Patent Application
20050028102
The sharing of photographs has been greatly simplified with the advent of digital imaging technology. For example, images may now be digitally captured with a digital camera or digitally scanned by a scanner, downloaded to a personal computer (PC), and emailed to friends and family, without ever having to develop film or print an image.
Despite these advances, many persons have not received the benefit of such technology. For example, persons without computers may not be able to receive images in digital form. Furthermore, those persons with computers that are not experienced in their use may technically be able to receive digital images, but may lack the knowledge as to how to receive and display such images.
Because of such problems, digital image viewing devices are under development that are configured for use with conventional display devices, such as television sets. In that such image viewing devices are configured to, at least partially, automate the image receiving and displaying process, non-computer owners or non-savvy computer users may use these viewing devices to receive and view digital images sent to them via a readily-available network (e.g., telephone network).
With such a viewing device, digital images may be received without user input, and then viewed by the user with the touch of a button, thereby greatly simplifying the image sharing process for that user. Use of such a device, however, creates other difficulties. For example, when the device is used in conjunction with a television set, the user may become confused as to how to resume normal television operation after having viewed received images. This confusion may be exacerbated by the presence of another device, such as a video cassette recorder (VCR) or digital video disc (DVD) player, that is also connected to the television set.
Accordingly, desired is a system and method that automates resumption of normal operation of a display device (or other device connected to the display device) after use of a digital image viewing device.
Disclosed are systems and methods for resuming a mode of display device operation. In one embodiment, a system and a method pertain to determining if a predetermined condition has been satisfied, and if the predetermined condition has been satisfied, automatically resuming output of an interrupted yet previously output signal to the display device.
The disclosed systems and methods can be better understood with reference to the following drawings. The components in these drawings are not necessarily to scale.
Disclosed are systems and methods with which a mode of display device operation can be resumed after use of a digital image viewing device that is configured to display images on the display device. With these systems and methods, normal operation of the display device (e.g., television or video viewing) may be automatically resumed without the user having to manually switch the input into the display device.
Example systems and methods for resuming device operation are described herein. Although these example systems and methods are described in detail, these descriptions are provided for purposes of illustration only and various modifications are feasible.
Referring now in more detail to
The network 106 typically comprises one or more sub-networks that are communicatively coupled to each other. These networks can include one or more telephone system networks, local area networks (LANs), and/or wide area networks (WANs). In some embodiments, the network 106 may comprise a set of networks that forms part of the Internet.
By way of example, the data sending devices 102 comprise another digital image viewing device 110 that is capable of transmitting stored digital images to the digital image viewing device 104, and a computing device 112 (e.g., personal computer (PC) or server computer) that, through the provision of an appropriate software application and transmission hardware, is capable of transmitting digital images to the viewing device 104. Although these particular data sending devices 102 are shown in
The digital image viewing device 104 comprises substantially any device that is capable of receiving digital image data transmitted from a data sending device 102, and displaying the data on a suitable display device 114, such as a television set. In addition, the digital image viewing device 104 (like device 110) may be configured to transmit received digital image data to another device (e.g., a further digital image viewing device).
As is also illustrated in
In a second arrangement shown in
Finally, in a third arrangement shown in
In each of the connection arrangements shown in
The processor 300 is adapted to execute commands stored in memory 304 and can comprise a microprocessor, one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), a plurality of suitably configured digital logic gates, and other electrical configurations comprised of discrete elements both individually and in various combinations.
The device controller 302 operates in conjunction with the processor 300 and is used to coordinate the overall operation of the digital image viewing device 104. As is described below, this coordination includes controlling the output from the digital image viewing device 104 upon the satisfaction of certain predetermined conditions.
The memory 304 comprises one or both of volatile (e.g., random access memory (RAM)) and non-volatile (e.g., Flash memory, hard disk) memory and comprises a digital image display system 308 and an output control module 310. The digital image display system 308 manages the receipt, storage, and display of digital images, while the output control module 310 controls which data is output from the digital image viewing device to the display device 114 (or video player 118 if provided between the viewing device and the display device). More particularly, the output control module 310 controls when a switch 312 is operated to provide one of two forms of output from the device 104. Although the output control module 310 is illustrated as being stored in memory 304, the functionality provided by the control module can, alternatively, be implemented in hardware, for instance integrated into the processor 300 and/or the controller 302.
The user interface 306 comprises the components with which the user controls operation of the digital image viewing device 104. By way of example, the user interface 306 comprises one or more buttons or keys provided on the device 104 or a remote control through which commands can be entered. In some embodiments, the user interface 306 may comprise a menu-driven, on-screen interface that is manipulated using a remote control or other input device.
Further illustrated in
Various programs (i.e. logic) have been described herein. These programs can be stored on any computer-readable medium for use by or in connection with any computer-related system or method. In the context of this document, a “computer-readable medium” is any electronic, magnetic, optical, or other physical device or means that contains or stores a computer program for use by or in connection with a computer-related system or method. These programs can used by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as a computer-based system, processor-containing system, or other system that can fetch the instructions from the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device and execute the instructions.
