The invention relates to a wireless communication system for transmitting high resolution multimedia data, and particularly related to the wireless communication system for transmitting high resolution multimedia data and method thereof.
Rendering of high resolution video streams from portable electronic devices such as cellular phones, notebook computers, or tablet computers to large displays (for displaying HD multimedia content) may become popular in the future and bring convenience to end users. For example, TV programs, shorts (e.g., YouTube® videos) or movies may be downloaded by a cellular phone and then transfers to a high definition television (HDTV) for displaying the HD multimedia content in a large screen (or relatively large with respect to a display screen of the cellular phone). In these applications, the video streams may be, for example, converted into motion JPEG or H.264 format and transferred wirelessly through Wi-Fi®, and Wireless HDMI® protocols to the HDTV. However, the bandwidth of Wi-Fi® is limited and thus it may not be suitable for delivering the HD multimedia content. Therefore, it may be desirable to overcome such limitation of delivery of HD multimedia content over Wi-Fi® systems.
A wireless communication system for transmitting high resolution multimedia data and method thereof are introduced herein.
According to an exemplary embodiment of the invention, a transmission method for transmitting high resolution multimedia data is introduced. The transmission method includes following procedures. An encoder module of the portable device is initialized. First multimedia data is received from an application processor of the portable device through a multimedia interface. The first multimedia data is encoded into second multimedia data, where the second multimedia data occupies less bandwidth than the first multimedia data. The second multimedia data is transmitted to the display device from a wireless communication module of the portable device.
According to an exemplary embodiment of the invention, a wireless communication system for transmission of high resolution multimedia data to a display device is introduced. The wireless communication system includes an encoder module, an application processor and a wireless communication module. The encoder module is configured for encoding first multimedia data to second multimedia data. The application processor is coupled to the encoder module and configured for transmitting the first multimedia data to the encoder module. The wireless communication module is coupled to the encoder module or coupled to the application processor and configured for transmitting the second multimedia data to the display device.
According to an exemplary embodiment of the invention, a receiving method of high resolution multimedia data is introduced. The receiving method includes following procedures. First multimedia data is received from a wireless communication module through a data interface. The first multimedia data is decoded to intermediate multimedia data. The intermediate multimedia data is converted to second multimedia data through a multimedia interface. The second multimedia data is output to the display device.
According to an exemplary embodiment of the invention, a wireless communication system for transmission of high resolution multimedia data to a display device is introduced. The wireless communication system includes a decoder module and a wireless communication module. The decoder module is configured for decoding the first multimedia data to intermediate multimedia data, and transmitting the intermediate multimedia data to a multimedia interface, where the multimedia interface converts the intermediate multimedia data to second multimedia data to the display device. The wireless communication module is coupled to the decoder module and configured for transmitting the first multimedia data to the decoder module through a data interface.
Several exemplary embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below to further describe the invention in details.
Some embodiments of the present application will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some, but not all embodiments of the application are shown. Indeed, various embodiments of the application may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this invention will satisfy applicable legal requirements. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout.
According to exemplary embodiments of the present invention, this invention provides several implementations of transmission methods, receiving methods for delivering high resolution multimedia data, and wireless communication systems for transmission of high resolution multimedia data. The wireless communication system refers to either a transmitter device or a receiver device for delivering high resolution multimedia contents.
Referring to
The multimedia processing subsystem 10 encodes, compresses and converts first multimedia data to second multimedia data. The multimedia processing subsystem 10 transfers the second multimedia data to the wireless communication module 13, where the second multimedia data can be transmitted through the wireless communication technology for rendering high resolution multimedia contents on a HD display device such as a large displays such as LCD external monitors, projectors, or HD televisions (TV).
