KR20160140555A - Method for remotely controlling electronic device using mobile terminal capable of wireless communication, and mobile terminal for implementation of said method - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for remotely controlling an electronic device using a mobile terminal capable of wireless communication, and a mobile terminal for implementation of the method. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the method for remotely controlling the electronic device implemented on the mobile terminal capable of wireless communication includes: a step of recognizing the electronic device; a step of receiving data about an originating regulation of a control signal for remotely controlling a user interface for remote control corresponding to the electronic device from a hosting system; and a step of supplying the user interface to the user of the mobile terminal. The present invention can remotely control the electronic device by using the mobile terminal capable of wireless communication as a general-purpose remote controller.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a method for remotely controlling an electronic device using a mobile terminal capable of wireless communication, and a mobile terminal for realizing the method. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0002] }

The present invention relates to a method for remotely controlling an electronic device using a mobile terminal capable of wireless communication, and a mobile terminal for implementing the method.

In recent years, the number of users using mobile terminals capable of wireless communication, for example, mobile phones, PDAs, web pads, etc., has been steadily increasing. In addition, thanks to the worldwide great hits of the iPhone, which is the smartphone product of Apple Inc. in the United States, mobile phones that can be used for wireless telephony such as smartphones, and various application programs combined with various applications, have.

On the other hand, due to advances in electronics, devices for remotely controlling electronic devices, commonly referred to as remote controls, are widely used at home, at work, and in many other types of locations. However, in most cases, such a remote controller is dedicated to a specific electronic device, and therefore, if it is lost or discharged, there is a disadvantage that the electronic device can not be used properly. In view of the current situation, where there are more than 10 remote controls per house, the dedicated remote control may be a thing that improves the convenience of the user, not the one that improves the convenience of the user in some cases.

The present inventors have proposed the present invention in view of the inconvenience of spreading of a multipurpose mobile terminal such as a smart phone and managing a large number of remote controllers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve all the problems of the prior art described above.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a technique for remotely controlling an electronic device by using a mobile terminal capable of wireless communication as a universal remote controller not dedicated to a specific electronic device.

In order to accomplish the above object, a representative structure of the present invention is as follows.

According to an aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for remotely controlling an electronic device, which is realized on a mobile terminal capable of wireless communication, comprising the steps of: recognizing an electronic device; There is provided a method comprising receiving from a hosting system data relating to a routing rule of a control signal for control and providing the user interface to a user of the mobile terminal.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mobile terminal capable of wireless communication, comprising: an electronic device recognizing unit for recognizing an electronic device; an interface corresponding to the electronic device, for receiving a user interface for remote control from the hosting system; And a remote control unit for receiving, from the host system, data relating to an origination rule of a control signal for remote control corresponding to the electronic device, wherein the user interface is displayed to the user.

In addition, other methods and mobile terminals for implementing the present invention are provided.

According to the present invention, a mobile terminal capable of wireless communication can be used as a universal remote controller, not dedicated to a specific electronic device, to remotely control the electronic device.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an overall system for remotely controlling an electronic device using a mobile terminal capable of wireless communication according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a diagram illustrating an internal configuration of a mobile terminal 400 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The following detailed description of the invention refers to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of illustration, specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention. It should be understood that the various embodiments of the present invention are different, but need not be mutually exclusive. For example, certain features, structures, and characteristics described herein may be implemented and changed without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, from one embodiment to another. It is also to be understood that the location or arrangement of the individual components within each embodiment may be varied without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the following detailed description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention should be construed as encompassing the scope of the appended claims and all equivalents thereof. In the drawings, like reference numbers designate the same or similar components throughout the several views.

Hereinafter, various embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art can easily carry out the present invention.

[Preferred Embodiment of the Present Invention]

Configuration of the entire system

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an overall system for remotely controlling an electronic device using a mobile terminal capable of wireless communication according to an embodiment of the present invention.

1, an overall system according to an embodiment of the present invention may be configured to include a communication network 100, a host system 200, and a mobile terminal 400. [

A communication network 100 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is a wireless communication network that enables a mobile terminal 400 to perform wireless communication with a host system 200. The communication network 100 includes a wireless Internet network, In whole or in part.

Next, the hosting system 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention may send an application program for remote control of an electronic device (not shown) to the mobile terminal 400 and / A function of transmitting to the mobile terminal 400 information, for example, a user interface for remote control of a specific electronic device, data on an infrared signal for remote control of a specific electronic device, can do. That is, the host system 200 may perform the function of hosting an application program running on the mobile terminal 400 or the mobile terminal 400, with respect to remote control of the electronic device. The host system 200 may perform wireless communication with the mobile terminal 400 through the communication network 100 as described above.

Finally, the mobile terminal 400 according to an embodiment of the present invention may execute an application program to enable a user to operate an interface for remote control of the electronic device, and to transmit the infrared signal or the like And can perform the transmission of the control signal. The mobile terminal 400 according to the present invention can be used as long as it is a digital device which can be carried by a user such as a mobile phone, a PDA, a web pad, a notebook computer, As shown in FIG.

Configuration of mobile terminal

Hereinafter, the internal configuration of the mobile terminal 400 and the functions of the respective components will be described.

2 is a diagram illustrating an internal configuration of a mobile terminal 400 according to an embodiment of the present invention. 2, the mobile terminal 400 includes an electronic device recognition unit 410, an interface moving unit 420, a remote control unit 430, an information collection unit 440, a communication unit 450, a control unit 460, And a database 470. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the electronic device recognizing unit 410, the interface moving unit 420, the remote control unit 430, the information collecting unit 440, the communication unit 450, the control unit 460, At least some of which may be a program module that communicates with the hosting system 200 and / or with electronic devices that are the subject of remote control. Such a program module may be included in the mobile terminal 400 as an operating system, an application program module or other program module that can be activated by an application program, and may be physically stored in various well-known storage devices. Such a program module may also be stored in a storage device capable of communicating with the mobile terminal 400. [ Such program modules, on the other hand, encompass but are not limited to routines, subroutines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types as described below in accordance with the present invention.

First, the electronic device recognition unit 410 according to an embodiment of the present invention can perform a function of recognizing an electronic device to be remotely controlled by the mobile terminal 400 when the user selects the electronic device. The electronic device recognition unit 410 may be configured in various ways, for example, as follows:

1. Configuration to take advantage of user input

The electronic device recognition unit 410 recognizes a typing input of the user on the mobile terminal 400 or a selection input of a predetermined list to recognize an electronic device to be subjected to remote control. Here, the input information may relate to at least one of a model name, a serial number, a manufacturer, and a trademark of the electronic device.

2. Configuration to utilize search results

The user may use the mobile terminal 400 to perform a search for the electronic device. The search clue used in this search may be information on at least one of the model name, serial number, manufacturer, trademark, and the like of the electronic device input by the user. Here, the search may be a wireless Internet search, but may be a terminal search for data in the mobile terminal 400 or a search for data in other external devices, such as the hosting system 200.

When the user selects and confirms information on a specific electronic device among the searched results, the electronic device recognizing part 410 can recognize the electronic device to be subjected to the remote control.

3. Configuration utilizing captured images

When the mobile terminal 400 includes an imaging device such as a camera, the user can acquire a predetermined image by imaging the electronic device with the mobile terminal 400. [ The electronic device recognizing unit 410 can be configured to recognize (e.g., character recognition) the model name, serial number, trademark, and the like displayed on the electronic device to be the object of remote control based on such image . Of course, the image of the electronic device itself may be recognized, rather than the information displayed on the electronic device. In this case, a known object recognition technique such as that described in Korean Patent Application No. 2006-14040 may be used.

4. Configuration utilizing pointing

The configuration for enabling the pointed electronic device to be recognized by the electronic device recognition unit 410 of the mobile terminal 400 when the mobile terminal 400 points to the electronic device will be described below.

(1) When the electronic device is provided with a communication module for pointing the mobile terminal 400

(Not shown) for transmitting an infrared signal to an electronic device may be included in the mobile terminal 400 or may be inserted into or attached to the specific terminal with the mobile terminal 400 Assume that a known accessory type infrared signal transmitter (not shown) is used.

