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Claims  |
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What is claimed is:
1. A remote commander comprising:
character inputting means capable of inputting at least one of numbers and
characters;
a plurality of character group storing means for previously storing a
plurality of character groups, each of said character groups comprising a
portion of a valid URL address name which is being used to access a host
on a network;
character group reading means for selectively and sequentially reading said
plurality of character groups stored in said plurality of character group
storing means;
address code generating means for generating a network address code in
accordance with said plurality of character groups that form a valid URL
address name and at least an additional character and/or additional
numbers inputted by said character inputting means; and
transmitting means for transmitting said network address code to access
said host on said network.
2. A remote commander as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:
display means for displaying the character group read by said character
group reading means.
3. A remote commander as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:
address code storing means for saving an address code corresponding to the
valid URL address name transmitted by said transmitting means; and
address selecting means for sequentially reading the address code stored in
said address code storing means.
4. A remote commander as claimed in claim 3 wherein:
said address selecting means is constituted by a rotary dial.
5. A remote commander as claimed in claim 1 wherein:
said character group stored in said character group storing means is a
protocol name.
6. A remote commander as claimed in claim 1 wherein:
said character group stored in said character group storing means is a
country code.
7. A remote commander as claimed in claim 1 wherein:
said character group stored in said character group storing means is an
organization code.
8. A remote commander comprising:
character inputting means capable of inputting at least one of numbers and
characters;
a plurality of character group storing means for previously storing a
plurality of character groups, each of said character groups comprising a
portion of a valid URL address name which is being used to access a host
on a network;
character group reading means for selectively and sequentially reading said
character groups stored in said plurality of character group storing
means; and
transmitting means for transmitting a network address code corresponding to
said valid URL address name comprising said plurality of character groups
read by said plurality of character group reading means,
wherein at least one of said character groups were previously stored in
said character group storing means is a protocol name.
9. A remote commander as claimed in claim 8, further comprising:
display means for displaying the character group read by said character
group reading means.
10. A remote commander as claimed in claim 8, further comprising:
address code storing means for saving an address code corresponding to the
valid URL address name transmitted by said transmitting means; and
address selecting means for sequentially reading the address code stored in
said address code storing means.
11. A remote commander as claimed in claim 10 wherein:
said address selecting means is constituted by a rotary dial.
12. A remote commander as claimed in claim 8 wherein:
said character group stored in said character group storing means is a
country code.
13. A remote commander as claimed in claim 8 wherein:
said character group stored in said character group storing means is an
organization code.
14. A remote commander comprising:
a plurality of alpha-numeric input keys;
at least one selection key;
a memory device; and
a control unit connected to said plurality of alpha-numeric keys, said at
least one selection key, and said memory device,
wherein said control unit retrieves a portion of an URL network address
stored in said memory device in response to operation of said at least one
selection key, wherein said portion of said URL network address comprising
groups of alpha-numeric characters that form a valid URL network address.
15. A remote commander according to claim 14, further comprising:
a display device connected to receive and display at least the portion of
said URL network address retrieved by said control unit.
16. A remote commander according to claim 14, further comprising:
a preset key connected to said control unit, wherein said control unit
retrieves a complete URL network address stored in said memory device in
response to operation of said preset key.
17. A remote commander according to claim 14, further comprising:
a memory transmission key connected to said control unit, wherein said
control unit transmits at least a portion of said URL network address to
said memory device in response to operation of said memory transmission
key.
18. A remote commander according to claim 14, further comprising:
a transmitter connected to receive and transmit the portion of said URL
network address retrieved by said control unit.
19. A remote commander according to claim 18, further comprising:
a transmission control key connected to said control unit, wherein said
control unit sends the portion of said URL network address to said
transmitter in response to operation of said transmission control key.
20. A remote commander according to claim 14, wherein the portion of said
URL network address stored in said memory device is a protocol name, a
country code, or an organization code.
