U.S. patent application number 13/685783 was filed with the patent office on 2014-05-29 for automatic antenna redirection system and method.
This patent application is currently assigned to BBY SOLUTIONS, INC.. The applicant listed for this patent is BBY SOLUTIONS, INC.. Invention is credited to Newton Guillen.
Application Number | 20140146239 13/685783 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 50772981 |
Filed Date | 2014-05-29 |
United States Patent
Application |
20140146239 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Guillen; Newton |
May 29, 2014 |
AUTOMATIC ANTENNA REDIRECTION SYSTEM AND METHOD
Abstract
A geolocation smart antenna system is presented. In the system a
database of television station information is provided. The
database may include information such as channel number, broadcast
frequency, network affiliation, and locations of one or more
terrestrial television broadcast towers. An optimal antenna
direction is determined based on a determined geographic location
of an antenna and a geographic location of a broadcast tower. A
system user selects a television program or television network
broadcasted by a television station. A selection signal is sent to
an antenna controller, and in response a television antenna is
automatically oriented in an optimal direction toward a broadcast
tower for the selected station. The selection signal may also be
sent to a television receiver, and in response a television tuner
is tuned to the station's radio frequency channel.
Inventors: |
Guillen; Newton; (Plymouth,
MN) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
BBY SOLUTIONS, INC. |
Richfield |
MN |
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
BBY SOLUTIONS, INC.
Richfield
MN
|
Family ID: |
50772981 |
Appl. No.: |
13/685783 |
Filed: |
November 27, 2012 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
348/731 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04N 21/485 20130101;
H04N 21/482 20130101; H04N 5/50 20130101; H01Q 3/02 20130101; H01Q
1/125 20130101; H04N 5/4403 20130101; H04N 21/42204 20130101; H04N
21/41407 20130101; H04N 21/4524 20130101; H04N 21/25841 20130101;
H04N 21/4383 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
348/731 |
International
Class: |
H04N 5/50 20060101
H04N005/50 |
Claims
1. A method for automatically redirecting an antenna, the method
comprising: a) on a first device that does not contain an
electronic antenna actuator and does not contain a television
tuner, determining a geographic location of the first device; b)
receiving a viewing selection on the first device; c) querying a
station database from the first device using the geographic
location; d) receiving a station database query result at the first
device comprising tower location information for a first television
station offering the viewing selection, e) determining a
directional orientation for the antenna based on the station
database query result; f) after steps b) and e), transmitting from
the first device a first set of instructions to the electronic
antenna actuator, thereby causing the electronic antenna actuator
to orient the antenna in the determined directional orientation
based on the first set of instructions; and g) transmitting from
the first device a second set of instructions to the television
tuner thereby causing the television tuner to tune to the first
television station; wherein the first and second set of
instructions are sent wirelessly using a signaling technology
chosen from a set comprising radio frequency signaling, IEEE 801.11
signaling, and infrared signaling.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device is a mobile
device, further wherein the viewing selection is received from a
user input on the mobile device, and steps f) and g) are performed
automatically in response to receiving the viewing selection
without receiving additional input from the user input on the
mobile device.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the viewing selection is a
selection of a television program, the method further comprising:
h) using the selected television program to query an electronic
program guide; i) receiving a program guide query result; and j)
using the program guide query result to query the station database;
wherein the program guide query result is the first television
station offering the viewing selection.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the viewing selection is one of a
television channel and a television network.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device is a mobile
device, further wherein the station database is stored on an
internal memory of the mobile device and the station database query
is performed by a processor within the mobile device.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the station database is stored on
a remote server accessible via a remote information network.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the tower location information
comprises tower latitude and longitude coordinates, and the
directional orientation is determined based on the tower latitude
and longitude coordinates and the antenna geographic location.
8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: h) determining a
reference orientation for the antenna; wherein the determined
directional orientation is an orientation relative to the reference
orientation.
9. An electronic mobile device for controlling an antenna system
that is external to the mobile device and for controlling a
television tuner that is external to the mobile device, the mobile
device comprising: a) a computer processor; b) a non-transient
physical electronic memory; c) a geographic position locator; d) a
wireless data transmitter; e) control logic residing in the
electronic memory and configured to: i) determine a location for
the mobile device using the geographic position locator found on
the mobile device, ii) query a database of television station
information using the determined location and an identifier for a
television station, iii) receive a query result including a
location of a terrestrial broadcast tower for the television
station, iv) wirelessly transmit first instructions for the antenna
system thereby causing an antenna in the antenna system to be
physically oriented toward the broadcast tower location, and v)
wirelessly transmit second instructions for the television tuner to
tune to a channel for the television station.
10. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the device further
comprises a device input interface, and the control logic is
further configured to receive the television station identifier
through the input interface.
11. The mobile device of claim 10, wherein the television station
identifier identifies one of a television broadcast network, a
television channel, and a television station.
12. The mobile device of claim 10, wherein the first instructions
to orient the antenna and second instructions to tune to a channel
are transmitted based on a single television station identifier
being received through the input interface.
13. The mobile device of claim 10, wherein the input interface
includes a mobile device software application.
14. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the database resides in
the device electronic memory.
15. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the database resides in a
remote data store accessible via a remote data network.
16. A television antenna system comprising: a) an electronic mobile
device having i) an electronic computer processor, ii) a physical
electronic memory, iii) computer programming residing on the memory
and having access to a station database, the station database
including broadcast channels and terrestrial station tower
locations for one or more television stations, iv) an electronic
position locator identifying a geographic location of the
electronic mobile device, v) a channel-selection wireless
transmitter for transmitting a channel selection signal to a
television tuner that is separate from the electronic mobile device
thereby causing the television tuner to tune to a channel
appropriate for the channel selection signal, and vi) an
antenna-orientation wireless transmitter for transmitting antenna
orientation instructions, the antenna orientation instructions
generated based on the identified device geographic location as
determined by the electronic position locator on the mobile device
and a station tower location for the channel; and b) an antenna
assembly having i) a first wireless receiver to receive the antenna
orientation instructions, ii) a rotational actuator connected to an
antenna, and iii) control circuitry acting on the rotational
actuator to cause the rotational actuator to automatically orient
the antenna in a direction specified by the antenna orientation
instructions.
17. The system of claim 16, wherein the antenna assembly further
comprises: iv) a directional compass indicating a magnetic north
direction; wherein the antenna orientation instructions include an
orientation relative to magnetic north.
18. The system of claim 16, wherein the geographic location of the
electronic mobile device is identified by one of a global
positioning system (GPS) coordinate, a ZIP code, a city, and a
street address.
19. The system of claim 16, wherein the channel-selection wireless
transmitter and the antenna-orientation wireless transmitter are a
single wireless transmitter.
20. The system of claim 19, wherein the single wireless transmitter
is an infrared transmitter.
21. The system of claim 16, wherein the database is a remote
database accessible via a remote data network.
22. The system of claim 16, wherein the database is stored in the
physical electronic memory.
23. A method for automatically redirecting an antenna, the method
comprising: a) first, determining a geographic location of the
antenna; b) second, querying a station database using the antenna
geographic location; c) third, receiving a station database query
result comprising tower location information for a plurality of
terrestrial broadcasting towers proximal to the antenna geographic
location; d) fourth, creating a table associating a plurality of
channels broadcast by the broadcasting towers with antenna
direction orientation settings, the antenna direction orientation
settings being determined by the station database query result; e)
fifth, receiving a channel selection based upon a user input on a
first device; f) sixth, determining a directional orientation for
the channel selection using the table; and g) seventh, transmitting
from the first device, using a wireless technology selected from a
set comprising radio frequency signaling, IEEE 801.11 signaling,
and infrared signaling, signals containing both of the following
without receiving additional user input: i) a first set of
instructions to an antenna controller to orient the antenna in the
determined directional orientation; and ii) transmitting a second
set of instructions to a television tuner to tune to the selected
channel.
24. A method for automatically redirecting an antenna, the method
comprising: a) determining a geographic location of the antenna; b)
querying a station database using the antenna geographic location;
c) receiving a station database query result from the station
database comprising tower location information for a plurality of
terrestrial broadcasting towers proximal to the antenna geographic
location; d) creating a table associating a plurality of channels
broadcast by the terrestrial broadcasting towers with antenna
direction orientation settings, the antenna direction orientation
settings being determined by the station database query result; e)
transmitting the table to an antenna controller; f) programming the
antenna controller to respond to remote control signals intended
for and formatted to be understood by a separate television tuner
g) receiving a first channel selection signal formatted for the
television tuner at the antenna controller; h) determining a
directional orientation for the first channel selection signal at
the antenna controller using the table; i) the antenna controller
orienting the antenna to the directional orientation for the first
channel selection signal; j) receiving the first channel selection
signal at the television tuner; and k) tuning the television tuner
based on the first channel selection signal.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present application relates to the field of smart
television antenna controllers. More particularly, the described
embodiments relate to a system for orienting an antenna in an
optimal direction toward a broadcast station tower in response to a
viewing selection signal.
