System and method for using image data in connection with
Contents
1. S IN IMAGE CAN ISOLATE OBJECTS FOR DENTIFICATION UNIQUE MATCH IN DATABASE AMBIGUOUS MATCH IN DATABASE Y DISPLAY POSSIBLE CHOICES FOR USER SELECTION RETRIEVE CONFIGURATION DATA FOR MATCHED OBJECT S PREPARE CONFIGURATION DATA FOR DOWNLOAD DOWNLOAD CONFIGURATION DATA FIGURE 4 Sheet 4 of 8 US 7 653 212 B2 REQUEST USER TO SELECT AN OBJECT WITHIN IMAGE SEND NOTICE THAT NO MATCH FOUND SUGGEST ALTERNATIVE SETUP METHODS SOLICIT SETUP INFORMATION FROM USER ADD IMAGE AND SETUP INFORMATION TO DATABASE U S Patent Jan 26 2010 Sheet 5 of 8 US 7 653 212 B2 ENR BER Kee Us frost ins oiv fuh keene C fes y SELECT THE APPLIANCE S OF INTEREST IN THE FIGURE YOU HAVE UPLOADED Home Sitemap Privacy Policy Terms of Use 2006 Universal Electronics Inc All Rights Reserved FIGURE 5 US 7 653 212 B2 Sheet 6 of 8 Jan 26 2010 U S Patent 9 AYNSIA gemerem grees ener menace mre Mere ma RT persesey siuBnJ S0100229 3 ELAUN 9002 gt 257 suy Cewous OWOH i ae DK S 9jouJaJ uo shay seJnjoid 9594 U9IUM e es eseo g US 7 653 212 B2 Sheet 7 of 8 Jan 26 2010 U S Patent 4 diro2. controlled by a universal controlling device The image recognition system has access to database of images 56 References Cited that have been cross referenced to appliances and configura U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 4 623 887 A 11 1986 Welles II 4 774 511 A 9 1988 Rumbolt et al 4 959 810 A 9 1990 Darbee et al 5 263 098 A 11 1993 Horikami 5 481 256 A 1 1996 Darbee et al 5 515 052 A 5 1996 Darbee 5 959 751 9 1999 Darbee et al 398 112 6 014 092 A 1 2000 Darbee et al 6 115 495 A 9 2000 Tachikawa et al 6 157 319 A 12 2000 Johns et al 6 211 856 B1 4 2001 Choietal 345 666 6 211 870 Bl 4 2001 Foster 6 225 938 5 2001 Hayes et al tion information for those appliances The image recognition system uses the provided image to identify one or more appli ances to be controlled using the universal controlling device and accordingly the configuration information for those one or more appliances so identified The configuration informa tion may then be provided to a user for manual provision to the universal controlling device or be provided in a form for downloading into the universal controlling device whether directly or via an intermediate device The configuration information may also be provided to an intermediate device which has programming for use in connection with a process of configuring the universal controlling device 12 Claims 8 Drawing Sheets US
3. locations within the image 500 by drawing a boundary around one or more objects show in the displayed image 500 etc and the system 204 may then use the marked part s of the uploaded image to reattempt to find a match between the selected object s and reference image Alternatively or in conjunction with the above system 204 may cause to be displayed a representative sample of possible images from database 206 as further described hereafter in connection with FIGS 6 through 8 In this regard it is to be appreciated that these displayed images are considered to be a match with the uploaded image by the image recognition software on at least some level The system 204 may also request that a user select one or more objects within an uploaded image prior to the image recognition software attempting to discern a match In the case where the image recognition software finds one or more matches for one or more objects within the uploaded image the system 204 may display to the user the matched reference image s and or appliance brand name model e g the image indicates that the television is a Sony KV32HX15 etc and ask the user to confirm the match In the case where multiple matches are found the user may be asked to select one or more of the reference images as being the reference images for the appliances of interest to the user By way of further example FIG 6 illustrates an exemplary Web page display 600 in which the image m
4. operations of an intended target appliance is described and illustrated in co pending U S 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 application Ser No 11 389 627 entitled System And Method For Defining A Controlled Device Command Set filed on Mar 24 2006 It is also known in the art to configure a universal control ling device to thereby provide to the universal controlling device a user interface that has the same appearance as the original equipment remote control corresponding to the appliances to be controlled For example U S Pat No 6 938 101 illustrates and describes a universal controlling device that provides a user interface in the form of a virtual remote control that has the key layout and appearance of an original equipment remote control Similarly PCT Published Appli cation WO 2005 043484 illustrates and describes a universal controlling device having a camera where the camera is used to capture an image of an original equipment remote control which captured image is then used in the user interface of the universal controlling device While these variously known systems and methods for configuring a universal controlling device generally work for their intended purpose a need remains for a system and method that provides a yet more convenient and user friendly way for configuring a universal controlling device SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with this and other needs the foll
