t,J 265
`
`12/2/~,S
`
`United States Patent [19]
`Ehlers
`
`[11] Patent Number:
`[45] Date of Patent:
`
`4,626,848
`Dec. 2, 1986
`
`[54] PROGRAMMABLE FUNCI10NS FOR
`RECONFIGURABLE REMOTE CONTROL
`
`Inventor:
`[75]
`[73] Assignee:
`
`Raymond G. Ehlers, Chesapeake, Va.
`General Electric Company,
`Portsmouth, Va.
`[21] Appl. No.: 610,549
`
`May 15, 1984
`
`[22] Filed:
`[51]
`Int. C1.4 ......................... G08C 19/00; H04B 9/00
`[52] U.S. C1 •.......................... 340/825.69; 340/825.57;
`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 8ii985 Twardowski .................. 340i825.69
`Primary Examiner-Ulysses Weldon
`Assistant Examiner-Ralph Smith
`[57]
`ABSTRACf
`A reconfigurable remote control transmitter is disclosed
`
`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(cid:173)
`ting, and user interface. In the learning process, the
`reconfigurabie remote controi 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(cid:173)
`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(cid:173)
`peated for each of the several remote control transmit(cid:173)
`ters that are to be replaced by the reconfigurable remote
`control transmitter. When the learning and storing op(cid:173)
`erations have been completed, the reconfigurable re(cid:173)
`mote control transmitter is ready to use.
`
`6 Claims, Z3 Drawing Figures
`
`..
`
`II
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`

`
`u.s. Patent Dec. 2, 1986
`
`Sheet 1 of9
`
`4,626,848
`
`FIG. I
`
`MODULATION SCHEMES
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` 6/5/2014, EAST Version: 3.0.1.1
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`
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`

`
`u.s. Patent Dec. 2, 1986
`
`Sheet 3 of9
`
`4,626,848
`
`FIG. 3
`
`54
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`'\. 14
`
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`

`
`u.s. Patent Dec. 2, 1986
`
`Sheet 4 of9
`
`4,626,848
`
`l
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`

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`
`u.s. Patent Dec. 2, 1986
`
`SheetS of9
`
`4,626,848
`
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`
` 6/5/2014, EAST Version: 3.0.1.1
`
`

`
`u.s. Patent Dec. 2, 1986
`
`Sheet 6 of9
`
`4,626,848
`
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` 6/5/2014, EAST Version: 3.0.1.1
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`

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`u.s. Patent Dec. 2, 1986
`
`Sheet 7 of9
`
`4,626,848
`
`40
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`
` 6/5/2014, EAST Version: 3.0.1.1
`
`

`
`1
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`
`u.s. Patent Dec. 2, 1986
`
`Sheet 8 of9
`
`4,626,848
`
`BIT
`
`FIG. 50
`
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`FIG. 6
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` 6/5/2014, EAST Version: 3.0.1.1
`
`

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`
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`
`SEARCH FOR
`REPEAT SEQUENCE
`
`LOCATION 0
`COMPARISON
`1st
`2nd
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`
` 6
`
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`

