System and method for reconfiguration of an entertainment system
Contents
1. transmission circuit s and or transceiver circuit s 310 e g IR and or RF a non volatile read write memory 306 a means 302 to provide feedback to the user e g one or more LEDs display speaker and or the like an input output port 318 such as a serial interface USB port modem Zigbee WiFi or Bluetooth transceiver etc and clock and timer logic 312 with associated crystal or resonator 314 0017 As will be understood by those skilled in the art some or all of the memories 304 305 306 may include executable instructions collectively the controlling device program memory that are intended to be executed by the processor 300 to control the operation of the remote control 100 as well as data which serves to define to the operational software the necessary control protocols and command val ues for use in transmitting command signals to controllable appliances collectively the command data In this manner the processor 300 may be programmed to control the various electronic components within the remote control 100 e g to monitor the key matrix 316 to cause the transmission of signals etc The non volatile read write memory 306 for example an EEPROM battery backed up RAM FLASH Smart Card memory stick or the like may additionally be provided to store setup data and parameters as necessary While the memory 304 is illustrated and described as a ROM memory memory 304 can also be comprised of any type of readable2. 0037 Still further while described in the context of func tional modules and illustrated using block diagram format it is to be understood that unless otherwise stated to the con trary one or more of the described functions and or features may be integrated in a single physical device and or a soft ware module or one or more functions and or features may be implemented in separate physical devices or software mod ules It will also be appreciated that a detailed discussion of the actual implementation of each module is not necessary for an enabling understanding of the invention Rather the actual implementation of such modules would be well within the routine skill of an engineer given the disclosure herein of the attributes functionality and inter relationship of the various functional modules in the system Therefore a person skilled in the art applying ordinary skill will be able to practice the invention set forth in the claims without undue experimenta tion It will be additionally appreciated that the particular concepts disclosed are meant to be illustrative only and not limiting as to the scope of the invention which is to be given the full breadth of the appended claims and any equivalents thereof 0038 All patents cited within this document are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety What is claimed is 1 A method for using an entertainment device to configure a controlling device used to command operat
3. Play key 204 has been actuated the operating software of AV receiver 104 may inspect the DVD player input to discern if a corresponding change in AV input data has occurred for example an audio component has become present in a digital data stream where there was none before Alternatively the operating software may monitor the reported user activity on controlling device 100 for patterns indicative of a problem For example repeated actuation of the Play key 204 within a short space of time may indicate that an expected appliance response has not occurred In either case a message such as illustrated in FIG 9 may be presented on a connected display such as TV 114 to assist the user in resolving the problem 0036 While various concepts have been described in detail it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications and alternatives to those concepts could be developed in light of the overall teachings of the disclosure For example while described in the context of an AV receiver acting a central switching point for content streams in a home entertainment system it will be appreci ated that any other suitably equipped device for example an advanced cable or satellite STB a personal computer etc may be substituted for an AV receiver in the practice of the instant invention Further while a preferred embodiment described above comprises a controlling device capable of bidirectional communication
4. installed application program a Web application or a com bination thereof As illustrated in FIG 7 the PC based setup application may comprise a GUI 700 which offers a series of drop down menus 702 704 from which the various configu ration options may be selected In the illustrative example separate panels 706 and 708 allow selection and configuration of sources and outputs of an activity and selection and assign US 2014 0366059 Al ment of appliance controlling device key functionality for that activity respectively As will be understood by those of skill in the art in general two drop down menus such as 710 and 716 may not be active the same time they are however illustrated as such in FIG 7 to assist in a better understanding of the PC application Drop down menu panel 706 may offer AV receiver related activity configuration choices similar to those previously described in conjunction with FIG 5 and to avoid repetition these will not be repeated In the illustrated exemplary embodiment drop down menu panel 708 allows the controlling device key groups for volume control channel changing and transport to be pre configured as appropriate As an aid to the user in some embodiments an image 712 of controlling device 100 may be displayed with the affected key group highlighted for example when the drop down menu 710 for transport keys is active this group of keys 714 may be highlighted in displayed image 712 In some embodim
