Patent ID: 7352288

Claim:
An apparatus for preventing malfunction of a remote controller in a system including a plurality of electronic devices connected to a common control bus and mutually communicating a remote control signal with each other, the apparatus comprising: a remote control signal acquisition unit for acquiring a remote control signal through a remote control light reception unit of an electronic device and from said control bus, the remote control signal containing a code indicating a requested operation and a counter code whose value changes each time a key of the remote controller is operated; and a remote control signal invalidation unit for, when said remote control signal acquisition unit acquires a remote control signal from said control bus, referring to the counter code contained in the remote control signal acquired from said control bus and to the counter codes contained in remote control signals previously acquired through the remote control light reception unit of the electronic device, determining whether or not these counter codes satisfy a certain condition, and carrying out processing for invalidating the remote control signal acquired from said control bus if these counter codes satisfy the certain condition; wherein when said remote control signal acquisition unit acquires the remote control signal from said control bus, said remote control signal invalidation unit compares the counter code contained in the remote control signal acquired from said control bus to the counter codes respectively contained in “n” (where “n” is an arbitrary positive number equal to two or more) remote control signals acquired through the remote control light reception unit of the electronic device before the acquisition of the remote control signal acquired from said control bus, and invalidates the remote control signal acquired from said control bus if one of the previously acquired remote control signals contains the same counter code as the counter code contained in the remote control signal acquired from said control bus.