Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080225008 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DRIVING AND RECEIVING DATA FROM MULTIPLE TOUCH SCREEN DEVICES - In one embodiment, multiple touch screen devices are driven from a graphics signal. A general-purpose computer provides a graphics signal of a particular display resolution. A display segmentor is configured to divide each graphics frame of the graphics signal into a plurality of pixel groups, each pixel group associated with a particular touch screen device of the plurality of touch screen devices. The display segmentor is further configured to generate an individual graphics signal from each pixel group, each individual graphics signal having a display resolution that is lower than the particular display resolution. One or more interfaces transmit each individual graphics signal to a different touch screen device of the plurality of touch screen devices. | 09-18-2008 |
20090083634 | MULTIMEDIA CONTROL AND DISTRIBUTION ARCHITECTURE - In one embodiment, a multimedia control and distribution architecture is provided. A media server/controller generates a plurality of graphics signals, each graphics signal including a separate user interface to be displayed on a particular device, such as a touch screen unit. A universal extender (UVX) coupled to the media server/controller converts and extends the graphics signals for transmission on a plurality of universal transmission pathways. Each of the plurality of devices receives a graphic signal passed thereto, displays graphics embodied in the graphics signals, and accept user input in response to the graphics signal. For example, the one or more touch screen units may accept a user touch and pass a location of the user touch back on a universal transmission pathway to the UVX, for transmission to the media server/controller. The media server/controller generates control commands and provides the control commands. | 03-26-2009 |
20090303197 | TOUCH SENSITIVE VIDEO SIGNAL DISPLAY FOR A PROGRAMMABLE MULTIMEDIA CONTROLLER - The forgoing method, system, and apparatus relates to a touch sensitive display for use with a programmable multimedia controller. In the illustrative system, the user may select and designate a video input device to be implemented on a video output display device within the user's network of devices. The media input devices and output devices are selected by the user touching a touch sensitive button located on the display screen. To initiate an action the user touches, drags and drops a media input device button onto one or more video output display device buttons. Furthermore, when the user selects a media input device to be implemented on a video output display device, the user may also select a video signal source to apply to that media input device for a transaction. A live stream of what is playing on a given channel is provided on the screen. | 12-10-2009 |
20110167348 | PROGRAMMING ENVIRONMENT FOR CONFIGURING A SYSTEM OF AUDIO/VIDEO COMPONENTS - In one embodiment, a component library stores representations of audio/video components, the representations of audio/video components corresponding to physical audio/video components that are available for inclusion in a system. A configuration workspace is provided into which a selected plurality of representations of audio/video components from the component library are placed to indicate their inclusion in the system. A drawing tool may be used to draw connections between particular ones of the selected plurality of audio/video components in the configuration workspace. Further, a configuration compiler may determine one or more realized services that the system is capable of providing based on the selected plurality of audio/video components and the drawn connections between particular ones of the selected plurality of audio/video components, and may display to the user indications of the one or more realized services that the system is capable of providing. | 07-07-2011 |
20110298736 | DOCKING STATION WITH REDUNDANT COMMUNICATION PATH - A docking station adapted to receive a touch-sensitive portable control device for communication with a programmable multimedia controller is provided. The docking station has a dedicated, wired redundant communication path coupling the docking station to the programmable multimedia controller for providing effective communication in the absence of wireless or unreliable wireless communications. The docking station is configured to receive signals from the portable control device and to bi-directionally transmit signals to and from said programmable multimedia controller. The portable control device has both wireless and wired compatibility, which includes a touch sensitive user interface configured with configuration information for allowing a user to make selections and enter settings regarding components interfaced with the programmable multimedia controller. The docking station converts the user entered signals into IP messages suitable for transfer over the dedicated, wired redundant communication path. | 12-08-2011 |
