Remote controls are used in a variety of settings to communicate with set top boxes, televisions, media players, video game players and many other types of audio/visual components. Typically, remote controls use infrared and/or radio frequency (RF) signals to communicate with one or more controlled devices. With either infrared or RF signals, however, environmental factors can degrade or interfere with the signals being passed between the remote control and set top box. Environmental factors that could affect remote control signals include, but are not limited to, Wi-Fi network signals, signals from cellular towers or signal amplifiers (such as 3G amplifiers now found in some homes and offices), Bluetooth devices, cordless telephone systems, other consumer electronic devices and even the building materials or other objects in the residence.
Although various RF signal strength meters for remote controls have been developed to measure the amplitude of signals, most of these meters do not consider the quality of the signals themselves. That is, current metering devices do not account for signal interference or other factors beyond the amplitude of the received signal. As a result, most conventional meters fail to take into account possible interference to the signal caused by any environmental factors.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds