JPH1032884A - Remote control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a remote control system which improves its operability by using conventional devices and control programs as they are and also using the medium whose directivity is low in use for a remote operation. SOLUTION: A remote control system is provided with an infrared ray type remote operating means 5 that performs various operations by infrared ray and an operating device 1 which receives the infrared ray and operates. Also, the system is provided with a radio remote operating means 6 which performs various operations by sending electric waves and an electric wave/infrared ray data converting means 2 which is connected to the device 1, receives electric waves from the means 6, converts it into data that corresponds to infrared ray and inputs it to the device 1. An electric wave has lower directivity than infrared ray and can be received in a broader range, even if there are some obstacles or it slightly deviates out in its direction. Furthermore, an electric wave can reach even at a long distance and therefore, can greatly improve its operability.

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 capable of performing various operations on various operating devices, such as a television receiver and a car stereo, from a remote place.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventional remote control systems include, for example, those shown in FIGS.
In FIG. 3, an operation button 5a of the infrared remote controller 5
Is pressed to emit infrared rays toward the infrared light receiving element 7 of the car stereo 1, and various operations of the car stereo 1 such as turning on / off the power, starting / stopping a sound reproducing operation, fast-forwarding, and rewinding from a remote location. And so on. Further, the car stereo 1 is connected to a CD changer 4 which can reproduce sound of six or ten CDs (compact discs) one by one in one device.

[0003] The operation of such a remote control system will be described in relation to the CD changer 4. As shown in FIG. 4, first, infrared rays from the infrared remote controller 5 are transmitted to the infrared light receiving element 7 of the car stereo 1.
Is received by the When the infrared light receiving element 7 outputs a received light signal to the remote control (SIRCS) IC 8 based on the received light, the SIRCS IC 8 amplifies the received light signal to generate a μCOM (microcomputer) 9.
Generates data for remote control at a level that can be determined.

[0004] Based on remote control data from the SIRCS IC 8, the μCOM 9 issues a command signal for operating the CD changer 4 and sending a reproduced sound signal back to the car stereo 1 via the code L 1. Output to changer 4. Based on this command signal, the CD changer 4 performs a reproducing operation and sends a signal of the reproduced sound to the car stereo 1 via the code L1. Then, the μCOM 9 outputs an audio signal to a speaker (not shown) connected to the car stereo 1, and a sound reproduced by the CD changer 4 is output from the speaker to which the audio signal is input. .

[0005]

However, in such a conventional remote control system,
The infrared radiation emitted from the infrared remote controller 5 has a very strong directivity, and the infrared light receiving element 7 cannot perform the light receiving operation unless the optical axis of the infrared light substantially coincides with the infrared light receiving element 7.
For this reason, if there is a slight obstacle between the infrared remote controller 5 and the infrared receiver 7, or if the optical axis of the infrared light from the infrared remote controller 5 deviates from the infrared receiver 7, the infrared receiver There is a problem that the operability is not very good, for example, the light-receiving element 7 does not perform a light-receiving operation and does not reach when the distance between the infrared remote control device 5 and the infrared light-receiving element 7 is too long.

In order to solve such a problem, it is conceivable to use a wireless remote control device for transmitting radio waves with low directivity. In this case, the infrared remote control device 5, infrared light receiving element 7, SIRCS IC8, μCO
Along with M9, there was a problem that the control program software had to be changed.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a remote control system in which conventional devices and control program software operated by infrared light can be used as they are, and operability is improved by using radio waves having low directivity as a medium used for remote control. It is an object to simply provide.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides an infrared remote control device for emitting various kinds of operations from a remote location by emitting infrared light, and the remote control device for receiving the infrared light. In a remote control system including an operating device that operates in response to various operations according to the present invention, a wireless remote control unit that performs various operations from a remote location by transmitting radio waves, and the wireless type wireless device that is connected to the operating device. Radio wave / infrared data conversion means for receiving radio waves from the remote control means, converting the data into data equivalent to infrared rays, and inputting the data to the operating device is provided.

According to the remote control system having such a configuration, the radio remote control means transmits a radio wave from a remote point, and the radio wave / infrared data conversion means receives the radio wave. Can convert data transmitted by radio waves into data corresponding to infrared rays, and input data corresponding to infrared rays to an operating device connected thereto to perform various operations. For this reason, radio waves have lower directivity than infrared rays, so they can be received over a wider range even if there are some obstacles or the direction is slightly shifted, and since radio waves can reach even long distances, the remote control system Operability can be remarkably improved. In addition, since a conventional device operated by infrared rays can be used as it is, and there is no need to change control program software, a remote control system with improved operability can be provided easily.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 and 2 are diagrams showing a first embodiment of the remote control system according to the present invention. Parts similar to those in the related art will be described with the same reference numerals. The description of the same parts as those in the related art is omitted.

In FIG. 1, a car stereo (actuator)
1 is connected to a source selector (radio wave / infrared data conversion means) 2 via a connection cord 17. A CD changer (second operating device) 4 is further connected to the source selector 2 via a connection cord 18, and a television receiver (second operating device) 3 is connected via a connection cord 19. It is connected. Further, in addition to the infrared remote controller (infrared remote controller) 5 as the remote controller, an RF remote controller (radio remote controller) 6 for transmitting a radio wave to the source selector 2 is provided.

Each of the connection cords 17, 18, and 19 is configured to have both a data bus line described later and a SIRCS data line.

Next, the operation of such a remote control system will be described with reference to FIG. For example, when the user wants to hear the reproduction sound of the CD changer 4 by the car stereo 1, he presses the CD button of the RF remote controller 6. Then, the RF remote controller modulator (serial data generation circuit) 13 of the RF remote controller 6 transmits serial data corresponding to the CD button, for example, “1001000”.
8 bit data such as 1 ″ is generated.
The leading “1” of the t data is a start bit, and the trailing “1” is an end bit.

[0014] Such serial data is modulated in an RF transmission circuit (radio transmission circuit) 14, and a short wave radio wave is transmitted from the antenna to the antenna of the source selector 2.

The radio wave transmitted from the RF remote controller 6 is received by the antenna of the source selector 2,
The signal is demodulated into serial data by an RF receiving circuit (wireless receiving circuit) 12.

The demodulated serial data is converted into parallel data by a serial-parallel conversion IC 11. For example, the SIRCS code corresponding to the 6-bit parallel data excluding the start bit and the end bit is converted by the SIRCS IC (remote control data conversion circuit) 10 into remote control data.

This remote control data is S
The data is sent to the μCOM 9 in the car stereo 1 through the IRCS data line L2, and the μCOM 9 determines the content of the remote control data.

Then, based on the judgment, μCOM 9 determines
A command signal is sent to the CD changer 4 through the data bus line L1, the bus line BL in the source selector 2, and the data bus line L5 to operate the CD changer 4.

The audio data reproduced by the operation of the CD changer 4 is sent to the car stereo 1 through the respective bus lines in the reverse direction, and is connected to the car stereo 1 by the μCOM 9 (not shown). And the sound reproduced by the CD changer 4 comes out of the speaker of the car stereo 1.

Such an operation is similarly performed for the television receiver 3, and the sound of the television receiver 3 can be heard from the speaker of the car stereo 1 by operating the TV button of the RF remote controller 6.

According to the remote control system having such a configuration, the RF remote controller 6 transmits a radio wave from a remote point, and the source selector 2 receives the radio wave, whereby the source selector 2 is connected to the car stereo connected thereto. Various operations can be performed on the CD player 1, the CD changer 4, or the television receiver 3. For this reason, radio waves have lower directivity than infrared rays, so they can be received over a wider range even if there are some obstacles or a little misaligned direction, and radio waves can reach even long distances,
Operability of the remote control system can be significantly improved.

In particular, in the case of a remote control system related to an on-vehicle device such as the car stereo 1, even if there are many obstacles such as seats in the vehicle, radio waves have low directivity and can be received more easily than infrared rays. .

In addition, since a conventional device operated by infrared rays can be used as it is, and the control program software does not need to be changed, a remote control system with improved operability can be provided easily.

In the above-described embodiment, the case where the television receiver 3 and the CD changer 4 are connected to the source selector 2 as the second operating device has been described. Any actuating device can be connected, such as a video tape recorder or an 8 mm video tape recorder.

In the above embodiment, the case where the second operating device such as the television receiver 3 is connected to the source selector 2 has been described. However, the car stereo is not connected to any of the second operating devices. It goes without saying that only one operation can be remotely controlled by the RF remote controller 6.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention, the wireless remote control means transmits a radio wave from a remote location,
When the infrared data conversion means receives the radio wave, the radio wave / infrared data conversion means converts the data transmitted by the radio wave into data equivalent to infrared rays, and inputs the data equivalent to infrared rays to the operating device connected thereto. To perform various operations. For this reason, radio waves have lower directivity than infrared rays, and even if there are some obstacles,
Alternatively, even if the direction is slightly deviated, the signal can be received in a wider range, and furthermore, the radio wave reaches even over a long distance, so that the operability of the remote control system can be significantly improved.

In particular, in the case of a remote control system for an on-vehicle device such as the car stereo 1, even if there are many obstacles such as seats in the vehicle, radio waves can be received more easily than infrared rays because of low directivity. .

Further, since the conventional device operated by infrared rays can be used as it is, and the control program software does not need to be changed, a remote control system with improved operability can be easily provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual perspective view showing a first embodiment of a remote control system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block circuit diagram showing a configuration of the remote control system of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual perspective view showing a conventional remote control system.

FIG. 4 is a block circuit diagram showing a configuration of the remote control system of FIG. 3;

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Car stereo, 2 ... Source selector, 3 ... TV receiver, 4 ... CD changer, 5 ... Infrared remote control device, 5a ... Operation button, 6 ... RF remote control device, 7 ... Infrared light receiving element, 8 ... IC for SIRCS, 9 μCOM,
Reference Signs List 10: SIRCS IC, 11: Serial-parallel conversion IC, 12: RF receiving circuit, 13: RF remote control modulator, 14: RF transmitting circuit, 17, 18, 19: Connection code, L1, L3, L5: Data bus line , L
2, L4, L6 ... SIRCS data line

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An infrared remote control unit that emits infrared rays to perform various operations from a remote location, and an actuating device that receives the infrared rays and operates in response to various operations by the remote control units. A remote control system comprising: a wireless remote control means for transmitting various radio waves to perform various operations from a remote location; and a data corresponding to infrared rays received by receiving a radio wave from the wireless remote control means connected to the operating device. And a radio wave / infrared data conversion means for converting the data into an input signal and inputting the input signal to the operating device. 2. The radio wave / infrared data conversion means includes a second
2. The remote control system according to claim 1, wherein the actuating devices are connected to each other, and the second actuating device can also perform various remote operations by the wireless remote operation means. 3. A serial data generating circuit for generating serial data in accordance with a type of an operation button, a wireless transmission circuit for modulating the serial data and transmitting the data by an electric wave from an antenna, The remote control system according to claim 1, wherein the remote control system comprises: 4. The radio wave / infrared data conversion means receives a radio wave transmitted by an antenna and demodulates the serial data, and converts the demodulated serial data into remote control data. 4. The remote control system according to claim 1, further comprising: a data conversion circuit for remote control.