JPH0759170A - Remote control device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] To improve operability by changing the direction of the remote control transmitter and selecting a menu. [Structure] Sensors 2 and 3 output outputs based on angular velocities of a remote control transmitter 1 in a horizontal direction and a vertical direction, respectively. AM
P6 and 7 amplify the outputs of the sensors 2 and 3 so that the remote control transmitter 1 has a reference voltage when it is stationary. As a result, it is possible to know whether the outputs of the AMPs 6 and 7 are positive or negative with respect to the reference voltage and the change in the azimuth angle of the remote control transmitter 1 depending on the magnitude thereof. This change is encoded and transmitted by the μ-COM 10. The μ-COM 17 of the television receiver 15 moves the cursor on the menu display based on the transmitted code. As a result, the menu can be selected by changing the direction of the main body of the remote control transmitter 1, and the operability is improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[Object of the Invention]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a remote control device suitable for remote control of a device having a display screen such as a television receiver.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the number of devices that employ remote control has increased, and it has become possible to easily operate each device remotely. Many television receivers are also equipped with a remote control unit to improve operability. A remote control transmitter of a remote control device (hereinafter referred to as a remote control device) adopted in a television receiver is provided with a numeric key, a down key, a volume key, a power key, etc. for directly designating a channel. The remote control transmitter transmits a code based on a user's key operation by infrared light, for example. The television receiver is equipped with a remote control receiver and a microcomputer. The remote control receiver receives infrared light and demodulates it, and the microcomputer controls the channel selection etc. according to the demodulated code. It has become.

By the way, in recent years, the functions of television receivers have been expanded, and the number of keys to be arranged in the remote control transmitter is increasing so that these functions can be controlled. Therefore, an erroneous operation is likely to occur and the operability is deteriorated.

Therefore, conventionally, a remote control device having improved operability may be employed by displaying a menu which is a list of various control functions of the television receiver using a television screen. Such a conventional remote control device is disclosed in JP-A-60-212064. According to this proposal, various control functions of the television receiver are selected by a menu method. A menu is displayed on the screen by the user's key operation on the remote control transmitter. While viewing the menu on the screen, the user operates the selection key to select the desired menu and instructs the execution of the selected control function with the execution key. The microcomputer performs various controls based on the selected menu. Thus, by operating only the selection key, one of various control functions can be selected and executed. The selection operation of the control function in the menu format is simpler and less erroneous than the method of selecting and operating a predetermined key corresponding to each control function from a large number of keys arranged on the remote control transmitter.

However, in this method, the user has to confirm the menu on the television screen after operating the keys of the remote control transmitter. That is, there is a problem that it is necessary to perform the operation while alternately viewing both the remote control transmitter and the television screen, and the operability has not been sufficiently improved.

[0006]

As described above, in the above-described conventional remote control device, when the menu system is adopted, the confirmation of the menu on the TV screen and the confirmation of the key of the remote control transmitter are alternately performed. It had to be performed, and there was a problem that operability was poor.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is possible to improve the operability by making it possible to control the remotely controlled device by changing the azimuth angle of the remote control transmitter. It is an object of the present invention to provide a remote control device that can be used.

[Structure of Invention]

A remote control device according to the present invention is provided with a remote control transmitter having a plurality of keys for instructing execution of a predetermined control function, and the remote control transmitter. And a sensor that outputs a signal based on a change in the azimuth angle of the remote control transmitter by determining the angular velocity of the remote control transmitter, and a signal based on the plurality of keys and the sensor provided in the remote control transmitter. And a transmission means for transmitting a signal from the remote controlled device to the remote controlled device.

[0009]

In the present invention, the sensor outputs a signal based on the change in the azimuth angle of the remote control transmitter. This signal is sent to the remote-controlled equipment together with a signal based on a plurality of keys arranged on the remote control transmitter by the transmitting means. That is, not only the key operation of the keys provided on the remote control transmitter but also the remote controlled device can be controlled by changing the direction of the remote control transmitter, and the operability of remote operation is improved.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a remote control device according to the present invention.

The remote control transmitter 1 is a television receiver.
In addition to the 15 keys for tuning, adjusting the volume, controlling the power on / off and various other functions, there is also an execution key for selecting and executing the menu specified by the cursor displayed on the screen. ing. Remote control transmitter 1
Emits a code based on these key operations by, for example, infrared light.

In this embodiment, the remote control transmitter 1
Has built-in sensors 2 and 3 for detecting the angular velocity thereof. X in the horizontal direction in the plane perpendicular to the infrared light emission direction
When the vertical direction is made to correspond to the axis and the vertical direction is made to correspond to the Y axis, the sensors 2 and 3 detect the angular velocities of the remote control transmitter 1 in the X-axis (horizontal) direction and the Y-axis (vertical) direction, respectively. As the sensors 2 and 3, for example, a gyro (ENC-05S) manufactured by Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. is adopted. When the angular velocity of this gyro changes, the oscillation frequency of the built-in vibrator changes, and this change is converted into a change in voltage and output. The remote control transmitter 1 is also provided with an adjustment button 13 and a gyro button 14.