`
`1
`
`4,626,848
`
`PROGRAMMABLE FUNCI'IONS FOR
`RECONFIGURABLE REMOTE CONTROL
`
`5
`
`CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED
`APPLICATION
`The subject matter ef this applicatien is related to. the
`subject matter ef an applicatien entitled "Recenfigura(cid:173)
`ble RemDte CDntrDI" filed by Kenneth B. Welles II, Ser. 10
`No.. 610,377 filed cDncurrently herewith and assigned to.
`a cemmen assignee with this applicatien. The subject
`matter ef ,that applicatien is incerporated herein by
`reference.
`
`FIELD OF THE INVENTION
`The present invention generally relates to H::mu~c
`centrel transmittersef the type used with VariDUS CDn(cid:173)
`sumer products such as televisien receivers and the like
`and, mere particularly, to. a recenfigurable remete con- 20
`trol transmitter which may be prDgrammed to emulate
`any ene ef a plurality of individual transmitters.
`
`15
`
`BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
`Many new consumer electronic products, particu- 25
`larly video. preducts, are available with hand held infra(cid:173)
`red remote control transmitters, A consumer may have
`separate rc;mete centrel transmitters fer a televisien, a
`cable cenverter, video. cassette recorder, and a video
`disc player, fer example. In such a case, it is cenfusing 30
`to. knew which transmitter to. pick up to. contrel which
`product. Moreever, carrying around fDur different re(cid:173)
`mete centrel transmitters spoils the convenience of the
`remete contrel feature. It is therefDre desirable to. pro(cid:173)
`vide a single remete contrel transmitter fer controlling 35
`each ef the several products.
`A number ef solutiens have been preposed for this
`preblem in the pricir art.' ODe example is disclesed 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 40
`a turntable are interconnected by a tWO-CDnductor ca(cid:173)
`ble. Each 'of these de .... ice:; is, centrelled by a e corre(cid:173)
`spDnding microprocessor, and a hand held transmitter is
`used to transmit coded signals that centrol the operation
`of the individual devices. The coded signals are re- 45
`ceived by a commen receiver and first cenversion cir(cid:173)
`cuit to provide veltage pulses on the two-wire cable.
`Additienal cenversien circuits are required for each
`microprocesser in order to CDnvert the veltage pulses
`on the twe-wire cable to. pulses which can be used by 50
`the micreprocessors.
`AnDther example is disclesed. in U.S. Pat. No..
`4,200,862 to. Campbell et al. The Campbell et al system
`includes a single receiver/transnlltter'iiirii which inay
`be placed en a table, fer example, and a hand held trans- 55
`mitteI,', but in this case, the receiver/transmitter unit
`injects digital pulses ente the house ,mains at timeS of
`zero cressing ef the mains voltage. VariDus appliances
`are plugged into. the heuse mains via slave units which
`are each responsive to. an assigned digital address and a 60
`digital eperatien code to. contrel its appliance.
`Commen to. both the Litz et al and Campbell et al
`systems is the use ef a central receiver, an interconnect(cid:173)
`ing transmissien line and the requirement of a separate
`contreller device fer each product er appliance. 65
`Clearly, this appreach solves the basic preblem ef mul(cid:173)
`tiple transmitters fDr multiple products er appliances,
`but the selutien is both cemplex and expensive frem the
`
`2
`point efview efthe censumer. A simpler, less expensive
`selutien to. the preblem is needed.
`
`SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
`It is therefere an ebject ef the present inventien to.
`provide a single remete centrel transmitter which can
`eperate any product or appliance with a remete centrol
`feature withDut modificatien er intercennectien ef the
`individual products Dr appliances.
`It is anDther ebject Df the inventien to. previde a
`simple and inexpensive centrol fer a plurality ef re(cid:173)
`motely centrelled censumer products even theugh
`these products may be produced by different manufac(cid:173)
`tures and respond to different transmissien pretocols.
`The ebjects ef the inventien are accomplished by
`providing a reconfigurable remote control transmitter
`that has the ability to learn, store and repeat the remete
`centrol codes from any ether 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, stering, retransmit(cid:173)
`ting, and user interface. In the learning process, the
`reconfigurable remote centrel transmitter receives and
`decodes the transmissions from anether remete centrol
`transmitter for, say, a televisien receiver. The process is
`repeated at least twice fer each key to. make sure that it
`has been preperly received and decoded. Once the data
`has been received and decoded, it must be stered for
`later use; hewever, in order to do. this, the received and
`decoded data must be cempressed so that it can fit into.
`the nenvelatile memory. This process is repeated fer
`each of the several remote control transmitters that are
`to be replaced by the recenfigurable remete control
`transmitter. When the learning and stering operatiens
`have been cempleted, the recenfigurable remete con(cid:173)
`trol transmitter is ready to use.
`
`BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
`The foregeing and other objects, advantages and
`aspects Df the inventiDn will be better understood frem
`the fell ewing detailed descriptien of the inventien with
`reference to. the drawings, in which:
`FIGS. la to. Ii are graphical representatiens ef sev(cid:173)
`eral modulatien schemes which are used in infrared
`remote contrel transmitters;
`FIGS. la to. 2d are graphical representatiens ef sev(cid:173)
`eral keyboard encoding schemes that may be used with
`the modulatien schemes illustrated in FIGS. la to. Ii;
`FIG. 3 is a plan view of the recenfigurable remete
`contrel transmitter accerding to. a preferred embodi(cid:173)
`ment ef the present inventien;
`FIGS. 4a-4d, when aligned frem left to. right, consti(cid:173)
`tute a block diagram ef the recenfigurable remete con(cid:173)
`trol transmitter according to a preferred embodiment ef
`the inventien;
`FIGS. Sa and 5b are graphical and tabular representa(cid:173)
`tiens of the data cellectien and initial data compressien
`technique perfermed by the preferred embodiment
`shown in FIG. 4;
`FIG. 6 is a tabular representation ef the correlatien
`process performed during the learning procedure;
`FIG. 7 is a tabular representatiDn ef the process ef
`removing repeats frem the learned code in erder to
`further compress the data fer stering in the nenvelatile
`memory; and
`
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`

