System for dual-display interaction with integrated television and
Contents
1. 29 1998 5 500 691 3 1996 Martin et al 348 734 Full House Control Corporation RHOC for Windows 5 500 794 3 1996 Fujita et al 364 188 1997 pages from website www fullhouse com 5 515 347 5 1996 Mulder et al 369 30 rhocwin html Apr 29 1998 5 543 857 8 1996 Wehmeyer et al 348 589 5 545 857 8 1996 Lee et al 178 18 21 Stage 3 Home Theater Controller Kenwood U S A 5 557 338 9 1996 Maze et al 348 565 Pages from website www kewoodusa com cat Stage 3 5 561 708 10 1996 Remillard 37996 Components KC Z1 htm Apr 1988 5 574 964 11 1996 Hamlin 455 3 1 Sony s Product Promotion Flyer for CDP CX270 Product 5 585 866 12 1996 Miller 348 731 approximately Jun 1997 eL e Audio Advisor Magazine Nov 1997 p 24 594 orin et al 5 600 368 2 1997 Mathews Stereo Review Magazine Sep 1997 pp 83 85 5 608 446 3 1997 Carr et al s 348 6 Innovation Device Technologies Inc Executive Investment 5 621 456 4 1997 Florin et al 348 7 Summary pages from website www innovativedevice 5 630 757 5 1997 Gagin et al 463 43 com execsum htm Apr 29 1998 5 648 824 7 1997 Dunn et al 348 734 Blue Mountain with Jblend Aplix Corporation pages from 5 657 072 8 1997 Aristides et al 348 13 website www jBlend com products bm html Apr 29 5 671 267 9 1997 August et al 379 61 1998 2 ie Williams dhs Meals2. memory information related to the IR commands sent such that the remote control is capable of subsequently accessing the information to determine the channels tuned to by the tuners 25 The method of claim 23 wherein the remote control sends information to the base station via RF communica tions 26 The method of claim 22 wherein the remote control has a memory and wherein the remote control stores in the memory information related to the IR commands sent such that the remote control is capable of subsequently accessing the information to determine channels tuned to by the tuners 27 The method of claim 22 wherein the data stream is a TV signal 28 The method of claim 27 wherein the TV signal is received by the base station and by the second device 29 The method of claim 28 wherein the TV signal contains embedded data 30 The method of claim 29 wherein the embedded data is HTML data 31 A method of viewing multiple data streams substan tially simultaneously comprising the steps of receiving a first data stream into a base station receiving a second data stream into the base station transmitting the first data stream from the base station to a first device the first device having a display capable of displaying full motion video displaying the first data stream on the display of the first device transmitting the second data stream from the base station to a second device the second device having a display capa
3. existing internet enabled TV systems typically require the use of navigational input means such as a mouse or IR keyboard to access specified functions or to enable internet links appearing on the display With the present invention the same type of navigational aides could be used for accessing information on the remote control s display 15 However it is possible and desirable for such access to be accom plished directly through the use of buttons thus preventing the need for excess input and navigation The present invention also provides a benefit for the situation where additional data e g HTML data is embed ded in the VBI of the TV signal or in dedicated slots within a digital signal That data could be stripped from the signal and viewed on the remote control s display 15 while the regular video signal appeared on the primary display This differs from how current internet enabled TVs make use of VBI data because they all operate under the presumption that only one display is available for both the regular video 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 8 signal and the VBI data Some of the buttons on the remote control 10 in this context could be used for changing font sizes of any text data scrolling through text or swapping the programs showed on the two displays An especially useful application of the present invention is in the context of family or group TV viewing is the abilit
4. views may be from different perspectives or they may be from the same perspective with one view displaying a close up while the other displays a bird s eye view or any other combination Here too the function of one of the buttons on the remote control 10 may be to swap the images shown on the displays Or one function may be to enlarge or reduce a particular display or to cycle through the available displays so that a player may perceive the world as one of his or her enemies or allies is perceiving the world Other functions may be for other game controls which may also be performed via an IR keyboard or other input means When using the present invention with internet enabled TV an additional perceived benefit is in the use of semi synchronous interaction with TV ads TV ads on internet enabled TV typically provide addresses or links to web sites where a viewer could obtain more detailed information and review the information at their own pace With the present invention a viewer could use the remote control 10 to bookmark web sites from advertisements as they occur or soon thereafter and then later use the remote control 10 to contact the web sites for further information The viewer could even do so during the time when regular programming non ads returned to the TV and browse the internet sites on the remote control s display 15 without affecting or inter fering with the primary TV display Furthermore
5. 225 H ROM FROM EXTERNAL PSU 210 7 190 150 FIG 3 U S Patent Aug 1 2000 Sheet 3 of 3 6 097 441 280 DATA STREAM FROM TRANSPORT DEMUX AND BASE STATION MPEG A V DECODER 4 305 DECODED HTML DATA DECODED VIDEO DECODED AUDIO 5300 275 290 El 345 400 355 o5 405 i RS232 365 IL woe CPE 3 0 410 CSC 8 CH 75 Ill 415 430 LCD CONTROLLER EH 10817 TOUCH SCREEN MICROPROCESSOR LCD 420 280 SRAM JJ5 256 512 8 Zi 435 J85 ROM s 425 2 8MB POWER SOURCE 9V BATTERY OR DC 9V FROM EXTERNAL PSU FIG 4 6 097 441 1 SYSTEM FOR DUAL DISPLAY INTERACTION WITH INTEGRATED TELEVISION AND INTERNET CONTENT RELATED APPLICATIONS This application contains subject matter related to co pending U S patent application Ser No 09 001 873 entitled Portable Internet Enabled Controller and Informa tion Browser For Consumer Devices filed Dec 31 1997 invented by the same inventor as the present invention and to be assigned to the same assignee as the present invention The entire original disclosure of said co pending application is herein expressly incorporated by reference TERMINOLOGY As used in this application the term data stream refers generally to transmitted information and a data stream may itself contain multiple data streams A data stream may be HTML data transmitted from the internet or it may be
6. 395 327 WebTV Backgrounder WebTV Networks pages from web po ant NK ORA M a www webtv net ns about backgrounder html May 4 5 715 020 2 1998 Kuroiwa et al 348 734 5 722 041 2 1998 Freadman 455 6 3 English translation of Reference N which was cited by the 5 761 606 6 1998 Wolzien 455 6 2 Examiner on Form PTO 892 Japanese Open Patent Bulle 5 781 228 7 1998 Sposato sss 348 13 tin entitled Television Receiving System Nov 1980 U S Patent Aug 1 2000 Sheet 1 of 3 6 097 441 FIG 1 DATA FROM OUTSIDE SOURCE E G THE INTERNET VIDEO AND AUDIO SIGNALS MAY CONTAIN EMBEDDED DATA 85 TV CONVENTIONAL STATION OR ADVANCED UNIT 80 REMOTE CONTROL FIG 2 110 U S Patent Aug 1 2000 Sheet 2 of 3 6 097 441 785 170 175 MULTIPLEXER DIGITAL VIDEO MPEG A z DIGITAL us HTML DATA gt RF 180 CABLE TV ETC i ENCODING CONTAN EMBEDDED HIM NTSC PAL ur we cciam Rm ENC DING 185 RESON RF ANTENNA SSEREMOTE CONTROL 2 130 gt o TO DIGITAL 125 TUNER PLUS ANALOG TO DIGITAL CONVERTER 160 10 ASIC 165 TV INPUT USB Y 213 95 UART ma 7 Ed ANALOG SWITCHING amp 140 255 230 235 145 155 CPU DRAMC 2 BANK 240 195 co cavum j 220 DRAM 45 200 SRAM 205 256 512K8
7. 95 including HTML data may enter the base station 75 through various ports 130 140 and 145 as is described herein and even through IrDA port 135 though that is not preferred The incoming data 85 and or 95 may be transferred to the data bus 150 but that is not necessary as data passing through the switching and MUX box 265 for example may be passed directly to an analog TV input Also data 95 entering through ports 130 135 140 and or 145 first passes through the UART Universal Asyn chronous Receiver and Transmitter 160 in the IO ASIC Input Output Application Specific Integrated Circuit 165 Analog data 85 to be sent to the remote control 10 passes through tuner and analog to digital converter 125 which converts the data to digital data and tunes to a particular channel for transmitting to the remote control 10 based on commands sent to the base station 75 from the remote control 10 The data 85 may then be processed by CPU 155 such as perhaps to strip out only embedded data to pass along to the remote control 10 or to create an alternate view of a virtual world for a video game application Converted data 85 is sent to an MPEG A V encoder 170 whether or not the CPU performed any processing upon it Digital data 85 and or 95 or portions thereof to be sent to the remote control 10 may or may not pass through the MPEG A V encoder 170 since data such as text will not necessarily require the MPEG compressing as video data