The application processor 11 is configured for transmitting the first multimedia data to the encoder module 12 through the multimedia interface MIF, performing initialization of the encoder module 12 through the control interface CIF, and receiving the second multimedia data or IP packets from the wireless communication module 13 through the data interface DIF. The encoder module 12 can also forward data to the application processor 11 through the data interface DIF. The encoder module 12 is configured for receiving and encoding the first multimedia data to the second multimedia data, and then forwarding the second multimedia data to the application processor 11 through the data interface DIF if necessary. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the transmitter 1 can be coupled to more than one wireless communication module.
The wireless communication module 13 is coupled to the multimedia processing subsystem 10 and configured for transmitting data and receiving data. The wireless communication module 13 can be coupled to the encoder module 12 for transmitting the second multimedia data, or can be coupled to the application processor 11 for forwarding the second multimedia data which can be in form of IP packets to the application processor 11, where the IP packets may include multimedia data. The wireless communication module 13 also transmits IP packets to a display device over the wireless communication technology, where the IP packets include the second multimedia data.
The transmission method of the transmitter 1 is adapted for delivering high resolution multimedia data from a portable device (which includes the transmitter 1) to a display device (not shown in
The main differences between the transmitter 2 and the transmitter 1 lie in that, in the transmitter 2, the wireless communication module 13 is directly coupled to the application processor 11 through a data interface DIF_2, where the data interface DIF_2 is a Secure Digital Input Output (SDIO®) interface. The application processor 11 is configured for receiving the second multimedia data from the wireless communication module 13 through the data interface DIF_2, where the received data from the wireless communication module 13 can be, for example, IP packets or the first multimedia data. The application processor 11 is also configured for forwarding the second multimedia data to the wireless communication module 13 through the data interface DIF_2 for transmitting the second multimedia data to a HD display device, such as the HDTV.
Another difference between the transmitter 1 and the transmitter 2 is that, in the transmitter 2, the multimedia interface MIF between the application processor 11 and the encoder module 12 is implemented by three sub-multimedia interfaces SMIF_1, SMIF_2, and SMIF_3, and a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI®) receiver 24. In particular, the application processor 11 is directly coupled to the HDMI® receiver 24 through the sub-multimedia interface SMIF_1, where the sub-multimedia interface SMIF_1 is a HDMI® interface. The HDMI® receiver 24 is directly coupled to the encoder module 12 through the sub-multimedia interfaces SMIF_2 and SMIF_3, where the sub-multimedia interface SMIF_2 is a RGB interface, and the sub-multimedia interface SMIF_3 is an Integrated Interchip Sound (I2S) interface.
Referring to
The transmission method of the transmitter 2 provided by the invention can be described as the following procedures or data flows.
In step S253, the HDMI® receiver 24 forwards the video data and the audio data respectively to the encoder module 12 through the RGB interface SMIF_2 and the I2S interface SMIF_3. In step S254, the encoder module 12 encodes the video data and the audio data into the second multimedia data, and forwards the second data to the application processor 11 through the data interface DIF_1. The second multimedia data occupies less bandwidth than the original first multimedia data from the application processor 11, such that the second multimedia data can be suitably delivered on a Wi-Fi® system. In step S255, the application processor 11 forwards the second multimedia data to the wireless communication module 13 through the data interface DIF_2 for delivery to a HD display device. The transmission method 25 is terminated after the step S255.
Furthermore, referring to
The data flow for transmitting and receiving data of the application processor 11 described for
In the present exemplary embodiment, the encoder module 12 of the transmitter 3 is configured for directly receiving IP packets which may include multimedia data from the wireless communication module 33, and transmitting IP packets which may include multimedia data to the wireless communication module 33 through the data interface DIF_3. The encoder module 12 encodes the first multimedia data into the second multimedia data, and forwards the second multimedia data to the wireless communication module 33 for delivery to a HD display device. Also, the encoder module 12 includes a Wi-Fi® driver for the wireless communication module 33. Furthermore, the encoder module 12 also provides functionalities of Ethernet over USB ®, or SDIO® to USB® bridge depending upon following two different configurations of data interfaces DIF_1 and DIF_3.