5. transmitting commands to the plurality of target appli ances 9 The method as recited in claim 8 comprising selecting the one or more graphical user interface elements from a library of graphical user interface elements stored in a memory of the universal controlling device 10 The method as recited in claim 8 comprising selecting the one or more graphical user interface elements from a library of graphical user interface elements stored in a memory remote from the universal controlling device and downloading the selected graphical user interface elements to the universal controlling device 11 The method as recited in claim 1 comprising using the Internet server system to cause a plurality of images from the associated database that were discerned by the Internet server system as being a potential match for each of the plurality of target appliances designated by the user within the single image to be displayed and allowing for the selection of one or more of the displayed plurality of images to thereby allow a user to refine the match 12 The method as recited in claim 11 wherein the dis played one or more images comprises one or more imageries selected from a group consisting of an appliance image and a remote control image
6. 5 4 port 318 such as a serial interface modem Zigbee WiFi or Bluetooth transceiver USB port etc a digital image capture means such as a lens and associated CCD sensor 320 and clock and timer logic 312 with associated crystal or resonator 314 As will beunderstood by those skilled in the art some or all of the memories 304 305 306 may include executable instructions collectively the program memory that are intended to be executed by the processor 300 to control the operation of the remote control 100 as well as data which serves to define the aforementioned control protocols and command values to the operational software collectively the command data In this manner the processor 300 may be programmed to control the various electronic components within the remote control 100 e g to monitor the power supply 308 to cause the transmission of signals control the image capture means 320 etc The non volatile read write memory 306 for example an EEPROM battery backed up RAM FLASH Smart Card memory stick or the like may additionally be provided to store setup data and parameters as necessary While the memory 304 is illustrated and described asa ROM memory memory 304 can also be comprised of any type of readable media such as ROM FLASH EEPROM or the like Preferably the memories 304 and 305 are non volatile or battery backed such that data is not required to be reloaded after battery changes In addition the mem
7. 653 212 B2 7 image sets may be used for example images of the appliances themselves as illustrated in display 800 of FIG 8 without limitation Once the system 204 has a confirmed match between ref erence image s within the database 206 and one or more objects within an uploaded image whether system confirmed or user confirmed the system 204 may then prepare the configuration data for the appliance s that have been cross referenced to the matched reference image s for download ing In this regard the configuration data may be a complete command data set for an appliance s a pointer used to iden tify command data set for an appliance s within a library of command data sets e g a direct entry code for automatic or manual provision to the universal controlling device 100 a complete user interface e g one or more user interface pages having one or more user interface elements a pointer used to identify one or more user interface elements in a library of user interface elements data for creating a new command data set for an appliance data for creating a new function command for an appliance etc Further upon confirmation system 204 may use any uploaded image data to supplement or refine reference image database 206 in order to improve future performance In the case where multiple appliances have been identified to the system 204 whether in a single picture or by tracking past user uploads and identifications the
8. 7 653 212 B2 Page 2 2003 0095 156 2003 0103088 2003 014 1987 2003 0189509 2004 0003001 2004 0070491 2004 0257259 2005 0054289 2006 0050142 U S PATENT DOCUMENTS Al Al Al Al Al Al Al Al Al 5 2003 6 2003 7 2003 10 2003 1 2004 4 2004 12 2004 3 2005 3 2006 Klein et al 345 864 Dresti et 345 835 Hayes 340 825 72 Hayes et al 341 176 Shimura 707 104 1 Huang et al 340 10 5 Jindal 341 176 Salazar et al Scott et al 348 14 05 2006 0227997 Al 2007 0080845 1 2007 0096283 1 2007 0217650 1 2009 0123025 1 10 2006 4 2007 5 2007 9 2007 5 2009 Auw etal oc ges 382 224 Amand 341 176 Ljung et al 257 686 Otaetal 382 100 Deng et al 382 100 FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS WO WO 2005 043484 cited by examiner 5 2005 U S Patent Jan 26 2010 Sheet 1 of 8 US 7 653 212 B2 Figure 1 U S Patent Jan 26 2010 Sheet 2 of 8 US 7 653 212 B2 Figure 2 U S Patent Jan 26 2010 Sheet 3 of 8 US 7 653 212 B2 308 Power source 320 Image capture device 316 Key matrix 302 2 5 e Visual feedback device 318 Input Output Clock and 9 timer logic 314 312 100 Figure 3 U S Patent Jan 26 2010 RECEIVE UPLOADED IMAGE DISCERN OBJECT
9. AAR eene qs 2 9 9 perueseay sin ny 9002 gt 955 gt sunaa awon eseuj jo 7 d awed yeu eui SOLU S400 U9IUuA eunjoid 129jes 28 Fears 000 Pease 055 ij 998 US 7 653 212 B2 Sheet 8 of 8 Jan 26 2010 U S Patent 8 JXN9l4 I X Em m Votre rae str prt e RN EET En RH AIEEE MISI ESI SUEY oui son03 29 3 9002 G 257 jo suud Og Aeg i RYES Je ejd JSOW 5300 aunjoid OU 129 95 xedy er c Seg 0 CULPAE US 7 653 212 B2 1 SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR USING IMAGE DATA IN CONNECTION WITH CONFIGURING A UNIVERSAL CONTROLLING DEVICE BACKGROUND Universal controlling devices for example remote con trols which are adaptable to issue commands to a multiplicity of appliances of different type and or manufacture and the features and functionality provided by such controlling devices are well known in the art In this regard early univer sal controlling devices such as described in U S Pat No 4 623 887 were generally learners that is they were adapted to ca
