JPH05111081A - Electronic equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily search a remote controller for remotely controlling an electronic equipment to be operated. CONSTITUTION:A radio wave from the electric equipment to be operated is received by an antenna 10 on the remote controller side and its receiving level is compared with a reference voltage 15 by a comparator 14. When the remote controller is separated from the electronic equipment more than a prescribed distance, the output of the comparator 14 is turned to a high level because the receiving level is low, so that a speaker 17 is driven.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electric device having a remote control device for wirelessly remotely controlling an operated electric device such as a television receiver and a VTR.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 5 shows a circuit diagram of a transmitter of a conventional general infrared type wireless remote control device.
In the figure, the key scanning unit 2 of the transmitter has switches 3A, 3B, 3C ... And the microcomputer 1 confirms which switch the user has pressed and generates a pulse code corresponding to the type of the switch.
The pulse code generated by the microcomputer 1 is amplified by the transistor 4 and then the infrared LED
Infrared light is output at 5, and the signal from the infrared LED 5 is received and discriminated by the light receiving portion of the operated electric device, and remote operation is possible.

[0003]

As described above, since the remote control device of the conventional electric equipment is relatively small and compact, when the user uses the remote control device at home, it is not suitable. They can easily get under the newspaper or be lost by being moved by an infant. By the way, since the conventional remote control device is only adapted to transmit only the remote control signal, if the user loses sight as described above, it takes time to search for it.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to obtain an electric device that can be easily found when the remote control device is lost near the hand.

[0005]

The electrical equipment of the present invention comprises:
In the electric equipment, a transmitting means for radiating a spatial propagation signal is provided in the operated electric equipment, and a receiving means for notifying when the reception level of the signal is below a predetermined level is provided in the remote control device.

Further, a switch for putting the transmitting means into an operating state is provided so as to notify when the reception level is above a predetermined level.

[0007]

In the electric equipment according to the present invention, even if the operator loses sight of the remote control device while the remote control device is separated from the operated electric device by a certain distance or more, the reception level of the signal from the transmitting means becomes the predetermined level or less. Therefore, the receiving means on the remote control device side emits a sound or emits a light to notify.

Only when searching for the remote control device, the switch is operated to activate the transmitting means, and the receiving means on the remote control device side informs.

[0009]

EXAMPLES Example 1. FIG. 1 shows a main part of a remote control device for electric equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention. This remote control device also has a remote control operation function shown in FIG. In FIG. 1, 10 is an antenna for receiving radio waves, 11 is a tuning circuit for selectively receiving a desired signal from the antenna 10, 12 is an amplifier circuit for amplifying the output of the tuning circuit 11, and 13 is an amplifier circuit 12.
This is a detection circuit that detects the output of. 14 is a detection circuit 13
Is a comparator for comparing the output voltage of the amplifier with the reference voltage 15, 16 is an amplifier for amplifying the output of the comparator 14, and 17 is a speaker for converting the output of the amplifier 16 into sound.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a transmitting means provided in an operated electric device (not shown) which is remote-controlled by the remote control device having the above structure. In FIG. 2, 18 is an oscillation circuit, 19 is an amplification circuit for amplifying the output of the oscillation circuit 18,
Reference numeral 20 is an antenna for transmitting the output of the amplifier circuit 19 by radio waves.

Next, the operation of the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. On the operated electric device side, the oscillation signal generated by the oscillation circuit 18 is amplified by the amplification circuit 19, converted into a radio wave from the antenna 20, and radiated.

On the remote control device side, after receiving this radio wave from the antenna 10 and tuning by the tuning circuit 11,
It is amplified by the amplifier circuit 12. The amplified signal is detected by the detection circuit 13 and then compared with the reference voltage 15 in the comparator 14 for magnitude. The output of the comparison result of the comparator 14 is amplified by the amplifier 16 and becomes an output according to the comparison result by the speaker 17.

Therefore, as the remote control device moves away from the operated electrical equipment, the electric field strength of the radio wave input to the antenna 10 in the remote control device weakens, and the output voltage of the detection circuit 13 decreases. When this output voltage becomes equal to or lower than the reference voltage 15, the output of the comparator 14 becomes high level. This high-level signal is amplified by the amplifier 16 and the speaker 17
To operate. That is, it sounds when the remote control device is separated from the operated electric device by a certain distance or more. Otherwise, the output of the comparator 14 is low level and the speaker 17 is silent.

Example 2. FIG. 3 shows a receiving means of the remote control device in place of FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 shows a transmitting means of the operated electric device in place of FIG. 3 and 4, parts that are the same as or correspond to those in the first embodiment are assigned the same reference numerals 14 to 19 as those in FIGS. 1 and 2, and description thereof is omitted. Reference numeral 21 is a microphone that receives an inaudible ultrasonic signal and converts it into an electric signal, 22 is an amplifier circuit that amplifies the output of the microphone 21, and 23 is an integrating circuit that integrates the output of the amplifier circuit 22, the output terminals of which are compared. Connected to the inverting input terminal of the container 14. Reference numeral 24 is a speaker that converts the output signal of the amplifier circuit 19 into an ultrasonic wave signal and emits it.