The remote control transmitter 1 is constituted by the sensors 2 and 3.
The X-axis and Y-axis movements of are detected as the angular velocity component of the rotational movement. The outputs of the sensors 2 and 3 are the filters 4 and 4, respectively.
Given to 5. The filters 4 and 5 remove the direct current (DC) component and high frequency noise contained in the output components of the sensors 2 and 3 and give them to the AMPs 6 and 7. The AMPs 6 and 7 amplify the outputs of the filters 4 and 5 by direct current to thereby amplify them to a necessary voltage. In this case, the displacement of the remote control transmitter 1 is 0,
That is, the voltage when the remote control transmitter 1 is stationary is amplified so as to match the predetermined reference DC voltage Vref. As a result, the change in the azimuth angle of the remote control transmitter 1 in the X and Y axis directions is given by the voltage excursion with respect to the predetermined reference DC voltage Vref. For example, remote control transmitter 1
Is moved in the + direction (right or upward direction) of the X-axis or Y-axis, the DC voltage from the AMPs 6, 7 becomes higher than the voltage Vref, and when moved in the-direction (left or downward direction), the voltage V
It becomes lower than ref, and the voltage deviation from the voltage Vref increases according to the movement amount. A voltage of 2.5 V, for example, is applied as the reference DC voltage.

The outputs of the AMPs 6 and 7 are given to the A / D converters 8 and 9, respectively.
Output to 10). μ-COM10 has adjustment button 13
Is connected to the power supply terminal 12 via the gyro button 14 and is also connected to the power supply terminal 12 via the gyro button 14. The μ-COM 10 calculates the motion of the remote control transmitter 1 from the outputs of the A / D converters 8 and 9 and supplies the motion data to the transmitter 11. Note that μ-
The COM 10 calculates the movement of the remote control transmitter 1 only when the gyro button 14 is turned on. The transmission unit 11 transmits motion data to a television receiver by infrared light, for example.
Send to 15.

The television receiver 15 includes a light receiving portion 16 and a μ
-COM17 is provided. The light receiving unit 16 receives the infrared light from the transmitting unit 11, demodulates it, and gives it to the μ-COM 17. μ-
The COM 17 decodes the demodulated code and controls each unit according to the decoding result, so that the remote control transmitter 1
The control function based on the key operation of is realized. Further, in the present embodiment, the μ-COM 17 is the television receiver 15
By controlling an on-screen display device (not shown) built into the computer, a menu, which is a list of control functions, can be displayed on the screen. The μ-COM 17 divides the screen into a plurality of areas and displays various control functions of the menu in correspondence with each of these divided areas.

Further, the μ-COM 17 can display a cursor for selecting each menu. The .mu.-COM 17 is also given motion data from the light receiving section 16, and controls the on-screen display device based on this motion data to move the cursor on the menu. When the execution key provided in the remote control transmitter 1 is operated, the μ-COM 17 determines which divided area on the screen the cursor has moved to, and realizes the control function corresponding to this divided area. In order to do so, each part of the television receiver is controlled.

In this case, the μ-COM 17 moves the cursor during the ON period of the gyro button 14 of the remote control transmitter 1 and turns off the gyro button 14 to fix the cursor position. Therefore, the ON operation of the execution key is not recognized during the ON period of the gyro button 14.

Next, the operation of the embodiment thus constructed will be described with reference to FIGS. 2A and 2B are explanatory views for explaining the operation of the embodiment. FIG. 2A shows the relationship between the moving direction of the remote control transmitter 1 and the angular velocity component, and FIG. 2B shows the television receiver 15. Shows a divided area on the screen. 3 is a waveform diagram for explaining the operation of the embodiment, FIG. 3 (a) shows the output of the sensor 2 in the X-axis direction, and FIG. 3 (b) shows the output of the amplifier 6.
FIG. 3C shows the digital conversion operation of the A / D converter 8, and FIG. 3D shows the motion data from the μ-COM 10. Further, FIG. 4 is a flow chart for explaining the processing of the μ-COM 17.

The μ-COM 17 of the television receiver 15 is
As shown in FIG. 2B, the display screen 21 is divided into 4 × 4 = 16 divided regions A to P, and these divided regions A to P are divided.
It is assumed that 16 control functions are assigned to each of the above. When the menu display is instructed by the user's key operation of the remote control transmitter 1, the μ-COM 17 displays the menu screen 22 which is a list of control functions corresponding to the divided areas A to P, respectively. Note that the actual menu display is omitted in FIG.