10. D tag bar code appliance gener ated signal user interaction with a locally displayed or remotely e g computer or Internet accessible menu etc to identify the appliance intended to be controlled which infor mation is accordingly used to select a command code set from a library of command code sets to be used when sending commands to that appliance As further described in these references the library of command codes sets may be stored locally on the universal controlling device or in a database accessible to the universal controlling device where the selected command code sets are thus downloaded into the universal controlling device As additionally described in these references the information used to identify one or more intended target appliances may also be used to configure a macro command sequence to command operations ofthe one or more appliances to configure a user interface for the uni versal controlling device in a manner that is also applicable to the appliance s to be controlled etc Still further universal controlling devices are known that allow a user to key into the universal controlling device infor mation that is used to configure the universal controlling device to command additional operations of an intended tar get appliance One such universal controlling device is described and illustrated in U S Pat No 5 515 052 A yet further system and method for configuring a universal con trolling device to command
11. US007653212B2 a2 United States Patent 10 Patent No US 7 653 212 B2 Haughawout et al 45 Date of Patent Jan 26 2010 54 SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR USING IMAGE 6 763 148 B1 7 2004 Sternberg et al DATA IN CONNECTION WITH 6 952 496 B2 10 2005 Krumm CONFIGURING A UNIVERSAL 7 046 161 B2 5 2006 Hayes 340 825 69 CONTROLLING DEVICE 2001 0017615 1 8 2001 Linetal 345 173 2001 0045819 11 2001 Harris et al 2 323 371 75 Inventors Joseph Lee Haughawout Aliso Viejo 2002 0143805 Al 10 2002 Hayeset al 707 500 CA US Patrick H Hayes Mission 2003 0025840 Al 2 2003 Arling Viejo CA US 73 Assignee Universal Electronics Inc Cypress CA US Continued Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS patent is extended or adjusted under 35 EP 1578016 9 2005 U S C 154 b by 300 days 21 Appl No 11 437 251 Continued May 2000 Primary Examiner Sath Perungavoor 65 Prior Publication Data 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Gary B Jarosik Greenberg Traurig LLP US 2007 0279244 Al Dec 6 2007 57 ABSTRACT 51 Int G06K 9 00 2006 01 52 382 100 348 734 725 37 A user provides to an image recognition system an image that 58 Field of Classification Search 382 100 is intended to be used to identify one or more appliances that See application file for complete search history are to be
12. al area network or wired e g via USB and may occur in real time or off line all without limitation Similarly the configuration data that is to be used to configure the controlling device 100 may be returned from the system 204 directly to the controlling device 100 via a network such as the Internet or PSTN and or may be returned to an inter mediate computer 208 via a network such as the Internet or PSTN At the intermediate computer 208 the configuration data may be simply downloaded to the controlling device 100 using the same or a different method as was used for upload ing of the captured image and or it may be used at the inter mediate computer 208 in connection with a configuration building application resident of the intermediate computer 208 to thereby define a configuration which defined configu ration may then be downloaded to the controlling device 100 as described in for example U S Published Application No 2006 0050142 While the system 204 is illustrated as being a network server computer it will be appreciated that elements described as being a part of the system 204 may be resident in whole or in part on a local computing device Also inter mediate computer 208 may take the form of a conventional a network gateway device a cable satellite or IPTV set top box etc without limitation Inanexemplary embodiment it is contemplated that a user will access the system 204 for example by means of a Web bro
13. atching process of system 204 has determined that two possibilities exist for a submitted image 604 The distinguishing characteristics 606 608 button labels in the example shown may be highlighted to the user together with a request 602 to select which of the two pictures best matches the user s original equipment remote FIG 7 illustrates an alternative method which may be used either in conjunction with that described above for example where a submitted image is of too low a quality to allow unambiguous matching or independently for example where a user does not have any image capturing means avail able In this method a user may supply basic selection cri teria such as for example a brand name 702 and or equipment type System 204 may respond with a display 700 presenting a group of images 704 from database 206 all of which corre spond to the supplied criteria while prompting 710 the user to select the image which most closely resembles their item of equipment in the example presented the original equipment remote control Provision 706 may be made for more than one page of images Additionally it will be understood that selec tion of certain images for example 708 may result in a further request as previously discussed in connection with FIG 6 It will also be understood that although the example illustrated in FIG 7 utilizes images of original equipment remote controls other appropriate image sets or mixtures of US 7
