Abstract:
When a person arrives home with his mobile phone, the phone sends a presence signal via Bluetooth to the TV system in the home, which enables a telephone feature in which phone calls to the phone are relayed to the TV system. The remote control associated with the TV has a microphone and speaker so that a person can use the RC not only to control the TV but also to respond to phone calls, with the TV system relaying voice signals from the RC back to the phone.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present application relates generally to devices that can be used as both telephones and TV remote controls. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
     TV remote controls are ubiquitous. Typically, viewers watching TV keep their remotes close at hand. The same might not be true of telephones, however. Consider that people arriving home may leave their mobile phones in chargers or on countertops or other locations that might not be nearby the TV, so that they must rise off the couch and seek their phones to respond to incoming calls. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     A TV system includes a TV and a remote control (RC) configured to send wireless command signals such as to change a tuned-to channel displayed on the TV. The RC also includes a microphone into which a person can speak. The TV system is configured to wirelessly receive signals representing telephony signals from a wireless telephone. The microphone of the RC can receive acoustic signals from a person, and the TV system is configured to wirelessly send signals representing the acoustic signals to the wireless telephone. 
     The telephony signals can represent, e.g., a caller&#39;s voice. The TV system may be configured to receive a presence signal from the wireless telephone indicating that the wireless telephone is nearby the TV system and in response enabling use of the RC as a telephone. This presence signal can be sent using Bluetooth. 
     If desired, the RC can include a speaker on which telephony signals are displayed. In addition or alternatively, the TV&#39;s speakers can be used to display a caller&#39;s voice. The signals representing telephony signals can be received on Bluetooth and the signals representing the acoustic signals can also be sent on Bluetooth. The TV may act as a relay between the RC and the wireless telephone, 
     In another aspect, a TV remote control (RC) has a hand-held housing, a keypad on the housing, and a microphone in the housing. A processor is in the housing may receive signals from the microphone and keypad. A TV remote control signal generator is also in the housing and is controlled by the processor to send signals such as channel control commands to the TV. The RC is also configured to wirelessly transmit signals representing voice signals received at the microphone. 
     In another aspect, a presence signal is sent via Bluetooth from a mobile phone to a TV system. In response to the presence signal, a telephone feature is enabled in which phone calls to the phone are relayed to the TV system. A user can input voice signals to a remote control (RC) associated with the TV, with the signals being relayed from the RC back to the phone. 
     The details of the present invention, both as to its structure and operation, can best be understood in reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals refer to like parts, and in which: 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram of an example system in accordance with present principles; and 
         FIG. 2  is a flow chart of example logic that may be used. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Referring initially to  FIG. 1 , a system is shown, generally designated  10 , which includes a TV system having a TV  12  and remote control (RC)  14 , it is to be understood that all of the components of the TV  12  may be included in one chassis or some components, e.g., a tuner, may be included in a set-top box or other ancillary device connected to the TV  12 . 
     As shown, the TV  12  includes a TV display  16  such as a cathode ray tube or flat panel matrix display in standard and/or high definition. The display  16  is mounted on a TV chassis  18 , and the chassis  18  also supports one or more audio speakers  20 . Programming from a channel tuned to by means of a TV tuner  22  is presented on the display  16  and speakers  20 . 
     The tuner  22  may be controlled by a TV processor  24  accessing data and/or computer instructions stored on a tangible computer readable medium  26  such as solid state storage, disk storage, or other appropriate electronic storage. To receive wireless TV commands such as channel control commands, volume change commands, and the like from the RC  14 , the TV  12  typically includes an infrared or other type of TV command receiver  28  sending signals to the TV processor  24 . Furthermore, the TV  12  may include a short range radiofrequency (RF) transceiver  30  such as a Bluetooth transceiver that sends signals to the TV processor  24 . In the embodiment shown, the TV  12  does not include a transceiver configured to communicate with the public telephony system. 
     Turning to the RC  14 , to send TV commands to the TV  12  the RC typically includes an infrared or other TV command transmitter  32  controlled by a RC processor  34 . Furthermore, the RC  14  may include a short range radiofrequency (RF) transceiver  36  such as a Bluetooth transceiver that sends signals to the RC processor  34 . The RC processor  34  may access data and/or computer instructions stored on a tangible computer readable medium  38  such as solid state storage, disk storage, or other appropriate electronic storage and may receive voice signal input from a microphone  40  and output voice data on one or more speakers  42 . The RC processor  34  may also receive user input from a RC keypad  44 . The above-described RC components typically are contained on a portable hand-held housing  46 . 