21. A remote commander comprising:
a plurality of alpha-numeric input keys;
a first selection key;
a second selection key;
a third selection key;
a memory device; and
a control unit connected to said plurality of alpha-numeric keys, said
first, second and third selection keys, and said memory device,
wherein said control unit retrieves a portion of an URL network address
stored in said memory device in response to operation of said first,
second, or third selection key, wherein said portion of said URL network
address comprising groups of alpha-numeric characters that form a valid
URL network address.
22. A remote commander according to claim 21, further comprising:
a display device connected to receive and display at least the portion of
said URL computer network address retrieved by said control unit.
23. A remote commander according to claim 21, further comprising:
a preset key connected to said control unit, wherein said control unit
retrieves a complete URL network address stored in said memory device in
response to operation of said preset key.
24. A remote commander according to claim 21, further comprising:
a memory transmission key connected to said control unit, wherein said
control unit transmits at least a portion of said URL network address to
said memory device in response to operation of said memory transmission
key.
25. A remote commander according to claim 21, further comprising:
a transmitter connected to receive and transmit the portion of said URL
network address retrieved by said control unit.
26. A remote commander according to claim 21, further comprising:
a transmission control key connected to said control unit, wherein said
control unit sends the portion of said URL network address to said
transmitter in response to operation of said transmission control key.
27. A remote commander according to claim 21, wherein said control unit
retrieves a computer network protocol name from said memory device in
response to operation of said first selection key.
28. A remote commander according to claim 21, wherein said control unit
retrieves a computer network host name from said memory device in response
to operation of said second selection key.
29. A remote commander according to claim 21, wherein said control unit
retrieves a computer network organization code and country code from said
memory device in response to operation of said third selection key.
30. A network connection system comprising:
a) a remote controller including:
(i) a plurality of alpha-numeric input keys;
(ii) at least one selection key;
(iii) a memory device;
(iv) a control unit connected to said plurality of alpha-numeric keys, said
at least one selection key, and said memory device, wherein said control
unit retrieves a portion of an URL network address stored in said memory
device in response to operation of said at least one selection key; and
(v) a transmitter connected to receive and transmit said portion of said
URL network address retrieved by said control unit; and
b) a video display unit including:
(i) a receiving device connected to receive said portion of said URL
network address transmitted by said transmitter;
(ii) a computer network interface unit;
(iii) a controller connected to said receiving device and said computer
network interface unit, wherein said controller sends said received
portion of said URL network address to said computer network interface
unit, wherein said portion of said URL network address comprising groups
of alpha-numeric characters that form a valid URL network address. |
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Claims |
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Description |
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a remote commander accessible to an
address on a network, and to a network connecting system with employment
of this remote commander.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Currently, personal computers are popularized to be widely used in various
fields such as offices and homes. Moreover, personal computers are used as
terminals accessible to various types of networks, e.g., a so-called
"PC-communication network" and the Internet via modems and terminal
adapters (TA) of ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network).
For instance, when a user wishes to acquire information stored at a
preselected address on the Internet network, an address code (URL; Uniform
Resource Locators) is entered by using, e.g., a keyboard and a mouse to
access this information, while employing a retrieving/displaying software,
a so-called "browser". An URL address code is expressed by, for example, a
protocol name (file classification, e.g., http (hypertext transport
protocol), Gopher, ftp (file transfer protocol)), and a domain name (sort
of host, e.g., www (Word Wide Web); organization name,e.g., SONY; sort of
organization, e.g., co (corporate) e.g., go (government); and country
code,e.g., jp (Japan)). This address code may be represented as follows:
http://www.sony.co.jp
It should be understood that a combination between a sort of organization
and a country code will be explained as an identifier name in the
specification.
As previously described, since such an URL address code is entered to
access the Internet network, the data stored at the address corresponding
to this URL address code may be read out and may be displayed on a monitor
apparatus. However, in the case that personal computers are employed as
terminals to access networks, environment setting operations are
necessarily carried out in accordance with specifications of hardwares
under use with respect to each of personal computers.
