a5E—6G8
`
`12/2/56
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`X3
`
`495259945
`
`United States Patent
`4,626,848
`Ehlers
`[45] Date of Patent:
`Dec. 2, 1986
`
`[11] Patent Number:
`
`[19]
`
`[54] PROGRAMMABLE FUNCFIONS FOR
`RECONFIGURABLE REMOTE CONTROL
`
`[75]
`
`Inventor: Raymond G. Ehlers, Chesapeake, Va.
`
`[73] Assignee: General Electric Company,
`Portsmouth, Va.
`
`[21] Appl. No.: 610,549
`
`[22] Filed:
`
`May 15,1984
`
`Int. cu ....................... .. G08C 19/00; HO4B 9/00
`[51]
`
`.. . . .. 340/825.69; 340/825.57;
`[52] U.S. Cl. . . .. . .
`340/825.72; 455/603; 455/608; 358/194.1
`[58] Field of Search .................... .. 340/825.57, 825.69,
`340/825.72, 825.34.825.31; 358/ 194.1; 375/69;
`455/601, 603, 608
`
`[56]
`
`References Cited
`
`U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
`4,535,333
`8/1985 Twardowski .................. 340/825.69
`
`Primary Examz'rzer—Ulysses Weldon
`Assistant Examiner—Ralph Smith
`
`[57]
`
`ABSTRACT
`
`that has the ability to learn, store and repeat the remote
`control codes from any other infrared transmitter. The
`reconfigurable remote control transmitter includes an
`infrared receiver, a microprocessor, nonvolatile and
`scratch pad random access memories, and an infrared
`transmitter. The microprocessor application is divided
`into four main categories: learning, storing, retransmit-
`ting, and user interface. In the learning process, the
`reconfigurable remote control transmitter receives and
`decodes the transmissions from another remote control
`transmitter. The process is repeated at least twice for
`each key to make sure that it has been properly received
`and decoded. Once the data has been received and de-
`coded, it is stored for later use. In order to do this, the
`received and decoded data is compressed so that it can
`fit into the nonvolatile memory. This process is re-
`peated for each of the several remote control transmit-
`ters that are to be replaced by the reconfigurable remote
`control transmitter. When the learning and storing op-
`erations have been completed, the reconfigurable re-
`mote control transmitter is ready to use.
`
`A reconfigurable remote control transmitter is disclosed
`
`6 Claims, 23 Drawing Figures
`
`
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`Universal Remote Control Exhibit 1014 Page 1
`
`

`
`U.S. Patent Dec. 2, 1986
`
`Sheet] of9
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`4,626,848
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`
`

`
`U.S. Patent Dec. 2, 1986
`
`sheets of9
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`4,626,848
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`Universal Remote C0nti°0l Exhibit 1014 Page 4
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`U.S. Patent Dec. 2, 1986
`
`Sheet4of9
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`4,626,848
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`Universal.Rem0te Control Exhibit 1014 Page 5
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` U.S. Patent Dec. 2, 1986
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`Univérsal Remote Control Exhibit 1014 Page 7
`
`

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`U.S. Patent Dec. 2, 1986
`
`Sheet7 of9
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`4,626,848
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`Universal Remote Control Exhibit 10.14 Page 8
`
`

`
`U.S. Patent Dec. 2, 1986
`
`Sheet8of9
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`4,626,848
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`Universal Remote Control Exhibit 1014 Page 9
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`
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`

`
`1
`
`PROGRAMMABLE FUNCI'IONS FOR
`RECONFIGURABLE REMOTE CONTROL
`
`CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED
`APPLICATION
`
`The subject matter of this application is related to the
`subject matter of an application entitled “Reconfigura-
`ble Remote Control” filed by Kenneth B. Welles II, Ser.
`No. 610,377 filed concurrently herewith and assigned to
`a common assignee with this application. The subject
`matter of that application is incorporated herein by
`reference.
`
`FIELD OF THE INVENTION
`
`The present invention generally relates to" remote
`control transmitters of the type used with various con-
`sumer products such as television receivers and the like
`and, more particularly, to a reconfigurable remote con-
`trol transmitter which may be programmed to emulate
`any one of a plurality of individual transmitters.
`BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION’
`
`Many new consumer electronic products, particu-
`larly video products, are available with hand held infra-
`red remote control transmitters. A consumer may have
`separate remote control transmitters for a television, a
`cable converter, video cassette recorder, and a video
`disc player, for example. In such a case, it is confusing
`to know which transmitter to pick up to control which
`product. Moreover, carrying around four different re-
`mote control transmitters spoils the convenience of the
`remote control feature. It is therefore desirable to pro-
`vide a single remote control transmitter for controlling
`each of the several products.
`A number of solutions have been proposed for this
`problem in the prior ar‘t.'O‘ne example is disclosed in the
`patent to Litz et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,274,082. In the Litz
`et al system, an amplifier, a tuner, a tape recorder, and
`a turntable are interconnected by a two-conductor ca-
`~ ble. Each "of these devices- is controlled by a-r corre-
`sponding microprocessor, and a hand held transmitter is
`used to transmit coded signals that control the operation
`of the individual devices. The coded signals are re-
`ceived by a common receiver and first conversion cir-
`cuit to provide voltage pulses on the" two-wire cable.
`Additional conversion circuits are required for each
`microprocessor in order to convert the voltage pulses
`on the two-wire cable to pulses which can be used by
`the microprocessors.
`Another example is disclosed. in U.S. Pat. No.
`4,200,862 to Campbell et al. The Campbell et al system
`includes a single receiver/transmitterwunit which may
`be placed on a table, for example, and a hand held trans-
`mitter, but in this case, the receiver/transmitter unit
`injects digital pulses onto the houseimains at times of
`zero crossing of the mains voltage. Various appliances
`are plugged into the house mains via slave units which
`are each responsive to an assigned digital address and a
`digital operation code to control its appliance.
`Common to both the Litz et al and Campbell et al
`systems is the use of a central receiver, an interconnect-
`ing transmission line and the requirement of a separate
`controller device for each product or appliance.
`Clearly, this approach solves the basic problem of mul-
`tiple transmitters for multiple products or appliances,
`but the solution is both complex and expensive from the
`
`I0
`
`20
`
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`
`30
`
`35
`
`40
`
`45
`
`50
`
`55
`
`65
`
`4,626,848
`
`2
`point of View of the consumer. A simpler, less expensive
`solution to the problem is needed.
`SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
`
`It is therefore an object of the present invention to
`provide a single remote control transmitter which can
`operate any product or appliance with a remote control
`feature without modification or interconnection of the
`individual products or appliances.
`It is another object of the invention to provide a
`simple and inexpensive control for a plurality of re-
`motely controlled consumer products even though
`those products may be produced by different manufac-
`tures and respond to different transmission protocols.
`The objects of the invention are accomplished by
`providing a reconfigurable remote control transmitter
`that has the ability to learn, store and repeat the remote
`control codes from any other infrared transmitter. The
`reconfigurable remote control transmitter includes an
`infrared receiver, a microprocessor, nonvolatile and
`scratch pad random access memories, and an infrared
`transmitter. The microprocessor application is divided
`into four main categories: learning, storing, retransmit-
`ting, and user interface. In the learning process, the
`reconfigurable remote control transmitter receives and
`decodes the transmissions from another remote control
`transmitter for, say, a television receiver. The process is
`repeated at least twice for each key to make sure that it
`has been properly received and decoded. Once the data
`has been received and decoded, it must be stored for
`later use; however, in order to do this, the received and
`decoded data must be compressed so that it can fit into
`the nonvolatile memory. This process is repeated for
`each of the several remote control transmitters that are
`to be replaced by the reconfigurable remote control
`transmitter. When the learning and storing operations
`have been completed, the reconfigurable remote con-
`trol transmitter is ready to use.
`BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
`
`The foregoing and other objects, advantages and
`aspects of the invention will be better understood from
`the following detailed description of the invention with
`reference to the drawings, in which:
`FIGS. la to 11' are graphical representations of sev-
`eral modulation schemes which are used in infrared
`remote control transmitters;
`FIGS. 2a to 2d are graphical representations of sev-
`eral keyboard encoding schemes that may be used with
`the modulation schemes illustrated in FIGS. la to 11';
`FIG. 3 is a plan view of the reconfigurable remote
`control transmitter according to a preferred embodi-
`ment of the present invention;
`" ‘
`‘
`'
`FIGS’. 4a-4d, when aligned from left to right, consti-
`tute a block diagram of the reconfigurable remote con-
`trol transmitter according to a preferred embodiment of
`the invention;
`FIGS. 5a and 5b are graphical and tabular representa-
`tions of the data collection and initial data compression
`technique performed by the preferred embodiment
`shown in FIG. 4;
`FIG. 6 is a tabular representation of the correlation
`process performed during the learning procedure;
`FIG. 7 is a tabular representation of the process of
`removing repeats from the learned code in order to
`further compress the data for storing in the nonvolatile
`memory; and
`
`(cid:56)(cid:81)(cid:76)(cid:89)(cid:72)(cid:85)(cid:86)(cid:68)(cid:79)(cid:3)(cid:53)(cid:72)(cid:80)(cid:82)(cid:87)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:38)(cid:82)(cid:81)(cid:87)(cid:85)(cid:82)(cid:79)(cid:3)(cid:40)(cid:91)(cid:75)(cid:76)(cid:69)(cid:76)(cid:87)(cid:3)(cid:20)(cid:19)(cid:20)(cid:23)(cid:3)(cid:51)(cid:68)(cid:74)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:20)(cid:20)
`Universal Remote Control Exhibit 1014 Page 11
`
`

`
`3
`FIG. 8 is a tabular representation of the compressed
`learned code.
`
`4,626,848
`
`4
`«desired, which causes the individual legends TV, VCR,
`‘CABLE, and AUX to be successively displayed in
`accordance with the succession of source key depres-
`sions. When the legend for the desired source is dis-
`played, the user simply stops depressing the source key
`and proceeds to operate the selected source. There is
`also provided a learning switch (not shown) which may
`be provided in a protected location on the side or bot-
`tom of the transmitter case since this switch is used only
`once (typically) for each transmitter which is to be
`emulated. This switch might be located, for example,
`behind a slidable or pivotal cover 67 in order to prevent
`younger members of the family from operating it. In the
`learning mode, the switch is moved to the learning
`position and the transmitter which is to be emulated is
`placed so that its transmitter infrared light emitting
`diode (LED) is adjacent the photoelectric receiver in
`the reconfigurable remote control unit. The photoelec-
`tric receiver 14 might, for example, be located at the
`end opposite to the infrared LED transmitter 16 in the
`reconfigurable remote control transmitter as shown in
`FIG. 3. The source is selected by pressing the source
`key 12 as described above, and when the legend for the
`desired source is displayed, the user presses the enter
`key 78. The user is then prompted in the liquid crystal
`display 10 to press a key on the reconfigurable remote
`control transmitter and a corresponding key on the
`transmitter to be emulated so that the transmitted code
`can be received and encoded. As will be explained in
`further detail, this prompt is repeated at least twice for
`each key in order to insure that the transmitted signal
`has been properly received and encoded.
`Turning now to FIG. 4, the receiver 14 for the recon-
`figurable remote control transmitter includes a photodi-
`ode l8connected by a differentiating capacitor 20 to the
`variable input of threshold amplifier 22. The output of
`this amplifier 22 is a series of pulses having a frequency
`equal to the frequency of the transmitted signal. The
`outputof amplifier 22 is connected to an input of the
`microprocessor 24 and also to a detector diode 26. The
`output of the detector diode 26 is integrated by capaci-
`tor 28 and supplied to the variable input of a second
`threshold amplifier 30. The output of this amplifier is
`the detected envelope of the transmitted signal and is
`supplied to another input of the microprocessor 24.
`Also supplied as inputs to the microprocessor 24 are the
`outputs of the push button keyboard 32 and the learn
`switch 34. The microprocessor 24 has its own internal
`clock which is controlled by a crystal 36. The micro- -
`processor 24 provides addresses for the nonvolatile
`random access memory 38 and the scratch pad memory
`40 to the address register 42 which comprises an 8-bit
`latch. The two memories are essentially the same except
`that the nonvolatile random access memory 38 is pro-
`vided witha low voltage power supply 45, typically a
`lithium battery, in addition to being supplied from the
`main power supply in order to maintain the data stored
`in the memory even when the main battery supply is off
`or dead. The microprocessor 24 also provides the con-
`trol signals" to the LCD driver 46 which in turn controls
`the liquid crystal display 10. In addition, the micro-
`processor provides the drive signals for the infrared
`transmitter 16. In order to minimize battery drain, the
`several integrated circuits shown in FIG. 4 are made
`with CMOS (complementary metal oxide seriiiconduc-
`tor) technology. For example, the microprocessor may
`be an Intel 87C5l or a Mitsubishi 50741 microprocessor,
`
`DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE
`4- PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
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`In order to understand the learning process, the avail-
`able infrared codes to be learned must first be under-
`stood. This turns out to be a very wide range of differ-
`ent codes. FIG.