`
`4,626,848
`
`4
`3
`desired, which causes the individual legends TV, VCR,
`FIG. 8 is a tabular representation of the compressed
`CABLE, and AUX to be successively displayed in
`learned code.
`~accordance with the succession of source key depres·
`DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE
`:sions. When the legend for the desired source is dis·
`- PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
`5 :played, the user simply stops depressing the source key
`In order to understand the learning process, the avail·
`~and proceeds to operate the selected source. There is
`~also provided a learning switch (not shown) which may
`able infra~ed codes to be learned ~ust first be u~der.
`be prcvided in a protected location IOn the side or bot·
`stood. This turns out to. be a very Wide range of dln:er.
`tom of the transmitter case since this switch is used only
`ent codes. FIG. 1 Illustrates several modulatIon
`schemes. ~IGS. la through. Ig are ~ifferent types of 10 once (typically) for each transmitter which is to be
`¥ated carner frequency .. TypIcal carner frequem:tes f01'
`emulated. This switch might be located, for example,
`In~rared re~ot: transrmtten are 20 KHz to 45 ~, behind a slidable or pivotal cover 67 in order to prevent
`WIth the ~aJonty a~ 38 KHz and 40 KHz. Th~ gatIn~
`younger members of the family from operating it. In the
`sch~mes Illustrated Include both fixed and yanable bIt
`learning mode, the switch is moved to the learning
`p~nods,. non·return to zero (N~), vartable burst 15 positicn and the transmitter which is to be emulated is
`:~~~h~_~~g~~;~~~~~:..?,u~~I~~~~~~~ ~:~"~~:S:h~~ l~
`~!a~d .• s<:. tha! its .transmitter infr~ed light emitting
`ICllooe (LbD) IS adjacent the photoelectric receiver in
`'m .. ' ...... ~ ... "· .. :. :-... "~v.J' .................... v" • ..,..~~~ ... ~.~ ~
`no ~~dIly dlstIngwshable pattern ~f ones and zero~. In
`the reconfIgurable remote control unit. The photoelec.
`ad~ltIon to these s.chemes, the~e 15 also. a tranSJDltter
`tric receiver 14 might, for example, be located at the
`whIch puts out a dlffe~ent contInUOUS fr~uency (CW) 20 lend opposite to the infrared LED transmitter 16 in the
`for eac? key at appro~mately 300 Hz spacmgs as repre·
`reconfigurable remote control transmitter as shown in
`sented In FIG. Ih. FInally, several new types of trans·
`FIG 3 Th
`.
`ltd b
`.
`th
`all b
`.
`. d
`. . e source IS se ec e
`y pressmg
`e source
`.
`d
`.
`f
`ut, mstea,
`rmtters 0 not use a camer requency at
`k 12 as d
`'b d bo
`d h
`th I
`d fi
`th
`send a stream of pulses where the data is encoded in the
`escn. e.a ve, an w en e egen or e
`ey.
`25 deSIred source IS .dlsplayed, the us:r pres~es !he enter
`spacing between infrared pulses as shown in FIG. Ii
`k~y 78. ne user IS then prompted In the hquld crystal
`FIG. 1 shows the data modulation schemes, but most
`transmitters also have a hieher level of data oreaniza.
`dIsplay 10 to press a key on the reconfIgurable remote
`contrc~ transmitter and a corresponding k~y on the
`tion, which may be called a-keyboard encoding sCheme.
`transmItter ~o be emulated so that th: transrmtt~ ~e
`This causes data to be sent in different formats depend.
`ing on the transmitter and the key pressed. FIG. 2 30 can be rece~ved .and en~ed. As will be exphll~ed In
`further de!Bil, this pr~mpt 15 repeated at l~t twlC~ for
`shows several of these keyboard encoding schemes.
`leach key In order to I~sure that the transrmtted SIgnal
`FIG. 2b shows data that is sent once for each key press.
`FIG. 2c shows data that is repeated three times and then
`has been properly receIved and encoded.
`Turning now to FIG. 4, the rc:ceiv~r 14 for the reco~·
`stopped for each key press. These schemes are used to
`conserve power and extend battery life. FIG. 2c also 35 figurable remote contro! trans~t~er Includ~ a photodl.
`ode.18c~nnected by a dlfferentla!mg capacItor 20 to the
`shows data that continues to repeat as long as the key is
`v~nable t.Dput of. thresh~ld amphfier 22: The output of
`pressed. This is. often used for continuous functions such
`thIS amplIfier 22 IS a senes of pulses ha:-rmg a.frequency
`as volume control or channel scanning. FIG. ldshows
`a modification of the continuous repeat scheme shown
`equal to the fr~quency. of the transJDltted . SIgnal. The
`in FIG. 2c where the initial key data is sent, followed by 40 o~tput of amphfier 22 15 connected to an .Input of the
`a series of "keep.a1ive" pulses as long as the. key is
`IJIl1croprocessor 24 and ~so to a .d~tector dIode 26. Th.e
`pressed. This scheme is also used to conserve power and
`output of the det7ctor dIode 26 !S Int:grated by capacI·
`extend battery life. In addition to schemes 2b through
`tor 28 and supphed to the vanable mpu! of a ~con~
`threshold amphfier 30. The output of this amplIfier 15
`2d, some remote control transmitters precede all trans.
`mitted key data with some form of preamble data 45 the d~tected envelop: of the transmi~ted signal and is
