Patent ID: 8305385

Claim:
A method, comprising: providing a display device having an integrated circuit chip including a flash memory storing software code, a processor for executing the software code, and a video memory for storing real-time video/image data; operating the display device in a normal display mode by storing real-time video/image data in the video memory and displaying images using the data stored in the video memory; switching the display device from the normal display mode to a networking mode; operating the display device in the networking mode by loading executable networking software code from the flash memory into memory locations of the video memory used for storing at least part of the real-time video/image data in the normal display mode, and executing the networking software code from the video memory using the processor for establishing a network connection between the display device and a network; and switching the display device from the networking mode back to the normal display mode, and loading real-time video/image data in the video memory including into the memory locations used for loading the networking software code in the networking mode; wherein switching the display device back to the normal display mode includes the execution of predetermined tasks; and wherein the predetermined tasks include securing data received over the network connection, backing up network information, and releasing the memory locations in the video memory used for loading the networking software code.