An infrared hand-held remote control for handling a single or plural devices such as lights, shades, drapes and the like contains ergonomically selected and placed control buttons that are self-describing and easy to use. It allows explicit, easy-to-use control of different functions by providing for each function to be controlled vertically disposed discrete buttons that provide “all or nothing” control of some physical feature and similar, vertically disposed and horizontally aligned “adjust” buttons that allow for fine and continuous control of the physical quantities between the extremes or limits of the discrete button functions. Successive groups of buttons provide for the control of different appliances or devices, where each group of buttons is identified by easy to comprehend icon or alphabetic representations.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
       [0001]    This application claims priority and is entitled to the filing date of U.S. Provisional application S. No. 60/289,066 filed May 7, 2001 and entitled “Infrared Hand-Held Remote Control”, the content of the provisional patent application being incorporated by reference herein. 
     
    
     
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    The present invention generally relates to remote controls for appliances such as lights, shades, etc., and, more particularly, relates to ergonomically improved remote controls that are operable with one or several or a variety of appliances.  
           [0003]    Remote controls for appliances are ubiquitous. Many existing remote controls incorporate and provide a large array of buttons, functions and features which present a daunting challenge to a new user, all the more so in this age where we are constantly exposed to a very large variety of new electronic devices and need to master and learn them all. A fundamental aspect of the present invention is that it provides a remote control for home and office based appliances such as lights, window shades and the like that are particularly ergonomic from the point of view that it enables mastering its working and functionality without having to resort to complex and lengthy manuals or instruction books or the investment of precious time to visually study the remote control.  
           [0004]    The basic construction of remote controls, including remote controls that operate in the infrared electromagnetic spectrum are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,987,205 entitled “Infrared Energy Transmissive Member and Radiation Receiver” which has issued to the assignee of the present invention describes preferred embodiments of circuits and other features of a remote control. The content of the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,987,205 are incorporated by reference herein. An appliance that can be controlled with the infrared hand-held remote control of the present invention is described in the present assignee's U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,266 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,671,387, and the contents of these two patents are incorporated by reference herein as well.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0005]    A general object of the present invention is to provide a more advanced and ergonomically constructed hand-held remote control for home and office based appliances.  
           [0006]    It is another object of the present invention to provide an ergonomic, hand-held remote control that is operable in the infrared band of the electromagnetic spectrum and which contains all the information on a face plate thereof that is necessary to immediately comprehend the features and functionality thereof.  
           [0007]    It is another object of the present invention to provide an ergonomic, hand-held infrared remote control for multiple devices having a lower intellectual transaction level than typical prior art controls.  
           [0008]    The foregoing and other objects of the invention are realized with an infrared hand-held remote control device that is implemented as an ergonomic control device for the setting of a given single variable property of a structure between a maximum setting and a minimum setting; said structure having a control input connected thereto for adjusting said variable property to any of a plurality of settings between said maximum and minimum settings; said control device having first, second, third and fourth separate manually operable control elements which are operatively connected to said control input; said first and second control elements being operable to set said variable property of said structure at said maximum setting and said minimum setting respectively; said third and fourth control elements being vernier controls and being respectively operable to adjust said variable property from said maximum setting and toward said minimum setting, and to any of said plurality of settings and from said minimum setting and toward said maximum setting and to any of said plurality of settings.  
           [0009]    The control device may be a portable hand-held unit with an infrared coupling system to couple the control device to the control input and the control elements are preferably arrayed over the surface of the portable hand-held unit for manual operation by a user. The underlying electronics can be configured so that only a single one of said first, second, third and fourth control elements are individually operable at any time to initiate the setting of said variable property. The control elements can be depressable switch elements. At least one second structure can be provided separate from the first-mentioned structure. It has a respective single variable second property and fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth control elements that are identical to said first, second, third and fourth control elements, respectively, for controlling said variable property of said second structure in a process identical to the control of said first-mentioned variable structure. The first structure can be a lamp and the variable property, its luminous output. The second structure can be a motor-operated window covering or shade or the like, and its variable property may be its amount of openness.  
           [0010]    Preferably, the first and third control elements are laterally adjacent one another and the second and fourth control elements are laterally adjacent to one another. The first control element is disposed vertically above the second control element, whereby the operation of said control elements is easily discernable to a user from the placements of said control elements.  
           [0011]    Preferably, the remote control device can operate a single structure or appliance, or several different such structures or appliances. The control device can also be configured with preset buttons that enable the control device to set the physical property to a location or value between the maximum setting and the minimum setting.  
