INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS AND SIGNAL TRANSMISSION METHOD

• US 20100085988A1
• Filed: 09/01/2009
• Published: 04/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: FUKUDA, KUNIO
• Granted Patent: US 8,625,639 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/480
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/02 Details ; arrangements for supplying electrical power along data transmission lines systems for transmitting signals via power distribution lines H04B3/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/06 the signals being represented by different frequencies combined with time-division multiplexing H04L5/26

Abstract

An information processing apparatus is provided which includes a signal multiplexing unit for multiplexing a plurality of transmission signals, each in a different frequency band and not containing a DC component, and a power signal supplied from a DC power supply and generating a multiplexed signal, a single signal cable through which the multiplexed signal generated by the signal multiplexing unit is transmitted, and a signal separating unit for separating the multiplexed signal transmitted through the signal cable into signals, each in a frequency band of one of the plurality of transmission signals, and a signal in a frequency band of the power signal.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus comprising:

a signal multiplexing unit for multiplexing a plurality of transmission signals, each in a different frequency band and not containing a DC component, and a power signal supplied from a DC power supply, and generating a multiplexed signal;

a single signal cable through which the multiplexed signal generated by the signal multiplexing unit is transmitted; and

a signal separating unit for separating the multiplexed signal transmitted through the signal cable into signals, each in a frequency band of one of the plurality of transmission signals, and a signal in a frequency band of the power signal.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the information processing apparatus includes first and second information processing modules connected to each other by the signal cable;

the first information processing module has the DC power supply, the signal multiplexing unit, and a signal processing unit for performing a predetermined processing on the transmission signal;

the second information processing module has a display screen for outputting an image signal, a radio antenna, and the signal separating unit;

the signal multiplexing unit multiplexes, with the power signal, the image signal to be output on the display screen and a radio signal transmitted from the radio antenna as the transmission signals, and generates a multiplexed signal; and

the signal separating unit separates the image signal, the radio signal and the power signal in the multiplexed signal.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the signal separating unit includes

a first filter having a frequency band near a frequency 0 as a passband, and

a plurality of second filters each having the frequency band of one of the plurality of transmission signals as a passband;

and

the power signal is extracted from the multiplexed signal by the first filter; and

each of the plurality of transmission signals is extracted from the multiplexed signal from which the power signal is removed, by each of the plurality of second filters.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the information processing apparatus is a laptop personal computer or a mobile phone.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the signal multiplexing unit multiplexes, with the power signal, at least a transmission/reception signal in a wireless local area network (LAN) or a reception signal of a broadcast wave as the transmission signal.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the signal multiplexing unit multiplexes the plurality of transmission signals with the power signal, the plurality of transmission signals obtained by encoding input data that includes mutually different first and second bit values by expressing the first bit value in a form of a plurality of first amplitude values and the second bit value in a form of second amplitude values different from the first amplitude values such that a same amplitude value does not occur consecutively and a polarity of the amplitude value is inverted with each cycle.

7. A signal transmission method comprising the steps of:

multiplexing a plurality of transmission signals, each in a different frequency band and not containing a DC component, and a power signal supplied from a DC power supply, and generating a multiplexed signal;

transmitting the multiplexed signal generated in the step of multiplexing a plurality of transmission signals through a single signal cable; and

separating the multiplexed signal transmitted through the signal cable into signals, each in a frequency band of one of the plurality of transmission signals, and a signal in a frequency band of the power signal.