       FIG. 1  also shows that a wireless telephone  48  may communicate with the TV system described above. With more particularity, the wireless telephone  48 , which may be, without limitation, a global systems for mobile communications (GSM) telephone, a code division multiple access (CDMA) telephone, a time division multiple access (TDMA) telephone, a frequency division multiple access (FDMA) telephone, a space division multiple access (SDMA), a wideband-CDMA telephone, an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) telephone, etc. includes a wireless telephony transceiver  50  for communicating with wireless telephony base stations in accordance with principles known in the art. 
     The telephony transceiver  50  may be controlled by a telephone processor  52  accessing data and/or computer instructions stored on a tangible computer readable medium  54  such as solid state storage, disk storage, or other appropriate electronic storage. In some embodiments the telephone  48  includes a position receiver  56  such as a global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver providing input to the telephone processor  52 , as well as a short range radiofrequency (RF) transceiver  58  such as a Bluetooth transceiver communicating with the telephone processor  54 . The telephone  48  may also include a telephone display  60  such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) or light emitting diode (LED) display or other type of matrix display that is controlled by the telephone processor  52 , as well as a telephone keypad  62  for inputting user commands to the telephone processor  52 . The above-described telephone components typically are contained on a portable hand-held housing  64 . 
     With the above example system architecture in mind, attention is now drawn to  FIG. 2 , which illustrates logic some or all of which may be embodied in the computer-readable media described above. Commencing at block  66 , in some implementations the phone  48  can send a presence signal to the TV system when the user, e.g., carries the phone into the house in which the TV system is disposed. This presence signal may be user-generated or it may be in response to signals from the position receiver  56  informing the phone processor  52  that the phone is located in a user-defined geographic location at which the user wishes to use the TV system for telephony purposes as described below. Yet again, the phone  48  may simply broadcast the presence signal periodically, or in response to being connected to a battery charger. In any case, the presence signal may be sent via Bluetooth. Preferably, the TV system acknowledges the presence signal to the telephone. 
     At block  68 , in response to receiving the presence signal, the TV system may enable the telephone feature described below. In other embodiments the feature may always be enabled if unusable due to the absence of the telephone  48 . The logic of block  68  may be executed by one or both of the TV processor  24  and RC processor  34 . 
     Moving to block  70 , an incoming call to the telephone  48  is sent using, e.g., Bluetooth to the TV system. Recall that the presence signal sent by the telephone  12  preferably is acknowledged by the TV system, so that the telephone processor  52  knows that it is nearby the TV and, thus, that it is to relay calls to the TV system. The step at block  70  may additionally include, in addition to the automatic enabling of telephone-to-TV system communication, a user input as well, allowing the user, by means of a graphical user interface (GUI) presented on, e.g., the TV display  16  or RC that can be automatically displayed upon receipt of the presence signal, to allow the user to select “yes” to enabling telephone operation of the TV system. 
     The call is then displayed on the RC  14 . Specifically, using Bluetooth the telephone  48  can send ring tones and voice signals to the TV  12 , which can relay the signals to the RC. The signals may be displayed on the TV speakers  20  and/or on the RC speaker  42 . 
     Further, at block  72  a person holding the RC  14  can speak into the microphone  40 , and the RC  14  transmits Bluetooth signals representing the person&#39;s voice at block  76 . These signals are sent to the telephone  48 , which relays them over the telephony network. In this way, a person can conduct a telephone conversation using the RC  14  as a repeater and the telephone  48  as a relay node. 
     In some embodiments, only the TV  12  need have Bluetooth capabilities; signals, representing both TV command signals and voice signals, may be exchanged between the RC  14  and TV  12  using the infrared link provided by the IR transmitter  32  and IR receiver  28 , with the TV  12  relaying voice signals to the telephone  48 . In other embodiments, both the TV  12  and RC  14  have Bluetooth capabilities, exchanging voice-related signals on Bluetooth and TV command signals on the IR link with the TV  12  relaying voice signals to the telephone  48 . In still other embodiments, the RC  14  may communicate voice signals directly to the telephone  48  using Bluetooth. 
     While the particular COMBINED TELEPHONE/TV REMOTE CONTROL is herein shown and described in detail, it is to be understood that the subject matter which is encompassed by the present invention is limited only by the claims.