Abstract:
A method and apparatus for time and space domain shifting of broadcast signals is disclosed. A broadcast station in a first geographic location transmits in a first time frame a broadcast signal to a local receiver also located in the first geographic location. The local receiver encodes the broadcast signal into an encoded signal capable of being transmitted via a world wide network, and then transmits the encoded signal via the world wide network. The transmitted encoded signal is received by a media player located within a second geographic location outside the first geographic location and coupled to the world wide network, and the encoded signal is decoded by the media player such that information contained within the signal is capable of being reproduced. The information may be reproduced by the media player as the signal is received via the world wide network, or the reproduction of the information may be delayed to a predetermined time such that the time frame of the broadcast signal may be shifted from the first time frame to a second time frame. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other researcher to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
   The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/184,849 filed Feb. 25, 2000. Said U.S. Provisional Application 60/184,849 is hereby incorporated by reference. 

   BACKGROUND 
   Broadcasts such as from local broadcast stations tend to generate a popular following among listeners or viewers who are in the geographic location of the broadcast station and who are capable of receiving the signal from the broadcast station. However, listeners and viewers may move away from the geographic location yet still desire to listen to the broadcasts. Since local broadcasts only cover a limited broadcast area limited by the transmission power of the broadcast station and by governmental regulations, a typical radio or television receiver is incapable of receiving the broadcast from the broadcast station when the radio or television receiver is outside the geographic location of the broadcast station. For example, a listener or viewer from England cannot receive the broadcast signal from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) with his or her radio or television receiver in California. Thus, such a displaced British citizen would have to forgo listening to or viewing his favorite BBC programs when he or she is in California. Thus, it would be highly desirable to provide a method and apparatus that would allow such a person displaced from the geographic region to receive broadcast signals from a broadcast station even though the person may be located outside of the geographic location of the broadcast station. Furthermore, since a person displaced away from a geographic location may be located several time zones away from the time zone of the broadcast station, the time of the broadcast in the time zone of the displaced person may be inconvenient for listening or viewing the broadcast. For example, a 9 p.m. broadcast of a BBC program in England may be 1 p.m. in the time zone of the displaced person. The displaced person may not be able to listen to or view the broadcast at that time, and would prefer to watch the program at 9 p.m. in the time zone of the displaced person. Thus, it would be further highly desirable to provide a method and apparatus for delaying the listening or viewing of the geographically shifted broadcast such that the broadcast signal could be shifted in both the time domain and the space domain. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The numerous advantages of the present invention may be better understood by those skilled in the art by reference to the accompanying figures in which: 
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a system for time and space domain shifting of broadcast signals in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram of a computer system operable to embody the present invention; 
       FIG. 3  is a block diagram of a media player in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 4  is a flow diagram of a method for time and space domain shifting of broadcast signals in accordance with the present invention. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
   Reference will now be made in detail to the presently preferred embodiment of the invention, an example of which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that like reference numerals refer to like items throughout the drawing figures. 
