Sony Ericsson's patent application for cellphone as remote
By Sean Cooper 
posted Mar 4th 2007 10:47PM
posted Mar 4th 2007 10:47PM
Look mom, my cellphone can control the whole universe! Sony Ericsson filed a patent application for a cellphone-based remote control that downloads its command set from the device you want to control. Flexible remote control -- with no need to go hunting for codes -- that part is pretty cool. If you look carefully, the handset in the sketch in a S7xx -- not exactly a fresh-off-the-line device. Apparently this patent application was filed in August 2005, and either the gang in northern Europe has given up on this gem of an idea or has decided to let it go and move on to bigger and better things. We think they should focus on a phone that can project an image on the wall, and then be used for video conference calling with stereo sound -- or maybe just release a mobile with HSDPA, yeah, that would be even better.
I have an S710a, the phone is the scretch is a S7xx but the s710a has the infrared on the left side of the phone... not on the top... maybe bluetooth remote?
My last two Samsung phones have had this feature, and it has been around for years on even low-end handsets in Korea. I even use it to turn on my A/C.
I was going to write an application to do this - but you can't access the IR hardware from J2ME code on Sony Ericsson mobiles, so I was foiled.
Perhaps they'll let us do it one day and we can have some fun.
Sam i730 was the best universal remote out of the box... So, what's the catch?
There has been software to make Palms (including Treos) do this for years. I would think that a huge amount of prior art that would make defending this impossible.
Or is the entire patent around a system in which devices provide the control set for devices to download and control them. If Sony started to build that into all of their devices, it could be interesting.
it's about time already! I still remembered back in the mid-90s when Casio (i think) made a line of watches that can double as TV remote, and ever since, I've wondered why cellphones hasn't been made into a remote yet...it's everything but.