SUMMARY
[0002] One embodiment of the present invention provides a system
for instructing an antenna to orient toward a terrestrial
television station broadcast tower. The system may include a mobile
device accessing a database of station information; an antenna; an
antenna controller; and a television converter box receiving
broadcast signals from the antenna and demodulating the signals to
send video and audio output to a television.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0003] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the automatic antenna
redirection system.
[0004] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a plurality of
terrestrial station broadcast towers in transmission proximity of
an antenna.
[0005] FIG. 3 shows an example of information contained in a
station database.
[0006] FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a method of redirecting an
antenna.
[0007] FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing a method of determining an
optimal antenna direction for one or more television broadcast
towers.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0008] FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the
present system. The system includes a mobile device 120, an antenna
assembly 110, and a converter box 150 connected to a television
140. Antenna assembly 110 includes an antenna 111, which is
preferably a digital television (HDTV) antenna. Such antennas may
be direction-specific, and must be physically moved to a particular
orientation to receive an optimal signal from a digital television
transmission tower. Factors that affect the quality of signal
reception include the signal strength of the original broadcast,
distance to the broadcast towers, geographic topography such as
trees and hills, and the presence of buildings or houses near the
antenna. Orienting the antenna manually to be directed toward the
broadcast tower is imprecise, and often inconvenient if the antenna
is located outdoors, such as on a roof. To facilitate orientation
of antenna 111, a controller 113 gives instructions to an actuator
112 to rotate antenna 111 to a selected directional orientation.
The actuator 112 could be implemented as a stepper motor that
controls the directional orientation of the antenna 111. A compass
114 pointing north may provide a reference direction for the
antenna assembly 110. Actuator 112 may rotate antenna 111 relative
to magnetic north around a vertical axis. A wireless receiver 115
in antenna assembly 110 is capable of receiving controller
instructions from an external source, such as from a remote control
or mobile device 120. Wireless receiver 115 may be configured to
receive infrared or radio frequency wireless signals, but may also
be capable of receiving signals via wireless protocols such as
Bluetooth protocol, Wi-Fi, or cellular GSM or CDMA wireless.
[0009] Converter 150 of FIG. 1 receives broadcast transmission
signals from antenna assembly 110, typically through a wired
connection 151. Antenna 111 receives a wide range of television
frequencies in both the VHF (30-300 MHz) and UHF (300-3,000 MHz)
spectra. A tuner 156 in converter 150 selects a desired radio
frequency corresponding to a broadcast channel, and filters out
signals from all frequencies other than the desired frequency. The
received signals are then sent to a demodulator 152 and converted
into video and audio output signals that can be sent to the
connected television 140. This conversion process may require
demodulation, decompression, error correction, synchronization, and
image reformatting, as is well known in the prior art. Converter
150 also has a wireless receiver 158 for receiving control
instructions from an external source such as a mobile device. As
with the antenna assembly 110, the wireless receiver 158 may be
configured to receive infrared or radio frequency signals, or may
receive signals via wireless protocols such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
The wireless receiver may additionally respond to infrared signals
from a conventional remote controller 160. The converter 150 may be
implemented as an HDTV tuner within a television 140, or as a HDTV
receiver that is physically separate from the television 140.
[0010] Mobile device 120 of FIG. 1 comprises a computer processor
124, a memory 130, a wireless interface 123, and an electronic
geographic position location device 122. Geolocator 122 may be a
global positioning system (GPS) device, but could also use
alternative means of determining a geographic location, such as
triangulation using cellular communication towers, IP address-based
geolocation, or Wi-Fi access point geolocation. In another
embodiment, a location such as a street address could be
automatically or manually entered into the mobile device to
generate a geographic location for the device. Processor 124
controls the various functions of the mobile device. Memory 130
contains programming logic 136 and an internal database of station
information 135. Mobile device 120 preferably has a mobile
application program 132 ("television app") stored in the memory
130. A user can select a particular television station, channel,
network, or program through the television app 132 via user input
128.
