Telecommunications – Interference signal transmission
Reexamination Certificate
1997-04-07
2001-03-20
Miller, John W. (Department: 2711)
Telecommunications
Interference signal transmission
C345S212000, C348S730000, C348S734000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06205318
ABSTRACT:
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by any one of the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to computer systems, and in particular to a method and apparatus for controlling the power modes of selected components of the computer system.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The consumer electronics industry has created many stand alone products for specific functions, such as television viewing, video recording and playback, broadband video receivers, playing recorded music and broadcast music. Much of this function is being provided by computer systems. However, computer systems were initially designed to run complex computer programming. When these systems were turned on, it took significant amounts of time to load in required programming and test the system. In addition, when the systems were turned off, they required time to ensure that all data was properly stored, and the system was shut down in an orderly fashion. These long times to turn on and shut down computer systems were very different from the instant on and off features found in a television set.
Computer systems today have very advanced forms of power management available. Many portable systems have various power modes designed to conserve batteries. After predetermined periods of non-use, they enter these modes, shutting down predetermined components, such as disk drive devices and displays. Further, personal computer systems which do not use batteries often have screen savers, and display power management that places the display in a standby mode. In standby modes, the display is essentially shut down. This is usually accomplished by high level programming, such as advanced power management APM functions in Windows 95 by Microsoft which defines commands to use in placing multiple devices into different power management modes. In a further prior art system, a screen saver has a hot corner, which when selected, puts the display in standby mode.
There is a need for personal computers which play video and audio signals to operate more like a television set to meet the expectations of user which are comfortable with the mode of operation of televisions and other common consumer devices. There is a need for a personal computer to provide power management functions which bridge the gap between older computer systems, and their long waiting times on power up and down, and the instant on/off features of television sets.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A computer system which is capable of playing video and audio signals is provided with a user input device which also contains a power management selector. Selection of the power management selector causes an input driver to initiate sending of desired power management commands to selected devices. The devices comprise a video card driving a display and a sound card. The video card places the display in a standby mode, and the sound card mutes its output, or the video card turns on the display and the sound card turns off mute very quickly to simulate instant on/off features of common television sets.
In one embodiment, the input device comprises a remote control device such as a keyboard, or a hand held remote control device. The power management selector comprises a single power key or combination of keys. One such combination comprises WIN+ALT+PrintScreen. The power key is encoded and transmitted as RF signals and is received by a corresponding RF receiver in the computer system. A keyboard driver receives the encoded information and passes it to an applet which generates a command for a video driver to toggle the monitor between a standby power state and an on power mode if already in standby mode. Thus, it appears to an average user as a power on/off key. In addition, the keyboard driver generates a mute command for the sound card, which also toggles between a mute on, or standby mode and a mute off, or normal mode, appearing again to be on or off. This function is provided with very little delay, as advanced power management functions of higher level software are bypassed. It closely tracks the times that a common television might require. The selected devices can also comprise devices other than those processing sound and audio, such as modems and secondary storage devices which need not be operating if a user is not interacting with the computer system. It results in a further reduction in power consumed. In further embodiments, upper level software is utilized to issue the power management commands to the selected devices.
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Pytlovany William J.
Schindler Jeffrey
Gateway 2000 Inc.
Lee Joseph H.
Miller John W.
Schwegman Lundberg Woessner & Kluth P.A.
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