TV has long been an important home entertainment
appliance which provides quick information and entertainment
programs for families. With the digitalization of TV, the
traditional TV has evolved from a single passive program
receiving utility to a multifunction interactive appliance
accompanied by a new equipment for the households – set-top
box. Digital TV brings not only traditional TV programs but
also multimedia information services to all walks of consumers,
such as VoD (Video on Demand), stock information, bank
transaction, games, instant messages, etc..
Set-top box works as an interaction device between the
Digital TV itself and the users through remote controllers. As
result, there are usually two remote controllers per household
for digital TV service, specifically one for the digital TV set
itself and another one for the set-top box. The relationship
among the digital TV itself, the set-top box and the remote
controllers is illustrated in Fig.1.
In Fig.1, remote controller 1 is used for the control of the
Digital TV and remote controller 2 is used for the control of
the set-top box. In this combined system, the digital TV works
as a display utility and the set-top box works as a digital signal
transceiver and decoder for the digital TV services, while the
remote controllers work as interfaces between the consumers
and the other parts of the digital TV system.