           [0012]    As described above, the present invention realizes a concept for an ergonomic infrared hand-held remote control that allows explicit, easy-to-use control of different functions. A salient feature of the idea is to provide vertically disposed discrete buttons, that is, buttons that provide “full limit” control of some variable features. Located in horizontally adjacent relation to the discrete buttons are “adjust” buttons. These buttons allow fine or continuous control of the physical quantities between the extremes or limits of the discrete button functions.  
           [0013]    Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention which refers to the accompanying drawings. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0014]    [0014]FIG. 1 shows a prior art infrared hand-held remote control;  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 2 shows a first embodiment of hand-held remote control in accordance with the present invention;  
         [0016]    [0016]FIGS. 2A, 2B and  2 C show different button appearances for the “adjust” buttons of the device of FIG. 2 and various decals or legend choices therefor;  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 3 shows further button shapes and/or decals for the remote control;  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 3A shows pictorial decals useable with the hand-held device of FIG. 2;  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 3B shows a further embodiment of the hand-held remote control of the present invention which is operable to control a variety of appliances;  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 4 shows a further embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0021]    [0021]FIGS. 5A, 5B and  5 C show different appliance menus and decals in accordance with the present invention;  
         [0022]    [0022]FIGS. 6A and 6B show another embodiment of the present invention that provides fully on and fully off control in conjunction with preset controls for a plurality of appliances;  
         [0023]    [0023]FIGS. 6C and 6D show a further embodiment of the invention involving different ergonomically selected button placements;  
         [0024]    FIGS.  7 A- 7 F illustrate perspectively and in plan views a plurality of hand-held remote control buttons and their decals for controlling single or plural appliances; and  
         [0025]    [0025]FIGS. 8A and 8B are block diagrams showing major circuit and software sections of the hand-held remote control of the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0026]    Referring to the drawings, FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art infrared hand-held remote control  10  which is manufactured and sold by the assignee of the present invention. It features two large buttons  26   a  and  26   b  disposed in vertical arrangement on the left side of the control. These buttons  26   a  and  26   b  comprise on and off controls for a light or open and close commands for a shade. Immediately to the right of these buttons, is a slim vertically disposed rocker button  28 . This button may be “rocked” forward and back to cause the light to brighten or dim or the shades to open or close in a continuous fashion between the two extremes that are controlled by the on and off (or the open and close buttons) buttons  26   a  and  26   b.    
         [0027]    Referring to FIG. 2 the invention aims at providing a more ergonomic set of button controls for an otherwise conventional infrared hand-held remote control such as the control  10  of FIG. 1. In FIG. 2, a distinct “open” button  14  and a corresponding “close” button  16  are vertically aligned and these discrete buttons, that provide “full limit” control of some variable physical feature, are accompanied by a pair of horizontally adjacent and vertically aligned “adjust” buttons  20  and  22 . Adjacent buttons  20 ,  22  are shown encircled by  18  solely for the purposes of the present description so as to provide a reference to other implementations thereof that are illustrated in FIGS. 2A, 2B and  2 C.  
         [0028]    Thus, in FIG. 2A, the button  20  features a self-describing symbol or icon in the form of arrows or triangles for indicating such functions as open and the button  22  features a self-describing symbol in the form of arrows or triangles for indicating such functions as close. These icon symbols  24   a  and  24   b  can be represented as white on black or black on white symbols. Further, the button  20  can have two separate icons  20   a ,  20   b  and the button  22  can have two separate icons  22   a ,  22   b  (FIG. 2B) or the button  20  can have two separate icons  20   c ,  20   d  and the button  22  can have two separate icons  22   c ,  22   d  (FIG. 2C). Any of the arrangements of FIGS.  2 A- 2 C can be selected for the embodiment of FIG. 2 and the other embodiments described below.  
         [0029]    [0029]FIG. 3A shows a variety of useable icons such as  30   a  for lights,  30   b  for roller shades,  30   c  and  30   d  for draperies and  30   e  for roman shades. These icons can be incorporated into the remote control  10  shown in FIG. 3B which is provided to control three appliances including drapes, roller shades, and lights. Thus, the icons  30   c ,  30   b  and  30   a  are placed adjacent open and close buttons  14  and  16  and the accompanying adjust buttons  20  and  22 . A corresponding icon is located adjacent the open and close buttons  14   a  and  16   a  as well as adjust buttons  20   e  and  22   e  for the drapes. The remote control of FIG. 3B also provides buttons  14   b  and  16   b  and accompanying adjust buttons to control lights. In all cases the on/off buttons are vertically aligned and symmetrically arranged relative to similarly, vertically aligned adjust buttons.  
