JPH04167897A - Remote control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the operability at registration by fetching a remote control signal to be registered to an electronic device by interactive processing and storing a transferred remote control signal to a memory corresponding to an operation key. CONSTITUTION:A system controller 25 of a television receiver 20 displays a guidance message urging the entry of operation key for the study and uses a reception circuit 22 to fetch a waveform data of a reception remote control signal and stores the data to a remote control signal memory 25c. Then the data in the memory 25c is transferred toward a study remote controller 10 serially. In this case, a system controller 16 of the remote controller 10 recognizes a storage area of the waveform data of the remote control signal in a memory 13 from studied operation key information and AV device information and stores the received waveform data to its area. Thus, a proper guidance message is displayed and the operability at registration is improved.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a remote control system, and in particular,
Learning remote control unit (learning remote control)
This invention relates to a system that allows easy registration.

[Prior Art] Recently, electronic devices such as television receivers, video tape recorders, and video disc players (hereinafter referred to as AV devices) have become popular, and each AV device is often equipped with a remote control. many.

Under these circumstances, it is inconvenient to change the remote control every time the AV device you want to operate changes, and to solve this problem, a learning remote control that can be used commonly for multiple AV devices is developed. Proposed.

This learning remote control is equipped with operation keys to which the same functions as the operation keys of the remote control of each AVlli device are assigned, and the remote control signal from the remote control of each AV device is registered as is in advance in association with each operation key. In this case, when an operation key is operated, a remote control signal is output instead of the remote control of each AV device.

Conventionally, the above-mentioned registration of the remote control signal was performed as follows. In other words, after operating the learning remote control to instruct the learning mode (registration mode), the user may not be able to instruct the operation keys of the learning remote control again. After that, point the light emitting part of the remote control of a predetermined AV device at the light receiving section of the learning remote control, and operate the operation key to be learned on the remote control of the AV device. Thereby, the learning remote control stores the remote control signal received at that time in its built-in remote control signal storage memory in association with the instructed operation key.

During such registration, the learning remote controller displays a guidance message on its display unit to guide the user's operations.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Incidentally, since the learning remote control is actually held with one hand, its size is limited, and since it is equipped with many operation keys, the display section must be large. I can't. For example, even if the display section is large, it has about one line of liquid crystal display configuration. Such a display section cannot display sufficient guidance messages, and some users have been unable to reliably perform learning operations.

Furthermore, even if they were able to operate the system, many users felt resistance to the operation. That is, the conventional learning remote controller has room for improvement in terms of registration operation.

Further, the conventional learning remote control includes a light receiving section and a receiving circuit that function only during learning operation. These are unnecessary during normal operation, and if these could be omitted, it would be possible to make the learning remote control more compact and easier to hold.

In practice, the learning remote control is larger than the remote control for each AV device, making it difficult to use.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above points, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a remote control system with good operability during registration operation for a learning remote control.

The present invention also aims to provide a remote control system that can miniaturize the learning remote control.

"Means for Solving the Problems" In order to solve the problems, the present invention provides an electronic device capable of displaying messages on a display with a large display area by interactively processing a remote control signal to be registered in a learning remote control. A remote control signal capturing means for capturing a remote control signal, a remote control signal transfer means for outputting the captured remote control signal to the learning remote control, and a transfer receiving means for causing the learning remote control to record the transferred remote control signal in a built-in memory. Established.

Here, it is preferable to transfer the information to the learning remote controller by wire.

In the present invention, the remote control signal acquisition means provided in an electronic device capable of displaying a message on a display with a large display area transmits a remote control signal to be registered in a learning remote control while appropriately displaying a guidance message. The remote control signal is captured through interactive processing, and the remote control signal transfer means transfers the captured remote control signal to the learning remote control. In the learning remote control, the transfer/reception means records the transferred remote control signal in a built-in memory corresponding to the operation keys.

As a result, the operability during the registration operation can be improved.

Note that if the transfer is performed by wire, the configuration for receiving the transferred remote control signal becomes simple and the learning remote control can be made smaller.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a remote control system according to this embodiment. In FIG. 1, this remote control system 1 includes a remote control 5 to be learned.
, a learning remote controller 1o, and a television receiver 20 equipped with the learning remote controller 10 as an accessory.

The learning remote control 10 includes an operation key section 11 that includes a plurality of operation keys, and a display section 12 that is used to confirm operation contents.
, a memory 13 that stores remote control signals corresponding to each operation key (there are also operation keys whose remote control signals are determined by the specification of the target AV equipment), and a light emitting unit 14 that operates to emit light.
, a transmitting circuit 15 that drives the light emitting unit 14 according to a remote control signal, and a system controller 16 that controls the overall operation of the learning remote control 1o.

