WO2011019013A1

WO2011019013A1 - Electronic device

Info

Publication number: WO2011019013A1
Application number: PCT/JP2010/063473
Authority: WO
Inventors: 真弥加納; 賢路河野
Original assignee: ヤマハ株式会社
Priority date: 2009-08-10
Filing date: 2010-08-09
Publication date: 2011-02-17
Also published as: JP5223813B2; JP2011040930A

Abstract

Provided is an electronic device such as an AV amplifier, which is the core of a home theater system, wherein unintentional power-off by users are avoided. Power-off assessment is conducted, by detecting manipulations to a manipulator or a remote controller of the electronic device, and manipulations to remote controllers of other peripheral devices. In this case, power-off of the electronic device is conducted automatically, only when a threshold period of time for non-manipulating state is counted, starting from the last time a manipulation was conducted, and the prescribed count-value (three hours, for example) is reached. Television receivers and optical-disk recording/playback machines can be connected to the home theater system, as other peripheral devices that can be connected thereto.

Description

Electronics

The present invention relates to an electronic device such as an audiovisual device or an AV amplifier that can be remotely operated by a user.
This application claims priority based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2009-185587 filed in Japan on August 10, 2009, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Electronic devices such as a television receiver (or video monitor), an optical disk recorder / player, and an AV (Audio Visual) amplifier constitute a home theater system by connecting the AV amplifier as a core. This type of electronic device allows the user to perform various settings related to volume settings, transmission / reception of audio / video signals, etc., by operating a remote control such as infrared or wireless communication, and can also be remotely turned on / off. Can be operated.

The electronic device has a function of automatically turning off the power when no operation is performed for a certain period of time in order to suppress wasteful power consumption (see Patent Document 1). As described above, in addition to the technique of turning off the power when no operation is performed for a certain period of time, a technique of instructing the power off when the audio signal is interrupted for a certain period of time is also known (see Patent Document 2).

“Power off” means that the power supply to a part or all of the main functional circuit of the electronic device is cut off. The power supply to the circuit for instructing the power on / off is not cut off. Absent. That is, even when the power is off, the electronic device can receive a power-on command.

JP 2000-115996 A (refer to FIG. 2 and paragraph 0011 in particular) JP 2002-223487 A (refer to FIG. 1 in particular)

For example, once the input destination and volume are set in the AV amplifier, it is relatively rare to reset them thereafter. On the other hand, a television receiver, which is a peripheral device of an AV amplifier, often changes a channel for designating a television program, and a recording / reproducing device often changes content to be reproduced. When the set time of the AV amplifier has elapsed, the AV amplifier may be automatically turned off even if the user desires to continue viewing the currently selected program or content. In this case, there is a possibility that the function of the entire audiovisual system including the AV amplifier and the peripheral device is stopped. Of course, if the time until the power is turned off is set longer, it is possible to avoid the power-off that the user does not intend. In this case, since the time for turning on the power becomes longer, power is wasted for a long time. In addition, some users may view audiovisual content with only caption display with audio output set to zero. In this case, the state where the audio output is zero continues for a long time, and the AV amplifier may automatically turn off the power against the user's intention.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide an electronic device that can avoid power-off that is not intended by the user.

The electronic device according to the present invention includes a detection unit that detects a remote operation on another peripheral device in addition to a remote operation on the own device, and a remote operation on the own device and a remote operation on another peripheral device are not detected by the detection unit. An instruction unit for instructing power off when the operation state continues for a threshold time is provided.

The electronic device of the present invention further includes a plurality of operators, and the instruction unit has no change in the operation state of the operator of the own device in addition to the remote operation of the own device and the remote operation of other peripheral devices. In this case, it is determined that there is no operation.

The detection unit detects that the operation state has changed when the logical level of the received signal indicating the remote operation of the own device or the remote operation of another peripheral device is reversed, and determines that the operation state has not been reached.
In addition, the detection unit sets the last operation time among the operation of the operator of the own device, the remote operation of the own device, and the remote operation of other peripheral devices as the starting point of the threshold time of the no-operation state. .

In the electronic device according to the present invention, even if the state in which the device is not operated is continued for a threshold time, if the peripheral device is remotely operated, the power is not turned off. Can be avoided. In addition, the remote operation of the peripheral device means that the user exists in the vicinity and the peripheral device needs to be operated. In other words, since operations on peripheral devices other than electronic devices can be regarded as indirect user commands for the entire system, in addition to direct operations on the electronic devices, the operation on peripheral devices is also taken into consideration. The starting point of the threshold time is determined.

