Apple to Create a Universal Touchscreen TV Remote Controller

31 Jan 2012 | News | Miss Hello Kitty on Google+

Just recently we got some news about the Apple TV release soon, and now we can see that Apple is going to surprise us with one more thing.

A couple of days ago an interesting patent, called “Apparatus and Method to Facilitate Universal Remote Control”, was published by the US Patent and Trademark Office showing that Apple is working on a universal touchscreen remote controller. This remote will be able to control several different devices, like television, video disk player, video tape player, computer system, stereo, and even more.

The filing explains that current remote controllers have a great number of switches and buttons that help you control all the functions of a device, and while those buttons are important to control the functions, the average user generally only uses a small number of the buttons.

Additionally, it details how today’s universal remotes controllers are even more difficult to use compared to basic remotes that ship with particular devices, such as a TV set or receiver. And in most cases, those universal remotes are not able to replicate some of the tasks that come with the original remote control.

Apple’s suggested solution is a universal TV remote control having a powerful touchscreen used for input. The remote would come with a “discovery mechanism” that would discover available devices for it to control, negating the necessity for users to type in difficult codes and program individual devices.

In addition to the abilities of this touchscreen TV remote, it may also be used beyond electronic devices, and could control applications and processes on a computer, such as allowing you to play songs on iTunes on your Mac or Personal computer.

Apple’s solution would make the user interface simpler by having devices wirelessly send a particular interface for that gadget. The remote controller would get this customized button layout, and then dynamically present input options to the users with no mess of a standard button-based universal remote.

Moreover, the remote would identify which devices are within variety of the controller. If, for instance, a particular device couldn’t be detected, the remote controller would gray that option out so that the user would know it’s not available.