# US 11,122,319 B2 · Electronic apparatus and controlling method thereof

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- Number: US 11,122,319 B2
- Document ID: US11122319B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 16/894,284
- Filed: 2020-06-05
- Published: 2020-12-24
- Granted: 2021-09-14
- Earliest claimed: 2019-06-19
- Assignees: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
- Applicants: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
- Inventors: Heeran Lee; Mugong Bae; Namsu Ha; Byeol Park; Bongseok Lee; Gohwoon Jeong
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11122319B2

## CPC

- H04N 21/42206: {characterized by hardware details}
- H04N 21/4852: {for modifying audio parameters, e.g. switching between mono and stereo}
- G06F 3/165: {Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path}
- G08C 17/02: using a radio link
- G08C 23/04: using light waves, e.g. infrared
- H04N 5/60: for the sound signals
- H04N 21/42204: {User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor (constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205)}
- H04N 21/43615: {Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals (home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805)}
- H04N 21/4396: {by muting the audio signal}
- H04N 21/44204: {Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched (monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31)}
- H04N 21/8106: {involving special audio data, e.g. different tracks for different languages}
- H04N: PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)
- G08C: TRANSMISSION SYSTEMS FOR MEASURED VALUES, CONTROL OR SIMILAR SIGNALS (fluid pressure transmitting systems F15B; mechanical means for transferring the output of a sensing member into a different variable G01D5/00; mechanical control systems G05G)

## Abstract

An electronic apparatus includes a communication interface; a memory storing a control code information of a content providing apparatus; and at least one processor configured to: based on repeatedly receiving, from a remote controller, a control signal for changing a volume value of the electronic apparatus more than a threshold number of times through the communication interface, obtain state information of the content providing apparatus, identify a current volume value of the content providing apparatus or a state of the content providing apparatus, based on the state information, and based on the current volume value of the content providing apparatus being less than or equal to a threshold value or the content providing apparatus being in a mute state, control the communication interface to transmit a control signal to change the volume value of the content providing apparatus to the remote controller based on the stored control code information.

## Claims

### Claim 1

An electronic apparatus comprising:
a communication interface comprising circuitry;
a memory storing a control code information of a content providing apparatus; and
at least one processor configured to:
based on repeatedly receiving, from a remote controller, a control signal for changing a volume value of the electronic apparatus more than a threshold number of times through the communication interface, obtain state information of the content providing apparatus,
identify a current volume value of the content providing apparatus or a state of the content providing apparatus, based on the state information,
determine whether the current volume value of the content providing apparatus is less than or equal to a threshold value or the content providing apparatus is in a mute state based on loudness K-weighted relative to full scale information included in an input signal transmitted from the content providing apparatus, and
based on the current volume value of the content providing apparatus being less than or equal to the threshold value or the content providing apparatus being in the mute state, control the communication interface to transmit a control signal to change the volume value of the content providing apparatus to the remote controller based on the control code information that is stored in the memory.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The electronic apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
identify the content providing apparatus based on at least one of a connection history of the content providing apparatus or a control signal transmitted from a remote controller of the content providing apparatus, and
obtain the control code information corresponding to the identified content providing apparatus from the memory.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The electronic apparatus of claim 2, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
obtain the control signal which the remote controller of the content providing apparatus transmits to the content providing apparatus by sniffing,
identify at least one candidate control code information associated with the obtained control signal,
transmit a control signal based on each of the at least one candidate control code information to the remote controller of the electronic apparatus;
identify one of the at least one candidate control code information based on a response state of the content providing apparatus in response to the remote controller of the electronic apparatus transmitting the control signal of the identified one of the at least one candidate control code information to the content providing apparatus; and
identify the content providing apparatus based on the identified one of the at least one candidate control code information.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The electronic apparatus of claim 1, wherein the state information comprises at least one of current volume information of the content providing apparatus, mute setting information of the content providing apparatus, or content information provided from the content providing apparatus.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The electronic apparatus of claim 4, further comprising a display, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to, based on content currently output to the display being a specific type of content, control the communication interface so as not to transmit the control signal to the remote controller of the electronic apparatus, and
wherein the specific type of content is content in which a volume value of the content providing apparatus is automatically adjusted to less than or equal to the threshold value or the mute state.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The electronic apparatus of claim 5, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
obtain a plurality of captured images by capturing an output screen of the display in a predetermined cycle, and
identify whether the specific type of content is output to the display based on a pixel value difference among the plurality of captured images.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The electronic apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
identify whether the volume value of the content providing apparatus reaches the threshold value based on the control signal to change the volume value of the content providing apparatus, and
based on receiving the control signal to change the volume value from the remote controller of the electronic apparatus after the volume value of the content providing apparatus reaches the threshold value, change the volume value of the electronic apparatus.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The electronic apparatus of claim 7, further comprising a display, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to control display timing of at least one of a volume user interface (UI) of the content providing apparatus or a volume UI of the electronic apparatus so that the volume UI of the content providing apparatus does not overlap with the volume UI of the electronic apparatus.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The electronic apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to identify a threshold volume value of the content providing apparatus using a learning network model.

