How Does Amber Work?
Many appliances now come with remote controls which allow you to operate them from the
convenience of your chair or bed. These remote controls send signals to the appliances they
operate, via infra-red light beams. You can think of Amber as a sophisticated version of such
a remote control.
Rather than working just one appliance, Amber is able to send signals to a number of different
appliances and other electrical equipment. In this way it becomes a universal remote control
which can operate almost anything electrical, even appliances which do not have their own
remote control.
Most remote controls have an array of tiny buttons, one for each command. Amber uses a
different approach to select the various commands available, which requires a signal from just
one switch. Amber comes with a built in puff-switch, an optional touch switch or can use any
of a wide range of specialised switches available from other manufacturers.
Most environmental controls have a display panel to tell the user which function is to be
performed on which appliance. Instead, Amber uses spoken messages to tell you what is
happening. This means you do not have to be able to see Amber in order to use it. This
unique feature makes Amber suitable even for users with poor vision or total blindness.
Amber is also portable. The rechargeable battery gives up to 100 hours use allowing Amber
to be mounted on a wheelchair, or taken from room to room.
Amber is completely customisable to a user’s particular needs. That means that the user can
choose which functions on which appliances will be available from Amber. There are few
restraints on which appliances are suitable to work with Amber, leaving you free to choose
from a wide range of commercially available equipment.
Amber is able to store up to 128 different commands. In order to make the commands easier
to access, they are arranged into 4 groups of up to 32 commands. Each group of commands is
given a Heading. Look at the Command Sheet, Appendix A in the User Manual. As you can
see, there are 4 headings for 4 different sets of equipment (Television, Video, Stereo,
Appliances). These headings are user programmable and can be whatever you wish. Under
each heading is a list of Labels, one for each command you wish to store. The Headings and
Labels are recorded into Amber using a microphone. Appendix A shows some examples.
You may find it useful to compare Amber to a filing cabinet with four drawers. The Headings
identify the contents of each drawer. Inside the drawers are a set of filing pockets, up to 32 of
them. Each pocket has a Label. Inside each pocket is a secret code which Amber can send to
an appliance on an infra-red light beam, causing the appliance to perform some function in the
same way as a remote control would.
When you activate Amber’s switch, the four Headings are played through Amber’s
loudspeaker, just like playing a tape recording. If you press the switch again, immediately
after one of the Headings has played, the list of Labels stored under that Heading will then be
played. Pressing the switch after the Label you wish to select, will instruct Amber to issue the
infra-red code for that Label, so as to activate your appliance.
Take time now for a test drive to gain a better appreciation of how Amber operates. You will
begin to discover just how versatile Amber is.
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