   Referring now to  FIG. 1 , a block diagram of a system for time and space domain shifting of broadcast signals in accordance with the present invention will be discussed. In system  100 , a broadcast station  110  broadcasts a signal to a local receiver  112  in a first geographic location  114 . The signal broadcast by broadcast station contains information capable of being reproduced by an appropriate receiving device such as local receiver  112 . For example, broadcast station  112  may broadcast a radio or a television signal to local receiver which may be a radio or television receiver, respectively. Typically, broadcast station  112  broadcasts a broadcast signal in a predefined geographic location  114  wherein the area included within geographic region in which an appropriate receiver is capable of receiving and demodulating the signal is determined by the transmission power of broadcast station  112  or governmental agencies (e.g., the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), etc.). In operation of system  100 , local receiver  112  receives a signal broadcast by broadcast station  110  and encodes the signal into an encoded signal capable of being transmitted via a world wide network  116 . World wide network  116  may be, for example, the Internet. In such an embodiment, local receiver  112  converts the broadcast signal from the broadcast format (e.g., frequency modulation (FM), amplitude modulation (AM), etc.) into an Internet format (e.g., point-to-point protocol (PPP), file transfer protocol (FTP), etc.). The broadcast signal is then capable of being transmitted via world wide network  116  to a media player  118  that is located outside of geographic location  114  in a second geographic location  120 . For example, geographic location  114  may be New York, N.Y. and geographic location  120  may be Sunnyvale, Calif. Thus, media player  118  is capable of receiving a broadcast signal from broadcast station  110  even though media player  118  is located outside of geographic location  114 , even distantly so, by receiving the signal from local receiver  112  via world wide network  116 . When media player  118  receives the encoded broadcast signal via world wide network  116 , media player decodes the encoded broadcast signal such that the information contained in the signal is capable of being reproduced by media player  118 . Thus, the signal broadcast by broadcast station is thereby capable of being shifted in the space domain from a first position in space, e.g., geographic location  114 , to a second position in space, e.g., geographic location  120 . Furthermore, although media player  118  is capable of reproducing the information contained in the signal as it is received via world wide network  116  and decoded, media player  118  is also capable of storing the signal received via world wide network for retrieval and playback at a later time as desired by a user. The signal may be stored in an analog format, for example, on a magnetic tape of a videocassette recorder (VCR) coupled to media player  118 , or in a digital format such as on a hard disk drive of media player  118 . Thus, the signal broadcast by broadcast station  110  is thereby capable of being shifted in the time domain from a first time frame, e.g., the time frame of the broadcast from broadcast station  110 , to a second time frame, e.g., the time frame of reproduction by media player  118 . 
   Referring now to  FIG. 2 , a hardware system in accordance with the present invention is shown. The hardware system shown in  FIG. 2  is generally representative of the hardware architecture of a computer system embodiment of the present invention. Computer system  200  may be configured to implement system  100  of  FIG. 1 , for example, by executing program  112  and program  120 . A central processor  202  controls the computer system  200 . Central processor  202  includes a central processing unit such as a microprocessor or microcontroller for executing programs, performing data manipulations and controlling the tasks of computer system  200 . Communication with central processor  202  is implemented through a system bus  210  for transferring information among the components of computer system  200 . Bus  210  may include a data channel for facilitating information transfer between storage and other peripheral components of computer system  200 . Bus  210  further provides the set of signals required for communication with central processor  202  including a data bus, address bus, and control bus. Bus  210  may comprise any state of the art bus architecture according to promulgated standards, for example industry standard architecture (ISA), extended industry standard architecture (EISA), Micro Channel Architecture (MCA), peripheral component interconnect (PCI) local bus, standards promulgated by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) including IEEE 488 general-purpose interface bus (GPIB), IEEE 696/S-100, and so on. Furthermore, bus  210  may be compliant with any promulgated industry standard. For example, bus  210  may be designed in compliance with any of the following bus architectures: Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA), Micro Channel Architecture, Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), Universal Serial Bus (USB), Access.bus, IEEE P1394, Apple Desktop Bus (ADB), Concentration Highway Interface (CHI), Fire Wire, Geo Port, or Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI), for example. 
   Other components of computer system  200  include main memory  204 , auxiliary memory  206 , and an auxiliary processor  208  as required. Main memory  204  provides storage of instructions and data for programs executing on central processor  202 . Main memory  204  is typically semiconductor based memory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and or static random access memory (SRAM). Auxiliary memory  206  provides storage of instructions and data that are loaded into the main memory  204  before execution. Auxiliary memory  206  may include semiconductor based memory such as read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM) erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable read-only memory (EEPROM), or flash memory (block oriented memory similar to EEPROM). Auxiliary memory  206  may also include a variety of non-semiconductor based memories, including but not limited to magnetic tape, drum, floppy disk, hard disk, optical, laser disk, compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), digital versatile disk read-only memory (DVD-ROM), digital versatile disk random-access memory (DVD-RAM), etc. Other varieties of memory devices are contemplated as well. Computer system  200  may optionally include an auxiliary processor  208  which may be a digital signal processor (a special-purpose microprocessor having an architecture suitable for fast execution of signal processing algorithms), a back-end processor (a slave processor subordinate to the main processing system), an additional microprocessor or controller for dual or multiple processor systems, or a coprocessor. 
