Aircraft data management system

• US 6,249,913 B1
• Filed: 10/04/1999
• Issued: 06/19/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Astronics Advanced Electronic Systems Corporation (Astronics Corporation)
• Original Assignee: General Dynamics OTS Incorporated (General Dynamics Corporation)
• Inventors: Burgess, Craig L., Galipeau, Steven R., Mowry, Michael M., Gray, Kenneth L., Spears, Garrett R., Peabody, Mark A., Wade, John G., Armstrong, Gregg D., Briski, Rory G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Grant, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): RODRIGUEZ, PAUL L
• Application Number:
  US09/411,063
• Time in Patent Office: 624 Days
• Field of Search: 700/83, 700/295, 709/208, 244/118.5, 725/76, 725/77, 725/82, 725/79
• US Class Current: 725/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2146 located in mass transportation means, e.g. aircraft, train or bus flight-deck installations for entertainment or communications B64D11/0015; arrangements specially adapted for transportation systems in broadcast systems H04H20/62; moving wireless networks H04W84/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2221 being a cable television head-end CATV in broadcast systems H04H20/78
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/231 Content storage operation, e.g. caching movies for short term storage, replicating data over plural servers, prioritizing data for deletion
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2404 Monitoring of server processing errors or hardware failure error or fault detection G06F11/07; monitoring in general G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/27 Server based end-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4143 embedded in a Personal Computer [PC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43632 involving a wired protocol, e.g. IEEE 1394 high-speed IEEE 1394 serial bus H04L12/40052
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• 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 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6143 involving transmission via a satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6162 involving terrestrial transmission, e.g. DVB-T
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8106 involving special audio data, e.g. different tracks for different languages
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8126 involving additional data, e.g. news, sports, stocks, weather forecasts
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

An aircraft data management system provides a passenger seated on the aircraft with a number of entertainment and productivity enhancing options. Such options include, without limitation, video, audio, internet, airplane systems data and power. Located proximate to each seat group is an integrated seat box that includes a network interface card that identifies a requesting passenger for proper directing of the required data and/or power from devices that interface with a network controller back to the requesting passenger. Both on-aircraft and off-aircraft devices may be accessed by the system. While particularly drawn to aircraft, the data management system is also applicable to other venues have identifiable seating locations such as buses, passenger ships, hotels and auditoriums.

Claims

1. A data management system for supplying data to selected ones of identifiable seats comprising:

(a) a plurality of data sources;

(b) a least one power source;

(c) an integrated seat box that is disposed proximate to a group of said identifiable seats, said integrated seat box being capable of converting at least one of said data and said power to a form useful to a passenger occupying one of said identifiable seats;

(d) a data network interface module coupled to said integrated seat box, said data network interface module being fault tolerant such that a failure at one seat box does not interfere with the normal operation of successive data network interface modules, said data network interface module including a power distributing physical layer that is galvanically isolated from a data distributing microprocessor;

(e) a network controller capable of managing said plurality of data sources; and

(f) a seat-to-seat cable having therein data communication lines and power supply line whereby both data from said plurality of data sources and power from at least one power source are routed by said network controller to selected ones of said identifiable seats.

2. The data management system of claim 1 wherein said integrated seat box contains a plurality of independently removable function modules and one of said independently removable function modules is said data network interface module.

3. The data management system of claim 2 wherein at least one of said removable function modules is selected from the group consisting of in seat power supply, audio, video, noise cancellation, telephony, and combinations thereof, installed in said integrated seat box.

4. The data management system of claim 3 wherein said plurality of independently removable modules includes an in seat power supply module that converts 115 volt, 3 cycle, AC power to 11-16 volt dc power.

5. The data management system of claim 4 wherein said in seat power supply module includes an enable circuit whereby said 11-16 volt dc power is only provided to an outlet if a predetermined minimum threshold power requirement is satisfied.

6. The data management system of claim 3 wherein said plurality of independently removable modules includes an audio function module having an outlet for receiving a digital passenger control unit.

7. The data management system of claim 6 wherein said digital passenger control unit contains an outlet for receiving a passenger'"'"'s headset.

8. The data management system of claim 7 wherein said passenger'"'"'s headset includes a microphone enabling two-way telephony communication.

9. The data management system of claim 8 wherein said digital passenger control unit contains a keyboard and said audio module supports telephony whereby said passenger may communicate with a public switch telephone network via a combination of said headset and microphone.

10. The data management system of claim 8 wherein said telephony module interfaces with a cradle effective to deactivate an antenna of a cellular telephone, but permits a passenger to communicate with a public switch telephone network via said cellular telephone and said telephony module.

11. The data management system of claim 3 wherein said seat-to-seat cable interconnects a plurality of said integrated seat boxes both to others of said integrated seat boxes and to a head end portion.

12. The data management system of claim 11 wherein said seat-to-seat cable includes at least one of said power supply lines and at least one of said data communication lines electrically isolated from each other and disposed within a common overall jacket.