In a first configuration of the data interfaces DIF_1 and DIF_3, the data interfaces DIF_1 and DIF_3 are USB® interfaces, so the encoder module 12 provides the Ethernet over USB® functionality. In a second configuration of the data interfaces DIF_1 and DIF_3, the data interface DIF_1 is a USB® interface and the data interface DIF_3 is a SDIO® interface, so the encoder module 12 provides the SDIO® to USB® bridge functionality which also includes Ethernet over USB® functionality.
The transmission method of the transmitter 3 provided by the invention can be described as the following procedures or data flows.
In step S353, the HDMI® receiver 24 forwards the video data and the audio data respectively to the encoder module 12 through the RGB interface SMIF_2 and the I2S interface SMIF_3. In step S354, the encoder module 12 encodes the video data and the audio data into the second multimedia data, and forwards the second multimedia data to the wireless communication module 33 through the data interface DIF_3 for delivery to a HD display device. The second multimedia data occupies less bandwidth than the original first multimedia data from the application processor 11, such that the second multimedia data can be suitably delivered on a Wi-Fi® system to a HD display device. The transmission method 35 is terminated after the step S354.
Furthermore, referring to
The data flow for transmitting and receiving data of the application processor 11 described for
In the present exemplary embodiment of the transmitter 4, the implementation of the transmitter 4 can be connecting an external Wi-Fi® dongle to the portable device (which includes the transmitter 4) such that the external Wi-Fi® dongle is directly coupled to the encoder 12. The application processor 11 has its dedicated Wi-Fi® module for Internet access; otherwise, the application processor 11 needs to share the same WiFi® Wi-Fi module used for both Internet access and encoded multimedia forwarding. The application processor 11 can directly access to the Internet through the wireless communication module 13 through the data interface DIF_2. The data interface DIF_3 can be a USB® interface or a SDIO® interface depending upon the interface which the wireless communication module 43 supports.
Compared with the transmitter 2 and the transmitter 3, the transmitter 4 costs more in terms of hardware cost. However, the transmitter 4 achieves higher bandwidth and overall transmission performance due to two wireless communication modules respectively being coupled to the application processor 11 and the encoder module 12, and MIMO antenna configuration of the wireless communication module 43. Software network solution of the application processor or software implementations of the transmitter 2 and the transmitter 3 generally affect performance of the application processor 11. Also, the bandwidth of the transmitter 2 and the transmitter 3 is limited to the wireless communication module (including a Wi-Fi® chip) connected to the application processor 11.
In the present exemplary embodiment, the encoder module 12 of the transmitter 4 is configured for directly forwarding the second multimedia data to the wireless communication module 43 through the data interface DIF_3. The encoder module 12 also receives the first multimedia data from the application processor 11, encodes the first multimedia data into the second multimedia data, and forwards the second multimedia data to the wireless communication module 43 for delivery to a HD display device. Also, the encoder module 12 includes a Wi-Fi® driver for the wireless communication module 43.
The transmission method of the transmitter 4 provided by the invention can be described as the following procedures or data flows.
In step S453, the HDMI® receiver 24 forwards the video data and the audio data respectively to the encoder module 12 through the RGB interface SMIF_2 and the I2S interface SMIF_3. In step S453, the encoder module 12 encodes the video data and the audio data into the second multimedia data, and forwards the second multimedia data to the wireless communication module 43 through the data interface DIF _3 for delivery on a Wi-Fi® Wi-Fi system to a HD display device. The transmission method 45 is terminated after the step S453.
The application processor 11 is configured for forwarding the first multimedia data in an audio format and a video format to the encoder module 12. As shown in
The transmission method of the transmitter 5 provided by the invention can be described as the following procedures or data flows.
In the step S553, the encoder module 12 encodes the video data and the audio data into the second multimedia data, and forwards the second multimedia data to the application processor 11 through the data interface DIF_1. The second multimedia data occupies less bandwidth than the original first multimedia data from the application processor 11, such that the second multimedia data can be suitably delivered on a Wi-Fi® system. In the step S554, the application processor 11 forwards the second multimedia data to the wireless communication module 13 through the data interface DIF_2 for delivery to a HD display device. The transmission method 55 is terminated after the step S554.
