Patent Application
20070248326
Aspects of the present invention are illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The detailed description set forth below in connection with the appended drawings is intended as a description of various embodiments of the present invention and is not intended to represent the only embodiments in which the present invention may be practiced. The detailed description includes specific details for the purpose of providing a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known structures and components are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the concepts of the present invention.
One or more embodiments of the present invention will now be described. In one embodiment, the present invention provides a recording apparatus that is capable of recording analog and/or digital A/V contents directly to portable media players on a real-time basis. Alternatively, the recording can also be performed faster or slower than real-time. In one aspect, the recording apparatus provides a cost-effective and convenient way to allow users to record and transfer personal A/V contents to their personal portable media players, thereby improving the portability of the recorded contents.
In one embodiment as shown in
The input module 12 is configured to receive A/V contents in analog or digital form from the A/V input source 22. The A/V contents may be single-channel or multiple channel. The converter module 14 is configured to encode or transcode the A/V contents received by the input module 12 to a desired format. The output module 16 is configured to transfer the encoded or transcoded contents directly to a memory associated with the portable media player 24. The memory associated with the portable media player 24 may be internal or external to the portable media player 24. The recording apparatus 10 can also store its output to the general purpose storage device 26 other than the portable media player 24. The portable media player 24 and the general storage device 26 may comprise a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a compact flash, a secure digital (SD) card, a multi-media card, a memory stick, a flash drive or any other storage medium.
As noted above, the recording apparatus 10 captures A/V contents in analog/digital form from the A/V input source 22. The A/V input source 22 may include a video camera, a DVD player, a set top box, a VCR, a TV set, or any other media storage or transmission device. The recording apparatus 10 may use various video standards, such as, CVBS, S-Video, Component Video, RGB, DVI, HDMI, LVDS, ITU-R BT.656 and the like for analog/digital video input. The recording apparatus 10 may also use various audio standards, such as, I2S and PCM and the like for analog/digital audio input.
In the case of analog contents, such contents are captured by the input module 12 and suitably processed and digitized. In the case of digital contents, such contents are passed onto the converter module 14 with minimal processing.
The converter module 14 receives the output from the input module 12. The converter module 14 may be configured to handle any suitable audio and/or video compression method as provided by, for example, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, H.263, H264, AAC, MP2, MP3, AC-3 standards, or any other standard or proprietary compression algorithm. It is worth noting that the scope of the present invention is not limited by any encoder algorithm/architecture or A/V multiplexing algorithm/architecture. The converter module 14 compresses the A/V contents into a desired format and passes them onto the output module 16.
The output module 16 transfers and stores the compressed A/V contents directly to the memory associated with the portable media player 24 in playback ready form. The output module 16 may also transfer the compressed A/V contents to a general purpose storage device 26 other than the portable media player 24. The output module 16 may employ any wired or wireless means like USB, Ethernet, FireWire, BlueTooth, IrDA, Wi-Fi, or any other suitable protocol or standard for data transfer.
In another embodiment, the recording apparatus 10 receives compressed or uncompressed A/V contents in digital form from a computer, a set top box, or any other storage or transmission device. The input module 12 may employ USB, Ethernet, or any other appropriate wired or wireless means for data transfer. In the case of compressed data, the digital A/V contents are passed onto the converter module 14 that includes transcoding functions for decoding and re-encoding the A/V contents to and from any desired format, such as, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, H.263, H264, AAC, MP2, MP3, AC-3, or any other standard or proprietary format. In the case of uncompressed data, the decoding step is bypassed and the A/V contents are encoded by the converter module 14. It is worth noting that the scope of the present invention is not limited by any encoder or transcoder algorithm/architecture or A/V multiplexing algorithm/architecture. The encoded or re-encoded A/V contents are passed onto the output module 16.
The output module 16 transfers and stores the compressed A/V contents directly to the memory associated with the portable media player 24 in playback ready form. The output module 16 may also transfer the compressed A/V contents to a general purpose storage device 26 other than the portable media player 24. The output module 16 may employ any wired or wireless means like USB, Ethernet, FireWire, BlueTooth, IrDA, Wi-Fi, or any other suitable protocol or standard for data transfer.
The recording apparatus 10 further includes the user interface module 18 and the configuration module 20. The user interface module 18 is configured to accept input from a user. The input from the user may be used to control the operation of the recording apparatus 10. The configuration module 20 is configured to receive information including recording parameters from the portable media player 24 and/or the general purpose storage device 26 and use such information to configure the input module 12, the converter module 14 and the output module 16 so as to generate the output in the appropriate format for the portable media player 24 and/or the general purpose storage device 26. Alternatively, the configuration module 20 may also receive the information from other sources, such as, a download from a website on the Internet.
The video capture and digitizer 32 and the audio capture and digitizer 34 perform functions that are similar to those described above in connection with the input module 12. These digitizers 32, 34 receive video and audio inputs respectively from the A/V input source 22 (not shown in
The record button 40 is used by the user to initiate recording of the A/V contents from the A/V input source 22 onto the portable media player 24 and/or the general purpose storage device 26. In this embodiment, the user may simply press the record button 40 to initiate the recording operation by the recording apparatus 30 without any further action on the part of the user.
While the recording apparatus 10 is described above in connection with A/V contents, it should be understood that the recording apparatus 10 may also be used to record and store audio-only, video-only or still-image contents in a manner similar to that described for A/V contents.
