I.  Expectations

Our design was fairly on target to our expectation.  We intended the need to use two MCUs for the IR receiver / decoder and video so that there would not be any flickering in the video game or computation overload on anyone CPU.  We also realized before hand that our software that drives our hardware was going to be the basis of our complexity.  As far as this project design, we are quite content with what we have done.  If we had another chance in ECE 476, we would do a different project so we can reverse engineer and learn about a different kind of wireless communication, i.e. RF instead of IR.

II.  Standards

Our design conforms to all applicable standards.  We based our logic on two syllogisms.  First and foremost, the RS232 in lab 3 had conformed to all applicable standards; our design conformed to the RS232 standard in lab 3 without exceeding any of its functionality; so our design conforms to the RS232 standards.  The same thing can said about our television conformation to the NTSC and RS 170 standards.  Finally, as for our remote control transmission and reception, we conformed to the pulse coded standard.  In actuality, we had achieved our decoding scheme, implemented in C code, and tested it on the MCU before we realized that what we had decoded was based on the pulse-coded standard.

III.  Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights 

We re-used the RS232 and TV code in Lab 3 and Lab 4  by Professor Land.  As for decrypting the pulse-coded standard, we have not infringed on any patents/trademarks that we are knowledgeable about or could find on the www.uspto.gov.  Remote controls may or may not have patents on their brand-sensitive components, but that does not make them illegal to be used outside of the context for which it was built or designed for.  Now, if we were to duplicate a remote, i.e. Sony’s components slap our own logo on it and commercialize it with our design product, then there may be some issues regarding patent/trademark.  Although, we do believe that our product can be with some degree of ease integrated into another’s product such as TVs, radio, and computers and feel that it may have patent potentials, we do not think that it is worthwhile to pay the patent application fee for something that may not have that much of a commercial value.

MB has a trademark for Connect 4^TM­ the board game although the concept of the game was around since time of Captain James Cook.  Therefore, MB does not have exclusive rights to the concept of Connect 4.  We are free to present the concept of the game in a different form such as in a video game.  We also did not utilize any patented video game source code in our implementation.  Perhaps, if we were to commercialize our game under the name of Connect 4^TM, then we would need permission from MB.

IV.  Conformation to the IEEE Code of Ethics

1.To improve the understanding of technology, its appropriate application, and potential consequences

We have learned the pulse-coded method of IR transmission and its application to remote control.  In our design, we have tried to extend its current application and technology

2.To maintain and improve our technical competence and to undertake technological tasks for others only if qualified by training or experience, or after full disclosure of pertinent limitations;

My partner and I realized that for certain areas of the project one of us has slightly better knowledge of it.  Therefore, we divided the work evenly based on what we can achieve to our potential rather than taking on more than our share of the design.
 

3.To seek, accept, and offer honest criticism of technical work, to acknowledge and correct errors, and to credit properly the contributions of others

We have spoken to the TAs and the professor regarding our project.  We have also sought advice and criticisms from our classmates regarding our algorithm and logic in design.

4.To treat fairly all persons regardless of such factors as race, religion, gender, disability, age, or national origin

We do not discriminate against anyone regardless of race, religion, gender, disability, age, or national origin.  Anyone who is interested in our project will have some kind of access to it and anyone who would like to try out are design may do so regardless of race, religion, gender, disability, age, or national origin.

5.To reject bribery in all its forms

We will not accept bribery even if it will make a difference in our grade or bring us an ill-gotten profit.

V.  FCC Legal Restrictions

We followed all FCC legal restrictions.  All remotes sold in the United States that come with domestic or foreign appliances must be designed and tested to conform with FCC legal restrictions.  We used only commercialized product and did not invent our own remote.