Touch Screen Remote Gesture Control Latency Reduction

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Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional remote controls become overly complex with numerous buttons and lack tactile feedback, leading to accidental commands and requiring users to visually confirm selections, while touch screen remotes often require too much user effort and slow operation due to two-way communication.

Innovation Solution

A touch screen remote with an unstructured primary input area that interprets touch gestures into electronic signals, allowing for efficient and accurate control of devices without visual confirmation, using a unidirectional communication protocol to minimize latency and accidental inputs.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If conventional remote controls use numerous buttons to provide comprehensive functionality, then the device complexity increases, but the ease of operation deteriorates due to accidental commands and visual confirmation requirements

Engineering Contradiction:

ImprovefunctionalityVSAvoidoperation simplicity

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces mechanical buttons with a touch-sensitive surface that detects touch gestures. This substitution eliminates the need for numerous physical buttons while maintaining comprehensive functionality through software-based gesture recognition, thereby improving ease of operation without sacrificing adaptability

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Solution Approach 2:

The touch-sensitive surface serves multiple functions: it detects various touch gestures (taps, swipes, holds), provides visual feedback through display integration, and enables comprehensive device control through a unified interface. This multi-functional approach replaces numerous specialized buttons with a single versatile input surface

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

2Adaptability or versatility

If touch screen remotes use two-way communication to provide context-aware interfaces, then the adaptability improves, but the productivity deteriorates due to communication latency

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontext awarenessVSAvoidoperation speed

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The remote pre-loads and caches interface elements and commands based on anticipated user needs and common operation patterns. This preliminary preparation reduces the need for real-time back-and-forth communication, thereby maintaining context awareness while reducing latency and improving operation speed

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements different communication strategies for different functions: high-priority commands use direct fast communication channels, while less critical updates use asynchronous communication. This localized optimization of communication quality maintains adaptability while improving overall operation speed

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

3Ease of operation

If touch screen remotes use unstructured input areas for gesture recognition, then the ease of operation improves by eliminating visual confirmation needs, but the measurement precision deteriorates due to gesture interpretation ambiguity

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvevisual confirmation requirementVSAvoidgesture interpretation accuracy

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The system requires multi-touch gestures or sequential touch patterns rather than simple single taps. This excessive action requirement provides more data points for gesture interpretation, thereby maintaining ease of operation (no visual confirmation needed) while improving measurement precision through more reliable gesture differentiation

Inventive Principle:

Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Solution Approach 2:

The integrated display provides immediate visual feedback showing the recognized gesture and anticipated action before execution. This feedback loop allows the system to confirm gesture interpretation accuracy in real-time, maintaining both ease of operation and measurement precision

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

Data Source

PatentUS11792256B2Directional touch remote

Publication Date: 2023.10.17 APPLE INC

AI summary

A remotely controlled device receives touch input data from a remote controller that includes a touch screen. The remotely controller device interprets the touch input data in combination with a current context of the GUI to determine an appropriate command for the current context of the GUI, and updates the GUI in response to the appropriate command. Further, the remotely controlled device sends information via a bidirectional communication protocol to the remote controller informing the remote controller of a context displaying a keyboard, and the remote controller is configured to display a keyboard on its touch screen in response to the information sent via the bidirectional communication protocol.