FR2743242A1 - Multiple TV Screen Server System for Home Theatre or Advertising - Google Patents

Abstract

The Multiple TV Screen Server system has a microprocessor (20) with a hard disc drive. The microprocessor stores the compressed digital word signals received from TV transmission and converted by a tuner (25). A CD ROM (21) can be linked in with the tuner. The server (23) takes the multiple outputs from the microprocessor, synchronising them if necessary to form a multiple screen large screen image. Accompanying sound is also generated.

Description

SIMULTANEOUS, SYNCHRONOUS OR RESTITUTION SYSTEM
ASYNCHRONOUS, MULTIPLE AUDIOVISUAL SOURCES AND
DATA, PRE-COMPRESSED AND STORED
IN THE FORM OF DIGITAL DATA STREAMS
DESCRIPTION
Technical area
The present invention relates to a simultaneous, synchronous or asynchronous playback system, of several audiovisual and data sources, previously compressed and stored in the form of digital data streams.

 It relates in particular to a device for restoring audio and visual information which has previously been compressed and stored in the form of computer data in order to restore them on several viewing and hearing means, simultaneously, by a single means.

 It can be incorporated either in a microcomputer, or be autonomous, the microcomputer then making it possible to receive said rendering device and to add to this microprocessor conventional additional possibilities for this kind of material.

State of the art
The devices existing to date have the drawback, in addition to being very expensive, either of reproducing only one audiovisual source, or of viewing several audiovisual sources but on a single screen and generally a single pair of speakers .

 Other means of the known art are constituted by a mixer or a video inlay.

These means are generally even more expensive and are often used in video production. The invention is not one of these means of mixing or mosaic inlaying of video images, nor of distributing a video source on several television screens supposed to represent a larger screen, commonly called "wall pictures ".

Such devices already exist to date, but they do not constitute a single means or are an assembly, and are rather a motley assembly of conventional means
Thus, if one wishes, prior to the system according to the invention, to view several audio-visual sources on several screens, it is necessary either to use several identical systems, or it is necessary to incorporate into a single system several identical reproduction devices, these there is generally one return per card in the system.

Statement of the invention
One of the objects of the present invention consists in creating a single system for the reproduction of several audiovisual sources and in displaying these in multi-screen simultaneously using a single integrated device.

 Another object being that, thanks to this integration, it is then simple to manage all the audio-visual sources simultaneously, and / or synchronously. The fact of being able to control them synchronously is of capital importance, in particular in the case of restitution either stereovisual, known as "in relief", or of "home theater" hereinafter called "home theater", where the scene restored is linked on several screens.

It should be noted that the invention also aims to allow a new mode of broadcasting of the audiovisual sector, which will be called, in the following description: "View-max" or "Vision-max" or " V
MaX ", which allows for example to view a film, or any other information that has been previously recorded in several sources and / or from several angles, simultaneously on several screens, thus creating a greater illusion of visual and sound space.

 As an example, we can arrange the screens around the users. One or more spectators placed between them can then observe the same scene, filmed from different suitable angles, on the screens placed in front of and around them. Realism then becomes striking. We can thus imagine a scene where a character displayed on a screen interacts with one or other characters displayed on the other screens.

 The invention relates to a system for restoring compressed audio and visual information stored in the form of digitized data, characterized in that it comprises a restitution device which draws its information from a single means of producing digital streams. , and makes it possible to restore said visual information on a plurality of screens, and said audio information on a plurality of acoustic reproduction devices.

 This system can include at least two audiovisual outputs connected to two televisions or audiovisual reproduction means.

 It can include video walls constituted by association of audiovisual outputs connected to a plurality of means for restoring moving images and sounds, and produced from compressed information digitized and then decompressed by individual means for each output, but grouped together and drawing the digital stream from a medium or cable containing the information.

 The system of the invention may include at least one input means, such as a touch screen or the like, making it possible to make the audiovisual information interactive and dependent on the input.

 The different audiovisual outputs can be synchronized with each other.

 The information to be returned is independent and / or related, and / or identical, and / or synchronous and / or deferred.

 The system of the invention can be implemented in the form of a single card connected to a microcomputer.

 All the decompression circuits can be produced by a single circuit, with very superior performance, by itself producing all the different decompression means, simultaneously.

 The digital stream contains the different signals necessary for each eye.

 The system of the invention may include glasses having focusing and / or zooming lenses making it possible to adjust for each eye the sharpness and the relative size of the image perceived by each eye.

 Advantageously, the glasses include a set of mirrors making it possible to adjust the vision of the image perceived for each eye, image provided by a video playback screen.

