System for bi-directional voice and data communications over a video distribution network

• US 7,127,733 B1
• Filed: 06/17/1998
• Issued: 10/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Rice Ingenieria S.A. De C.V.
• Original Assignee: Rice Ingenieria S.A. De C.V.
• Inventors: Ochoa, Carlos Gonzalez
• Primary Examiner(s): Kelley, Chris
• Assistant Examiner(s): BROWN, RUEBEN M
• Application Number:
  US09/098,997
• Time in Patent Office: 3,051 Days
• Field of Search: 725/74, 725 78- 85, 725105-131, 725143-151, 725/22, 725 25- 31, 725135-142, 725 39- 61, 380/226, 380/278, 380/43, 348460-469
• US Class Current: 725/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2143 located in a single building, e.g. hotel, hospital or museum arrangements specially adapted for plural spots in a confined site in broadcast systems H04H20/63; adaptations for transmission by electric cable for domestic distribution in television systems H04N7/106
• 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 21/6168 involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/007 Systems with supplementary picture signal insertion during a portion of the active part of a television signal, e.g. during top and bottom lines in a HDTV letter-box system
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/106 for domestic distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17309 Transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for bi-directional communications of voice, data, and alarms, and simultaneous transmission of video signals over a single cable such as coax. In more particular, it applies to a communications system that utilizes coax-type cabling to offer computer related in-room guest services such as on-television screen display of their bills, etc. The instant invention utilizes a digital communications protocol, preferably PCM, to fit a plurality of general purpose communications channels within conventional broadcast television frequencies. These communication channels might variously be used to carry telephone voice data, thereby obviating the need for a separate phone network, or, more generally, they might be used to transport any sort of digital data (e.g., room billing information, outgoing faxes, etc.) The instant invention also provides a means for directing broadcast video information to specific rooms within the structure. Finally, the instant invention also accommodates the remote generation of signals/alarms and their detection and processing in a central facility.

Claims

1. A method of controlling access to a plurality of video channels that are distributed over a communications conduit, each of said video channels being associated with a video channel number,

wherein there is provided a plurality of remote unitary modules for controlling access to said plurality of video channels,

each of said plurality of remote unitary modules being provided with a changeable list of permitted video channel numbers, each of said changeable lists containing at least one permitted video channel number therein,

each of said remote unitary modules having a unique identifier associated therewith, and,

wherein the communications conduit has a head-end and at least one remote-end,

said plurality of remote unitary modules being positioned along a remote-end of the communications conduit, and,

wherein is provided an NTSC standard video signal transmitted over said communications conduit, said standard video signal containing at least one overscan scan line wherein at least a portion of said changeable list of permitted video channels has been embedded therein,

said remote unitary module, comprising:

(a) a first tuner in electronic communication with said communications conduit, said first tuner receiving a particular video channel as input and providing a baseband video signal as output, said particular video channel being associated with a particular video channel number;

(b) means for changing said first tuner to receive a different video channel, said different video channel having a different video channel number;

(c) a CPU in electronic communications with said fist tuner, said CPU programmed to at least perform the steps of,

(c1) extracting from said at least one transmitted overscan scan lines said embedded module identifier;

(c2) extracting from said at least one transmitted scan line at least a portion of said embedded portion of said changeable list of permitted video channels,

(c3) sensing said different video channel number and determining whether said different video channel number is in said extracted changeable list of permitted video channel numbers, and,

(c4) if said embedded module identifier matches said remote unitary module identifier, prohibiting display of said different video channel if said different video channel is not in said extracted changeable list of permitted video channel numbers;

(d) computer RAM in electronic communication with said CPU, said RAM containing,

at least one digital image stored therein; and

,

(e) a video switch having at least a first video input, a second video input, and a video output,

wherein

(e1) said first video input receives said baseband video signal from said first tuner,

(e2) said second video input receives a baseband video representation of said digital image stored in said computer RAM, and,

(e3) said video output is switchable under control of said CPU between said baseband video signal from said first tuner and said baseband video representation of said digital image,

wherein said method comprises the steps of;

(a) assigning an individual security key code to each of said plurality of remote unitary modules;

(b) identifying at least one of said plurality of remote unitary module that is to receive a changed list of permitted video channel numbers and identifying an individual security key code assigned to each of said identified remote unitary modules;

(c) obtaining a standard video image from a digital or an analog source, said video image having a plurality of scan lines contained therein;