         [0030]    The button arrangement for the hand-held control shown in FIG. 4 retains the vertical and horizontal alignment of the adjust buttons  20 ,  22  but replaces the dual buttons  14 ,  16  of the embodiment of FIG. 3B with a single button  34  which is designed (together with the electronics within the remote control  10 ) to provide alternate action on and off or open and close commands for the light, shade, etc. In addition, the control of FIG. 4 provides for at least one of the appliances being controlled via a “preset” button  36  which, when actuated, automatically selects a particular adjust position, e.g., a light output level or roller shade position, etc.  
         [0031]    With reference to FIGS. 5A, 5B and  5 C, appliance button groups  38 ,  40  and  44  provide remote controls for different appliance groups to be controlled with a single controller, such as lights and drapes in FIG. 5A, or lights and roller shades in FIG. 5B or drapes and roller shades as illustrated in FIG. 5C.  
         [0032]    FIGS.  6 A- 6 D show further ergonomic button arrangements for infrared handheld remote controls, including, in FIG. 6A, three button groups  46 ,  48  and  50 , to control, respectively, lights, roller shades and drapes, including within each of the groups a respective preset button  36 ,  37  and  39  which replaces the “adjust” buttons previously described. By depressing any of these preset buttons  36 ,  37 ,  39 , the light or shade assumes a preset output level or roller shade and drape “preset” position.  
         [0033]    The preset buttons  36 ,  37 ,  39  can be preset at the factory for particular settings or they may be programmable such as by depressing them sufficiently long, e.g., three seconds or more, whereby the underlying electronics would then start continuously adjusting the particular light level or roller position, etc., and when the preset button is released, the “preset” position is stored.  
         [0034]    The variation presented in the embodiment of FIG. 6B provides a pair of preset buttons  37   a  and  37   b  for the roller shades of a control of FIG. 6A to enable selection of two separate preset positions and further provides “select” buttons  51   a  and  51   b  for the drape button group  50  of FIG. 6A. These buttons  51   a ,  51   b  allow an operator to select which window drapes are selected to be controlled by the remote control.  
         [0035]    Yet another button arrangement is shown in FIG. 6C in which both the on/off and open/close buttons are still vertically aligned but are now vertically separated by locating the preset buttons in vertical alignment therewith, as indicated by the preset buttons  39 ,  37  and  36   c ,  36   d  and  36   e . The buttons  36   c ,  36   d  and  36   e  provide several preset positions for the lights so that one can readily select between three preset positions without having to adjust or reprogram the preset buttons.  
         [0036]    In the embodiment of FIG. 6D a scene control button  52  is provided in vertical alignment with the on/off buttons.  
         [0037]    A further embodiment of the hand-held remote of FIG. 2 is perspectively illustrated in FIG. 7A. The remote control  10  is depicted here to show its body  12 , infrared window  15  and rear panel  13 . This device has been configured to control a shade with the open and close buttons  14 ,  16  which are vertically aligned as well as located horizontally adjacent to the adjust buttons  20  and  22  which carry the up arrow icon  21  and the down arrow icon  23  formed directly on the adjust buttons  20  and  22 .  
         [0038]    The illustrated remote control is further developed to provide a group  60  of shade selection buttons as well as a switch group  62  comprising window select buttons. The button group  60  includes a first shade and second shade select button  60   a  and  60   b , respectively, as well as a “both” button  60   c  that allows the device to simultaneously control one or another or two shades. The button group  62  allows for the selection of one or more or all (button  62   c ) of the windows where various shades are located for being controlled with the single remote control  10  of FIG. 7A. The device of FIG. 7A is shown in plan view in FIG. 7B.  
         [0039]    [0039]FIG. 7C differs from FIG. 7B in the icons  21   a ,  23   a ,  15 ,  17 ,  61   a ,  61   b  and  61   c  being located off but adjacent their respective buttons. Further icon placement variations are shown in FIGS. 7D, 7E and  7 F. In FIG. 7F, the dark, vertically oriented bands on the various buttons can be mere decals or they can be LED lamps that will light up to indicate when a particular button has operated or when a particular selection has been made. The elements  66   a  and  66   b  on the shade control buttons are additional icons representing which shade is the “active” shade.  
         [0040]    The foregoing description of various devices and properties or parameters to be controlled by the remote control of the present invention is extendable to a virtually limitless list of other devices and parameters. Thus, the remote control of the present invention is intended to be applicable to such devices as audio/video equipment, projection screens, motorized sky lights, various doors, e.g., garage doors, heating and cooling appliances, cooking appliances, and the like. The parameters or variables of these appliances include such variables as temperature, heat capacity, light, sound, humidity, ventilation, and other electrical and mechanical properties such as, for example, torque, pressure, force, power, energy, speed, etc.  