5. transport keys 240 may be configured to transmit commands ina format compatible with whichever of appliances 104 106 108 have been pre configured as the media source within the remote control when in the Watch a Movie activity mode in the event that multiple possible sources or destinations are possible in the Watch a Movie activity mode which does not allow for a pre configuration of the keys of the controlling device to a particular appliance at step 622 data indicative of the appliances to be controlled in the currently selected activity mode may be transferred over bidirectional communication link 130 from the AV receiver operating program to controlling device 100 to cause the controlling device to configure itself to match the activity and selected source and destination appliances It will also be appreciated that keys of the controlling device 100 may in whole or in part be matched to an intended target appliance as aresult of receipt of the aforementioned requests to power on a device and as such step 622 can be skipped if this data has already been provided to the controlling device by the AV receiver 0030 Although not illustrated in the example of FIG 6 in certain embodiments additional appliance configuration may be initiated by the AV receiver operating program and or the controlling device operating program and performed by con trolling device 100 for example issuance of commands for selection of an app
6. devices In addition certain controlling device command transmissions to other appliances in the home entertainment system may also be initiated as a result of said activity key activation either unilaterally by the control ling device or at the request of the AV receiver Since the AV receiver has access to appliance status information not avail able to the controlling device by virtue of the AV receiver s physical connection to those appliances and the controlling device in turn has access to appliance command functions not available to the AV receiver the cooperative execution of an activity configuration request in this manner may result in more reliable and user friendly system operation In addition Dec 11 2014 since prior art initial user set up of AV receivers is generally GUI based and includes assignment of user friendly names to source and destination appliances for example DVD in place of Video input 3 a user s initial specification of desired activity configurations may be facilitated by the use of these features when configuring activities 0004 A better understanding of the objects advantages features properties and relationships of the invention will be obtained from the following detailed description and accom panying drawings which set forth illustrative embodiments and which are indicative of the various ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF T
7. is selected as an input or output either directly or as a partici pant in an activity As illustrated in FIG 8 such a reminder message 800 may offer a choice 802 of immediately entering an interactive setup mode in which a database of command data sets and or brand and model information stored locally on AV receiver or located remotely on a PC or Web server may be searched and an appropriate command data set identified to or downloaded into controlling device 100 or display of the reminder may be cancelled 806 or deferred 804 0035 Ina further embodiment the operating software of controlling device 100 may be adapted to always echo certain commands to AV receiver 104 that is upon actuation of certain functional keys controlling device 100 may sequen tially transmit first a keypress notification to AV receiver 104 and thereafter the appropriate command data in the format recognizable by the current target appliance Using the received keypress notification data the operating software of AV receiver 104 may be adapted to monitor the AV inputs and outputs for the expected result of a user appliance command Ifthe expected result does not occur an error message may be displayed to prompt the user to retry the command check the operating mode of controlling device 100 etc For example if the currently selected activity is Watch a Movie and the operating software of AV receiver 104 is notified by control ling device 100 that the
8. media such as ROM FLASH EEPROM or the like Preferably the memories 304 and 305 are non volatile or battery backed such that data is not required to be reloaded after battery changes In addition the memories 304 305 and 306 may take the form of a chip a hard disk a magnetic disk an optical disk and or the like Still further it will be appre ciated that some or all of the illustrated memory devices may be physically combined for example a single FLASH memory may be logically partitioned into different portions to support the functionality of memories 304 and 306 respec Dec 11 2014 tively and or may be physically incorporated within the same IC chip as the microprocessor 300 a so called micro controller and as such they are shown separately in FIG 3 only for the sake of clarity 0018 To cause the controlling device 100 to perform an action the controlling device 100 is adapted to be responsive to events such as a sensed user interaction with the key matrix 316 etc In response to an event appropriate instructions within the program memory hereafter the controlling device operating program may be executed For example when a function key is actuated on the controlling device 100 the controlling device 100 may retrieve from the command data stored in memory 304 305 306 a command value and control protocol corresponding to the actuated function key and where necessary current device mode and tran
