Multimedia expansion unit
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An information handling apparatus for constructing composite display images from plural signals representing full motion video and still images comprising:
- a computer having separate I/O and display interfaces, said I/O interface having at least one expansion connection slot for removably receiving at least one I/O device as an optional attachment to said computer, and said display interface being adapted to connect to a raster-scanned video display device having a predetermined viewing area for presenting display images to users of said computer; and
an expansion unit pluggably attached to a said expansion connection slot of said computer, as an optional extension of a system formed by said computer, said expansion unit also being connected to said display interface of said computer;
said expansion unit connecting between said display interface of said computer and a said raster-scanned video display device for directly controlling formation on said display device of said composite images, said composite images having full motion video image components of a type commonly displayed by television receiver sets, and static image components of a type commonly displayed on computer display monitors;
said expansion unit operating in direct synchronism with said video display device and having a media interface isolated electrically from said display and I/O interfaces of said computer;
said media interface being adapted to connect to plural sources of video image signals external to said computer, including sources of video signals representing full motion television type images;
said expansion unit comprising;
means for controlling said sources of video image signals connected to said media interface to cause said sources to present respective image signals in real time synchronism with raster-scanning functions of said video display device, so as to form a preliminary composite image signal at said media interface composed of signals presented by said sources in time oveday; and
means responsive to image signals received at said computer display interface and preliminary composite image signals received concurrently at said media interface for forming a final composite image signal representing a composite image to be directly displayed on said video display device;
said preliminary composite image signal including live motion and static image components required to occupy separate predetermined portions of said viewing area of said display device.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A multimedia solution is presented which allows a multimedia architecture to be implemented on an existing computer system. According to the invention, an expansion unit which incorporates a multimedia architecture is provided. The expansion unit is connected to an existing computer system via an expansion slot of an I/O bus of the existing computer as well as via a display device output terminal of the computer. The expansion unit is also connected to a display device. Accordingly, the expansion unit controls the presentation which is provided on the display device.
50 Citations
12 Claims
-
1. An information handling apparatus for constructing composite display images from plural signals representing full motion video and still images comprising:
-
a computer having separate I/O and display interfaces, said I/O interface having at least one expansion connection slot for removably receiving at least one I/O device as an optional attachment to said computer, and said display interface being adapted to connect to a raster-scanned video display device having a predetermined viewing area for presenting display images to users of said computer; and an expansion unit pluggably attached to a said expansion connection slot of said computer, as an optional extension of a system formed by said computer, said expansion unit also being connected to said display interface of said computer;
said expansion unit connecting between said display interface of said computer and a said raster-scanned video display device for directly controlling formation on said display device of said composite images, said composite images having full motion video image components of a type commonly displayed by television receiver sets, and static image components of a type commonly displayed on computer display monitors;
said expansion unit operating in direct synchronism with said video display device and having a media interface isolated electrically from said display and I/O interfaces of said computer;
said media interface being adapted to connect to plural sources of video image signals external to said computer, including sources of video signals representing full motion television type images;
said expansion unit comprising;means for controlling said sources of video image signals connected to said media interface to cause said sources to present respective image signals in real time synchronism with raster-scanning functions of said video display device, so as to form a preliminary composite image signal at said media interface composed of signals presented by said sources in time oveday; and means responsive to image signals received at said computer display interface and preliminary composite image signals received concurrently at said media interface for forming a final composite image signal representing a composite image to be directly displayed on said video display device;
said preliminary composite image signal including live motion and static image components required to occupy separate predetermined portions of said viewing area of said display device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
-
-
5. An expansion unit for removable connection to an input-output expansion slot of a computer and for connection between the respective computer and a raster-scanned display device said expansion unit comprising:
-
a media interface for connection to at least one source of display image signals external to said computer;
said signals susceptible of including signals representing full motion images of the type commonly displayed on television receivers;means for controlling said at least one source of display image signals to generate respective image signals in realtime synchronism with display raster-scan frames of said display device;
said media interface being isolated from both said computer and said display device; andmeans responsive to display image signals received from said computer and said at least one external source for producing composite image signals directly displayable on said display device;
wherein the image signals received from said at least one source of image signals are presented at said media interface in a form allowing for direct integration of display images represented by the respective signals into composite images represented by respective said composite image signals without requiring intermediate buffering or other processing in transit between said media interface of said expansion unit and said display device. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
Specification