Abstract:
The present invention is to provide a TV image conversion device for turning a computer on or off by means of a multimedia remote control. The TV image conversion device is electrically coupled to a computer enabling a user to operate a computer on-off switch on the multimedia remote control to turn the computer on or off wirelessly rather than walk to a computer to either turn the computer on or off by pressing an on/off switch on the computer. By utilizing this, the above drawback of incapable of turning a computer on or off by means of a remote control as experienced by the prior art can be overcome.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
   The present invention relates to a remote control of a computer and more particularly to a TV (television) image conversion device (e.g., TV card, a set-top box, or the like) for turning the computer on or off by means of a multimedia remote control. 
   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   Users, especially employees involved in using computers, may sit in front of the computer for hours of every day. Such work can be tedious. For the purpose of entertainment a person may like to listen to news and/or music, play games, watch VCD (video compact disc) movies, or even watch TV while working or during breaks. In this regard, a person may install one or more additional peripherals (e.g., accelerator card, CD-ROM (compact disc-read only memory) driver, TV image conversion device, or the like) and their associated software in the computer. Such peripherals do not occupy precious space on a user&#39;s desk. Also, a user can run an audio-video (AV) playing software or image fetching software to play a VCD for watching movies as well as recording the same. Particularly, the TV image conversion devices such as internal TV cards or external set-top boxes available from some manufacturers have a feature of picture in picture in associated software which is sold for a fee or for free. Hence, a user can use the computer while watching a TV program. Thus, a wide variety of TV image conversion devices are produced by computer peripheral manufacturers. Further, TV image conversion devices are gaining popularity among many computer users. 
   Conventionally, a multimedia remote control is free when a user buys a TV card having many powerful features. Also, the user has to install multimedia software after mounting the TV card in a computer. Thereafter, the user can turn on the computer to run the software to play a VCD to watch a movie or watch TV. Also, the user can operate the multimedia remote control to select a desired channel for watching or adjusting volume. In case the user does not want to play the VCD or watch TV any more and wants to stop using the computer, the user has to stop running the multimedia software and perform the necessary shutdown step prior to turning off an on/off switch on the computer. This is in contrast to turn off of a domestic appliance, which is a simple operation involving aiming a remote control at the domestic appliance. As such, it is typical that a user has to rise to walk to a computer to either turn the computer on by pressing the on/off switch or perform the shutdown step prior to turning the computer off by pressing the on/off switch rather than operate a remote control to do the same in one operation. Hence, the above computer turning on/off procedure is not user friendly for many users who are familiar with the operation of domestic appliances. 
   Thus, it is desirable among TV image conversion device designers and manufactures to provide a novel TV image conversion device for fulfilling the needs of vast users. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   A primary object of the present invention is to provide a TV image conversion device for turning a computer on or off by means of a multimedia remote control. The TV image conversion device is electrically coupled to a computer. A user can operate a computer on-off switch on the multimedia remote control to turn the computer on or off wirelessly rather than walk to a computer to either turn the computer on or off by pressing an on/off switch on the computer. By utilizing this, the above drawback of incapable of turning a computer on or off by means of a remote control as experienced by the prior art can be overcome. 
   In one aspect of the present invention, the TV image conversion device comprises a wireless signal receiver for receiving a turn-on or turn-off signal transmitted from the multimedia remote control and a wireless signal decoder for converting the turn-on or turn-off signal into a control signal. In response to pressing the computer on-off switch, the multimedia remote control is enabled to generate a turn-on or turn-off signal which is transmitted to the wireless signal receiver for receiving, the turn-on or turn-off signal is sent from the wireless signal receiver to the wireless signal decoder for converting the turn-on or turn-off signal into a control signal which is sent to a predetermined pin in the computer for enabling, the enabled pin is capable of generating a trigger signal of either converting a high voltage level into a low voltage level or converting a low voltage level into a high voltage level, and the computer is enabled by the trigger signal to perform a turn-on or turn-off step. 
   In another aspect of the present invention, the TV image conversion device is coupled to the computer. In response to pressing the on/off switch on the computer for powering the computer on, a setup program in an embedded BIOS of the computer is operative to run to enable a corresponding pin in the computer based on state of a signal line connected between the TV image conversion device and the computer. Hence, the TV image conversion device can be enabled when resetting the computer. Therefore, a user can turn the computer on or off by operating the multimedia remote control. 
