Abstract:
A wireless audio system includes a first device and a second device. The first device includes a first logic and a first WLAN unit coupled to the first logic. The first logic performs audio processing to generate audio data. The first WLAN unit transmits the audio data through a radio frequency channel. The second device includes a second WLAN unit and an audio reproducing unit coupled to the second WLAN unit. The second WLAN unit receives the audio data from the radio frequency channel. The audio reproducing unit generates sound according to the audio data.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0002]     The present invention relates to a wireless local area network (WLAN) and audio system, and more particularly, to a system structure in which a WLAN device is used to simulate an audio input/output interface.  
         [0003]     2. Description of the Prior Art  
         [0004]     In a conventional computer system, a dedicated sound card is usually used as a processing unit of audio data and an input/output interface of the audio data. The dedicated sound card is coupled to a speaker and/or a microphone through cable(s) with certain specification. Through the speaker, sound corresponding to the audio data generated by the dedicated sound card is reproduced. Through the microphone, sound in the real world is captured and processed by the dedicated sound card to generate corresponding audio data.  
         [0005]     In practice, dedicated sound cards constitute only one kind of input/output interface in the computer systems available in the market. With appropriate design, other kinds of data input/output interfaces can also be used to implement the audio input/output interfaces of computer systems.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0006]     One of the objectives of the present invention is to let a host computer register a WLAN interface as an audio I/O interface, so that the host computer can transmit/receive audio data through the WLAN interface.  
         [0007]     According to an embodiment, a wireless audio system is disclosed. The wireless audio system comprises a first device and a second device. The first device comprises a first logic and a first WLAN unit. The first logic performs audio processing to generate audio data. The first WLAN unit is coupled to the first logic and is responsible for transmitting the audio data through a radio frequency channel. The second device comprises a second WLAN unit and an audio reproducing unit. The second WLAN unit receives the audio data from the radio frequency channel. The audio reproducing unit is coupled to the second WLAN unit and is responsible for generating sound according to the audio data.  
         [0008]     According to another embodiment, another wireless audio system is disclosed. The wireless audio system comprises a first device and a second device. The first device comprises a first logic and a first WLAN unit. The first logic performs audio processing on audio data. The first WLAN unit is coupled to the first logic and is responsible for receiving the audio data from a radio frequency channel. The second device comprises a second WLAN unit and an audio capturing unit. The second WLAN unit transmits the audio data through the radio frequency channel. The audio capturing unit is coupled to the second WLAN unit and is in charge of converting sound into the audio data.  
         [0009]     These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0010]      FIG. 1  shows a wireless audio system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0011]      FIG. 2  shows another wireless audio system according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0012]     Along with the advancement of wireless local area network (WLAN) related technology, WLAN interfaces (such as WLAN cards) have already become a basic input/output interface of modern computer systems. Through a WLAN interface, a computer system (such as a personal computer or a notebook-type computer) can establish a wireless communication link with a remote device (such as an access point). Through the wireless communication link, data can be transferred between the computer system and the remote device.  
         [0013]      FIG. 1  shows a wireless audio system  100  according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. In  FIG. 1 , the wireless audio system  100  comprises a host computer  110  and a remote device  150 . For instance, the host computer  110  can be implemented by a personal computer or a notebook-type computer, and the remote device  150  can be implemented by a wireless access point (AP). In this embodiment, the host computer  100  (implemented by an ordinary computer) comprises a central processing unit (CPU)  120 , a north bridge chip  122 , a south bridge chip  124 , and other components (such as a memory  126 ) connected to the system through the north bridge chip  122 . In addition, the host computer  110  further comprises a first WLAN chip  130 . The first WLAN chip  130  can be realized as a wireless network card or an integrated component of a main board of the host computer  110 . Through a bus interface, such as a PCI interface, the first WLAN chip  130  is coupled to the south bridge chip  124  to communicate with the host computer  110 .  
         [0014]     In this embodiment, the remote device  150  comprises a second WLAN chip  160 , such as an access point control chip. The second WLAN chip  160  communicates with the first WLAN chip  130  of the host computer  110  according to specifications of a WLAN standard, such as IEEE 802.11. In addition, the remote device  150  further comprises an audio reproducing unit  170  for reproducing sound and an audio capturing unit  180  for converting sound into audio data. For example, the audio reproducing unit  170  can be implemented by a speaker; and the audio capturing unit  180  can be implemented by a microphone. The audio reproducing unit  170  and the audio capturing unit  180  can be integrated components built into the remote device  150 . The audio reproducing unit  170  and the audio capturing unit  180  can also be stand-alone devices connected to the remote device  150  through audio phone jacks.  