         [0041]    In accordance with the further concept illustrated in FIG. 3, the various control buttons need not be square or rectangularly shaped. They can be shaped to allow immediate association with the device being controlled. Thus, the buttons for controlling a light may be shaped to convey the image of a light fixture, a button for a roller shade can be in the shape of a roller shade symbol and so on. These shapes include the shapes  31   a  and  31   b  for “light-off” and “light-on”, respectively;  31   c  and  31   d  for “shade down” and “shade up”, respectively;  31   e  and  31   f  for “roman shade down” and “roman shade up”, respectively; and  31   g  and  31   h  for “drapery close” and “drapery open”, respectively. Alternatively, the shapes  31   a - 31   h  can be used as decals on differently shaped buttons.  
         [0042]    Thus, as described above, in accordance with the various embodiments of the present invention, the invention is directed to a hand-held remote control that includes at least the following features and functionalities. The device is a hand-held remote control for controlling at least two device types chosen from a group that includes lights, roller shades, draperies, and any of the devices listed above or even others. The device includes a plurality of buttons in ordered arrangement, with all buttons relating to a single device type grouped together, within each device type group organized as a first pair of proximate buttons operable to cause the associated device type to go to one of two extreme states, and a second pair of proximate buttons operable to cause the associated device type to go to a state intermediate said two extreme states.  
         [0043]    The control device can be a multiple device type hand-held remote control with all buttons associated with a single device type grouped together with each group including a pair of course adjust buttons and a pair of fine adjust buttons. This generic multiple device type can be configured with each pair of proximate buttons being differently sized from the other of said pair of proximate buttons within each device type button group. The relative size of each pair of buttons can be related to the magnitude of the change the particular pair of buttons is capable of controlling. Or the shape of the buttons in the device type group can be the same and be related to the device type. Or, the shape for each device type group can be different from the shapes of all of the other device type groups. The shape of each button within each device type group can be different and related to the function performed by that button. Functionally corresponding buttons in different device type groups can have the same shape. And, the shape of a button can be a visual representation of the end result achieved by actuating the button.  
         [0044]    The various features noted above can be selected for any particular implementation of the remote control of the present invention by choosing the features to evolve a particular remote control having a specific selection of features and functionalities and appearance. Those functionalities and features further include each pair of proximate buttons being spaced vertically from each other and each pair of proximate buttons being spaced horizontally from each other and/or each pair of proximate buttons being axially spaced from each other, and the pair of buttons within each device type group being axially spaced from the other pair of proximate buttons orthogonally to the first pair. Buttons can also be differentiated based on their functionality being different as indicated by button color, texture, material, tactile feel and the like. The remote control can have each button provide a single function different from all other functions within each device group. Similarly, buttons can have decals formed directly thereon or adjacent thereto which are different from all of the decals associated with other buttons within each group.  
         [0045]    The operation of the various remote control  10  is elucidated by the circuit and software block diagram of FIGS. 8A and 8B. In FIG. 8A, the system  70  includes a microcontroller  72  and other electronic components that are powered by a power supply  74 , e.g., a battery. A reset circuit  76  is coupled to the microcontroller and a ceramic resonator  78  provides the basic clock signal that controls the sequential steps of the computer instructions executed within the microcontroller  72 .  
         [0046]    For input/output, the button matrix block  80  comprises the circuitry that senses and communicates to the microcontroller  72  which buttons have been depressed and/or which indicators on the face of the control  10  need to be illuminated. The actual drive signals for LED or other display devices are supplied to the LED drive circuit  82 .  
         [0047]    As shown in FIG. 8B, the software  84  implements an algorithm that executes a power-up routine at block  86  when the device is first turned on and proceeds to carry-out the initialization of various variables at step  88 . The refreshing of button positions and other functions within the system  70  is carried out by the software at block  90 . The button reader  92  constantly queries the various buttons as part of the overall process  84 , noting which buttons have been depressed and storing those settings in a table or register  94 .  
         [0048]    The overall process nerve center at  96  selects one of a plurality of functions such as those provided in the encoder block  98 , button group handling block  100 , the transmitter block  102  and the sleep manager  104  which handles power conservation. Based on the determination at the decision block  104   a , when the sleep time has been determined to have run, the wake up routine  110  is invoked and the process then repeats as indicated. If the sleep time has not run up, then the decision block software  106  queries whether the 1 bit time is up and proceeds to refresh the driver, so that the LEDs are properly strobed to obtain the proper display visibility.  
         [0049]    Although the present invention has been described in relation to particular embodiments thereof, many other variations and modifications and other uses will become apparent to those skilled in the art. It is preferred, therefore, that the present invention be limited not by the specific disclosure herein, but only by the appended claims.