Point and control: The intuitive method to control multi-device with single remote control

Abstract

Remote controls are mainly used to control most of the CE devices in home environment these days. As the number of electronic devices increases in home, each device's corresponding remote may also be added, and user frequently controls several devices at one time. This situation makes a user feel difficulty in finding desired remote control among many of other controllers. To alleviate this inconvenience, a technique for controlling multiple electronic devices with a single remote, well-known as a universal remote control technique, has attracted attention. Generally, when a user uses the universal remote control, she must input a key code of a desired device. If a user were to control several devices interchangeably, she may hang out pushing the key code for one device after the other. This kind of maneuver can be very tiresome, and it may lead to dropping the usability drastically. This paper propose the hardware, and software structure of Point and Control (PAC), which uses the metaphor of pointing a objective target, to select the device user intend to control. By using PAC, users can easily select and control the target device among many of candidates in real time with just simple behavior. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.