ES2734389T3 - System and method for optimized device control - Google Patents

Abstract

A method of controlling a functional operation of an intended target apparatus (106, 108, 112, 120), comprising: in response to a detected presence of the intended target apparatus (106, 108, 112, 120) within a logical topography of controllable apparatus using the identity information associated with the intended target apparatus to automatically add to a graphical user interface of a control device (200, 202) an icon representative of the intended target apparatus and to create in a universal control tool (100 ) a listing of communication methods for use in controlling the corresponding functional operations of the intended target apparatus (106, 108, 112, 120); and in response to a detected activation of the icon representative of the intended target apparatus (106, 108, 112, 120), as added to the graphical user interface of the control device (200, 202), causes the control device to put into an appropriate operational state to control the functional operations of the intended target apparatus, while causing the universal control tool (100) to use at least one of a plurality of communication methods in the list of communication methods that has been associated with the intended target apparatus to transmit to the intended target apparatus, at least one command to put the intended target apparatus in a predetermined operating state, wherein to put the control device (200, 202) in an appropriate operating state to control functional operations of the intended target apparatus (106, 108, 112, 120) comprises causing the control device to display a graphical user interface page fica with hover icons representative of controllable functions of the intended target apparatus, wherein the hover icons on the graphical user interface page comprise hover icons having logos representative of the media content that can be accessed by the intended target apparatus (106 , 108, 112, 120), and wherein the logo representative of the media content that can be accessed by the intended target apparatus is automatically populated into the hover icons through the use of the identity information associated with the intended target apparatus (106, 108, 112, 120).

Description

DESCRIPTION

System and method for optimized device control

Background

Control devices, for example, remote controls, for use in issuing commands to entertainment devices and other devices, and the features and functionalities provided by such control devices are well known in the art. In order to facilitate such functionality, device manufacturers have implemented various communication protocols, command formats and interface methods to allow operational control of entertainment devices and other devices, also known in the art. In particular, the recent proliferation of wireless and cable communications and / or digital interconnection methods such as WiFi, Bluetooth, HDMI, etc., between devices has resulted in a corresponding proliferation of said communication protocols and command formats. While many of these more recent methods may offer improved performance and / or reliability compared to previous control protocols, the adoption of such more recent methods by device manufacturers remains inconsistent and fragmented. This, together with the large installed base of devices of previous generations, can cause confusion, malfunction or other problems when a user or manufacturer of a control device, such as a remote control, tries to take advantage of the improved features and functionalities of these new methods of control.

Document US 2013/249679 A1 describes a system and method for the optimized control of devices. US 2012/297040 A1 describes an information processing apparatus that includes a storage block configured to store information about a combination of devices to be controlled. Document US 2009/239587 A1 describes a system and method for the control of devices by means of a personal or entertainment communication device.

Compendium of the invention

A method is provided for controlling a functional operation of an intended target apparatus, according to claim 1. A selection of optional features is cited in the dependent claims. This invention relates in general to improved methods for the control of apparatus by the use of a control device, such as a remote control, a smartphone, a tablet computer, etc., and in particular methods to take advantage of the methods. of device control communication and / or improved command formats in a reliable manner, which is largely transparent to a user and / or, which integrates perfectly with legacy device control technology.

For this purpose, the present invention comprises a modular hardware and software solution, hereinafter referred to as the Universal Control Tool (UCE), which is adapted to provide device control by a variety of control methodologies. and available media, such as various infrared remote control (IR) protocols; Electronic Consumer Control (CEC), as can be implemented through a wired HDMI connection; Internet Protocol (IP), wired or wireless; RF4CE wireless; Bluetooth wireless personal area network (s) (BT); UPnP protocol that uses wired USB connections; or any other standard or proprietary device command methodology available. Since each individual control paradigm can have its own strengths and weaknesses, the UCE can adapt to combine several control methods in order to perform the best control option for each individual command for each individual device.

The UCE itself can be adapted to receive commands from a control device, for example, a conventional remote control or a remote control application that resides in a smart device such as a phone or tablet, etc., using any protocol and command structure Convenient (IR, RF4CE, BT, proprietary RF, etc.) As will be seen, the control device can vary from a very simple unidirectional IR device to a smartphone with fully functional WiFi or similar. The ECU can receive command requests from such a control device and apply the optimal methodology to propagate the command function (s) to each intended target device, such as a television, an AV receiver, a player DVD, etc. In this way, the UCE can allow a single control device to order the operation of all the devices in a home theater system while coordinating the available control methods of each particular device in order to select the most reliable and best method to emit Each command to each given device. By way of example, without limitation, an ECU can use IR commands to turn on an AV receiving device while CEC commands, or another method, can be used to select inputs or turn off the same AV receiving device; or CEC commands can be used to turn on and select inputs on a television set, while IR commands can be used to control the volume on the same television set.

As will be seen, a UCE can comprise modular hardware and software that can be incorporated into a separate device suitable for use in an existing home theater equipment configuration, or can be incorporated into any of the devices such as an STB, television, receiver AV, HDMI switch, etc. In addition, when incorporated into an apparatus, the functionality of the UCE may be provided as a separate hardware module or may be incorporated together with other hardware functionality, for example, as part of an HDMI interface IC or chipset, etc.