The learning remote controller 10 of this embodiment differs from conventional learning remote controllers in that it does not include a light receiving section and a receiving circuit. Furthermore, the learning remote control 10 of this embodiment is equipped with a connector 17 to which the cable 6 is connected, so that data transferred from the outside can be supplied to the system controller 16.

Note that the system controller 16 also causes the memory 13 to store the transferred remote control signal (waveform data) as described later.

The television receiver 20 includes a light receiving section 21 that receives an optical remote control signal from a remote controller, a receiving circuit 22 that demodulates the remote control signal photoelectrically converted by the light receiving section 21, and an operation key having a plurality of operation keys. 23, a display circuit 24 that executes a display operation on a CRT display, and a system controller 25 that controls the overall operation of the television receiver 20.

In this embodiment, the television receiver 20 mainly performs the operation of acquiring remote control signals for the learning remote control 10.

Therefore, each of the above-mentioned units 21 to 25 has conventionally existed, but in addition to the conventional functions and configurations, they have the following functions and configurations.

The operation key portion 23 includes an operation key 23a for instructing to start the registration mode of the learning remote controller 1o.

It also includes operation keys (for example, a numeric keypad) for specifying options that are requested to be selected in a registration process that will be described later.

The receiving circuit 22 is configured to provide the remote control signal received in the registration mode to the system controller 25 as is (digitized waveform data). In other words, the code instructing the function is output without being overwritten.

The system controller 25 has a built-in program memory 25a that stores the program shown in FIG. 2 for the registration mode, and a built-in power idance memory 25t that stores the guidance messages used in the registration mode. It is provided with a remote control signal memory 25c that temporarily stores remote control signals and the like given from the outside in the registration mode.

The system controller 25 also controls the learning remote control 10.
It also performs the transfer operation to.

The display circuit 24 has a configuration that superimposes a guidance message on the received and demodulated television signal and displays the message on a CRT display.

In addition to the above configuration, the television receiver 20 of this embodiment further includes a connector 26 for connecting the cable 6.
has.

Next, the operation when registering a remote control signal in the learning remote control 10 will be explained with reference to FIG.

During the processing of the main routine, the system controller 25 of the television receiver 20 monitors whether the registration mode is selected (step 5PI), and if the registration mode is not selected, selects another mode. If the registration mode is selected, the process proceeds to the registration mode subroutine starting from step SP3.

Note that the user can press the operation key 23a in the operation key part 23.
Instruct the registration mode by operating . Prior to operating this operation key 23a, the user presses the cable 6
It is necessary to connect the learning remote control] to the connector 17 of the learning remote controller 17 and the connector 26 of the television receiver 20 to enable data transfer from the television receiver 20 to the learning remote controller 10. Note that the registration mode subroutine is stored in the program memory 25a.

In the registration mode subroutine, the system controller 25 first retrieves and displays a guidance message for selecting a device to be learned stored in the guidance memory 25b, prompting the user to specify the AV device to be learned (step 5P3). For example, as shown in FIG. 3(A), a guidance message that allows you to specify an AV device manually using a numeric keypad is displayed on-screen. after that,
In response to this, the numeric keypad information operated by the user is captured and the designated AV device is recognized (step 5P4).

Next, the system controller 25 retrieves from the guidance memory 25b an operation key selection guidance message for selecting a learned operation key of the remote controller for the specified AV device, displays it on the display circuit 24, and performs a learning operation. Prompt to specify a key (step $P5). FIG. 3(B) shows the display contents at this time. This is the display content after the video tape recorder is specified as the AV device, and prompts the user to select the operation key to be learned using the numeric keypad. Thereafter, in response to this, the numeric keypad information operated by the user is captured and the instructed learned operation key is recognized (step 5P6).

Next, the system controller 25 retrieves from the guidance memory 25b a guidance message that prompts the user to operate a predetermined operation key on the remote control to be learned, and displays it on the display circuit 24 (step 5P7).

An example of this guidance message is shown in FIG. 3(C). This display example is an example where a video tape recorder is specified as the AV device and the REC key is specified as the operation key to be learned. In addition, in the memorized guidance message itself, the word part instructing the AV equipment and the word part instructing the learned operation key are blank, and this blank part is used as the AV equipment specified by the user and the word part to be learned. After completing the guidance message by filling in the operation key information, it is displayed as shown in FIG. 3(C).

As a result, the user presses the specified learned operation key on the remote control of the specified AV device. Figure 3 (
In the case of example C'), the user would press RE (J-) on the remote control of the video tape recorder.