Under such a circumstance, television receivers having functions for
allowing access to networks such as the Internet are known in this field
(simply referred to as an "Internet TV" hereinafter). This type of
Internet TV is constituted as a multimedia available television receiver.
This multimedia TV is designed in such a way that even any users other
than personal computer users can readily access networks.
That is to say, in an Internet TV, a modem and a TA (terminal adaptor) are
previously assembled, and further a browser software is pre-installed to
perform operation environment setting. As a consequence, every user can
readily access networks without any cumbersome setting operations.
On the other hand, users are also required to input URL address codes in
Internet TVs by connecting keyboards, mouses, and the like to the Internet
TVs so as to enter characters. To this end, while the URL code input
screen functioning as "browser" is constituted, desirable characters are
selected to be entered by employing a remote commander and the like.
FIG. 1 schematically represents one conventional Internet television
receiver 50 with pre-installed browser software, capable of selectively
displaying a television broadcast program and a video input in response to
selecting operation by users. In this drawing, a browser 52, and an URL
input section are displayed on a display unit 51 constructed of, for
instance, a CRT (cathode-ray tube). This browser 52 is capable of
displaying data acquired from an accessed network.
On this browser 52, the following items are displayed, for instance, an
icon group 53 where an alphabet is displayed as an icon; page selecting
arrows 54 and 55 for changing the display mode of the icon group 53 into,
e.g., numerals; an URL display section 56 for displaying thereon
characters selected by the icon group 53; an enter icon 57 for
transmitting the URL displayed on the URL display section 56 to a server;
and a pointer 58 for selecting the above-described icons.
A remote commander 59 is capable of performing the normal manipulation of
the television receiver, and further is equipped with a joystick 59a and
the like, by which positional information may be entered. Thus, the
pointer 58 may be moved in response to a command (positional information)
transmitted by inputting the positional information via this joystick 59a,
so that a desirable icon may be selected.
However, in this conventional Internet TV 50, the larger the number of
characters of the URL address code is increased, the more the character
input operation for entering the characters one by one becomes cumbersome.
Also, in such a case that the protocol name, the host name, and the
identifier name for constituting the URL address code are commonly used,
when the user newly accesses the Internet network, the user must enter the
characters one by one, resulting in cumbersome input operation.
The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems
in the conventional Internet TV system, and therefore, has an object to
provide a remote commander capable of effectively entering an address such
as an URL address code, and also a network connecting system with
employment of this improved remote commander.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To achieve the above-described object, a remote commander, according to an
aspect of the present invention, is featured by comprising: character keys
capable of inputting at least one of numerical numbers and characters;
character group memory for previously storing a character group which
constitutes an address name used to access an address on a network; memory
controller for selectively and sequentially reading the character group
stored in the character group memory; and transmitter for transmitting an
address code corresponding to the address name for constituting the
character group read by the memory controller.
Also, a network connecting system, according to another aspect of the
present invention is featured by comprising: character keys capable of
inputting at least one of numerical numbers and characters; character
group memory for previously storing a character group which constitutes an
address name used to access an address on a network; character group
memory controller for selectively and sequentially reading the character
group stored in the character group memory; transmitter for transferring
an address code corresponding to the address name for constituting the
character group read by the memory controller; interface connectable to
the network; and controller for performing an access process via the
interface to an address on the network, the address corresponding to the
address code transferred by the transmitter.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
A more complete understanding of the teachings of the present invention may
be acquired by referring to the accompanying drawings, in which like
reference numbers indicate like features and wherein:
FIG. 1 schematically shows the conventional Internet TV screen equipped
with the browser;
FIG. 2 schematically illustrates a block diagram of a television receiver,
especially a video signal system, according to an embodiment of the
present invention;
FIG. 3 is a plan view for explaining an operation unit of a remote
commander according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram for representing a portion of an entire
circuit arrangement for constituting the remote commander shown in FIG. 3;
FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram for indicating various display modes of
display windows in the remote commander in order to explain an input
operation sequence of an URL address code; and
FIG. 6 is a flow chart for describing the input operation sequence of the
URL address code by using the remote commander of FIG. 5.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Various embodiment modes of the present invention will now be described in
accordance with the below-mentioned sequence. It should be understood that
a so-called "Internet TV" will now be described as a television receiver
connectable, or accessible with the Internet network in this embodiment
mode:
