Method and apparatus for transporting video signal over Bluetooth wireless interface

• US 8,355,671 B2
• Filed: 01/05/2009
• Issued: 01/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kopin Corporation
• Original Assignee: Kopin Corporation
• Inventors: Kramer, Mark, Sample, John M., Tucker, Wilfred I., Jacobsen, Jeffrey J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dao, Minh D
• Application Number:
  US12/348,627
• Publication Number:
  US 20090209205A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,471 Days
• Field of Search: 455/41.2, 455/3.06, 455/566, 455/575.6, 455/100, 345/204, 705/14.1, 358/1.15
• US Class Current: 455/41.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1454 involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/16 Use of wireless transmission of display information

Abstract

A wireless wearable video headset device useful for viewing and listening to multimedia content. In one embodiment, the device operates by receiving a digital encoded audio/video signal from a host device of a Bluetooth™ wireless connection, the Bluetooth™ connection established via a Serial Port Profile (SPP), and the digital video signal having been previously compressed with Windows Media Video (WMV) or H. 264 compliant compression. The received digital audio/video signal is then forwarded over a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connection to an internal processor which then decompressed video content in the digital video signal to generate a component video signal that is suitable for handling by a display driver.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a compressed digitally-encoded audiovisual signal of at least Video Graphic Array (VGA) quality from an external host computing device over a Serial Port Profile (SPP) Bluetooth wireless connection;

decompressing the compressed digitally-encoded audiovisual signal; and

generating a video signal that is suitable for handling by a display driver in a display device;

wherein the display device is a monocular display supported on a head of a user.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the display device is coupled to a support structure configured to support the monocular display on the head of the user.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the compressed digitally-encoded audiovisual signal is compressed according to Windows Media Video (WMV) or Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG)-4 part 10 (H.264) standards.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the Bluetooth wireless connection includes at least two radiofrequency (RF) channels.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

receiving the compressed digitally-encoded audiovisual signal over a first RF channel; and

receiving and transmitting control signals over a second RF channel.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising forwarding the compressed digitally-encoded video signal over a high speed interface prior to decompression.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the high speed interface is selected from a group consisting of Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI), universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) and Universal Serial Bus (USB).

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising multiplexing the compressed digitally-encoded audiovisual signal and other data over the high speed connection.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating a component video signal for display.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising reading at least one of an application program, kernel directive, or configuration data from a memory.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the memory is a removable memory.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the removable memory is a read only memory (ROM).

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the steps of the method are carried out in a multi-tasking embedded operating system.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the compressed digitally-encoded audiovisual signal includes a monaural or stereo audio channel, the method further comprising generating a monaural or stereo audio output.

15. An apparatus comprising:

a Bluetooth transceiver configured to receive a compressed digitally-encoded audiovisual signal of at least Video Graphic Array (VGA) quality from an external host computing device over a Serial Port Profile (SPP) Bluetooth wireless connection; and

a processor configured to decompress the compressed digitally-encoded audiovisual signal and generate a video signal that is suitable for handling by a display driver in a display device;

wherein the display device is a monocular display supported on a head of a user.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the display device is coupled to a support structure configured to support the monocular display device on the head of the user.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the compressed digitally-encoded audiovisual signal is compressed according to Windows Media Video (WMV) or Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG)-4 part 10 (H.264) standards.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the Bluetooth wireless connection includes at least two radiofrequency (RF) channels.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the Bluetooth transceiver is further configured to receive the compressed digitally-encoded audiovisual signal over a first RF channel and receive and transmit control signals over a second RF channel.

20. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising a high speed interface over which the compressed digitally-encoded video signal may be forwarded from the Bluetooth transceiver to the processor for decompression.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein the high speed interface is selected from a group consisting of Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI), universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) and Universal Serial Bus (USB).

22. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein the compressed digitally-encoded audiovisual signal and control signals are multiplexed over the high speed connection.

23. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising a display driver configured to generate a component video signal for display.

24. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising memory storing at least one of an application program, kernel directive, or configuration data.

25. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein the memory is removable memory.

26. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein the removable memory is read only memory (ROM).

27. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the processor further comprises a multi-tasking embedded operating system.

28. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the compressed digitally-encoded audiovisual signal includes a monaural or stereo audio channel, the apparatus further comprising a coder-decoder (codec) configured to generate a monaural or stereo audio output.

29. An apparatus comprising:

means for receiving a compressed digitally-encoded audiovisual signal of at least Video Graphic Array (VGA) quality from an external host computing device over a Serial Port Profile (SPP) Bluetooth wireless connection;

means for decompressing the compressed digitally-encoded audiovisual signal; and

means for generating a video signal that is suitable for handling by a display driver in a display device;

wherein the display device is a monocular display supported on a head of a user.

30. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the display device is coupled to a support structure configured to support the monocular display device on the head of the user.