WiFi Remote Displays

• US 20170031644A1
• Filed: 04/06/2016
• Published: 02/02/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: III Holdings 1, LLC
• Original Assignee: III Holdings 1, LLC
• Inventors: Margulis, Neal David
• Granted Patent: US 11,132,164 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/266 Arrangements to supply power to external peripherals either directly from the computer or under computer control, e.g. supply of power through the communication port, computer controlled power-strips
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/325 Power saving in peripheral device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1431 using a single graphics controller
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1438 using more than one graphics controller
• 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: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/005 General purpose rendering architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/20 Editing of 3D images, e.g. changing shapes or colours, aligning objects or positioning parts
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0037 Inter-user or inter-terminal allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/65 Network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4122 additional display device, e.g. video projector digital output for controlling a plurality of local displays G06F3/1423
• 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 21/42653 for processing graphics
• 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 21/43637 involving a wireless protocol, e.g. Bluetooth, RF or wireless LAN [IEEE 802.11] arrangements for wireless networking or broadcasting of information in indoor or near-field type systems H04B10/114
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440218 by transcoding between formats or standards, e.g. from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 conversion of standards in analogue television systems H04N7/01
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 : End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 : WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 : Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A wireless peripheral mode is provided by a host system that communicates to a WiFi infrastructure and, utilizing the same WiFi RF subsystem, also communicates to peripherals. The host system may employ additional RF channels for communicating with high bandwidth peripherals, such as display devices, where high levels of QoS may be managed locally. The host system may be a conventional desktop computer system, a notebook computer system, a multi-media access point, a cell phone, a game machine, a portable game machine, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a smart phone or any other type of device that benefits from accessing both a WiFi infrastructure and local peripherals.

Claims

1. A method for operating a system including multiple remote displays and a host computer having a graphics processor, comprising:

using the graphics processor, on behalf of said multiple remote displays, for processing graphics operations to draw display surfaces, and compositing the display surfaces into display frames having display frame data;

storing the display frame data in a shared frame buffer;

encoding the display frame data by wavelet transforms to produce an encoded display update stream; and

transmitting the encoded display update stream through a network to the multiple remote displays.

2. The method of claim 1 further including translating video program data from external program sources onto one or more display surfaces.

3. The method of claim 1 further including resolving, by the host computer, multiple user inputs received from remote displays.

4. The method of claim 1, utilizing a 3D GPU in the graphics processor to perform said wavelet transforms.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein compositing uses overlay and keying techniques to combine display surfaces within the shared frame buffer.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein compositing utilizes a 2D, 3D or video processor to combine various display surfaces into a single display frame within the shared frame buffer.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein encoding compresses the display frame data based on fixed sub-frame areas of display frames.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein encoding is performed by the host computer with a programmable video processor.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said host computer is configured to support more display frames for more remote displays than it is configured to support for local displays.

10. A method for wirelessly connecting a host computer system to a WiFi wireless peripheral device, comprising:

arbitrating by the host computer system for control of a WiFi RF channel;

operating the host computer system as a client in infrastructure mode on the WiFi RF channel to maintain connectivity to a network, and

concurrently operating the host computer system, neither in infrastructure mode nor in standard ad hoc mode, on the same WiFi RF channel to communicate with the WiFi wireless peripheral device.

11. The method of claim 10 utilizing a layer 2 communication scheme based on a MAC address of the wireless peripheral device for communication between the WiFi host system and the wireless peripheral device.

12. A method of authenticating a wireless peripheral device for enrollment onto a secure WiFi network, comprising:

validating, by a host system, the peripheral device;

arbitrating, by the host system, for control of a WiFi RF channel;

requesting, by the host system on behalf of the peripheral device, a WiFi network key;

utilizing WiFi RF subsystems both of the host system and of the peripheral device in an out-of-band WiFi peripheral mode to exchange the requested WiFi network key; and

authenticating the wireless peripheral device for enrollment onto the secure WiFi network.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising enabling the enrolled wireless peripheral device to operate independently of the host system on the WiFi network.