13. The data management system of claim 12 wherein said communication line is capable of transmitting at least 400 megabits per second of data.

14. The data management system of claim 13 wherein said at least one data communication line comprises four insulated copper wires twisted together.

15. The data management system of claim 13 wherein said at least one power supply line supports 3 phase AC current, a ground and a neutral.

16. The data management system of claim 13 installed on an aircraft wherein said head end portion includes a master control unit effective to conduct aircraft power to said seat-to-seat cable, a network controller effective to control the flow of multiple streams of data between selected devices and selected passengers and an internet server capable of controlling the flow of multiple streams of data between a mass storage unit server and selected passengers.

17. The data management system of claim 16 wherein said mass storage unit is on said aircraft and contains at least 18 gigabytes of storage.

18. The data management system of claim 17 further including an in-flight workstation interfacing with said head end portion effective for at least one function selected from the group consisting of disabling defective integrated seat boxes, disabling the use of integrated seat boxes connected to incompatible personal devices, disabling the delivery of video, and disabling the delivery of power.

19. A data management system for supplying data to selected ones of identifiable seats comprising:

(a) a plurality of data sources;

(b) a least one power source;

(c) an integrated seat box that is disposed proximate to a group of said identifiable seats, said integrated seat box being capable of converting at least one of said data and said power to a form useful to a passenger occupying one of said identifiable seats;

(d) a data network interface module coupled to said integrated seat box, said data network interface module capable of effecting a data transfer in real-time between a selected passenger and a head end controller;

(e) a network controller capable of managing said plurality of data sources; and

(f) a seat-to-seat cable having therein data communication lines and power supply lines whereby both data from said plurality of data sources and power from at least one power source are routed by said network controller to selected ones of said identifiable seats.

20. The data management system of claim 19 wherein said data network interface module assigns a group routing tag to data originating with said selected passenger.

21. The data management system of claim 19 wherein said integrated seat box contains a plurality of independently removable function modules and one of said independently removable function modules is said data network interface module.

22. The data management system of claim 21 wherein at least one of said removable function modules is selected from the group consisting of in seat power supply, audio, video, noise cancellation, telephony, and combinations thereof, installed in said integrated seat box.

23. The data management system of claim 22 wherein said plurality of independently removable modules includes an in seat power supply module that converts 115 volt, 3 cycle, AC power to 11-16 volt dc power.

24. The data management system of claim 23 wherein said in seat power supply module includes an enable circuit whereby said 11-16 volt dc power is only provided to an outlet if a predetermined minimum threshold power requirement is satisfied.

25. The data management system of claim 22 wherein said data network interface module is fault tolerant such that a failure at one seat box does not interfere with the normal operation of successive data network interface modules.

26. The data management system of claim 25 wherein said data network interface module includes a power distributing physical layer that is galvanically isolated from a data distributing microprocessor.

27. The data management system of claim 22 wherein said plurality of independently removable modules includes an audio function module having an outlet for receiving a digital passenger control unit.

28. The data management system of claim 27 wherein said digital passenger control unit contains an outlet for receiving a passenger'"'"'s headset.

29. The data management system of claim 28 wherein said passenger'"'"'s headset includes a microphone enabling two-way telephony communication.

30. The data management system of claim 29 wherein said digital passenger control unit contains a keyboard and said audio module supports telephony whereby said passenger may communicate with a public switch telephone network via a combination of said headset and microphone.

31. The data management system of claim 29 wherein said telephony module interfaces with a cradle effective to deactivate an antenna of a cellular telephone, but permits a passenger to communicate with a public switch telephone network via said cellular telephone and said telephony module.

32. The data management system of claim 22 wherein said seat-to-seat cable interconnects a plurality of said integrated seat boxes both to others of said integrated seat boxes and to a head end portion.

33. The data management system of claim 32 wherein said seat-to-seat cable includes at least one of said power supply lines and at least one of said data communication lines electrically isolated from each other and disposed within a common overall jacket.

34. The data management system of claim 33 wherein said communication line is capable of transmitting at least 400 megabits per second of data.

35. The data management system of claim 34 wherein said at least one data communication line comprises four insulated copper wires twisted together.

36. The data management system of claim 34 wherein said at least one power supply line supports 3 phase AC current, a ground and a neutral.

37. The data management system of claim 34 installed on an aircraft wherein said head end portion includes a master control unit effective to conduct aircraft power to said seat-to-seat cable, a network controller effective to control the flow of multiple streams of data between selected devices and selected passengers and an internet server capable of controlling the flow of multiple streams of data between a mass storage unit server and selected passengers.

38. The data management system of claim 37 wherein said mass storage unit is on said aircraft and contains at least 18 gigabytes of storage.

39. The data management system of claim 38 further including an in-flight workstation interfacing with said head end portion effective for at least one function selected from the group consisting of disabling defective integrated seat boxes, disabling the use of integrated seat boxes connected to incompatible personal devices, disabling the delivery of video, and disabling the delivery of power.