8. al 348 734 5 315 391 5 1994 Lee kesisi eiin 348 553 5 343 239 8 1994 Lappington 348 12 5 379 421 1 1995 Palazzi et al 395 600 5 396 546 3 1995 Remillard 379 96 5 410 326 4 1995 Goldstein we 348 134 5 422 677 6 1995 Do nnne 348 568 List continued on next page VIDEO AND AUDIO SIGNALS MAY CONTAIN EMBEDDED DATA 85 TV CONVENTIONAL 80 OR ADVANCED REMOTE CONTROL UNIT 55 140371 11 1980 Japan 358 194 1 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Scottsdale Technologies Inc s Users Manual to Program Master Product 1996 1997 Rotel of America s User s Manual to Rotel R990 Product approximately Oct 1997 Page from product brochure of Marantz RC2000 Product approximately Aug 1996 Lexicon Inc s product brochure for Lexicon 500T Product 1994 Niles Audio Corporation Inc s product brochure for Intel licontrol product Aug 1996 Full House Control Corporation The RHOC 1997 pages from website www fullhouse com rhoc html Apr 29 1998 List continued on next page Primary Examiner Victor R Kostak Attorney Agent or Firm Neal M Cohen 57 ABSTRACT Systems and methods are disclosed for using two or more cooperating but physically independent displays for enhanced viewing of data streams where the viewing on one display does not interfere with the
9. and the like Power is supplied by an external power source 225 The RTC 150 is preferably a crystal based clock and is used to synchronize IR commands with the proper TV broadcast radio broadcast satellite broadcast or other sig nals to satisfy the consumer s requests In addition the RTC 150 may be used to determine when a particular title or titles from a CD have completed based on the play time associ ated with the title or titles Memory 195 is a boot ROM for holding the system software and memory 210 is a flash ROM for storing downloaded information such as IR command libraries of devices being controlled or other information such as data related to the user s CD collection The flash ROM 210 is preferably at least 2 8 Megabytes Memory chips 200 and 205 are RAM chips used for working memory Memory 200 is shown as a DRAM and is preferably at least 8 megabytes Memory 205 is shown as an SRAM and is preferably at least 256 512 Kilobytes The SRAM 620 may be used for certain operations such as MPEG encoding and or decoding that require faster speed than other operations The IO ASIC 165 comprises UART 160 PWM Pulse Width Modulator 230 a 32 channel ICU Interrupt Con troller Unit 235 a 2 bank DRAMC DRAM controller 240 an LCD controller 245 and its own 16 bit 4 channel timer 250 The UART 160 is used to receive data through control IR port 215 and to transmit and receive data through ports 135 140 and 145 Contr
10. as indicated by arrow 90 The signals 85 may originate from broadcast cable TV satellite TV a a laser disc a DVD or any other source they may be analog or digital and they may contain embedded data as previously described Other data 95 from an outside data source such as the internet may enter the base station 75 as indicated by arrow 100 In practice it is preferable as indicated by FIG 2 that all data streams enter the base station 75 which may then act as a switching station for the data streams by determining whether to send the data streams or parts thereof to the TV 80 to the remote control 10 to both or to neither This would be extra beneficial for example if the TV 80 had only one input because instead of having to physically switch cables to change from one input to another the switching could be accomplished within the base station 75 and the base station 75 could send the proper input signal to the TV 80 However it is technically feasible to have incoming signals sent both to the base station 75 and to the TV 80 Data streams pass from the base station 75 to the TV 80 by wired connections as indicated by arrow 105 There may 10 15 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 10 be only one connection or there may be many A typical connection may include a standard TV cable which passes all or part of data streams 85 to the TV 80 Other connection means such as RS232 USB and or modem
11. channel on the display of the first device tuning the base station to a second channel using the tuner of the base station sending second data associated with the second channel from the base station to a second device having a display and displaying the second data on the display of the second device 2 The method of claim 1 wherein the second device is a portable hand held device 3 The method of claim 1 wherein the second data is sent using radio frequency transmission 4 The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of swapping the first and second data between the first and second displays 5 The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of outputting an audio signal associated with the second data from a speaker associated with the second device 6 The method of claim 2 wherein the second data is sent using radio frequency transmission 7 The method of claim 2 wherein the first device is tuned to the first channel in response to a command from the second device 6 097 441 17 8 A system for providing enhanced viewing of multiple data streams comprising first device having a display the first device being capable of displaying full motion video second device having a display the second device being capable of displaying full motion video and having communications hardware for sending control infrared IR commands and a radio frequency RF antenna for receiving RF transmissions and
12. control 10 which is a preferred embodiment but the base station 75 may be implemented as an integrated part of the remote control 10 or of the TV 80 if desired In fact some existing ATVs advanced TVs are equipped with a two way internet connection a decoder for separating out embedded data from analog or digital signals and hardware and software to send complex data streams including video signals For users with ATVs such as this the remote control 10 needs only to have the capability of receiving and displaying complex data streams and needs no additional communication ports other than a control IR port for sending IR commands In such an embodiment the elimination of additional communication ports and or a decoder may have a significant effect on the cost of the remote control 10 Other advantages of having a base station 75 separate from the remote control 10 1 either physically indepen dent or integrated in the TV 80 are that the remote control 10 may be lighter in weight and smaller in size And most significant the remote control 10 could operate in a wireless mode with the base station 75 having any needed wired connections to the home cable box satellite TV receiver VCR etc Size weight and the ability to operate in a wireless mode are critical features in providing an overall enhanced viewing experience Still referring to FIG 2 various signals data streams 85 from various sources enter the base station 75
13. ports or other digital I O ports for DVD media etc may exist in the TV 80 for passing all or part of data streams 95 to the TV The latter connections would apply for example to ATVs with internet capability Data streams pass from the base station 75 to the remote control 10 by wired or wireless communications indicated by arrow 110 Wired communications may employ either USB or Firewire 1394 protocols both of which are capable of transmitting full motion video However wired commu nications are not preferred as they detract from the overall viewing experience by inhibiting the user s mobility For wireless communications the base station 75 may transmit data to the remote control 10 by way of fast IrDA or but the preferred method is in which case the frequency of transmission would be preferably at 900 MHz 2 4 GHz or other FCC approved home communications frequencies The main reason RF is preferred is that an important aspect of the present invention is the ability to view video on the remote control s display 15 For the base station 75 to efficiently and accurately send video signals at an acceptable rate of speed IR is not as well suited as RF IR transmissions have limited range capabilities and are useful typically only for sending small amounts of data not the large amounts of data in a video signal Even fast IrDA technology which is capable of transmitting video signals can operate effectively only wi