20120033375 | IN-WALL DOCK FOR A TABLET COMPUTER - In one embodiment, an in-wall dock for a tablet computer includes a rotatable receiving tray to which a tablet computer is secured. A housing of the in-wall dock is at least partially disposed within a wall cavity of a wall. The receiving tray is rotatably mounted to the housing. The receiving tray is configured to rotate from a first orientation disposed at an acute angle to a front face of the housing to permit engagement of the tablet computer with the receiving tray, to a second orientation that is substantially parallel to the front face of the housing and that prevents removal of the tablet computer from the receiving tray. A lock down mechanism retains the receiving tray in the second orientation. A removable bezel covers at least a portion of a front face of the housing and a front face of the tablet computer. | 02-09-2012 |
20120084472 | PROGRAMMABLE MULTIMEDIA CONTROLLER WITH FLEXIBLE USER ACCESS AND SHARED DEVICE CONFIGURATIONS - A system which includes a programmable multimedia controller is provided in which flexible user access is provided through a combination of user profiles and usernames/pas swords. A configuration for a given device which may form part of the system or may interoperate with the system may be shared by multiple similar devices. A sharable device configuration is stored by a master device and can be shared by other devices of the same type as the master device. | 04-05-2012 |
20120185801 | REMOTE CONTROL INTERFACE PROVIDING HEAD-UP OPERATION AND VISUAL FEEDBACK WHEN INTERACTING WITH AN ON SCREEN DISPLAY - In one embodiment, a remote control interface is provided that allows a user to interact with a programmable multimedia controller from a mobile device having a touch screen display, in a largely “head-up” manner, while providing visual feedback on the mobile device to confirm touch input. The user may enter touch input, including taps, holds swipes and pans, on the touch screen display. Such touch input may be processed and communicated to the programmable multimedia controller, which displays an on-screen display menu system on a display device coupled to the programmable multimedia controller. The user may direct the majority of his or her attention to the on-screen display menu system on the display device. However, some visual feedback may also be displayed on the touch screen display of the mobile device that is specific to the type of touch input received on the touch screen display. | 07-19-2012 |
20120188459 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MIXING GRAPHICS WITH VIDEO IMAGES - In one embodiment, graphics from a general-purpose computer are mixed with video images from a video source. A first interface receives the graphics, the graphics including a plurality of graphics frames, at least some graphics frames including one or more regions having pixels set to one or more predetermined color values. A second interface receives video images from the video source, each video image corresponding to one of the plurality of graphics frames. A video mixer includes logic configured to recognize pixels in the at least some graphics frames that are set to the one or more predetermined color values, and in the one or more regions where the pixels are set to the one or more predetermined color values to mix pixels from the corresponding video image with the graphics frame, to create a plurality of mixed images. One or more output interfaces outputs the mixed images. | 07-26-2012 |
20120260206 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CREATING AND MODIFYING GRAPHICAL SCHEDULES IN CONJUNCTION WITH HISTORICAL DATA - A graphical user interface enables a user to create and modify graphical schedules for a wide variety of devices that may be controlled by a programmable multimedia controller. A graphical schedule graphically depicts a relationship between time and at least one user-selected condition to be satisfied or at least one user-selected action to be taken. The user may create or modify graphical schedules using familiar techniques such as taps and swipes, drag and drop and the like. In another aspect of the invention, a graphical schedule is simultaneously displayed to a user along with pertinent historical information. | 10-11-2012 |
20130181927 | REMOTE CONTROL UNIT FOR A PROGRAMMABLE MULTIMEDIA CONTROLLER - In one embodiment, a menuing system is overlaid upon a portion of a video being shown on a display device coupled to a programmable multimedia controller. The portion of the video is less than an entire screen of the video such that at least some of the video is still visible. The menuing system has a plurality of selectable options. In response to a scrolling gesture in a direction, an element is moved in a corresponding direction within the menuing system to bring the element to a designated position in the menuing system to permit selection of a particular selectable option. In response to selection of the particular selectable option, one or more control commands are issued to a device coupled to the programmable multimedia controller to control an aspect of operation of the device. | 07-18-2013 |
