Apparatus interconnected for the communication of control messages

United States Patent [is]

Hoekstra

[54] APPARATUS INTERCONNECTED FOR THE COMMUNICATION OF CONTROL MESSAGES

[75] Inventor: Jelle Hoekstra, Dorking, England

[73] Assignee: D2B Systems Company Limited, Redhill, England

[21] Appl. No.: 102,013

[22] Filed: Aug. 4,1993

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data

Aug. 6, 1992 [GB] United Kingdom 9216681

[51] Int. CI.6 H02J 9/00; H04B 10/00;

H03J 9/06

[52] U.S. CI 369/24; 340/825.24; 340/825.25;

340/825.72

[58] Field of Search 369/24, 2, 3, 1,

369/4, 5; 340/825.69, 825.72, 825.24, 825.25, 825.22; 455/4.1, 6.3

[56] References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

4,825,209 4/1989 Sasaki et al 340/825.72

5,081,534 1/1992 Geigeretal 340/825.69

5.128.667 7/1992 Enomoto et al 340/825.72

5.128.668 7/1992 Ikezaki et al 340/825.72

5,132,679 7/1992 Kubo et al 340/825.69

FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS 0423739 10/1990 European Pat. Off. .

illllllllllllLJI IIIIIIIIIIIIiL :l'lllllllll

US005479385A [li] Patent Number: 5,479,385 [45] Date of Patent: Dec. 26,1995

392872 10/1990 European Pat. Off. 340/825.72

0507381 10/1992 European Pat. Off. .

5130672 5/1993 Japan 340/825.72

2081948 2/1982 United Kingdom 340/825.25

2251970 7/1992 United Kingdom 340/825.69

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

European Home Systems Specification, Release 1.1. European Home Systems Association, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, Mar. 15, 1992.

Primary Examiner—-Georgia Y. Epps

Assistant Examiner—-Tan Dinh

Attorney, Agent, or Firm—David Schreiber

[57] ABSTRACT

Apparatuses of an audio/video system convey user commands to one another via a serial control bus. The user commands convey key activations on a remote handset, whose keys include both "normal" keys such as "mute/ unmute", and "repeat" keys such as "volume up" and "volume down". To convey a repeat key activation, a first control means within one apparatus addresses a key activation message to a second control means within another apparatus. The second control means synthesises locally a repetitive series of user commands, until a key release message is received. The need for repetitive user command messages to be sent via the control bus is thereby eliminated, and the frequency of repetition can be defined locally to give consistent response to user commands. The second control means can also implement a de-bouncing function, disregarding duplicate user command messages sent by a third apparatus which also responds to the handset.

12 Claims, 5 Drawing Sheets