Television – Receiver circuitry – Remote control
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-12
2003-09-30
Miller, John (Department: 2614)
Television
Receiver circuitry
Remote control
Reexamination Certificate
active
06628344
ABSTRACT:
OVERVIEW
A hand held remote control is a commonplace appurtenance used with contemporaneous entertainment equipment, such as television sets (a televisor) and the like. In addition to immediate usage with the televisor, the hand held remote control is also counted on to enable a user (viewer) to manipulate the functions and channel selections of popular and widely used accessories coupled with the typical televisor.
It is quite common for the televisor to be connected with one or more ancillary or supplementary devices, including a video cassette recorder (VCR), a digital video disk player (DVD), a “cable converter box”, a satellite signal receiver (such as “Direct TV”), a video game console, a “cam-corder” or video camera and more recently even with video-delay players (hard-drive recorders) and some forms of computer interfaces, such as “Web-TV” adapters.
REAL CHANNEL SELECTIONS
Program signals are usually thought of as “off the air” signals which may be received from a broadcast station. Generally real channel assignments lay between channel 2 and about channel 69, as defined and subsequently assigned to broadcasters by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in accord with international treaty agreements. An example of such a signal would be a real channel 5 televison signal directly received from a television station, such as the ABC channel 5 station WCVB in Boston.
Users often utilize a video cassette recorder (VCR) as a receiving front end. This enables off-the-air recording of programs. When not recording, the tuning capability of the VCR may continue to be used to down-convert an incoming program channel to a preset, fixed channel which I refer to as the necessitous channel or interface channel setting. In commonplace VCR devices, the incoming program channels are usually real channel assignments, ordinarily picked off the air.
More recently, delayed playback devices have gained popularity in which the incoming video is temporarily recorded on a hard disk drive, similar to a computer hard drive. The stored digitized video is then replayable in part or in toto a few seconds or many hours later. Better known is the ReplayTV available as a Panasonic ShowStopper™. It's operation is similar to that of a VCR, delivering its output signal on a necessitous or interlink channel setting, such as channel 3 or channel 4.
VIRTUAL CHANNEL SELECTION
A cable system may also be a program source. Cable systems often provide their captured “off-the-air programs” on different “virtual” channels than originally assigned to the broadcaster by the FCC. For example, in a particular MediaOne™ Cable (AT&T) provider system, Boston's real channel 38 station is down-converted to a virtual channel 14 when received over the MediaOne™ cable system. For purpose of these teachings a program source may be translated through the cable system as a real or a virtual channel.
My definition of a program signal resides in a user's ability to select any one of a number of program source channels, usually found between a virtual channel 1 and virtual channel 210 in the case of a DIRECTV® satellite receiver typified by an RCA receiver Model DRD222RD. When the source is a cable-TV system such as MediaOne™, a “universal” cable converter such as a Radio Shack™ type 15-1981 may afford up to 181 virtual channel selections for the user.
A shared characteristic of satellite receivers, cable converters or VCR's used as receiving front ends is their common deliverance of an interlink, or intercoupling, signal usually confined to one of the real channels 3 or 4. In most devices, a slide switch may be preset at installation to channel 3 or else channel 4. However, it shall not be construed that my invention is restricted to systems that limit the intercoupling to channels 3 and 4. In concept, any channel to which the TV set is capable of responding may in fact be used for the interlink channel. What is important is to realize that the interlink or intercoupling channel is maintained on a necessitous assignment. Channel 3, for example. This says that the necessitous intercoupling channel 3 is maintained independent from whatever incoming program channel is selected by the user.
A CONFUSING NUMBER OF REMOTE CONTROLS
As a result of a commonplace hookup of several different remotely controllable devices in conjunction with the host televisor, the number of separate remote controls quickly becomes overwhelming. In a very typical hookup, a viewer may have the televisor coupled at least with a cable converter box and a VCR. This arrangement intrinsically implies that three different remote controls may be necessary, each with its individual keypad layout and function markings.
As a result of the need for several remote controls in a usual family's usage of the televisor, others have developed many alternative “universal” remote controls. These types of “do everything” remote controls are represented by a “Universal Remote” Model SC-330 produced by Recoton Corp., (Jensen Division), Lake Mary, Fla. A fundamental object of a classic form of “universal” type remote controller is to enable a user to access and operate several usually interconnected pieces of entertainment apparatus from a single shared-function hand-held remote control device. The essence of this type of multi-device remote controller is to provide a “switchover” or selection provision for each of the remotely controlled apparatus. For example, a typical multipurpose remote controller may have a provision for operating a TV-set, VCR and Cable Box.
In this arrangement, the cable box may be coupled to the cable system. The cable box converts an incoming program signal, say channel 57 into a viable intermediate channel 03 signal which couples with the input of the VCR. This connection enables the user to record a program for later viewing, or else to divert the channel 03 signal directly to the TV set. You will quickly realize the necessity for both the VCR and the TV-set to be assuredly set to channel 03 for this setup to work as intended. Using usual hardware configurations, which might include the following set of equipment:
Device
Input
Output Signal
Cable Converter
Cable Source
Channel 03
Channel 1-99
Video Cassette Recorder
Channel 03
Channel 03
Recorder
Channel 03
or Record on Tape
TV Set (Televisor)
Channel 03
Viewable Image
it quickly becomes apparent that both the VCR and the TV-Set must be maintained set to channel 03 (or alternately channel 04) in order to provide a proper transfer of the program signal received from the cable source in order to produce the viewable image for the user. You also must realize that in order to set the various devices as mentioned may require at least three distinct “codes”.
Code 1 Set the cable converter to match the desired incoming program channel, usually selected between channel 01 and channel 99, such as the mentioned channel 57. Delivering the selected program at an output on a first preset channel 03.
Code 2 Set the VCR-INPUT to Channel 03 in order to accept the first interlink signal delivered from the cable converter on the preset channel 03. Delivering a second interlink signal, usually preset to channel 03.
Code 3 Set the TV-Set INPUT to channel 03 in order to be receptive to the second interlink signal delivered from the VCR-OUTPUT on the preset channel 03.
As you may correctly deduce from this scenario, three distinctively different command codes are involved in order to set the several components of this arrangement into operational harmony. More urgently, you should now see that this teaching's novelty resides in the recognition of this necessity for several concurrent commands to be made to unconditionally assure interequipment signal coupling compatibility. I expressly describe the sending of a program selection command code to the cable converter for picking a user preferred one of a number of available program channels, concurrent with the transparent sending of a channel 03 or channel 04 second selection command code for a TV-set or VCR's usage. You shall realize that
Miller John
Yenke Brian
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