TWI466487B - System of remote control and method thereof - Google Patents

Description

Remote control system and method thereof

The present invention relates to a remote control system and method, and more particularly to a remote control system and method for dynamically changing a remote control interface.

Due to the gradual evolution of the times, the remote control of various home appliances in the family has gradually become an irreplaceable existence. However, the remote controllers currently generally used are remote control controlled devices such as multimedia playback devices or air conditioners with fixed hard-type buttons or a single operation screen. Whenever the controlled end device receives the command of the remote control and enters the next working state, the remote controller does not have an appropriate interface to present the state of the currently controlled device to accurately inform the user of the functions that are currently available. In other words, the user has no way of knowing which operating buttons are invalid under the current operating conditions, and it takes time to find out which operating buttons have operational functions in various states. Therefore, how to enable the user to remotely operate the controlled end device in a more convenient and intuitive manner has become one of the problems to be solved in the field.

In view of this, the present invention provides a remote control system and method thereof, such that the remote controller can correspond to an interface for displaying an operable item according to the current operational state of the controlled end device.

The invention provides a remote control system comprising a controlled end and a remote end. The controlled terminal sends a status information, where the status information includes the function item currently being executed by the controlled end, or includes the operational status of the function item and the function item. The remote control end includes a touch screen, and the remote control end receives status information from the controlled end, and displays a usage interface on the touch screen according to the status information, wherein the use interface includes one or more control items corresponding to the status information, when the touch When the screen receives an operation signal and the operation signal corresponds to one of the control items, the remote terminal transmits a remote control instruction corresponding to the operation signal to the controlled end to control the controlled end to execute the remote control instruction.

The present invention provides a remote control method comprising the following steps. First, receiving status information of a controlled end, wherein the status information includes a function item currently being executed by the controlled end, or including an operational status of the function item and the function item. Then, a usage interface is displayed based on the status information, wherein the usage interface includes one or more control items corresponding to the status information. Then, when the touch screen receives an operation signal and the operation signal corresponds to one of the control items, a remote control instruction corresponding to the operation signal is sent to the controlled end to control the controlled end to execute the remote control instruction.

Based on the above, the present invention provides a remote control system and a method thereof, such that the remote control end can display one or more control items on the remote control touch screen according to the status information transmitted by the controlled end. When the user controls the remote control, the user can control the remote control according to the user interface on the touch screen.

The above described features and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the following description.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a remote control system according to an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 1, the remote control system 10 includes a controlled end 120 and a remote end 110. The controlled terminal 120 sends the status information SI, wherein the status information SI includes the function item currently being executed by the controlled terminal 120, and the status information SI may also include the operational status of the function item. The remote control end 110 includes a touch screen 111. The remote control end 110 receives the status information SI from the controlled end 120, and displays the use interface on the touch screen 111 according to the status information SI. The usage interface includes one or more control items corresponding to the status information SI. When the user operates the control item, the touch screen 111 receives the operation signal OS. When the operation signal OS corresponds to one of the above control items, the remote terminal 110 transmits a remote control command RC corresponding to the operation signal OS to the controlled terminal 120 to control the controlled terminal 120 to execute the remote control command RC. When the user performs different operations on different control items, the remote terminal 110 sends various remote control commands RC.

In the present embodiment, the remote terminal 110 is a remote controller of the controlled terminal 120. The remote control terminal 110 in this embodiment may be a handheld electronic device equipped with an application or a circuit dedicated to remote control, such as a tablet PC or a smart phone. The present invention is not limited to the above.

The status information SI transmitted back to the remote terminal 110 by the controlled terminal 120 mainly includes the function items currently being executed by the controlled terminal 120, and may include the current operating status of the function item. E.g:

When the remote control terminal 110 receives such status information SI, the user interface for displaying the operation status of the "Browse Movie List" in the function item corresponding to "Video" can be displayed on the touch screen 111. The usage interface may include one or more control items, such as buttons, progress bars, and/or status columns, as described in more detail below. In addition, the status information SI may also include a list, which includes one or more optional items. For example, following the above example, the list may be a list of movies that can be played on the controlled terminal 120, wherein each optional item is a movie that can be played, and the status information SI of the list is as follows Show:

When the remote terminal 110 receives the status information SI as shown above, the optional items in the list, that is, one or more playable movies, are displayed together in the usage interface. Each optional item displayed on the interface can be viewed as a control item that allows the user to click directly. When the user selects one of the selectable items, that is, one of the playable movies, the touch screen 111 receives an operation signal corresponding to the selectable item, and the remote terminal 110 sends an instruction corresponding to the selectable item to the controlled end. 120 to execute the corresponding instruction, here the control controlled terminal 120 selects and plays the movie.

