US 6,097,441 · Granted 2000-08-01

The Hand-Held Remote That Dreamed of Being a Second Screen

Imagine a TV remote that has its own little screen built into it, so you could watch one show on your TV while scrolling the internet or checking another channel on the remote itself. This patent covers the technology that lets two separate displays work together without one messing up the other, using special signals hidden in the TV broadcast or beamed wirelessly.

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The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a system where two independent displays—like a television and a hand-held remote with its own screen—operate simultaneously without interfering with each other. What's protected here is the method of sending data streams (TV signals, internet content, or home appliance info) to both displays at the same time, using techniques like embedding data in the vertical blanking interval of analog signals or in dedicated digital slots. Also covered is the hardware architecture: a portable remote with a built-in display, a tuner (either in the remote or in a separate base station), and wireless communication between the two devices via radio frequency.

Why it matters

This patent was filed in the late 1990s, when the idea of a TV remote with its own display was genuinely futuristic. It laid groundwork for what would eventually become the "second screen" experience—the concept of using a tablet or phone alongside your TV, or having interactive smart-home information available on a portable device. The patent shows how engineers were already thinking about multi-screen households before smartphones and tablets existed, and it captures an early vision of personalized, non-interfering content streams in the home.

Real-world use

When you use a smart TV remote app on your phone while watching something on the main TV, or when a streaming device lets you see show information on your phone while the movie plays on screen, you're in the neighborhood of the dual-display vision this patent describes.

Original USPTO abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for using two or more cooperating but physically independent displays for enhanced viewing of data streams, where the viewing on one display does not interfere with the viewing on the other displays. The type of data streams may be complex streams such as multiple television (TV) broadcast signals or other video signals, internet data, or other local data such as information related to the state of a consumer's home appliances. The signals may include data embedded in the vertical blanking interval (VBI) for analog signals, or in dedicated slots in a digital signal according to protocols such as MPEG. The system includes a hand-held and portable remote control with a motion picture display, and hardware and/or software enabling interaction between a primary display (such as a TV) and the hand-held display. The hardware may include an integrated TV tuner, or a physically separate base station having a TV tuner, in which case the base station and the remote control would communicate via radio frequency (RF).

Patent details

Publication number: US 6,097,441
Filing date: 1997-12-31
Grant date: 2000-08-01
Assignee: Eremote, Inc.
Inventor(s): ALLPORT; DAVID E.
CPC class: H04N21/42204

View original record on Google Patents →

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