14. the fact that the remote control 10 will have sent the change channel IR command to the TV 80 in the first place Similarly the remote control 10 will be aware of the channel the base station 75 is tuned to based on the fact that the remote control 10 will have sent the change channel IR command to the base station 75 in the first place too Thus the remote control 10 may be programmed to send IR control commands to both the TV 80 and to the base station 75 with the push of a single button So if the user wants to swap the programs being displayed on the TV 80 and the remote control s display 15 a single button on the remote control may be programmed to execute the swap An example of the sequence of commands sent by actuating the swap button is as follows First a command is sent from the remote control 10 to the base station 75 to tune the base station s tuner to the channel at which the TV 80 is tuned As previously stated the remote control 10 already knows the channel That would complete the first half of the swap as the program then being displayed on the TV 80 would be displayed on the remote control s display 15 due to the base station 75 tuning to the proper channel Note that the remote control 10 will have known the channel that the base station 75 was tuned to just prior to the swap as previously stated and would have stored that information in its memory for subsequent use to complete the swap That information is needed b
15. viewing on the other displays The type of data streams may be complex streams such as multiple television TV broadcast signals or other video signals internet data or other local data such as information related to the state of a consumer s home appliances The signals may include data embedded in the vertical blanking interval VBI for analog signals or in dedicated slots in a digital signal according to protocols such as MPEG The system includes hand held and portable remote control with a motion picture display and hardware and or software enabling interaction between a primary display such as a TV and the hand held display The hardware may include an integrated TV tuner or a physi cally separate base station having a TV tuner in which case the base station and the remote control would communicate via radio frequency RF 36 Claims 3 Drawing Sheets DATA FROM OUTSIDE SOURCE E G THE INTERNET BASE STATION UNIT 6 097 441 2 U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 5 828 403 10 1998 Derodeff et 348 7 5 455 570 10 1995 Cook etal 340 825 22 OTHER PUBLICATIONS 5 465 385 11 1995 Ohga et al 455 6 1 5 481 542 1 1996 Logston et al 370 94 2 Full House Control Corporation The RF Base Station 5 497 186 3 1996 Kawasaki 348 6 1997 pages from website www fullhouse com base html 5 499 046 3 1996 Schiller 348 6
16. 0 The system of claim 13 wherein the base station further comprises a tuner 21 The system of claim 9 wherein the remote control further comprises a Firewire 1394 port 22 A method of swapping first data displayed on a first device with second data displayed on a second device wherein the first and second data are associated with first and second channels respectively and are both at least initially contained within a single data stream and wherein the first device has communications hardware for transmitting infra red IR commands and the first device receives the first data via RF communications from a base station and the second device has communications hardware for receiving IR commands comprising the steps actuating a button on the first device said actuation causing an infrared IR command sequence to be sent from the first device to the second device commanding the second device to adjust a tuner therein to a prede termined channel said actuation also causing another IR command sequence to be sent from the first device to the base station commanding the base station to adjust a tuner contained therein to a predetermined channel 23 The method of claim 22 wherein the first device is a hand held remote control and the second device is a TV 24 The method of claim 23 wherein the remote control has a memory and wherein the remote control stores in the 10 15 20 25 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 18
17. US006097441A United States Patent 1 Patent Number 6 097 441 Allport 4 Date of Patent Aug 1 2000 54 SYSTEM FOR DUAL DISPLAY FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS INTERACTION WITH INTEGRATED TELEVISION AND INTERNET CONTENT Inventor David E Allport Palo Alto Calif Assignee eRemote Inc Sunnyvale Calif Appl No 09 001 841 Filed Dec 31 1997 Int CE ees H04N 7 00 HO4N 7 10 CL assem 348 552 348 734 348 725 348 12 348 13 455 6 3 Field of Search 455 3 1 6 1 4 1 455 4 2 5 1 6 3 420 348 460 9 10 12 13 552 734 473 379 90 01 93 12 93 17 93 23 93 25 102 03 102 02 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 4 712 105 12 1987 Kohler 340 825 69 4 746 919 5 1988 Reitmeyer 340 825 56 4 856 081 8 1989 Smith 455 151 4 872 151 10 1989 Smith oo cesses cece 369 14 4 894 789 1 1990 Yee 348 552 5 031 046 7 1991 Bruggeman 358 194 1 5 075 771 12 1991 Hashimoto 358 84 5 086 385 2 1992 Launey et al 364 188 5 003 718 3 1992 Hoarty et 358 84 5 138 649 8 1992 Krisbergh see 379 56 5 223 924 6 1993 Strubbe sees 358 86 5 228 077 7 1993 Darbee 379 102 5 251 034 10 1993 358 183 5 262 860 11 1993 Fitzpatrick et al 5 307 055 4 1994 Baskin et
18. a media stream such as an analog or digital TV broadcast signal satellite TV signal cable TV signal or other audio and or video signal Media streams such as TV broadcast signals may contain several channels and each channel may further contain audio video or other embedded data streams including HTML data Furthermore HTML data is used to refer to any internet derived data as opposed to solely data that is in the HTML protocol format as the concepts described herein are equally applicable to other internet derived data especially data that is transmitted in a widely accepted protocol FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for using two or more cooperating but physically independent displays for enhanced viewing of data streams on each display wherein the viewing of a data stream on one display does not interfere with the viewing of a data stream on the other displays More particularly the images may be derived from complex data streams such as multiple TV television broadcast signals and or cable TV or satellite transmissions or other video signals internet data and or other local data such as information related to the state of a consumer s home appliances In addition the different dis plays may be available for viewing by more than one person BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION As technology rapidly advances there are more and more sources and types of information availabl
19. a base station connected to the first device by a cable and having communications hardware for receiving control IR commands and for sending RF transmissions 9 The system of claim 8 wherein the second device is a hand held remote control 10 The system of claim 9 wherein the remote control further comprises a USB port 11 The system of claim 8 wherein the first device has communications hardware for receiving control IR com mands 12 The system of claim 8 wherein the base station further comprises a tuner 13 The system of claim 9 wherein the remote control comprises a tuner 14 The system of claim 8 wherein the second device further comprises a speaker 15 The system of claim 9 wherein the base station further comprises a tuner 16 The system of claim 10 wherein the base station further comprises a tuner 17 The system of claim 11 wherein the base station further comprises a tuner 18 The system of claim 12 wherein the first device comprises a tuner 19 The system of claim 18 wherein the tuner of the base station is tuned to a first channel and the tuner of the first device is tuned to a second channel and wherein the second device contains a button programmed to 1 send a first control IR command to the base station to cause the tuner of the base station to tune to the second channel and 2 send a second control IR command to the first device to cause the tuner of the first device to tune to the first channel 2
20. a digital signal is HTML data the remote control 10 may display options for the user to respond to program related issues for example by voting on what should happen to certain characters or whether the episode was good or bad The user could then respond by using the appropriate buttons on the remote control 10 as indicated on the display 15 which would be programmed to send appropriate information to an associated web site Or the embedded data may actually be a web page providing access to a web site related to the program being broadcast in which case the remote control 10 could access the web site through the base station 75 to gain more detailed information related to the program Of course the embedded data does not have to be related to the broadcast program but a likely use of the embedded data is that it would be so related Another use for embedded data is to send lists of web sites associated with advertisements being broadcast The user could then browse the list the remote control s display 15 during or after the advertisements and tag or bookmark them for later reference There are many other uses of embedded data and the foregoing are intended to be only illustrative and in no way limiting of the types of data the present invention is designed to make use of The previous discussions have presumed for the most part that the base station 75 was physically separated from the TV 80 and from the remote control 10 It s
