TW201445522A - Set-top box for centralized controlling of multiple electronic devices - Google Patents

Abstract

A set-top box includes: a Wireless Fidelity signal receiver for receiving a wireless fidelity signal from a mobile device; a controlling module used to decide an infrared signal to emit when the Wireless Fidelity signal receiver receives the Wireless Fidelity signal; and an infrared transmitter to emit the infrared signal. Thus, the relay control function is provided to remote control one or more electrical devices.

Description

Set-top box for centralized control of multiple appliances

The present invention relates to a set-top box, and more particularly to a set-top box for centrally controlling a plurality of appliances.

Remote control refers to a non-contact control technology. The device used to remotely control the machine is called a remote control. Modern remote controls are mainly composed of integrated circuit boards and buttons for generating different messages. Remote control technology has a large number of applications in household appliances.

One of the earliest remote controls was developed in 1898 (U.S. Patent No. 613,809), entitled "Method of and Apparatus for Controlling Mechanism of Moving Vehicles or Vehicles."

The earliest remote control used to control television was developed in the 1950s. It can only be connected to the TV in a wired manner. In 1955, the wireless remote control device called "Flashmatic" was finally developed for the first time. Although this device can switch TV channels and adjust the volume, the receiver often cannot distinguish whether the beam is from the remote control, and must be fully aligned before it can be controlled. Later, another remote control called "Zenith Space Command" was developed. This is the first modern wireless remote control device. It uses ultrasound to adjust the channel and volume. Each button emits a different frequency, but Such devices may also be interfered with by ordinary ultrasound, and some people and animals (such as dogs) can hear the sound from the remote control.

In the 1980s, when a semiconductor device that transmits and receives infrared light was developed, it gradually replaced the ultrasonic control device. Even though other wireless transmission methods (such as Bluetooth) continue to be developed, this technology has continued to be widely used until now.

Infrared (IR), commonly known as infrared light, is an electromagnetic wave with a wavelength between microwave and visible light. The wavelength is between 770 nm and 1 mm. It is a non-visible light with a longer wavelength than red light. A band covering the thermal radiation emitted by an object at room temperature. The ability to pass clouds is stronger than visible light. It has a wide range of uses in communications, detection, medical, military, etc.

In modern society, every household usually has a wide variety of electrical appliances, and each electrical appliance Each has its own dedicated remote control. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the control mode of a conventional electric appliance. Different appliances are controlled by different remote controllers. For example, the television 110 must be remotely controlled by the television remote control 112. The optical disc player 120 must be remotely controlled by the optical disc player remote control 122. The cold air 130 must be remotely controlled by the cold air remote control 132. . That is to say, it is necessary to find the remote controller of the appliance to be controlled in the control, but people always place the remote controller at will. Therefore, whenever you want to control an appliance, you often need to look around the remote control at home.

In particular, each remote control requires a battery, and because there are many remote controls in the home, it is often necessary to replace the battery. In case the battery leaks, it will cause damage to the remote control. In addition, although it can be remotely controlled, when controlling the electrical appliance, it is often necessary to approach the electrical appliance to allow the remote control to function. All of the above are inconveniences caused by the use of conventional remote controls.

Although there are currently "universal" remote controls on the market that can remotely control a variety of different appliances, there are still many restrictions on their use. In particular, the universal remote control is not really "universal". For example, the universal remote control cannot remotely control the air conditioner, nor can it update the control code data stored therein, so it cannot flexibly increase the electrical appliances that it can control.

In addition, the use of the "universal" remote control is very troublesome for appliances that are also connected to the image display device, such as a set-top box and a disc player. For example, when you want to switch from the playback disc to the program provided by the player's upper box, you must press the first button to cut off the disc player, then press the second button to switch to the mode of the control box, and then press The third button turns on the set-top box, and finally presses the fourth button to switch the video frame presented by the TV from the video port connected to the disc player to the video port connected to the set-top box. In other words, at least four buttons are required to switch to the program that you want to watch, which is quite inconvenient to use.

The present invention is to solve the above problems. The invention utilizes a set-top box to integrate the infrared code of the household appliance, and uniformly uses a mobile device (for example, a tablet computer) to integrate the control of each household appliance through a set-top box, because the storage in the set-top box can be updated. Control code data, so it can flexibly increase the electrical appliances that it can control, and can control all the appliances in the home that use infrared remote control to control all the above problems, and realize the purpose of smart home.

