Patent · US Expired

Optically programmable controller

US5850304A · kind A · utility

72Cited by
5References
32Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJan 8, 1997
Grant dateDec 15, 1998
Priority date
Expiry dateJan 8, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04N21/47
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A programmable controller includes a photodetector for receiving data as pulses light from a video display and infra-red emitting diodes for transmitting pulses of light in a format recognized by the device to be controlled. The light from the video display is produced by generating a series of vertically displaced, horizontal lines on the screen of the display. Each line corresponds to a pulse of light and to one bit of information and one or more bytes are displayed per frame on the display. The display produces two initial lines that define a timing window for receiving the remaining data and produces a terminal line that toggles for error detection. The controller produces pulses in the format required by the controlled device by executing a sub-set of primitives from a set stored in the controller. The primitives are executed in a sequence determined by the data from the video display.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.