9. mode as described previously at step 602 the AV receiver operating program first determines if the activity by the key command value received from the controlling device has in fact been configured If not at step 624 an error message is displayed for example on TV 114 prompting the user to first configure that activity and the activity request is ignored If the activity has been configured at step 604 the AV receiver operating program next determines from the configuration associated with the received key command value if multiple sources were configured If so at step 606 the options are displayed as illustrated at 630 and the user is prompted to select a desired source device for example by using the navigation and selec tion keys of the controlling device to highlight and select the desired source device As will be appreciated if only one source device was configured at setup time this step may be skipped Once a source device has been designated at step 608 the AV receiver operating program selects the audio video and or AV inputs associated with the designated source device At step 610 the AV receiver operating program deter mines if the selected source device is powered on for example by detecting presence or absence of audio video signal sensing HDMI status etc as appropriate for the device connection in question Alternatives such as power sensing etc may also be available in certain embodiments If the selected sou
10. the routing of video and or audio signals between the various inputs and outputs to control selection of radio broadcast channel by tuner 408 to control volume and equal ization settings of audio outputs 430a and 4308 etc Further the AV receiver operating program in conjunction with video processing block 404 may provide GUI based setup menus for AV receiver functions such as input and output assign ments levels balances equalization etc via a connected video monitor device such as for example TV 114 Since such GUI based AV receiver setup is well known in the art for the sake of brevity it will not be described further herein however if greater detail is desired regarding such features and func Dec 11 2014 tionality the interested reader may reference for example a document such as the Denon AV Surround Receiver STR DAS5500ES Owner s Manual D amp M Holdings Inc publica tion number 5411 10255 000D 0025 In addition in an exemplary embodiment described herein the AV receiver operating program may include pro gramming which functions in cooperation with controlling device 100 to define and subsequently execute user desired configuration of the home entertainment system in accor dance with various activities 0026 With reference to FIG 5 after completing the initial set up of AV receiver 102 for example as described in the above referenced Denon STR DA5500ES User s Manual a user may wish to configure th
11. HDMI encoder decoders CODECs format converters etc all as necessary to implement the input output switching and routing functionality It will be further appreciated that the functionality of video and audio processing blocks 404 and 408 may be implemented in sepa rate components such as a specialized digital signal proces sors DSP may be implemented as part of control processor 400 or any combination thereof and that portions of memory 402 may be allocated to or associated with audio and video processing blocks 404 408 0023 It will also be appreciated that some or all of the memory elements 402 may take the form of a chip a hard disk a magnetic disk an optical disk FLASH memory and or the like and that all or portion of the memory 402 may be physically incorporated within the same IC chip as the control processor 400 and or audio or video processing blocks 404 406 and as such memory 402 is shown separately in FIG 4 only for the sake of clarity 0024 As will be understood by those skilled in the art some or all of the memory 402 may include executable instructions that are intended to be executed by the processor 400 to control the operation of the AV receiver 102 hereafter the AV receiver operating program In this manner the processor 400 may be programmed to control the various electronic components within the AV receiver e g to moni tor the front panel 410 and or remote control interface 412 to cause
12. HE DRAWINGS 0005 For a better understanding of the various aspects of the invention reference may be had to preferred embodi ments shown in the attached drawings in which 0006 FIG 1 illustrates an exemplary system in which the methods of the instant invention may be practiced 0007 FIG 2 further illustrates an exemplary controlling device of the system of FIG 1 0008 FIG 3 illustrates a block diagram of exemplary components of the exemplary controlling device of FIG 2 0009 FIG 4 illustrates a block diagram of exemplary components of an AV receiver of the system of FIG 1 0010 FIG 5 illustrates an exemplary activity configura tion setup process in accordance with the methods of this invention 0011 FIG 6 illustrates an exemplary activity switching process in accordance with the methods of this invention 0012 FIG 7 illustrates a second exemplary activity con figuration setup process in accordance with the methods of this invention 0013 FIG 8 illustrates an exemplary display prompting a user to reconfigure a controlling device upon changing an appliance to be controlled and 0014 FIG 9 illustrates exemplary help information which may be presented to a user when it is detected that an appli ance is not responding correctly to command requests DETAILED DESCRIPTION 0015 Turning now to FIG 1 there is illustrated an exem plary home entertainment system in which the audio video outputs of a group o