14. ate computer 208 may have programming that uses the configuration data whether it be a downloaded full command code set or a pointer to a command code set and or user interface elements accessible to the intermediate com puter 208 to allow forthe creation ofa configuration that is to be ultimately downloaded into the controlling device as dis closed in for example U S Pat No 6 211 870 or U S Pub lished Patent Application No 2006 0050142 In an embodiment in which controlling device 100 includes a touch screen display should system 204 be unable to match anuploaded image ofan original equipment remote control to any item in reference database 206 the captured image may be displayed on the face of controlling device 100 and used as a button template to guide a user in learning the functions of the original equipment remote control as described for example in PCT published patent application WO 2005 043484 It will be appreciated that in this event upon comple tion ofthe teaching process the learned command data as well as mappings between the command data and keys of imaged remote control may be subsequently uploaded to system 204 for storage together or in association with the previously unmatched image Such uploaded learned data may then be used directly as or as a cross reference to configuration data for use in connection with future matches to that image While various concepts have been described in detail it will b
15. e appreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications and alternatives to those concepts could be developed in light of the overall teachings of the disclosure For example while one disclosed exemplary embodiment contemplates delivery of configuration data key in sequences via the Internet or similar interactive electronic means it will be appreciated that in alternative embodiments these may be delivered to a customer verbally over the telephone by a service representative or an automated dial in service mailed to a customer either electronically or by way of the postal service published on a community bulletin board electronic or otherwise etc all without departing from the spirit of the invention It will also be appreciated that the database and system for performing image recognition may be logically and or physically distinct from the database and system ulti mately used to provide configuration information and data for the controlling device for example an image recognition system may discern and identify an appliance by its model number which model number may then be subsequently supplied to a separate system which utilizes the identified model number as an index into a database of device setup information and or downloadable control codes Further while various aspects of this invention have been described in the context of functional modules and illustrated using block diagram format it is to be understood that
16. g device or be provided in a form for download ing into the universal controlling device whether directly or via an intermediate device The configuration information may also be provided to an intermediate device which has programming for use in connection with a process of config uring the universal controlling device In any of these cases the configuration information may be used to select or create one or more command code sets for configuring the universal controlling device to command operations of one or more appliances select or create one or more commands for con figuring the controlling device to command operations of one or more appliances such as extended operations select or create user interface elements user interface pages etc for use on the universal controlling device provide mappings between one or more commands and one or more user inter face elements of the universal controlling device etc US 7 653 212 B2 3 A better understanding of the objects advantages features properties and relationships of the invention will be obtained from the following detailed description and accompanying drawings which set forth illustrative embodiments and which are indicative of the various ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS For a better understanding of the various aspects of the invention reference may be had to preferred embodiments shown in the attached d
17. ling device 100 is configured to control various controllable appliances such as a television 102 and set top box STB 104 As is known in the art the controlling device 100 is capable of transmitting commands to the appliances using any convenient IR RF Point to Point or networked protocol to cause the appliances to per form operational functions While illustrated in the context of a television 102 STB 104 and DVR 106 it is to be under stood that controllable appliances may include but need not be limited to televisions VCRs DVRs DVD players cable or satellite converter set top boxes STBs amplifiers CD players game consoles home lighting drapery fans HVAC systems thermostats personal computers etc With reference to FIG 3 for use in commanding the func tional operations of one or more appliances the controlling devices 100 may include as needed for a particular applica tion a processor 300 coupled to ROM memory 304 a RAM memory 305 a key matrix 316 e g hard keys soft keys such asatouch sensitive surface overlaid on a liquid crystal LCD and or an electroluminescent EL display transmission cir cuit s 310 and or transceiver circuit s e g IR and or RF a non volatile read write memory 306 a means 302 to provide feedback to the user e g one or more LEDs display speaker and or the like a power source 308 an input output 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 6
