7 227 492

7,227,492 Title:

Interpreting a common script block to output various forms of data according to a common protocol

A virtual machine has a first upper level script, a second upper level script, and common block of script. The first and second scripts and the common block of script are interpreted by an interpreter of the virtual machine. The common block of script may, for example, be a script that encodes data bits in accordance with a remote control device communication protocol. The first script may include information for outputting first data bits (for example, key data). The second script may include information for outputting second data bits (for example, key data). The first script calls the common script, thereby outputting the first data in accordance with the protocol. The second script also calls the common script, thereby outputting the second data in accordance with the same protocol. Use of the common script in the outputting of the first and second data reduces memory requirements and therefore system cost.

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising: (a) calling a script block, wherein the calling the script block is performed by an upper-level script stored on a microcontroller, wherein theupper-level script is associated with data, wherein no compiler is present on the microcontroller; (b) interpreting the script block, wherein the interpreting the script block is performed by an interpreter stored on the microcontroller; and (c)outputting the data in accordance with a common protocol in response to the interpreting the script block.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the common protocol is taken from the group consisting of: an encoding protocol for encoding a digital bit, a modulation protocol for modulating a data signal onto a carrier frequency, a keypad encodingprotocol for encoding a signal from a pressed key, and a transmission protocol for transmitting data over an infrared signal.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: (d) calling the script block, wherein the calling the script block in (d) is performed by a second upper-level script stored on the microcontroller, wherein the second upper-level script isassociated with additional data; (e) interpreting the script block; and (f) outputting the additional data in accordance with the common protocol in response to the interpreting the script block in (e).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the microcontroller is an 8-bit microcontroller with less than seventy kilobytes of memory.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the data form a string of timing information, further comprising: (d) generating an operational signal using the string of timing information, and wherein the operational signal controls an electronic consumerdevice.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the microcontroller is part of a remote control device having a key, wherein the upper-level script contains a keycode corresponding to the key, and wherein the keycode is a digital number, further comprising:(d) before (a), detecting that the key was pressed, wherein the data represent mark times and space times; and (e) encoding the keycode onto an operational signal using the mark times and the space times.

7. A method, comprising: (a) calling a common script block, wherein the calling in (a) is performed by a first script portion on a remote control device, wherein the first script portion contains a first keycode of a first codeset that isassociated with a first electronic consumer device; (b) interpreting the common script block called in (a) to generate a first mark time; (c) generating a first operational signal, wherein the first keycode is encoded in the first operational signalusing the first mark time, wherein the first operational signal controls a function of the first electronic consumer device; (d) calling the common script block, wherein the calling in (d) is performed by a second script portion on the remote controldevice, wherein the second script portion contains a second keycode of a second codeset that is associated with a second electronic consumer device; (e) interpreting the common script block called in (d) to generate a second mark time; and (f)generating a second operational signal, wherein the second keycode is encoded in the second operational signal using the second mark time, and wherein the second operational signal controls a function of the second electronic consumer device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first operational signal controls a function taken from the group consisting of: volume up, volume down, channel advance, channel back, cursor up, cursor down, cursor right, cursor left, select, play,record, stop, forward, back, pause, play VCR, DVD and stereo equalizer power on, play DVD, and TV power on.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the interpreting the common script block called in (a) generates a mark/space table and a string of timing information, wherein the mark/space table contains the first mark time, and wherein the generating thefirst operational signal in (c) is performed using the mark/space table and the string of timing information.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the first mark time is an amount of time during which a data signal is a digital high, wherein the data signal is modulated onto the first operational signal.

11. A microcontroller comprising: a memory; a first upper-level script stored in the memory, wherein first data is associated with the first upper-level script; a second upper-level script stored in the memory, wherein second data isassociated with the second upper-level script; a script block stored in the memory, wherein the script block implements a common protocol; and an interpreter that interprets the script block in response to the script block being called, wherein thefirst data is output in accordance with the common protocol in response to the first upper-level script calling the script block, wherein the second data is output in accordance with the common protocol in response to the second upper-level scriptcalling the script block, and wherein no compiler is present on the microcontroller.

12. The microcontroller of claim 11, wherein the common protocol is taken from the group consisting of: an encoding protocol for encoding a digital bit, a modulation protocol for modulating a data signal onto a carrier frequency, a keypadencoding protocol for encoding a signal from a pressed key, and a transmission protocol for transmitting data over an infrared signal.

13. The microcontroller of claim 11, wherein the memory includes program memory and data memory, and wherein the microcontroller has no more than 64 kilobytes of program memory and no more than 4 kilobytes of data memory.

14. The microcontroller of claim 11, wherein the first data is a keycode associated with a function of an electronic consumer device, wherein the common protocol is an encoding protocol for encoding a digital bit, and wherein the first data isoutput as a string of mark times and space times.

15. The microcontroller of claim 11, wherein the first data is a first keycode of a first codeset that is associated with a first electronic consumer device, wherein the second data is a second keycode of a second codeset that is associatedwith a second electronic consumer device, and wherein the first codeset and the second codeset both employ the common protocol for encoding digital bits.

16. The microcontroller of claim 11, wherein the memory includes program memory and data memory, and wherein the first data and the second data are output into a mark/space table located in data memory.

17. The microcontroller of claim 11, wherein the microcontroller is an 8-bit microcontroller with less than seventy kilobytes of memory.

18. A microcontroller comprising: a memory, wherein first data associated with a first upper-level script and second data associated with a second upper-level script are stored in the memory; and means for manipulating both the first data andthe second data so as to conform to a common protocol based in part on interpretation of script, wherein the means is interpreted in response to being called, and wherein no compiler is present on the microcontroller.

19. The microcontroller of claim 18, wherein the common protocol is taken from the group consisting of: an encoding protocol for encoding a digital bit, a modulation protocol for modulating a data signal onto a carrier frequency, a keypadencoding protocol for encoding a signal from a pressed key, and a transmission protocol for transmitting data over an infrared signal.

20. The microcontroller of claim 18, wherein the microcontroller is an 8-bit microcontroller with less than seventy kilobytes of memory.

21. The microcontroller of claim 18, wherein the first data is a first keycode of a first codeset that is associated with a first electronic consumer device, wherein the second data is a second keycode of a second codeset that is associatedwith a second electronic consumer device, and wherein the first codeset and the second codeset both employ the common protocol for encoding digital bits.