1. Arrangement of Internet TV according to this embodiment mode.
2. Structure of Remote Commander.
2-1. Structure of Operation Unit,
2-2. Circuit Arrangement.
3. URL address code Input Sequence by Remote Commander.
1. Arrangement of Internet TV according to this embodiment mode
FIG. 2 is schematic circuit block diagram of the Internet TV 1, especially
a video signal system, according to an embodiment of the present
invention. It should also be noted that a television system employed in
this Internet TV 1 according to this embodiment is, for example, the NTSC
(National Television System Committee) system.
A tuner 2 selects broadcast program signals such as ground wave
broadcasting program signals and satellite broadcasting program signals
received by an antenna "A". External input appliances (digital video
appliances, 8 m/m video appliances, not shown in detail) are connected to
external input terminals t1, t2, and t3.
The signals outputted from the tuner 2, the external input terminals t1,
t2, t3, and a reproduction signal (image signal) derived from an image
producing unit 10 for producing this reproduction signal from data read
from a network (will be explained later in detail) are selected by a
switch 3. The switching control of this switch 3 is performed by, for
instance, a selecting operation by a remote commander RC. That is, for
example, when a user wishes to observe the broadcasting program selected
by the tuner 2, a switching contact of this switch 3 is connected to a
terminal "a". When the user wants to observe pictures of the external
input appliance, the switching contact of this switch 3 is connected to
any one of terminals "b", "c", and "d". When the user wishes to see
information (image) supplied from the network, the switching contact of
this switch 3 is connected to another terminal "e".
The video (image) signal selected by operating the switch 3 is supplied to
a video signal processing unit 4 so as to be signal-processed in such a
manner that synchronous (sync) signals are extracted, a luminance signal
is separated, and color difference signals are formed. As a result, this
video signal is outputted as a red (R) color signal, a green (G) color
signal, and a blue (B) color signal (will be referred to as "RGB signals"
hereinafter). Also, other picture control signal process operations, e.g.,
contrast control and color hue control are carried out in this video
signal processing unit 4. It should also be noted that signal paths for
the sync signals are omitted in FIG. 2.
The RGB signals outputted from the video signal processing unit 4 are
supplied via an RGB driver 5 to a CRT 6 constituted as a display unit, in
which an image (picture) is formed.
On the other hand, the Internet TV 1, according to this embodiment, is
arranged such that various sorts of information can be acquired via a
network in addition to the tuner 2 and the external input appliances. To
this end, another terminal "t4" connectable to the network is provided,
through which communication data may be entered.
Normally, since the communication data is coded, the communication data
entered from the terminal t4 is demodulated by an interface 7 constituted
by, for example, a modem, a TA (terminal adaptor) and the like. The
interface 7 may also modulate data (for instance, image data and text
data) produced inside the Internet TV 1, and commands (for example, URL
address) to transmit the modulated data/commands. Alternatively, this
interface 7 may be arranged to be connectable with the Internet TV 1 as an
external appliance of this Internet TV 1.
A RAM (Random Access Memory) 8 is constituted by a work area 8a and a
buffer area 8b. In this work area 8a, for instance, various calculating
process operations are executed, and a software such as an initiated
browser software is stored. The buffer area 8b temporarily stores therein
the communication data supplied (or transmitted) via the interface 7.