In this case, the mobile terminal 400 may send a pilot infrared signal to the electronic device. The pilot infrared ray signal is transmitted to the electronic device recognizing unit 410 so that the electronic device recognizing unit 410 can acquire identification information (e.g., information on the model name, serial number, manufacturer, trademark, and the like of the electronic device) And may include identification information of the mobile terminal 400 (for example, information on the mobile phone number, serial number, unique number, etc. of the mobile terminal 400). Upon reception of the pilot infrared signal, the electronic device can transmit its own identification information and the identification information of the mobile terminal 400 to the host system 200. Then, the hosting system 200 can transmit the identification information of the electronic device to the mobile terminal 400, based on the identification information of the mobile terminal 400. [ Thereby, the electronic device recognizing unit 410 can recognize the electronic device to be subjected to the remote control.

Although the pilot signal is exemplified as an infrared signal, the pilot signal may be transmitted according to another wireless communication method such as Bluetooth communication, RF communication, wireless LAN communication, or the like, according to a selection of a person skilled in the art. Further, in the present embodiment, although the identification information of the electronic device is described as being transmitted to the mobile terminal 400 via the host system 200, according to the selection of a person skilled in the art, the identification information of the electronic device is transmitted from the electronic device 400 (in this case, it is obvious that various wireless communication methods as described above can be used).

(2) When the electronic device is not provided with a communication module for pointing the mobile terminal 400

If the indoor position of the mobile terminal 400 and the direction in which it points and the indoor position of at least one electronic device to be remote controlled can be determined in the relative coordinate system or absolute coordinate system, The mobile terminal 400 can grasp the electronic device pointed to by the mobile terminal 400 and perform remote control on the electronic device.

In particular, assume that the mobile terminal 400 is a smart phone including a known compass function and a known tilt sensor. In this case, the mobile terminal 400 can know with high accuracy that it is pointing in the three-dimensional coordinate system.

The position of the mobile terminal 400 may be determined by a known micro-position recognition technique. For example, the micro-position recognition technology includes an infrared signal transmitting unit (not shown) or an ultrasonic wave emitting unit (not shown) in the mobile terminal 400, A technique of locating a mobile terminal by disposing a signal receiver or an ultrasonic sensor may be included. Of course, the micro-position recognition technology that can be used in the present invention is not limited to the above, but may be applied to indoor position recognition technology using active RFID, CRICKET, position recognition technology based on intensity of RF signal, Technology, other ad-hoc localization techniques, and the like, may be freely used to implement the present invention.

On the other hand, an electronic device to be remotely controlled is usually fixed. In particular, in the case of home appliances, the location can be registered in the mobile terminal 400 or the hosting system 200 together with the identification information by only pointing and registering the mobile terminal 400 once. For smooth electronic device location registration of the user, a drawing of the place (for example, a floor plan) may be used together. That is, after the user grasps his / her mobile terminal 400 at a predetermined position in a place requiring remote control of the electronic device, the user points the predetermined electronic device to the mobile terminal 400, The electronic device can be registered as a target electronic device (in this registration process, at least partly the electronic device recognition method 1 to 3 as described above may be employed at least partly). Meanwhile, although the method of pointing to the mobile terminal 400 has been described above mainly regarding the registration of the position of the electronic device, the position of the mobile terminal 400 can be grasped by the known micro-position recognition technology , Another method such as a method of registering the position of the mobile terminal 400 in the state after the mobile terminal 400 is placed on or near the surface of the electronic device may be adopted Should be understood. According to the present embodiment, remote control can be performed based only on the position of the mobile terminal 100 and whether or not the electronic device is positioned on the pointing line determined in the pointing direction, The transparent remote control may be performed.

Thereafter, the user can cause the electronic device recognition unit 410 to recognize the electronic device by pointing the mobile terminal 400 to the registered electronic device.

Next, an interface moving unit 420 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. As described above, when the electronic device recognizing unit 410 recognizes the electronic device to be subjected to the remote control, the interface operating unit 420 receives the information (e.g., the model name of the electronic device, Number, manufacturer, trademark, and the like) to the host system 200 to request an interface for remote control of the electronic device. In many cases, such an interface may be a touch panel interface that enhances user convenience.

The hosting system 200 may transmit an appropriate interface to the interface operating unit 420 in response to the request. The interface transmitted from the hosting system 200 to the interface operating unit 420 may be stored in the mobile terminal 400 for later use. The user is able to perform remote control on the electronic device by manipulating the interface transmitted from the hosting system 200 or the interface stored in the mobile terminal 400 after being transmitted from the hosting system 200. [

Next, the remote control unit 430 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described.