The μ-COM 17 also displays a cursor 23 on the display screen 21 when displaying a menu. here,
It is assumed that the user changes the direction of the remote control transmitter 1 while pressing the gyro button 14. The rotational movement of the remote control transmitter 1 is detected by the sensors 2 and 3. That is, the sensors 2 and 3 detect the angular velocities in the X and Y axis directions, respectively, and output the output at the level according to the change in the azimuth angle. FIG. 3A shows that the remote control transmitter 1 is large in the right direction, large in the left direction, small in the right direction, small in the left direction, large in the right direction, ...

The outputs of the sensors 2 and 3 (FIG. 3 (a)) are applied to filters 4 and 5, respectively, to remove the DC component and noise. The outputs of the filters 4 and 5 are amplified by the AMPs 6 and 7 so that the voltage at the stationary position becomes 2.5 V as shown in FIG. The outputs of the AMPs 6 and 7 are converted into digital signals by the A / D converters 8 and 9, respectively. The A / D converters 8 and 9 quantize the outputs of the AMPs 6 and 7 by sampling at sampling points a, b, c, ... As shown in FIG. FIG. 3C shows that the quantized outputs at points a to f are 4, 5, 6, 5, 3, 1. μ
-COM10 codes the quantized outputs from the A / D converters 8 and 9 as shown in FIG.
The transmitter 11 modulates infrared light with this code and outputs it to the television receiver 15 as motion data.

The light receiving section 16 of the television receiver 15 receives the infrared light and demodulates it, and gives motion data to the μ-COM 17. The μ-COM 17 controls an on-screen display device (not shown) based on the motion data to display a display screen 21.
Move the cursor 23 above. That is, the .mu.-COM 17 stores the amount of change in the horizontal azimuth angle of the remote control transmitter 1 from the horizontal movement data in step S1 of FIG. In the next step S2, the μ-COM 17 determines whether or not the azimuth angle of the remote control transmitter 1 in the left-right direction has changed. If the azimuth angle in the horizontal direction has changed, the cursor 23 is moved according to the amount of change in step S3.

For example, the μ-COM 17 receives "0110" as the movement data in the X-axis direction, that is,
When the output of the AMP6 is large in the positive direction with 2.5V as the reference, the cursor is largely moved to the right and positioned at the right end of the screen. On the contrary, when “0001” is given as the movement data in the X-axis direction, that is, when the output of the AMP6 is large in the negative direction with 2.5V as the reference, the cursor is largely moved to the left and the screen is displayed. Located at the left end of. Also, as motion data in the X-axis direction, "0100"
Is given, that is, when the output of the AMP6 is 2.5V, the cursor is not moved.

Similarly, the μ-COM 17 executes the next step S
In 4, the amount of change in the vertical azimuth of the remote control transmitter 1 is stored from the vertical motion data. In the next step S5, it is determined whether or not the azimuth angle of the remote control transmitter 1 has changed in the vertical direction, and if there is a change, the cursor 23 is moved in the vertical direction in step S6.

Now, it is assumed that the cursor 23 is located on the center of the display screen 21 (the stationary position in FIG. 2B). Here, it is assumed that the user largely changes the direction of the remote control transmitter 1 while pressing the gyro button 14 in the upper left direction, that is, in the − direction of the X axis and in the + direction of the Y axis. In this case, the output of the amplifier 6 increases in the negative direction with respect to 2.5V, and the output of the amplifier 7 increases in the positive direction with respect to 2.5V. Therefore, the μ-
The cursor 23 is moved to the upper left direction of the display screen 21 by the COM 17. When the change in the direction of the remote control transmitter 1 is sufficiently large, the output of the amplifier 6 (output of the sensor 2) is maximum in the negative direction, and the output of the amplifier 7 (output of the sensor 3) is maximum in the positive direction, , The cursor 23 moves to the divided area A at the upper left corner of the screen, as shown in FIG.

Here, when the user releases the gyro button 14 to turn it off, the μ-COM 17 stops the movement of the cursor 23. When the user determines that the cursor 23 on the menu screen 22 is located near the display indicating the desired control function, the user operates the execution key of the remote control transmitter 1. Then, the μ-C of the television receiver 15
The OM 17 controls each unit so that the control function corresponding to the divided area A in which the cursor 23 is located is executed.

The user moves the cursor 23 to the divided area D
In order to move the sensor to the right direction, the direction of the remote control transmitter 1 may be sufficiently changed to the upper right to maximize the outputs of the sensors 2 and 3 in the positive direction. Similarly, in order to move the cursor 23 to the divided area M, the direction of the remote control transmitter 1 is sufficiently changed to the lower left, the outputs of the sensors 2 and 3 are maximized in the negative direction, and the cursor 23 is moved to the divided area P. In order to do so, the direction of the remote control transmitter 1 may be sufficiently changed to the lower right to maximize the output of the sensor 2 in the positive direction and maximize the output of the sensor 3 in the negative direction.

