switching means and the second reception confirmation means, the information is notified to the outside.

  The present invention performs reception confirmation in the first cycle, which is a long cycle for power saving during normal use or when not in use, and triggers the operation by operating the television receiver body. In order to improve the reception confirmation performance for this time, the reception confirmation is changed to be performed in the second period which is a short period. Therefore, it can be configured with a simple system, and there is little need to force the user to make settings and the like, and both convenience and power saving can be achieved. In addition, since the reception confirmation in the first cycle is always performed, the search can be started in a short time after the remote control is lost.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings showing embodiments thereof.

<Embodiment 1>
(Constitution)
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a remote control system 20 which is one embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention. The remote control system 20 includes a television receiver (controlled device) 1 and a remote control device 10 that remotely controls (remotely controls) the television receiver 1 by wireless communication.

  The television receiver 1 includes a control unit 2, an operation unit 3 connected to the control unit 2, a wireless communication unit 4, and a display unit 5. In addition, a wireless communication antenna 6 connected to the wireless communication unit 4 is provided.

  The control unit 2 controls the entire television receiver 1 and performs, for example, power supply control, channel selection, volume adjustment, and the like according to the operation information of the operation unit 3. The wireless communication unit 4 transmits and receives data to and from the remote control device 10 via the wireless communication antenna 6. In the case of a television receiver, the display unit 5 shows a display surface for displaying a normal image, but is not necessarily a display unit for displaying an image, and an LED, a fluorescent display tube, which clearly indicates an operation state or an operation state, It may be a liquid crystal display device or the like.

  Here, the television receiver 1 is taken as an example of the controlled device remotely operated by the remote control device 10, but the controlled device is a recording device such as a video recorder, a CD player, a component stereo or the like. It may be a general household electrical appliance such as a device or an air conditioner.

  The remote control device 10 includes a control unit 12 and a wireless communication unit 13 connected to the control unit 12, an operation unit 14, a battery 15, a timer management unit 16, and a sound source playback unit 17. In addition, a wireless communication antenna 11 connected to the wireless communication unit 13 is provided.

  The control unit 12 controls the entire remote control device 10. The wireless communication unit 13 transmits and receives data to and from the television receiver 1 via the wireless communication antenna 11. The operation unit 14 shows operation buttons of the remote control device 10 such as a power button, a channel switching button, and a volume button. The battery 15 is a power source built in the remote control device 10 such as a dry battery. The timer management unit 16 manages the interval at which the wireless communication unit 13 periodically performs reception confirmation. The sound source reproduction unit 17 receives a signal from the television receiver 1 via the wireless communication antenna 11 and the wireless communication unit 13 and reproduces the mounted sound source.

(Operation)
Next, the operation of the remote control system 20 will be described.

  The television receiver 1 operates when the control unit 2 receives a control signal from the remote control device 10 via the operation unit 3 or the wireless communication unit 4. The remote control system 20 can perform bidirectional communication.

  At the time of transmission from the remote control device 10, basically, data need only be transmitted when the user operates the operation unit 14. Therefore, when the operation is not performed, it is not necessary to operate the transmission unit. There is no problem.

  At the time of reception to the remote control device 10, since the remote control device 10 is driven by the battery 15 (generally a dry cell), the battery is heavily consumed in the reception standby state (carrier sense standby state). In the present invention, a technique is adopted in which a standby (sleep) state is intermittently shifted to a reception standby state.

  At this time, in a usage mode in which the remote control device 10 does not need to receive data from the television receiver 1 in a normal use state, there is no problem even if the reception part of the wireless communication unit 13 is in a standby (sleep) state. No problem occurs even if the interval for shifting to the reception standby state is long. On the other hand, when the remote control search function is used, it is necessary for the remote control device 10 to receive the control signal issued from the television receiver 1 as soon as possible. In this case, there is an interval for shifting to the reception standby state. Shorter is more convenient.

  The following control is performed as a method of satisfying the above requirements. During normal operation, the control unit 12 of the remote control device 10 controls the timer management unit 16 and waits for reception from a standby (sleep) state at intervals of 30 sec (first period) defined by the timer management unit 16 as shown in FIG. Transition to the state. (Hereinafter, this interval from the standby state to the reception standby state is referred to as a reception confirmation interval.) That is, the control unit 12 controls the timer management unit 16 to transmit an interval change request to be described later transmitted from the television receiver 1. The signal is acknowledged at a 30 sec acknowledgment interval. In this case, transmission data from the television receiver 1 cannot be received by the remote control device 10 unless it waits for a maximum of 30 seconds.

  Next, when an operation (first operation) is performed on the operation unit 3 of the television receiver 1, the control unit 2 controls the remote control device 10 via the wireless communication unit 4 and the wireless communication antenna 6. A signal requesting to change the reception confirmation interval (interval change request signal) is transmitted. The first operation is general operation of the operation unit 3. At this time, the television receiver 1 continues to send out the carrier at least for a time longer than the reception confirmation interval.

  When the control unit 12 of the remote control device 10 that has detected the carrier confirms that the transmission is from the television receiver 1, the control unit 12 controls the timer management unit 16 to perform a predetermined time (for example, 5 min) as shown in FIG. The reception confirmation interval is changed from 30 sec to 5 sec (second period), for example. That is, the control unit 12 controls the timer management unit 16 to confirm reception of a search request signal (described later) transmitted from the television receiver 1 at a reception confirmation interval of 5 sec.