A better understanding of the objects, advantages, features, properties and relationships of the invention will be obtained from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings that illustrate illustrative embodiments and are indicative of the various ways in which the principles of the invention can be employees

Brief description of the drawings

For a better understanding of the various aspects of the invention, reference may be made to the preferred embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings in which:

Figures 1 and 2 illustrate illustrative systems in which a separate UEC device can be used to order the operation of several devices;

Figures 3 and 4 illustrate illustrative systems in which the functionality of UEC can be incorporated into an apparatus that is part of a home entertainment system;

Figure 5 illustrates a block diagram of an illustrative UEC device;

Figure 6 illustrates an illustrative graphic representation of a control environment based on the ECU;

Figure 7 illustrates a preferred and illustrative command matrix for use in a control environment based on the ECU, for example, as illustrated in Figure 6;

Figure 8 illustrates a block diagram of an illustrative intelligent device that can be compatible with a remote control application and a configuration method for use in the configuration of an ECU;

Figure 9 illustrates an illustrative series of steps that can be performed to prepare and configure an illustrative ECU;

Figure 10 illustrates an illustrative series of steps that can be performed to define a device configuration corresponding to a user's activity;

Figure 11 illustrates illustrative activity configuration matrices, such as those that can be defined during the steps of Figure 10;

Figure 12 illustrates a current and illustrative apparatus state matrix that can be maintained by an ECU for use in determining the commands necessary to invoke one of the states defined by the matrix of Figure 11;

Figure 13 illustrates an illustrative series of steps that an ECU can perform when issuing a function command to an apparatus;

Figure 14 illustrates an illustrative series of steps that an ECU can perform to establish apparatus states that match a desired activity, defined in one of the matrices of Figure 11; Y

Figure 15 illustrates an illustrative series of steps that an intelligent device can perform to configure command control macros.

Detailed description

Referring to Figure 1, an illustrative system is illustrated in which an UCE 100 device can be used to issue commands to control various controllable devices, such as a television 106, a cable box combined with a digital video recorder (" STB / DVR "110, a DVD player 108 and an AV receiver 120. While illustrated in the context of a television 106, an STB / DVR 110, a DVD player 108 and a AV receiver 120, it should be understood that controllable electronic devices may include, but should not be limited to, televisions, VCR, DVR, DVD players, cable or satellite decoders ("STB"), amplifiers, CD players, consoles games, home lighting, curtains, fans, HVAC systems, thermostats, personal computers, etc. In the illustrative example of Figure 1, the device commands can be issued by the ECU 100 in response to the infrared ("IR") request signals 116 received from a remote control device 102, radio frequency request signals ("RF") 118 received from an application 124 residing in an intelligent device 104, or any other device from which the UCE 100 can be adapted to receive requests, using any appropriate communication method. As illustrated, the transmission of the requested device commands from the UCE to the devices 106, 108, 112, 120 can take the form of wireless IR signals 114 or CEC commands issued via a wired HDMI interface 112, as appropriate to the capabilities of the particular device for which each command can be directed. In particular, in the illustrated illustrative system, the AV receiver 120 may not be compatible with HDMI inputs, as it is connected to audio source devices 108, 110 through, for example, S / PDIF interfaces 122. Accordingly, The ECU 100 can be restricted to transmit all commands destined to the AV receiver 120 exclusively as IR signals, while the commands destined for the other devices 106 to 110 can take the form of CEC or IR signals as appropriate for each command. As an example without limitation, some television manufacturers may choose not to make the volume adjustment compatible with CEC. If the illustrative television 106 is of such manufacture, the UCE 100 can transmit the volume adjustment requests to the television 106 as IR signals 114, while other requests, such as on / off or input selections, can be transmitted in the form of commands CEC via HDMI 112 connection.

However, it will be appreciated that, while illustrated in the context of wired IR, RF and CEC signal transmissions, in general, transmissions to and from the UCE 100 device may take the form of any convenient IR protocol, RF, wiring, point to point or network, as needed for a particular embodiment. In addition, while wireless communications 116, 118, etc., between illustrative devices are illustrated herein as direct links, it should be appreciated that, in some cases, such communication may take place through a local area network or network of personal area, and as such may involve various intermediary devices, such as routers, bridges, access points, etc. Since these elements are not necessary to understand the present invention, they are omitted from this and the following figures for reasons of clarity.

Since remote control applications of smart devices, such as those contemplated in illustrative device 104, are well known, for reasons of brevity, the operation, features and functions thereof will not be described in detail in this document. However, if a more complete understanding of the nature of such applications is desired, the interested reader may resort, for example, to the aforementioned U.S. Patent Application No. 12 / 406,601 or U.S. Patent Application No. 13 /329,940, (now US Patent 8,243,207).

Turning now to Figure 2, in a further illustrative embodiment, the UCE 100 can receive wireless request signals from a remote control 200 and / or an application residing in a tablet computer 202. As before, command transmissions to the Devices 106, 108, 110 can take the form of wired CEC commands or wireless IR commands. However, in this example, the remote control 200 may be in two-way communication 208 with the ECU 100 and, consequently, the ECU may delegate the transmission of IR commands 210 to the remote control device 200, that is, use the remote control 200 as a relay device for those commands that are determined to be optimally executed by infrared transmissions. As also illustrated in general in Figure 2, a configuration application 214 running on a smart device such as a tablet computer 202 can be used in conjunction with an Internet-accessible server 206 (212, 204) or cloud-based , and an associated database 207 to initially configure the ECU 100 for operation with the specific group of devices to be controlled, that is, to communicate to the ECU 100 a corresponding set of command codes and the capacity profile for each device particular to be controlled, for example, based on the type, manufacture, model number, etc., as will be described in greater detail below.

With reference to Figure 3, in a further illustrative embodiment of the functionality of UCE 100 ', an STB / DVR 310 may be integrated in an apparatus, for example, in this example, the remote control 102 and / or the smart device 104 they can transmit wireless request signals directly to the STB / DVR 310 for the action of the built-in UCE 100 'function, whose actions can, as before, comprise CEC command transmissions via an HDMI 112 connection or IR command transmissions 114 , which originate in this case from an IR emitter provided in the STB / DVR 310 apparatus. In this configuration, a configuration application residing in the STB / DVR 310 can be used to configure the UEC 100 ', using for example an internet connection 304 accessible via a cable modem and / or a cable distribution system header.