13. US 20140366059A1 as United States a2 Patent Application Publication ao Pub No US 2014 0366059 A1 Arling et al 43 Pub Date Dec 11 2014 continuation in part of application No 54 SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR i ion i f application No 12 569 121 RECONFIGURATION OF AN filed on Sep 29 2009 now Pat No 8 243 207 ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM CONTROLLING oy thes f DEVICE Publication Classification 71 Applicant UNIVERSAL ELECTRONICS INC 61 Int Cl Santa Ana CA US HOA4N 21 422 2006 01 HOAN 21 482 2006 01 72 Inventors Paul D Arling Irvine CA US 52 U S Cl Patrick H Hayes Mission Viejo CA CPC HOAN 21 42226 2013 01 HOAN 21 482 US 2013 01 USPEr nternet hentai el 725 38 73 Assignee Universal Electronics Inc 57 ABSTRACT 21 Appl No 14 469 071 An entertainment device is used to notify a user of a change in an audio visual entertainment system configuration in which 22 Filed Aug 26 2014 at least one of a plurality devices is connected to the enter i aed tainment device as an audio and or visual source and at least FRN one of the plurality of devices is connected to the entertain Related U S Application Data ment device as an audio and or visual output destination for 63 Continuation of application No 13 785 015 filed on the entertainment device and or to notify a user of a perceived pp p Mar 5 2013 now Pat No 8 830 074 which is a continuation of application No 12 621 277 fil
14. ame type but different manufacture a plurality of appliances of the same manufac ture but different type or model etc or any combination thereof as appropriate for a given embodiment In certain embodiments such data used to identify an appropriate com mand data set may take the form of a numeric setup code obtained for example from a printed list of manufacturer names and or models with corresponding code numbers from a support Web site etc which may be entered via activation of those keys that are also used to cause the trans mission of commands to an appliance preferably the keys that are labeled with numerals 0020 Alternative device setup procedures known in the art include scanning bar codes RFID tags or other indicia sequentially transmitting a predetermined command in dif ferent formats until a target appliance response is detected interaction with a Web site culminating in downloading of command data and or setup codes to the controlling device etc Further in embodiments such as that illustrated in FIG 1 set up of a controlling device 100 may be performed interac tively in conjunction with AV receiver 102 using a connected device such as TV 114 for GUI display and a database of codes and or brand and model information stored locally on AV receiver 102 or located remotely on a PC or Web server and accessed via network connection 120 Since such meth US 2014 0366059 Al ods for setting up a controlling devic
15. ce types etc the user actions required to configure a home entertainment system to match a desired activity such as watching TV or listening to music have become increasing onerous and error prone Various methods have been pro posed for automating all or part of these configuration opera tions for example through use of controlling device based macro sequences suchas described in U S Pat No 5 959 751 or state based control such as described in U S Pat 6 784 805 However such methods may themselves be subject to error when equipment configurations or connections are not as expected leading only to further user frustration SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 0003 This invention relates generally to improved meth ods for configuring a multi input and or multi output home entertainment system to match a user s desired activities In such systems the outputs and inputs of the various compo nents are generally routed to and switched through one cen tral device such as an AV receiver The inventive methods described herein comprise a cooperative effort between the AV receiver and an associated universal controlling device such as a remote control in which activation of an activity key or button on the controlling device results in transmission of a signal to the AV receiver to initiate certain previously defined configuration actions which actions may be condi tioned upon the AV receiver s determination of the current status of connected
16. e functionality of the activity buttons 200 of controlling device 100 To this end she may place the AV receiver into an activity setup mode via for example by a sequence of keypresses on controlling device 100 use of navigation keys 210 of controlling device 100 to select a menu item displayed on TV 114 or such other action as may be appropriate for a particular embodiment Upon entering activity setup mode the AV receiver operating pro gram may display an exemplary initial status message 530 on TV 114 prompting the user to select an activity to configure The AV receiver operating program thereafter waits at step 502 for user input i e activation of one of the activity buttons 200 of controlling device 100 In the illustrated example the user may select button 202 labeled Watch a Movie result ing in communication by the controlling device 100 of an appropriate key command value to AV receiver 102 Upon receipt of the Watch a Movie activity command at step 504 the AV receiver operating program may display a listing 532 of available source devices that are known to be connected to inputs 422 424 of AV receiver 102 In this context it will be appreciated that the earlier mentioned initial setup proce dures of AV receiver may include user labeling identification of the devices connected to the various inputs together with a selection of compatible command data sets within universal controlling device 100 and the resulting user
