USB-ENABLE AUDIO-VIDEO SWITCH

• US 20090051765A1
• Filed: 01/17/2007
• Published: 02/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Moberly, David
• Granted Patent: US 9,497,423 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/77
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/268 Signal distribution or switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/91 Television signal processing therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

A telemedicine system (8) includes an audio-video switch (10) that receives at least two different signals and conveys at least one of the at least two different signals to an output device (18) that presents 114 it to a user. A control device (162) monitors a position of the audio-video switch (10) and automatically controls the position to select which of the at least two different signals is passed through the audio-video switch (10) to the output device (18) in response to a signal from a remote source (34). Signals received from the remote source (34) include medically related audio video message signals, which are input to the audio-video switch (10), and a control signal that causes the audio-video switch (10) to select between passing the medically related audio-video message signals and other received signals to the output device (18).

Claims

1. A telemedicine system (8), comprising:

an audio-video switch (10) that receives at least two different signals and conveys at least one of the at least two different signals to an output device (18) that presents it to a user; and

a control device (162) that monitors a position of the audio-video switch (10) and automatically controls the position to select which of the at least two different signals is passed through the audio-video switch (10) to the output device (18) in response to a signal from a remote source (34).

2. The telemedicine system (8) as set forth in claim 1, wherein the control device (162) includes a control port (22) and the audio-video switch (10) includes a port (32) and the control device (162) monitors and controls the audio-video switch (10) through signals conveyed from the control port (22) to the port (32).

3. The telemedicine system (8) as set forth in claim 2, wherein the control commands determines which signal is passed through the audio-video switch (10) to the output device (18) by setting the relative position of audio-video switch (10).

4. The telemedicine system (8) as set forth in claim 2, wherein the control port (22) and the port (32) are USB ports.

5. The telemedicine system (8) as set forth in claim 2, wherein the control device (16₂) obtains at least one of a unique identification, a serial number, a software versions, and a firmware version of the audio-video switch (10) via the control port (22) and the port (32).

6. The telemedicine system (8) as set forth in claim 1, wherein the control device (16₂) powers the audio-video switch (10) through a USB connection between the control device (16₂) and the audio-video switch (10).

7. The telemedicine system (8) as set forth in claim 1, wherein the control device (16₂) is one of a telemedicine receiver, set top box, and a computer.

8. The telemedicine system (8) as set forth in claim 1, wherein the output device (18) is one of a television and a computer.

9. The telemedicine system (8) as set forth in claim 1, wherein at least one of the at least two different signals is provided by the control device (16₂) and the at least one other signal is provided by one of a cable television receiver, a satellite receiver, a DVD player, a VCR player, a CD player, a computer, a digital camera, and a digital video recorder.

10. The telemedicine system (8) as set forth in claim 1, wherein the audio-video switch (10) includes a plurality of inputs (12) that each receive one of the at least two different signals and at least one output (14), each of the a plurality of inputs (12) and the at least one output (14) is associated with one of composite video, s-video, ROB, component video, and other formatted video.

11. The telemedicine system (8) as set forth in claim 10, wherein the audio-video switch (10) includes a signal router (26) having switching circuitry (28), and wherein the at least two different signals are received by the plurality of inputs (12), fed to a signal router (26), and switched by the switching circuitry (28) based on a control command from the control device (16₂).

12. The telemedicine system (8) as set forth in claim 1, wherein the audio-video switch (10) includes at least one of a wireless communications port (40) for controlling the audio-video switch (10) with a remote wireless device and control panel (42) for manual control of the audio-video switch (10).

14. The telemedicine system (8) as set forth in claim 1, wherein the control device (16₂) automatically switches the audio-video switch (10) in order to present a message to a user via the output device (18) and the audio-video switch (10) automatically switches back to an input device (16) selected by the user after the user views/listens to the message.

15. The telemedicine system (8) as set forth in claim 1, wherein at least one of the at least two different signals is associated with a tag that indicates a priority of the signal relative to other signals and the priority is used to determine at least one of when and how to present the signal to the user.

16. The telemedicine system (8) as set forth in claim 1, wherein control over the audio-video switch (10) by the control device (16₂) overrides control by a user.

17. The telemedicine system (8) as set forth in claim 1, further including:

a recording device (16) connected with the audio-video switch (I0), the control device (162) causing the recording device to record audio/video signal and causing the recorded audio/video signal to be passed through the audio-video switch (10) to the output device (18) in accordance with instruction signals received from the remote source (34).

18. The telemedicine system (8) as set forth in claim 17, wherein the recorded audio/video signal is received over a low bandwidth connection and converted into high quality outputs.

19. The telemedicine system (8) as set forth in claim 17, wherein the recorded audio/video signal is reduced in size prior to one of storing and playing the audio/video signal.

20. The telemedicine system (8) as set forth in claim 1, wherein the output device (18) concurrently displays more than one video signal, each within a different display region of the output device (18), and the an audio-video switch (10) passes at least two signals to an output device (18), wherein the control device (16₂) controls the position of the audio-video switch (10) to select which of the at least two signals is displayed in each of the displays regions in response to the signal from the remote source (34).

21. The telemedicine system (8) as set forth in claim 1, wherein the output device (18) includes an audio/visual display and the signals from the remote source (34) include audio/video signals conveying at least one of instructional programming relating to a disease or physiological condition, reminders to take medicines, reminders of medical appointments, requests to monitor physiological conditions, motivational programming, requests to call a doctor'"'"'s office, instructions associated with a scheduled medical procedure, test results, and real-time communications from medical personnel, and control signals which cause the control device (16₂) to control the audio-video switch (10) to pass the audio-video signals from the remote source (34) to the audio/visual display.

22. The telemedicine system (8) as set forth in claim 1, wherein at least one of the control device (16₂) and the audio-video switch (10) validates parties attempting to communicate therewith and only authorized parties are allowed to communicate with the at least one of the control device (16₂) and the audio-video switch (10).

13. The telemedicine system (8) as set forth in claim I, wherein the audio-video switch (10) includes a processing component (38) that combines at least two input signals, the two signals being combined by one of overlaying one of the signals over the other signal, the overlayed signals being passed to the output device (18) to display both signals concurrently.

23. A telemedicine method comprising:

receiving at least two different signals with an audio-video switch (10) that conveys at least one of the received signals to an output device (18);

monitoring a position of the audio-video switch (10); and

controlling the audio-video switch (10) to select which of the received signals is passed to the output device (18) in accordance with signals from a remote source (34).

24. The method as set forth in claim 23, wherein the signals received from the remote source (34) includes medically related audio visual message signals which are input to the audio-video switch (10) and a control signal which causes the audio-video switch (10) to select between passing the medically related audio-visual message signals and other received signals to the output device (18).

25. The method as set forth in claim 23, wherein the monitoring and controlling are performed by a control device (16₂) and further comprising:

conveying electrical power from the control device (16₂) to the audio-video switch (10) over USB ports (22, 32); and

powering the audio-video switch (10) with the electrical power.

26. An audio-video switch (10), comprising:

a plurality of inputs (12) for receiving signals from a plurality of source devices (16);

at least one output (14) for conveying at least one of the received signals to an output device (18); and

a USB port (32) for receiving switch setting control commands from a control component (30) to set the audio-video switch (10) to pass at least one of the received signals to the output device (18) based on the switch setting control commands, and the USB port (32), preferably, receiving electrical power from the control component (30).