(d) obtaining a first and a second predetermined scan line of said video image, wherein said first and second predetermined scan lines are within an overscan portion of said video image;

(e) for each of said identified remote unitary modules,

(e1) forming a binary representation of said identified remote individual security key code,

(e2) impressing said binary representation into said first predetermined scan line thereby creating a modified video image,

wherein each “

1”

in said binary representation is associated with a first video grey level and each “

0”

in said binary representation is associated with a second video grey level, thereby forming a sequence of said first and said second grey levels within said first predetermined scan line associated with said binary representation of said identified remote unitary module;

(f) forming a binary representation of said changed list of permitted video channel numbers and impressing said binary representation of said changed list of permitted video channel numbers into said second predetermined scan line, thereby creating a further modified video image,

wherein each “

1”

in said binary representation of said changed list of permitted video channel numbers is associated with said first grey level and each “

0”

in said binary representation is associated with said second grey level, thereby forming a sequence of said first and said second grey levels within said second predetermined scan line associated with said binary representation of said changed list of permitted video channel numbers;

(g) broadcasting said further modified video image over said communications conduit;

(h) receiving said broadcast video image within at least one of said at least one remote unitary modules;

(i) within at least one of said at least one remote unitary modules wherein said broadcast video image is received,

(i1) determining a local security key code for said remote unitary module wherein said broadcast video image is received,

(i2) identifying said predetermined scan line,

(i3) extracting from said predetermined scan line any values representative of said assigned individual security keys impressed therein,

(i4) determining from any values extracted from said predetermined scan line at least one transmitted individual security key,

(i5) comparing each of said at least one transmitted security keys with said local individual security key,

(i6) if said local individual security key is equal to any one of said at least one transmitted keys, storing within said selected remote unitary module a numerical representation of said changed list of permitted video channel numbers, and,

(i7) performing steps (i1) through (i6) for at least one selected remote unitary module;

(j) monitoring said first tuner to detect whether the user has selected a different video channel number;

(k) determining whether said selected different video channel number is among said changed list of permitted video channel numbers;

(l) if said different video channel number is not among said changed list of permitted video channel numbers, displaying to the user an alternative video image for said different video channel; and

,

(m) if said different channel number is among said changed list of permitted video channel numbers, displaying to the user said different video channel;

(n) if said different video channel number is not among said changed list of permitted video channel numbers, displaying to the user an alternative video image for said different video channel; and

,

(o) if said different channel number is among said changed list of permitted video channel numbers, displaying to the user said different video channel.

2. A method of controlling access to a plurality of video channels that are distributed over a communications conduit according to claim 1, wherein said predetermined scan line is a first scan line of said video image.

3. A method of controlling access to a plurality of video channels that are distributed over a communications conduit according to claim 1, wherein said predetermined scan line is a non-visible scan line of said video image.

4. A method of controlling access to a plurality of video channels that are distributed over a communications conduit according to claim 1, wherein said first video grey level is a black video level and said second video gray level is a white video level.

11. A remote unitary module for controlling access by a user to a plurality of video channels according to claim 1, further comprising:

(f) a video modulator in electronic communication with said video switch output, said video modulator modulating a video signal from said output of said video switch to a predetermined video channel.

5. A remote unitary module for controlling access by a user to a plurality of video channels that are distributed over a communications conduit,

wherein said remote unitary module is provided with a changeable list of permitted video channel numbers, each of said permitted channel numbers being associated with one of said plurality of video channels,

wherein is provided a standard NTSC video signal transmitted over said communications conduit, said video signal containing at least one scan line within an overscan portion of said video signal wherein at least a portion of a representation of a revised list of petted video channels is embedded as a first two-level video signal,

wherein said video signal contains at least one scan line within said overscan portion of said video signal wherein a representation of a security key is embedded as a second two-level video signal, and,

wherein said remote unitary module has a module security key associated therewith,

said remote unitary module, comprising:

(a) a first video tuner in electronic communication with said communications conduit, said first tuner being configurable to accept at least two of said plurality of video channels as input, wherein,

(a1) said first video tuner is switchable to receive a selected one of said at least two video channels, said selected video channel having a corresponding selected video channel number,

(a2) said first video tune transmits a first tuner video signal as output, said first tuner video signal being representative of said selected video channel;

(b) a CPU in electronic communication with said first video tuner, said CPU being programmed to perform at least the steps of;

(b1) examining said video signal to obtain said representation of said security key from said first two-level video signal,

