Transmitting apparatus and method, receiving apparatus and method, distribution medium and transmitting system

• US 6,594,052 B2
• Filed: 04/20/1999
• Issued: 07/15/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Sato, Yoshiyuki, Okada, Toshio, Iwasa, Takashi, Hiramatsu, Tamihei
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan, Jason
• Assistant Examiner(s): PAYNE, DAVID C
• Application Number:
  US09/295,065
• Publication Number:
  US 20030091348A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,547 Days
• Field of Search: 359/152, 359/125, 704/275, 386/27, 711/112, 709/226, 395/500
• US Class Current: 398/140
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/1149 Arrangements for indoor wireless networking of information

Abstract

The OD servers, encoders, NOD servers and CPUs supply voice data, character data and remote control data together with the control information. A transmitter modulates the control information and voice data, etc. by the QPSK modulation method. An infrared ray emitter outputs the modulated infrared ray depending on the modulated signal. A receiving apparatus reproduces acoustic signal from the modulated infrared ray and displays characters and also transmits the signal corresponding to the remote control data to the transmitting apparatus with the infrared ray. An infrared ray detector receives the modulated infrared ray output from the receiving apparatus. Thereby, with this system, the signal, required by the receiving side or suitable for the condition of the receiving side, supplied through many channels can be transmitted without any restriction on the wiring.

Claims

1. A transmitting apparatus for an optically connected system having a plurality of receiving apparatus, comprising:

receiving means for detecting input infrared signals from said plurality of receiving apparatus;

plural encoders for digitizing and encoding a plurality of input analog voice signals;

plural on-demand servers corresponding to said plural encoders for accumulating encoded voice signals as on-demand voice data and on-demand control information from the detected input infrared signals;

a near on-demand server for supplying previously stored near on-demand voice data and near on-demand control information;

character data supplying means for supplying character data;

control data supplying means for supplying remote control data;

multiplexing means for selecting and multiplexing said plurality of input analog voice signals, said on-demand voice data and on-demand control information, said near on-demand voice data and near on-demand control information into a plurality of voice data channels;

the voice data channels being multiplexed with said character data and said remote control data into data blocks; and

transmitting means for transmitting said data blocks as output infrared signals to said plurality of receiving apparatus.

2. The transmitting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said transmitting means includes a parity adding circuit for providing a parity check to each of the transmitted data blocks.

3. The transmitting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said data blocks include destination numbers for identifying each of said plurality of receiving apparatus intended to receive the transmitted data blocks.

4. The transmitting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said character data comprises accumulation mode character data and real-time display mode character data.

5. The transmitting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said optically connected system is a language learning system.

7. The transmitting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said transmitting means includes a parity adding circuit for providing a parity check to each of the transmitted data blocks.

6. An optically connected system, comprising:

a plurality of receiving apparatus for transmitting input infrared signals to a transmitting apparatus and for receiving data blocks transmitted from said transmitting apparatus; and

said transmitting apparatus, comprising;

receiving means for detecting the input infrared signals transmitted from said plurality of receiving apparatus;

plural encoders for digitizing and encoding a plurality of input analog voice signals;

plural on-demand servers corresponding to said plural encoders for accumulating encoded voice signals as on-demand voice data and on-demand control information from the detected input infrared signals;

a near on-demand server for supplying previously stored near on-demand voice data and near on-demand control information;

character data supplying means for supplying character data;

control data supplying means for supplying remote control data;

multiplexing means for selecting and multiplexing said plurality of input analog voice signals, said on-demand voice data and on-demand control information, said near on-demand voice data and near on-demand control information into a plurality of voice data channels;

the voice data channels being multiplexed with said character data and said remote control data into data blocks; and

transmitting means for transmitting said data blocks as output infrared signals to said plurality of receiving apparatus.

8. The optically connected system according to claim 6, wherein each of said plurality of receiving apparatus includes an error correction circuit for detecting errors in the received data blocks.

9. The optically connected system according to claim 6, wherein each of said plurality of receiving apparatus includes a character display for displaying the character data in the received data blocks.

10. The optically connected system according to claim 6, wherein said data blocks include destination numbers for identifying each of said plurality of receiving apparatus intended to receive the transmitted data blocks.

11. The optically connected system according to claim 6, wherein each of said plurality of receiving apparatus includes a selecting means for selecting data blocks intended for a particular receiving apparatus on the basis of destination numbers included in said data blocks.

12. The optically connected system according to claim 6, wherein said character data comprises accumulation mode character data and real-time display mode character data.

13. The optically connected system according to claim 6, wherein the system is a language learning system.