   The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken with the accompanying drawings. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  is a perspective view schematically showing a TV image conversion device mounted in a computer, the TV image conversion device being operative to be enabled by a multimedia remote control according to the invention; 
       FIG. 2  is a side view schematically illustrating an electrical connection of the components shown in  FIG. 1  according to a first preferred embodiment of the invention; 
       FIG. 3  is a view similar to  FIG. 2  according to a second preferred embodiment of the invention; 
       FIG. 4  is a view similar to  FIG. 2  according to a third preferred embodiment of the invention; and 
       FIG. 5  is a partial circuit diagram of any of the above preferred embodiments. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
   The invention is directed to a TV image conversion device for turning a computer on or off by means of a multimedia remote control. Referring to  FIG. 1 , there is shown a perspective view of a TV image conversion device (e.g., TV card)  10  inserted in an expansion slot  21  on a circuit board inside a computer  20  in accordance with the invention. The TV card  10  comprises a wireless signal receiver  11  and other control circuits and components which are not pertinent to the invention. Thus a detailed description thereof is omitted herein for the sake of brevity. The wireless signal receiver  11  is adapted to receive signals transmitted from a multimedia remote control  30 . The multimedia remote control  30  comprises a computer on-off switch  31  which can be pressed to cause the multimedia remote control  30  to generate a turn-on or turn-off signal. The signal is then transmitted to the wireless signal receiver  11  for receiving. The signal is in turn sent from the wireless signal receiver  11  to a wireless signal decoder  12  on the TV card  10 . The wireless signal decoder  12  is adapted to convert the on/off signal into a control signal which is in turn sent to a control circuit and a bus (so called gold fingers)  13  on the TV card  10 . Referring to  FIG. 2 , the control signal is then sent to a predetermined pin  22  in the expansion slot  21  from the bus  13 . The pin  22  is enabled to generate a trigger signal of either converting a high voltage level into a low voltage level or converting a low voltage level into a high voltage level. The computer  20  thus is enabled by the trigger signal to perform the turn-on or turn-off step. Hence, a user can turn on or off the computer  20  by simply pressing the computer on-off switch  31  on the multimedia remote control  30  rather than pressing an on-off switch  23  on the computer  20 . 
   Referring to  FIGS. 1 and 2  again, in a first preferred embodiment of the invention the TV card  10  is a TV card having a PCI (peripheral component interconnect) bus  13 . The TV card  10  is inserted in the PCI compatible expansion slot  21  of the computer  20 . It is appreciated by those skilled in the art that in practice the TV image conversion device of the invention can be mounted in a computer without a PCI compatible expansion slot. In other words, a person skilled in the art may insert the TV card  10  in a computer having any of other compatible expansion slots without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. After inserting the TV card  10  in the PCI compatible expansion slot  21 , the user may press the on-off switch  23  on the computer  20  to turn on the computer  20  to enable an embedded basic input/output system (BIOS) of the computer  20 . The enabled BIOS will run a setup program to set the pin  22  labeled PME on the PCI compatible expansion slot  21  as an enabled state based on state of a labeled PME signal line on the bus  13  of the TV card  10 . Further, the enabled BIOS of the computer  20  activates the TV card  10  in the PCI compatible expansion slot  21 . Thus, the TV card  10  can be enabled directly after the user has turned on the computer  20 . In detail, a user may press the computer on-off switch  31  to cause the multimedia remote control  30  to generate a turn-on or turn-off signal. The signal is then transmitted to the wireless signal receiver  11  for receiving. The signal is in turn sent from the wireless signal receiver  11  to the wireless signal decoder  12  on the TV card  10 . The wireless signal decoder  12  is able to convert the on/off signal into a control signal which is in turn sent to the bus (so called gold fingers)  13  on the TV card  10 . The control signal is then sent to the labeled PME pin  22  in the expansion slot  21  from the bus  13 . The labeled PME pin  22  is enabled to generate a trigger signal of either converting a high voltage level into a low voltage level or converting a low voltage level into a high voltage level. The computer  20  is thus enabled by the trigger signal to perform the turn-on or turn-off step. 