The present invention provides a set-top box connected by a signal line and outputting an image to an image display device, comprising: a wireless fidelity (WIFI) signal receiver for receiving a wireless fidelity signal from a mobile device; a control module for receiving the wireless fidelity at the wireless fidelity signal receiver In the signal, an infrared signal is determined to be transmitted; and an infrared emitter is used to emit the infrared signal to remotely control one or more electrical appliances to provide a relay control function, wherein the one or more electrical appliances include the image display Device.

Optionally, the set-top box of the present invention further comprises: a memory for storing one or more control code data of the one or more electrical appliances, wherein an application installed on the mobile device is used for selecting control In the one or more electrical appliances, the control code data of the one or more electrical appliances is encoded by the control module as the infrared signal to control the one or more electrical appliances. One or more control code data is stored in the mobile device, and the one or more control code data is first encoded as the wireless fidelity signal, and is stored in the machine after being received by the set-top box. The memory of the upper box. And wherein the one or more control code data is downloaded from a cloud database and stored in the mobile device.

Optionally, wherein the interface of the application presents a control page displaying one or more integrated control keys, each of which is capable of executing a group of instructions to cause the infrared emission of the set-top box Transmitting the infrared signal comprising two or more control code data of the one or more electrical appliances to control a group operation of the one or more electrical appliances, wherein the group of actions comprises two or more of the following: control of the set-top box The control of the image display device, the control of a CD player, and the control of an audio device. In addition, the interface of the application also presents a setting page for setting the one or more integrated control keys, and each of the executed instruction groups.

Optionally, the one or more control code data is received from each user's home by receiving an infrared signal of one or more remote controllers, and transmitted to the cloud through the Internet to be stored in the cloud. The database. The image display device comprises one or more of the following: a television, a notebook computer, and a desktop computer. And wherein the mobile device comprises one or more of the following: a mobile phone, and a tablet computer. The set-top box can have the functions of one or more of the following: a cable set-top box, a digital TV set-top box, and a multimedia on-demand (MOD) set-top box. In addition, the one or more appliances may include one or more of the following: an air conditioner, a disc player, a television, a karaoke, an audio, an audio amplifier, and a conventional set top box, including: A cable TV box, a digital TV set box, and a multimedia jukebox.

110‧‧‧TV

112‧‧‧TV remote control

114‧‧‧Infrared signal

120‧‧‧Disc player

122‧‧‧Disc player remote control

124‧‧‧Infrared signal

130‧‧‧ air-conditioning

132‧‧‧Air conditioner remote control

134‧‧‧Infrared signal

210‧‧‧Mobile devices

212‧‧‧Wireless fidelity signal

220‧‧‧Cloud

222‧‧‧ server

224‧‧‧Wireless fidelity signal

310‧‧‧Machine box

312‧‧‧Wireless Fidelity Signal Receiver

314‧‧‧Control Module

316‧‧‧Infrared emitter

318‧‧‧ memory

324‧‧‧Infrared signal

334‧‧‧Infrared signal

344‧‧‧Infrared signal

410‧‧‧Image display device

416‧‧‧Signal line

The above aspects and advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood from the following detailed description of the invention. among them: 1 is a schematic diagram of a control mode of a conventional electric appliance; FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of receiving a control code data of another electric appliance by using a mobile device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 3 is a view of another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the internal structure of the set-top box of FIG. 3; FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating an application of the mobile device according to another embodiment of the present invention; The step of using the setting page to set the one or more integrated control keys and each of the executed instruction groups; and the flowchart of FIG. 6 is illustrated on a control page of the interface of the mobile device application The step of executing the instruction group is performed after pressing an integrated control key set according to the flow of FIG.

