Aircraft in-flight entertainment system providing weather information and associated methods

• US 7,587,733 B2
• Filed: 05/02/2003
• Issued: 09/08/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: LiveTV LLC (Thales SA)
• Original Assignee: LiveTV LLC (Thales SA)
• Inventors: Latta, Glenn S., Frisco, Jeffrey A., Easterling, Scott D., Keen, Robert M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Srivastava; Vivek
• Assistant Examiner(s): ALAM, MUSHFIKH I
• Application Number:
  US10/429,115
• Publication Number:
  US 20030233658A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,321 Days
• Field of Search: 725/76
• US Class Current: 725/76
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18508 with satellite system used as relay, i.e. aeronautical mobile satellite service
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2146 located in mass transportation means, e.g. aircraft, train or bus flight-deck installations for entertainment or communications B64D11/0015; arrangements specially adapted for transportation systems in broadcast systems H04H20/62; moving wireless networks H04W84/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2187 Live feed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25435 involving characteristics of content or additional data, e.g. video resolution or the amount of advertising
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25866 Management of end-user data customer care in data networks H04L41/5077
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4185 for payment
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/441 Acquiring end-user identification , e.g. using personal code sent by the remote control or by inserting a card
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4786 e-mailing message switching systems, e.g. electronic mail systems H04L51/00
• 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 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8126 involving additional data, e.g. news, sports, stocks, weather forecasts
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/106 for domestic distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/20 Adaptations for transmission via a GHz frequency band, e.g. via satellite

Abstract

An aircraft in-flight entertainment system includes a satellite weather information receiver receiving a weather related programming channel from a satellite, and at least one passenger display connected to the satellite weather information receiver for displaying weather related information corresponding to a selected geographic area. A passenger control unit is associated with each passenger display for selecting the geographic area.

Claims

1. An aircraft in-flight entertainment system comprising:

at least one entertainment source for providing entertainment related data;

a satellite weather information receiver for receiving at least one weather related programming channel from at least one satellite, the at least one weather related programming channel providing information on different geographic areas;

a signal distribution network connecting said at least one entertainment source and said satellite weather information receiver;

a plurality of seat electronic boxes (SEBs) spaced throughout the aircraft and connected to said signal distribution network, each SEB comprising at least one processor for

comparing information on the different geographic areas provided by the at least one weather related programming channel with selected geographic areas, and

determining the weather related information corresponding to the selected geographic areas;

a plurality of passenger seatback displays coupled to said plurality of SEBs for displaying the entertainment related data and for displaying the weather related information corresponding to the selected geographic areas; and

a plurality of passenger control units coupled to said plurality of SEBs, each passenger control unit associated with a respective passenger seatback display for permitting passenger selection of a geographic area from among a plurality of geographic areas including non-destination geographic areas, and each passenger control unit comprising an alpha-numeric keypad for entry of a city name corresponding to the geographic area being selected.

2. An aircraft in-flight entertainment system according to claim 1 further comprising a map image device connected to said satellite weather information receiver and to said plurality of passenger seatback displays for storing map images of the selected geographic areas, and wherein the displayed weather related information includes the map images.

3. An aircraft in-flight entertainment system according to claim 2 wherein said map image device comprises a moving map image generator for generating a moving representation of the aircraft position on the map images.

4. An aircraft in-flight entertainment system according to claim 1 wherein the selected geographic areas comprise geographic areas along a flight path of the aircraft.

5. An aircraft in-flight entertainment system according to claim 1 wherein displaying the weather related information comprises scrolling through the weather related information to be displayed for each selected geographic area.

6. An aircraft in-flight entertainment system according to claim 1 wherein the selected geographic areas comprise a destination of the aircraft.

7. An aircraft in-flight entertainment according to claim 1 wherein the geographic areas are further selected by user entry of at least one of a zip code and an area code.

8. An aircraft in-flight entertainment system according to claim 1 wherein said satellite weather information receiver operates within a frequency range of about 1 to 3 GHz.

9. An aircraft in-flight entertainment system according to claim 1 wherein said at least one entertainment source comprises a satellite television (TV) receiver.

10. An aircraft in-flight entertainment system according to claim 9 wherein said satellite TV receiver comprises a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) receiver.

11. An aircraft in-flight entertainment system comprising:

at least one entertainment source for providing entertainment related data;

a satellite weather information receiver for receiving at least one weather related programming channel from at least one satellite, the at least one weather related programming channel providing information on different geographic areas;

a signal distribution network connecting said at least one entertainment source and said satellite weather information receiver;

a plurality of seat electronic boxes (SEBs) spaced throughout the aircraft and connected to said signal distribution network, each SEB comprising a map image device for generating map images of selected geographic areas, and at least one processor for

comparing information on the different geographic areas provided by the at least one weather related programming channel with the selected geographic areas, and

determining the weather related information corresponding to the selected geographic areas;

a plurality of passenger seatback displays coupled to said plurality of SEBs for displaying the entertainment related data and for displaying the weather related information on the map images corresponding to the selected geographic areas; and

a plurality of passenger control units coupled to said plurality of SEBs, each passenger control unit associated with a respective passenger seatback display for permitting passenger selection of a geographic area from among a plurality of geographic areas including non-destination geographic areas, and each passenger control unit comprising an alpha-numeric keypad for entry of a city name corresponding to the geographic area being selected.

12. An aircraft in-flight entertainment system according to claim 11 wherein said map image device comprises a moving map image generator for generating a moving representation of the aircraft position on the map images.