In the further illustrative embodiment of Figure 4, the functionality of the UCE 100 'can be integrated into an AV 420 receiver that can serve as an HDMI switch between various content sources, such as an STB / DVR 110 or a player DVD 108 and a rendering device, such as TV 106. In addition to the HDMI inputs, the AV 420 receiver can also be compatible with other input formats, for example, analog inputs, such as illustrative 404 of the c player D 408; composite or component video; S / PDIF coaxial or fiber optic; etc. In this embodiment, the request signals 406 can be directed to the AV receiver 420, for example, from the remote control 402, for action via the UCE function 100 '. As before, the resulting device commands can be transmitted using CEC signals transmitted through HDMI 112 connections, or through IR 114 signals transmitted from an associated IR emitter. As appropriate for a particular embodiment, the initial configuration of UCE 100 'to match the equipment to be controlled can be performed by an internet-connected application that resides in the AV 420 receiver, or by an application that resides in a computer of tablet 202 or other smart device, as mentioned above in conjunction with Figure 2.

As will be appreciated, various other configurations are also possible without departing from the underlying UCE concept, for example, the UCE function 100 'can be incorporated into an internet-capable television, an HDMI switch, a game console, etc .; the device command set and the capacity database 207 can be located in an internet cloud or in the header of a cable system, can be stored locally (in whole or in part), whose local storage can take the form of internal memory within the UCE itself or in a device such as a television, STB or AV receiver, or it can take the form of a memory card or the like that can be attached to a smart device or device; etc.

With reference to Figure 5, an illustrative UCE device 100 (either independent or in an apparatus that is compatible with UCE functionality) may include, as necessary for a particular application, a processor 500 coupled to a memory 502 whose memory may comprise a combination of ROM, RAM, and / or non-volatile read / write memory and It can take the form of a chip, a hard disk, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a memory card, etc., or any combination thereof. It will also be appreciated that part or all of the illustrated memory can be physically incorporated into the same IC chip as the processor 500 (called "microcontroller") and, as such, is shown separately in Figure 5 only for the sake of clarity. The interface hardware provided as part of the illustrative UCE platform may include IR receiver circuits 504 and IR transmitter circuits 506; an HDMI 508 interface; a transceiver and a Wifi 510 interface; an ethernet interface 512; and any other wired or wireless I / O interface (s) 514 as appropriate for a particular embodiment, by way of example, without limitation, Bluetooth, RF4CE, USB, Zigbee, Zensys, X10 / Insteon, HomePlug, HomeP-NA, etc. The electronic components comprising the illustrative device or Ce 100 can be powered by an external power supply 516. In the case of an independent UCE device as illustrated in Figures 1 or 2, this may comprise, for example, a Compact AC adapter "wall wart", while integrated UCE devices such as those illustrated in Figures 3 or 4 can extract operating power from the apparatus in which they are integrated. It will also be appreciated that in the latter case, in certain embodiments, the processor 500 and / or the memory 502 and / or certain parts of the hardware interface elements 504 to 514 may be shared with other functionalities of the host apparatus.

As those skilled in the art will understand, part or all of the memory 502 may include executable instructions that are intended to be executed by the processor 500 to control the operation of the UCE device 100 (collectively, the UCE programming) in addition to data that serve to define the control protocols and the command values necessary for use in the transmission of command signals to controllable devices (collectively, the command data). In this manner, the processor 500 can be programmed to control the various electronic components within the illustrative UCE device 100, for example, to monitor the media 504, 510 for incoming request messages from control devices, to cause the transmission of device command signals, etc. To cause the UCE 100 device to perform an action, the UCE 100 device can be adapted to respond to events, such as a request message received from the remote control 102 or the smart device 104, changes in the status of the connected connected device via the HDMI 508 interface, the 510 WiFi interface, or the 512 Ethernet interface, etc. In response to an event, the appropriate instructions can be executed within the UCE programming. For example, when a command request is received from a smartphone 104, the UCE device 100 can recover from the command data stored in memory 502 a preferred command transmission medium (for example, the IR, the CEC by HDMI, the IP via WiFi, etc.) and a corresponding command value and control protocol to be used in the transmission of that command to an intended target device, for example, the television 106, in a format recognizable by that device to thereby control one or more functional operations of that apparatus. As a further example, the status of connected devices, for example, powered or not powered, currently selected input, playing or paused, etc., as can be discerned from interfaces 508 to 514, can be monitored and / or tabulated by UCE programming to facilitate the adjustment of the device configuration to match the user-defined activity profiles, for example, "Watch TV", "Watch a movie", etc.

An overview of the illustrative UCE control environment is presented in Figure 6. The UCE programming of an illustrative UCE device 100 may comprise a universal control tool core 650 together with a series of software modules that can be sized from 652 to 660, each module is compatible with a protocol or command method of a particular apparatus and is appropriately provided for a particular embodiment. By way of example, the illustrative embodiment of Figure 6 may include an Internet Protocol (IP) module 652, a CEC 654 module via HDMI, a Bluetooth module 656, an IR module 660 and another module (s) (s) 658, as appropriate for the particular application. The devices to be controlled may include an IP-enabled AV 620 receiver, an IP-enabled STB / DVR 610, a television 106, a DVD player 108 and a CD player 408. As illustrated, some of these devices may be interconnected via interfaces of HDMI 112 and / or ethernet 670. (In this regard, it should be noted that the illustrative interconnections 112 and 670 of Figure 6 are intended to represent only the logical topography and, consequently, details of the physical structure exact wiring and / or the presence of any switches, routers, hubs, repeaters, necessary interconnections etc., are omitted for the sake of clarity.)

The preferred method / protocol / medium for issuing commands to the illustrative apparatus of Figure 6 may vary both by the apparatus and by the function to be performed. As an example, the volume control and analog input selection commands 622 addressed to the AV receiver 620 may need to be issued via IR transmissions, while the on / off and HDMI input select functionality commands 624 can communicate better through CEC commands and advanced functionality commands 626, such as sound field settings, can communicate better through an ethernet connection. Similarly, the various operational functions of the other devices can be better sorted by a mixture of means, methods and protocols, as illustrated. As will be appreciated, in some cases, a particular device may be compatible with receiving an operating command through more than one route, for example, the on / off function of the AV receiver 620 may be available not only as a CEC command, but also using an IR command. In such cases, the preferred UCE command format may be the one that has been determined that it offers the highest reliability, for example, in the previous case the CEC command may be preferred since this form of command does not depend on the line of sight and also allows confirmation that the action has been performed by the target device .