`1 illustrates
`several modulation
`schemes. FIGS. la through lg are different types of 10
`gated carrier frequency. Typical carrier frequencies. for
`infrared remote transmitters are 20 KHz to 45 KHz,
`with the majority at 38 KHz and 40 KHZ. The gating
`schemes illustrated include both fixed and variable bit
`periods, non-retum to zero (NRZ), variable burst
`width, single/double burst modulation schemes, and a
`final catch-all category called random because there is
`no readily distinguishable pattern of ones and zeros. In
`addition to these schemes, there is also_a transmitter
`which puts out a different continuous frequency (CW)
`for each key at approximately 300 Hz spacings as repre-
`sented in FIG. UL Finally, several new types of trans-
`mitters do not use a carrier frequency at all but, instead,
`send a stream of pulses where the data is encoded in the
`spacing between infrared pulses as shown in FIG. 11‘.
`FIG. 1 shows the data modulation schemes, but most
`transmitters also have a higher level of data organiza-
`tion, which may be called a keyboard encoding scheme.
`This causes data to be sent in different formats depend-
`ing on the transmitter and the key pressed. FIG. 2
`shows several of these keyboard encoding schemes.
`FIG. 2b shows data that is sent once for each key press.
`FIG. 2c shows data that is repeated three times and then
`stopped for each key press. These schemes are used to
`conserve power and extend battery life. FIG. 2c also
`shows data that continues to repeat as long as the key is
`pressed. This is often used for continuous functions such
`as volume control or channel scanning. FIG. 241 shows
`a modification of the continuous repeat scheme shown
`in FIG. 2c where the initial key data is sent, followed by
`a series of "keep-alive” pulses as long as thekey is
`pressed. This scheme is also used to conserve power and
`extend battery life. In addition to schemes 2b through
`2:1, some remote control transmitters precede all trans-
`mitted key data with some form of preamble data
`stream to get the receiver’s attention. This is shown in
`FIG. 2a, but it will be understood that such preamble
`data stream can be used with each of the keyboard
`encoding schemes shown in FIG. 2.
`Reference is now made to FIG. 3 which shows in
`plan view the reconfigurable remote control transmitter
`according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.
`The first thing to be observed is that this unit is not
`much more complicated than a single transmitter for a
`single product. This is accomplished by the use of a
`combination of hard keys and soft keys and an liquid
`crystal display (LCD) about which more will be said
`later. Suffice it to say for now that hard keys are those
`which have a predefined function and soft keys are
`those which have a programmable function. The recon-
`figurable remote control transmitter shown in FIG. 3 is
`capable of emulating up to four different transrriitters
`which are indicated in the liquid crystal display 10 adja-
`cent the legend “SOURCE” as TV, VCR, CABLE,
`and AUX, the latter being for “auxiliary” which may be
`any fourth device such as, for example,‘ a. video disc
`player. The user selects the desired source by pressing
`the source key 12‘ each time a change in the source is
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`Universal Remote Control Exhibit 1014 Page 12
`(cid:56)(cid:81)(cid:76)(cid:89)(cid:72)(cid:85)(cid:86)(cid:68)(cid:79)(cid:3)(cid:53)(cid:72)(cid:80)(cid:82)(cid:87)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:38)(cid:82)(cid:81)(cid:87)(cid:85)(cid:82)(cid:79)(cid:3)(cid:40)(cid:91)(cid:75)(cid:76)(cid:69)(cid:76)(cid:87)(cid:3)(cid:20)(cid:19)(cid:20)(cid:23)(cid:3)(cid:51)(cid:68)(cid:74)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:20)(cid:21)
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`5
`and the memories may be Intel 2816 or Hitachi HM6l 16
`random access memories.