21. ble of displaying full motion video displaying the second data stream on the display of the second device and discontinuing to display the first data stream on the display of the first device discontinuing to display the second data stream on the display of the second device displaying the second data stream on the display of the first device and displaying the first data stream on the display of the second device all substantially simulta neously in response to activation of a button on the second device 32 The method of claim 31 wherein the second device is a hand held remote control 33 A method of viewing different portions of data from data stream on two physically separate displays substan tially simultaneously comprising the steps of receiving the data stream into a base station processing the data stream within the base station to separate the data stream into a first portion and a second portion transmitting the first portion from the base station to a first display displaying the first portion on the first display transmitting the second portion from the base station to a second display displaying the second portion on the second display and discontinuing to display the first portion on the first display discontinuing to display the second portion on the second display displaying the second portion on the first display and displaying the first portion on the second display all substantially sim
22. change volume then select cable mode to change channel The programming may be accomplished with an inte grated graphical keyboard for simple tasks such as entering and modifying passwords or for more complex programming but the latter is preferably done with the use of companion software either using an IR keyboard or other input means in conjunction with the display 15 or by using 6 097 441 9 PC software on PC For example the functions to be performed by certain buttons may be programmed by com panion software and the display may then show the asso ciation of physical or touch screen actuating buttons with the actual functions they perform Passwords and filters may be programmed to assist parental control or other monitoring and screen layouts may also be designed For a more detailed description of associated software the previously mentioned co pending U S patent application Ser No 09 001 873 may be consulted Turning now to the hardware FIG 2 shows a system diagram of how components of the present invention coop erate with existing technology to implement the concepts described herein The hardware for the base station 75 will be described in more detail in conjunction with the descrip tion of FIG 3 and the hardware for the remote control 10 will be described in more detail in conjunction with a description of FIG 4 FIG 2 shows the base station 75 as a physically separate component from the remote
23. cribed herein The present invention is especially useful in family or group situations where multiple people are viewing the same TV screen simultaneously One person could channel surf actual TV content on the hand held remote control while the other viewers enjoy the TV program on the primary display e g the TV screen This effectively turns a legacy TV into a TV with PIP capability with the added benefit that the PIP 6 097 441 5 is actually on separate display Using suitable communi cations infrastructure which is described in more detail herein the remote control s display may also function as a regular portable TV Additional uses of the present invention may be for videoconferencing wherein each of many displays may be used to show one attendee of the conference or for control ling other various consumer devices and appliances such as those that respond to IR infrared commands as disclosed in previously referenced co pending application Ser No 09 001 873 The full motion video capability of the remote control allows the user to view the output from security cameras a video baby monitor etc or to use the remote control and its display to form part of a video phone system with the addition of microphones all without interrupting the primary display screen such as the TV display And in an embodiment where the remote control has enough memory access to an outside storage device the remote control ma
24. does Data 85 and or 95 or portions thereof whether originating from analog or digital data streams then pass through MUX 175 either directly or after passing through MPEG A V encoder 170 as stated data entering 175 at that point is digital data MUX 175 combines MPEG A V data streams with other data streams such as HTML data then sends the combined data stream to an RF encoder 180 which passes the data through an antenna 185 so the data may be transmitted to the remote control 10 The HTML data sent to MUX 175 may be only part of the HTML data stream 85 and or 95 originally entering the base station 75 as CPU 155 may first process data 85 and or 95 and determine based on requests from the remote control 10 that some of it should be passed to TV 80 instead Data 85 and or 95 or portions thereof to be sent to an analog TV input are treated differently Analog data is sent through the switching and MUX box 265 to be passed to the analog TV input or to the analog to digital converter 125 if necessary Switching and MUX box 265 determines which of multiple possible input signals to send to the input or inputs of an analog TV based on commands from the remote control 10 If the analog TV has as many inputs as there are analog signals and if the base station 75 has enough outputs connecting thereto then the switching and MUX box 265 may send each of the analog signals to the analog TV Before being sent to the analog TV the analo
25. e is for each to be displayed Various systems also exist that attempt to solve the problem of viewing multiple data streams substantially simultaneously with two or more cooperating displays A common system is a PIP picture in picture system which allows simultaneous viewing of two TV programs at once 6 097 441 3 for example Though the viewer may channel surf a first data stream without affecting the overall image produced by the second data stream both data streams are displayed on the same physical display and therefore there is some degradation of the viewing experience of each For example a primary program may be playing on the entire physical TV display while a secondary program the PIP is playing in a small area in the corner of the display The primary program is degraded due to the screen real estate used up by the secondary program and the secondary program is degraded because it is not able to occupy the full size of the physical display Similarly existing TV interfaces provide a wide variety of available functions such as data display e g to adjust attributes of the TV and related devices advertisements internet browsing alternate channel viewing etc But the additional functions are all managed by assigning different amounts of the same physical screen to the additional function or functions This approach of sharing the same physical screen real estate for all operations performed by a device mean
26. e to a consumer For example after TVs improved from simple black and white TVs to color TVs cable and satellite TV became available Most recently internet enabled TV became avail able to provide both TV and internet content In a fast paced society such as ours consumers are looking for ways to enhance the overall viewing experience and to absorb more of the available information from various sources in less time One of the simplest methods of obtaining more informa tion is to use multiple independent displays such as a having two TVs tuned to two separate channels or two closed circuit cameras e g security cameras focussed on separate areas The problem with this method is that the person viewing the information may have to use various non cooperating controllers for controlling the different devices and may even have to physically change locations after viewing one display in order to be able to view another 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 display Additionally this type of method usually involves fixed displays as opposed to at least one portable display And though it is possible to use a single universal remote control to control both TVs additional problems exist including the cost of multiple TVs or monitors the physical space required for the TVs and the availability of other electronics hardware such as cable receivers closed circuit wiring etc Other multiple displa
