Interactive video distribution systems – Local video distribution system – Multiunit or multiroom structure
Reexamination Certificate
1997-01-31
2001-08-28
Grant, Chris (Department: 2611)
Interactive video distribution systems
Local video distribution system
Multiunit or multiroom structure
C725S078000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06282714
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Millions of computers have been purchased for both corporate and home use. In the office environment, these computers have been put to various tasks, such as word processing, accounting, computer-aided design, and on-line searching. Computers have been similarly used in the home environment. However, traditionally, computers have been used as stand-alone computers in this environment. Thus, in the home environment, the computing resources of computers have not been fully utilized. This under-utilization has been the case even though the computational capabilities of these computers have drastically improved in the past couple of years.
In the past several years, there has been some discussion regarding Smart Homes, in which computers are connected to appliances to control the operation of appliances. For example, these computers are typically said to turn on/off these appliances and to control their operational settings. These systems are typically said to couple the computers and the appliances through wired communication links. Such wired communication links are disadvantageous as they are difficult and costly to install.
FIGS. 1 and 2
present recent prior art systems that couple a computer to a television (“TV”) or a video cassette recorder (“VCR”) through a scan or television converter. These converters couple to the TV or VCR through a wired or wireless link. However, these systems differ in that system
100
only utilizes processor
115
to generate RGB data for display, while system
200
utilizes a dedicated graphics accelerator
215
to generate the display data.
As shown in these figures, these prior systems typically include a display device
140
and a computer
105
, which includes a bus
110
, a processor
115
, and a storage
120
. Bus
110
connects the various internal modules of the computer. For instance, bus
110
couples processor
115
and storage
120
. The storage hardware stores data, such as (1) an application program
125
for performing certain tasks, (2) an operating system
130
for controlling the allocation and usage of the computer's hardware and software resources, and (3) I/O drivers
135
for providing the instruction set necessary to control I/O devices, such as display device
140
.
Through bus
110
, processor
115
retrieves the data stored in storage
120
. The processor then processes the data. At times, the results of this processing is displayed on display device
140
, which also couples to bus
110
. This display device is typically a PC monitor, such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), for displaying information to a computer user. Other prior art systems utilize a liquid crystal display (LCD) for their display device.
Both display devices
140
of
FIGS. 1 and 2
receive the display RGB data from Y-tap connectors or similar pass-through devices (not shown). Also, in both these systems, a digital-to-analog converter (a DAC, which is not shown) converts digital RGB signals to analog RGB signals for display on display devices
140
. This DAC can be a part of computer
105
, add-in card
210
, display device
140
, or converters
145
.
The Y-tap connector also supplies the RGB data to converters
145
, which convert the received signals to analog NTSC or PAL signals supplied to the television or the VCR. Depending on the location of the DACs, these converters can be either scan converters or TV converters. Specifically, if computer
105
or graphics engine
215
contain a DAC, and therefore supply analog RGB data to converter
145
, then the converters are scan converters for converting analog RGB data to NTSC or PAL encoded signals. On the other hand, when display device
140
and converter
145
contain the DACs, the converters are TV converters for converting digital RGB data to digital YCrCb data, which are then encoded to NTSC or PAL encoded signals.
Some prior art systems utilize analog wireless links to connect a converter (such as converters
145
) to a TV. These analog wireless links are typically radio frequency (“RF”) links operating at the 900 MHz frequency range. Also, one prior art system establishes a bi-directional link between the converter and the television. The downstream link used by this prior art system (i.e., the link for forwarding communications from the computer to the television) is also an analog RF link.
There are a number of disadvantages associated with the use of analog RF links. For instance, a receiver receives a degraded signal through such a link because the received signal is composed of a number of signals that correspond to the same transmitted signal but reach the receiver through a variety of paths. In other words, such a link does not offer protection against signal degradation due to the multi-path phenomena.
In addition, such communication links are susceptible to intra-cell interference from noise generated in the communication cell formed around the periphery of the computer and the television. Intra-cell interfering noise can be generated by other as appliances or by normal household activity. The intra-cell interfering noise, in turn, can deteriorate the quality of the transmitted data, and thereby deteriorate the quality of the TV presentation.
Analog communication links also are susceptible to inter-cell interference. Such interference can be noise interference from noise sources outside of the communication cell formed by the computer and the television. For instance, such interfering noise can be attributable to RF communications from communication cells (perhaps formed by other computers and televisions) adjacent to the cell formed by the computer and the television. These inter-cell interfering noises can further deteriorate the quality of the transmitted data and the presentation.
Inter-cell interference also refers to eavesdropping on the communications from the computer to the television. The analog communication link between the computer and the television is typically not a secure communication link, because securing such a link is often difficult. Therefore, an eavesdropper outside of the communication cell can tap into the signals transmitted from the computer to the television.
FIG. 3
presents the general operational flow
300
of the prior art systems
100
and
200
. As shown in this figure, a graphics command is first generated by an application program
305
. This command is then passed to the graphics engine
320
(i.e., processor
115
or graphics engine
215
) via the operating system and the display driver. In turn, based on the received graphics command, the graphics engine
320
generates RGB data. This RGB data is then routed to PC monitor
140
for display. The converter
325
also receives the RGB data and converts it into analog NTSC or PAL signal supplied to the television or the VCR.
Thus, as set forth in
FIG. 3
, these prior art systems (1) intercept the RGB signals prepared for display on monitor
140
, and then (2) convert this RGB data to analog NTSC or PAL encoded data for a TV display. Because the signals forwarded to the television or the VCR are tapped at such an advanced operational stage, these systems have a number of disadvantages.
For instance, the quality of their TV presentation suffers, because the TV images are generated based on RGB data composed for the PC monitor. In other words, the quality of the display deteriorates once it has to be remapped for analog NTSC after being composed for PC monitor. This remapping is also disadvantageous because it is inefficient and computationally expensive. Numerous calculations that are performed downstream from the drivers to compose the RGB data for the PC monitor have to be recalculated to obtain the graphical images for the television or the VCR.
Consequently, there is a need in the art for a wireless home computer system which efficiently uses a computer in the home environment. There is also a need for a wireless home computer system which uses superior digital wireless communication links. In addition, a home computer system is needed which composes output presenta
Ghori Amar
White John
Blakely , Sokoloff, Taylor & Zafman LLP
Grant Chris
Sharewave, Inc.
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