Vizio Patent Application Describes Mounting of IR Receivers on Thin-Bezel TVs

A technique for embedding an infrared sensor in the LED backlight of an LCD TV for receiving “command codes” from a remote control is described in a Vizio utility patent application published Thursday at the Patent and Trademark Office. TV remote control receivers typically are mounted on the set behind a light filter that passes infrared light and blocks white or visible light, said the application, which was filed in January 2015 listing Vizio Chief Technology Officer Matthew McRae as the sole inventor. “The actual IR receiver element is typically a phototransistor which receives filtered IR light emitted by the remote control,” said the application. Problem is, TV styles “and exterior designs have constantly been evolving over the years,” it said. With the advent of large-screen flat TV form factors, “the available area on the front surface of a television has been diminishing,” it said. IR receiver assemblies previously were mounted directly behind the front bezel panel of the TV, it said. But as the bezels have become “substantially thinner,” those IR receiver assemblies “have been moved off of the bezel and into the interior of the assemblies with light being carried from the front of the televisions to the IR receivers through light pipes or light guides,” it said. But the assemblies “have become expensive and the size of the light guides have, to some extent, dictated the minimum thickness of the front bezel,” it said. “The inventor recognized a need for removing the light pipe or light guide to direct infrared light from the front of the television to where the IR receiver is located.” In a “preferred embodiment,” the application said, the IR receiver assembly is mounted “within the direct LED or LED edge lit backlight assembly, within a combination backlight/light bar assembly, or integrated into the TFT layer residing under the LCD sub pixels with the IR receiver being a TFT photosensitive transistor with a IR filter residing on the color filter layer.” Vizio officials didn’t comment on plans to commercialize the invention.