27. ecause next a command is sent from the remote control 10 to the TV 80 to tune the TV tuner to that channel i e the channel that the base station 75 was tuned to just prior to the swap The swap is now completed as the TV would then be tuned to the channel that the base station 75 was tuned to just prior to the swap and would therefore be displaying the program that was being dis played on the remote controls display just prior to the swap The remote control 10 of course would retain in its memory the channels which it commanded both the base station 75 and the TV 80 to tune to so that the process could be repeated Adding a slight twist to the previous example assume the user is viewing channel 1 on the TV display and channel 2 on the remote controls display 15 In that situation the TV 80 is tuned to channel 1 The base station s input signal 85 is from broadcast TV and its tuner is set to channel 2 Now the user wants to watch a video on the remote control s display 15 The user will send command to the base station 75 to switch its input 85 from broadcast TV to the VCR and command to the to begin playing These commands could of course be sent by actuating a single button on the remote control 10 Now if the user wants to execute a swap so that the TV 80 is displaying the video and the remote control 10 is displaying channel 1 the following is a typical sequence of commands that would be sent First a command seq
28. g data may undergo further processing as herein described in which case the data typically would have to have first been converted to digital data Digital data 85 and or 95 or portions thereof to be sent to an analog TV input may also be processed by CPU 155 but that is not required And before being sent to switching and MUX box 265 for transmission to the analog TV input the data 85 and or 95 or portions thereof must first undergo NTSC or PAL conversion as indicated by NTSC PAL encoder 270 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 14 Data 85 and or 95 or portions thereof to be sent to a digital TV input are also treated differently Digital data 85 and or 95 enters through USB port 130 or other digital port and may be processed by CPU 155 just as the other data streams Analog data is processed if necessary after passing through the tuner analog to digital converter 125 The data and or portions thereof are then transmitted to a digital TV input back through USB port 130 or other digital port Turning to other specific hardware components the data bus 150 also connects an RTC real time clock 190 memory chips 195 200 205 and 210 the IO ASIC 165 and port 130 which is a USB port The other communications ports 135 140 145 and control IR port 215 are connected to the IO ASIC 165 as described herein The base station 75 also has an alphanumeric display 220 for displaying status messages
29. hould be appre ciated that in an embodiment where the base station 75 is physically integrated with the TV 80 the associated com munication channel indicated by arrow 105 would not be required Similarly if the base station 75 1 physically integrated with the remote control 10 there is no need for the base station 75 to send video signals to the remote control 10 and the associated communication channels indicated by arrows 110 and 115 would not be required In the latter case the RF communications hardware could then be eliminated producing additional cost savings size reduction maintenance benefits etc The hardware of a typical base station 75 will now be described as seen in FIG 3 The hardware is capable of receiving various data streams signals 85 and or other data 95 analog and or digital and of RF encoding the data streams and transmitting them for receipt by an RF receiver e g one in the remote control 10 The hardware is also capable of processing and passing along data streams to both analog TV inputs and digital TV inputs as indicated by arrows 255 and 260 respectively 6 097 441 13 Signals 85 may be analog or digital Analog signals will enter the base station s tuner analog to digital converter 125 and analog switching and MUX box 265 Digital signals enter the base station 75 through USB port 130 or through other digital inputs capable of handling higher bandwidth data Other data
30. icant amount of screen real estate typically devoted to displaying navigational and other information By adding a second display that communicates with the TV all of the navigational interface can be removed from the TV screen leaving much more room for actual viewing content Video games both single user and multi user are another application where the users may realize a benefit from an additional display Many computer games exist that allow multiple players in different locations to play with or against each other These often take the form of interaction in on line virtual worlds In order to play these games effectively a user must be aware of the general topology of the virtual world as well as where he or she is in the world in relation to others The interface to the virtual world may be presented in various perspectives and from various distances In any case the user s sense of where he or she is in the world can be greatly enhanced by the provision of an additional view Similar advantages apply to other types of virtual world interactions such as three dimensional multi user chat rooms where the present invention would enable simulta neous first person and alternative more global views from selected vantage points This will greatly assist the naviga tion through the virtual world and also increase the per ceived immersion in the world by avoiding constant context switching on a single screen Another applicatio
31. ion of the present invention that is used in conjunction with a remote control of the present invention FIG 4 is a high level schematic of hardware used in a preferred embodiment of a remote control of the present invention DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention will be described as a dual dis play system but it is to be understood that the concepts described herein are equally applicable to a multiple dis play system having three or more cooperating displays Of course implementation of the latter system would require more hardware and software for managing the communica tions between the various displays Before describing the operation of the system and meth ods of the present invention it will be helpful to describe the 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 physical appearance of a preferred embodiment of a remote control 10 that forms part of the system Turning to FIG 1 the drawing is not to scale but preferably the remote control 10 is a hand held size on the order of only several inches long by several inches wide by a few inches deep such that it may be carried comfortably in one hand or in a shirt pocket The display area 15 is surrounded by various physical actuating buttons 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 and 60 There may be for example up to twenty physical buttons or less than twenty and more preferably less than fifteen and more preferably less than t
32. l using Firewire 1394 protocol wired communication wherein the hand held remote control has a display capable of displaying full motion video and displaying second data associated with the second data stream on the display of the hand held remote control
33. ler 415 controls what is displayed on the LCD display 380 The timer 420 is used for short timing on the order of milliseconds within the IO ASIC 345 such as refreshing the LCD display 380 The PWM 425 sends digital signals to a digital to analog amplifier 435 which passes the signal to speaker 385 The speaker 385 may be used to alert the consumer of errors on input when programming or attempted unauthorized access to certain data or a pending request or any other event through the use of various beeping or buzzing sounds of various frequencies volumes and or durations Or the speaker 385 may be used for voice sound as previously described While certain embodiments are illustrated in the drawings and have just been described herein it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many modifications can be made to the embodiments without departing from the inventive concepts described Accordingly the invention is not to be restricted except by the claims which follow What is claimed is 1 A method of viewing data associated with multiple channels of a TV broadcast signal substantially simulta neously comprising the steps of receiving the TV broadcast signal into a base station having a tuner sending the TV broadcast signal from the base station to a first device having a tuner and a display tuning the first device to a first channel using the tuner of the first device displaying first data associated with the first
