System software architecture for a passenger entertainment system, method and article of manufacture

• US 6,782,392 B1
• Filed: 05/26/1998
• Issued: 08/24/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc. (Raytheon Technologies Corporation d/b/a RTX)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc. (Raytheon Technologies Corporation d/b/a RTX)
• Inventors: Ackland, Mark, Weinberger, Alan J., Infiesto, Douglas C.
• Primary Examiner(s): ROBINSON, GRETA LEE
• Application Number:
  US09/085,161
• Time in Patent Office: 2,282 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/10, 707/104.1, 707/102, 709/217, 709/313
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A passenger entertainment system is configured and operated using system software to route and process passenger transactions from requesting computer processors and dispatch appropriate resources to fulfill the transactions. To achieve this, passenger transactions are transmitted to a message processor, which decodes them and generates a request in a predetermined format. The request is transmitted to a transaction dispatcher that routes the request to a passenger entertainment service manager. The passenger entertainment service manager generates a response to the request message by querying files in a database. Appropriate resources are dispatched to service the passenger transactions that are defined in the response to the query.

Claims

1. A method of enabling a computer having a display to control a passenger entertainment system having a plurality of line replaceable units, comprising the steps of:

transmitting a message to a message processor from one of said line replaceable units;

receiving the message in the message processor;

decoding the received message into a common format message;

creating a virtual line replaceable unit (VLRU) within a network addressable unit when a line replaceable unit transmits a message;

routing the common format message through the virtual line replaceable unit to a transaction dispatcher.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the computer comprises a primary access terminal said method further comprising the steps of:

controlling the passenger entertainment system with a graphical user interface (GUI) that generates and receives GUI format messages; and

providing an interface between the graphical user interface and the transaction dispatcher with a cabin applications interface library that transfers GUI format messages and common format messages.

3. The method as recited in claim 2 further comprising the steps of:

receiving operator requests from the graphical user interface through the cabin applications programming interface library;

providing the operator requests to a services function;

communicating the operator request to a database server;

retrieving information relating to services from a database; and

generating an appropriate response to the operator request.

4. The method as recited in claim 2 wherein the GUI further performs the step of communicating with the line replaceable units through a GUI monitor VLRU within the network addressable unit.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the computer comprises a cabin file server said method further comprising the steps of:

receiving a common format message that is a passenger transaction that originates at a passenger seat from the transaction dispatcher;

providing the passenger transaction to a services function;

communicating the passenger transaction to a database server;

retrieving information relating to services from a database; and

generating an appropriate response to the passenger transaction.

6. The method as recited in claim 5 further comprising the step of creating a seat VLRU in the network addressable unit when the passenger seat originates the passenger transaction.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising communicating between the plurality of line replaceable units and the computer with one or more drivers.

8. A system for controlling a passenger entertainment system, including a computer with one or more components for controlling one or more line replaceable units of the passenger entertainment system, comprising:

a message processor that receives and transmits messages between the one or more line replaceable units and decodes the received messages to generate common format messages and encodes common format messages in a format for the one or more line replaceable units;

one or more network addressable units corresponding to the one or more line replaceable units wherein when a line replaceable unit (LRU) communicates with the computer a virtual LRU (VLRU) is created for said LRU within a network addressable unit wherein said VLRU routes common format messages from the LRU and to the LRU; and

a transaction dispatcher that routes the common format messages to and from the message processor through a VLRU within a network addressable unit.

9. A system as recited in claim 8 wherein the computer comprises a primary access terminal said primary access terminal further comprising:

a graphical user interface (GUI) for controlling the system and generating and receiving GUI format messages; and

a cabin applications programming interface (CAPI) library that provides an interface between the graphical user interface and the transaction dispatcher for transferring GUI format messages and common format messages.

10. A system as recited in claim 9 wherein the CAPI library receives operator requests from the graphical user interface and Provides the request to a services function.

11. A system as recited in claim 9 wherein the GUI communicates through a GUI monitor VLRU within the one or more network addressable units.

12. A system as recited in claim 8 wherein the computer comprises a cabin file server said cabin file server further comprising:

a database server having a database containing information relating to each of the components of the system that allow communication with and/or control of these components and information relating to services offered by the system; and

a services function that communicates queries from the transaction dispatcher relating to the services offered by the system to the database server to retrieve information defining the selected product or service and generating an appropriate response to requests from passenger seats.

13. A system as recited in claim 12 wherein the passenger seats communicate through a seat VLRU within one of the network addressable units.

14. A system as recited in claim 8 further comprising one or more drivers for communicating between the one or more line replaceable units and the computer.

15. The system as recited in claim 12, wherein the services include passenger entertainment system control services, movie cycle services, video services, video announcement services, game rental services, movie sales services, catalog sales services, drink sales services, duty free sales services, landscape camera services, media server services, Internet services, and video teleconferencing services.

16. A passenger entertainment system comprising a plurality of line replaceable units for performing entertainment and passenger and operator control functions, a primary access terminal for providing an operator interface to the passenger entertainment systems, and a cabin file server for processing passenger transactions said primary access terminal and said cabin file server each having a control center common executive said control center common executive further comprising:

a message processor for moving messages to and from the line replaceable units and for putting messages from the line replaceable units in a common format;

one or more network addressable units connected to the message processor for routing common format messages wherein each line replaceable unit in the plurality of line replaceable units that communicates with the control center common executive has a corresponding network addressable unit; and

a transaction dispatcher connected to the one or more network addressable units wherein said transaction dispatcher moves common format message between the one or more network addressable units and applications services.

17. The passenger entertainment system of claim 16 wherein when a line replaceable unit communicates with the control center common executive a virtual line replaceable unit is created within said one or more network addressable units.

18. The passenger entertainment system of claim 17 wherein said primary access terminal control center common executive one or more network addressable units further comprise:

an audio tuner virtual line replaceable unit for controlling audio selections;

a card reader virtual line replaceable unit for collecting and forwarding data from a credit card reader;

a graphical user interface virtual line replaceable unit to start and end a graphical user interface;

a primary access terminal virtual line replaceable unit for built-in testing; and

a printer virtual line replaceable unit for querying a control center printer.

19. The passenger entertainment system of claim 17 wherein said cabin file server control center common executive one or more network addressable units further comprise a seat network addressable unit for controlling communications with passenger seats and receiving passenger transactions from said seats.

20. The passenger entertainment system of claim 19 wherein said cabin file server control center common executive one or more network addressable units further comprise:

a backbone network addressable unit for receiving and processing messages that originate from audio video units, area distribution boxes, and passenger entertainment system controller line replaceable units;

a video cassette player network addressable unit for communicating with video source line replaceable units; and

a test port network addressable unit for controlling built-in test communications.