`stream to get the receiver'S attention. This is shown in
`supphed to another Input of the JDlcroprocessor 24.
`FIG. la, but it will be understood that such preamble
`Also supplied as inputs to the microprocessor 24 are the
`data stream can be used with each of the keyboard
`outputs of the push button keyboard 32 and the learn
`switch 34. The microprocessor 24 has its own internal
`encoding schemes shown in FIG. 2.
`Reference is now made to FIG. 3 which shows in 50 clock which is controlled by a crystal 36. The micro-
`plan view the reconfigurable remote control transmitter
`IProc~or 24 provides addresses for the nonvolatile
`according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.
`random access memory 38 and the scratch pad memory
`The first thing to be observed is that this unit is not
`40 to the address register 42 which comprises an 8-bit
`much more complicated than a single transmitter for a
`latch. The two memories are essentially the same except
`single product. This is accomplished by the use of a 55 that the nonvolatile random access memory 38 is pro·
`combination of hard keys and soft keys and an liquid
`vided with. a low voltage power supply 45, typically a
`crystal display (LCD) about which more will be said
`lithium battery, in addition to being supplied from the
`later. Suffice it to say for now that hard keys are those
`main power s.upply in order to maintain the data stored
`which have a predefined function and soft keys are
`in the memory even when the main battery supply is off
`those which have a programmable function. The recon· 60 or dead. The microprocessor 24 also provides the con·
`figurable remote control transmitter shown in FIG. 3 is
`trol signals to the LCD driver 46 which in turn controls
`capable of emulating lip to four different transmitters
`the liquid crystal display 10. In addition, the micro-
`which are indicated in the liquid crystal display 10 aaja·
`IPr~sor provides the drive signals for the infrared
`cent the legend "SOURCE" as TV, VCR, CABLE,
`transmitter 16. In order to minimize battery drain, the
`and AUX, the latter being for "auxiliary" which may be 65 several integrated circuits shown in FIG. 4 are made
`with CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconduc·
`any fourth device such as, for example, a. video disc
`player. The user selects the desired source by pressing
`tor) technology. For example, the microprocessor may
`the source key 12 each time a change in the source is
`be an Inte187C51 or a Mitsubishi 50741 microprocessor,
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`and the memories may be Intel 2816 or Hitachi HM6116
`random access memories.
`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. 5
`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(cid:173)
`coded. Small variations in the incoming code must be
`tolerated while large va:riations (errors) must be recog- 10
`nized and rejected. The process is illustrated with refer(cid:173)
`ence to FIGS. 5 and 6. Referring to FIG. Sa first, the
`modulation scheme repr~~nted by FIG. Ib is taken as
`exemplary. This modulation scheme uses a fixed bit time
`but the burst width is modulated. In other words, the 15
`time for a binary "I" is the same as the time for a binary
`"0" but, in the case illustrated, the number of pulses
`transmitted for a "I" is more than for a ''0''. The time
`period fora binary bit is noininally 1.85 milliseconds,
`the number of pulses for a binary "I" is nominally 37, 20
`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 the letter
`'iL" to constantly remind the user that the reconfigura(cid:173)
`ble remote control transmitter is in the learn mode. The 25
`user is then prompted to press a key on the reconfigura(cid:173)
`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 30
`of pulses in each burst and the time period of each pause
`. between pulses. This pulse count and pause duration
`data completely defmes 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 35
`by its corresponding time duration. For example, in
`FIG. Sa the largest number 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 deterinination of the frequency of the 40
`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(cid:173)
`sents the number of infrared pulses in the pulse train.
`The second 16-bit number represents the time interval 45
`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 bits of data per key pressed.
`The first compression of this data is made by catego- 50
`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.
`Sa, four bins are established for the illustrated example.
`These are labled A, B, C, and D with A and C being 55
`designated as bins for burSts and B and D being d~ig­
`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 60
`. bins, a tolerance is established so that all the bursts and
`pauses within a nominal range are appropriately catego(cid:173)