34. lized is that the resolution of the text based information on the remote control display 15 6 097 441 7 could much greater than that on the TV displays because the remote control display 15 may have an LCD liquid crystal display as opposed to a CRT display and therefore may employ VGA SVGA or better technology as opposed to NTSC or PAL The function of one of the buttons on the remote control 10 in this application may be to swap the images shown on the displays Other functions for which sliders 55 and 60 are particularly suited could be used to change channels on the TV and on the remote control s display 15 respectively During virtual world communications such as in virtual world games single or multiple user the benefit of the present invention is that the interface to the virtual world may be presented in various formats on the two separate displays The player is thus provided with more strategic information Various perspectives could be a first person view wherein the virtual camera takes the viewpoint of a character in the world that is being played by the user a second person view wherein the virtual camera takes the viewpoint of a character in the world that is being played by a different user or a third person view wherein the virtual camera takes the viewpoint of no particular character but instead has a global view of the world usually focussing on the character being played by the user The two simultaneous
35. n progress For example during a video game a request may be to provide another view of the virtual world topology The base station 75 may satisfy that type of request by retrieving the data 95 from an outside source such as the internet or alternatively the base station 75 may do processing inter nally to provide the other view Other types of requests may be to access a new web site while browsing the internet in which case the base station 75 would access the data 95 and transmit it to the remote control 10 extremely useful feature is to have the data streams on the TV s display and on the remote control s display 15 6 097 441 swapped In order for this to occur the base station 75 that is providing a channel to the remote control 10 must tune to a new channel the one the TV is tuned to just prior to the swap and the TV must tune to a new channel the one the base station is tuned to just prior to the swap Therefore there needs to be a way for the system e g as seen in FIG 2 to know what channel the TV 80 is tuned to just prior to the swap and what channel the base station 75 is tuned to just prior to the swap A preferred method though by no means the only method is for both the base station 75 and the TV 80 to get the required information from the remote control 10 This will usually be possible because the remote control 10 is aware 1 may store in its memory of the channel the TV is tuned to based on
36. n of the present invention finds use in working with internet enabled TV Several companies are working on or are marketing technology that integrates TV and internet content within the same signal For analog signals such as TV broadcasts internet data is embedded within the VBI vertical blanking interval Examples of this are Intel s Intercast standard which some TV networks are already using and Navio s HTML TV standard Likewise Thomson Sun Interactive has been using an Open TV standard in Europe in which the technology for both broadcasting and receiving signals with data embedded using the Open TV standard has been implemented Another company Starsight markets hardware and software capable of receiving and decoding signals with embedded data where the hardware and software is for use with third party units Data may also be embedded in digital signals using the MPEG standard The embedded data typically may be displayed as text and graphics independently of the image displayed from the normal video signal The present invention would allow both the regular signal and the embedded data to be viewed simultaneously on different displays something that is not possible using the technology provided by the aforementioned systems This not only provides clearer viewing of both data streams due to elimination of screen clutter but also allows semi synchronous interactions with the TV and internet data as des
37. ng language or languages and preferably comprises an underlying system control component and an application interface component The system component controls the execution of the actual commands necessary to control the consumer devices It controls the storage access and other data management tasks necessary for proper functioning It also retains an internal representation of each device being controlled its type CD player TV etc name and asso ciated icon if applicable The system component also main tains a table of IR commands for each device along with associated data such as the representation of the commands on the remote control s display if applicable The applica tion interface component acts as a front end for the con sumer to program and otherwise make use of the system component and is implemented such that a control algo rithm allows the consumer to navigate through the available screens to accomplish the desired control over consumer devices The software is preferably programmable by the user and presents a unified system view of various devices being controlled For example there may be volume and channel controls on one screen which control the volume of a stereo speaker connected to a TV output and the channel on a cable box connected to the TV input respectively The ease of this system contrasts with that of known universal remote con trols where it is necessary to first select a stereo mode then
38. o view or otherwise perceive more than one data stream substantially simultaneously without having the experience of any data stream degraded by the others A hand held portable remote control with an integrated video display capable of display ing full motion video is thus disclosed in combination with hardware and or software that enables interaction between the TV or other primary display screen and the hand held display The hardware may include an integrated TV tuner and or various data communication ports or a physically separate base station with a TV tuner and or various data communication ports In the latter case the base station and the remote control would communicate preferably via radio frequency Many applications exist where the user or users may derive a great benefit from an additional display screen for user interaction as will be discussed herein One such situation is for users of TV systems that display text based status information on the TV display during attribute adjust 10 15 20 25 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 ment e g to volume contrast color tint brightness sound etc or for closed caption messages such as sports scores stock quotes etc The remote control display may be used to display that information and therefore leave the primary viewing screen free of unnecessary clutter For existing internet enabled TV the benefit realized is even greater due to the signif
39. ol IR port 215 or its equivalent 15 essential because the data received through control IR port 215 are the IR commands from the remote control 10 The other ports 130 135 140 and 145 are optional but at least one is required in order for the base station 75 to connect to an outside data source such as the internet Port 135 is an IrDA Infrared Data Association port used for wireless communication Port 140 is an RS232 port for connection to a standard serial port of a PC Port 145 is a modem port for connection directly to telephone lines Port 130 1 a USB port which is an industry standard port for plug and play connection to PCs The USB port 130 is connected directly to bus 150 and can transfer data at a rate of up to 4 megabytes per second much faster than the UART 160 which can typically transfer data at a rate of only up to about 115 kilobytes per second The ports other than the USB port 130 are connected to bus 150 only through the UART 160 in the IO ASIC 165 The PWM 230 may be used to activate a speaker not shown to alert the user of errors on input when programming or attempted unauthorized access to certain data or a pending request or any other event through the use of various beeping or buzzing sounds of various frequencies volumes and or durations Voice data may also be employed 6 097 441 15 where the voice data is either predetermined or dynamically loaded into the base station 75 or dynamically crea