17. e to command the opera tion of specific home appliances are well known these will not be described in greater detail herein Nevertheless for additional information pertaining to setup procedures the reader may turn for example to U S Pat Nos 4 959 810 5 614 906 or 6 225 938 or to pending U S patent application Ser No 11 915 562 all of like assignee and all incorporated herein by reference in their entirety 0021 With reference to FIG 4 an exemplary AV receiver 102 may include as needed for a particular application a control processor 400 coupled to a memory 402 which may comprise any combination of ROM RAM and or non vola tile read write memory video and audio processing sections 404 406 a tuner 408 for reception of radio broadcast chan nels a front panel 410 including user controls and or a dis play a remote control interface 412 for communicating with a controlling device e g 100 a network interface 414 for communication with a local and or wide area network audio inputs 420a through 420c 0022 video inputs 424a through 424c AV inputs 422a through 422c audio outputs 430a 4305 and video outputs 434a and 4346 As will be appreciated audio and video inputs and outputs which may be more or less in number than illustrated may comprise analog or digital signals and exem plary AV receiver 102 may be provisioned with analog to digital ADC converters digital to analog DAC convert ers video decoders
18. ed at least one com mand code set to at least one of the first set of input elements and the second set of input elements 2 The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the identity data is transmitted from the entertainment device to the con trolling device in a request for the controlling device to change a state of the at least one of the first device and the second device 3 The method as recited in claim 2 wherein the request comprises a power state change request 4 The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the identity data is obtained via use of a digital connection between the at least one of the first device and the second device and the entertainment device 5 The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the first set of input elements and the second set of input elements comprise hard keys of the controlling device 6 The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the first set of input elements and the second set of input elements comprise soft keys of the controlling device 7 The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the first set of input elements comprise transport control input elements 8 The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the second set of input elements comprise picture control input elements 9 The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the second set of input elements comprise sound control input elements
19. ed on Nov 18 2009 now Pat No 8 456 314 which is a Activity button activated Activity configured Y Multiple sources Y Allow user to choose desired source device 602 624 604 Prompt user to first set up activity OUrce powered on Request remote to power on source device Allow user to select desired destination device 616 618 Request remote to power on dest device 620 622 problem in a configuration of a controlling device used to control functional operations of the audio visual entertain ment system 630 WATCH MOVIE Please select source Blue Ray AY to move lt P to include SEL when done Press EXIT to quit WATCH MOVIE Please select destination p rojector A Y to move lt p to include SEL when done Patent Application Publication Dec 11 2014 Sheet 1 of 8 US 2014 0366059 Al Patent Application Publication Dec 11 2014 Sheet 2 of 8 US 2014 0366059 Al 202 4 TV R me one two ly P ga mad 1 210 204 100 Figure 2 Patent Application Publication Dec 11 2014 Sheet 3 of 8 US 2014 0366059 Al 300 316 310 Transmitter or transceiver circuit Key matrix User feedback device NV memory 304 ROM memor Clock and timer logic am NG 305 318 Microcoprocessor Input Output 314 312 100 Figure 3 Patent Application P
20. ely configuration data may be uploaded to a remote server for subsequent download to the AV receiver copied to a memory stick or smart card for physical transfer etc Additionally controlling device 100 may be coupled to the PC and become the repository for some or all of the configuration data either for later transfer to AV receiver 102 or for direct action by controlling device 100 0034 In certain embodiments the operating software of AV receiver 102 may be adapted to detect changes in con nected appliances for example by monitoring disconnection reconnection of interface cabling by observing changes in source or sink equipment identity or capability data reported over an HDMI or other digital connection by noting an alter ation in the bit rate or format of an input data stream by detecting connection of an interface cable or presence of a new audio video signal at a previously unused AV receiver input or any other appropriate method In such instances the operating software of AV receiver 102 may cause to be dis played on a connected appliance for example TV 144 a reminder message to the user that controlling device 100 may require to be set up to operate the newly configured appli ance Display of such a reminder message may be immediate Dec 11 2014 upon detection of the change may occur upon receipt of the next user command from controlling device 100 or may be deferred until the newly added or changed appliance
21. ents default key assignments may be dynamically established and displayed in panel 708 by the PC application based upon the current activity configuration settings By way of example if audio output for an activity is assigned to a set of speakers 718 connected to the output of AV receiver the default volume key assignment 722 may be the AV receiver whereas if the audio output for the same activity were to be assigned to the TV device 720 the default volume control key assignment may be the TV device In this context it will be appreciated that in certain embodiments provision may be made for uploading existing activity configuration settings from an AV receiver into the PC application for editing by a user in which instance the existing values may become the default settings It will be appreciated that in instances where more than one input or output device has been selected for an activity and the final choice is to be made at execution time as previously described some or all of the drop down menu items in key configuration panel 708 may be omitted or replaced with generic designators such as Audio destination device or Video source etc 0033 Once all aspects of the activities match a user s requirements the user may cause the resulting configuration data to be downloaded into the exemplary AV receiver 102 for example via network interface 120 if both the PC and AV receiver are connected to the same network Alternativ