Next, the operation of the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. On the operated electric device side, the output signal of the oscillation circuit 18 is converted into an ultrasonic signal by the speaker 24 via the amplification circuit 19 and is radiated to the front of the device. On the remote control device side, the ultrasonic signal is received by the microphone 21 and converted into an electric signal, and the converted signal is amplified by the amplifier circuit 22 and integrated by the integrating circuit 23. The integrated signal voltage is compared with the reference voltage 15 by the comparator 14, and is further transmitted to the speaker 17 via the amplifier 16. Also in this case, as in the case of the electromagnetic waves in the first embodiment, the ultrasonic signal weakens when the distance between the operated electric device and the remote control device increases, and the speaker 17 produces a sound over a certain distance.

Embodiment 3. Comparator 1 of the receiving means shown in FIG.
4, the inverting input terminal and the non-inverting input terminal of FIG. 4 are reversed, that is, the reference voltage 15 is connected to the inverting input terminal thereof, and the output terminal of the detection circuit 13 is connected to the non-inverting input terminal thereof, as shown in FIG. The difference from the first embodiment is that a switch 25 for operating the transmitting means, that is, the amplifier circuit 19 is connected to the amplifier circuit 19. Since the switch 25 is normally open, the amplifier circuit 19
Does not operate and no radio wave is emitted from the antenna 20. In this case, of course, the remote control device does not sound. When the operator turns on the switch 25 when he / she wants to search for the remote control device, a radio wave is transmitted from the antenna 20, and when the reception level is above a predetermined level, the output of the comparator 14 becomes high level and the speaker 17 is sounded. .. Since the other detailed operations are obvious from the first embodiment, they are omitted.

Example 4. Comparator 1 of the receiving means shown in FIG.
4 that the inverting input terminal and the non-inverting input terminal of FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, the switch 25 is connected to the amplifier circuit 19 as in the third embodiment, which is different from the second embodiment. Since the operation of this embodiment is obvious from the second and third embodiments, it will be omitted.

Example 5. In each of the above-described embodiments, the notification is made by sound, but the same effect as in the above-described embodiments can be obtained even if the notification is made by light using a light emitting element or the like.

Example 6. In each of the above embodiments, the output of the oscillation circuit is simply amplified for transmission / reception, but the same effect as in the above embodiments can be obtained by modulating and transmitting / receiving a certain signal at the oscillation frequency.

Example 7. In the above embodiment, the switch 25
Is used to connect to the amplifier circuit 19, but nothing need to be in this position, and a switch could be connected anywhere in that circuit to simply initiate transmission or initiate modulation. However, the same effect as that of the above-described embodiment is obtained.

Example 8. Further, in each of the above-described embodiments, the case of transmitting and receiving the electromagnetic wave or the ultrasonic wave as the spatial propagation signal has been described, but also in the case of using the invisible infrared ray, the same effect as the above-described embodiment can be obtained. ..

[0022]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the remote control device is separated from the operated electric device by a certain distance or more, its location is informed, so that the remote control device can be easily found. There is.

Further, since the switch is operated to notify the user within a certain distance only when it is necessary to search, there is an effect that an extra notification operation is not performed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a receiving unit of a remote control device for an electric device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a transmitting means on the operated electric device side according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a receiving means according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of a transmitting means according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of a transmitter of the remote control device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Microcomputer 2 Key scan part 3 Switch 4 Transistor 5 Infrared LED 10 Antenna 11 Tuning circuit 12, 16, 19, 22 Amplification circuit 13 Detection circuit 14 Comparator 15 Reference voltage 17, 24 Speaker 18 Oscillation circuit 20 Antenna 21 Microphone 23 Integration Circuit 25 switch

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An electric device comprising a remotely operated electric device and a wireless remote control device for performing the remote operation, wherein a transmitting means for emitting an invisible and inaudible spatial propagation signal is provided. Provided on the operated electric device,
An electric device characterized in that the remote control device is provided with a receiving means for receiving the space propagation signal and notifying by sounding or emitting light when the reception level is below a predetermined level. 2. An electric device comprising a remotely operated electric device and a wireless remote control device for performing the remote operation, which is activated by a predetermined signal from a switch and is invisible during operation. Further, the remote control means is provided with a transmitting means for radiating an inaudible spatial propagation signal in the operated electrical equipment, for receiving the spatial propagation signal, and for notifying by sounding or emitting light when the reception level is equal to or higher than a predetermined level. Electrical equipment characterized by being installed in the device.