It is an external view which shows the structure of the home theater system containing AV amplifier equivalent to the electronic device which concerns on the Example of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the component of AV amplifier. It is a flowchart which shows the judgment process of the power-off performed by the microcomputer of AV amplifier. It is a time chart which shows the procedure in which power-off is instruct | indicated by the microcomputer of AV amplifier.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In this embodiment, an AV amplifier is taken up as an electronic device. FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a home theater system including an AV amplifier 10 according to the present embodiment.

In the home theater system shown in FIG. 1, the AV amplifier 10 is connected to peripheral devices such as a television receiver 20, an optical disk recorder / player 30, and a plurality of speakers 40. The television receiver 20 or the optical disc recording / reproducing device 30 is selected as the input destination of the AV amplifier 10. The AV amplifier 10 gives a predetermined surround effect to the audio signal supplied from the selected input destination, and outputs it to the speaker 40 for each channel. The AV amplifier 10 and the television receiver 20 and the AV amplifier 10 and the optical disk recording / reproducing device 30 may be connected via a digital interface such as HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface), for example. preferable.

Here, various settings of the AV amplifier 10, that is, selection of an input destination, volume / effect, and the like can be performed using various operators 12 provided on the control panel. Various settings of the AV amplifier 10 can be performed by remote operation of a remote controller (hereinafter referred to as “remote controller”) 14. The remote controller 14 has a plurality of buttons 15 corresponding to various functions of the AV amplifier 10, and when each button 15 is pressed, an on / off pattern of the button 15 is transmitted by infrared rays or the like.

The television receiver 20 is also equipped with a remote control 24 having a plurality of buttons 25 corresponding to operations such as channel switching. Similarly, the optical disc recording / reproducing machine 30 is also equipped with a remote controller 4 having a plurality of buttons 35 corresponding to operations such as recording / reproducing / fast-forwarding. Note that the on / off patterns transmitted by the

remote controllers

14, 24, and 34 are unique to the AV amplifier 10, the television receiver 20, and the optical disc recorder / player 30.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the components of the AV amplifier 10. The AV amplifier 10 receives the infrared rays from the remote controller 14 and executes corresponding processing.
The reception module 110 receives infrared rays from the remote controller 14 and outputs a corresponding reception signal R. The receiving module 110 has a receiving window, an optical filter that blocks light other than infrared light, a photodiode that converts infrared light that has passed through the optical filter into an electric signal, and a logic level (H corresponding to ON / OFF of the electric signal) / L level) to receive signal R.

The decoder 120 analyzes the H / L level pattern of the received signal R and outputs a command C corresponding to the pressed button 15 when the receiving module 110 receives infrared rays. For example, if the button 15 pressed on the remote controller 14 instructs to increase the volume, the decoder 120 outputs a volume increase command C.
Even if the receiving module 110 receives infrared rays from the

remote controllers

24 and 34 other than the remote controller 14, the decoder 120 does not output the command C because the infrared pattern does not match the prescribed pattern of the remote controller 14.

When the logic level of the received signal R is inverted, the level inversion detection unit 130 outputs a signal Q that is at the H level for, for example, 1 second from the time of the inversion, and is at the L level otherwise.
The receiving module 110 can also receive infrared rays from the

remote controllers

24 and 34 other than the remote controller 14. However, when the receiving module 110 receives infrared rays from the

remote controllers

24 and 34, the decoder 120 does not output the command C. On the other hand, the level inversion detection unit 130 outputs a signal Q that is H level for a certain time when the logical level of the received signal R is inverted regardless of whether or not the received infrared light is transmitted from the remote controller 14. . Therefore, not only when the remote controller 14 is remotely operated, but also when the

remote controllers

24 and 34 are remotely operated, the signal Q that becomes H level according to the logic level inversion of the received signal R is detected by the level inversion detection unit 130. Is output.

An operator 12 such as a selector or a volume is provided on the front panel of the AV amplifier 10 and outputs a signal P corresponding to the operation.
When the operator 12 is operated, the microcomputer 140 executes processing according to the signal P. When the remote controller 14 is remotely operated, the microcomputer 140 executes processing according to the command C output from the decoder 120. For example, when the volume increase command C is generated, the microcomputer 140 instructs the amplifier circuit (not shown) so that the amplitude of the audio signal is increased by the amount specified by the command C.
The microcomputer 140 includes a counter 140a that up-counts a clock signal Clk having a frequency of 10 Hz, for example. The microcomputer 140 executes the power-off determination process according to the count value of the counter in parallel with the process according to the signal P and the command C.