To determine the optimal method for each command and type of device configured, the illustrative UCE 650 core program may be provided with a preferred command matrix 700, as illustrated in Figure 7. The preferred and illustrative command matrix 700 may comprising a series of cells or data elements, for example, cells 712, each corresponding to a specific command 702 and one of the specific devices to be controlled 704. The data content of such a cell or element may comprise the identification of a command / transmission form to use and a pointer to the required data value and the format information for the specific command. As an example, the data element 712 corresponding to the "Input 2" command 706 for the configured television set 708 may comprise an indicator that a CEC command will be used, that is, an indicator of the transmission device that is will be used to communicate the command to the intended target device, together with a pointer to the appropriate command data value and the HDMl-CEC bus address; while the data element 714 corresponding to the same command function for the configured AV receiver 710 may comprise an indicator that an IR command will be used, together with a pointer to the appropriate command data and format information within an IR code library stored elsewhere in UCE 502 memory. In certain embodiments, one or more secondary command arrays 716 may also be provided, which allows the use of alternative command methods in the event of that the UCE programming determines that a preferred command was unsuccessful. The command array 700 may also contain null inputs, for example 718, where a particular function is not available or is not compatible with a specific device. In an illustrative embodiment, the command matrix 700 can be created and loaded into memory 502 of UCE 100 during an initialization and configuration process, as will now be described in more detail.

To perform the initial configuration of an UCE device, a configuration application can be provided. In some embodiments, such a configuration application may take the form of programming to be executed on any convenient device with a suitable user interface and capable of establishing communication with the ECU, such as, without being limited to, a smartphone, a computer tablet, a personal computer, a decoder, a television, etc., as appropriate for a particular embodiment. In other embodiments, such a configuration application may be incorporated into the UCE programming itself, for example using a connected television screen and an associated control device as a user interface. Regardless of the exact form and location of the programming means and user interface, the series of steps that an UCE configuration application can perform when configuring an UCE device to operate with a specific set of devices is similar. Accordingly, it will be appreciated that the methods comprising the illustrative UCE configuration application presented below together with Figures 8 and 9 can be applied in general, mutatis mutandis, to various alternative configuration application embodiments.

With reference to Figure 8, as is known in the art, a tablet computer, such as illustrative device 202 of Figure 2, may comprise, as necessary for a particular application, a processor 800 memory 802, whose memory It may comprise a combination of ROM, RAM and / or non-volatile read / write memory and may take the form of a chip, a hard disk, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a memory card, etc., or Any combination thereof. In some embodiments, it can also be provided for the coupling of external memory 804 that can take the form of an SD card, a memory card or the like. The hardware that is provided as part of an illustrative tablet computer platform may include an LCD touch screen 810 with an associated display controller 806 and a touch interface 808; 812 hard keys, such as an on / off key; a USB 816 port; a transceiver and an 818 WiFi interface; a transceiver and a Bluetooth 820 interface; a camera 822; and various other features 824 as appropriate for a particular embodiment, for example an accelerometer, a GPS, an ambient light sensor, a near field communicator; etc. The electronic components comprising the illustrative tablet computer device 202 can be powered by an internal battery source 814, rechargeable, for example, via the USB interface 816.

The 802 memory may include executable instructions that are intended to be executed by the processor 800 to control the operation of the device of the tablet computer 202 and to implement various functionalities such as web browsing, game playback, video streaming, etc. As is known in the art, programming comprising additional functionalities (called "applications") can be downloaded to the tablet computer 202 via, for example, the WiFi interface 818, the USB 816, the external memory 804 or any other method convenient. As discussed above, one of these applications may comprise a remote control application, for example, as described in US Patent Application No. 13 / 329,940 in process of the same assignee, whose application may be used to order the operation of the devices 106, 108, 110 and / or 120 by means of the UCE 100 device. To initially configure the UCE 100 device to match the devices to be controlled and establish an appropriate command matrix, the tablet computer 202 can also be provided with a configuration application 214, either as part of a remote control application or as a separately downloadable element.

Referring now to Figure 9, such a configuration application, when invoked in step 902, may initially request that the user put all the devices to be controlled in a known state, for example, on, to enable the detection and / or test stages of devices that follow. Then, in step 904, the configuration application can determine the identity of those devices that are enabled for the CEC. This can be achieved by communicating a request to the associated UCE, which in step 906 may cause the UCE programming to search for HDMI devices connected to devices that are enabled for the CEC and / or identifiable through interaction through the user interface. HDMI, for example, as described in US Patent Application No. 13 / 198,072 in process, of the same assignee, and communicate such device identities to the configuration application. Subsequently, in step 904, the configuration application can determine whether additional non-CEC devices are connected to the UCE device via the HDMI interface. This can be achieved by requesting UCE programming to search for any additional HDMI connection in step 910 and communicate the findings to the configuration application. Although not illustrated, it will be appreciated that when appropriate for a particular embodiment, UCE programming can perform similar searches to discover devices connected via ethernet, USB, Bluetooth, RF4CE, WiFi, etc., where such an UCE can be provided interfaces

Subsequently, in step 912, the configuration application may display a list of the detected devices (both identified and not yet identified) to the user. In step 914, the user may be asked to enter the device identification information for those devices connected via HDMI or connected in another way, which were detected but not identified, as well as identification information with respect to any additional device. that may be part of the system to be controlled but that have not been detectable as described above (for example, devices such as the AV receiver 120 or the CD player 408 that can respond only to unidirectional IR commands). Such identification information may take the form of, without being limited to, data entered by the user, such as a device type, brand and model number, or a configuration code of a listing in a user guide; or it may take the form of scanned or electronic information, such as a digital image of the device itself or of a bar code, the QR code or the like associated with the device; acquisition of near-field RFID tag data; etc.; or any combination thereof as appropriate for a particular embodiment.