22. f various media source appliances such as for example a set top box STB 104 a first DVD player 106 asecond DVD player 108 a game console 110 anda CD changer 112 are all connected as inputs to an AV receiver 102 AV receiver 102 in turn functions to switch the currently desired input media stream to one or more designated outputs of AV receiver 102 which are in turn connected to various audio and or video rendering devices such as TV 114 pro jector 118 and or loudspeakers 116 all as is well known in the art In some embodiments AV receiver 102 may also include a network interface 120 for example Ethernet for the routing of streaming media input output from or to other areas of the home When included such a network interface may also be available for Internet access download of firm ware updates and or other data into AV receiver 102 etc again as well known in the art Also illustrated is a universal controlling device 100 which is capable of transmitting com mands to the appliances using any convenient IR RF Point to Point or networked protocol to cause the appliances to perform operational functions While illustrated in the con US 2014 0366059 Al text of a home entertainment system it is to be understood that appliances controllable by universal controlling device 100 may include but need not be limited to televisions VCRs DVRs DVD players cable or satellite converter set top boxes STBs amplifie
23. friendly labels such as DVD player Projector etc may be used there after in the generation of displays such as that illustrated at 532 Additionally the displayed listing may be further tai lored by the AV receiver operating program to include only those currently configured devices known to be compatible with the specified activity for example for the presently illustrated Watch a Movie activity devices which are inca pable of sourcing a video stream such as CD player 112 or tuner 408 may be omitted from the list presented to the user At step 506 the user may employ navigation keys 210 of controlling device 100 to move a cursor 536 and select desired source device s One or more source devices may be selected as indicated for example by indicia 534 In the event more than one source device is designated the user may be prompted at activity execution time to select the desired source as will be described in further detail hereafter in conjunction with FIG 6 0027 Upon completion of source device selection at step 508 a list 538 of possible destination devices may be dis played for user selection at step 510 in a similar manner to that described above Once again the list of devices may be tai lored by the AV receiver operating program to include in this case only those currently configured devices known to be capable of rendering the designated input media stream s Although not shown it will be apprecia
24. gure 8 DEVICE PROBLEM IT APPEARS THAT YOUR DVD PLAYER IS NOT RESPONDING AS amp EXPECTED SUGGESTIONS Is your remote in DVD mode Is there an object between you and the player Does your remote need to be setup EKIT to guit Figure 9 US 2014 0366059 A1 ka 800 SS 000 US 2014 0366059 Al SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RECONFIGURATION OF AN ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM CONTROLLING DEVICE RELATED APPLICATION DATA 0001 This application claims the benefit of and is a con tinuation of U S application Ser No 13 785 015 filed on Mar 5 2013 which application claims the benefit of and is a continuation of U S application Ser No 12 621 277 filed on Nov 18 2009 which application claims the benefit of and is a continuation in part of U S application Ser No 12 569 121 filed Sep 29 2009 the disclosures of which are incor porated herein by reference in the entirety BACKGROUND 0002 Home entertainment systems in which multiple media sources and multiple media rendering devices are coupled through a central routing device such as an AV receiver are well known in the art as are universal controlling devices adaptable to issue commands to a multiplicity of appliances of different manufacture and or type and which are frequently associated with such home entertainment sys tems As these home entertainment systems become increas ingly complex due to the proliferation of media formats applian
25. ions of an audio visual entertainment system in an activity control mode of the controlling device in which a first device connected to the entertainment device as an audio and or visual source is intended to be controlled by the controlling device via inter actions with a first set of input elements of the controlling device and a second device connected to the entertainment device as an audio and or visual output destination for the Dec 11 2014 entertainment device is intended to be controlled by the con trolling device via interactions with a second set of input elements of the controlling device distinct from the first set of input elements the method comprising receiving at the entertainment device a transmission from the controlling device having data which is indicative of the controlling device having been placed into the activ ity control mode of the controlling device in response to the transmission causing the entertainment device to transmit to the controlling device an identity data of at least one of the first device and the second device using at the controlling device the identity data of at least one of the first device and the second device to identify at least one command code set that is usable by the controlling device to command functional operations of the at least one of the first device and the second device and causing the controlling device to automatically map one or more commands from the identifi