Next, the power-off determination process will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
In step S1, the microcomputer 140 executes the processing after step S2 in response to the rising edge of the clock signal Clk. In this embodiment, since the frequency of the clock signal Clk is 10 Hz, the power-off determination process is executed at a frequency of 10 times per second.

In step S2, the microcomputer 140 determines whether the received signal R is not decoded by the decoder 120 and the command C has not been generated. When the command C has not been generated, in step S3, the microcomputer 140 determines whether or not the operation state of the operator 12 has changed. That is, the microcomputer 140 determines whether or not the operation state indicated by the signal P is the same as the operation state stored at the previous activation. The microcomputer 140 stores the operation state of the operator 12 at the time of this activation in the internal memory in preparation for the next activation.
If the determination results of steps S2 and S3 are both “Yes”, it means that no operation has been performed by the operator 12 of the AV amplifier 10 and the remote controller 14.

In step S4, the microcomputer 140 determines whether or not the signal Q is at the L level. As described above, the signal Q becomes H level when any one of the

remote controllers

14, 24, 34 is remotely operated. In other words, the signal Q being at the L level means that none of the

remote controllers

14, 24, 34 is remotely operated, and therefore the receiving module 110 does not receive any infrared rays. When the signal Q is at the L level, the determination result in step S4 is “Yes”.

If the determination result of any of steps S2, S3, and S4 is “No”, in step S5, the microcomputer 140 resets the count value of the counter 140a to zero, and the flow returns to step S1 to prepare for the next activation.
On the other hand, when all the determination results in steps S2, S3, and S4 are “Yes”, in step S6, the microcomputer 140 determines whether or not the count value of the counter 140a has reached “108000”. If the determination result in step S6 is “No”, the flow returns to step S1, and the microcomputer 140 prepares for the next activation. If the determination result in step S6 is “Yes”, in step S7, the microcomputer 140 instructs the power supply circuit 150 to turn off the power to the main function circuit. In this case, since the AV amplifier 10 is actually turned off, the power-off determination process by the microcomputer 140 ends.

Since the frequency of the clock signal Clk is 10 Hz, the cycle for incrementing the count value by 1 is 0.1 second. That is, the count value “108000” corresponds to 3 hours.
In FIG. 3, the flow proceeds to step S6 only when all the determination results in steps S2, S3, and S4 are “Yes”. In addition, the determination result in step S4 being “Yes” means that no operation is performed by the operator 12 of the AV amplifier 10 and the remote controller 14, and the reception module 110 is in the

remote controller

14, 24, 34. This means that no infrared rays are received from any of the above. That is, it means a complete no-operation state.
If this non-operation state continues for a predetermined threshold time, that is, 3 hours, the determination result in step S6 becomes “Yes”, and in step S7, the microcomputer 140 instructs the power off.

The above operation will be described with reference to FIG. Time a indicates the time at which the last operation of the operator 12 of the AV amplifier 10 or the remote controller 14 by the user was performed. If no operation is performed after time a, the microcomputer 140 instructs to turn off the power at time e after 3 hours. However, when the user operates the remote control 24 of the television receiver 20 at time b, or when the user operates the remote control 34 of the optical disc recording / reproducing device 30 at time c, the microcomputer 140 is set to a time when 3 hours have elapsed from the time a. Do not instruct power off at e. In this case, the microcomputer 140 instructs to turn off the power at time d when 3 hours have elapsed from the last operation time (time c in FIG. 4).

For example, the user operates the remote controller 24 of the television receiver 20 to switch channels, or operates the remote controller 34 of the optical disc recording / reproducing device 30 to play, stop, and fast-forward the contents. These remote controls of the

remote controllers

24 and 34 do not give direct instructions to the AV amplifier 10, but are instructions to the home theater system.

For example, a remote controller (not shown) of an air conditioner other than the peripheral device shown in FIG. 1 also transmits infrared rays. Therefore, when the receiving module 110 receives infrared rays from the remote controller, the signal Q becomes H level. Remote control of the air conditioner remote control is not directly related to the home theater system, but a user in the vicinity of the home theater system has performed another remote control operation to improve the surrounding environment, and the user There is a possibility that the amplifier 10 is not desired to be turned off at the time of other remote control operations. In other words, if the user desires to turn off the AV amplifier 10 at the time of other remote control operation, the user should directly instruct the AV amplifier 10 to turn off the power. For this reason, when the signal Q becomes H level by remote control operation other than the

remote control

14, 24, 34, it means an intention expression such as improvement of the surrounding environment by the user and intention to maintain the power supply of the home theater system indirectly. It can be regarded as an expression.
As described above, in this embodiment, the starting point of 3 hours, which is the power-off setting time, is not directly or indirectly to the home theater system, but the time when the user has last operated the AV amplifier 10. This is the time when the user operation was last performed. Thereby, it is possible to avoid the AV amplifier 10 from being automatically turned off against the user's intention.