In a ROM (Read-Only Memory) 9, application softwares such as Web browsers
are stored. These application softwares are read from the ROM 9 to be
initiated when an initiation command is issued from a control unit 11
(will be explained later), and then are stored into the work area 8a of
the RAM 8. Alternatively, the Web browser may be initiated at the same
time when a power supply of this Internet TV 1 is turned ON, or may be
arbitrarily initiated when the Internet TV 1 is connected to the network,
if required.
An image producing unit 10 synthesizes the Web browsers initiated and
stored in the work area 8a with the communication data stored in the
buffer area 8b, and also converts the synthesized data into a video signal
by a television system of the Internet TV 1 (namely, NTSC system in this
embodiment), which will then be outputted to the terminal "e" of the
switch 3. Then, the video signal (communication data) is supplied to the
video signal processing unit 4, so that various signal processing
operations are performed to this video signal.
In response to a command which is transmitted from a remote commander RC
and then is supplied via a light receiving unit 12 and a command
demodulating unit 13, a control unit 11 performs, for instance, the
channel selection in the tuner 2, the switching control of the switch 3,
and various signal process control operations in the video signal
processing unit 4.
Furthermore, in accordance with this embodiment mode, the control unit 11
executes a writing operation and a reading operation of the communication
data with respect to the RAM 8. For example, in such a case that the
communication data demodulated by the interface 7 is displayed, both the
browser stored in the work area 8a and the communication data stored in
the buffer area 8b are read therefrom at predetermined timing, and the
read data will be supplied to the image producing unit 10.
Also, when either the above-described data produced in the Internet TV 1 or
an URL address transmitted from a remote commander (will be described
later) is transmitted to the network, for example, after the data or the
URL address is once stored into the buffer area 8b, these data or URL
address are read at preselected timing to be supplied to the interface 7.
As a consequence, the data is modulated by the interface 7 to be
transmitted to the network.
The remote commander capable of transmitting commands to the Internet TV 1
is equipped with various sorts of operation keys, exclusively-used keys,
and a display means used to monitor input information. The operation keys
can be used to execute the normal operations such as the channel
selection. The exclusively-used keys are employed so as to simply enter
the URL address so as to access the network. As a consequence, the input
operation of the URL address can be easily performed.
2. Structure of Remote Commander
2-1. Operation Unit of Remote Commander
FIG. 3 is a plan view for explaining an operation unit of the remote
commander RC. Referring now to the block diagrams of the Internet TV 1
indicated in FIG. 2 and to FIG. 3, a description will be made of functions
of various operation keys arranged on this remote commander RC.
As an operation key group 20, there are provided, for example, a power
supply key, a mute key, a sleep key, a bilanguage (bilingual) key, a
screen display key, function selection keys used to control images, a+ key
(plus key), a - key (minus key), a normal key, and so on. The operation
keys are arranged by which general-purpose operations of a television
receiver can be performed.
An Internet key (will be referred to as an "INET key" hereinafter) 21 is
such an operation key used to select the Web browser to display
information on the screen of the CRT 6 when the Internet is accessed. In
other words, the switch contact of the switch 3 is connected to the
terminal "e" by manipulating the INET key 21, and the image produced in
the image producing unit 10 is displayed, so that the Internet TV 1 can
access to an address on the Internet. This operation mode will be referred
to as an "Internet mode" (INET mode) hereinafter.
As another operation key group 22, for instance, a television key, and
video keys (1 to 3) are arranged, by which the broadcasting program
selected by the tuner 2, and the external input channel can be switched.
In other words, when the operation key group 22 is manipulated, the
switching controls of the terminal "a" to the terminal "d" in the switch 3
can be performed. In this embodiment, such an operation mode that either
the tuner 2 or the external input channel is selected will be referred to
as a television mode.
A joggle dial 23 is employed as an input means by which a display position
of a cursor displayed on a display window 26 (will be explained later) can
be moved in accordance with a rotation direction thereof and a rotation
angle thereof, and also URL addresses stored in a storage means assembled
in the remote commander RC can be sequentially and selectively displayed.
As a numeral/character input key group 24, for example, 12 pieces of
operation keys | | |