26. rce device is not powered on in a preferred embodiment at step 612 a request may issued to controlling device 100 via bidirectional communication link 130 to trans mit a power on command to the source appliance As will be appreciated such a request would include data that functions to indicate to the controlling device 100 the intended target appliance for the power on command Thereafter at step 614 the AV receiver operating program determines if multiple destinations were configured If so at step 616 the options are displayed as illustrated at 632 and the user prompted to select a desired destination device as described above Again if only one destination device was configured at setup time this step may be skipped At step 618 the AV receiver operating pro gram determines if the selected destination device is powered on for example by sensing HDMI status Alternatives such as detection of AV signals from an auxiliary output of a render ing device power sensing etc may also be available in cer Dec 11 2014 tain embodiments If the selected destination device is not powered on in a preferred embodiment at step 620 a request may be issued to controlling device 100 via bidirectional communication link 130 to transmit a power on command to the destination appliance 0029 While initiation of a Watch a Movie activity via key 202 may result in automatic configuration of keys of the controlling device e g
27. ropriate input on TV 114 or projector 118 adjustment of video aspect ratio or picture settings to opti mize presentation of the selected source material etc Also additional actions may be initiated by the AV receiver oper ating program and or the controlling device operating pro gram with respect to appliances not participating in an activ ity For example initiation ofa Listen to Music activity may cause the controlling device itself or result in the issuance of requests to controlling device to power off video display devices such as TV 114 or projector 118 0031 In addition to the interactions with AV receiver 102 described above in certain embodiments the activation of an activity selection button 200 may also invoke a conventional controlling device based macro command sequence as is known in the art and described for example in the previously referenced U S Pat No 5 959 751 Such macro sequences may be programmed by a user to for example adjust lighting levels control drapes etc to create an environment suitable for the commanded activity as well as to perform additional entertainment appliance configuration functions if desired 0032 Turning now to FIG 7 in an alternative embodi ment a PC based activity setup application may be offered in place of or as an alternative to the AV receiver GUI based setup previously described above in conjunction with FIG 5 Such a PC based setup option may comprise a locally
28. rs AV receivers CD players game consoles home lighting drapery fans HVAC systems thermostats personal computers etc In a preferred embodi ment controlling device 100 supports bidirectional commu nication 130 with AV receiver 102 via any convenient IR or RF protocol In an exemplary embodiment controlling device 100 may be further adapted to function in cooperation with AV receiver 102 to configure the illustrative entertain ment system in accordance with a user s desired activities To this end as illustrated in FIG 2 an exemplary controlling device may be provisioned with a series of activity selection keys or buttons 200 with designations such as for example Watch TV Watch a Movie Listen to Music Play a Game etc Activation of such an activity selection key may cause AV receiver 102 and or controlling device 100 to coop eratively place the exemplary home entertainment system into a user specified state which has been associated with that activity as will be described in further detail hereafter 0016 Turning now to FIG 3 for use in commanding the functional operations of one or more appliances the control ling device 100 may include as needed for a particular appli cation a processor 300 coupled to a ROM memory 304 a RAM memory 305 a key matrix 316 e g hard keys soft keys such as a touch sensitive surface overlaid on a liquid crystal LCD and or an electroluminescent EL display
29. smit that command to an intended target appliance e g STB 104 ina format recognizable by that appliance to thereby control one or more functional operations of that appliance It will be appreciated that the operating program can be used not only to cause the transmission of commands and or data to the appli ances but also to perform local operations While not limit ing local operations that may be performed by the controlling device 100 may include displaying information data favorite channel setup macro key setup function key relocation etc Examples of local operations can be found in U S Pat Nos 5 481 256 5 959 751 and 6 014 092 0019 For selecting sets of command data to be associated with the appliances to be controlled data may be provided to controlling device 100 that serves to identify each intended target appliance by its make and or model and or type Such data allows the controlling device 100 to identify the appro priate command data set within a library of command data that is to be used to transmit recognizable commands in formats appropriate for such identified appliances Such a library of command data may be preprogrammed in control ling device 100 downloaded into controlling device 100 as part of the setup process or a combination thereof The library of command data may represent a plurality of control lable appliances of different types and manufacture a plural ity of controllable appliances of the s
