Controller and associated mechanical characters operable for continuously performing received control data while engaging in bidirectional communications over a single communications channel

Abstract

A communications system that provides bandwidth efficient, bi-directional communications over a single communications channel, allowing a master device to control the operation of remote devices. A computer system continuously provides an audio/video presentation on a speaker and display device. During a first time period, the computer system also provides control and speech data, relevant to the presentation, to a link master controller. The link master controller encodes the control and speech data to reduce bandwidth requirements, and then transmits the encoded data to a remote device. The remote device receives and decodes the encoded data, places the data into a data buffer, and uses the data to control at least one motion servo motor and/or provide data to a speech synthesizer. During a second time period, the remote device continues to operate on the data in the data buffer while formulating a response message based on the status of at least one sensor device, encoding the response message, and transmitting the encoded response message to the link master controller. In response to receiving the encoded response message, the link master controller decodes the encoded response message, and provides the response message to the computer system. The computer system responds to the reception of the response data by altering the audio/video presentation in accordance with the response data.