[0011] Station database 135 contains information about television
stations in one or more geographic regions. The database 135 may
contain information including but not limited to a station call
sign, a radio frequency channel associated with the station, a
television broadcast network affiliated with the station, and a
location for a broadcast tower for the station. Other similar types
of information related to television station and television tower
location will be stored in the database 135.
[0012] Alternatively, the station information database may reside
remotely from mobile device 120. A remote station database 190
accessible over a remote network 180 such as the Internet may
provide the same information as the internal station database 135,
or may contain a larger or more up-to-date version of the station
information for television stations in various geographic regions.
An electronic program guide (EPG) 195 may also be accessed by
device 120 over network 180. EPG 195 may contain viewing
information for the stations in station database 135. The
information in the EPG 195 includes information about available
television programs on television networks and stations for a
particular geographic region. Television programs may be searchable
in the EPG.
[0013] In an alternative embodiment, the antenna assembly 110 could
be modified to contain more or fewer components. For example,
controller 113 could reside on the converter 150. In this case,
wireless receiver 115 could be omitted. Antenna orientation
instructions would then be sent from converter 150 to the antenna
assembly 110 over connection 151.
[0014] In another alternative embodiment of the system, the station
database may reside on the converter 150. The database may be
updated periodically, for example via a remote data connection. In
this embodiment, mobile device 120 would again provide geographic
coordinates of the device 120 using geolocator 122, but would
transmit the coordinates to receiver 150. The coordinates could
then be used to query the database on the receiver 150. The query
would return a location for a station tower, and a processor on the
receiver could determine an orientation for the antenna 110 based
on the coordinates and the tower location. The receiver 150 would
then send instructions to cause the actuator 112 to rotate the
antenna 111 to the desired orientation.
[0015] Turning to FIG. 2, a directional antenna 220 is situated at
a particular geographic location. One or more television broadcast
towers 201, 202, 203 may be fixed at different geographic locations
in broadcast proximity to antenna 220. Because antenna 220 is a
directional antenna, antenna 220 does not receive optimal broadcast
signals from towers 202, 203 when the antenna 220 is oriented
toward tower 201. The system of FIG. 1 can be used to optimally
orient antenna 220 toward a selected one of towers 201, 202, 203 to
receive a television broadcast.
[0016] FIG. 3 shows a table of part of the information that could
be contained in station database 135, 190. Table 340 shows a list
of station information for a television station. Station database
135, 190 may provide station identification information 321, which
may be represented as a call sign for a television station. A
network affiliate 322 may represent a broadcast network that
broadcasts television programs. RF channel 323 may represent the
channel number or sub-channel number that a tuner 152 may select
for a particular station 321, such as sub-channel 11-2 (the channel
or sub-channel corresponds to a standardized UHF or VHF radio
frequency band over which television signals are broadcast). A
tower location 324 for the station 321 may be provided as latitude
and longitude coordinates, or other appropriate geographic location
coordinates.
[0017] FIG. 4 shows a method 400 for automatically redirecting an
antenna. The method provides a way to automatically orient a
directional antenna to an optimal orientation toward a terrestrial
broadcast station tower, and at substantially the same time
automatically instruct a television receiver to tune to an RF
channel for that station. Although shown as a sequence of steps in
FIG. 4, the method may be performed in any combination and in any
order; it would be possible to exclude some steps or add additional
steps. The method may be performed in response to a single user
command using the system of FIG. 1. In a preferred embodiment, a
single request is made through a user input 128 of a mobile device
120 controlling a television app 132.
[0018] The method 400 begins at step 405 in which the antenna
assembly 110 is physically positioned relative to a reference
direction. In one embodiment, the antenna assembly 110 includes a
magnetic compass 114 that is visible to the user. A "north"
orientation indicator is placed on the external case of the antenna
assembly 110. Because the mobile device 120 sends orientation
instructions to the antenna assembly 110 based on deviation from a
known orientation, it is important that the antenna assembly 110 be
appropriately positioned in relation to a reference direction such
as magnetic north. In this embodiment the user is instructed to
orient the antenna assembly 110 so that the "north" orientation
indicator is oriented in the same direction as the magnetic north
indicated by the compass 114.
