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US 2006/0222022 A1Published application
Method and apparatus for bi-directional communication between analog and digital devices
AssigneesSony Corporation, Sony Electronics Inc.
InventorsPeter Shintani, Kenichiro Toyoshima
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Abstract
A bi-directional communications interface includes a source multiplexer for connecting to a video source. The source multiplexer includes a source multiplexer input port for receiving an analog video signal from the video source, a source multiplexer output port for driving the video source with an upstream data signal, and a source multiplexer bi-directional port for coupling the analog video signal from the source multiplexer input port to the video cable and for coupling the upstream data signal from the video cable to the source multiplexer output port.
Claims36
An apparatus comprising:
- a source multiplexer for connecting to a video source wherein the source multiplexer comprises:
- a source multiplexer input port for receiving an analog video signal from the video source;
- a source multiplexer output port for driving the video source with an upstream data signal;
- and
- a source multiplexer bi-directional port for coupling the analog video signal from the source multiplexer input port to the video cable and for coupling the upstream data signal from the video cable to the source multiplexer output port.
2 more elements
A method comprising steps of:
- receiving an analog video signal from a video source connected to a source multiplexer input port of a source multiplexer;
- driving the video source at a source multiplexer output port of the source multiplexer with an upstream data signal from a video cable;
- coupling the analog video signal from the source multiplexer input port to the video cable through a source multiplexer bi-directional port of the source multiplexer;
- and
- coupling the upstream data signal from the video cable through the source multiplexer bi-directional port to the source multiplexer output port.
2 more elements
The method of claim 18 further comprising a step of time multiplexing the video signal and the upstream data signal in the video cable.
An apparatus comprising:
- a source multiplexer for connecting to a video source wherein the source multiplexer comprises:
- a first source multiplexer input port for receiving an analog video signal from the video source;
- a second source multiplexer input port for receiving a downstream data signal from the video source;
- a source multiplexer output port for driving the video source with an upstream data signal from a video cable;
- and
- a source multiplexer bi-directional port for coupling the analog video signal from the first source multiplexer input port to the video cable, for coupling the downstream data signal from the second source multiplexer input port to the video cable, and for coupling the upstream data signal from the video cable to the source multiplexer output port;
- and
- a sink multiplexer for connecting to a video sink wherein the sink multiplexer comprises:
- a sink multiplexer input port for receiving the upstream data signal from the video sink;
- a first sink multiplexer output port for driving the video sink with the analog video signal;
- a second sink multiplexer output port for driving the video sink with the downstream data signal;
- and
- a sink multiplexer bi-directional port for coupling the upstream data signal from the sink multiplexer input port to the video cable, for coupling the analog video signal from the video cable to the first sink multiplexer output port, and for coupling the downstream data signal from the video cable to the second sink multiplexer output port.
10 more elements
A method comprising steps of:
- receiving an analog video signal from a video source connected to a first source multiplexer input port of a source multiplexer;
- receiving a downstream data signal from a video source connected to a second source multiplexer input port of the source multiplexer;
- driving the video source at a source multiplexer output port of the source multiplexer with an upstream data signal from a video cable;
- coupling the analog video signal from the first source multiplexer input port to the video cable through a source multiplexer bi-directional port of the source multiplexer;
- coupling the downstream data signal from the second source multiplexer input port to the video cable through the source multiplexer bi-directional port;
- coupling the upstream data signal from the video cable through the source multiplexer bi-directional port to the source multiplexer output port;
- receiving the upstream data signal from a sink multiplexer input port of a sink multiplexer connected to a video sink;
- driving the video sink at a first sink multiplexer output port of the sink multiplexer with the analog video signal from the video cable;
- driving the video sink at a second sink multiplexer output port of the sink multiplexer with the downstream data signal from the video cable;
- coupling the upstream data signal from the sink multiplexer input port to the video cable through a sink multiplexer bi-directional port of the sink multiplexer;
- coupling the analog video signal from the video cable through the sink demultiplexer bi-directional port to the first sink multiplexer output port;
- and
- coupling the downstream data signal from the video cable through the sink demultiplexer bi-directional port to the second sink multiplexer output port.
10 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.