Telecommunications – Interference signal transmission
Utility Patent
1999-02-04
2001-01-02
Grant, Chris (Department: 2711)
Telecommunications
Interference signal transmission
C348S086000
Utility Patent
active
06169879
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to managing a plurality of interconnected consumer electronics devices. More specifically, the present invention is directed to devices, systems and methods that allow for and enhance the management of an interconnection of a television set or another display device and various consumer electronics devices such as VCRs, stereo systems, video disk players, satellite receivers, cable boxes, video game players, and Internet terminal devices.
2. The Prior State of the Art
The television has been a source of entertainment for individuals since its introduction and traditionally has been a fairly simple device for users to set up and connect. A user simply unboxed the television, connected the antenna, plugged in the power cord and turned on the television. Once on, a user could control the functions of the television by adjusting dials or buttons on the television or sending information to the television via a remote control.
Since the inception of television, other consumer electronics devices that may be connected to a television have been introduced. For instance, VCRs, video disk players, and video game devices provide enhanced entertainment. Cable television services and satellite receivers along with traditional broadcast antennas provide reception of video programming. Home theater systems provide surround sound and near theater quality audio. Internet terminals, such as WebTV boxes developed by WebTV Networks, Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., allow consumers to connect to the Internet and to send and receive information, using a television as the display device. Using the foregoing electronic consumer devices or others in combination with a television, consumers can now select and configure a wide variety of home entertainment systems.
Although many consumer electronics devices now exist, connecting, continuing, and managing multiple devices in order to realize the full benefit of each component of a home entertainment can be extremely difficult and frustrating. The interconnection of the devices requires a variety of types of connectors that vary dramatically from device to device. Connectors include coaxial cables, a variety of RCA-type connectors for audio and/or video, S-video connectors, and so forth. Further limitations are introduced to the home entertainment system if the devices being used run on the various video and audio standards of foreign countries, since the standards may not be compatible with each other.
One of the most difficult tasks for a user of a home entertainment system is to determine how to interconnect multiple electronic consumer devices such that each is appropriately connected to the television. As the number of devices to be connected to the television increases, the sense of frustration on the part of the user can escalate. In fact, various configurations can be so complicated that users refuse to consider purchasing additional consumer electronics devices because they cannot figure out how to connect and manage them together. Even in properly configured and interconnected home entertainment systems, the performance of many devices suffer when the television is connected to multiple devices. The overall result of the increasingly diverse types of consumer electronics devices that may be included in home entertainment systems is often confusion, suboptimal performance, or a less than ideal user experience.
The conventional method for connecting devices in a home entertainment system is the “daisy chain” method. To illustrate the conventional daisy chain method and the magnitude of its limitations, reference will now be made to FIGS.
1
-
3
, which depict an increasing level of complexity as consumer electronics devices are added to a home entertainment system.
FIG. 1
illustrates a basic configuration that enables a user to access television without any scrambled channels and to access the Internet. A television antenna jack
14
is connected to an Internet terminal
12
, which can be a special-purpose computer system that enables Internet access and permits a user to browse and retrieve information from the Internet to the television screen. One such Internet terminal is the previously-mentioned WebTV box. Internet terminal
12
is in turn connected to a television
10
. Both Internet terminal
12
and television
10
are connected to an A/C power jack
18
. Internet terminal
12
is also connected to a telephone jack
20
. A remote control
16
enables the user to provide input to the Internet terminal
12
. In this basic configuration, the user experience is generally relatively high. The greatest potential source of confusion is introduced by the many ways to connect the television
10
. The user typically has to match the television output of Internet terminal
12
with the corresponding channel, such as channel
2
,
3
or
4
, of television
10
. In addition, depending on the television programming signal available and the nature of the components of the home entertainment system, the connection between Internet terminal
12
and television
10
may be established by coaxial cable, RCA cables, or S-video cables. Once the appropriate connections are established, the home entertainment system of
FIG. 1
operates on a relatively intuitive and understandable way.
As one more device is introduced into the home entertainment system, the user experience is often significantly diminished. If one or more of the channels are scrambled or if the cable feed is digital, the home entertainment system must include a cable box, as illustrated in FIG.
2
. The cable television jack
24
is connected to a conventional cable box
22
, which is connected to Internet terminal
12
. which is connected in turn to television
10
. Internet terminal
12
and television
10
are also connected to the an A/C power jack
18
, while Internet terminal
12
is further connected to a telephone jack
20
. In order to allow a user to change channels and control the various devices by remote control
16
, Internet terminal
12
may incorporate a mechanism that prevents the user from having to use a separate remote control for each consumer electronics device and enables components of the home entertainment system to be controlled even if they are not in the line of sight of remote control device
16
. For example, Internet terminal
12
can have an associated IR blaster (an infrared emitter)
26
for relaying remote control signals from Internet terminal
12
to one or more other consumer electronics devices. In the example of
FIG. 2
, the user can change channels on cable box
22
by transmitting the appropriate signal from remote control device
16
to Internet terminal
12
. Internet terminal
12
then relays the signal to cable box
22
using IR blaster
26
.
The interdevice connection required for the cable television and Internet access illustrated in
FIG. 2
introduces several problems and limitations. This configuration requires not only the television
10
be tuned to the appropriate input channel, but also Internet terminal
12
be properly tuned. The difficulty of connecting the devices of
FIG. 2
is compounded by the fact that television
10
and the Internet terminal
12
may need to be tuned to different channels. Therefore, when Internet terminal
12
is turned off and the cable box signal is “passed through” to television
10
, an unexpected television channel from cable box
22
may appear on the television.
Despite its usefulness, IR blaster
26
further complicates the task of configuring the home entertainment system. In particular, the user must position IR blaster
26
so that IR receiver
28
, located on the cable box
22
, can receive the signal from the IR blaster. This sometimes requires significant trial and error. Further, signals from remote control
16
sometimes interfere with the signals emitted from IR blaster
26
, causing an undesired response from cable box
22
.
Adding yet another consumer electronics device to the home entertainment system h
Grant Chris
WebTV Networks Inc.
Workman & Nydegger & Seeley
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