SYSTEM, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM FOR OPERATING A PLURALITY OF COMPUTING DEVICES

• US 20120105479A1
• Filed: 07/01/2010
• Published: 05/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Ludwig, Alf, Beck, Roland Claus
• Granted Patent: US 9,916,020 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/635
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0383 Remote input, i.e. interface arrangements in which the signals generated by a pointing device are transmitted to a PC at a remote location, e.g. to a PC in a LAN
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1446 display composed of modules, e.g. video walls
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1454 involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/10 Mixing of images, i.e. displayed pixel being the result of an operation, e.g. adding, on the corresponding input pixels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/12 Overlay of images, i.e. displayed pixel being the result of switching between the corresponding input pixels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/06 Use of more than one graphics processor to process data before displaying to one or more screens
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/08 Power processing, i.e. workload management for processors involved in display operations, such as CPUs or GPUs
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/12 Synchronisation between the display unit and other units, e.g. other display units, video-disc players
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports

Abstract

The invention relates to a computing system (10) for operating a plurality of computing devices (12, 14, 16), the computing system (10) comprising one of the computing devices (12, 14, 16) and an image composing unit (18) for generating a common video signal for a display device (20). According to the invention the one computing device is a one computing device (12) adapted for: partitioning a display area (22) of the display device (20) into a plurality of display area sections (24, 26, 28), wherein at least one of the display area sections (24, 26) is related to at least one other computing device (14); —receiving an input signal from at least one input device (32, 34, 36), wherein the input signal is relatable to a position (38) within the display area (22); and providing the at least one other computing device (14, 16) with the input signal depending on the position (38) being in one of the display area sections (24, 26, 28) related to said other computing device (14, 16). The invention further relates to a method for operating a computing system (10) with a one computing device (12) and an image composing unit (18) and the present invention still further relates to a computer program for use in said computing system (10).

Claims

1. A computing system for operating a plurality of computing devices, the computing system comprising one of the computing devices and an image composing unit for generating a common video signal for a display device, wherein said one computing device is adapted for:

partitioning a display area of the display device into a plurality of display area sections, wherein at least one of the display area sections is related to at least one other computing device;

receiving an input signal from at least one input device, wherein the input signal is relatable to a position within the display area; and

providing the at least one other computing device with the input signal depending on the position being in one of the display area sections related to said other computing device.

2. The computing system according to claim 1, wherein the image composing unit is an image compositing unit being adapted for combining image components for displaying on the display device, the image components are related to

the one computing device and at least one other computing device;

or

a plurality of other computing devices.

3. The computing system according to claim 2, wherein the one computing device is adapted for receiving requests for displaying the image components of the computing devices and for partition the display area into the display area sections according to said image components.

4. The computing system according to claim 2, wherein the one computing device is further adapted for controlling the visibility of its own at least one image component, wherein any image component related to another computing device cannot hide the image component of the one computing device.

5. The computing system according to claim 2, wherein the image compositing unit is adapted for:

receiving a set of source signals, wherein each source signal is related to an according computing device;

determining a key information from a first source signal of the one computing device; and

switching between the source signals of the different image sources in dependence of the determined key information to create the common video signal.

6. The computing system according to claim 5, wherein the image compositing unit comprises:

a key detection unit for determining the key information from the first source signal;

a multiplexer unit for switching between the different source signals to create the video output signal; and

an image compositing controller device for controlling the switching of the multiplexer unit in dependence of the determined key information.

7. The computing system according to claim 6, wherein the key information is a chroma key information and the key detection unit is a chroma key detection unit.

8. The computing system according to claim 6, wherein the image compositing controller device comprises the key detection unit.

9. The computing system according to claim 2, wherein the image compositing unit further comprises a synchronization verification unit for verifying the synchronization of the source signals.

10. The computing system according to claim 2, wherein the image compositing unit further comprises an image scaling unit and/or a picture-in-picture display data generating unit.

11. The computing system according to claim 2, wherein the image compositing unit is further configured for synchronizing at least one of the other source signals to the first source signal.

14. The computer program according to claim 13, wherein the computing system is a computing system according to claim 1.

12. A method for operating a computing system for operating a plurality of computing devices, the computing system comprising one of the computing devices and an image composing unit for generating a common video signal for a display device, wherein said method comprises the steps of:

partitioning a display area of the display device into a plurality of display area sections wherein at least one of the display area sections is related to at least one other computing device;

receiving an input signal from at least one input device, wherein the input signal is relatable to a position within the display area; and

providing the at least one other computing device with the input signal depending on the position being in one of the display area sections related to said other computing device.

13. A computer program for use in a computing system for operating a plurality of computing devices, the computing system comprising one of the computing devices and an image composing unit for generating a common video signal for a display device, wherein said computer program comprises computer instructions for:

partitioning a display area of the display device into a plurality of display area sections, wherein at least one of the display area sections is related to at least one other computing device;

receiving an input signal from at least one input device, wherein the input signal is relatable to a position within the display area; and

providing the at least one other computing device with the input signal depending on the position being in one of the display area sections related to said other computing device.