After displaying the guidance message prompting the operation of the learned operation key, the system controller I roller 25 receives the waveform data of the received remote control signal from the receiving circuit 22, and
The waveform data is stored in the remote control signal memory 25c in association with the designated A'V device and the designated learned operation key (step SP8.9). Figure 4 shows memory 2
5c, and shows the structure of AV equipment data column 25C.
1, an operation key field 25C2, and a waveform data field 25C3.

Next, the system controller 25 retrieves from the guidance memory 25b a guidance message as shown in FIG. 24 (step 5 PIO). Then, based on the content of the user's instruction in response to this, it is determined whether or not the learned operation key remains for the AV device (step 5PII). If there are any remaining, the process returns to step SP5 described above.

On the other hand, if there are no learned operation keys remaining for the AV device that has been specified up until now, the system controller 25 performs the process shown in FIG. The guidance message shown in FIG. In step SP1.3''), it is determined whether the user wishes to learn the AVlli device. If so, the process returns to step SP3 described above.

On the other hand, if this is not desired, the data in the remote control signal memory 25c is serially transferred to the learning remote control 1-0 (step 5P14). At this time, the flowchart is omitted, but the learning remote control 1
The system controller 16 of No. 0 recognizes the storage area of the waveform data of the remote control signal in the memory 13 from the AV device information and learned operation key information in the received serial data, and stores the received waveform data in the storage area.

When such a transfer operation is completed, the system controller 25 in the television receiver 20 performs the process shown in FIG.
Step S P1.5) in which a guidance message as shown in F) is retrieved from the force-dance memory 25b and displayed on the display circuit 24. Then, in response to this, it is determined whether or not to end the registration mode based on the content instructed by the user (step 5P16).

If termination of the registration mode has not been instructed, the process returns to step SP3 described above, and if termination has been instructed, the process returns to the main routine.

The operation when using the learning remote controller 10 registered in this way is the same as that of the conventional one, and the operation of the learning remote controller 10 is also the same as that of the conventional one, and the explanation thereof will be omitted.

Therefore, according to the embodiment described above, the television receiver 2
Since a guidance message appropriately instructing the operation is displayed using a CRT display (not shown) which has a large display area and guides the registration operation, the user can easily perform the registration operation.

Further, since the television receiver 20 executes such a registration operation using software, the configuration does not become larger even if the registration operation function is added. On the other hand, the learning remote control 10 does not require a hardware-like light receiving section, and can be made smaller.

In the above-described embodiment, the AVi device that mainly performs the learning operation for the learning remote control 10 is the television receiver 20, but other AV equipment may be used. For example, it may be a video tape recorder. However, it is required to have a function to display a guidance message on a display such as a C/RT.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, data transfer between the learning remote controller 1-0 and the television receiver 20 is performed by wire, but it may also be performed wirelessly. In this case, the effect of reducing the size of the learning remote control 1.0 cannot be obtained, but the effect of improving operability can be obtained.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention of claim 1, an electronic device capable of displaying on a display with a large display area captures a remote control signal to be registered in a learning remote control, and this electronic device Since the remote control signal imported from the device to the learning remote control is transferred and the remote control signal is registered in the learning remote control, accurate guidance messages can be displayed, greatly improving operability during registration compared to the past. be able to.

Further, according to the second aspect of the present invention, since the data is transferred to the learning remote controller by wire, the light receiving section and the like can be omitted from the learning remote controller, and the learning remote controller can be made smaller.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the remote control/roll system according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is a flowchart showing the registration operation executed by the system controller in the television receiver, and Fig. 3 is a flowchart showing the registration operation. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of display of such a guidance message, and FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the structure of a memory in a television receiver. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Remote I control system, 5... Remote control to be learned, 6... Cable, 10... Learning remote control, 13... Memory for storing remote control signals, 16...
・Learning remote control Systemo＼Con■ ・Laura, 20...
・Pre-vision receiver, 21... Light receiving section, 22...
Receiving circuit, 23a... Operation key for instructing learning mode, 24... Display circuit, 25... System controller roller of television receiver, 25a... Program memory for registration mode, 25 b.・・Guidance memory,
250...Remote control signal memory.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A remote control signal importing means for interactively processing a remote control signal to be registered in the learning remote control in an electronic device capable of displaying a message on a display with a large display area, and directing the captured remote control signal to the learning remote control. A remote control system comprising: a remote control signal transfer means for outputting the remote control signal; and a transfer reception means for recording the transferred remote control signal in a built-in memory in the learning remote control. (2) The remote control system according to claim 1, wherein the transfer to the learning remote control is performed by wire.