 The system of the invention can include a control logic making it possible to synchronize the video lines and frames between the outputs.

 The system of the invention can be implemented in an independent independent individual box, or inside a standard television set.

 The invention considerably simplifies multi-audiovisual rendering in the case where it must be broadcast simultaneously or not, in public places, such as, for example, in supermarkets or shops, stations, service stations, cafes or restaurants, etc ...

 Thanks to the invention, the reproduction of the same information to be broadcast, shifted in time, is also possible and extremely simple. In addition, the restored video frames can be synchronous or not, completely independently. The time difference can then be arbitrary, for example from one frame to several hours, even several days.

 Although the conventional arrangements, that is to say by adding or stacking several identical systems or cards, work well, they are very complex, expensive and cumbersome to implement, particularly if synchronism is required.

 It will be seen in the following description of the invention that all these drawbacks have disappeared and that the invention makes it possible to lead to another use of the audiovisual field, which is the subject of the invention.

 It is possible, for example, to realize, with greater simplicity than before the invention, "video video walls", "home theater" with several video sources (or "home-theater"), a space interactive advertising, several raised television systems, etc ...

 The object of the present invention is therefore to propose a system for the simultaneous reproduction of several audiovisual sources and of data previously compressed and stored in the form of digital computer data streams. This device mainly comprises at least two audiovisual decompression circuits and at least one device for controlling the decompression circuits.

 The invention can either be connected to the bus of a microcomputer, or be autonomous, in this case it comprises at least one input for computer data and at least two outputs for audiovisual signals.

 The invention makes it possible to simultaneously restore several audiovisual sources, synchronized or not, between their lines and their video frames.

This simultaneous playback from a single device makes it possible to simply carry out a new audiovisual playback technique, here called the "View-max" or "Vision-max" or "V" mode.
MaX ".

 This mode allows to implement several televisions placed around the spectators to give them a wide variety of points of view on the scene (s) restored (s), plunging them in a way much further into the action than when using a single TV.

 A television set is an apparatus existing before the invention which makes it possible to display an animated image on a screen generally formed by a vacuum tube projecting an electron beam against a plate covered with luminescent phosphorus, forming the image, or else it is a device displaying an animated image on a screen formed by liquid crystals. This device can also be a video projector. In all cases, these devices also include means for sound reproduction.

 The information provided to a television is generally of a so-called video nature. The video signal consists of all the information allowing the image to be reconstructed. This signal is for example in the PAL, SECAM, NTSC, RGB, Y W, S, component or composite or other standard.

 In addition, electrical signals delivering sound information are also supplied to the television so that the latter, after having amplified them, broadcasts them by means of its speakers.

 Another variant of this mode can allow several users to view common information, interactively or not. Clearly, they can share the same information, but not necessarily synchronously.

 Thus, the interactivity between each screen can be either completely independent or interdependent.

 This can be very useful in public places such as stations, supermarkets, self-service, etc.

 The invention can also serve as a means of individual or collective entry by each of its screens, and group the results at the same level as the video data to be restored, which greatly simplifies the collection of information to be entered.

 This can be used for example in voting systems with collection of ballots.

 The invention can also make it possible to produce a new kind of video wall.

 It should be noted, however, that if the invention can produce moving image walls, it has nothing in common with a system produced in a conventional manner.

Indeed, generally these systems consist, starting from a single video source, in cutting it into several pieces of different sizes and in processing this video source so as to be able to reproduce these pieces simultaneously on several video monitors.

The invention differs fundamentally from this process because it does not act on the video signal, but it acts on the digitized signals, before their decompression.

 The system of the invention therefore reads audiovisual information and the stored, compressed, digitized data, and directs them to decompression devices, these same devices being capable of synchronizing or not synchronizing between them the decompressed signals at their output.

 It should be noted that the information read can be independent and / or related and / or identical, and / or synchronous and / or deferred.

Brief description of the figures
Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will appear better in the detailed description which follows and refers to the appended drawings, given only by way of example, and in which
- Figure l illustrates a first embodiment of the system of the invention;
- Figure 2 illustrates a detailed embodiment of said system
- Figure 3 illustrates the signal outputs
- Figure 4 shows a global aspect of the invention;
- Figure 5 illustrates a variant of the invention;
- Figure 6 illustrates a detailed view of a circuit of Figure 5
- Figure 7 illustrates an exemplary embodiment
- Figure 8 illustrates a screen used in the example illustrated in Figure 7
- Figures 9, 11 and 12 illustrate means of watching stereovision or so-called raised television
- Figure 10 illustrates an example of relief television using an external device 1 according to the invention and two commercial televisions.

