Vehicle entertainment system

• US 10,097,603 B2
• Filed: 05/03/2016
• Issued: 10/09/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Avionics Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Avionics Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Watson, Philip, Rhoads, Cedric, Blackwell, Nigel, Bates, Steven
• Primary Examiner(s): SCHNURR, JOHN R
• Application Number:
  US15/145,604
• Publication Number:
  US 20160248831A1
• Time in Patent Office: 889 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/44 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0835 One way packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/24 Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2146 located in mass transportation means, e.g. aircraft, train or bus flight-deck installations for entertainment or communications B64D11/0015; arrangements specially adapted for transportation systems in broadcast systems H04H20/62; moving wireless networks H04W84/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4383 Accessing a communication channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47211 for requesting pay-per-view content payment schemes payment architectures or payment protocols G06Q20/00, G07F
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104

Abstract

A vehicle entertainment system including a server storing media files, and smart monitors. The system includes a server disposed in the vehicle to store media files; smart monitors disposed in the vehicle to present media selections to passengers corresponding to the media files stored by the server and receive an input from a passenger for playing one of the selections; seat boxes disposed in the vehicle, each seat box including network-attached storage and storing a subset of the media files stored by the server in said network-attached storage. Program logic executed by each smart monitor in which after a smart monitor receives an input from a passenger for one of the selections, performs tasks including: determining if a media file corresponding to the passenger'"'"'s input is available from a first source, and if available, requesting streaming of the media file from the first source that may be networked attached storage.

Claims

1. A system for providing entertainment on a vehicle for passengers, the system comprising:

a server disposed in the vehicle in which the server stores media files;

smart monitors disposed in the vehicle that present media selections to passengers corresponding to the media files stored by the server and receive an input from a passenger for playing one of the selections;

seat boxes disposed in the vehicle, each seat box including local content storage storing a subset of the media files stored by the server;

a network connecting the seat boxes and server in communication, with each seat box connecting a group of smart monitors in communication with the network;

program logic executed by each smart monitor in which after a smart monitor receives an input from a passenger for one of the selections, performs tasks including;

determining if a media file corresponding to the passenger'"'"'s input is available from a first source, and if available, requesting streaming of the media file from the first source;

if the media file corresponding to the passenger'"'"'s input is not available from the first source, determining if a media file corresponding to the input is available from a second source and if available, requesting streaming of the media file from the second source; and

if the media file corresponding to the passenger'"'"'s input is not available from the second source, determining if a media file corresponding to the input is available from a third source and if available, requesting streaming of the media file from the third source;

wherein the network comprises a sub-network connecting to a first plurality of the seat boxes and another sub-network connecting to a second plurality of the seat boxes, and the program logic prioritizes streaming a media file from a source that is on the same sub-network; and

wherein each seat box comprises program logic that ignores a request to stream a media file to a smart monitor on a different column sub-network.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first source is local content storage of the smart monitor.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein one of the first, second, and third sources is local content storage of the seat box.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein if the program logic determines there is no communication available with the server over the network, the program logic declines requests for pay per view media files.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein if a smart monitor is streaming a media file being streamed from a source, the program logic determines if packet loss is in excess of an acceptable level and if the packet loss exceeds said level, the program logic requests the media file from a different source.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein a wireless network connects the seat boxes and server in communication, and a wired network connects each seat box in communication with a group of smart monitors.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the wireless network is used at maximum speed for loading content into the seat boxes in a maintenance mode.

8. A system for providing entertainment on a vehicle for passengers, the system comprising:

a server disposed in the vehicle in which the server stores media files;

smart monitors disposed in the vehicle to present media selections to passengers corresponding to the media files stored by the server and receive an input from a passenger for playing one of the selections;

seat boxes disposed in the vehicle, each seat box including network-attached storage and storing a subset of the media files stored by the server in said network-attached storage;

a network connecting the seat boxes and server in communication, with each seat box connecting a group of smart monitors in communication with the network;

program logic executed by each smart monitor in which after a smart monitor receives an input from a passenger for one of the selections, performs tasks including;

determining if a media file corresponding to the passenger'"'"'s input is available from a first source, and if available, requesting streaming of the media file from the first source; and

if the media file corresponding to the passenger'"'"'s input is not available from the first source, determining if a media file corresponding to the input is available from a second source and if available, requesting streaming of the media file from the second source;

wherein a wireless network connects the seat boxes and server in communication, and a wired network connects each seat box in communication with a group of smart monitors, and the wireless network is used at maximum speed for loading content into the seat boxes in a maintenance mode.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein each seat box includes a system-on-a-chip network-attached storage controller.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the network comprises a sub-network connecting to a first plurality of the seat boxes and another sub-network connecting to a second plurality of the seat boxes, and the second source is network-attached storage of a seat box on the same sub-network of the seat box connecting that smart monitor to the network.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the first source is the server, and the second source is network-attached storage of a seat box.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the wireless network is used during normal operation at a background rate to load content into the seat boxes, leaving wireless bandwidth for other uses and wherein the background rate is slower than a rate for other uses.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the first source is local content storage of a smart monitor.

14. A system for providing entertainment on a vehicle for passengers, the system comprising:

a server disposed in the vehicle in which the server stores media files;

smart monitors disposed in the vehicle configured to present media selections to passengers corresponding to the media files stored by the server and receive an input from a passenger for playing one of the selections;

seat boxes disposed in the vehicle, each seat box including local content storage storing a subset of the media files stored by the server;

a wireless network connecting the seat boxes and server in communication, and a wired network connecting each seat box in communication with a group of smart monitors;

program logic executed by each smart monitor in which after a smart monitor receives an input from a passenger for one of the selections, performs tasks including;

determining if a media file corresponding to the passenger'"'"'s input is available from a first source, and if available, requesting streaming of the media file from the first source;

if the media file corresponding to the passenger'"'"'s input is not available from the first source, determining if a media file corresponding to the input is available from a second source and if available, requesting streaming of the media file from the second source; and

if the media file corresponding to the passenger'"'"'s input is not available from the second source, determining if a media file corresponding to the input is available from a third source and if available, requesting streaming of the media file from the third source;

wherein the wireless network is used at maximum speed for loading content into the seat boxes in a maintenance mode.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein a greater quantity of different media files are available from the server than that collectively available from media files stored on the seat boxes.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the wireless network is used during normal operation at a background rate to load content into the seat boxes, leaving wireless bandwidth for other uses and wherein the background rate is slower than a rate for other uses.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein if the program logic determines there is no communication available with the server over the network, the program logic declines requests for pay per view media files.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein if a smart monitor is receiving a media file being streamed from an external source, the program logic determines if packet loss is in excess of an acceptable level and if the packet loss exceeds said level, the program logic requests the media file from a different source.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein at least one seat box includes system-on-a-chip network-attached storage controller.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein the first source is local content storage of a smart monitor.