(b2) examining said video signal to obtain said representation of said revised list of permitted video channels from said second two-level video signal,

(b3) comparing said transmitted security key with said module security key,

(b4) if said transmitted security does not match said module security key, responding according to said selected video channel to determine whether said selected video channel number is in said provided changeable list of permitted video channel numbers, and,

(b5) if said transmitted security does match said module security key,

(1) responding according to said selected video channel to determine whether said selected video channel number is in said revised list of permitted video channel numbers, and,

(2) storing said revised list of permitted video channel numbers in place of said provided permitted video channel numbers;

(c) computer RAM in electronic communication with said CPU, said RAM containing at least one digital image stored therein;

(d) a video controller in electronic communication with said CPU and said RAM, said video controller having a video controller output for transmitting a controller video signal representative of at least one of said at least one digital images stored in said RAM;

(e) a video switch having at least a first video switch input, a second switch video input, and a video switch output,

wherein

(e1) said first video switch input receives said first tuner video signal from said first video tuner,

(e2) said second video switch input receives said controller video signal from said video controller output,

(e3) said video switch output is switchable under control of said CPU between said first tuner video signal and said controller video signal, depending on whether said selected video channel is a permitted video channel.

6. A remote unitary module for controlling access by a user to a plurality of video channels according to claim 5, wherein said first video tuner is switchable by the user to receive a selected one of said at least two video channels.

7. A remote unitary module for controlling access by a user to a plurality of video channels according to claim 5, wherein said computer RAM contains a plurality of digital images stored therein, and wherein said video controller successively displays selected ones of said plurality of digital images under control of said CPU.

8. A remote unitary module for controlling access by a user to a plurality of video channels according to claim 5, wherein said first tuner video signal is a baseband signal and said controller video signal is a baseband signal.

9. A remote unitary module for controlling access by a user to a plurality of video channels according to claim 5, wherein said controller video signal is generated at a same frequency as said output from said first video tuner.

10. A remote unitary module for controlling access by a user to a plurality of video channels according to claim 5, further comprising:

(f) a video display device positionable to be in electronic communication with said video switch output, said video display device for displaying in visually perceptible form a video signal from said output of said video switch.

12. A remote unitary module for controlling access by a user to a plurality of video channels according to claim 5, wherein said first two-level video signal and said second two-level video signal are both black and white video signals.

13. A method of controlling access to a plurality of video channels that are broadcast over a communications conduit, each of said video channels being associated with a video channel number, and wherein is provided at least one remote unitary module as in claim 5 which is in electronic communication with said communications conduit and with said plurality of video channels, each of said at least one remote unitary modules having a security code associated therewith, comprising the steps of:

(a) identifying at least one of said at least one remote unitary module that is to receive a revised list of permitted video channel numbers;

(b) identifying a particular security key code assigned to each of said identified remote unitary modules;

(c) obtaining a video image from a digital or an analog source, said video image having a plurality of scan lines contained therein;

(d) selecting a first scan line of said video image;

(e) storing a value representative of each of said identified particular security key codes into said first scan line, thereby creating a modified video image;

(f) selecting a second scan line of said video image;

(f) storing values representative of said revised list of permitted video channel numbers into said second predetermined scan line, thereby creating a further modified video image;

(h) broadcasting said further modified video image as a standard video signal over said communications conduit;

(i) receiving said broadcast video image within a particular remote unitary module, said particular remote unitary module having a particular security key associated therewith;

(j) within said particular remote unitary module,

(j1) extracting from said first scan line at least one of said values representative of said assigned individual security keys stored therein,

(j2) determining from any of said extracted values representative of said assigned individual security keys at least one of said identified security keys,

(j3) comparing any of said determined identified security keys with said particular security key of said particular remote unitary module,

(j4) if said particular security key matches any of said determined identified security keys, storing within said particular remote unitary module a numerical representation of said revised list of permitted video channel numbers,

(j5) monitoring said first tuner within said particular remote unitary module to detect when the user has selected a video channel number,

(j6) determining whether said selected video channel number is among said revised list of permitted video channel numbers,

(j7) if said selected video channel number is among said revised list of permitted video channel numbers, displaying to the user said selected video channel, and,

(j8) if said selected video channel number is not among said revised list of permitted video channel numbers, displaying to the user an alternative video image.

14. A method according to claim 13, wherein said first scan line and said second scan line are a same scan line.

15. A method according to claim 13, wherein said first scan line and said second scan line are both non-visible scan lines.