As described above, in this embodiment, the change in the azimuth angle of the remote control transmitter 1 is detected by the sensors 2 and 3, and the μ-COM 17 moves the cursor 23 on the menu screen 22 according to the data based on the detection result. I am trying to let you. Therefore, the selection of the menu can be performed by an extremely simple operation of pointing the remote control transmitter 1 in the direction corresponding to the position of the cursor 23 and the position of the display of the desired control function and pressing the execute key. Significantly improved. Moreover, since the change in the azimuth angle of the remote control transmitter 1 is output as motion data only when the gyro button 14 is pressed, unnecessary data is not output except when the menu is selected. It is possible to prevent wasteful power consumption.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing another embodiment of the present invention. In the present embodiment, the operability is further improved by omitting the operation of the execution key after the menu selection operation of the remote control transmitter.

In this embodiment, the configuration of the remote control transmitter 25 is shown in FIG.
The remote control transmitter 1 is different from the remote control transmitter 1. On the remote control transmitter 25, in addition to keys for controlling the TV receiver channel selection, volume adjustment, power on / off and various other functions, a menu of various control functions displayed on the screen is selected. In addition, an operation button 26 for executing the selected control function is provided. The remote control transmitter 25 has no gyro button.

The configuration of the remote control transmitter 25 is substantially the same as that of the remote control transmitter 1 of FIG. 1, and includes the sensors 2 and 3, the filters 4,5, the AMPs 6 and 7, the A / D converters 8 and 9 of FIG. μ-
It has a COM 10 and a transmitter 11. Μ-C of this embodiment
OM10 is a remote control transmitter 25 while the gyro button is on.
Instead of detecting changes in the azimuth angle of the
The azimuth angle change is detected during the ON period. Μ- of this embodiment
When the operation button 26 is turned off, the COM 10 stops outputting motion data based on a change in azimuth and outputs a signal for executing the selected control function.

In the embodiment thus constructed,
When the menu screen is displayed on the television receiver, the user changes the direction of the remote control transmitter 25 while pressing the operation button 26 provided on the remote control transmitter 25. Then, the cursor displayed on the menu screen moves according to the change in the direction of the remote control transmitter 25. When the cursor reaches the position displaying the desired control function, the user releases the operation button 26 of the remote control transmitter 25 to turn it off. As a result, the output of the motion data based on the change in the azimuth angle of the remote control transmitter 25 is stopped, and the movement of the cursor on the menu screen is stopped. Further, at the same time when the operation button 26 is turned off, the μ-COM 10 of the remote control transmitter 25 outputs a signal for executing the control function designated by the cursor. The μ-COM of the television receiver controls each unit in order to realize the control function corresponding to the divided area where the cursor is located, by the signal for executing the control function.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the selection of the menu is started by pressing the operation button, and the selected control function is executed by releasing the operation button, thereby further improving the operability. ing.

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention, the operability can be improved by controlling the remote controlled device by changing the azimuth of the remote control transmitter. Have.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a remote control device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an example.

FIG. 3 is a waveform chart for explaining the operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram for explaining another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

2, 3 ... Sensor, 6, 7 ... AMP, 10, 17 ... μ-CO
M, 11 ... Transmission unit, 15 ... Television receiver

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A remote control transmitter provided with a plurality of keys for instructing execution of a predetermined control function, and a remote control transmitter provided on the remote control transmitter for determining an angular velocity of the remote control transmitter. A sensor that outputs a signal based on a change in the azimuth angle of the remote control transmitter, and a transmission that is provided in the remote control transmitter and sends a signal based on the plurality of keys and a signal from the sensor to a remote control device. And a remote control device. 2. The transmitting means is capable of transmitting a signal based on a change in azimuth angle by operating the sensor only when a predetermined key of the plurality of keys is operated. The remote control device according to claim 1. 3. The remote controlled device includes a first display unit that displays a menu that is a list of the predetermined control functions, and a second display unit that displays an instruction display for selecting the menu. The remote control device according to claim 1, further comprising: a control unit that controls the second display unit based on a signal from the sensor to move the instruction display on a screen. 4. The position determining means determines the area on the screen where the instruction display is located, and the position determining means outputs a signal instructing execution of the predetermined control function. 4. The remote control device according to claim 3, further comprising an execution unit that gives an instruction to realize a control function corresponding to the area on the screen determined by the determination unit. 5. The transmitting means sends a signal from the sensor when a predetermined key of the plurality of keys is turned on, and outputs a signal from the sensor when the key is turned off. The remote control device according to claim 1, wherein a signal for instructing execution of the predetermined control function is transmitted together with stopping the transmission.