Electric appliance system having selectable user interfaces and method for controlling the same

In an electric appliance system, an electric appliance for performing designated functions and first and second remote controllers are included. The first remote controller is optionally triggered for controlling a first group of the designated functions, and the second remote controller is optionally triggered for controlling a second group of the designated functions. The second group includes at least one designated function included in the first group and at least one designated function excluded from the first group.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method for controlling an electric appliance, and more particularly to a method for controlling an electric appliance through selectable multiple user interfaces. The present invention also relates to the electric appliance system having selectable multiple user interfaces.

Generally, a household electric appliance has only one kind of control interface, e.g. a single remote controller. Some electronic appliances, e.g. a DVD player/recorder/rewriter (digital versatile disc player, recorder or rewriter), have their control interfaces cooperate with graphics guiding menus shown on a screen for facilitating users' operations. The guiding menus correspond to the triggered buttons of the control interface, and are displayed in a fixed format with fixed contents. As the functions of the appliances increase, the control interface and the graphics guiding menus become more and more complicated. For example, the huge number and complicated arrangement of buttons on a remote controller often confuse the users, particularly the elder people and children.

Moreover, there might be some functions of the machine or some contents of discs that the parents would not like their children to access. The arbitrary triggering of the complicated buttons may lead to undesired revelation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, the present invention provides a method for adaptive control of an electric appliance in consideration of different needs or different users.

The present invention also provides an electric appliance system operable with multiple user interfaces so that the electric appliance can be selectively controlled in consideration of different needs or different users.

The present invention further provides a method for controlling an electric appliance that is able to protect some functions of the electric appliance from being arbitrarily activated or prevent some information from being arbitrarily revealed.

In an electric appliance system according to the present invention, an electric appliance for performing designated functions and first and second remote controllers are included. The first remote controller is optionally triggered for controlling a first group of the designated functions, and the second remote controller is optionally triggered for controlling a second group of the designated functions. The second group includes at least one designated function included in the first group and at least one designated function excluded from the first group.

For facilitating users' operations or for some specific uses, the electric appliance system further includes a display in communication with the electric appliance. Then, a first graphics guiding menu can be shown on the display in response to a first command issued from the first remote controller, and a second graphics guiding menu can be shown on the display in response to a second command issued from the second remote controller, wherein the second graphics guiding menu includes at least one selective item included in the first graphics guiding menu and at least one selective item excluded from the first graphics guiding menu.

In a specific embodiment, the second group includes all designated functions in the first group, and the second graphics guiding menu includes all selective items in the first graphics guiding menu. Under this circumstance, the second remote controller may include more buttons than the first remote controller.

Despite the first command and the second command may control the same designated function, they are differentially encoded so as to show different graphics guiding menus.

For example, the electric appliance system can be a DVD player/recorder/rewriter.

According to another aspect of the present invention, for controlling a DVD player/recorder/rewriter, whether the DVD player/recorder/rewriter is under a controlled mode or a normal mode is determined. A controlled mode is determined when a first command is received from a user. In the controlled mode, a first graphics guiding menu is provided for performing a first group of designated functions. On the other hand, a normal mode is determined when a second command is received from a user. In the normal mode, a second graphics guiding menu is provided for performing a second group of designated functions. The second graphics guiding menu includes at least one selective item included in the first graphics guiding menu and at least one selective item excluded from the first graphics guiding menu. Then, the first graphics guiding menu or the second graphics guiding menu is operated to perform the first group of designated functions or the second group of designated functions. For example, the first command can be issued by triggering a first remote controller and the second command is issued by triggering a second remote controller, and the first command and the second command are differentially encoded when controlling the same function.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, for controlling a DVD player/recorder/rewriter, an identifying code received from a user is discriminated to be valid or not. A normal mode is determined when the identifying code is valid, and a controlled mode is determined when the identifying code is invalid or the input of the identifying code is incomplete. A first graphics guiding menu is provided for performing a first group of designated functions in the controlled mode, and a second graphics guiding menu is provided for performing a second group of designated functions in the normal mode. The second graphics guiding menu includes at least one selective item included in the first graphics guiding menu and at least one selective item excluded from the first graphics guiding menu. Then, the first graphics guiding menu or the second graphics guiding menu is operated to perform the first group of designated functions or the second group of designated functions. For example, the identifying code can be a password inputted via a remote controller.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In order to achieve the purpose of adaptive control of an electric appliance, an electric appliance system according to an embodiment of the present invention is illustrated hereinafter with reference toFIGS. 1(a) and1(b), wherein the electric appliance is operable with multiple user interfaces so that the electric appliance can be selectively controlled in consideration of different needs or different users. In the embodiment ofFIGS. 1(a) and1(b), a DVD player/recorder/rewriter200is exemplified as the electric appliance, and a display22such as a TV screen or a computer display cooperates with the DVD player/recorder/rewriter200for showing video data to be played or showing graphics guiding menus for playback/record control. There are two remote controllers201and202included in the electric appliance system in addition to the electric appliance200and the display22. The remote controllers201and202are a simplified remote controller and an all-function remote controller, respectively. Preferably, the remote controller202includes all buttons of the remote controller201, i.e. buttons2021, and additional buttons2022and2023, and is able to perform all functions of the remote controller201and other functions. In other words, the remote controller202works in a normal mode, and the remote controller201works in a simplified mode or controlled mode. The remote controller202is able to perform a group of designated functions that cannot be performed by the remote controller201.