  Here, if the means for confirming reception at the 30-second reception confirmation interval is the first reception confirmation means, and the means for confirming reception at the 5-second reception confirmation interval is the second reception confirmation means, the first reception in the present embodiment Both the confirmation unit and the second reception confirmation unit are the control unit 12 and the timer management unit 16 controlled by the control unit 12. In addition, the control unit 12 becomes a reception cycle switching unit that operates the second reception confirmation unit in response to reception by the first reception confirmation unit.

  When the operation confirmation unit 2 of the television receiver 1 is operated (second operation) while the reception confirmation interval is shortened, the control unit 2 causes the wireless communication unit 4 and the wireless communication antenna 6 to operate. The search request signal is transmitted to the remote control device 10 via the remote control device 10. At this time, the remote control device 10 can receive a signal from the remote control device 10 with a maximum waiting time of 5 seconds. Here, the second operation on remote control device 10, that is, the method for calling a search request is not particularly limited. A method of providing a dedicated switch in the operation unit 3 of the television receiver 1 or a method of sharing with an operation switch for setting other functions can be considered.

  The control unit 12 that has received the search request signal controls the sound source reproduction unit 17 to generate a predetermined sound. That is, the control unit 12 has a function of notifying means for notifying the outside via the sound source reproducing unit 17 when the search request signal is received by itself. The user can search for the remote control device 10 by using this sound.

(effect)
As described above, the remote control device 10 and the remote control system 20 of this embodiment are configured to change the reception confirmation interval of the remote control device 10 when the operation unit 3 of the main body of the television receiver 1 is operated. Therefore, during normal use or when not in use, a long-cycle reception confirmation is performed to save power, and only when the television receiver 1 is operated for a predetermined period of time and a short cycle. Change to confirm receipt. Therefore, it is possible to improve the convenience when searching for the remote control device 10, and to achieve both power saving and convenience.

  In addition, since the reception confirmation interval is changed by using a simple operation of the main body as a trigger, there is an effect that it is not necessary to impose a burden on setting or the like on the user. Since the interval change request signal is always confirmed for reception in the first cycle (30 sec in the present embodiment), the search can be started in a short time after the remote control device 10 is lost. Furthermore, since the possibility of losing the remote control is reduced, useless re-purchasing and the like can be prevented and the remote control can be used for a long time.

  In the present embodiment, the overall operation of the operation unit 3 of the television receiver 1 is the first operation and the reception confirmation interval is changed. However, the power control switch (the power on / It is possible to change the reception confirmation interval only to the operation of the off switch), and in this case, there is an effect that further power saving can be achieved.

<Embodiment 2>
(Constitution)
In the present embodiment, the control unit 2 of the television receiver 1 performs identification display (for example, remote control search) through the display unit 5 during a period in which the reception confirmation interval is changed by the remote control device 10 and reception of the search request signal is confirmed. A display means function for displaying 18).

  Since other configurations are the same as those of the first embodiment, detailed description thereof is omitted here.

(Operation)
In the present embodiment, the control unit 2 of the television receiver 1 transmits a request for changing the reception confirmation interval from the wireless communication unit 4 to the remote control device 10, and then the reception confirmation interval of the remote control device 10 is changed. During the period, the identification display 18 is displayed via the display unit 5 as shown in FIG. Since other operations are the same as those in the first embodiment, a detailed description thereof is omitted here.

  The identification display includes not only a method of displaying on a television screen but also a method of lighting an LED and a method of displaying together with other information using a fluorescent display tube or the like.

(effect)
As described above, since the identification display is performed during the period when the reception confirmation interval is changed, it is possible to clearly know the period during which the user can perform the remote control search, and the convenience can be further improved. .

It is a block diagram which shows the remote control system which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a schematic diagram which shows the reception confirmation interval at the normal time which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a schematic diagram which shows the time of the switching of the reception confirmation interval which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the identification display which concerns on Embodiment 2 of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Television receiver, 2 Control part, 3 Operation part, 4 Wireless communication part, 5 Display part, 6,11 Wireless communication antenna, 10 Remote control apparatus, 11 Wireless communication antenna, 12 Control part, 13 Wireless communication part, 14 operation unit, 15 battery, 16 timer management unit, 17 sound source playback unit, 18 identification display, 20 remote control system.

Claims (4)

A remote control device for remotely controlling a controlled device,
First reception confirmation means for confirming reception of an interval change request signal transmitted from the controlled device in a first period;
Second reception confirmation means for confirming reception of the search request signal transmitted from the controlled device in a second period;
A reception cycle switching means for operating the second reception confirmation means in response to reception by the first reception confirmation means;
A notification means for notifying the outside that the second reception confirmation means has received the information, and
Remote control device. A remote control device according to claim 1;
A remote control system comprising a controlled device remotely operated by the remote control device,
The controlled device is
Means for transmitting the interval change request signal by a first operation;
Means for transmitting the search request signal by a second operation,
Remote control system. The first operation is an operation of a power control switch of the controlled device;
The remote control system according to claim 2. The controlled device further includes display means for performing a predetermined display while the remote control device confirms reception of the search request signal.
The remote control system according to claim 2 or claim 3.

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