13. An aircraft in-flight entertainment system according to claim 12 wherein the selected geographic areas comprise geographic areas along a flight path of the aircraft.

14. An aircraft in-flight entertainment system according to claim 11 wherein displaying the weather related information comprises scrolling through the weather related information to be displayed for each selected geographic area.

15. An aircraft in-flight entertainment system according to claim 11 wherein the selected geographic areas comprise a destination of the aircraft.

16. An aircraft in-flight entertainment according to claim 11 wherein the geographic areas are further selected by user entry of at least one of a zip code and an area code.

17. An aircraft in-flight entertainment system according to claim 11 wherein said satellite weather information receiver operates within a frequency range of about 1 to 3 GHz.

18. An aircraft in-flight entertainment system according to claim 11 wherein said at least one entertainment source comprises a satellite television (TV) receiver.

19. An aircraft in-flight entertainment system according to claim 18 wherein said satellite TV receiver comprises a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) receiver.

20. An aircraft in-flight entertainment system comprising:

a satellite receiver for receiving at least one weather related programming channel and at least one entertainment related programming channel from at least one satellite, the at least one weather related programming channel providing information on different geographic areas;

a signal distribution network connected to said satellite receiver;

at least one pilot seat electronic box (SEB) connected to said signal distribution network, said at least one pilot SEB comprising at least one processor for

comparing information on the different geographic areas provided by the at least one weather related programming channel with selected geographic areas, and

determining the weather related information corresponding to the selected geographic areas;

at least one pilot display coupled to said at least one pilot SEB for displaying weather related information from said satellite receiver corresponding to the selected geographic areas;

at least one pilot control unit connected to said at least one pilot SEB, and comprising an alpha-numeric keypad for entry of a city name corresponding to the geographic area being selected;

a plurality of passenger SEBs spaced throughout the aircraft and connected to said signal distribution network;

a plurality of passenger seatback displays coupled to said plurality of passenger SEBs for displaying the entertainment related data and for displaying the weather related information corresponding to the selected geographic areas; and

a plurality of passenger control units coupled to said plurality of passenger SEBs, each passenger control unit associated with a respective passenger seatback display for permitting passenger selection of the entertainment related data and the weather related information corresponding to the selected geographic areas.

21. An aircraft in-flight entertainment system according to claim 20 further comprising a map image device connected to said satellite receiver and to said at least one pilot display for storing map images of the selected geographic areas, and wherein the displayed weather related information includes the map images.

22. An aircraft in-flight entertainment system according to claim 20 wherein the selected geographic areas comprise geographic areas along a flight path of the aircraft.

23. An aircraft in-flight entertainment system according to claim 20 further comprising a wireless data link for receiving weather related information while the aircraft is on the ground;

said at least one pilot display for displaying the weather related information from said wireless data link; and

said signal distribution network connecting said wireless data link to said at least one pilot display.

24. An aircraft in-flight entertainment system according to claim 20 wherein said satellite receiver comprises a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) receiver.

25. A method for operating an aircraft in-flight entertainment system comprising at least one entertainment source for providing entertainment related data, a satellite weather information receiver for receiving at least one weather related programming channel from at least one satellite, a signal distribution network connecting the at least one entertainment source and the satellite weather information receiver, a plurality of seat electronic boxes (SEBs) spaced throughout the aircraft and connected to the signal distribution network, each SEB comprising at least one processor;

a plurality of passenger seatback displays coupled to the plurality of SEBs for displaying the entertainment related data and for displaying weather related information corresponding to selected geographic areas, a plurality of passenger control units coupled to the plurality of SEBs, each passenger control unit associated with a respective SEB, the method comprising;

receiving via the satellite weather information receiver at least one weather related programming channel from at least one satellite, the at least one weather related programming channel providing information on different geographic areas; and

permitting passenger selection of weather related information corresponding to a selected geographic area from among a plurality of geographic areas including non-destination geographic areas via a respective passenger control unit, each passenger control unit comprising an alpha-numeric keypad for entry of a city name corresponding to the geographic area being selected

comparing within the at least one processor in the SEB associated with the respective passenger control unit information on the different geographic areas provided by the at least one weather related programming channel with selected geographic areas, and determining the weather related information corresponding to the selected geographic areas; and

displaying on the associated passenger seatback display the weather related information corresponding to the selected geographic areas.

26. A method according to claim 25 wherein the aircraft in-flight entertainment system further comprises a map image device connected to the satellite weather information receiver and to the plurality of displays for storing map images of the selected geographic areas, and wherein the displayed weather related information includes the map images.

27. A method according to claim 26 wherein the map image device comprises a moving map image generator for generating a moving representation of the aircraft position on the map images.

28. A method according to claim 25 wherein the selected geographic areas comprise geographic areas along a flight path of the aircraft.

29. A method according to claim 25 wherein displaying the weather related information comprises scrolling through the weather related information to be displayed for each selected geographic area.

30. A method according to claim 25 wherein the selected geographic areas comprise a destination of the aircraft.

31. A method according to claim 25 further comprising displaying the entertainment related data from the at least one entertainment source on the plurality of displays.

32. A method according to claim 25 wherein the geographic areas are further selected by user entry of at least one of a zip code and an area code.

33. A method according to claim 25 wherein the satellite weather information receiver operates within a frequency range of about 1 to 3 GHz.

34. A method according to claim 25 wherein the at least one entertainment source comprises a satellite television (TV) receiver.

35. A method according to claim 34 wherein the satellite TV receiver comprises a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) receiver.