The remote control unit 430 controls the accessory type infrared signal transmitter interlocked with the infrared signal transmitting unit or the mobile terminal 400 included in the mobile terminal 400 according to the user interface operation to transmit the infrared signal to the electronic device It can send out. In this case, the remote control unit 430 can receive the data regarding the infrared signal origination rule corresponding to the interface from the host system 200 and use the received data. As a result, the electronic device can be remotely controlled in accordance with a suitable infrared signal.

On the other hand, the remote controller 430 can remotely control the electronic device without intervention of the infrared signal transmitting unit or the accessory type infrared signal transmitter. For example, the remote control unit 430 may transmit a signal for remote control to the electronic device by employing another wireless communication method such as Bluetooth communication, RF communication, and wireless LAN communication. Further, for example, the remote control unit 430 may send the control signal to the electronic device through the host system 200 without necessarily transmitting the control signal directly to the electronic device. In this case, the control signal may be preferably composed of a wireless Internet packet or a wireless data packet.

Next, an information collecting unit 440 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. As described above, according to the present invention, data relating to an interface for remote control of a specific electronic device or an originating rule of an infrared signal or other control signal for remote control of a specific electronic device is transmitted from the host system 200 to the mobile terminal 400 to be used for remote control of the electronic device. However, the information transmitted to the mobile terminal 400 may be reused in the mobile terminal 400 according to the present invention, except when the target electronic device is changed. The information collecting unit 440 may collect the above information and store it in a database 470 as described later.

The communication unit 450 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an electronic device recognition unit 410, an interface operating unit 420, a remote control unit 430, an information collecting unit 440, and a database 470, It is possible to perform a function of enabling data transmission / reception to /

The controller 460 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an electronic device recognition unit 410, an interface operation unit 420, a remote control unit 430, an information collection unit 440, a communication unit 450, 470) of the mobile communication terminal. That is, the control unit 460 according to the present invention controls the flow of data between the components of the mobile terminal 400 from / to the outside or the outside, thereby controlling the operation of the electronic device recognizing unit 410, the interface moving unit 420, The remote control unit 430, the information collecting unit 440, the communication unit 450, and the database 470, respectively.

Finally, the database 470 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes data relating to an interface for remote control of a specific electronic device or an originating rule of an infrared signal or other control signal for remote control of a specific electronic device, May be stored. Although the database 470 is shown in FIG. 2 as being comprised in the mobile terminal 400, the database 470 may be stored separately from the mobile terminal 400, according to the needs of those skilled in the art implementing the present invention. . On the other hand, the database 470 in the present invention is a concept including a computer-readable recording medium, and may be a consultation database, but may be a database in a broad sense such as a data record based on a file system, If the data can be retrieved and retrieved, it may correspond to the database 470 in the present invention. Also, such a database 470 may be replaced with the memory of the mobile terminal 400 as needed.

In place of the infrared signal transmitting unit or the accessory type infrared signal transmitter described in the above embodiments, the wireless communication with the mobile terminal 400 may be performed to transmit an independent infrared signal capable of transmitting an infrared signal to the electronic device The device may also be used. Such an infrared signal transmitting apparatus can be disposed at a specific position in the room (for example, a position favorable for transmitting an infrared signal to a plurality of electronic apparatuses), and can emit an infrared signal.

The embodiments of the present invention described above can be implemented in the form of program instructions that can be executed through various computer components and recorded in a computer-readable recording medium. The computer-readable recording medium may include program commands, data files, data structures, and the like, alone or in combination. The program instructions recorded on the computer-readable recording medium may be those specifically designed and configured for the present invention or may be those known and used by those skilled in the computer software arts. Examples of computer-readable media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks and magnetic tape, optical recording media such as CD-ROM and DVD, magneto-optical media such as floptical disks, medium, and hardware devices specifically configured to store and execute program instructions, such as ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like. Examples of program instructions include machine language code, such as those generated by a compiler, as well as high-level language code that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like. The hardware device may be modified into one or more software modules for performing the processing according to the present invention, and vice versa.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Accordingly, the spirit of the present invention should not be construed as being limited to the above-described embodiments, and all ranges that are equivalent to or equivalent to the claims of the present invention as well as the claims .

100: Network
200: Hosting System
400: mobile terminal

Claims (1)

A method for remotely controlling an electronic device, the method being implemented on a mobile terminal capable of wireless communication.

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