JPH04336743A - Remote control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain remote control from a visiting place by using a remote control commander. CONSTITUTION:A signal from a remote control commander is fed to a decoder 3 and a control code from the decoder 3 is fed to a data compression circuit 4, and a signal from the data compression circuit 4 is fed to a MODEM 5 which converts a data signal into a voice signal, and a signal from the MODEM 5 is fed to a speaker 7 through an amplifier 6. The voice uttered from the speaker 7 is fed to a microphone 11 through a telephone set 200 at a visiting place, a telephone line 300 and a telephone set 400 at its own home. The signal from the microphone 11 is fed to a MODEM 13 through an amplifier 12 and the signal from the MODEM 13 is fed to a data expansion circuit 14, a control code from the data expansion circuit 14 is fed to an encoder 15 to generate a signal at the same time as the signal from the remote control commander.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a remote control system that performs remote control using a telephone line.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art For example, there are cases where it is desired to remotely control a VTR or the like in one's home from outside the home. Conventionally, systems applied in such cases utilize, for example, the dual tone of a touch-tone phone, and by pressing an arbitrary push button on the phone when away from home, the dual tone is transmitted by a device installed in the phone at home. A system is known that detects and performs control corresponding to a pressed pushbutton. However, in order to perform remote control using such a system, the user must memorize the push buttons corresponding to each control, which is a heavy burden on the user.
For example, complex control such as VTR recording reservation has been extremely difficult to execute.

On the other hand, a remote control commander has a built-in device (modem) that converts a data signal into an audio signal, supplies this converted audio signal to a telephone outside the home, and outputs audio to a device installed in the telephone at home. A system that performs control by inversely converting the signal and reshaping the data signal of the remote control commander is also conceivable. However, in this system, an extra device is built into the remote control commander for the purpose of remote control from outside, which is generally rarely used, which is unreasonable. Furthermore, it is not reasonable to use another remote control commander just for this purpose, and the user may be confused because different remote control commanders are used in different ways.

On the other hand, the above-mentioned unreasonableness could be solved if remote control could be performed from outside the home using a remote control commander that is normally used at home. However, such a device has not been realized so far.

[0005]

[Problem to be solved by the invention] The problem to be solved is that, for example, when you want to remotely control your home VTR etc. from outside, you cannot control it directly with the conventional remote control commander that is normally used. That is what it is.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention decodes (decoder 3) a signal from a remote control commander (light receiving section 1, demodulation and carrier removal circuit 2), and compresses data (circuit 4).
) and sends the signal to the telephone line, and a receiver that expands the signal from the telephone line (circuit 14) and encodes it (encoder 15) to form a signal equivalent to the signal from the remote control commander. This is a remote control system consisting of a section 500.

[0007]

[Operation] According to this, it is possible to perform remote control from outside etc. by using the normally used remote control commander as is.

[0008]

[Embodiment] In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a light receiving section that receives, for example, an infrared code signal from a remote control commander (not shown), and the signal from this light receiving section 1 is supplied to a demodulation and carrier removal circuit 2. The signal from the remote control commander is taken out. The signal from this demodulation and carrier removal circuit 2 is supplied to a control code decoder 3, and the control code from this decoder 3 is supplied to a data compression circuit 4. The signal from the data compression circuit 4 is supplied to a modem 5 that converts the data signal into an audio signal, and is converted into a predetermined audio signal. The signal from this modem 5 is then transmitted to the amplifier 6.
The signal is supplied to the speaker 7 through. This forms the transmitter 100.

[0009] The voice uttered by the speaker 7 of the transmitting section 100 is supplied to the transmitting section 201 of the telephone 200 at the place where the user is outside. A signal from this transmitting section 201 is supplied to a receiving section 401 of a home telephone 400 through a telephone line 300. The voice uttered by this receiving section 401 is then supplied to the microphone 11 of the receiving section 500, which will be described later.

A signal from this microphone 11 is supplied to a modem 13 through an amplifier 12. This modem 1
3, the audio signal is inversely converted into a data signal, and this inversely converted signal is supplied to the data expansion circuit 14. The data expansion circuit 14 extracts the control code described above, and supplies this control code to the encoder 15 to form a signal equivalent to the signal from the remote control commander described above. This signal is supplied to the output terminal 16 and is supplied, for example, to a device (not shown) controlled by wire. Alternatively, the signal from the encoder 15 is supplied to the modulation circuit 17, and a predetermined modulated signal is supplied to the infrared light emitting diode 18 to generate an infrared code signal equivalent to the signal from the remote control commander (not shown) described above. Controlled equipment (not shown)
sent towards. A receiving section 500 is thus formed.

Therefore, when performing remote control using this system, for example, as shown in FIG. It is attached to the receiver section 401 of the. By operating the remote control commander 600, the infrared code signal from the remote control commander 600 is supplied to the telephone line 300 through the transmitter 100 and the telephone 200, and the signal from the telephone line 300 is transmitted to the home telephone 400 and the receiver. A wired or infrared code signal is supplied to the device 700 through the unit 500.

In this system, if the infrared code signal from the remote control commander 600 is directly converted into an audio signal, the transmission rate will exceed the capability of the telephone line 300. Therefore, the above-mentioned decoder 3 and data compression circuit 4 match the transmission rate to the communication line including the modems 5 and 13, thereby enabling transmission over the telephone line 300.

[0013] Thus, according to the above-described system, remote control can be performed from a place outside the home, etc., by using the normally used remote control commander as is.

Note that in the above system, the receiving section 50
0 may be built into the controlled device 700. Further, the transmitting section 100 and the receiving section 500 are connected to the telephone 20
In this case, the modems 5 and 13 may be directly connected to the telephone line 300 via the telephone circuits 202 and 402 to transmit and receive data signals, as shown in FIG. The amplifier 6, the speaker 7, the microphone 11, and the amplifier 12 become unnecessary. Further, if the telephone line 300 is a digital line such as ISDN or a cordless digital telephone between parent and child units or between slave units, the modems 5 and 13 are also unnecessary.

[0015]

According to the present invention, it has become possible to carry out remote control from outside, etc., by using the normally used remote control commander as is.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an example of a remote control system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the same.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of another example.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Light receiving unit that receives an infrared code signal 2 Demodulation and carrier removal circuit 3 Control code decoder 4 Data compression circuit 5, 13 Modem 6, 12 Amplifier 7 Speaker 11 Microphone 14 Data expansion circuit 15 Control code encoder 16 Output terminal 17 Modulation Circuit 18 Infrared light emitting diode 100 Transmitting section 200 Telephone 201 Transmitting section 300 Telephone line 400 Telephone 401 Receiving section 500 Receiving section

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A transmitter that decodes a signal from a remote control commander, compresses the data, and sends it to a telephone line; a transmitter that expands and encodes the signal from the telephone line;
A remote control system comprising a receiving section that generates a signal equivalent to the signal from the remote control commander.