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`raw data or about 3200 bits is stored to 1600 bits per key
`and 16 bits per bin in the scratch pad memory 40 of
`FIG. 4. The user is then prompted in the liquid crystal
`display 10 to press the encoded key a second time and
`the process is repeated. Then correlation is performed
`on the encoded data for that key as illustrated by FIG.
`6. Suppose that for key one, the two encoded data are
`the same as shown at the top of the figure. In this case,
`the key code sequence has been properly learned and
`can be further compressed for storage in the nonvolatile
`memory 38. On the other hand, assume that in the pro-
`cess of pressing key two for the second time, the user
`inadvertently moves the transmitter to be emulated and
`the reconfigurable remote control transmitter with re-
`spect to one other so that the encoding for the second
`key press is an error. In this case, the user will be
`prompted on the liquid crystal display 10 to press the
`key a third time. If the third encoding matches the first
`as illustrated in the figure, then the key code sequence is
`considered to be properly learned and can be further
`compressed for storage in the nonvolatile memory. A
`third possibility is illustrated in FIG. 6 and this is the
`case where the initial encoding is in error. Under these
`circumstances, no successive encoding would ever
`match the first. What the correlation algorithm does in
`this case is if the third encoding does not match the first,
`then the fourth is compared with the third and so on
`until a match of alternate encodings is obtained.
`When each key has been properly leamed, the ini-
`tially encoded data or each key must be further com-
`pressed to such an extent that the data for all four re-
`mote transmitters will fit into a 2K byte memory. This
`data compression must maintain all of the vital informa-
`tion so that the_ infrared signal can be accurately recon-
`structed during transmission. The first step is illustrated
`in FIG. 7 and involves the removal of repeats from the
`key encoding. It will be recalled that some of the key-
`board encoding schemes shown in FIGS. 2c and 2d
`involved repeated transmission patterns. As illustrated
`in FIG. 7, the first two bytes (each representing a differ-
`ent bin) are compared with the second two bytes, and if
`there is no match, then the first four bytes are compared
`with the next four bytes. Again, if there is no match, the
`first six bytes are compared with the next six bytes and
`so on increasing in two byte intervals until a total of half
`of the stored bytes are being compared with the other
`half of the stored bytes. If no match is obtained, then the
`process is repeated from the start but omitting the first
`two bytes and then the first four bytes. In the case illus-
`trated in the figure, a repeating pattern of ten bytes is
`found after an initial four byte preamble. The number
`and pattern of the repeats are then encoded in a reduced
`format, as shown in FIG. 8. This reduces data to be-
`tween 6 and 60 states per key, 96 to 960 bits of data per
`key. Once this has been accomplished, the encoding for
`all keys is examined in order to determine if there is a
`common preamble. If there is, this preamble is sepa-
`rately encoded and stripped from the encoding of all
`keys. This reduces data to (typically) 96 to 480 bits per
`key. Then the number of bins is represented by a smaller
`number of bits than the eight bits comprising each byte.
`For the case illustrated in FIG. 5, for example, the
`number of bits required to represent the four bins is only
`two. Typically, the 8-bit pin pointer or number is re-
`duced to a 5-bit or less bin pointer depending on the
`number of bins required to encode the original data.
`This typically reduces data to 48 to 24-0 bits per key. In
`this way, data is reduced to a manageable storage size,
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`‘--_...‘:it~..-..__..;...~..r__...
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`ic
`Ill
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`The reconfigurable remote control, in the learning
`process, must be able to receive, learn and repeat all of
`the schemes described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.