Detailed description of the embodiments
In the first example shown in FIG. 1, the device 1 of the invention is connected to a microcomputer 3 via the bus 2.

 In Figure 2 we can see a detailed example of embodiment. We can see the different decompression devices 4 connected to a control device 5 which in particular makes it possible to regulate the data flows to be sent to the different decompression circuits, to allow possible synchronization of the video outputs of the decompression circuits, to mix several video outputs between them if necessary, to mix with each video output characters or drawings generated either by the decompression circuits for example using an appropriate microcode, or by one or more circuits dedicated for this purpose, or generated by the microcomputer itself.

 It should be noted that in another embodiment according to the invention, the devices 4 comprise both a decompression circuit and a graphic display circuit, grouped in the same chip.

 The video decompression can then be of the MPEG type, and the graphics can be, for example, of the VGA type.

 Another circuit 6 allows the control of the various signals between the microcomputer bus and the device according to the invention.

 A connector 8 is used to connect the card to the microcomputer bus.

 This card also has a series of connectors placed on one of its ends. These connectors 7 can for example supply the different signals necessary for the sound and visual reproduction means, for example televisions or video monitors, as indicated in FIG. 3.

In Figure 3 the signals are respectively
- right audio output 10;
- right audio mass ll;
- composite video output 12
- video mass 13
- left audio ground 14;
- Left audio output 15.

FIG. 4 represents a global aspect of the invention. It shows an example of architecture with a microcomputer. We see the microcomputer 20 to which are connected
- A hard disk 21 which can contain the data to be read by the microcomputer to transmit it to the device according to the invention 23;
- A CD-ROM drive 22 which can serve as a means of recharging the hard disk or also for reading the information to be restored;
a tuner 25 receiving digital information which it transmits to the microcomputer 20.

 The information from the CD-ROM can either be directly read by the device 23 according to the invention, or be loaded into the hard disk 21, this in order to allow a higher reading speed of the information to be restored. In fact, the bit rate, even if this information is compressed, is relatively high: this is due to the plurality of sources to be restored simultaneously. For example if the compression format is MPEGl, the bit rate can be in the case of ten sources to be restored 10 times 172 kilobytes, or 1.72 megabytes per second, which is far from the bit rate of a CD-ROM which is in the range of 6 to 700 kilobytes per second.

 FIG. 5 represents a variant of the invention. In this embodiment, the simultaneous decompression of the audiovisual information is carried out by a single circuit 30 placed on an electronic card. This circuit can for example decompress 2, 4, 6, or more, audiovisual sources. In this case, the circuit 30 demultiplexes the digital information itself before decompressing it. This means that it is capable, internally, of knowing what information must be routed to such and such an output, and therefore to which audiovisual restitution means.

 A detailed view of the circuit 30 is shown in Figure 6. It will be explained later.

 In FIG. 5, the information arrives at circuit 30 thanks to circuit 33 which controls the flow of information. The circuit 33 is connected to a circuit 34 by a bus 35 internal to the electronic card. This internal bus 35 itself accesses the data 36 of the microcomputer bus by the control circuit 34.

 All the outputs 32 necessary to control the video screens and the audio outputs are grouped at one end of the card.

 In Figure 6 is shown a modular example of the detail of the circuit 30. The circuit 30 comprises at least two modules of Figure 6 and can integrate more depending on the technology of the chip used. The circuit 30 mainly consists of control logic 42, of a memory 41 which is used to store the various variables and temporary information of the decompression circuit 43. The microcode, necessary for the decompression chip, can also be placed in memory 41.

 The various converters, 44 for video and 45 for audio, are placed between the decompression chip 43 and the output connectors 32 through the outputs 47 and 48, grouped at 31 in FIG. 5.

 These converters can be either unique for audio and / or video, in this case the information is demultiplexed into analog at their output, or one is used per output, for audio as for video. These converters are specialized circuits for this purpose, which are commonly found in commerce.

 FIG. 7 shows an example of a multi-vision system as produced by the invention; It can be seen that spectators 50 can simultaneously observe several screens 51 to 55 and listen to the sounds coming therefrom (speakers 51 'to 55').

 An example of such a screen is shown in FIG. 8. There are seen the speakers 60 and 61, the display screen 62 which may be of the television tube type or of the liquid crystal type or of the type video projection. The reference 63 represents different means of adjustment relating to the diffusion such as contrast, light, volume, etc.