Once the appropriate identification information has been acquired, in step 916, the configuration application can communicate that information to a database server, for example server 206, for the realization of step 918, which comprises the identification and recovery of the set of command codes and the capacity data corresponding to the devices identified from a database 207, and the provision of this data to the configuration application for processing and final transfer to the UCE device. As will be appreciated, the data in the set of transferred codes may comprise command data values and format information, may comprise pointers for ordering data values and format information already stored in memories 502 and / or 802/804 of the ECU or the device on which the configuration application currently resides, or a combination thereof. When necessary, for example, when the database 207 may contain sets of alternative codes for an identified device, or when there is uncertainty regarding a model number of the particular device, etc., in steps 920, 922 and 924 It can be tested with various control paradigms and / or command data sets with respect to the devices to be controlled. Such tests may take the form of a user response request to observable effect commands, monitor changes in HDMI interface status as described, for example, in US Patent Application No. 13 / 240,604, of the same assignee, and incorporated in this document by reference in its entirety, or any other method as appropriate for a particular application. Once the appropriate code sets have been completely determined, in steps 926, 928 and 930 a suitable preferred command matrix, for example, as illustrated in Figure 7, can be constructed and stored within memory 502 of the Illustrative UCE device 100, the matrix is constructed considering the communication capabilities and functionalities of the devices identified by the processes described above.

To select the optimal command method for each function of each configured device, any suitable method can be used, for example, a prioritization in the entire media system and command methods according to desirability (for example, apply IP, CEC, IR in descending order); device-specific command maps according to brand and / or model; priority and / or preference maps of specific functions (for example, all volume function commands via IR when available); etc.; or any combination thereof. The exact selection of the command method or mapping priorities can take into account factors such as the reliability of the connection, for example, wired versus wireless communication, bidirectional versus unidirectional communication, etc .; transmission speed or command execution; internal priorities within a device, for example, packets received from IP processed before packets received from CEC, etc .; type of protocol compatibility (for example, error correction versus error detection; ack / nak, etc.); or any other factors that can be applied to achieve optimum performance of a particular embodiment.

As will be appreciated, the construction of said preferred command matrix can be performed on the database server or within the configuration application, or a combination thereof, depending on the particular embodiment. Once a preferred command matrix has been finalized and stored in the UCE device, in step 932 a series of desired device configurations associated with specific user activities can be configured and stored within the UCE device, as will be described. now.

By completing and storing a preferred array of commands, an illustrative configuration application can guide subsequently to a user, through a series of steps, to establish the desired device configurations for a series of possible activities. With reference to figure 10, in step 1002, the user may be presented with a list of possible activities, for example, "Watch TV", "Watch a movie", "Listen to music", etc. In some embodiments, the user may also edit activity titles and / or create additional user-defined activities. In step 1004, a user can select a particular activity for the configuration, for example, "Watch TV". In step 1006, the user may be asked to identify the content source for the activity being configured, for example, the STB / DVR cable 110 for the illustrative activity "Watch TV". Said application may take the form of a list of eligible devices as determined during the previous device configuration stages; explicit user input of a device type; etc. Then, in step 1008, the user can similarly be asked to select audio and video rendering devices for use in this activity, for example, television 106 and AVR receiver 120 respectively. Depending on the topography of the system and the interfaces in use (ie, HDMI / CEC, IP, analog, etc.), the configuration application together with the UCE programming may be able to determine which input port of each rendering apparatus is coupled to the content source apparatus identified for this activity and / or if any intermediate switching apparatus is in use (for example, the AV receiver 420 of the system illustrated in Figure 4). When such information can be obtained, the configuration application can automatically create all or part of a selection of rendering device input, appropriate for the activity being configured. If not, in steps 1008 and 1010, the user can be additionally requested to identify the content path (s) applicable to the rendering devices, for example, the input port numbers, the presence of switches intermediate, etc. During or after the conclusion of steps 1004 to 1010, the configuration application may construct an activity matrix, for example, as illustrated in Figure 11. By way of example, the activity matrix 1100 for an activity of " Watching television "may comprise a series of cells, for example 1110 or 1112, each corresponding to a desired configuration of a particular state 1106 or function 1108 of a specific apparatus 1104 during the specified activity. As an example, cell 1110 may indicate that the input of the AV receiver 120 should be assigned to "S / PDIF2", while cells 1112 and 1114 may indicate that the transport function commands (for example, "play "," pause "," advance ", etc.) should be directed to STB / DVR 110 and not to DVD 114. In this regard, it will be appreciated that, although in some embodiments the assignment of functions such as, for example, control volume, to specific devices during a particular activity can be performed within an individual control device, that is, the control device can determine the device to which the volume control commands should be directed, in a preferred embodiment this assignment is It can be carried out within the UCE, thus guaranteeing uniformity in each activity when multiple control devices are present in an environment, for example, devices 102 and 104 of the environment illustrated in Figure 1.

Returning now to Figure 10, in steps 1014 and 1016, the newly constructed activity matrix 1100 can be tested causing UCE programming, using the preferred command matrix 700, to issue the necessary commands to put the identified devices in the state desired and then receive verification at step 1018 that the desired activity was successfully initiated. It will be appreciated that such verification may comprise, for example, the detection and notification of HDMI or other content transmissions and / or device states by programming UCE by directly monitoring the status of CEC or using methods such as those described, for example , in U.S. Patent Application No. 13 / 240,604; the user input request confirming the correct operation; the presence or absence of analog input signals monitoring; device status record or error messages; etc.; or any combination thereof as appropriate for a particular embodiment.

If the test is unsuccessful, in step 1018, the configuration application may return to step 1002 to allow reconfiguration of that activity and / or the definition of alternative activities. If the test is successful, in steps 1020 and 1022, the completed activity matrix, for example 1100 as illustrated in Figure 11, can be transferred to the UCE 100 for storage in the memory of UCE 502. Subsequently, in the stage 1024 may offer the user the opportunity to return to step 1002 to define additional activity configurations, for example 1101, 1102 as illustrated in Figure 11, or to exit the activity configuration process.