In the present exemplary embodiment, the encoder module 12 of the transmitter 6 is configured for directly receiving data from and forwarding data to the wireless communication module 33. The encoder module 12 encodes the first multimedia data into the second multimedia data, and forwards the second multimedia data to the wireless communication module 33 for delivery to a HD display device. Also, the encoder module 12 includes a WiFi® driver for the wireless communication module 33. Furthermore, the encoder module 12 also provides functionalities of Ethernet over USB®, or SDIO® to USB® bridge depending upon following two different configurations of data interfaces DIF_1 and DIF_3.
In a first configuration of the data interfaces DIF_1 and DIF_3, the data interfaces DIF_1 and DIF_3 are USB® interfaces, so the encoder module 12 provides the Ethernet over USB® functionality. In a second configuration of the data interfaces DIF_1 and DIF_3, the data interface DIF_1 is a USB® interface and the data interface DIF_3 is a SDIO® interface, so the encoder module 12 provides the SDIO® to USB® bridge functionality which also includes Ethernet over USB® functionality.
The transmission method of the transmitter 6 provided by the invention can be described as the following procedures or data flows.
In step S653, the encoder module 12 encodes the video data and the audio data into the second multimedia data, and forwards the second data to the wireless communication module 33 through the data interface DIF_3 for delivery to a HD display device. The second multimedia data occupies less bandwidth than the original first multimedia data from the application processor 11, such that the second multimedia data can be suitably delivered on a Wi-Fi® system to a HD display device. The transmission method 65 is terminated after the step S653.
Compared with the transmitter 5 and the transmitter 6, the transmitter 7 costs more in terms of hardware cost but achieve higher bandwidth and overall transmission performance due to two wireless communication modules respectively being coupled to the application processor 11 and the encoder module 12, and MIMO antenna configuration of the wireless communication module 43. Software network solution of the application processor or software implementations of the transmitter 5 and the transmitter 6 generally affect performance of the application processor. Also, the bandwidth of the transmitter 5 and the transmitter 6 is limited to the wireless communication module (including a Wi-Fi® chip) connected to the application processor 11.
The transmission method of the transmitter 7 provided by the invention can be described as the following procedures or data flows.
In step S753, the encoder module 12 encodes the video data and the audio data into the second multimedia data, and forwards the second multimedia data to the wireless communication module 33 through the data interface DIF_3 for delivery to a HD display device. The transmission method 75 is terminated after the step S753. The second multimedia data occupies less bandwidth than the original first multimedia data from the application processor 11, such that the second multimedia data can be suitably delivered on a Wi-Fi® system to a HD display device.
Since the encoder module 12 is directly coupled to the memory modules 81, 82, the initialization procedure of the encoder module 12 can be executed by itself without any processing from the application processor 11. For example, a firmware of the encoder module 12 can be stored in the memory module 82. The initialization of the encoder module 12 can be performed by loading the firmware from the memory module 82 to the encoder module 12 through the data interface DIFS, and running the firmware of the encoder module 12 in the memory module 81 in order to boot up the encoder module 12.
The transmission method of the transmitter 8 provided by the invention can be described as the following procedures or data flows.
In step S853, the HDMI® receiver 24 forwards the video data and the audio data to the encoder module 12 respectively through the RGB interface SMIF_2 and the I2S interface SMIF_3. In step S854, the encoder module 12 encodes the video data and the audio data into the second multimedia data, and forwards the second data to the application processor 11 through the data interface DIF_1. The second multimedia data occupies less bandwidth than the original first multimedia data from the application processor 11, such that the second multimedia data can be suitably delivered on a Wi-Fi® system. In step S855, the application processor 11 forwards the second multimedia data to the wireless communication module 13 through the data interface DIF_2 for delivery to a HD display device. The transmission method 85 is terminated after the step S855.