In addition, the status information SI may also include description information of the current function item or operating status. For example, when the user has selected a movie, the remote terminal 110 transmits an instruction to the controlled terminal 120 for playing. The controlled terminal 120 executes an instruction to play the movie, and then returns status information SI as follows:

When the remote control terminal 110 receives such status information SI, the description information in the status information SI may be displayed on the usage interface, such as the name of the movie indicated by the status information SI and the current playback progress. Hereinafter, an embodiment of the use interface of the state information SI and the corresponding state information SI in the present invention will be further described with reference to the drawings and the embodiments.

2 is a timing chart of state information and remote control commands in a remote control system according to an embodiment of the invention, and FIGS. 3A, 3B, 3C, and 3D are respectively illustrated according to the embodiment of FIG. The embodiment using the interface will be described in detail below with reference to the above drawings.

In this embodiment, the controlled terminal 120 is a multimedia device having the functions of displaying photos, playing music, and playing movies. First, in step S201, the controlled terminal 120 transmits the status information SI to the remote control terminal 110. At this time, the controlled terminal 120 is in an initial state, and does not perform any functions and instructions, so the status information SI includes only the function items. The field is "Main Page" as follows:

When the remote control terminal 110 receives the status information SI, when the step S202 is facilitated, the user interface corresponding to the function item being the "main page" is displayed. In the present embodiment, the remote terminal 110 displays the usage interface 31 as shown in FIG. 3A. The use interface 31 includes three control items of buttons 311 to 313, and the three buttons respectively correspond to the remote control controlled terminal 120 to execute instructions for displaying three functions of a photo, playing music, and playing a movie. In this embodiment, the user can select to play music through the touch screen 111 (press the button 312 through the touch screen 111), and the touch screen 111 receives the operation signal OS corresponding to the button 312, and then sends it in step S203. The remote command RC is to the controlled end 120. The remote command RC at this time includes an instruction represented by the button 312, that is, an instruction to execute a music function.

At step S204, the controlled terminal 120 receives the remote control command RC and performs a corresponding action according to the remote control command RC, that is, collects the music that can be played in the controlled terminal 120 into a list. In this embodiment, the controlled terminal 120 is preset to sort the music that can be played in the album list, so that the controlled terminal 120 displays the playable album list on a display unit of the controlled terminal 120 (not shown) ) for users to choose. Next, in step S205, the controlled terminal 120 returns the status information SI to the remote control terminal 110, and the content of the status information SI is as follows:

At step S206, the remote terminal 110 receives the status information SI described above, and displays the usage interface 32 as shown in FIG. 3B according to the status information SI. The user interface 32 includes nine control items, that is, buttons 321 to 329, and the user can select the artist to sort (button 321), album sort (button 322), and display custom playback by clicking buttons 321 to 324. The list (key 323), display all songs (key 324), and the like list the music that can be played by the controlled terminal 120. The remote terminal 110 transmits a remote command RC that rearranges the music list displayed by the controlled terminal 120 in a manner selected by the user.

At the same time, the controlled terminal 120 can display a cursor in the music list. When the user clicks the buttons 325-328, the remote terminal 110 sends the remote command RC represented by the buttons 325-328 to control the cursor to move to the left, the top, the right, and the bottom respectively (step S207). The user can also select an album by clicking the OK button (key 329) so that the remote terminal 110 transmits a remote command RC for selecting the album to the controlled terminal 120 (step S207). After receiving the remote control command RC, the controlled terminal 120 displays the related track list of the album in the display unit of the controlled terminal 120 according to the remote control command (step S208), and returns the status information SI as shown below (step S209). :

In step S210, the remote control terminal 110 receives the status information SI described above and displays the usage interface 32 as shown in FIG. 3B according to the status information SI (the status information SI of steps S206 and S210 all correspond to the same usage interface 32). The user continues to select the track to be played through the interface 32. When the user selects a track (pressing the OK button 329), the remote terminal 110 transmits a remote command RC to the controlled terminal 120 (step S211).

After receiving the remote control command RC, the controlled terminal 120 plays the track selected by the user according to the remote control command RC (step S212), and returns the status information SI to the remote control end 110 (step S213), and the status information SI transmitted at this time. As follows:

When the remote control terminal 110 receives the status information SI, the remote control terminal 110 displays the usage interface 33 as shown in FIG. 3C corresponding to the status information SI (step S214). The control items using the interface 33 include a status column 331, a progress bar 232, and buttons 333-337. The status column 331 corresponds to the description information in the display status information SI, such as the current playback progress of the track and the total length of the track as shown above. In other embodiments, the description information also includes the current number of songs/album total tracks, the current track name, the album name, and the name of the artist. The remote terminal 110 can be selectively selected according to the setting of the status column in the interface. Show the above information.