Referring now to Figure 13, the series of steps performed by the UCE programming to transmit a function command to an apparatus according to a command request 1300 received from a control device, such as remote control 102 or 200, the smart device 104 or 202, etc., or according to an internally generated requirement that results from the reception of an activity request (as will be described later), the data element corresponding to the data matrix that initially corresponds to the requested command and to the target device. By way of a specific example, the reception of a request to "turn on the television" of the remote control 102 or the like in a UEC provided with the preferred command matrices illustrated in Figure 7 can cause the recovery of the data element 720, which indicates that the command must be communicated to the television set, for example, the television 106, using an HDMI CEC command. In step 1304, the UCE programming can determine whether the recovered value constitutes a null element. If so, the referred device is not compatible with the requested command and, therefore, in step 1314 an error message can be generated and the process will be terminated later. As will be appreciated, the exact nature of said error message may depend on the particular embodiment and / or the requesting control device: for example, if the request originated from a control device that is in two-way communication with the ECU, the error can be communicated to the device requesting the action, that is, show it to the user, illuminate an LED, activate a bell, etc., as appropriate appropriate. Alternatively, in those embodiments in which an ECU is incorporated in a device, the front display screen of that device can be used.

If the data of the preferred command matrix element recovered is valid, in step 1306, the ECU can communicate the function command corresponding to the target apparatus using the indicated command value and transmission method, for example, for the element of illustrative data 720 this may comprise the issuance of a CEC command to "turn on" to the zero address of the CEC logical device (television) via the UCE interface HDMI 508. Once the command has been issued, at the stage 1308, the UCE programming can determine if the communication interface and the protocol used to issue the command provide some confirmation mechanism, that is, an explicit receipt confirmation, the monitoring of the HDMI status on an interface, the detection of a flow of media or HDCP link protocol, etc. Otherwise, if not, for example, the command was issued using a unidirectional IR signal and there are no other confirmation means available, such as monitoring of the power supply or of the input signal, the UCE programming can simply assume that The command was successful and the processing is complete. However, if confirmation means exist, in step 1310, the UCE programming can wait to determine if the command was executed successfully. Once the positive confirmation is received, the processing is complete. If a confirmation is not received or a negative confirmation is received, in step 1312, the UCE programming can determine if there is an alternative method available to communicate the command to the target device. Returning to the specific example presented above, this may include access to a secondary array of commands 716 to determine if an alternative communication method is available for the specific function, for example, "turn on television." If an alternative exists, in step 1316 the replacement command value can be retrieved and the transmission method and processing can return to step 1306 to initiate an alternative attempt. Returning again to the specific example, if the "on" command of CEC corresponding to data element 720 of matrix 700 issued to the television 106 cannot be confirmed, an IR "on" command encoded according to the control system Sony infrared (SIRCS) in correspondence with the equivalent data element in the secondary array 716 can be attempted as a substitute.

In addition to transmitting individual command requests as described above, an illustrative UCE can also be compatible with the selection of activity, so receiving a single user request from a control device can cause a series of messages to be issued. commands to several devices to configure a system properly for a particular user activity, such as watching television. For this purpose, a set of matrices that define the desired states of the equipment suitable for various activities, for example, as illustrated in 1100 to 1102 of Figure 11, can be stored in the memory of UCE 502 to be accessed by programming UCE when a request of this type is executed. As illustrated in Figure 12, in some embodiments, the programming of an illustrative UCE may maintain an additional matrix 1200 representative of the current state of the controlled devices, arranged, for example, by the device 1202 and the operational state 1204. A As an example, data elements 1206 and 1208 in the illustrative table 1200 may indicate that the television 106 is turned on (1208) with the HDMI port number 2 selected as input (1206). The data content of the elements in such a table can be maintained in any convenient manner as appropriate for a particular embodiment, for example, without being limited to, the recovery of the status of HD-MI / CEC; monitor input media streams and / or HDCP status; measure energy consumption; the construction of a simulated apparatus state as described, for example, in US Patent 6,784,805; etc.; or any combination thereof. In the case of certain devices, such as, for example, the AV receiver 120 that can be controllable only by unidirectional IR, the current state of the device may not be discernible. In such cases, a null data element 1210 may be entered in the illustrative matrix 1200 to indicate that this apparatus may require a configuration using only discrete commands and / or user interaction. As will be appreciated, in some embodiments the data content of the illustrative table can be kept in memory 502 continuously by programming UCE, while in other embodiments, this data can be collected "on the fly" at the time. in which the activity request is processed. Combinations of these methods can also be used, for example, the "on the fly" collection of devices connected via an HDMI bus combined with the maintenance of a simulated state for devices controlled by IR signals.

To configure a group of devices for a desired activity, the UCE programming can compare a desired state matrix, for example, 1100, with a current state matrix, for example 1200, element by element, issuing the necessary commands to carry the appliances to the desired state. By way of example, an illustrative series of steps that can be performed by programming a UCE to perform a "Watch TV" activity configuration will now be presented along with Figure 14. For the purposes of this example, the reader can also wish to refer to the configuration of the equipment of figure 1 and the current activity and status matrices 1100 and 1200 of figures 11 and 12.

Upon receiving the 1400 "Watch TV" request, in step 1402, the illustrative UCE programming can access an applicable device status matrix 1100. Next, in step 1404 it can be determined by programming the UCE if the current "on" state of the television 106, as indicated by the current state matrix 1200, matches the desired state stored in the corresponding data element of matrix 1100. If the states coincide, the processing can continue in step 1408. If the states do not match, in step 1406 a "turn on" command can be communicated to the television 106. As will be seen in the previous discussion together with Figure 13 and inspection of the illustrative preferred command matrix 700, the illustrative communication system of the "turn on" command to the television 106 may comprise a CEC command issued via the HDMI 112 connection. Next, in step 1408 a "mute" command can be communicated to television 106, since element 1116 of illustrative matrix 1100 indicates that television 106 is not the primary audio rendering apparatus. According to the preferred command matrix 700, the communication of the "silence" command to the television 106 may comprise an IR transmission 114. Subsequently, in steps 1410, 1412, the active input of the television 106 can be assigned to "HDMI1 "by means of a CEC command, and in steps 1414, 1416 a" turn on "command of CEC can be communicated to the STB / DVR 110 if that apparatus is not yet turned on. In step 1418, the illustrative UCE programming may establish an internal state to indicate that future transport command requests (for example, play, pause, FF, etc.) should be directed to STB / DVR 110, as indicated by the element 1112 of matrix 1100. Thereafter, in steps 1420, 1422, a "shutdown" command of the CEC can be communicated to the STB / DVR 108 if that apparatus is not yet turned off. Then, in steps 1424 and 1426, the "turn on" and "S / PDIF2 input" commands can be communicated to the AV receiver 120 via IR signals. As will be appreciated, it may not be possible to determine the current state of the AV receiver 120, as indicated, for example, by elements 1210 and 1220 of the array 1200 and, therefore, the so-called function commands may be issued " discrete "or explicit that you can set the desired state regardless of the current state of the device. Finally, in step 1428, the illustrative UCE programming may establish an internal state to indicate that future volume control command requests (eg volume up / down, mute) should be routed to the AV receiver 120, as indicates element 1118 of matrix 1100, after which the processing of the activity request is complete.