In FIG. 2, the level inversion detection unit 130 detects that the user has remotely operated the

remote controllers

14, 24, 34 in the vicinity of the AV amplifier 10 in accordance with the inversion of the logic level of the received signal R. It does not detect content. It is the duty of the decoder 120 to convert the received signal R into a command C corresponding to the operation of the remote controller 14. Therefore, the level inversion detection unit 130 can be realized with a simple configuration. Further, the present embodiment can be realized only by adding in parallel the level inversion detection unit 130 having a simple configuration to the decoder 120 that decodes the reception signal R output from the reception module 110. In other words, the present embodiment can be realized without significantly changing the circuit of the existing apparatus.

There is no change in the operation state of the AV amplifier 10 using the operation element 12, no remote operation is performed by the remote controller 14, and the reception module 110 does not receive infrared rays from either of the

remote controllers

24 and 34. Although referred to as a state, “a state where the remote control 14 is not remotely operated” is logically included in the “a state where the receiving module 110 does not receive the infrared of the remote control”. Therefore, the no-operation state can be rephrased as a state where the operation by the operator 12 of the AV amplifier 10 is not performed and the receiving module 110 does not receive the infrared of the remote control.

In the present embodiment, the AV amplifier 10 is described as an example of the electronic apparatus, but the present invention may be applied to the television receiver 20, the optical disc recording / reproducing apparatus 30, and the like.
In this embodiment, the power-off is instructed when the no-operation time continues for 3 hours. However, the threshold time can be changed as appropriate.
Further, when the operation state by the operation element 12 of the AV amplifier 10 is not changed or the remote operation by the remote controller 14 is not performed, when the signal Q becomes H level, the power-off threshold time is not 3 hours. For example, it may be switched to 1.5 hours.

In this embodiment, the reception target of the reception module 110 of the AV amplifier 10 may be limited to the

remote controllers

24 and 34 other than the remote controller 14. When limiting the remote control to be received, it is necessary to register the remote control to be received in advance, and the decoder 120 decodes not only the remote control 14 but also the infrared signal transmitted from the registered remote control.
The receiving module 110 may receive not only infrared rays but also signals such as HDMI-CEC (Consumer Electronics Control), LAN, and RS232C wirelessly or by wire.
Further, the power-off may be instructed not only to the AV amplifier 10 itself but also to other electronic devices included in the home theater system, that is, the television receiver 20 and the optical disk recording / reproducing device 30. The power on / off control of other electronic devices can be executed by using CEC in HDMI, for example.

The present invention controls power on / off in an electronic device that can be remotely operated by a remote controller. In particular, an AV amplifier that forms the core of a home theater system automatically cooperates with other peripheral devices and automatically against the user's intention. Since it can be prevented from being turned off and can be realized with a simple configuration and logic, it can be applied to various electronic devices for consumers.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 AV amplifier 14 Remote control 20 Television receiver 24 Remote control 30 Optical disk recording / reproducing machine 34 Remote control 40 Speaker 110 Reception module 120 Decoder 130 Level inversion detection part 140 Microcomputer 140a Counter 150 Power supply circuit

Claims

A detection unit for detecting remote operations on other peripheral devices in addition to remote operations on the own device;
An electronic apparatus comprising an instruction unit that instructs to turn off power when a non-operation state in which a remote operation on the own device and a remote operation on another peripheral device are not detected by the detection unit continues for a threshold time.
A plurality of controls,
The said instruction | indication part determines with the said no-operation state when there is no change in the operation state of the operation element of an own machine in addition to the remote operation with respect to an own machine, and the remote operation with respect to another peripheral device. Electronic equipment.
The detection unit detects that the operation state has changed when the logic level of the received signal indicating the remote operation of the own device or the remote operation of another peripheral device is reversed, and determines that the operation state has not been changed. The electronic device according to claim 2.
The detection unit includes a last operation time as a starting point of a threshold time in a no-operation state among an operation of an operator of the own device, a remote operation of the own device, and a remote operation of another peripheral device. 2. The electronic device according to 2.
A detection unit for detecting at least remote operation of peripheral devices other than the own device;
An electronic device comprising an instruction unit that instructs to turn off power when a non-operation state in which no operation is performed on the own device and no remote operation is performed by the detection unit continues for a threshold time.