Different embodiments of the invention will now be described. The following description provides specific details of the implementation of the invention and is intended to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention may be practiced without these details. In addition, some well-known structures or functions may be described or described in detail to avoid obscuring the description of the various embodiments. The terms used in the following description will be interpreted in the broadest sense, even if A detailed description of a particular embodiment of the invention is used together.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the set-top box of the present invention can be connected by a signal line and output images to an image display device, including: a television, a notebook computer, or a desktop computer. The box may have one or more of the following functions: a cable set box, a digital set top box, and a multimedia on demand (MOD) set top box. The mobile device can include a tablet computer or a mobile phone, and the one or more electrical appliances can include an air conditioner, a CD player, a television, a karaoke, an audio, and an audio amplifier. The invention utilizes the set-top box as a relay in one of the other electrical appliances in the centralized control home, and can even control other traditional set-top boxes, including: a cable television upper box, a digital television set box, and a multimedia jukebox. box.

2 is a schematic diagram of the use of a mobile device to receive control code data for other appliances in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The infrared signal of one or more remote controllers of one or more electrical appliances may be received by a user or a field application engineer using a mobile device 210 (eg, a tablet computer) (eg, a remote control of the optical disc player 120). Infrared signal 124 of device 122, and cold air 130 The infrared signal 134) of the remote controller 132 is used to obtain one or more control code data of the one or more remote controllers. After receiving the one or more control code data, the mobile device can be used to transmit to the database of the cloud 220 via the wireless fidelity signal 212 and transmitted to the server 222 on the cloud 220 via the Internet.

Figure 3 is a schematic illustration of the use of a mobile device to operate a set-top box to centrally control other appliances in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention. The set-top box 310 is connected by a signal line 416 and outputs the image to an image display device 410. The one or more control code data is downloaded from the database of the cloud 220 shown in FIG. 2 and stored in the action. The device 210, or one or more control code data files of the one or more appliances, is stored in the mobile device 210.

Figure 4 is a diagram showing the internal structure of the set-top box of Figure 3. As shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, the set-top box 310 of the present invention includes: a wireless fidelity signal receiver 312 for receiving the wireless fidelity signal 224 from the mobile device 210; and a control module 314 for When the wireless fidelity signal receiver receives the wireless fidelity signal 224, determining an infrared signal (ie, an infrared signal 324, 334, or 344) to be transmitted; and an infrared emitter 316 for transmitting the The infrared signal is used to remotely control one or more appliances (for example, the disc player 120, the air conditioner 130, and the image display device 410) to provide a relay control function. Optionally, the set-top box 310 of the present invention may further include: a memory 318 for storing one or more control code data of the one or more electrical appliances. The one or more control code data is first encoded as the wireless fidelity signal 224 on the mobile device 210, and is stored in the memory 318 of the set-top box 310 after being received by the set-top box 310.

With reference to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, when the user selects and controls the one or more appliances (for example, the disc player 120, the air conditioner 130, and the image display device 410) by the application installed on the mobile device 210, the control module The control code data of the selected appliance is taken out from the memory 318 of the set-top box 310 to be encoded as the infrared signal (ie, the infrared signal 324 or 334), thereby controlling the selected appliance.

The interface of the application installed on the mobile device 210 presents one or more integrated control keys, each of which enables the infrared emitter 316 of the set-top box 310 to emit the one or more electrical appliances. The infrared signal of the two or more control code data to control the action of one of the one or more electrical appliances. The group of actions includes two or more of the following: control of the set-top box 310, control of the image display device 410, control of a disc player 120, and control of an audio (not shown).

For example, when you want to switch from a playback disc to a program provided on the player's box, By pressing an integrated control button presented by the interface of the application, the following actions can be performed with one button: cutting out the optical disc player 120, turning on the image output of the set-top box 310, and displaying the video information presented by the image display device 410. The video port connected to the optical disc player 120 is switched to the video port connected to the set-top box 310. Alternatively, when the program to be provided by the player box 310 is switched to the playing disc, the following action can be performed with one button by pressing another integrated control button presented by the interface of the application: cutting off the machine The video output of the box 310 is opened, the optical disc player 120 is turned on, and the video frame presented by the image display device 410 is switched from the video port of the connection box 310 to the video port connected to the optical disc player 120. In other words, just press a button to switch to the program you want to watch, which is quite convenient to use.