The progress bar 232 includes a trackball, and the current position of the trackball corresponds to the execution progress of the function item currently executed by the controlled terminal 120, that is, the playback progress of the currently played track. If the function item currently being executed by the controlled terminal 120 is to display a photo, the execution progress of the status information SI is the display progress of the photo, for example, the first few photos are displayed in all the photos. If the function item currently being executed by the controlled terminal 120 is playing a movie, the execution progress of the status information SI is the playing progress of the currently playing movie.

When the user pulls the trackball of the progress bar 232 through the touch screen 111 of the remote control terminal 110, the touch screen 111 receives the corresponding operation signal OS. Therefore, the remote control terminal 110 transmits the remote control command RC to set the controlled end 120 correspondingly. The new position of the trackball sets a new playback time point and continues to play the track. If the controlled end 120 is currently executing other functional items, the user can also pull the trackball of the progress bar 232 in the same manner to set the execution progress of the current function.

The buttons 333-337 respectively correspond to the respective instructions of the remote execution progress, including replaying the current track (button 333), playing the previous track (button 334), playing/pausing the current track (button 335), playing the next track (button 336) ), and randomly play the track (button 337). The button 335 dynamically switches the play or pause icon along with the operating state in the status information SI to more clearly indicate the current operating state of the controlled terminal 120.

In another embodiment, the controlled terminal 120 includes the contents of the manifest in the status information SI. For example, when performing the above step S205, the status information SI transmitted from the controlled terminal 120 to the remote terminal 110 is:

After receiving the status information SI, the remote control terminal 110 can display the use interface 34 as shown in FIG. 3D. The control items using the interface 34 include buttons 341-343 and an optional item list 345. The buttons 341 to 344 respectively correspond to the commands of the control terminals 120 controlled by the buttons 321 to 324 in FIG. 3B, and are not described herein. The list of optional items is displayed in the list of optional items 345, allowing the user to directly select the optional items in the list. For example, in this embodiment, the selectable items are albums, and each album is displayed as a control item in the usage interface 34. After the user clicks on one of the album lists, the remote terminal 110 transmits a remote command RC corresponding to the album to the controlled terminal 120, and the controlled terminal 120 sorts the list of tracks of the album.

For another example, for example, after the control terminal 120 returns the status information SI at step S209, the remote terminal 110 displays the usage interface 34, and the optional item in the list of status information SI is a song track. When the user selects one of the tracks using the interface 34, the remote terminal 110 issues a corresponding remote command RC to control the controlled terminal 120 to play the track.

It is worth mentioning that the list content in the status information SI may include picture information in addition to the text information. For example, in this embodiment, each optional item is an album. Each optional item can include an album cover thumbnail in addition to the album name and artist name, so that the user can more intuitively select the album and track to be played. Similarly, when the function item executed by the controlled terminal 120 is displaying a photo, the optional item in the list may also include a photo thumbnail, so that the list displayed in the interface can help the user to quickly select the photo to be displayed. .

4 is an embodiment of an interface for use in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, in which the controlled end 120 is an air conditioning unit. Referring to FIG. 4, the use interface 41 is the main page displayed when the controlled end 120 is initially used. The control items, that is, the buttons 411 and 412, respectively correspond to the commands that the controlled end 120 can currently provide to turn on the functions of the cold air (button 411) and the warm air (key 412).

In this embodiment, when the user wants to use the air-conditioning function and presses the button 411, the remote terminal 110 transmits the corresponding remote command RC to the controlled terminal 120. After receiving the remote command RC, the controlled terminal 120 starts the air-conditioning function according to the remote command RC, and returns the status information SI as follows:

After receiving the status information SI, the remote terminal 110 displays the usage interface 42 based on the status information SI. The control items using interface 42 include status column 421 and buttons 422 and 423. The status column 421 displays the description information in the status information SI, which is the current temperature. Buttons 422 and 423 respectively correspond to commands for controlling the controlled terminal 120 to raise the set temperature and lower the set temperature.

It is worth mentioning that the description information displayed in the status column 421 is obtained by the description information in the status information SI transmitted by the controlled terminal 120. That is to say, in this embodiment, the controlled terminal 120 can also actively return the status information SI to the remote terminal 110 to update the description information displayed in the status column 421 when the current temperature is changed. In this embodiment, the description information may also include information such as the current humidity and the running time, and is set according to the actual situation. The air conditioning device of the controlled terminal 120 may also have other functions, such as air supply, dehumidification, etc., and the buttons may also include commands corresponding to adjusting the air volume, adjusting the wind direction, etc., using interfaces 41 and 42 according to these functional items and control items. Adjust the settings by increasing or decreasing.