The transmission method of the transmitter 9 provided by the invention can be described as the following procedures or data flows.
In step S953, the HDMI® receiver 24 forwards the video data and the audio data respectively to the encoder module 12 through the RGB interface SMIF_2 and the I2S interface SMIF_3. In step S954, the encoder module 12 encodes the video data and the audio data into the second multimedia data, and forwards the second data to the wireless communication module 33 through the data interface DIF_3. The transmission method 95 is terminated after the step S954. The second multimedia data occupies less bandwidth than the original first multimedia data from the application processor 11, such that the second multimedia data can be suitably delivered on a Wi-Fi®Wi-Fi system to a HD display device.
The transmission method of the transmitter 100 provided by the invention can be described as the following procedures or data flows.
In step S1053, the HDMI® receiver 24 forwards the video data and the audio data respectively to the encoder module 12 through the RGB interface SMIF_2 and the I2S interface SMIF_3. In step S1054, the encoder module 12 encodes the video data and the audio data into the second multimedia data, and transmits the second data to the wireless communication module 43 through the data interface DIF_3 for delivery on a Wi-Fi® system to a HD display device. The transmission method 105 is terminated after the step S1054.
The transmission method of the transmitter 110 provided by the invention can be described as the following procedures or data flows.
In step S1153, the encoder module 12 encodes the video data and the audio data into the second multimedia data, and forwards the second multimedia data to the application processor 11 through the data interface DIF_1. The second multimedia data occupies less bandwidth than the original first multimedia data from the application processor 11, such that the second multimedia data can be suitably delivered on a Wi-Fi® system. In step S1154, the application processor 11 forwards the second multimedia data to the wireless communication module 13 through the data interface DIF_2 for delivery to a HD display device. The transmission method 115 is terminated after the step S1154.
The transmission method of the transmitter 120 provided by the invention can be described as the following procedures or data flows.
In the step S1253, the encoder module 12 encodes the video data and the audio data into the second multimedia data, and forwards the second multimedia data to the wireless communication module 33 through the data interface DIF_3. The second multimedia data occupies less bandwidth than the original first multimedia data from the application processor 11, such that the second multimedia data can be suitably delivered on a Wi-Fi® system to a HD display device. The transmission method 125 is terminated after the step S1253.
Compared with the transmitter 110 and the transmitter 120, the transmitter 130 costs more in terms of hardware cost but achieve higher bandwidth and overall transmission performance due to two wireless communication modules respectively being coupled to the application processor 11 and the encoder module 12, and MIMO antenna configuration of the wireless communication module 43. Software network solution of the application processor or software implementations of the transmitter 110 and the transmitter 120 generally affect performance of the application processor. Also, the bandwidth of the transmitter 110 and the transmitter 120 is limited to the wireless communication module (including a Wi-Fi® chip) connected to the application processor 11. Moreover, the application processor 11 has its dedicated Wi-Fi® module for Internet access; otherwise, the application processor 11 needs to share the same WiFi® module used for both Internet access and encoded multimedia forwarding.
The transmission method of the transmitter 130 provided by the invention can be described as the following procedures or data flows.
In the step S1353, the encoder module 12 encodes the video data and the audio data into the second multimedia data, and forwards the second multimedia data to the wireless communication module 33 through the data interface DIF_3. The second multimedia data occupies less bandwidth than the original first multimedia data from the application processor 11, such that the second multimedia data can be suitably delivered on a Wi-Fi® system to a HD display device. The transmission method 135 is terminated after the step S1154.
The wireless communication module 142 is configured for receiving IP packets, where the received IP packets can include multimedia data. In particular, the wireless communication module 142 receives multimedia data from a transmitter. The multimedia processing subsystem 141 is configured for receiving input multimedia data from the wireless communication module 142. The multimedia processing subsystem 141 is also configured for decoding, decompressing and converting the input multimedia data to output multimedia data. The multimedia processing subsystem 141 transfers the output multimedia data to a HD display device such as a HDTV 146.