The flowchart of FIG. 5 illustrates the steps of setting the one or more integrated control keys and each of the executed instruction groups using a setting page on the interface of the application of the mobile device in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention. For example, the following settings are made on the interface of the application of the mobile device by using a setting page, including: in step 502, a "home theater" integrated control button is defined, and in step 504, "the set-top box switching screen is a disc player" is selected. Instructed at step 506 to select the "Start Disc Player" command, and in step 508, the "Start Sound Amplifier" command is selected, and in step 510, "Set the volume of the sound amplifier to 20" command. Finally, in step 512, "Done" is pressed, and the setting is transmitted by the mobile device to the set-top box of the present invention by a wireless fidelity signal and stored in the memory of the set-top box. It should be noted that the encoded data of each infrared signal corresponding to each of the above instructions has been collected and stored in the memory of the set-top box.

The flowchart of FIG. 6 illustrates the step of executing the group of instructions after pressing an integrated control key set according to the flow of FIG. 5 on a control page of the interface of the application of the mobile device. After the integrated control button of the "home theater" is pressed on a control page of the application interface of the mobile device in step 602, the mobile device sends a wireless fidelity signal to the set-top box of the present invention. The upper box automatically executes the following commands in sequence, including: "the set-top box switching screen is a disc player" (step 604), "starting the disc player" (step 606), and "starting the audio amplifier" (step 608), "Set the volume of the sound amplifier to 20" (step 610). In principle, the order in which the above instructions are activated is based on the order set when the setting page is set.

As shown, the interface of the application presents one or more integrated control keys, each of which, when pressed, can execute a group of instructions to cause the infrared emitter of the set-top box to emit the one or more appliances. The infrared signal of the two or more control code data to control one of the one or more electrical devices

The invention is not limited to the specific details described herein. Many different inventive variations related to the prior description and drawings are permissible in the spirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the invention is intended to cover the modifications and modifications of the invention

120‧‧‧Disc player

130‧‧‧ air-conditioning

210‧‧‧Mobile devices

224‧‧‧Wireless fidelity signal

310‧‧‧Machine box

324‧‧‧Infrared signal

334‧‧‧Infrared signal

344‧‧‧Infrared signal

410‧‧‧Image display device

416‧‧‧Signal line

Claims (10)

A set-top box connected by a signal line and outputting an image to an image display device, comprising: a wireless fidelity signal receiver for receiving a wireless fidelity signal from a mobile device; and a control module for Determining an infrared signal to be transmitted when the wireless fidelity signal receiver receives the wireless fidelity signal; and an infrared emitter for transmitting the infrared signal to remotely control one or more appliances to provide a a relay control function, wherein the one or more appliances comprise the image display device. The set-top box of claim 1, further comprising: a memory having a database for storing one or more control code data of the one or more appliances, wherein one of the applications is installed on the mobile device The program is used to selectively control the one or more electrical appliances, and the control code data of the one or more electrical appliances is encoded by the control module as the infrared signal to control the one or more electrical appliances. The set-top box of claim 2, wherein one or more control code data of the one or more electrical appliances are stored in the mobile device, and the one or more control code data is first encoded as the wireless fidelity signal, The set-top box is stored and stored in the memory of the set-top box. The set-top box of claim 3, wherein the one or more control code data is downloaded from a cloud database and stored to the mobile device. The set-top box of claim 4, wherein the one or more control code data is obtained from each user's home by receiving an infrared signal of one or more remote controls of the one or more electrical appliances, and transmitting to the Internet through the Internet The cloud is stored in the database of the cloud. The set-top box of claim 2, wherein the interface of the application presents a control page displaying one or more integrated control keys, each of which can execute an instruction group when pressed to enable the The infrared emitter of the set-top box emits the infrared signal comprising two or more control code data of the one or more electrical appliances to control a group operation of the one or more electrical appliances. The set-top box of claim 6, wherein the interface of the application presents a setting page for setting the one or more integrated control keys, and each of the executed instruction groups. The set-top box of claim 1, wherein the image display device comprises one or more of the following: a television, a notebook computer, and a desktop computer, and wherein the mobile device comprises one or more of the following : A mobile phone, and a tablet. The set-top box of claim 1, wherein the set-top box has the function of one or more of the following: a cable set-top box, a digital television set-top box, and a multimedia jukebox top box. The set-top box of claim 1, wherein the one or more appliances comprise one or more of the following: an air conditioner, a disc player, a television, a karaoke, an audio, an audio amplifier And the traditional set-top box, including: a cable box, a digital TV set box, a multimedia on-demand box.