An RF smart remote reference design has been developed by Nordic Semiconductor for advanced browsing control of connected TVs and set-top boxes. The reference design includes native support for a multi-gesture touchpad, QWERTY keyboard, and motion control to create a rich, intuitive, and engaging end-user experience, for advanced control and browsing of all types of modern digital content and services; including audio, video, gaming, web browsing, social media, and online shopping.
`According to DisplaySearch the market for Internet-enabled TV sets (‘connected TVs’) is forecast to exceed 123 million shipments by 2014 reflecting a sustained 30 percent compound annual growth rate over that period. But the 123 million shipment number does not include other increasingly popular types of Internet-enabled consumer electronics (CE) devices such as STBs and media players.
An essential part of all these products, however, is the remote control because it enables consumer end users to utilise the full range and potential of digital content and services such products now support.
The nRFready 2.4GHz RF remote control features a multi-touch enabled trackpad from Synaptics, a miniaturised QWERTY keyboard, a six-axis motion sensing solution from Invensense, an ultra low power accelerometer from STMicroelectronics, and utilises Nordic’s nRF24LE1 SoC and Gazell 2.4GHz RF protocol stack.
The solution was designed for PC peripherals, the radio and protocol combination delivers the bandwidth, latency, and co-existence performance necessary to support nRFready RF Smart Remote’s advanced features in even challenging 2.4GHz operating environments (e.g. due to other active nearby Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.4GHz wireless technology communicating devices).
The RF Smart Remote reference design even features an IR (Infrared) LED that can be used to add support for legacy IR controlled equipment too.
To let end users easily navigate through the rich content available on Internet-enabled TVs, the Synaptics multi-touch-enabled TouchPad provides a familiar and modern user experience by supporting standard pointing, scrolling and tapping gestures; a range of more sophisticated multi-touch gestures includes scroll, zoom, flick, and rotate plus custom gestures with an enhanced user interface.