Different embodiments of the present invention may contain features like dynamic source detection, whereby the selection of the appropriate A/V input source is made dynamically on the basis of the availability of the A/V signal; dynamic video standard detection, whereby the selection of NTSC/PAL/SECAM video standards is made automatically; automatic media detection, whereby the type and make of media storage device is detected automatically; and automatic portable media player detection, whereby different brands and makes of portable media players are identified automatically.
Different embodiments of the present invention may also provide support for FAT32, FAT16, HFS, HFS+, Ext2, Ext3, NTFS, or any other standard or proprietary file system. Moreover, embodiments of the present invention may support MP4, MOV, AVI, ASF, or any other standard or proprietary file format.
Certain embodiments of the present invention may use a remote control device for configuration and control. The remote control device may contain one or more buttons, which may be used to control some or all of the features or functions of the recording apparatus. One or more buttons may be housed on both the recording apparatus device and the remote control device or on either one of them. The remote control device may communicate with the recording apparatus through any wired or wireless means. One embodiment of the present invention may contain a docking station for interfacing with and/or holding a portable media player.
An embodiment of the present invention may contain a TCP/IP stack or any other suitable communication stack to allow for connection to one or more networked devices. In one embodiment, the A/V data provided by the A/V input source 22 is in digital bit-stream in compressed or uncompressed form streaming from a network device or source or read from the portable media player 24 or the general purpose storage device 26.
An embodiment of the present invention may further contain an RF tuner for receiving digital/analog broadcast signals. It may also be noted that although the present invention has been described in the context of a portable media player, an embodiment of the recording apparatus may easily record and store to any portable device that stores and plays back still-image, audio, video, or A/V contents, such as, a mobile phone or a PDA (personal digital assistant). Furthermore, the recorded A/V contents can also be played back by software media players on any non-portable devices, such as, a desktop computer and the like.
One embodiment of the present invention is a stand-alone device. However, it should be noted that there may be instances where the recording apparatus is housed in a host device, and the recording apparatus may even share some of the circuitry of the host device. The purpose of such an arrangement would be to enhance the functionality of the host device by providing the facility of direct recording of A/V contents to a portable media player. For example, in one embodiment, the recording apparatus may be housed in a set top box, a TV set, a camcorder, a video camera, a DVD player, a VCD player, a DVR, a VCR, or any other media player.
The recording apparatus 10 of the present invention may be deployed in various situations, as depicted in
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One advantage of the present invention is its ability to record analog and/or digital A/V contents directly to a portable media player in one step, without requiring any intermediate storage. The stored contents can be played back by the portable media player 24 immediately upon stopping the recording. Alternatively, the stored contents can be played back by the portable media player 24 simultaneously as the recording takes place, thereby allowing a user to watch what is being recorded onto the portable media player 24.
Furthermore, in this context, the recording apparatus 10 gives portable media player users the option of managing their own play lists or allowing the recording apparatus to update the play lists automatically. In the first option, the recording apparatus 10 treats a portable media player 24 as any other mass storage device and the play lists are left untouched, while in the latter option, the portable media player file structure and play lists are updated to allow instant playback of the recorded contents.
Moreover, the recording apparatus 10 may also be configured to control and use some of the resources available on the portable media player 24, including, for example, display screen, buttons, and memory. Such resources may be used to receive input from the user and/or display output to the user.
Another advantage of the present invention is its simplicity and ease of use whereby transfer of the A/V contents involves no additional devices other than the A/V input source 22, the recording apparatus 10 and the portable media player 24 and/or the general purpose storage device 26. An embodiment of the present invention may further provide a one-button control interface to a user. By clicking the button once, the user may initiate the transferring of the A/V contents onto the portable media player without any other input from the user. In other words, only a single user interaction, such as, pressing the button once, is needed to effect the transfer process. It should be noted that the scope of the present invention is not limited by the number or type of button(s) used in the control interface. A button may be a switch or key of any type, a touch sensor, part of a touch screen, or any other electronic or mechanical device. The user of the present invention does not require any knowledge or experience in operating a computer or any other signal processing device other than the portable media player and the recording apparatus. Despite this simplicity, an embodiment of the present invention may provide elaborate control of the recording apparatus to an advanced user through configuration data that may be stored as a data file, array, structure, or any other format. The configuration data may reside in the portable media player or in any other storage device. The configuration data is handled by a configuration module and may provide control of all the device parameters including the type of encoders/decoders, the bit-rates, duration of recording and other parameters.
The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, elements, and/or components described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic component, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing components, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a number of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.
The methods or algorithms described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executable by a processor, or in a combination of both, in the form of control logic, programming instructions, or other directions, and may be contained in a single device or distributed across multiple devices. A software module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. A storage medium may be coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor.
The previous description of the disclosed embodiments is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present invention. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from the spirit of scope of the invention. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein, but is to be accorded the full scope consistent with the claims, wherein reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean “one and only one” unless specifically so stated, but rather “one or more”. All structural and functional equivalents to the elements of the various embodiments described throughout this disclosure that are known or later come to be known to those of ordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to be encompassed by the claims. Moreover, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited in the claims. No claim element is to be construed under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. §112, sixth paragraph, unless the element is expressly recited using the phrase “means for” or, in the case of a method claim, the element is recited using the phrase “step for”.
