US 8,134,454 B2Granted

Receiver module with dual mode capability

AssigneeComputime, Ltd.

InventorsWai-leung Ha, Kairy Kai Lei, Gordon Qian

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Abstract

The present invention supports the remote control of a controlled device. A hybrid device receives a control signal over an infrared communications channel or a wireless networking channel. The hybrid device can replace an IR receiver module in the controlled device in order to provide backward compatibility as well as provide universal operation with a wireless networking controller. The hybrid device processes a signal received over one of the communications channels. When a signal is received over the infrared communications channel, the processor converts the signal to an output code that is sent to a device controller. When a signal is received over the wireless networking communications channel, the processor converts the signal to a wireless command, converts the wireless command to an output code, and sends the output code to the device controller. All output codes are transparent for the two communications channels.

Claims13

Dependent claims

An apparatus comprising:

a first communications interface configured to support a first communications channel;
a second communications interface configured to support a second communications channel;
and
a processor coupled to the first communications interface and the second communications interface and configured to perform:
when a first signal is received over the first communications channel, converting the first signal to a first output code and sending the first output code to a device controller to control a device, wherein the first output code is from a first mapping;
and
when a second signal is received over the second communications channel, converting the second signal to a wireless command, converting the wireless command to a second output code, and sending the second output code to the device controller to control the device, wherein the second output code is from a second mapping, wherein:
at least one device command code transported in the first signal has a different code value than with the second signal and when the first and second output codes are equal;
a pin configuration of the apparatus has a same pin configuration as an infrared (IR) receiver module for controlling the device;
and
the apparatus replaces the infrared receiver module.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.