   Computer system  200  further includes a display system  212  for connecting to a display device  214 , and an input/output (I/O) system  216  for connecting to one or more I/O devices  218 ,  220 , up to N number of I/O devices  222 . Display system  212  may comprise a video display adapter having all of the components for driving the display device, including video random access memory (VRAM), buffer, and graphics engine as desired. Display device  214  may comprise a cathode ray-tube (CRT) type display such as a monitor or television, or may comprise alternative type of display technologies such as a liquid-crystal display (LCD), a light-emitting diode (LED) display, or a gas or plasma display. Input/output system  216  may comprise one or more controllers or adapters for providing interface functions between one or more of I/O devices  218 – 222 . For example, input/output system  216  may comprise a serial port, parallel port, infrared port, network adapter, printer adapter, radio-frequency (RF) communications adapter, universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter (UART) port, etc., for interfacing between corresponding I/O devices such as a mouse, joystick, trackball, track pad, track stick, infrared transducers, printer, modem, RF modem, bar code reader, charge-coupled device (CCD) reader, scanner, compact disc (CD), compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), digital versatile disc (DVD), video capture device, touch screen, stylus, electro-acoustic transducer, microphone, speaker, etc. Input/output system  216  and I/O devices  218 – 222  may provide or receive analog or digital signals for communication between computer system  200  of the present invention and external devices, networks, or information sources. Input/output system  216  and I/O devices  218 – 222  preferably implement industry promulgated architecture standards, including Recommended Standard 232 (RS-232) promulgated by the Electrical Industries Association, Infrared Data Association (IrDA) standards, Ethernet IEEE 802 standards (e.g., IEEE 802.3 for broadband and baseband networks, IEEE 802.3z for Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.4 for token passing bus networks, IEEE 802.5 for token ring networks, IEEE 802.6 for metropolitan area networks, 802.11 for wireless networks, and so on), Fibre Channel, digital subscriber line (DSL), asymmetric digital subscriber line (ASDL), frame relay, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), integrated digital services network (ISDN), personal communications services (PCS), transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP), serial line Internet protocol/point to point protocol (SLIP/PPP), and so on. It should be appreciated that modification or reconfiguration of computer system  200  of  FIG. 2  by one having ordinary skill in the art would not depart from the scope or the spirit of the present invention. 
   Referring now to  FIG. 3 , a media player apparatus for receiving an replaying a broadcast signal in accordance with the present invention will be discussed. Media player  118  may include at least one or more network coupling systems for communicating over world wide network  116 . For example, media player  118  may include, for example, a digital subscriber line (DSL) modem  310 , an Ethernet adapter  312 , a dial-up modem  314 , a cable modem  316 , or any similar network adapter  318 . Local receiver  112  of  FIG. 1  may include a receiver for receiving a broadcast signal from broadcast station  110  and a system for converting the received broadcast signal into a format suitable for transmission via world wide network  116 , and may include, for example, a computer system such as computer system  200  of  FIG. 2 . Thus, local receiver  112  is capable of transmitting via world wide network  116  the broadcast signal received from broadcast station  110  to media player  118  such that the signal is received with at least one of network coupling systems  310 – 318 . The one or more network coupling systems are coupled to a computer system  200  of media player  118  which may be, for example, a microcontroller or embedded computer system such as computer system  200  shown in  FIG. 2 . Computer system  200  is coupled to a display for displaying status and control information of media player  118  to a user, and further to display a video signal, for example an embodiment in which the signal broadcast by broadcast station  110  is a television signal. In one embodiment of the present invention, computer system  200  may include an MP3 compatible coder/decoder (CODEC). 