`In addition, in the learning process the reconfigurable
`remote control must read each code at least twice to
`make sure that it has been properly received and de-
`coded. Small variations in the incoming code must be
`tolerated while large variations (errors) must be recog-
`nized and rejected. The process is illustrated with refer-
`ence to FIGS. 5 and 6. Referring to FIG. 5a first, the
`modulation scheme represented by FIG. 1b is taken as
`exemplary. This modulation scheme uses a fixed bit time
`but the burst width is modulated. In other words, the
`time for a binary “l” is the same as the time for a binary
`“0" but, in the case illustrated, the number of pulses
`transmitted for a “l” is more than for a “O”. The time
`period for a binary bit is nominally 1.85 milliseconds,
`the number of pulses for a binary “l” is nominally 37,
`and the number of pulses for a binary "0" is nominally
`16. When the learn switch 34 is switched to the “learn"
`position, the liquid crystal display 10 flashes theletter
`“L” to constantly remind the user that the reconfigura-
`ble remote control transmitter is in the learn mode. The
`user is then prompted to press a key on the reconfigura-
`ble remote control transmitter and a corresponding key
`on the transmitter to be emulated in order to transmit a
`signal to be received and encoded. The first step in the
`receiving and encoding process is to count the number
`of pulses in each burst and the time period of each pause
`.between pulses. This pulse count and pause duration
`data completely defines the incoming signal. From this
`- data the frequency of the transmitted signal is computed
`by dividing the largest number of pulses in a single burst
`by its corresponding time duration. For example, in
`FIG. 5a the largestnumber of pulses is 38 and its time
`period is 0.95 milliseconds. The reason for using the
`largest number of pulses and its time period is to obtain
`the most accurate determination of the frequency of the
`transmitted signal. This initial raw data consists of 100
`states, each state being defined as two 16-bit numbers
`(between 1 and 65535). The first 16-bit number repre-
`sents the number of infrared pulses in the pulse train.
`The second 16-bit number represents the time interval
`that the infrared pulse train was off. An additional 16-bit
`number represents the frequency of the infrared pulse
`train (typically from 30 KHz to 100 KHz). This data
`requires about .3200 hits of data per key pressed.
`The first compression of this data is made by catego-
`rizing the pulse bursts and pauses- into “bins”, each bin
`being two bytes with the most significant bit indicating
`whether the bin is a burst or a pause. As shown in FIG.
`5a, four bins are established for the illustrated example.
`These are labled A, B, C,_ and D with A and C being
`designated as. bins for bursts and B and D being desig-
`nated as bins for pauses. It will of course be understood
`that more or fewer bins may be required depending on
`the modulation scheme which is being learned. In order
`to categorize the pulse bursts and pauses into the several
`* bins, a tolerance is established so that all the bursts and
`pauses within a nominal range are appropriately catego-
`rized into one or another of the bins. This is indicated in
`FIG. 5b which shows lower, middle and upper values
`of the number of pulses in a burst and the duration of a
`pause. Those bursts or pauses not falling into one of
`these bins would be assigned to another bin established
`for that burst or pause. By creating these bins, the initial
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`(cid:56)(cid:81)(cid:76)(cid:89)(cid:72)(cid:85)(cid:86)(cid:68)(cid:79)(cid:3)(cid:53)(cid:72)(cid:80)(cid:82)(cid:87)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:38)(cid:82)(cid:81)(cid:87)(cid:85)(cid:82)(cid:79)(cid:3)(cid:40)(cid:91)(cid:75)(cid:76)(cid:69)(cid:76)(cid:87)(cid:3)(cid:20)(cid:19)(cid:20)(cid:23)(cid:3)(cid:51)(cid:68)(cid:74)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:20)(cid:22)
`Universal Remote Control Exhibit 1014 Page 13
`
`

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`and all of the compression data is also retained to allow
`re-expansion of the data to its uncompressed format for
`retransmission during emulation. More specifically, the
`compressed data comprises the bin code, the position of
`the start of any repeating patterns, the length of the
`repeating pattern, the number of repeats, and the fre-
`quency of the transmission. If there is a preamble, this is
`stored separately to be generated for each key pressed.
`This compressed data is then stored in the nonvolatile
`memory 38 of FIG. 4.
`This completes the learning and storing procmscs.
`which are common to all the keys on the transmitter to
`be emulated. Certain keys are common to most remote
`transmitters, and these keys are included on the recon-
`figurable remote control transmitter as shown in FIG.
`3. For example, the upper part of the transmitter in-
`cludes a power key 46, a mute key 48, a channel up key
`50, a channel down key 52, a volume up key 54, and a
`volume down key 56. In addition, specific keys may be
`provided for a video cassette recorder such as a record
`key 58, a play key 60, a fast forward key 62, a rewind
`key 64, a stop key 66, and‘ a pause or stop motion key 68.
`At the lower part of the transmitter there is the usual
`numerical keypad and enter key. Other keys shown may
`be assigned other predetermined functions. However,
`because the remote transmitters from different manufac-
`turers vary widely, providing all the keys from even
`four