As indicated above, the illustrative UCE can also be compatible with the selection of activities, so receiving a single user request from a smart device can cause a series of commands to be issued to several devices to configure a system appropriately for one or more user activities, such as "watch TV", "watch movie", "listen to music", etc. To configure the user interface of the smart device to be compatible with such macro command functionality, an illustrative method is illustrated in Figure 15. More particularly, with reference to Figure 15, after the invocation of a configuration application in step 1502, a user can be requested to put all the devices to be controlled in a known state, for example, on or already connected to a wireless network, to enable the detection and / or testing stages of the device that follow. Then, in step 1504, the configuration application can determine the identity of those devices that are enabled for the CEC or the IP. This can be achieved by communicating a request to the associated UCE, which in step 1506 may cause the UCE programming to search for HDMI devices connected to devices that are enabled for the CEC and / or identifiable through interaction through the user interface. HDMI; as described, for example, in the US patent application with pending procedure No. 13 / 198,072, of the same assignee, and communicating said device identities to the configuration application. Then, in step 1508, the configuration application can also determine if the devices have any associated icon information (for example, stored as metadata in the device, available from a remote server, or the like), as well as information related to Interface connection types, for example, the WI-FI, HDMI input / output, for use in creating compatible macros. If the icon information is available, the icon information may be sent to the smart device by the device and / or retrieved by the smart device using other information provided by the device as appropriate, as shown in step 1526. An icon which corresponds to the icon information can then be automatically added to the user interface of the smart device, after which an aggregate icon activation can be used to provide access to the command and control functions associated with the corresponding controllable device, including commands in the form of a list of automatically generated macros available for that controllable device as described below. Therefore, the icon information provided to the smart device can be used together with the information stored in the smart device, stored in the internet cloud and / or on a remote server to automatically add an icon to the device user interface Smart where the icon can be in the form of a logo for the controllable device, icons in the form of logos for the content (for example, television channel logos) that can be accessed through the controllable device, etc. In a further illustrative embodiment, the icons can function as programmable keys that can be selected to cause the execution of an additional action, for example, displaying a device control page (for example, presenting programmable television control keys such as upstream channel). , channel down, etc.), cause the transmission of commands, etc. as described, for example, in U.S. Patent Application No. 10 / 288,727, (now U.S. Patent 7,831,930) of the same assignee, or any other method that is convenient for a particular application.

The configuration application then continues with step 1510 (after searching for devices connected to the CEC, as discussed above), in which the configuration application can then determine if there are additional non-CEC devices connected to the UCE device via the HDMI interface. This can be achieved by requesting UCE programming to search for more HDMI connections in step 1512 and communicate the findings to the configuration application. Although not illustrated, it will be appreciated that, when appropriate for a particular embodiment, UCE programming can perform similar searches to discover devices connected via ethernet, USB, Bluetooth, RF4CE, WiFi, etc., where such interfaces may be provided in an ECU.

Subsequently, in step 1514, the configuration application may display a list of the detected devices (both identified and not yet identified) for the user. In step 1516, the user can be requested to enter the device identification information for those HDMI devices, or connected in another way, which were detected but not identified, as well as identification information regarding any additional device. that may be part of the system to be controlled but were not discoverable as described above (for example, devices such as the AV receiver 120 or the CD player 408 that can respond only to unidirectional IR commands). Without limitation, such identification information may take the form of data entered by the user, such as a type of device, brand and model number, or a configuration code of a listing in a user guide; or it may take the form of scanned or electronic information, such as a digital image of the device itself or of a bar code, a QR code or the like associated with the device; the acquisition of near-field RFID tag data; the MAC address; etc.; or any combination thereof as appropriate for a particular embodiment.

Once the appropriate identification information has been acquired, in step 1518, the configuration application can communicate that information to a database server, for example, server 206, for the realization of step 1520 in which The database server uses the identification information to retrieve the icon information as necessary (for example, when such data could not be obtained from the apparatus), the command information as discussed above, and in step 1522, to automatically generate macros corresponding to the device or a plurality of devices considering that their capacity data is maintained in a database 207 and / or as recovered from the devices. Any such information obtained and / or created by the server 206 will then be provided to the configuration application for processing and final transfer to the smart and / or UCE device as required. As will be appreciated, the information and / or the metadata transferred can include complete command data values, device input / output data and current status, format information, pointers to sort data values and format information already stored in memories 502 and / or 802 / 804 of the UCE or the device where the configuration application currently resides, etc. When necessary, for example, when database 207 may contain sets of alternative codes, icon metadata or macro information for an identified device, or when there is uncertainty regarding the model number of a particular device, etc., in stages 1528, 1530 and 1522, various control paradigms and / or sets of command data can be tested with respect to the devices to be controlled. Such tests may take the form of requesting the user's response to observable effects commands, monitoring changes in the status of the HDMI interface as described, for example, in US Patent Application No. 13 / 240,604, of same assignee, or any other method that is convenient for a particular application. Once the appropriate sets of codes and macro operations have been fully determined, in steps 1528 and 1530 an appropriate preferred user profile 1524 can be constructed, and stored in memory 502 of the illustrative UCE device 100, the profile being constructed of user 1524 considering the communication capabilities and functionalities of the devices identified by the processes described above.