20130283025 | CONFIGURATION INTERFACE FOR A PROGRAMMABLE MULTIMEDIA CONTROLLER - In one embodiment, a user selects a primary component of a multimedia system to be configured in a configuration user interface of a mobile device. The configuration user interface of the mobile device displays a photo-realistic depiction of a back panel of the primary component. The photo-realistic depiction of a back panel includes photo-realistic depictions of connection ports located thereon. The user selects another component to be connected to the primary component. One or more classes of potential connections are determined between the another component and the primary component, and for each class of potential connection, the configuration user interface on the mobile device graphically guides the user to select a particular connection port on the photo-realistic depiction of the back panel of the primary component for the class of potential connection. Based on selections of particular connection ports from the user, a set of configuration data is generated. | 10-24-2013 |
20140125868 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MIXING GRAPHICS WITH VIDEO IMAGES - In one embodiment, graphics frames are received, where each graphics frame includes one or more regions where pixels depict graphics that represent an on screen display (OSD) used to interact with a programmable multimedia controller, and a background region where pixels are set to the one or more predetermined colors. Further, video images are received, where at least some of the video images correspond to the plurality of graphics frames. Mixed images are created by mixing the graphics frames and the corresponding video images, the mixing to, where pixels of the graphics frame are not set to the one more predetermined colors, blend a color of at least some of the pixels of the graphics frame with a color of pixels of a corresponding video image, and, where pixels of the graphics frame are set to the one more predetermined colors, pass pixels of the corresponding video image. | 05-08-2014 |
20140143810 | REMOTE CONTROL UNIT FOR A PROGRAMMABLE MULTIMEDIA CONTROLLER - In one embodiment, a menu is semi-transparently overlaid upon a portion of a video being shown on a television coupled to a programmable multimedia controller. The menu has a plurality of selectable options and a selection cursor disposed on one of the plurality of selectable options. Input is received from a user on the remote control unit indicating a direction. In response to the input indicating the direction, the selection cursor is moved in a corresponding direction within the semi-transparently overlaid menu to bring the selection cursor to be disposed on a designated selectable option to permit selection of the designated selectable option. In response to selection of the designated selectable option, the programmable multimedia controller issues one or more control commands to a lighting system, a heating ventilation and air/conditioning (HVAC) system, and/or to an automatic shade system, to control operation of lighting, HVAC or window shades. | 05-22-2014 |
20140176797 | TELEPHONY SERVICES FOR PROGRAMMABLE MULTIMEDIA CONTROLLER - In one embodiment, a programmable multimedia controller controls electronic devices, including display devices. A remote control communicates with the programmable multimedia controller. An on screen display is displayed on a selected one of the display devices. The on screen display enables the selected one of the display devices to function as a virtual telephone that is user-operable to initiate outgoing telephone calls and to answer incoming telephone calls. When an outgoing telephone call or incoming telephone call is in progress, the on screen display shows text or graphics related to the outgoing telephone call or the incoming telephone call. The on screen display is overlaid on another video signal which is already being displayed on the selected one of the display devices. | 06-26-2014 |
20140181704 | USER GENERATED VIRTUAL ROOM-BASED USER INTERFACE - In one embodiment, a technique is utilized to generate a virtual-room of a virtual room-based user interface that controls one or more devices within a physical room of a structure. A user is prompted to select one or more services provided by the one or more devices within the physical room. A plurality of images of the physical room are obtained that each share substantially a same perspective. The plurality of images include an all-off image, in which all of the one or more of the services are in an inactive state, and one or more service-specific images, in which a single service is in an active state and any other services are in the inactive state. The plurality of images are aligned to create an aligned image stack. One or more hit boxes are designated. The virtual room is generated based on the aligned image stack and the designated one or more hit boxes. | 06-26-2014 |
