Patent Publication Number: US-2012038823-A1

Title: Display system

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The invention relates to a display system, and more particularly, to a display system using multiplied display frequency and frame interchanging technology that can provide more than one media source for two or more users at the same time. 
     2. Description of the Prior Art 
     Display systems like TVs, projectors, various kinds of portable devices, can only broadcast one media source at one time based on the conventional display technology. As for follow-up advancement of display technology, picture-in-picture (PIP), where a first program is displayed on a full TV screen and one or more second programs are displayed in inset windows at the same time, or the screen being simply divided into two same-size pictures, often called picture-outside-picture (POP), are invented to provide multiple media sources at the same time. However, the display area of each media source is inevitably reduced to quite an extent for either PIP or POP. 
     Another technology called “Dual View” is provided presently to provide dual image for exactly two users at the same time, requiring the two users being positioned at two specified angles respectively relative to the display system. With regard to Dual View technology, an additional blocking component must be configured in the display system. Two separate frames from each of the media sources are mixed to form a dual image frame, half-sized in pixels for each frame of the dual image, that is partially blocked by the blocking component so that each user at his/her particular angle is only able to see the corresponding media source. This gives some drawbacks of the Dual View technology: for example, the resolution of each media decreases to its half, only two sources can be provided at the same time, and each media is viewable only with strict angle. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The application provides a display system including a broadcast device and a plurality of receiving devices. The broadcast device is utilized for receiving a plurality of media signals from a plurality of media sources and including a processor and a panel. The plurality of media signals from the plurality of media sources are received by the processor and interlaced frame-by-frame by the processor to form a display signal and the panel is utilized for displaying the display signal at a first frequency. Each receiving device includes a goggle for viewing the display signal at a second frequency, and a synchronizing device for controlling the goggle to turn on to view the display signal in synchronous with a media signal selected from the plurality of media sources. The first frequency is n times the second frequency and n equals to a number of the plurality of media signals being interlaced by the processor. 
     The application also provides a broadcast device. The broadcast device includes a processor and a panel. A plurality of media signals from a plurality of media sources are received by the processor and interlaced frame-by-frame by the processor to form a display signal and the panel is utilized for displaying the display signal. The plurality of media signals received by the processor are from at least two different media sources. 
     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 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram showing a block diagram of a display system according to this application. 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram showing that how a plurality of media signals are interlaced frame-by-frame to form a display signal with multiplied display frequency. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Please refer to  FIG. 1 .  FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram showing a block diagram of a display system  100  according to this application. The display system  100  includes a broadcast device  1  and a plurality of receiving devices  70 ,  80 ,  90 . The broadcast device  1  practically may be a flat panel television, a projector, or portable devices like mobile TV, portable navigation device (PND), and so on, which provides multimedia content from various sources for users at the same time. Each of the receiving devices  70 ,  80 ,  90  is for a single user who watches programs, movies, animations, videos, various sorts of multimedia content, or simply listens to audio contents like music or vocal materials. 
     The broadcast device  1  includes many kinds of importing ports for receiving a plurality of media signals from a plurality of media sources. A preferred embodiment as illustrated in  FIG. 1 , the broadcast device  1  includes all or some of a plurality of TV tuners  20 , an HDMI/DVI port  21 , an S-Video port  22 , an YPbPr port  23 , and a network port  24 . The TV tuners  20  can receive TV programs from either wireless antenna or cable, where the TV programs are then sent for demodulation by a demodulator  13  of the broadcast device  1 . The HDMI/DVI port  21 , the S-Video port  22 , the YPbPr port  23 , and the network port  24  can receive media signals from various media sources like media players, set-top boxes (STP), personal computers (PC), and Internet and the media signals are sent to a processor  10  of the broadcast device  1  for decoding by a video decoder  12  of the processor  10 . The processor  10  of the broadcast device  1  may receiving the media signals from one or more than one media sources as mentioned above at the same time according to the selections made by the users, where the multiple media signals are interlaced frame-by-frame by the processor  10  to form an outputted display signal. 
     The broadcast device  1  also includes a time control (T-con) component  60  for controlling the display signal generated by the processor  10  to display on a panel  40  of the broadcast device  1  at a multiplied frequency. 