30. ted that other configu ration options may also be presented to the user in certain US 2014 0366059 Al embodiments for example selection of a destination for audio output Once all user selections have been made at step 512 the activity configuration parameters may be finalized and stored in AV receiver memory 402 for future use in configuring the home entertainment system when the indi cated activity is called for e g the final configuration is stored and associated with the received key command value corresponding to the activity key that was activated at the start of the configuration process Thereafter the AV receiver oper ating program may display a completion message 540 including in this example a reminder 542 that final source selection will be required at execution time At step 516 the user indicates whether she wishes to set up another activity in which case processing returns to initial step 502 If not activ ity setup is complete and the AV receiver operating program exits setup mode and returns to normal operation 0028 The execution of an exemplary activity configura tion request will now be discussed in conjunction with FIG 6 Upon actuation of an activity button on controlling device 100 for example 202 Watch a Movie and receipt of the resulting appropriate key command value communication by AV receiver 102 assuming the AV receiver operating pro gram is in the normal operation state i e not in setup
31. tivity select the activity button on your remote Else press EXIT if done Press EXIT to quit Figure 5 Patent Application Publication Dec 11 2014 Sheet 6 of 8 US 2014 0366059 Al Activity button activated Activity configured 630 602 Multiple sources 604 WATCH MOVIE Please select source 624 Allow user to choose desired source device Prompt user to first set up activity AY to move 606 lt P to include SEL when done Press EXIT to quit powered on 610 Request remote to ke ee 632 612 Multiple destinations WATCH MOVIE Please select destination Projector Allow user to select desired destination device AY to move gt to include SEL when done Press EXIT to quit Request remote to power on dest device Send configuration data to remote 620 622 Figure 6 US 2014 0366059 A1 Dec 11 2014 Sheet 7 of 8 Patent Application Publication vile Serr PPE APH Pe OZ 014 Joke Ael nig vol CCL 4 aani cll AL g suayeods LEN SI9YE SS y siayeads 802 407A ILL 0642 BLL Patent Application Publication Dec 11 2014 Sheet 8 of 8 DEVICE CHANGED The device connected to input DVD has changed Your remote control set up 802 may need to be updated 804 Remind me later 806 Don t show this message again A Y to move SEL to select EXIT to quit Fi
32. ublication Dec 11 2014 Sheet 4 of 8 US 2014 0366059 Al i 408 420a 420b 420c 406 430a 430b Audio Audio inputs processing Audio ouputs 410 422a 422b 422c 412 processor AV inputs Ata 424a 424b 424c 434a 434b Video processing Video inputs Video ouputs 102 Figure 4 Patent Application Publication Activity setup User activates desired activity button 502 Display possible inputs source devices for activity 504 Allow user to select one or more source devices 506 Display possible outputs destination devices for activity 508 Allow user to select one or more destination devices 510 Configure activity parameters 512 Display completion message with reminder if multiple sources or destinations 514 Dec 11 2014 Sheet 5 of 8 US 2014 0366059 A1 530 WELCOME TO ACTIVITY SET UP Please select an activity button on your remote control Press EXIT to quit 532 WATCH MOVIE SETUP Step 1 Select source AY to move 536 lt P to include SEL when done Press EXIT to quit 538 WATCH MOVIE SETUP Step 2 Select destination gt Projector AY to move 4 to include SEL when done Press EXIT to quit 540 CONGRATULATIONS Watch Movie activity setup is complete Because you configured multiple sources you will be prompted each time 542 to select which one to use To set up another ac
33. with an AV receiver or other central switching device it will be appreciate that many of the steps of the inventive methods may also be practiced in a system comprising a controlling device which is in unidirec tional inward communication with the central switching device in which case certain controlling device actions may be initiated autonomously as macro sequences using for example discrete appliance commands as are know in the art Furthermore in the case of a unidirectional controlling device it is contemplated that in lieu of receiving appliance indicating data from the AV receiver the controlling device may be programmed whereby activation ofa particular device US 2014 0366059 Al mode key e g cable DVD game player etc is used by the controlling device to configure groups of keys of the control ling device to communicate commands to a one of plural possible sources and or destination appliances in a give activ ity mode for example by activating the desired mode key s within a predetermined period of time after activation of the activity mode key when used to place the controlling device and AV receiver into that activity mode Activation of a device mode key in this manner may also be used to cause the transmission of data to the AV receiver to thereby cause the AV receiver to select one of multiple possible sources and or destinations in lieu of the menu navigation selection method that was also previously described
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search