18. ories 304 305 and 306 may take the form of a chip a hard disk a magnetic disk an optical disk and or the like Still further it will be appreciated that some or all of the illustrated memory devices may be physically incorporated within the same IC chip as the microprocessor 300 a so called microcontrol ler and as such they are shown separately in FIG 3 only for the sake of clarity To cause the controlling device 100 to perform an action the controlling device 100 is adapted to be responsive to events such as a sensed user interaction with the key matrix 316 etc In response to an event appropriate instructions within the program memory hereafter the operating pro gram may be executed For example when a function key is actuated on the controlling device 100 the controlling device 100 may retrieve from the command data the command value and control protocol corresponding to the actuated function key and the current device mode from memory 304 305 306 and transmit the command to an intended target appliance e g STB 104 in a format recognizable by that appliance It will be appreciated that the operating program can be used not only to cause the transmission of command codes and or data to the appliances but also to perform local operations While not limiting local operations that may be performed by the controlling device 100 may include displaying information data favorite channel setup macro key setup func
19. owing generally describes a system and method for using image data in connection with a process for configuring a universal con trolling device To this end a user provides to a system an image that is intended to be used to identify one or more appliances that are to be controlled by the universal control ling device The image may be an image of the appliance itself of an original equipment remote control for the appli ance of a bar code associated with the appliance of packag ing for the appliance of a catalog or user manual page or illustration or any other type of imagery which functions to identify the appliance intended to be controlled More par ticularly the image is provided to an image recognition sys tem having access to a database of images that have been cross referenced to appliances and configuration information for those appliances In this regard configuration information may be one or more pointers to data such as data stored on the universal controlling device a computing device capable of communicating with the universal controlling device etc and or data itself The image recognition system may use the provided image to identify one or more appliances to be controlled using the universal controlling device and accord ingly the configuration information for those one or more appliances so identified The configuration information may then be provided to a user for manual provision to the univer sal controllin
20. pture store and subsequently play back the command signals of the original equipment remote controls corresponding to the appliances to be controlled However the required initial teaching process used to configure such early universal controlling devices proved tedious and error prone To address this drawback further universal controlling devices were introduced which included preprogrammed libraries of command code sets such as those described in U S Pat Nos 4 774 511 or 4 959 810 As particularly described in U S Pat No 4 959 810 to configure such a universal controlling device a user is required to consult a reference manual or the like to obtain a setup code that cor responds to an intended target appliance The setup code is then keyed into the universal controlling device where it is used to select a command code set from the library of com mand code sets stored in the universal controlling device whereupon the selected command code set is to be used when the universal controlling device is instructed to issue com mands to that intended target appliance As alternatives to a user looking up a setup code and manually keying the setup code into the universal controlling device for the purpose of configuring the universal control ling device U S Published Application Nos 2006 0050142 2004 0070491 and 2003 0189509 and U S Pat Nos 6 225 938 and 6 157 319 illustrate and describe using information from for example an RFI
21. ration information to a computing device having a configuration editor and using the at least a subset of the configuration information and the configuration editor to create a configuration for provision to 20 25 30 35 40 45 10 the universal controlling device to thereby enable the univer sal controlling device to communicate commands to the plu rality of target appliances 5 The method as recited in claim 1 comprising using the at least a subset of the configuration information to select one or more command sets from a library of command sets which selected one or more command sets are to be used in connec tion with transmitting commands to the one or more target appliances 6 The method as recited in claim 5 comprising selecting the one or more command sets from a library of command sets stored in a memory of the universal controlling device 7 The method as recited in claim 5 comprising selecting theoneor more command sets from a library of command sets stored in a memory remote from the universal controlling device and downloading the selected one or more command sets to the universal controlling device 8 The method as recited in claim 1 comprising using the at least a subset of the configuration information to select one or more graphical user interface elements from a library of graphical user interface elements which selected one or more graphical user interface elements are to be used in connection with