[0019] In an alternative embodiment an electronically-readable
compass 114 is embedded into the antenna assembly 110. In this
embodiment, step 405 is not necessary because the controller 113 in
the antenna assembly 110 will automatically identify magnetic north
from the electronically-readable compass 114.
[0020] At step 410, a geographic location for an antenna is
determined. In the preferred embodiment a location of a mobile
device is determined using electronic position location device 122.
The mobile device location is essentially the same as the antenna
location, since the mobile device is presumed to be in the same
building (e.g., a house or apartment) as the antenna. In optional
step 411 an electronic program guide 195 may be accessed remotely
via a remote network 180. The EPG 195 contains a database of
television programs and stations available in a geographic region.
A user can browse or search through information in the EPG 195 and
select an available television program or television station.
[0021] In one embodiment, the user of the electronic device 120 can
request to watch a particular television channel or television
program. For example, a user may wish to watch a television program
such as "Law and Order." This request may be received in step 412
as a program selection. In step 414 the EPG 195 is searched using
the program selection of step 412 as a search query. The EPG 195
would then retrieve information regarding which television station
or stations offer the selected television program in that
geographic location at the current time. A television station that
offers the selected television program would then be identified in
step 420 using the data from the EPG 195. The television station
offering the program could be identified in step 420 by a station
name, a channel, a network affiliate, etc. Alternatively, the user
could browse the EPG 195 and examine all the currently playing
shows. This list would be displayed through the television app 132
on the mobile device 120, and the user would directly select the
television station and program at the same time. Alternatively,
instead of utilizing an electronic programming guide, in step 415 a
station selection may be received through direct user input as a
television station, a television channel, a network affiliate, etc.
In most cases, this input would be received by the user directly
inputting the desired channel into the user input portion 128 of
the mobile device 123. For example, a 10 key number pad could be
displayed on the mobile device 120 which would allow direct numeric
input for a desired channel.
[0022] In step 430 the station database 135, 190 is queried using
the information received from the selecting steps 415 or 420. The
station database query may contain one or more of the determined
geographic location, a station identifier, a network affiliate, an
RF channel, or other identifier for a television station in a
geographic region. Since database 135, 190 contains a number of
different identifying characteristics for a particular television
station, the query in step 430 could include any one of a number of
different query search terms that would return the same desired
query result--namely the geographic location 324 for the
broadcasting tower. For a particular antenna location 220, the same
tower location 324 could be returned from a station database query
of any of station 321, network affiliate 322, or RF channel
323.
[0023] In step 432 the query result is received as a tower location
result. In step 440, a calculation is performed at the mobile
device using the device geographic location and the received tower
geographic location to determine an optimal antenna direction. In
one embodiment, the result of this calculation is an angular
orientation with respect to a reference direction such as magnetic
north. In step 450 the optimal orientation is transmitted to the
antenna assembly 110. The orientation is used by the mobile device
120 to transmit orientation instructions to the controller 113 on
antenna assembly 110. In step 452 an actuator 112 physically
orients the antenna 111 in accordance with the received orientation
instructions. Assuming proper orientation of the antenna during
set-up, this orientation should point the antenna in an optimal
direction toward the terrestrial television broadcast tower for the
station selected in step 415 or 420.
[0024] In the embodiment described above, the station identifier is
used to query database 135 or 190, and a geographic location for
that station identifier is then returned. Alternatively, in the
case of a remote station database 190, the query to the database
190 could include both the desired broadcast channel and the
current location of the mobile device 120. In this embodiment, a
calculation is performed remotely using the information in database
190, and the database returns the broadcast tower location as an
angular direction in relation to a reference direction such as
magnetic north. If the tower location was received from the
database in step 432 as an angular orientation, the optimal antenna
direction is the received angular orientation and step 440 could be
skipped.
[0025] At the same time that the mobile device 120 sends the
orientation information to the antenna assembly 110 in step 450,
the mobile device 120 also sends a change-channel signal to the
converter 150 that controls video programming on the television
140. As explained above, the input 412, 415 received from the user
may take the form of a program selection 412 identified using the
EPG 195, or through a direct selection of a channel 415. The
desired television channel is determined at step 460 either
directly from that input, or through use of the electronic program
guide. Mobile device 120 transmits instructions in step 470 to
converter 150 via wireless receiver 158 to turn a tuner 156 to the
desired RF channel. In step 475 the tuner 156 tunes to the received
channel, which allows the converter 150 to send received broadcast
signals through demodulator 152, then send the demodulated signals
to television 140 to be output as video and audio in step 476.