20140223167 | PROGRAMMABLE MULTIMEDIA CONTROLLER WITH FLEXIBLE USER ACCESS AND SHARED DEVICE CONFIGURATIONS - In one embodiment, a programmable multimedia controller that is capable of interfacing with and controlling audio, video, telephony or heating ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) devices. A first mobile device and a second mobile device of a same type are configured to communicate with the programmable multimedia controller. The first mobile device obtains a first copy of a sharable device configuration including data for rendering a user interface usable to control the programmable multimedia controller. It stores the first copy of the sharable device configuration and thereby is considered a master device with respect to other devices of the same type. The second mobile device obtains a second copy of the sharable device configuration for use on the second mobile device from the master device. | 08-07-2014 |
20140277850 | REMOTE MOTION CONTROL USING A WIRELESS MOBILE DEVICE - In one embodiment, a general-purpose wireless mobile device having a touch-sensitive screen and executing a remote control application is used to remotely control a vehicle (e.g., a marine vessel). The general-purpose wireless mobile device communicates via a wireless network with an interface (e.g., a server) that is coupled to an electronic control system of the vehicle (e.g., the vessel). In operation, environmental information and/or system status information is collected through the electronic control system, propagated to the interface (e.g., server), and then sent over the wireless network to the wireless mobile device. Similarly, control input is sent over the wireless network to the interface (e.g., server), which passes the information to the electronic control system, which in turn issues appropriate control signals to the vehicle subsystems (e.g., marine subsystems) to control the motion of the vehicle (e.g., the vessel). | 09-18-2014 |
20150081104 | CONFIGURATION INTERFACE FOR A PROGRAMMABLE MULTIMEDIA CONTROLLER - In one embodiment, a configuration application executing on a tablet computer or smartphone presents a configuration user interface on a touch screen for configuring a home automation system of a structure. A plurality of components of the home automation system that have wireless capabilities are detected. Component profile information for the detected components is obtained. The configuration application prompts a user of the tablet computer or smartphone to indicate a zone of the structure within which each component is located. Based on the component profile information and the indications of the zone of the structure in which each component is located, one or more services available in each zone are determined and one or more user interface screens are automatically generated for accessing and controlling the services, wherein the automatically generated user interface screens are displayable on the tablet computer or smartphone or another tablet computer or smartphone. | 03-19-2015 |
20150084742 | TECHNIQUES FOR CONFIGURING AND REMOTELY CONTROLLING A MULTIMEDIA SYSTEM - In one embodiment, a technique is provided to configure and remotely control a system. A system configuration is created based, at least in part, on information collected from a user using speech synthesis and speech recognition. The system configuration includes information representing at least one zone that corresponds with at least one room in a physical structure, information identifying at least one physical component which represents at least a part of the system, information about at least one function which the at least one physical component is capable of performing, and information about at least one command which the at least one physical component recognizes. A cell phone is used to discover the system by transmitting a name service discovery request to the system, which responds with a name service registration confirmation. The cell phone is then used to remotely control the system. | 03-26-2015 |
20150088288 | LOCATION-AWARE OPERATION BASED ON BLUETOOTH POSITIONING WITHIN A STRUCTURE - In one embodiment, location aware operation is provided using Bluetooth positioning. A Bluetooth-enabled handheld device is operated within a structure. Received Bluetooth signal strengths are measured for a plurality of Bluetooth-enabled transmitter/receiver units dispersed within the structure, where respective ones of the plurality of Bluetooth-enabled transmitter/receiver units are located on separate floors, in separate rooms, or in different portions of a same room. Based on the received Bluetooth signal strengths, a single Bluetooth-enabled transmitter/receiver unit is selected. A location of the selected Bluetooth-enabled transmitter/receiver unit is assigned to the Bluetooth-enabled handheld device. A first electronic device is controlled based on the assigned location. In response to movement by a user of the Bluetooth-enabled handheld device within the structure, a location of a different Bluetooth-enabled transmitter/receiver unit is reassigned to the Bluetooth-enabled handheld device. A second electronic device is controlled based on the reassigned location. | 03-26-2015 |