Radio controller system and method for remote devices
View Patent ↗A system and method for remote device control are disclosed. A system incorporating teachings of the present disclosure may include a radio controlled toy and a controller for controlling the toy. In some embodiments, the controller may have an input mechanism and a housing component that defines a cavity, within which may be located a wireless wide area transceiver and a wireless local area transceiver. Some controllers may also have an operating system for the controller and an application resident on the controller and operable to convert inputs received via the input mechanism into commands for the toy. The controller may have a microprocessor operable to execute the application and to cause the commands to be communicated to the toy using the wireless local area transceiver.
1. A system, comprising:
a remote controllable flying toy device that includes a locating system, an image capturing device, and a transceiver;
the locating system configured to facilitate an automatic maintaining of a location of the remote controllable flying toy device relative to a controller of the remote controllable flying toy device based at least in part on a strength of signals received by the transceiver;
the transceiver configured to output image data representing images captured by the image capturing device; and
a non-transitory storage medium storing instructions for execution by a wireless device having the controller, the instructions representing a controller application and operable when executed to facilitate: (1) receipt by the wireless device of the image data; (2) recognition of an input at the wireless device as a remote control request for the remote controllable flying toy device; and (3) outputting of the remote control request to the remote controllable flying toy device.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the remote controllable flying toy device comprises a helicopter, and the controller of the remote controllable flying toy device is executing the controller application.
3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising the wireless device, wherein the wireless device comprises a cellular telephone.
4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the locating system comprises a global positioning satellite component.
5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the locating system comprises a wireless transceiver.
6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the remote control request comprises a directional control request.
7. The system of 1 , wherein the automatic maintaining of the location of the remote controllable flying toy device relative to the controller of the remote controllable flying toy device comprises a maintaining of the remote controllable flying toy device within a given distance of the controller without additional remote control requests being received by the remote controllable flying toy device.
8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the given distance is less than or equal to a communication range of the transceiver.
9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the image capturing device is to capture the image data in response to a command from the wireless device.
10. A system, comprising:
an unmanned flying helicopter toy device that includes a camera component, a wireless transceiver, and a locating system comprising at least one sensor;
the locating system configured to utilize information from the at least one sensor to maintain a location of the unmanned flying helicopter toy device relative to a controller of the unmanned flying helicopter toy device based at least in part on a strength of signals received by the wireless transceiver; and
the wireless transceiver operable to receive a wirelessly communicated control signal from the controller that directs operation of a controllable feature of the unmanned flying helicopter toy device.
11. The system of claim 10 , further comprising a controller application stored in a network-based memory, wherein the controller application is configured to allow an over the air downloading to a cellular telephone device, further wherein the application comprises instructions that when executed by a processor of the cellular telephone device allow the cellular telephone device: (1) to receive a controller input; (2) to convert the controller input into a command for the unmanned flying helicopter toy device; and (3) to wirelessly communicate a signal representing the command to the unmanned flying helicopter toy device.
12. The system of claim 10 , further comprising the controller, wherein the controller is a portable computing device comprising a toggle disk input mechanism, a memory, a processor, and a wireless transceiver.
13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the at least one sensor is a global positioning satellite component and the location of the unmanned flying helicopter toy device relative to the controller of the unmanned flying helicopter toy device comprises a range to be maintained between the unmanned flying helicopter toy device and the controller.