After the antenna 111 has been oriented to the optimal direction
and the converter 150 has tuned to the selected channel, the method
ends at step 490.
[0026] In another embodiment, optimal antenna directions for
available channels for a particular antenna location are stored in
a reference table on the mobile device. A query to the station
database 135, 190 is made at one time to receive all of the
broadcast antenna locations available at a particular geographic
location. The appropriate orientation directions for all nearby
broadcast antennas are determined for the current location of the
mobile device 120, and this information is then stored in the
memory 130 of the mobile device. As a result, the station database
need not be queried each time a new television station is selected.
All that is necessary is that the mobile device 120 receives a
desired channel from the user, either directly or through the
interface presenting the EPG 195 on the mobile device 120. The
table then identifies the orientation for the antenna, and the
appropriate orientation is sent to the antenna assembly 110 along
with the channel selection signal that is sent to the converter
150.
[0027] In the above-described embodiments, a single selection of a
desired channel on the mobile device 120 causes an antenna
orientation signal to be sent to the antenna 110 and a channel
selection signal to be sent to the television converter 150 and
tuner 156. Other embodiments could be created to cause only a
single signal to be sent by the mobile device 120. For instance, it
would be possible for the wireless receiver 115 of the antenna
assembly 110 to be programmed to identify and respond to channel
selection signals sent to the converter 150. It is well known that
universal remotes can be easily programmed to submit channel
selection infrared commands to televisions 140 and converters 150
regardless of the manufacturer of those components 140, 150. A
similar technology could be used to program the wireless receiver
115 to receive and identify channel selection signals that are
intended for the converter 150. As the antenna assembly 110 is now
receiving channel selection signals instead of orientation
instructions, the table discussed in the previous paragraph would
need to be created by the mobile device 120 and then transmitted
for storage on the antenna assembly.
[0028] The method 500 for implementing this embodiment is shown in
FIG. 5. The method starts by determining the location of the mobile
device at step 510. At step 520, the station database 135, 190 is
queried to identify the locations of nearby towers, which are then
received from the database in step 530. At step 540, the mobile
device 120 determines the appropriate antenna directions for all of
the relevant local towers received at step 530. At the same time,
the mobile device 120 associates each of the local towers with one
or more channels that may be selected on the television tuner 156.
Using this information, the mobile device 120 is able to create a
simple table establishing a relationship between each of the local
channels accessible by the tuner with an antenna direction for the
terrestrial tower transmitting that channel. This table is then
transmitted from the mobile device 120 to the antenna assembly 110
at step 550. This transmission can occur via the wireless
transmitter 123 of the mobile device 120 and the wireless receiver
115 of the antenna assembly 110. Next, it is necessary to inform
the antenna assembly of the format of the channel selection signals
that are received by the wireless receiver 158 of the converter 150
at step 560. This is typically driven by the make and model of the
converter 150 or the television 140 in which the converter 150 is
included. In one embodiment, the antenna assembly 110 is
pre-programmed to understand a variety of channel selection
signals, and all that is required by step 560 is for the user
interface on the mobile device 120 to direct the user to select the
appropriate make and model of the converter 150 or television 140,
and for the mobile device 120 to transmit this information to the
antenna assembly 110. At step 570, any channel selection signal
sent to the converter 150, such as from either the mobile device
120 or the remote 160, will be received simultaneous by the
converter 150 and the antenna assembly 110. The antenna assembly
110 will use this input to determine the appropriate antenna
direction for that channel selection input based on the table
received at step 550. Once the appropriate antenna direction is
determined, the antenna 111 is moved accordingly. This allows the
antenna assembly 110 to direct the antenna without a dedicated
signal being sent just to the wireless receiver 115 of the assembly
110.
[0029] The many features and advantages of the invention are
apparent from the above description. Numerous modifications and
variations will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Since
such modifications are possible, the invention is not to be limited
to the exact construction and operation illustrated and described.
Rather, the present invention should be limited only by the
following claims.
* * * * *