22. rawings in which FIG 1 illustrates an exemplary system in which an exem plary controlling device according to the instant invention may be used FIG 2 illustrates an exemplary system in which an image is used to obtain configuration data for use in the exemplary controlling device of FIG 1 FIG 3 illustrates exemplary components for use in the exemplary controlling device of FIG 1 FIG 4 illustrates an exemplary method for using an image to obtain configuration data for use in the exemplary control ling device of FIG 1 FIG 5 illustrates a screen shot of a Web page by which a user may identify one or more objects within the image to be used to obtain configuration data for use in the exemplary controlling device of FIG 1 FIG 6 illustrates a screen shot of a Web page by which a user may refine the identity of an original equipment remote control to obtain configuration data for use in the exemplary controlling device of FIG 1 FIG 7 illustrates a screen shot of a Web page by which a user may identify an original equipment remote control in order to obtain configuration data for use in the exemplary controlling device of FIG 1 and FIG 8 illustrates a screen shot of a Web page by which a user may identify an appliance model in order to obtain con figuration data for use in the exemplary controlling device of FIG 1 DETAILED DESCRIPTION Turning now to FIG 1 there is illustrated an exemplary system in which a control
23. s a command data set to be used in transmitting commands to an appliance identified by the uploaded image may cause the controlling device 100 to store and use a complete data set for an appliance identified by the uploaded image may cause the controlling device 100 to select from a pre stored library of user interface elements a user interface element to be interacted with to cause the controlling device 100 to transmit a command to an appliance identified by the uploaded image etc As also illustrated in FIG 2 the configuration data may be downloaded to an intermediate computer 208 The configu ration data may then be downloaded to the controlling device 100 when the controlling device 100 is placed into commu nication with the intermediate computer 208 where the pro gramming ofthe controlling device 100 may use the configu ration in the manner discussed above as if it had been provided to the controlling device 100 directly Still further 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 8 theintermediate computer 208 may use the configuration data to for example display keystrokes that are to be entered via the key matrix of the controlling device 100 to configure the controlling device to communicate commands to an appli ance identified by the uploaded image and or to configure the user interface used to initiate the transmission of command s to an appliance identified by the uploaded image Yet further the intermedi
24. system 204 may prepare one or more macros for commanding the operations ofthe known appliances for possible inclusion in the control ling device 100 as described in U S application Ser No 10 411 792 e g to turn on a television tune a television to a particular channel turn on a DVD player turn on a home theater audio system etc Similarly the configuration data may include programming for establishing user interface pages such as a page which presents user interface elements for use in controlling the multiple identified appliances as described in U S Published Application No 2006 0050142 As further illustrated in FIG 2 the configuration data for the identified appliance s may be downloaded directly to the controlling device 100 whereupon the programming of the controlling device 100 may use the data to automatically configure the controlling device 100 to communicate com mand s to the appliance s so identified from the uploaded image by the system 204 As additionally noted the program ming ofthe controlling device 100 may also use downloaded configuration data to automatically configure the user inter face ofthe controlling device to provide a means for a user to cause the controlling device 100 to communicate the com mand s to the appliance s so identified By way of example and not intended to be limiting the downloaded data may cause the controlling device 100 to select from a pre stored library of command data set
25. ted database of images that have been cross referenced to identifier data for a plurality of appliances and configu ration information for the plurality of appliances a single image and a user provided designation of the plurality of target appliances within the single image using the Internet server system to discern a plurality of images from the associated database as being a match for each of the plurality of target appliances designated by the user within the single image and using at least a subset of the configuration information that has been cross referenced to the matched images to enable the universal controlling device to communicate commands to the plurality of target appliances wherein the configuration information comprises a macro com mand sequence whereby the universal controlling device is usable to transmit commands for commanding multiple operations of at least one of the plurality of target appliances in response to activation of a single input element of the universal controlling device 2 The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the configu ration information comprises information in a format for a user to manually key into the universal controlling device 3 The method as recited in claim 1 comprising causing at least a subset of the configuration information to be down loaded into the universal controlling device 4 The method as recited in claim 1 comprising providing the at least a subset of the configu