To select the optimal command method for each function of each configured device, any suitable method can be used, for example, a prioritization in the entire media system and command methods according to desirability (for example, apply IP, CEC, IR in descending order); device-specific command maps according to brand and / or model; priority and / or preference maps of specific functions (for example, all volume function commands via IR when available); etc.; or any combination thereof. The exact selection of the command method or mapping priorities can take into account factors such as the reliability of the connection, for example, wired versus wireless communication, bidirectional versus unidirectional communication, etc .; transmission speed or command execution; internal priorities within a device, for example, packets received from IP processed before packets received from CEC, etc .; type of protocol compatibility (for example, error correction versus error detection; ack / nak, etc.); or any other factors that can be applied to achieve optimum performance of a particular embodiment.

As will be appreciated, the construction of said user profile 1524 can be carried out on the database server or within the configuration application, or a combination thereof, depending on the particular embodiment.

While several concepts have been described in detail, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications and alternatives to those concepts could be developed in light of the general teachings of the description. For example, in an alternative embodiment of the UCE functionality, instead of a preferred command array, as illustrated in Figure 7, the programming of an illustrative UCE may use a command prioritization list, for example a list of commands. "IP, CEC, IR" prioritization can cause UCE programming to first determine if the requested command can be issued using the internet protocol, only otherwise, then determine if the requested command can be issued using a CEC command via the HDMI interface, and, only otherwise, then try to issue the requested command using an infrared signal. This prioritization reflects an illustrative preference of using two-way communication protocols before unidirectional communication protocols, and before line-of-sight communication protocols, for example IR, when they are compatible with the intended target device.

In addition, although described in the context of the functional modules and illustrated using the block diagram format, it should be understood that, unless otherwise indicated, one or more of the functions and / or features described can be integrated into a single physical device and / or a software module, or one or more functions and / or features can be implemented in separate physical devices or software modules. It will also be appreciated that a detailed discussion of the actual implementation of each module is not necessary to allow an enabling understanding of the invention. Rather, the actual implementation of such modules would easily be within the routine skill of an engineer, given the description of the attributes in this document, the functionality and the interrelation of the various functional modules in the system. Therefore, a person skilled in the art, applying an ordinary skill, can practice the invention set forth in the claims without undue experimentation. It will be further appreciated that the particular concepts described are intended to be illustrative only and not limiting as to the scope of the invention to which the full extent of the appended claims and any equivalents thereof should be given.

Claims (12)

1. A method for controlling a functional operation of an intended target apparatus (106, 108, 112, 120), comprising: in response to a detected presence of the intended target device (106, 108, 112, 120) within a logical topography of controllable devices using the identity information associated with the intended target device to automatically add to a graphical user interface of a device of control (200, 202) a representative icon of the intended target apparatus and to create in a universal control tool (100) a list of communication methods for use in the control of the corresponding functional operations of the intended target apparatus (106, 108, 112, 120); Y In response to a detected activation of the representative icon of the intended target apparatus (106, 108, 112, 120), as added to the graphical user interface of the control device (200, 202), it causes the control device to set in an appropriate operating state to control the functional operations of the intended target apparatus, while causing the universal control tool (100) to use at least one of a plurality of communication methods in the list of communication methods that has been associated with the intended target apparatus for transmitting to the intended target apparatus, at least one command to place the intended target apparatus in a predetermined operational state, where to put the control device (200, 202) in an appropriate operating state to control the functional operations of the intended target apparatus (106, 108, 112, 120) comprises causing the control device to display a user interface page graphic river with activatable icons representative of controllable functions of the intended target device, where the activatable icons of the graphic user interface page comprise activatable icons that have logos representative of the media content that can be accessed by the intended target device ( 106, 108, 112, 120), and where the representative logo of the media content that can be accessed through the intended target device is automatically filled in the activatable icons by using the identity information associated with the target device planned (106, 108, 112, 120). 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the identity information includes the icon metadata provided to the control device (200, 202) from the intended target apparatus (106, 108, 112, 120) and wherein the control device (200, 202) uses the icon metadata to automatically add the representative icon of the intended target device to the graphic user interface of the control device. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the identity information includes the icon metadata provided to the control device (200, 202) from a server device located remotely and where the control device uses the icon metadata to automatically add the representative icon of the intended target device to the graphic user interface of the control device 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein, in response to the detected activation of the representative icon of the intended target apparatus (106, 108, 112, 120), as added to the graphic user interface of the control device (200 , 202), the universal control tool (100) is caused to execute an automatically generated macro script to put at least one more controllable apparatus within the logical topography of controllable devices in a corresponding predetermined operational state. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the control device (200, 202) comprises a smartphone or a tablet computer device. 6. The method according to claim 1, comprising causing the control device (200, 202) to detect the presence of the intended target apparatus (106, 108, 112, 120) within the logical topography of the controllable devices. 7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the control device (200, 202) uses an interchanged communication by using a Bluetooth communication protocol to detect the presence of the intended target apparatus (106, 108, 112, 120 ) within the logical topography of controllable devices. The method according to claim 6, which comprises placing the intended target apparatus (106, 108, 112, 120) in a predetermined state to facilitate detection of the intended target apparatus within the logical topography of controllable devices. 9. The method according to claim 1, comprising detecting by means of an apparatus having the universal control tool (100) the presence of the intended target apparatus (106, 108, 112, 120) within the logical topography of the controllable devices. 10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the apparatus having the universal control tool (100) uses an interchanged communication by using a Bluetooth communication protocol to detect the presence of the intended target apparatus within the logical topography of Controllable devices 11. The method according to claim 1, comprising requesting a user to provide data indicative of the identity information associated with the intended target apparatus in response to a detected presence of the apparatus intended objective within a logical topography of controllable devices. 12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the intended target device comprises the universal control tool (100).