Abstract:
After a television transmits an audio signal, which is generated by decoding an audio stream, to a mobile electronic device located within a detectable range of the television in a wireless manner, the mobile electronic device plays the audio signal received from the television for fulfilling surround sound performance.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C 119 to Taiwan patent application, TW102115777, filed on May 2, 2013, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a video/audio playing method and television, and more particularly, to a video/audio playing method fulfilling surround sound effect by transmitting audio signal from a television to a mobile electronic apparatus and the television applying the video/audio playing method. 
     2. Description of the Prior Art 
     Decades after televisions went into families, requirements to video/audio quality of televisions gradually upgrade to evolve the home theater concept. A home theater is realized by additional equipments other than television, creating surround sound effect as in the movie theater. The equipment providing surround sound effect is physically connected to the television for receiving the audio signal generated by the television. 
     In additional to inherent high cost, since the equipment creating surround sound effect is required to physically connect to the television, the difficulty of installation has to be considered. Besides, the surround sound effect provided by the equipment is easily downgraded and affected by the location constraints of television and the equipment. Gain may not be worth the cost. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     For solving the shortcomings of high cost or difficulty of installation of surround sound effect equipment mentioned in the prior art, a video/audio playing method and a television applying the method are disclosed in this present invention. 
     The video/audio playing method disclosed by the present invention is applicable to a television having a signal transmission range. The method comprises: transmitting an acknowledgement signal if there exists a mobile electronic apparatus in the signal transmission range; and transmitting an audio signal to the mobile electronic apparatus in response to receiving an approved signal returned from the mobile electronic apparatus corresponding to the acknowledgement signal such that the mobile electronic apparatus plays synchronically audio content of the audio signal. 
     The television having a signal transmission range disclosed by the present invention comprises a detecting module and a wireless audio transmitter. The detecting module is configured for transmitting an acknowledgement signal if there exists a mobile electronic apparatus in the signal transmission range and receiving an approved signal returned from the mobile electronic apparatus corresponding to the acknowledgement signal. The wireless audio transmitter is configured for transmitting an audio signal to the mobile electronic apparatus in response to receiving the approved signal such that the mobile electronic apparatus plays synchronically audio content of the audio signal. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The present invention can be more fully understood by reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, with reference made to the accompanying drawings, wherein: 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic block diagram of interaction between a television and several mobile electronic apparatus for fulfilling surround sound effect in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a flowchart diagram of a video/audio playing method disclosed in an embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Some embodiments of the present invention are described in details below. However, in addition to the descriptions given below, the present invention can be applicable to other embodiments, and the scope of the present invention is not limited by such, rather by the scope of the claims. Moreover, for better understanding and clarity of the description, some components in the drawings may not necessary be drawn to scale, in which some may be exaggerated relative to others, and irrelevant parts are omitted. 
     Please refer to  FIG. 1 , which shows a schematic block diagram of interaction between a television  100  and several mobile electronic apparatuses  200 A and  200 B for fulfilling surround sound effect in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in  FIG. 1 , the television  100  comprises a detecting module  110 , a wireless audio transmitter  120 , and an audio decoder  130 . The television  100  may be a digital television. 
     The detecting module  110  is configured to detect the existence of mobile electronic apparatus neighboring to the television  100 . In the embodiment shown in  FIG. 1 , both of the mobile electronic apparatuses  200 A and  200 B are located in a signal transmission range of the detecting module  110 . The television is aware of the existences of the mobile electronic apparatus  200 A and  200 B according to the detection performed by the detecting module  110 . 
     The audio decoder  130  is configured to decode audio signal stream AUDIO received by the television  100  from external network or physical cable wires according to different channels in order to generate decoded channel audio stream AUDIOC. The decoded channel audio stream AUDIOC generated by the audio decoder  130  is organized as a data structure such that audio streams belonging to different channels can be directly and separately accessed. 
     The wireless audio transmitter  120  is configured to follow the instructions of the detecting module  110  in order to convert an audio stream corresponding to a specified channel to an audio signal and to wirelessly transmit the audio signal to a specified mobile electronic apparatus. For example, transmitting via Wi-Fi network or wireless Internet. 
     The practice of the television  100  realizing surround sound effect is elaborated in details below. 
     At first, the detecting module  110  can actively detect or be passively inquiried to detect the mobile electronic apparatuses  200 A and  200 B are located within the signal transmission range. After the apparatuses detected, the detecting module  110  broadcasts an acknowledgement signal ACK. After the mobile electronic apparatuses  200 A and  200 B receive the acknowledgement signal ACK, in case the user of the mobile electronic apparatus  200 A and  200 B intends to accept the acknowledgment and trigger acceptance commands on the mobile electronic apparatuses  200 A and  200 B, the mobile electronic apparatus  200 A returns an approved signal APR 1  and the mobile electronic apparatus  200 B returns another approved signal APR 2 . The approved signal APR 1  includes the identity of the mobile electronic apparatus  200 A and/or a channel number specified by the mobile electronic apparatus  200 A. Similarly, the approved signal APR 2  includes the identity of the mobile electronic apparatus  200 B and/or a channel number specified by the mobile electronic apparatus  200 B. 