40. ring configuration and or during help mode The remote control 10 is used in combination with hardware and or software to form a system that enables interaction between the TV or other primary display and the display 15 of the remote control 10 The applications of the system as previously discussed are described here in slightly more detail and a description of the hardware and or soft ware that enables the system to be used as herein described will follow For the situation where an internet enabled TV display is cluttered with text based and other navigational information a further benefit of the present invention is that with suitable HTML Hypertext Markup Language parsing software 10 some parts of the actual internet content could also be displayed on the remote control s display 15 This frees up even more of the primary display for actual content For example many web sites employ frames with their own navigational aides in the form of graphical icons indexes to sub pages etc These could be displayed on the hand held remote control again leaving more room for the image created by the primary data stream to be shown on the TV screen Some of the buttons on the remote control 10 in this context could be used for bookmarking web sites context switching e g from browsing the web to watching a TV program internet navigation etc Moreover for both internet enabled TV and regular TV an additional benefit to be rea
41. rol IR port 355 are the IR commands to control devices The other ports 320 360 365 and 370 are optional but at least one is required in order for the remote control 10 to connect to an outside data source such as the internet Port 360 is an IrDA port used for wireless communication Port 365 is an RS232 port for connection to a standard serial port of a PC Port 370 is a modem port for connection directly to telephone lines Port 350 15 a USB port which is an industry standard port for plug and play connection to PCs The USB port 350 is connected directly to bus 310 and can transfer data at a rate 10 15 20 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 16 of up to 4 megabytes per second much faster than the UART 395 which can typically transfer data at a rate of only up to about 115 kilobytes per second The ports other than the USB port 350 are connected to bus 310 only through the UART 395 in the IO ASIC 345 The ICU 400 coordinates and controls requests to the CPU 320 from various input and output devices either integrated with the remote control 10 or connected thereto The DRAMC 405 controls access to the DRAM 330 and the CSC 410 processes the consumer s touch screen 375 requests which first pass through a 10 bit analog to digital converter 430 The CSC 410 also interacts with the flash ROM 340 the modem port 370 and other components and serves a fairly general control function in the IO subsystem The LCD control
42. s enhanced the viewer is only viewing what is designed to be a single image from multiple data streams In fact these systems may even detract from the desired image perception due to the gaps between the several display screens and or the imperfect placement of the various parts of the overall image within the various display screens Another attempt to provide consumers with a method of viewing multiple data streams simultaneously to obtain more information is through the use of windows type operating systems used with PCs The user may swap between multiple windows to view various data streams However these systems are designed under the assumption that the viewer concentrates on a single type of application at a time Thus the same physical display is used for the multiple windows that represent various applications A particular window may be enlarged to cover the entire display but then the benefit is lost of having the capability to view multiple data streams substantially simultaneously Furthermore the individual applications are typically inde pendent of each other and do not communicate with each other except for perhaps during data transfer Even where multiple windows are viewed simultaneously such as during video conferencing where a person may view multiple conference attendees in various windows the images of the attendees all appear on the same physical display and the more attendees there are the less room ther
43. s that combined activities restrict the display potential of each other unless each activity occurs serially which would defeat the entire purpose of allowing simulta neous viewing of multiple data streams in the first place Moreover the resolution of standard TV display formats such as NTSC the American standard and PAL the British standard are not very suitable for displaying static text Another type of system that involves data integration to some extent is a computer network or even simply a remote PC communicating with a host Software synchronizes the data files stored on each device and files can then be downloaded from the host to the remote PC edited remotely on the PC and then transferred back to the host However this setup is designed primarily for one or the other device to be used independently The simultaneous use of both devices occurs only during file transfer or in some cases to achieve the same type of extended screen real estate for a single image display that occurs with two or more displays side by side Thus it would be desirable to provide systems and meth ods for using two or more cooperating but physically independent displays for achieving enhanced viewing and or browsing of data on each display without affecting the viewing and or browsing of data on the other displays SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is based upon the recognition that there are many situations in which users wish t
44. ted by suitable software The ICU 235 coordinates and controls requests to the CPU 155 from various input and output devices either integrated with the base station 75 or con nected thereto The DRAMC 240 controls access to the DRAM 200 and LCD controller 245 controls what is displayed on the alphanumeric display 220 The timer 250 is used for short timing on the order of milliseconds within the IO ASIC 165 such as refreshing the alphanumeric display 220 etc The hardware of a typical remote control 10 will now be described as seen in FIG 4 The remote control 10 is capable of receiving RF data 275 through an RF antenna 280 The data 275 is transmitted from the base station s antenna 185 FIG 3 and may include audio video and or other data such as HTML data The data 275 passes first through a transport Demux and MPEG A V decoder Demux 285 where any audio data 290 video data 300 and HTML or other data 305 is separated A data bus 310 connects an RTC real time clock 315 CPU 320 memory chips 325 330 335 and 340 IO ASIC 345 and USB port 350 Various other communications ports 355 360 365 and 370 are connected to the IO ASIC 345 as will be described shortly The remote control has a touch screen 375 and LCD 380 and may also have a speaker 385 for sound The power source 390 is shown preferably as a 9V battery or 9V from an external power source The RTC 315 is preferably a crystal based clock and is used to s
45. thin about one meter at most Furthermore IR signals will not operate through walls whereas RF signals will thus with RF communications a user may operate the remote control 10 from a room physically separate from the room where the base station 75 is located Communications from the remote control 10 to the TV 80 as indicated by arrow 120 are preferably by standard control IR Typical communications from the remote control 10 to the TV 80 may be to adjust TV attributes such as volume channel input etc The remote control 10 may also send commands to other devices such as a DVD player etc for the control thereof Communications from the remote control 10 to the base station 75 as indicated by arrow 115 are also preferably by standard control IR though RF communications to the base station 75 could be an option because some of the hardware would already be present due to the need for the base station 75 to transmit by RF to the remote control 10 as previously described Typical commands from the remote control 10 to the base station 75 may be a request for a new channel to view on the display 15 i e channel surfing a request to swap displayed programs with the TV 80 a request to access new data from the internet or other outside data source or any other request to the base station 75 for data streams The type of request from the remote control 10 to the base station 75 will vary greatly depending on the application i
46. uence is sent from the remote control 10 to the base station 75 for the base station 75 to switch its input to broadcast TV and to tune its tuner to channel 1 The first half 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 12 of the swap is complete Next a command is sent to the base station 75 to output from the switching and MUX box 265 the VCR signal instead of the broadcast TV signal Next a command is sent to the TV to change to channel 3 or whatever the appropriate channel is for VCR input The second half of the swap is now complete The TV 80 would be showing the video and the remote control 10 would be showing channel 1 Again the remote control 10 could be programmed such that these commands could be sent by actuating a single button on the remote control 10 For applications where embedded data is to be separated from the signal 90 or other data 95 the remote control 10 may request that the embedded data be sent to itself while the main portion of signal 90 or data 95 is transmitted to the TV 80 For example a broadcast TV signal 85 may contain VBI embedded data that is related to the program being broadcast such as biographies of the actors information about upcoming episodes historical facts etc The user could then browse the VBI embedded data on the remote control 10 while viewing the program on the primary viewing screen of the TV 80 If the VBI embedded data or digitally embedded data from