   Referring to  FIG. 3 , there is shown a second preferred embodiment of the invention. The TV image conversion device is implemented as a TV card  40 . Similar to the first preferred embodiment, the TV card  40  is inserted in the expansion slot  21  on the computer  20 . Also, the TV card  40  comprises a wireless signal receiver  41  and a wireless signal decoder  42 . The wireless signal receiver  41  is adapted to receive signals transmitted from the multimedia remote control  30 . The computer on-off switch  31  can be pressed to cause the multimedia remote control  30  to generate a turn-on or turn-off signal. The signal is then transmitted to the wireless signal receiver  41  for receiving. The signal is in turn sent from the wireless signal receiver  41  to the wireless signal decoder  42  for converting the on/off signal into a control signal which is in turn sent to a control circuit and a bus  43  on the TV card  40 . The control signal is then sent to a predetermined pin  24  in the computer  20  from the bus  43 . The pin  24  is enabled to generate a trigger signal of either converting a high voltage level into a low voltage level or converting a low voltage level into a high voltage level. The computer  20  is thus enabled by the trigger signal to perform the turn-on or turn-off step. 
   Referring to  FIG. 4 , there is shown a third preferred embodiment of the invention. The TV image conversion device is implemented as an external set-top box  50 . The set-top box  50  is electrically coupled to an I/O (input/output) port  25  (e.g., USB or PS/2 port) in the computer  20  by means of a signal line  53 . In addition to basic control circuits and components, the set-top box  50  further comprises a wireless signal receiver  51  and a wireless signal decoder  52 . The wireless signal receiver  51  is adapted to receive signals transmitted from the multimedia remote control  30 . The computer on-off switch  31  can be pressed to cause the multimedia remote control  30  to generate a turn-on or turn-off signal. The signal is then transmitted to the wireless signal receiver  51  for receiving. The signal is in turn sent from the wireless signal receiver  51  to the wireless signal decoder  52  for converting the on/off signal into a control signal which is in turn sent to a control circuit and a signal line  53  on the set-top box  50 . The control signal is then sent to a predetermined pin in an I/O port  25  of the computer  20  from the signal line  53 . The predetermined pin is enabled to generate a trigger signal of either converting a high voltage level into a low voltage level or converting a low voltage level into a high voltage level. The computer  20  is thus enabled by the trigger signal to perform the turn-on or turn-off step. 
   In the above preferred embodiments of the invention, the wireless signal receiver on the TV image conversion device is an infrared ray receiver  61  as shown in  FIG. 5 . The infrared ray receiver  61  can receive turn-on or turn-off signal transmitted from the multimedia remote control. Next, the turn-on or turn-off signal is sent to the wireless signal decoder via a pin  610  and a corresponding line  71 . In the invention the wireless signal decoder is implemented as an infrared ray decoder  62  labeled IRDC  357 . The infrared ray decoder  62  is adapted to convert the on/off signal into a control signal which is in turn sent to a logic control line  63  on the TV image conversion device via a voltage control pin  620  and a corresponding line  72 . The logic control line  63  is enabled to generate a control signal of either converting a high voltage level into a low voltage level or converting a low voltage level into a high voltage level. The control signal is then sent to a predetermined signal line  64  on the TV image conversion device. The control signal is then sent to a predetermined pin in the computer via the predetermined signal line  64 . The predetermined pin is enabled to cause the computer to perform the turn-on or turn-off step. In the above embodiment, the infrared ray receiver  61  and decoder  62  are only exemplary examples of the invention. Note that the invention is not limited to the described embodiment. It is appreciated by those skilled in the art that in practice the TV image conversion device of the invention can consist of other suitable wireless signal receiver and decoder without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. 
   In brief, in operation a user can install a TV image conversion device of the invention in a computer. Next, press an on-off switch of a computer to run an embedded multimedia software to play VCD or watch TV. Also, the user can operate a multimedia remote control to select a desired channel for watching or adjust volume. In a case that the user does not want to play VCD or watch TV any more and want to stop using the computer, the user can simply press a computer on-off switch on the multimedia remote control to perform a turn-on or turn-off step of the computer rather than rise to walk to the computer to do the turn-on or turn-off by pressing the on/off switch on the computer. Thus, the TV image conversion device of the invention is a user friendly device. Moreover, the TV image conversion device brings much convenience in computer operation. 
   While the invention has been described by means of specific embodiments, numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention set forth in the claims.