VIDEO PRESENTATION DEVICE AND METHOD

• US 20130278706A1
• Filed: 06/13/2012
• Published: 10/24/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Connelly, Michael, Moran, Ashley, Loretan, Tom, Oppelt, Susan, Makkapati, Srinivasa Rao, Boddu, Simhachalam Naidu
• Granted Patent: US 9,066,129 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/14.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41265 having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4131 home appliance, e.g. lighting, air conditioning system, metering devices home automation data switching networks exchanging configuration information on appliance services H04L12/2807
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43635 HDMI
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440263 by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for displaying on a connected PDA
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4415 using biometric characteristics of the user, e.g. by voice recognition or fingerprint scanning cryptography using biological data H04L9/3231; authentication in networks using biometric H04L63/0861
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44218 Detecting physical presence or behaviour of the user, e.g. using sensors to detect if the user is leaving the room or changes his face expression during a TV program methods or arrangements for recognising human body or animal bodies or body parts G06V40/10; methods or arrangements for acquiring or recognising human faces, facial parts, facial sketches, facial expressions G06V40/16; methods or arrangements for recognising movements or behaviour G06V40/20; arrangements for identifying users in broadcast systems H04H60/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• 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 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4858 for modifying screen layout parameters, e.g. fonts, size of the windows
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6175 involving transmission via Internet broadcast-related systems characterised by the transmission system being the Internet H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/44504 Circuit details of the additional information generator, e.g. details of the character or graphics signal generator, overlay mixing circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q

Abstract

A computing device may include a video input interface and video output interface to allow insertion into a video system. The device may be configured to perform passthrough operation on the incoming video, allowing the incoming signal to appear at the output interface. When overlay video operations are desired, the device may resize the incoming video, generate one or more additional overlays, and generate a modified version of the incoming video signal, where the modified version contains the one or more additional overlays along with (if desired) the original video. The device may have data network connections, and can thereby serve as an easy way, for example, to upgrade an existing video system with network and/or interactive features.

Claims

1. A computing device, comprising:

an input video interface;

an output video interface;

a network connection;

a processor; and

a memory, storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the device to perform the following;

conduct passthrough video handling of an input video signal;

generate one or more video overlay graphics using data obtained over the network connection;

combine the one or more video overlay graphics with the input video signal to generate a modified version of the input video signal; and

provide the modified version of the input video signal to the output video interface.

2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the network connection is an Internet connection, and the one or more video overlay graphics includes data obtained by the device over the Internet connection.

3. The computing device of claim 2, the memory further storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the device to perform the following:

provide a reduced-size version of the input video signal in the modified version of the input video signal; and

provide a separate graphical panel in the modified version of the input video signal, wherein the separate graphical panel is adjacent to the reduced-size version, and contains the data obtained by the device over the Internet connection.

4. The computing device of claim 3, the memory further storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the device to perform the following:

receive premises security system data from a premises security system located at a premises of the computing device; and

provide a third graphical panel in the modified version of the input video signal, wherein the third graphical panel is adjacent to the reduced-size version and the separate graphical panel, and contains the premises security system data received from the premises security system.

5. The computing device of claim 1, the memory further storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the device to perform the following:

receive a local video signal from a camera communicatively coupled to the computing device; and

include the local video signal with the one or more overlay graphics.

6. The computing device of claim 5, the memory further storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the device to perform the following:

use facial recognition to identify a user appearing in an image from the local video signal from the camera; and

use a social contact list of the identified user to engage in video chats with social contacts.

7. The computing device of claim 1, the memory further storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the device to perform the following:

provide passthrough video handling of the input video signal, wherein the input video signal is received at the input video interface and passed to the output video interface without visual alteration;

detect an incoming video call over the network connection;

receive a user authorization for receiving the incoming video call;

reduce a size of an image in the input video signal; and

generate the one or more video overlay graphics using video from the incoming video call.

8. The computing device of claim 1, the memory further storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the device to perform the following:

receive display panel rearrangement commands from a user tablet computing device; and

rearrange the displayed video overlay graphics in the modified version of the input video signal.

9. The computing device of claim 1, the memory further storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the device to perform the following:

defining a 2-dimensional planar space in front of a user viewing the display;

mapping portions of the space to regions of the display; and

allowing the user to manipulate the overlay by performing gestures in the mapped region of space in front of the user.

10. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the input video interface is configured to conform to a video standard, and the output video interface is also configured to conform to said video standard.

11. A method, comprising:

identifying a first video line connecting an output interface of a video source device to an input interface of a display device;

disconnecting a first connector of the first video line from the input interface of the display device, and connecting the first connector to an input interface of a video adapter device;

connecting a first connector of a second video line to an output interface of the video adapter;

connecting a second connector of the second video line to the input interface of the display device;

communicatively connecting the video adapter device to an external data network;

at a first time by the video adapter, passing video signals through from its input interface to its output interface without altering the displayed image; and

at a second time by the video adapter, modifying video signals received at its input interface to overlay a video image generated by the video adapter using data received from the data network.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

connecting a video camera to the video adapter device; and

using video images received from the camera to generate the overlay video image.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein modifying the video signals includes reducing a size of the received video signals.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

generating an alternate version of the modified video signals and overlay video image on a second computing device; and

using the alternate version to rearrange displayed objects in an image outputted by the video adapter.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the alternate version includes panel outlines but omits interior details of graphical panels appearing in the image outputted by the video adapter.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising generating, by the video adapter, a video signal including a plurality of display panels, wherein:

a first panel includes resized video content passed through the video adapter from the video source;

a second panel includes local video signals obtained from a local camera;

a third panel includes data obtained from a local security system; and

a fourth panel includes data obtained from the external data network.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

identifying space in front of a user viewing the display device;

mapping different regions of the space to different displayed panels, respectively;

detecting gestures in the mapped regions; and

interpreting the detected gestures as commands applicable to a corresponding to one of the panels, based on the region in which the gesture was detected.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising using the video adapter to conduct a joint content viewing session with a remote user, wherein the joint content viewing session includes shared viewing of image content stored on a memory device connected to the video adapter of one participant to the session.