     In response to the receiving of the approved signals APR 1  and APR 2  from the mobile electronic apparatuses  200 A and  200 B, respectively, the detecting module  110  forwards the approved signals APR 1  and APR 2  to the wireless audio transmitter  120 . After parsing the approved signal APR 1  and retrieving the identity of the mobile electronic apparatus  200 A and the specified channel number, the wireless audio transmitter  120  retrieves an audio stream from the decoded channel audio stream AUDIOC according to the specified channel number in order to generate an audio signal AUDIO 1 . At last, the wireless transmitter  120  transmits wirelessly the audio signal AUDIO 1  as well as the identity of the mobile electronic apparatus  200 A such that only the mobile electronic apparatus  200 A is able to receive and play the audio signal AUDIO 1 . In a similar way, after parsing the approved signal APR 2  and retrieving the identity of the mobile electronic apparatus  200 B and the specified channel number, the wireless audio transmitter  120  retrieves an audio stream from the decoded channel audio stream AUDIOC according to the specified channel number in order to generate an audio signal AUDIO 2 . At last, the wireless transmitter  120  transmits wirelessly the audio signal AUDIO 2  as well as the identity of the mobile electronic apparatus  200 B such that only the mobile electronic apparatus  200 B is able to receive and play the audio signal AUDIO 2 . 
     Because the mobile electronic apparatus is always carried by the user or located within a reachable range of the user, when the television is playing video image, the audio stream of the channel corresponding to the video image being played is wirelessly transmitted to each of the mobile electronic apparatuses. Hence, the user of the mobile electronic apparatus can listen to the audio with less loss. If each of the mobile electronic apparatus in the signal transmission range of the television  100  specifies the same channel number, surround sound effect is realized without additional equipment. Therefore the cost of equipment providing surround sound effect can be saved. 
     In one embodiment of the present invention, the mobile electronic apparatus  200 A can further specify a sound channel, e.g., left sound channel, to the wireless audio transmitter  120 . Consequently, the audio signal AUDIO 1  contains only left sound channel data of the specified channel. Similarly, the mobile electronic apparatus  200 B can further specify another sound channel, e.g., right sound channel, to the wireless audio transmitter  120 . Consequently, the audio signal AUDIO 2  contains only right sound channel data of the specified channel. If properly arranged, the audio transducers of the television  100  and the mobile electronic apparatuses  200 A and  200 B can provide collectively surround sound effect. In another embodiment, the television  100  can automatically appoints that the audio signal AUDIO 1  contains one sound channel of the specified channel and the audio signal AUDIO 2  contains another sound channel of the specified channel. In an alternative embodiment, the audio sound channel AUDIO 1  played by the mobile electronic apparatus  200 A and the audio sound channel AUDIO 2  played by the mobile electronic apparatus  200 B can contain multiple and duplicated sound channels, respectively. In practical, if the audio stream of the channel corresponding to the video image supports multiple sound channels, e.g., 5.1 surround sound, the television  100  can synchronically play sound channels other than those played by the mobile electronic apparatuses  200 A and  200 B. Reversely, if the audio stream of the channel corresponding to the video image being playing supports two or single sound channel, the television can play all of sound channels synchronically. The configuration can be set manually by user or automatically by the television  100  and/or the mobile electronic apparatuses  200 A and  200 B. Moreover, in order to support better surround sound effect, the television  100  can further comprise other external audio transducer equipment and it is not restricted to the mobile electronic apparatuses  200 A and  200 B. 
     In one embodiment of the present invention, the television  100  may further include a layout setting module  140 , which stores a plurality of surround sound layout settings generated according to a rule of thumb of surround sound effect in advanced. When the detecting module  110  receives the approved signals APR 1  and APR 2  from the mobile electronic apparatuses  200 A and  200 B, respectively, and forwards them to the layout setting module  140 , the layout setting module  140  indicates best deployment positions of the mobile electronic apparatuses  200 A and  200 B for improving the surround sound effect according to the position information of the mobile electronic apparatuses  200 A and  200 B contained in the approved signals APR 1  and APR 2 , respectively. The layout setting module  140  generates and transmits position setting signals SET 1  and SET 2  to the mobile electronic apparatuses  200 A and  200 B (with the help of the identities of the mobile electronic apparatuses  200 A and  200 B), respectively, in order to indicates the best deployment positions. Please be advised that when the detecting module  110  transmits the acknowledgement signal ACK, it is requested that the position information of responded mobile electronic apparatus should be contained in the approved signal. 
     Please refer to  FIG. 2 , which illustrates a flowchart of a video/audio playing method disclosed in an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in  FIG. 2 , the method includes the following steps: 
     Step  202 : if there exists a mobile electronic apparatus in the signal transmission range of a television  100 , the television  100  transmits an acknowledgement signal ACK. 
     Step  204 : if the television  100  receives an approved signal APR 1  or APR 2  from the mobile electronic apparatus corresponding to the acknowledgement signal ACK, the television  100  transmits an audio signal AUDIO 1  or AUDIO 2  to the mobile electronic apparatus. 
     The details of the flowchart as shown in  FIG. 2  are already elaborated in the paragraphs with respect to  FIG. 1 , and are thus omitted herein. However, any implementations embody reasonable permutations of the steps shown in  FIG. 2  with mentioned limitations should be taken as embodiments of the present invention. 
     A video/audio playing method and a television applying the video/audio playing method are disclosed by the present invention. By directly transmitting audio signal to mobile electronic apparatus for playing, user can enjoy surround sound effect without paying high cost of surround sound effect equipment. In some embodiments of the present invention, deployment position of the mobile electronic apparatus with respect to the television can be directly instructed in order to achieve best surround sound effect. 
     The above embodiments are only used to illustrate the principles of the present invention, and they should not be construed as to limit the present invention in any way. The above embodiments can be modified by those with ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope of the present invention as defined in the following appended claims.