26. tion key relocation etc Examples of local operations can be found in U S Pat Nos 5 481 256 5 959 751 and 6 014 092 An addi tional local operation is the ability to lock function keys across device operational modes as described in U S Pub lished Patent Application No 2003 0025840 For configuring the controlling device 100 to command operations of one or more appliances the system and method described hereinafter uses an image that is provided to the system for the purpose of identifying to the system the one or more appliance with which the controlling device 100 is to be used As illustrated in FIGS 2 and 4 an external image capturing device 202 such as a digital camera or any device with imaging capabilities e g a cell phone scanner etc may be used to capture an image that is to be uploaded to a system 204 having image recognition software and access to a database 206 of reference images that have been further US 7 653 212 B2 5 cross referenced to configuration data for appliances known to be represented by object s within the reference images Alternatively an image capture device 320 may be built into the remote control itself for this purpose In various embodiments the uploaded data may be an image or images of individual items as illustrated for example by the remote control image 604 of FIG 6 or may comprise a composite image ofa group of items as illustrated for example by the group of appliances
27. to be controlled 500 of FIG 5 In either event the system 204 functions to discern from the information present in the image the one or more appliances to be controlled using the controlling device 100 to thereby select the appropriate configuration data that is to be used to configure the controlling device 100 to command operations of the appliances so discerned Since the methods by which image recognition software may separate out where necessary and discern a match between one or more objects within an image and a corresponding object within a reference image are well known for example being described in U S Pat Nos 6 952 496 6 763 148 6 115 495 or 5 263 098 these methods will not be described further herein for the sake of brevity It is understood that one skilled in the art of image recognition processing algorithms techniques and methods may implement an imaging system as described herein using ordinary skill and without undue experimenta tion To provide the image to the system 204 the image may be uploaded from the external 202 or internal 320 image capture device directly to the system 204 via a network such as the Internet or PSTN and or may be uploaded to the system 204 via an intermediate computer 208 which in turn is in com munication with the system 204 via a network such as the Internet or PSTN In this context uploading of image infor mation to intermediate computer 208 may be wireless e g via a WiFi loc
28. unless otherwise stated to the contrary one or more of the described functions and or features may be integrated in a single physical device and or a software module or one or more functions and or features may be implemented in separate physical devices or software modules It will also be appreciated that a detailed discussion ofthe actual implementation of each module is not necessary for an enabling understanding of the invention Rather the actual implementation of such modules would be well within the routine skill of an engineer given the disclo sure herein of the attributes functionality and inter relation US 7 653 212 B2 9 ship of the various functional modules in the system There fore a person skilled in the art applying ordinary skill will be able to practice the invention set forth in the claims without undue experimentation It will be additionally appreciated that the particular concepts disclosed are meant to be illustra tive only and not limiting as to the scope of the invention which is to be given the full breadth of the appended claims and any equivalents thereof All patents cited within this document are hereby incorpo rated by reference in their entirety What is claimed is 1 A method for configuring a universal controlling device to enable the universal controlling device to communicate commands to a plurality of target appliances comprising receiving at an Internet server system having an associa
29. wsing application and will then upload an image to the system 204 that is intended to identify one or more appliances that the controlling device 100 is to be configured to control To this end the system 204 may provide guidance to a user by instructing the user to upload an image of an object that is likely to correspond to a reference object image stored in the database 206 By way of example and not intended to be limiting the database 206 of the system 204 may have refer 0 5 40 45 65 6 ence object images for original equipment remote controls e g of remote control 200 appliances e g of TV 102 VCR 104 PVR 106 appliance packaging appliance bar codes etc Once an image is uploaded to the system 204 the system 204 will use the image recognition software to attempt to discern a match between one or more objects in the uploaded image and the objects within the reference images stored in the database 206 In the event that the system 204 is unable to find a match for an object included in an uploaded image the system 204 may notify the user that a match was not found and in cases where the uploaded image includes more than one object the system 204 may further display the uploaded image 500 and request that a user select object s within the image 500 that are to be reconsidered by the image recogni tion software as is illustrated in FIG 5 In this case selection may be made by marking 502 one or more
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