Example systems having been described above, examples of system operation will now be discussed. In the discussions that follow, flow diagrams are provided. Process steps or blocks in the flow diagrams of this disclosure may represent modules, segments, or portions of code that include one or more executable instructions for implementing specific logical functions or steps in the process. Although particular example process steps are described, alternative implementations are feasible. Moreover, steps may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending on the functionality involved.
Regardless of the manner in which activation occurred, the digital image viewing device 104 then interrupts the programming or video signal (depending upon the particular system configuration) input into the viewing device, as indicated in block 402. For example, an RF television signal, cable television signal, satellite television signal, or video player (e.g., VCR or DVD player) signal input into the digital image viewing device 104 is interrupted such that data from the device memory 304 may be provided to the display device 114.
With reference to decision block 404, it is determined whether to send data to the display device 114. Such data may comprise, for instance, digital image data representative of digital images to be displayed on the display device 114, or user interface data for display on the display device for receiving user selections. If no such data is to be sent, flow continues to decision block 408 discussed below. If data is to be sent, however, flow continues to block 406 at which the data is sent from digital image viewing device memory 304 (
Referring next to decision block 408, it is determined whether a deactivation command has been received, thereby indicating a desire to resume normal display device operation. Such a deactivation command may comprise, for example, a power-down command input by the user (e.g., when the user turns the digital image viewing device 104 off by pressing a “power” button). If a deactivation command is received, flow continues down to block 414 described below. If, on the other hand, no such deactivation command is received, flow continues to block 410 at which it is determined whether one or more conditions for automatic resumption of the output of the programming or video signal is/are satisfied. By way of example, such a condition may comprise passage of a predetermined period of time without the occurrence of predefined user activity. Specific example conditions are described below in relation to
With reference to decision block 412, if the condition or conditions is/are not satisfied, resumption of output of the programming or video signal is not warranted and flow returns to decision block 404. However, if the condition(s) is/are satisfied, flow continues to block 414 and the output of the programming or video signal is resumed such that images and audio represented by that signal may be viewed on the display device 114.
At this point, data from the digital image viewing device memory 304 can be output to the display device 114 as described above. For example, digital images may be viewed on the display device 114 by, for instance, scrolling through the images one-by-one. After the user has viewed the images, the user may turn off the display device 114 but fail to turn off the digital image viewing device 104. To avoid the confusion that may occur when the user later turns the display device 114 back on to, for instance, watch television programming, the control module 310 automatically controls the switch 312 so that the signals output from the digital image viewing device 104 are those that were output from the viewing device prior to device activation (block 500). Accordingly, if the digital image viewing device 104 was operating in a pass through mode in which cable television signals were both input into and output from the viewing device prior to device activation, the control module 310 controls the switch 312 to resume pass through of the cable television signals once predetermined conditions have been satisfied.
The conditions under which a prior output state is resumed may be varied to suit the particular form of operation that is desired. Moreover, in some embodiments, the user may be provided with means (e.g., user interface) for modifying those conditions. For purposes of illustration, however, example conditions are described in relation to decision blocks 504-510.
With reference to decision block 504, the control module 310 determines whether the viewing device 104 has been deactivated (e.g., powered-down). If so, previous display device operation will be resumed and flow continues down to block 512. If not, however, switching may not yet be necessary and flow continues to decision block 506 at which the control module 310 determines whether a slideshow of digital images is being presented on the display device 114. The reason for this determination is that, if such a slideshow is being presented, it is likely that the user does not wish the control module 310 to automatically switch output from the digital image viewing device 104 to the programming or video signals that are input into the viewing device. Accordingly, when such a slideshow is being presented, flow returns to decision block 504. If no such slideshow is being presented, however, flow continues down to decision block 508.
At decision block 508, the control module 310 determines whether the digital image viewing device 104 is awaiting a user input. For example, if the user has prompted display of an on-screen menu, it may be presumed that the user is going to enter a selection of some sort (e.g., a “delete image” selection, a “send images” selection, etc.). In such a case, it also may not be desirable to automatically switch output from the digital image viewing device 104 to the programming or video signals input into the viewing device 104. Therefore, when a user input is awaited, flow also returns to decision block 504. Notably, a time-out feature can be incorporated into the decision of block 508 to account for a situation in which, for example, a menu has been displayed but no input is received from the user for a given time period (e.g., 1 minute), thereby indicating that the user has become occupied doing something else.
If a user input is not awaited in decision block 508, flow continues to decision block 510 at which the control module 310 determines whether a predefined time-out period has elapsed. In particular, the control module 310 determines whether user activity is detected for a predefined period of time (e.g., 1-10 minutes). As long as user activity (e.g., entry of a selection or command) is received before the passage of that time period, automatic switching will not be performed and flow returns to decision block 504. However, if there is no activity for the predefined time period, flow continues to block 512 at which the control module 312 operates the switch 312 to “reconnect” the programming signal input port 316 to the device output port 318 so as to resume a previous mode of operation of the display device 114 (e.g., television or video viewing).
In view of the above disclosure, one embodiment of operation of the output control module 310 can be summarized as provided in
Another embodiment of operation of the output control module 310 is summarized in
