Coded data generation or conversion – Code generator or transmitter – Transmitter for remote control signal
Reexamination Certificate
2001-09-26
2004-10-12
Horabik, Michael (Department: 2635)
Coded data generation or conversion
Code generator or transmitter
Transmitter for remote control signal
C340S870030, C348S734000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06803874
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF MY INVENTION
My invention pertains to the general field of portable remote controllers and in particular to a class of hand-held remote controllers commonly used to change channel selection and tuning of entertainment equipment. My invention particularly relates to the remote control of television channel selection on any of a variety of remotely controlled devices, including a televisor, cable-box converter, satellite receiver, VCR machine, DVD machine and similar apparatus. Most particularly, my invention pertains to the entry of an actual channel number selection for tuning a program channel which has been shifted to a different virtual channel assignment by a cable or satellite system operator.
BACKGROUND OF MY INVENTION
The remote control of televisors and similar equipment is ordinarily obtained through the use of a portable and usually hand-held remote control. Wireless remote controls are a relatively recent phenomenon, having been first introduced about 1955 by then Zenith Radio Corp. first as a photoelectric version under the name Flashmatic™. Beginning in 1955 a more practical ultrasonic design was developed by a team effort under Dr. Robert Adler of then Zenith Radio Corp. The remote controller used mechanically struck tone-producing rods and it worked sort of like a miniature xylophone delivering four slightly disparate tones to a microphone located at the to-be controlled TV receiver. In the early television sets of the late 1950s, television sets ordinarily tuned 12 channels, e.g., channels 2-13. As a result, the four tones allowed tuning “up and down” and adjusting volume “up and down”.
This early tone-operated remote controller was introduced as Zenith's Space Command™ in 1956 and for a quarter of a century it prevailed as the premier form of remote controller technology for television applications. These early Zenith remote controllers offered a bare minimum of functionality. On the other hand, they required a relatively elaborate tone-responsive receiver to be included in the television set. Early Zenith remote control receivers generally utilized six additional vacuum tubes, along with relays, motor drives and other paraphernalia, which dramatically increased the cost of a TV-set to the consumer, often by as much as 30%. As time went on, many other manufacturers adopted a similar technical approach for remote control, using near-ultrasonic sound as the coupling medium. These earliest remote controllers, such as exemplified by the Space Command™ offered a modest capability for stepping through the available channels and adjusting volume. Fine tuning and other picture adjustments still had to be done manually at the TV-set. Clearly more features, such as remote selection of a randomly chosen channel number, were desirable albeit not then available.
In the early 1980s makers of television sets moved to using infrared light as the coupling medium. A Sylania TV-set circa 1983 used a Sylvania model T172AC (32-3019070-1) remote controller that included a 16-button keypad and utilized an IT&T Corp. type 612341-1 24-pin LSI circuit for determining its several functions, combined with a pair of infrared LEDs couplable with the remotely located TV-set. The gain in popularity of remote control in the 1980s was paralleled by the dramatic improvements in tuner design. In particular, electronic tuning made possible by varactor diodes and related devices made channel selection and automatic frequency control technically practical, commonplace and economically viable. These advances in tuner design resulted in a far simpler remote electronic control of tuning and other features without motors, relays and mechanical drives.
Cable converter boxes, such as those made by (then) General Instrument Corp. (now Motorola Inc.) often had an accompanying remote control such as a GI model RT-J50 which sported 28-keybuttons offering numerous functions aside from channel selection. This early remote control was specifically encoded to cooperate with General Instrument's own Jerrold™ or Tocom™ converter boxes of that era. Operation of the remote control was based upon a LGS type OHS-3203P LSI circuit and included twin infrared LEDs for sending encoded commands to the cable box.
Ordinarily these General Instrument and Sylvania remote controllers and others from that earlier era offered a remote selection capability for any randomly picked channel number between ∅1 and 99 but were practicably limited to the range of channels then generally available on TV-sets (e.g., usually various “over the air” channels ranging between channels ∅2 through 13 and sometimes the UHF channels 14 through 82), or the typical cable “converter box” such as the Jerrold™ model 450-DRZP-3A and Tocom™ model 5503-VIP (Jerrold div. and Tocom div., General Instruments Corp., Hatboro, Pa.) that then tuned about 67 channels.
The Sylvania remote controller design was typical of the era and served as a representative forerunner to the contemporary remote controllers both of the device-specific fixed-code original equipment class and of the field re-programmable universally encoded type.
The invisible light beam was then and continues to be superior to early Zenith™ developed technical methods that depended upon a sending of sonic tones. The versatile superiority of an infrared light beam is that can be readily encoded with elaborate digital patterns which assures it's private recognition only by the intended device. In other words, the remote controller is now both noise immune and less apt to interfere with another remotely controlled device in the same area. Remote control technology advanced rapidly in the 1980's with the introduction of a set of CMOS “encoder and decoder” integrated circuits by Motorola, Inc. These early LSI devices, typified by a MC145026 encoder and MC145027 decoder quickly taught the art that high immunity against false response and separate identity for different devices was economically feasible. For example, the MC145026 coupled with an MLED-81 infrared light emitting diode made a hand-held controller economically practical and functionally reliable. Aside from demonstrable TV-set remote controller applications, these Motorola devices also found widespread application in the X-10™ line of home automation controllers.
Two principal classes of hand held remote controls coexist. One is a dedicated and usually pre-encoded “OEM” original equipment remote controller, generally supplied by a specific maker of an entertainment device, such as the televisor or cable box. The dedicated remote controller ordinarily is single-device oriented, working only with the televisor or other equipment that it was supplied with. For example, the encoding of a Sharp™ model G1324SA remote control specifically attends the Sharp™ model 27L-S100 television receiver and it's fixed encoding is not known to be otherwise re-programmable by the user.
A second class is a more versatile “universal remote” controller, commonly sold as an after-market item and ordinarily capable of being variously “field” re-encoded to select between and work with several different brands and usually several different types of entertainment devices. Most commonly, the universal remote is designed to select between and operate several disparate devices, such as a “TV” set, a “VCR” machine and a “CBL” (cable box) set-top converter. This multi-device operability may include provision for commanding a “SAT” (satellite receiver),a “DVD” (digital video disc) selection or an “audio receiver”. Home theater setups may include a “television video receiver” separate from the display and sound portions of the equipment combination.
Additional variations include a combination where the remote control encoding is supplied to be initially programmed for an OEM's products, e.g., TV-set, VCR-machine, etc. that “it came with”, but where the preset programming may be altered or overwritten to adapt it's encoded operation to one or more selected device functions that cooperate with another maker's equipment
Dang Hung
Horabik Michael
Savvy Frontiers Patent Trust
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