### Claim 10

A method for controlling an electronic apparatus having stored therein control code information of a content providing apparatus, the method comprising:
based on repeatedly receiving, from a remote controller of the electronic apparatus, a control signal to change a volume value of the electronic apparatus a threshold number of times or more, obtaining state information of the content providing apparatus;
identifying that a current volume value of the content providing apparatus is less than or equal to a threshold value or the content providing apparatus is in a mute state, based on the state information; and
based on the identifying that the current volume value being less than or equal to the threshold value or the content providing apparatus being in the mute state, transmitting a control signal to change the volume value of the content providing apparatus to the remote controller of the electronic apparatus based on the control code information that is stored,
wherein the identifying that the current volume value of the content providing apparatus is less than or equal to the threshold value or the content providing apparatus is in the mute state comprises identifying whether the current volume value of the content providing apparatus is less than or equal to the threshold value or the content providing apparatus is in the mute state based on loudness K-weighted relative to full scale information included in an input signal transmitted from the content providing apparatus.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, further comprising:
identifying the content providing apparatus based on at least one of a connection history of the content providing apparatus or a control signal transmitted by a remote controller of the content providing apparatus; and
obtaining the control code information corresponding to the identified content providing apparatus.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The method of claim 11, wherein the identifying the content providing apparatus comprises:
obtaining the control signal which the remote controller of the content providing apparatus transmits to the content providing apparatus by sniffing, and identifying at least one candidate control code information associated with the obtained control signal;
transmitting a control signal based on each of the at least one candidate control code information to the remote controller of the electronic apparatus;
identifying one of the at least one candidate control code information based on a response state of the content providing apparatus in response to the remote controller of the electronic apparatus transmitting the control signal of the identified one of the at least one candidate control code information to the content providing apparatus; and
identifying the content providing apparatus based on the identified one of the at least one candidate control code information.

### Claim 13 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, wherein the state information comprises at least one of current volume information of the content providing apparatus, mute setting information of the content providing apparatus, or content information provided from the content providing apparatus.

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, further comprising, based on content currently output being a specific type of content, not transmitting the control signal to the remote controller of the electronic apparatus,
wherein the specific type of content is content in which a volume value of the content providing apparatus is automatically adjusted to less than or equal to the threshold value or the mute state.

### Claim 15 (depends on 14)

The method of claim 14, wherein the transmitting to the remote controller of the electronic apparatus comprises obtaining a plurality of captured images by capturing an output screen of the display in a predetermined cycle, and identifying whether the specific type of content is output based on a pixel value difference among the plurality of captured images.

### Claim 16 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, further comprising:
identifying whether the volume value of the content providing apparatus reaches the threshold value from the control signal to change the volume value of the content providing apparatus; and
based on receiving the control signal to change the volume value from the remote controller of the electronic apparatus after the volume value of the content providing apparatus reaches the threshold value, changing the volume value of the electronic apparatus.

### Claim 17 (depends on 16)

The method of claim 16, further comprising controlling display timing of at least one of a volume user interface (UI) of the content providing apparatus or a volume UI of the electronic apparatus so that the volume UI of the content providing apparatus does not overlap with the volume UI of the electronic apparatus.

### Claim 18 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, further comprising identifying a threshold volume value of the content providing apparatus using a learning network model.