47. ultaneously in response to activation of a button on a second device comprising the second display 34 The method of claim 33 wherein the second device is a hand held remote control 6 097 441 19 35 A method of viewing different portions of data from data stream on two physically separate displays substan tially simultaneously comprising the steps of receiving the data stream into a base station processing the data stream within the base station to separate the data stream into a first portion and a second portion transmitting the first portion from the base station to the first display displaying the first portion on the first display transmitting the second portion from the base station to the second display via Firewire 1394 protocol wired communication and displaying the second portion on the second display the second display being on a hand held remote control 36 A method of viewing data associated with multiple data streams substantially simultaneously comprising the steps of 10 15 20 receiving a first data stream into a base station receiving a second data stream into the base station transmitting the first data stream from the base station to a television having a display capable of displaying full motion video displaying first data associated with the first data stream on the display of the television transmitting the second data stream from the base station to a hand held remote contro
48. welve and still more pref erably ten or less The display area 15 preferably comprises an LCD and is preferably 320 pixels by 240 pixels 44 VGA It may have higher resolution i e greater than 320 pixels and or greater than 240 pixels or lower resolution but preferably not lower It may be monochrome or color and is preferably touch sensitive It must be capable of displaying full motion video such as the images produced by broadcast TV signals The physical actuating buttons may include push buttons e g 20 30 35 40 45 and 50 switches e g 25 sliders e g 55 and 60 which slide in slots 65 and 70 respectively or other mechanisms not shown such as touch sensitive pads levers toggles dials knobs pull buttons track balls a mouse etc The functions of the buttons may vary and some may have fixed functions while others may be pro grammable Common functions may include a power on off a help button and a mode switching button wherein the remote control 10 is switched from a viewing mode to a control mode The display 15 may also have some program mable buttons also known as soft keys in certain modes of operation A more detailed explanation of the possible operation and function of the buttons is set forth in previously referenced co pending U S patent application Ser No 09 001 873 In addition further uses may be made of the video capability of the remote control 10 here such as by using video clips du
49. y to channel surf This may also be useful for a single viewer Aviewer may channel surf for alternate programs of interest without interfering with the program then playing on the TV The advantages of being able to see alternative channel program listings on a hand held display separate from the main viewing screen are described in the previously refer enced co pending application Ser No 09 001 873 The present invention also enables the user to actually select the channel and view the alternate program on the remote control s display 15 Headphones may be used to receive the audio portion of the alternate channels being surfed After finding a desired alternative a user may execute a command by the press of a button for example to cause the primary viewing screen to display the desired program that was found while surfing In addition a button may allow the user to execute a swap such that not only does the primary display switch to show the desired program that was found while surfing but the hand held display 15 switches to show the program that was being played on the primary display as well Turning now to the hardware and or software of the present invention it is to be understood that the drawings are of preferred embodiments only and that other configurations may be designed without varying from the spirit and scope of the inventive concepts described herein The software may be written in any convenient program mi
50. y also function as a convenient front end to DVD digital versatile disk players and recorders allowing the user to browse actual video audio and other recordings to select a desired title for playing Accordingly it is an object of the present invention to provide improved systems and methods for providing an enhanced overall viewing experience of multiple data streams It is a further object to provide improved systems and methods for allowing substantially simultaneous viewing of multiple data streams It is a further object to allow substantially simultaneous viewing of multiple data streams using two or more coop erating but physically independent displays It is a further object to provide a hand held remote control with an integrated video display for providing the means by which one of the data streams is viewed Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description of preferred embodiments which follow when read in conjunction with the drawings BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG 1 shows a preferred embodiment of the remote control of the present invention with a variety of physical actuating buttons and a blank display FIG 2 is a system diagram of a preferred embodiment of the present invention showing the channels of communica tion between the various system components FIG 3 is a high level schematic of hardware used in a preferred embodiment of a base stat
51. y systems have displays in close physical proximity to each other and may display related data but if integration of the data is to occur it must be accomplished manually as the underlying systems are not capable of doing so That is because the physical display devices are each dedicated to providing a limited amount of information related to a limited topic of interest Examples of these types of systems include radar screens and controls in a cockpit of an airplane and medical instruments moni toring various vital signs of a patient in a hospital One method of enhancing the viewing experience involves using multiple displays to simultaneously display multiple duplicate data streams This is common in elec tronies stores where many TVs are all tuned to the same channel or in exercise classes where many TVs are all playing the same exercise video tape Though perception of the data stream i e TV program or video tape might be enhanced in such a case the viewer is only viewing multiple copies of the same data stream and is not benefitted with access to data streams of differing content Other multiple display systems display separate parts of a single image and the displays taken as a whole are designed to represent the desired image The displays are arranged in a predetermined pattern such as side by side in a matrix or even to form a cylindrical circle vision theater Again though the viewing experience is altered and perhap
52. ynchronize IR commands with the proper TV broadcast radio broadcast satellite broadcast or other sig nals to satisfy the consumer s requests In addition the RTC 315 is used to determine when a particular title or titles from a CD have completed based on the play time associated with the title or titles Memory 325 is a boot ROM for holding the system software Memory 340 is a flash ROM and stores down loaded information such as TV schedules CD track data pre loaded IR command libraries etc The flash ROM 340 is preferably at least 2 8 Megabytes Memory chips 330 and 335 are RAM chips used for working memory Memory 330 is shown as DRAM and is preferably at least 8 megabytes Memory 335 is shown as an SRAM and is preferably at least 256 512 Kilobytes The SRAM 335 is used for certain operations such as video encoding and or decoding that may require faster speed than other operations The IO ASIC 345 comprises a UART Universal Asyn chronous Transmitter and Receiver 395 a 32 channel ICU Interrupt Controller Unit 400 2 bank DRAMC DRAM controller 405 an 8 channel CSC Chip Select Controller 410 an LCD controller 415 its own 16 bit 4 channel timer 420 and a PWM Pulse Width Modulator 425 The UART 395 is used to transmit data through port 355 which is a control IR port and to transmit and receive data through ports 360 365 and 370 Control IR port 355 or its equivalent is essential because the data sent through cont
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