Aircraft in-flight entertainment system with enhanced seatback tray passenger control units and associated methods
AssigneeLiveTV, LLC
InventorsJEFFREY A. FRISCO, Scott Easterling
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An aircraft in-flight entertainment (IFE) system includes an entertainment source, passenger seatback displays coupled to the entertainment source, and passenger control units (PCUs). Each PCU is associated with a respective seatback display. Each PCU includes an underside PCU input device carried by an underside of a seatback tray to be accessible by a user from the underside of the seatback tray when the seatback tray is in a stored position, and a topside PCU input device carried by a topside of the seatback tray to be accessible by the user from a topside of the seatback tray when the seatback tray is in a down position.
Claims29
An aircraft in-flight entertainment (IFE) system comprising:
- at least one entertainment source;
- a plurality of passenger seatback displays coupled to said at least one entertainment source;
- and
- a plurality of passenger control units (PCUs), each PCU associated with a respective seatback display and comprising
- an underside PCU input device carried by an underside of a seatback tray to be accessible by a user from the underside of the seatback tray when the seatback tray is in a stored position, and
- a topside PCU input device carried by a topside of the seatback tray to be accessible by the user from a topside of the seatback tray when the seatback tray is in a down position.
An aircraft in-flight entertainment (IFE) system comprising:
- at least one entertainment source;
- a plurality of passenger seatback displays coupled to said at least one entertainment source;
- and
- a plurality of passenger control units (PCUs), each PCU associated with a respective seatback display and comprising
- an underside PCU input device carried by an underside of a seatback tray to be accessible by a user from the underside of the seatback tray when the seatback tray is in a stored position, and
- a topside PCU input device carried by a topside of the seatback tray to be accessible by the user from a topside of the seatback tray when the seatback tray is in a down position,
- each of said underside and topside PCU input devices comprises a touchpad configured to recognize multiple simultaneous touch points.
A method for operating an aircraft in-flight entertainment (IFE) system comprising at least one entertainment source;
- a plurality of passenger seatback displays coupled to the at least one entertainment source;
- and a plurality of passenger control units (PCUs), with each PCU associated with a respective seatback display and comprising an underside PCU input device carried by an underside of a seatback tray and a topside PCU input device carried by a topside of the seatback tray, the method comprising:
- selectively enabling the underside PCU input device carried by the underside of the seatback tray when the seatback tray is in a stored position;
- and
- selectively enabling the topside PCU input device carried by the topside of the seatback tray when the seatback tray is in a down position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.