The invention also provides a remote control method. FIG. 5 is a flow chart of a remote control method according to an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 5, first, in step S501, status information of a controlled end is received, where the status information includes a function item currently being executed by the controlled end, and may also include an operational status of the function item. Then, in step S502, a usage interface is displayed according to the status information, wherein the usage interface includes one or more control items corresponding to the status information. Next, in step S503, when the touch screen receives an operation signal and the operation signal corresponds to one of the control items, a remote control instruction corresponding to the operation signal is sent to the controlled end to control the controlled end to execute the remote control instruction. For the implementation of the method and the detailed implementation details, reference may be made to the description of the foregoing embodiments, and no further details are provided herein.

In summary, the present invention provides a remote control system and a method thereof, so that the remote control terminal can dynamically adjust the current user interface selected by the user according to the status information returned by the controlled terminal, and only display the current controlled terminal. The provided control items and/or the current status description information of the controlled end enable the user to control the controlled end in a more intuitive and simple manner, avoiding the use of the general standard fixed remote control, and operating at certain controlled ends. Excessive invalid buttons, and too many buttons confuse users.

Although the present invention has been disclosed in the above embodiments, it is not intended to limit the invention, and any one of ordinary skill in the art can make some modifications and refinements without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The scope of the invention is defined by the scope of the appended claims.

10. . . Remote control system

110. . . Remote end

111. . . Touch screen

120. . . Controlled end

SI. . . Status information

OS. . . Operating signal

RC. . . Remote command

311~313, 321～329, 333～337, 341～343, 411～412, 422～423. . . button

331, 421. . . Status column

232. . . Progress bar

345. . . List

31~34, 41, 42. . . Use interface

S201～S214, S501～S503. . . step

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a remote control system according to an embodiment of the invention.

2 is a timing chart of state information and remote control commands in a remote control system according to an embodiment of the invention.

3A, 3B, 3C, and 3D illustrate an embodiment of using an interface, respectively, according to an embodiment of the invention.

4 is an embodiment of an interface for use in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of a remote control method according to an embodiment of the invention.

10. . . Remote control system

110. . . Remote end

111. . . Touch screen

120. . . Controlled end

SI. . . Status information

OS. . . Operating signal

RC. . . Remote command

Claims (8)

A remote control system includes: a controlled terminal for transmitting a status information, wherein the status information includes a function item currently being executed by the controlled terminal, or includes an operation status of the function item and the function item; and a remote control The terminal includes a touch screen, and the remote terminal receives the status information from the controlled terminal, and displays a usage interface on the touch screen according to the status information, wherein the usage interface includes at least one corresponding to the status information. Controlling an item, when the touch screen receives an operation signal and the operation signal corresponds to one of the control items, the remote control end transmits a remote control instruction corresponding to the operation signal to the controlled end to control the controlled end to execute The remote control command, wherein the control item comprises at least one button corresponding to the status information, and when the operation signal corresponds to a button, the remote command includes an instruction represented by the button. The remote control system of claim 1, wherein the status information further includes an execution progress of the function item, and the control item includes a progress bar corresponding to the execution progress, when the operation signal corresponds to a progress bar, The remote command includes an instruction to set the execution progress. The remote control system of claim 1, wherein the status information further comprises a list, wherein the control item comprises at least one optional item of the list, and when the operation signal corresponds to an optional item, the remote control instruction Includes an instruction to select the optional item. The remote control system of claim 1, wherein the status information further includes at least one description information, and the remote end is in the use interface. The description information is displayed. A remote control method is applicable to a remote control terminal including a touch screen, the method comprising: receiving, by the remote control terminal, a status information of a controlled terminal, wherein the status information includes a function item currently being executed by the controlled terminal, or includes The function item and the operation state of the function item; the remote end displays a usage interface according to the status information, wherein the usage interface includes at least one control item corresponding to the status information; and the touch screen receiving of the remote control end An operation signal, and the operation signal corresponds to one of the control items, the remote control end transmits a remote control instruction corresponding to the operation signal to the controlled terminal to control the controlled terminal to execute the remote control instruction, wherein the control item includes Corresponding to at least one button of the status information, when the operation signal corresponds to the button, the remote command includes an instruction represented by the button. The method of claim 5, wherein the status information further includes an execution progress of the function item, the control item includes a progress bar corresponding to the execution progress, and when the operation signal corresponds to a progress bar, the The remote command includes an instruction to set the progress of the execution. The method of claim 5, wherein the status information further comprises a list, wherein the control item comprises at least one optional item of the list, and when the operation signal corresponds to an optional item, the remote control instruction comprises Select an instruction for this optional item. The method of claim 5, wherein the status information further comprises at least one description information, the description information being displayed in the usage interface.