Tethered Digital Butler Consumer Electronic Master Device and Method

• US 20100198935A1
• Filed: 04/12/2010
• Published: 08/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NexStep, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NexStep, Inc.
• Inventors: Stepanian, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 7,907,709 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/208
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1684 Constructional details or arrangements related to integrated I/O peripherals not covered by groups G06F1/1635 - G06F1/1675
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1698 the I/O peripheral being a sending/receiving arrangement to establish a cordless communication link, e.g. radio or infrared link, integrated cellular phone details of antennas disposed inside a computer H01Q1/2266
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0231 Cordless keyboards
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/02 using a radio link
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72415 for remote control of appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7246 by connection of exchangeable housing parts
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/422 Input-only peripherals , i.e. input devices connected to specially adapted client devices, e.g. global positioning system [GPS] input devices also receiving signals from specially adapted client devices H04N21/4104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42201 biosensors, e.g. heat sensor for presence detection, EEG sensors or any limb activity sensors worn by the user input arrangements for interaction with the human body based on nervous system activity detection G06F3/015
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4333 Processing operations in response to a pause request
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4405 involving video stream decryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4623 Processing of entitlement messages, e.g. ECM [Entitlement Control Message] or EMM [Entitlement Management Message] arrangements for conditional access to broadcast information or to broadcast-related services H04H60/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/04 Key management, e.g. using generic bootstrapping architecture [GBA]

Abstract

The present invention relates to a tethered digital butler consumer electronics product and method. The tethered digital butler, of a price and form factor suitable for consumer electronics markets of developed and developing countries, includes a communications and multi-media console and a wireless remote. The remote may resemble a handheld personal computer (HPC), a palm-held personal computer (PPC or PDA) or a smart phone, but has a low cost and feature set supported by the console that is novel in the consumer electronics market. In particular, this disclosure relates to combining telephone service, device control and, optionally, a fingerprint reader for easy user identification/authorization and personalization. As another option, a camera can be incorporated into the remote, thereby enabling video conferencing and other visual features. Alternatively, the remote may be packaged separately from a console and sold to interact with capabilities of a communications and console, set-top box, multi-media PC or other consumer electronics device from a different source, such as one running on a Windows, OS X or Linux platform, with or without telephone capabilities. The remote may include a media reader and remote USB port.

Claims

1. A master device, adapted to be controlled by a remote control device that needs only limited computing capabilities and that includes slaved control and audio reproduction features, the master device including:

a wireless link transceiver;

hardware resources coupled to the wireless link transceiver;

a first stack running on the hardware resources and exchanging packets with a remote control device;

a second stack running on the hardware resources and exchanging packets with at least one signal source;

control interpretation logic running on the hardware resources, logically coupled to the first stack, that processes control input packets received from a slaved navigation device on the remote control device and responsively controls the master device; and

call processing logic running on the hardware resources, logically coupled to the second stack and the first stack, that

receives voice over IP (VoIP) audio signal packets from the signal source, transcodes the VoIP to a remote control device format suitable to drive at least one slaved output on the remote control device, and forwards the transcoded audio signal packets to the remote control device; and

receives the control input packets from the remote control device and responsively initiates or answers a telephone call.

2. The master device of claim 1, further including DRM logic running on the hardware resources, logically coupled to the first stack, adapted to exchange with the remote control device messages related to a DRM key on the remote control device.

3. The master device of claim 1, further including:

an output port adapted to drive a monitor device, coupled to the hardware resources; and

monitor logic running on the hardware resources that composes and forwards to the output port a visual display, which the master device navigates responsive to the control input packets received from the remote control device.

4. The master device of claim 1, further including:

port control logic running on the hardware resources, logically coupled to the first stack, that treats a USB adapter or card reader on the remote control device as a port or card reader local to the master device.

5. The master device of claim 1, further including display logic running on the hardware resources, logically coupled to the first stack, that composes a visual display and forwards the visual display to the remote control device.

6. A master device, adapted to be controlled by a remote control device that needs only limited computing capabilities and that includes slaved control and audio input features, the master device including:

a wireless link transceiver;

hardware resources coupled to the wireless link transceiver;

a first stack running on the hardware resources and exchanging packets with a remote control device;

a second stack running on the hardware resources and exchanging packets with at least one signal source;

control interpretation logic running on the hardware resources, logically coupled to the first stack, that processes control input packets received from a slaved navigation device on the remote control device and responsively controls the master device; and

call processing logic running on the hardware resources, logically coupled to the second stack and the first stack, that

receives voice over IP (VoIP) audio signal packets from the signal source and plays received audio through an output device coupled to the master device;

receives audio packets from a slaved audio input on the remote control device, transcodes the audio signal packets into transcoded audio packets and forwards the transcoded audio packets to the signal source; and

receives the control input packets from the remote control device and responsively initiates or answers a telephone call.

7. The master device of claim 6, further including DRM logic running on the hardware resources, logically coupled to the first stack, adapted to exchange with the remote control device messages related to a DRM key.

8. The master device of claim 6, further including:

an output port adapted to drive a monitor device, coupled to the hardware resources; and

monitor logic running on the hardware resources that composes and forwards to the output port a visual display, which the master device navigates responsive to the slaved navigation device.

9. The master device of claim 6, further including:

port control logic running on the hardware resources, logically coupled to the first stack, that treats a USB adapter or card reader on the remote control device as a port or card reader local to the master device.

10. The master device of claim 6, further including display logic running on the hardware resources, logically coupled to the first stack, that composes a visual display and forwards the visual display to the remote control device.

11. A master device, adapted to be controlled by a remote control device that needs only limited computing capabilities and that includes slaved control, audio and video reproduction features, the master device including:

a wireless link transceiver;

hardware resources coupled to the wireless link transceiver;

a first stack running on the hardware resources and exchanging packets with a remote control device;

a second stack running on the hardware resources and exchanging packets with at least one signal source;

control interpretation logic running on the hardware resources, logically coupled to the first stack, that processes control input packets received from a slaved navigation device on the remote control device and responsively controls the master device;

call processing logic running on the hardware resources, logically coupled to the second stack and the first stack, that

receives audio and video signal packets in at least one of mpeg 2, mpeg 4 or ip-tv formats from the signal source, transcodes the audio and video to at least one packetized remote control device format suitable to drive slaved audio and video outputs on the remote control device, and forwards the transcoded audio and video packets to the remote control device; and

receives the control input packets from the remote control device and responsively controls selection of the audio and video forwarded to the remote control device.

12. The master device of claim 11, further including DRM logic running on the hardware resources, logically coupled to the first stack, adapted to exchange with the remote control device messages related to a DRM key on the remote control device.

13. The master device of claim 11, further including:

an output port adapted to drive a monitor device, coupled to the hardware resources; and

monitor logic running on the hardware resources that composes and forwards to the output port a visual display, which the master device navigates responsive to the slaved navigation device.

14. The master device of claim 11, further including:

port control logic running on the hardware resources, logically coupled to the first stack, that treats a USB adapter or card reader on the remote control device as a port or card reader local to the master device.

15. The master device of claim 11, wherein the wireless link transceiver utilizes a wireless Ethernet protocol.

16. The master device of claim 11, wherein the wireless link transceiver utilizes a wireless Bluetooth protocol.