DEVICES AND METHODS FOR REMOTE CONTROL OF TARGET DEVICES

1 . A method comprising:

capturing an image of a remote control device by a camera of a user device, wherein the remote control device comprises at least one physical control;

determining a location on the image corresponding to the physical control;

receiving, at the user device, a wireless signal from the remote control device corresponding to an actuation of the physical control; and

associating a stored representation of the wireless signal with the location on the image.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

presenting the image on a touchscreen display of the user device;

receiving a user contact on the touchscreen display corresponding to the location; and

transmitting a wireless signal from the user device, in response to the user contact, to operate a target device.

3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

decoding the received wireless signal to provide command code data;

storing the command code data as the representation of the wireless signal; and

encoding the command code data to provide the transmitted wireless signal in response to the user contact.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the decoding and the encoding are performed by a programmable logic device (PLD) of the user device.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein:

the associating comprises storing, by an application running on a microprocessor of the user device, an association between the command code data and the location; and

the method further comprises providing, by the application, the command code data to the PLD in response to the user contact.

6 . The method of claim 4 , wherein:

the associating comprises:

storing, in one or more memory locations of the PLD, the command code data, and

storing, by an application running on a microprocessor of the user device, an association between a memory address associated with the one or more memory locations and the location on the image; and

the method further comprises providing, by the application, the memory address to the PLD in response to the receiving of the user contact.

7 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the wireless signal is an infrared (IR) signal, wherein the receiving the wireless signal from the remote control device comprises receiving IR energy at an IR light-emitting diode (LED) of the user device, and wherein the transmitting the wireless signal comprises transmitting IR energy from the IR LED.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining comprises:

presenting the image on a touchscreen display of the user device; and

receiving a user contact on the touchscreen display to determine the location on the image.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining comprises:

processing the image to identify the physical control in the image; and

selecting the physical control in the image to identify the location on the image.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the user device is a mobile phone, wherein the wireless signal is one of an infrared (IR) signal, a radio frequency (RF) signal, a visible light signal, a Wi-Fi™ signal, or a Bluetooth™ signal.

11 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising repeating the determining, the receiving, and the associating for a plurality of physical controls and a plurality of wireless signals of the remote control device.

12 . A device comprising:

a camera configured to capture an image of a remote control device, wherein the remote control device comprises at least one physical control;

a communication port configured to receive a wireless signal from the remote control device corresponding to an actuation of the physical control; and

a microprocessor configured to obtain data identifying a location on the image corresponding to the physical control and to associate a representation of the wireless signal with the data identifying the location on the image.

13 . The device of claim 12 , further comprising:

a touchscreen display configured to present the image and receive a user contact corresponding to the location;

wherein the microprocessor is configured to produce the data identifying the location on the image based on a signal generated by the touchscreen display in response to the user contact corresponding to the location; and

wherein the communication port is configured to transmit the wireless signal generated based on the representation of the wireless signal, in response to a user contact on the touchscreen display corresponding to the identified location on the image, to operate a target device.

14 . The device of claim 13 , further comprising a programmable logic device (PLD) in communication with the microprocessor and configured to:

decode the received wireless signal to provide command code data;

store the command code data as the representation of the wireless signal; and

encode the command code data to provide the wireless signal to be transmitted by the communication port in response to the user contact.

15 . The device of claim 14 , wherein the microprocessor is configured to run an application configured to:

provide a programming mode in which the image is presented on the touchscreen display and the microprocessor is programmed to generate the data identifying the location on the image based on the signal generated by the touchscreen display in response to the user contact corresponding to the location and to store an association between the command code data and the location; and

provide an operating mode in which the microprocessor is configured to display the image on the touchscreen display, and in response to contact with the touchscreen display that corresponds to the location stored in association with the command code data, to retrieve the command code data and provide the command code data to the PLD.

16 . The device of claim 14 , wherein:

the PLD comprises a memory configured to store the command code data at an associated memory address; and

the microprocessor is configured to run an application configured to:

store an association between the memory address and the location on the image, and

provide the memory address to the PLD in response to the user contact.

17 . The device of claim 13 , wherein the communication port is an infrared (IR) light emitting diode (LED), and wherein the wireless signal is an infrared (IR) signal.

18 . The device of claim 12 , further comprising a touchscreen display configured to present the image and receive a user contact to determine the location.

19 . The device of claim 12 , wherein the microprocessor is configured to:

process the image to identify the physical control in the image; and

select the physical control in the image to identify the location.

20 . The device of claim 12 , wherein the device is a mobile phone, and wherein the wireless signal is one of an infrared (IR) signal, a radio frequency (RF) signal, a visible light signal, a Wi-Fi™ signal, or a Bluetooth™ signal.