`rized into one or another of the bins. This is indicated in
`FIG. Sb which shows lower, iniddle and upper values
`of the number of pulses in a burst and the duration of a 6S
`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
`
`6
`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(cid:173)
`cess of pressing key two for the second time, the user
`inadvertently moves the transmittej to be emulated and
`the reconfigurable remote control transinitter with re(cid:173)
`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 encodin2 is in error. Under these
`circumstances, no successive encoding would ever
`match the first. What the correlation algorithm does in
`this case is ifthe 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 learned, the ini(cid:173)
`tially encoded data or each key must be further com(cid:173)
`pressed to such an extent that the data for all four re(cid:173)
`mote transmitters will fit into a 2K byte memory. This
`data compression must maintain all of the vital informa(cid:173)
`tion so that the infrared signal can be accurately recon(cid:173)
`structed during transinission. 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(cid:173)
`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(cid:173)
`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
`fITSt 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(cid:173)
`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(cid:173)
`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 exainined in order to deterinine if there is a
`common preamble. If there is, this preamble is sepa(cid:173)
`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(cid:173)
`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 240 bits per key. In
`this way, data is reduced to a manageable storage size,
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`In FIG. 3, the function "Sharpness" has been selected
`and all of the compression data is also retained to allow
`for the source TV and the up and down arrows indicate
`re-expansion of the data to its uncompressed format for
`that the up and down keys are to be used to control this
`retransmission during emulation. More specifically, the
`compressed data comprises the bin code, the position of
`function. It will be observed that each of the function
`the start of any repeating patterns, the length of the 5 :tables include the functions "A", "B" and "e". These
`are for user defined functions for those situations that a
`repeating pattern, the number of repeats, and the fre-
`quency of the transmission. If there is a preamble, this is
`transmitter to be emulated includes a function that is not
`stored separately to be generated for each key pressed.
`previously stored in the reconfigurable remote control
`This compressed data is then stored in the nonvolatile
`transmitter. In such a case, the user selects one of these
`memory 38 of FIG. 4.
`10 flllnCtions and provides it with a label. This label is gen-
`erated by either the + key or the - key to cycle
`This completes the learning and! storing p:rocesses
`which are common to all the keys on the transmitter to
`through the alphabet. Once the correct letter is dis-
`!played, the user presses the enter key 72 to enter it and
`be emulated. Certain keys are common to most remote
`transmitters, and these keys are included on the recon-
`the display indexes over one character position where
`figurable remote control transmitter as shown in FIG. 15 the process is repeated and so on until the complete
`3. For example, the upper part of the transmitter in-
`label is generated. Thus, the liquid crystal display 10
`cludes a power key 46, a mute key 48, a channel up key
`and the keys of the reconfigurable remote control trans-
`50, a channel down key 52, a volume up key 54, and a
`mitter of the invention have been designed to provide a
`volume down key 56. In addition, specific keys may be
`IUser freindly interface which is simple and easy to use
`provided for a video cassette recorder such as a record 20 1110 matter what combination of remote transmitters it is
`key 58, a play key 60, a fast forward key 62, a rewind
`configured to emulate.
`key 64, a stop key 66, and a pause or stop motion key 68.
`After the transmitter has been configured as desired
`At the lower part of the transmitter there is the usual
`by the user, it is ready to use. This requires that the
`numerical keypad and enter key. Other keys shown may
`transmitter recall, expand and transmit the required
`be assigned other predetermined functions. However, 25 code. This is accomplished by first determining which
`because the remote transmitters from different manufac-
`source has been chosen so that the correct biock of data
`in the nonvolatile memory 38 is addressed. Then when
`turers vary widely, providing all the keys from even
`a key is pressed, the entire block of data for that source
`four different remote control transmitters o