   Computer system  200  of media player  118  is coupled to a storage device  324  for storing information. Storage device  324  may be, for example, semiconductor based memory or magnetic based memory such as a hard disk drive. Storage device  324  may be utilized, for example, to store a program of instructions executable by computer system  200  for controlling media player  118  and causing media player to implement a method for time and space domain shifting of a signal broadcast by broadcast station  110 . Furthermore, storage device  324  is capable of storing a signal received by one or more of network coupling systems  310 – 318  via world wide network  116 . In one particular embodiment, for example, computer system  200  is coupled to a wireless communication system  320  for communicating with a wireless peripheral device  328  via a wireless communication link  326 . For example, wireless communication system  320  includes a frequency hopping, spread spectrum radio operating a 2.4 GHz for communicating to wireless peripheral device  328  via a radio-frequency signal. In one embodiment, wireless peripheral device  328  is at least one or a pair of amplified speakers having a suitable RF receiver for receiving a signal transmitted by wireless communication system  320 . For example, broadcast station  110  broadcasts a radio signal that is received by local receiver  112  and transmitted to media player  118  via world wide network  116 . Media player  118  receives the signal and decodes the signal such that the information (e.g., voice or music) is capable of being reproduced. It may be desirable to reproduce the information with one or more speaker and amplifier systems. So that the speaker and amplifier system may receive the signal without being coupled to media player  118  via wires, media player may transmit the signal to an amplifier and speaker system, operating as wireless peripheral device  328 , via wireless communication link  326 . Thus, media player  118  may be located in a first room while wireless peripheral device may be located in a second room. Furthermore, media player  118  may include an I/O controller  322  for communicating with a peripheral device  330  via a local network. The local network may be compliant with any suitable local network protocol such as Home PNA network, a Home RF network, a Bluetooth network, a HAVi network, etc. 
   Referring now to  FIG. 4 , a method for time and space domain shifting of a broadcast signal in accordance with the present invention. Method  400  initiates with the broadcasting of a signal at step  410  by broadcast station  110 . The signal is received by local receiver  112  at step  412 . The signal is then encoded by local receiver  112  at step  414  into a format suitable for transmission via world wide network  116 . The encoded signal is then transmitted at step  416  via world wide network  116  such that the signal is received by media player  118  at step  418 . The signal is then decoded by media player  118  at step  420  such that the information contained in the signal is capable of being reproduced by media player  118  at step  428 . A determination is made at step  422  whether to delay the signal to a later time frame. In the event it is determined to delay the signal to a later time frame, the signal is stored in storage device  324  at step  424 . A determination may then be made at step  426  whether to play the stored information. In the event it is determined to play the stored in information, the information is produced at step  428 . In the event it is determined to not play the stored information, method  400  may continue, for example, by receiving a signal via world wide network  116  at step  418 . In one embodiment of the present invention, method  400  may be implemented as a program of instructions executed by computer system  200  for causing media player  118  to implement method  400 . The program of instructions may be stored in storage device  324  or stored on a computer program product such as magnetic or optical disk storage medium. 
   Although the invention has been described with a certain degree of particularity, it should be recognized that elements thereof may be altered by persons skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. One of the embodiments of the invention can be implemented as sets of instructions resident in the main memory  204  of one or more computer systems configured generally as described in  FIG. 2 . Until required by the computer system, the set of instructions may be stored in another computer readable memory such as auxiliary memory  206  of  FIG. 2 , for example in a hard disk drive or in a removable memory such as an optical disk for utilization in a CD-ROM drive, a floppy disk for utilization in a floppy disk drive, a floppy/optical disk for utilization in a floppy/optical drive, or a personal computer memory card for utilization in a personal computer card slot. Further, the set of instructions can be stored in the memory of another computer and transmitted over a local area network or a wide area network, such as the Internet, when desired by the user. Additionally, the instructions may be transmitted over a network in the form of an applet (a program executed from within another application) or a servlet (an applet executed by a server) that is interpreted or compiled after transmission to the computer system rather than prior to transmission. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the physical storage of the sets of instructions or applets physically changes the medium upon which it is stored electrically, magnetically, chemically, physically, optically or holographically so that the medium carries computer readable information. 
   It is believed that the method and apparatus for time and space domain shifting of broadcast signals of the present invention and many of its attendant advantages will be understood by the forgoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangement of the components thereof without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention or without sacrificing all of its material advantages, the form herein before described being merely an explanatory embodiment thereof. It is the intention of the following claims to encompass and include such changes.