In the operating example ofFIG. 1(a), it is the remote controller202working with the electric appliance200and the display22. In response to a command issued from the remote controller202by triggering buttons of the remote controller202and specifically encoded, the electric appliance200selects a corresponding graphics guiding menu232including a plurality of selective items2320to be shown on the display22. Then the user may operate one or more of the selective items of the graphics guiding menu232to perform designated functions. Of course, the remote controller202is also used to activate subsequent graphics guiding menus derived from the graphics guiding menu232and control the performance of further designated functions. Via the remote controller202, complicated functions can be executed following the instructions of the graphics guiding menu232.

In the operating example ofFIG. 1(b), it is the remote controller201working with the electric appliance200and the display22. In response to a command issued from the remote controller201by triggering buttons of the remote controller201and specifically encoded, the electric appliance200selects a corresponding graphics guiding menu231including a plurality of selective items2310to be shown on the display22. The command issued from the remote controller201and the command issued from the remote controller202are differentially encoded when the same function is to be controlled so that the electric appliance200can discriminate which of the remote controllers is currently triggered and determine which kind of graphics guiding menu should be displayed. As the graphics guiding menu231is a simplified guider compared to the graphics guiding menu232, the selective items2310are a part of the selective items2320, and the other selective items2320marked with dash lines are hidden from the graphics guiding menu231.

The case illustrated inFIG. 1(b) is particularly suitable for those who only need basic control functions, such as a beginner, elder people or children. On the contrary, as the second case illustrated inFIG. 1(a) involves complete and advanced but complicated control, it would be suitable for those skilled in manipulating this electric appliance. Obviously, the remote controller201and the graphics guiding menu231are easier to be operated by the beginners, elder people or children, but the remote controller202and the graphics guiding menu232control more functions. Therefore, the two remote controllers201and202can be selected by different users or in different situations to optionally activate the graphics guiding menus231and232. Giving a DVD recorder as an example, the basic functions may include playback, stop, volume control, etc, and the advanced functions may include quality control or parental control. Since the remote controller201has a considerably reduced number of buttons, it can be made compact in size so as to conform to kids' palms.

Although graphics guiding menus shown on a display are used in the above examples for facilitating users' operations, they are not essential to the present invention. Particularly for those skilled in manipulating that electric appliance, the function control can be performed with a remote controller or other types of controllers only without showing any selective items on a display, or performed with the cooperation of a remote controller and literal instructions.

As mentioned above, the commands respectively issued from the remote controllers201and202are preferably distinguishable. Accordingly, once the electric appliance200receives a wireless signal from one of the two remote controllers, which remote controller is currently triggered can be sourced. The distinguishing operation can be performed by firmware. One of the methods is imparting an identification bit to the wireless signal. For example, when the identification bit is “0”, the electric appliance200determines that the wireless signal comes from the remote controller201. On the other hand, when the identification bit is “1”, the electric appliance200determines that the wireless signal comes from the remote controller202.

Another embodiment of the present invention for achieving the purpose of adaptive control of an electric appliance is illustrated inFIGS. 2(a) and2(b), wherein the electric appliance is operated with a single remote controller but selectable graphics guiding menus. The remote controller can be the one used in the embodiment ofFIG. 2(a) or any other suitable one.

In this embodiment, an identifying code such as a valid password is requested to show the all-function graphics guiding menu332(FIG. 2(a)). If the input password is not valid or incomplete when compared with a preset password, only the simplified graphics guiding menu331will be shown (FIG. 2(b)). Likewise, the selective items3310of the simplified graphics guiding menu331are included in the selective items3320of the all-function graphics guiding menu332. This control method is particularly advantageous when some functions of the electric appliance are to be protected from being arbitrarily activated or some information is to be prevented from being arbitrarily revealed, i.e. in a so-called parental mode.

For reasonable tolerance of input errors, a threshold is preset and a discriminating method shown inFIG. 3is referred. If the occurrences of invalid or incomplete password do not exceed the threshold, it is allowed to be re-input the password to activate the all-function graphics guiding menu332. Otherwise, only the simplified graphics guiding menu331can be activated.

To sum up, the present invention provides selectable and adaptive control of an electric appliance. The basic and advanced functions can be selectively performed for different users. Accordingly, the basic operation can be done in a simple and efficient way, while the all-function control is still available without bothering the basic users.