In the receiver 140, the multimedia processing subsystem 141 includes a decoder module 143 and a multimedia interface MIF_2. The decoder module 143 is directly coupled to the wireless communication module 142 through a data interface DIF_6. The data interface DIF_6 is a SDIO® interface or a USB® interface, and is a bi-directional interface. The decoder module 143 is configured for receiving the input multimedia data from the wireless communication module 142, where the input multimedia data from the wireless communication module 13 can be, for example, the second multimedia data from the transmitter 1.
The decoder module 143 is further coupled to a HDTV 146 through the multimedia interface MIF_2. The decoder module 143 is also configured for decoding, decompressing and converting the input multimedia data to intermediate multimedia data, and further transferring the intermediate multimedia data to the multimedia interface MIF_2. The multimedia interface MIF_2 converts intermediate multimedia data to the HDTV 146. The output multimedia data is in HDMI® format.
Referring to
In the multimedia processing subsystem 141, there is an optional control interface CIF between the decoder module 143 and the HDMI® transmitter 144. The optional control interface CIF can be used to configure the HDMI® transmitter 144 by the decoder module 143 depending upon whether the HDMI® transmitter 144 supports configurable feature via CIF.
The decoder module 143 is coupled to the memory module 81 through a data interface DIF_7. The memory module 81 is, for example, SDRAM. The data interface DIF_7 is a bi-directional interface. The decoder module 143 is also coupled to the memory module 82 through a data interface DIF_8. The memory module 82 is, for example, FLASH memory. The decoder module 143 is directly coupled to memory modules 81, 82, so the initialization procedure of the encoder module 143 can be executed by itself The decoder module 143 can be initialized by loading a firmware of the decoder module 143 from the memory module 82 and running the firmware in the memory module 81.
The receiving method of the receiver 140 provided by the invention can be described as the following procedures or data flows.
In step S1473, the decoder module 143 forwards the intermediate multimedia data to the HDMI® transmitter 144 through the multimedia interface MIF_2. In particular, the video data of the intermediate multimedia data is forwarded to the HDMI® transmitter 144 through the sub-multimedia interface SMIF_4, and the audio data of the intermediate multimedia data is forwarded to the HDMI® transmitter 144 through the sub-multimedia interface SMIF_5. In other words, the converted audio data and video data in the intermediate multimedia data are respectively transferred to the HDMI® transmitter 144. The video data in the input multimedia data is converted to be in RGB format, and the audio data in the input multimedia data is converted to be in I2S format by the decoder module 143. In this case, the intermediate multimedia data includes the converted video data in RGB format and the converted audio data in I2S format.
In step S1474, the HDMI® transmitter 144 converts the intermediate multimedia data into the output data, which is in HDMI® format. The HDMI® transmitter 144 converts the audio data and the video data into the output multimedia data.
In step S1475, the HDMI® transmitter 144 forwards the output multimedia data to the HDTV 146 through the sub-multimedia interface SMIF_7 for rendering on the HDTV 146. The receiving method 147 is terminated after the step S1475.
In summary, exemplary embodiments of the invention provides transmission methods, receiving methods, and wireless communication systems using the same methods. By compressing first multimedia data into second multimedia data, delivery of high resolution multimedia data from portable devices to HD display devices through the Wi-Fi® system can be economical and efficient. Also, initialization procedures of the encoder module of the wireless communication systems can be executed more efficiently by directly accessing to memory modules. In addition, the overall transmission performance of the wireless communication system can be enhanced by using two wireless communication modules respectively coupled to the application processor and the encoder module of the wireless communication system.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variation can be made to the structure of the disclosed embodiments without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the invention cover modifications and variation of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
This application claims the priority benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 61/410,371 filed on Nov. 5, 2010. The entirety of the above-mentioned provisional application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61410371 | Nov 2010 | US |