         [0015]     In the embodiment shown in  FIG. 1 , the host computer  110  is not equipped with a dedicated audio processing hardware, such as an audio codec chip. After the first WLAN chip  130  is connected to the host computer  110  through the PCI interface, it will be registered as an audio processing unit. More specifically, the host computer  110  views the first WLAN chip  130  as an audio processing unit. Audio data is inputted to or outputted from the host computer  110  through the first WLAN chip  130 . In this embodiment, the computational capacity of the CPU  120  is used to account for the functions of an ordinary audio processing hardware, such as audio encoding and/or audio decoding. More specifically, the CPU  120  reads program codes for audio processing from the memory  126 . By way of software operations, audio data for output or inputted audio data is processed. After being processed by the CPU  120 , the audio data, which may, as an example, conform to standards of pulse code modulation (PCM), is then sent to the first WLAN chip  130  through the PCI interface. The first WLAN chip  130  encodes the audio data into packets of WLAN and sends the packets to the remote device  150  through a radio frequency channel. The second WLAN chip  160  decodes the received packets to generate the original audio data conforming to the PCM standards. Sound is then reproduced by the speaker  170  according to the audio data. In a reversed direction of data flow, the microphone  180  converts captured sound into audio data conforming to the PCM standards. The second WLAN chip  160  encodes the audio data into packets of WLAN and sends the packets to the host computer  110  through a radio frequency channel. The first WLAN chip  130  decodes the received packets to generate the original audio data conforming to the PCM standards. The audio data is then processed by the CPU  120 .  
         [0016]     In the wireless audio system  100 , audio processing is performed on the host computer  110 . Processed audio data, which conforms to standards such as PCM, is then transmitted through the radio frequency channel between the first and second WLAN chips  130  and  160 . Such a system structure allows audio data to be processed by the host computer  110  and then sent to the remote device  150  for sound reproduction, and it also allows raw audio data to be generated by the remote device  150  and then sent to the host computer  110  for further processing. No complicated audio processing hardware is required to be set in the remote device  150 . Only the computational capacity of the host computer  110  is required for audio processing, therefore manufacturing cost is greatly reduced. Please note that the audio data conforming to PCM standard only serves as an example, and audio data conforming to other kinds of audio standards can also be used in other embodiments of the present invention.  
         [0017]      FIG. 2  shows a wireless audio system  200  according to a second embodiment of the present invention. Most components of the wireless audio system  100  of  FIG. 1  are similar to those of the wireless audio system  200  of  FIG. 2 , and are therefore labeled the same in  FIG. 2 . The main difference between  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2  is that in  FIG. 2  the host computer  110  further comprises a dedicated audio processing hardware, i.e., the high-level audio processing chip  140 . The audio processing chip  140  may be included in a sound card, which is coupled to the host computer  110  through a PCI interface. Since the computational power provided by the CPU  120  is limited, when highly complicated audio processing is required, the host computer  110  can assign part of, or the entire audio processing tasks to the dedicated audio processing chip  140 .  
         [0018]     Although a host computer utilizing a north bridge and a south bridge as a main communication channel is used as an example of the host computer  110 , host computers having other kinds of structure can also be used in other embodiments of the present invention. For instance, a host computer utilizing a PCI EXPRESS BUS as a main communication channel can also be used to implement the host computer  110 . Additionally, although the host computer  110  of the above-mentioned embodiments is a personal computer (PC), other kinds of electronic devices capable of performing audio processing and wireless communication can also be used to implement the host computer  110 . Furthermore, although the remote device  150  of the above-mentioned embodiments is an access point (AP), any kinds of electronic devices capable of performing sound reproduction/capturing and wireless communication can be used to implement the remote device  150 .  
         [0019]     If network bandwidth is sufficient, aside from registering the first WLAN chip  130  as the audio processing unit and inputting/outputting audio data through the first WLAN chip  130 , the host computer  110  can also communicate with another WLAN device through the first WLAN chip  130  concurrently. Under this scheme, the first WLAN chip  130  can be viewed as a wireless data communication interface and a wireless audio input/output interface of the host computer  110  at the same time. In addition, Multiple BSSID is a technology that can be applied by the first WLAN chip  130  when the above-mentioned two roles are performed by the first WLAN chip  130  at the same time.  
         [0020]     Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.