 FIG. 9 represents a means of watching stereovision or so-called "relief" television. Glasses 71 allow the eyes 70 of the user to observe, for each eye only one of the restitution means 73 by means of focusing and separation 72 and 72 '.

 Optional mirrors 74, 74 'allow on the one hand to reduce the size of said glasses towards the front and therefore increase the comfort in wearing these glasses. On the other hand these mirrors increase the width of the distance between the two eyes, which promotes an accentuation of the impression of relief.

They also make it possible to place the restitution screens almost anywhere thanks to their angular adjustment.

 The focusing means 72, 72 ′ have an adjustment ring for sharpness and another ring for zooming. The zoom makes it possible to adjust the relative size of the screens and therefore of the images perceived by the users. It also makes it possible to balance the relative size of the image perceived by each eye.

 The mirrors are adjustable angularly so that each eye sees its respective screen.

 The whole device can be incorporated in a suitable and pleasantly shaped housing.

 Another embodiment of these glasses, illustrated in FIG. 11 there, does not include a focusing or zooming device, but the mirrors allow simply by angular adjustment to ensure that each eye can only see its own rendering screen, this which also provides a relief effect.

 According to another embodiment of these glasses, illustrated in FIG. 12, they are simply opaque covers placed in front of each eye, each comprising a hole allowing each eye to be able to observe only one screen.

 FIG. 10 shows an example of a television in relief produced from a conventional television 80 equipped with a decoding device 82 according to the invention, which supplies the video information on the one hand to the screen 83 of the television 80 and on the other hand, on the screen 84 of an auxiliary television or monitor 85.

 We will now describe the dynamic operation of the invention.

 The audio and visual information are previously recorded by conventional means, then compressed and finally grouped into a digital stream. A digital stream is a binary stream formed by a sequence of 0 and 1, which can themselves form a sequence of bytes.

 This bit stream reaches the device according to the invention which initially separates it into different streams relating to the different reproduction circuits. Clearly the flow is first demultiplexed for each of the restitution devices.

 This flow contains all types of information such as: data, programs, sound, image, etc.

 In a second step, each stream for each of the restitution devices is itself demultiplexed in order to extract its various audio, visual, or other information therefrom.

 This information, which is still digital in nature, is then, thanks to the device according to the invention, routed to the various sound, visual, or other decompression circuits.

 At the end of decompression, the information is always of a digital nature. They represent the uncompressed values of either audio, video, or other signals.

 These signals are then routed to digital / analog converters dedicated to either sound, image, or the like.

 The analog audio or visual signals, of the different reproduction means, are then grouped by audiovisual source to be restored, as for example on the connector described in FIG. 3, then transmitted to the various audiovisual reproduction means. As for the data, it is routed to various appropriate means in order to be processed.

Claims (14)

 1. System for restoring compressed sound and visual information stored in the form of digital data, characterized in that it comprises a restitution device (1) which draws its information from a single means of production of digital stream , and makes it possible to restore said visual information separately on a plurality of screens (24), and said sound information on a plurality of acoustic playback devices.  2. System according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises at least two audiovisual outputs connected to two televisions or audiovisual reproduction means.  3. System according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises video walls formed by association of audiovisual outputs connected to a plurality of means for rendering animated images and sounds, and produced from compressed information digitized and then decompressed by individual means for each output, but grouped together and drawing the digital flow from a medium or cable containing the information.  4. System according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises at least one input means, such as a touch screen or other, making it possible to make the audiovisual information interactive and function of the input.  5. System according to claim 2, characterized in that the various audiovisual outputs are synchronizable with one another.  6. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the information to be restored is independent and / or related and / or identical, and / or synchronous and / or deferred.  7. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the device is a single card connected in a microcomputer.  8. System according to claim 1, characterized in that all the decompression circuits are produced by a single circuit carrying out by itself all the different decompression means simultaneously.  9. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the digital stream contains the different signals necessary for each eye.  11. System according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises glasses (71) having means (72, 72 ') of focusing and / or zooming making it possible to adjust for each eye, the sharpness and the relative size. of the image perceived by each eye.  12. System according to claim 11, characterized in that the glasses comprise a set of mirrors (74, 74 ') making it possible to adjust the vision of the image perceived for each eye, image supplied by a video reproduction screen.  13. System according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises a control logic making it possible to synchronize the video lines and frames between the outputs.  14. System according to claim 1, characterized in that it is produced in an independent individual independent housing.  15. System according to claim 1, characterized in that it is produced inside a current television set.