     For effectively broadcasting each separate media signal to each separate user from corresponding media source selected by each user, each receiving device includes a synchronizing device that controls the goggle to synchronize with the broadcast device  1  at a specific timing. Take the receiving device  70  for example. The receiving device  70  includes a goggle  71 , which is preferably a shutter glass that can be controlled to turn on to allow lights to pass through or turned off to block lights away. The synchronizing device  72  is a wireless receiver, preferably an RF receiver, having control circuit that can receive RF signals and also control the goggle  71 . The receiving device  70  also includes a selector  73 , practically a remote controller (RC), that can be used by a user to select a media source from the plurality of media sources as mentioned above by transmitting a control signal to the processor  10  of the broadcast device  1 , and the processor  10  then receives and processes the media signals of the selected media source according to the control signal. The selector  73  may also provide function of channel selection when the media source selected is a TV program. Once a media source is selected by the selector  73 , the processor  10  also generates a synchronizing signal and a wireless transmitter  30 , preferably an RF module, transmits the synchronizing signal to the synchronizing device  72  so as to control the goggle  71  to turn on and off at a specific frequency and timing in synchronous with the timing that displays the selected media signals by the panel  40 . 
     Since only the timing of the selected media signals selected by the selector  73  of the receiving device  70  and displayed on the panel  40  is in synchronous with the timing of turning on of the goggle  71 , the user who wears the goggle  71  can only see the selected media signals, not being able to see those media signals broadcast by the panel  40  but selected by other selectors. 
     For audio playback concern, the processor  10  also includes an audio decoder  11  for decoding and processing audio signals received from each media signal of the media sources. The broadcast device  1  utilizes an audio amplifier  50  to broadcast each decoded audio signal in separate channel, say a 1 st  channel, a 2 nd  channel, . . . , and an N th  channel, each received by its corresponding audio playback component  74 ,  84 ,  94  respectively and in synchronous with the media signal selected from the media sources. The audio playback components  74 ,  84 ,  94  of the receiving devices  70 ,  80 ,  90  are preferably headset earphones that can provide isolated listening condition for each user and the connection between the audio amplifier  50  and each audio playback component  74 ,  84 ,  94  can be wireless connected or physically connected. The receiving devices  80 ,  90  have similar structure and function as the receiving device  70 . 
     Please refer to  FIG. 2 , which is a schematic diagram of this application, showing that how a plurality of media signals are interlaced frame-by-frame to form a display signal with multiplied display frequency. The embodiment in  FIG. 2  shows that three media signals  200 ,  300 ,  400  from three distinct media sources are selected by three users and received by the processor  10  for interlacing with multiplied frequency. Each of the media signals  200 ,  300 ,  400  has a generic playback frequency, say 60 Hz, in this embodiment. In other words, each of the media signals  200 ,  300 ,  400  provides 60 frames of media signals in one second for the processor  10 . The goggles  71 ,  81 ,  91  are also turned on to view the display signal at a frequency of 60 Hz, and with shorter turning on interval. By use of the frame-by-frame interlacing technique of this application, the processor  10  receives the three medial signals  200 ,  300 ,  400  and interlaces each frame with a same serial number of the three media signals  200 ,  300 ,  400  as shown in the display signal  500 . As a result, the display signal  500  contains the first frame Al of the media signal  200 , the first frame B 1  of the media signal  300 , the first frame Cl of the media signal  300 , the second frame A 2  of the media signal  200 , the second frame B 2  of the media signal  300 , the second frame C 2  of the media signal  400 , . . . , and so on, in a row. The time control (T-con) component  60  then controls the display signal  500  so that each frame is displayed for 1/180 second, which means the panel  40  displays the display signal  500  at a multiplied frequency, say 180 Hz, and that is three time the frequency for each goggle  71 ,  81 ,  91  to turn on to view the display signal  500 . 
     As mentioned above, each goggle is controlled by a corresponding synchronizing device. When the panel  40  displays the first frame Al at a first time slot ( 1/180s), the first synchronizing device  72  turns on the first goggle  71  for 1/180 second, a shorter interval as mentioned before, so that the user who wears the first goggle  71  sees the first frame Al through the goggle  71 , while at the same time interval, all the other users who wear the goggles  81 , . . . ,  91  can not see the first frame Al since their goggles  81 , . . . ,  91  are turned off by their synchronizing devices. When the panel  40  displays the second frame B 1  at a second time slot ( 1/180s), the second synchronizing device  82  turns on the second goggle  81  for 1/180 second so that the user who wears the second goggle  81  sees the second frame B 1  through the goggle  81 . All the frames of the display signal  500  are displayed on the panel  40  and each goggle of the receiving devices is turned on in synchronous with the display timing of its corresponding media signal. Users wearing their own goggles can see different programs from different media sources at the same time by use of the display system disclosed in this application. 
     The display system of this application uses a broadcast device that can receive media signals from a plurality of media sources and interlace two or more media signals frame-by-frame to form a display signal with multiplied frequency for being displayed on its panel. A plurality of goggles and corresponding synchronizing devices, selectors, and audio playback components are used in the display system to select each dedicated media signals. Each goggle used by each user is synchronized to turn on by following the timing of its selected media signals so that two or more users who wear a dedicated goggle can see different programs on a single broadcast device at the same time. 
     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.