Screen overlay device for outputting cursor coordinates based on movement of a pointing device and an on-screen display relating to a menu and a method therefor

A screen overlay device for overlaying a menu and cursor on a screen comprising:

• a pointing device wireless transmitter for transmitting infrared (IR) signal corresponding to one of a key-input and movement of a pointing device;
• an IR signal receiving and amplifying unit for receiving said IR signal and amplifying the signal by a predetermined gain;
• a controller for generating a red-green-blue (RGB) signal corresponding to on-screen display (OSD) data related to said menu in response to said amplified signal, and calculating cursor coordinates corresponding to movement of said pointing device by adding a first displacement value based on the movement of the pointing device to a current first-axis coordinate value thereby generating a first sum and setting said first-axis coordinate value to a minimum first coordinate value if the first sum is less than the minimum first coordinate value and setting said first-axis coordinate value to a maximum first coordinate value if the first sum is greater than the maximum first coordinate value, and adding a second displacement value based on the movement of the pointing device to a current second-axis coordinate value thereby generating a second sum and setting said second-axis coordinate value to a minimum second coordinate value if the second sum is less than the minimum second coordinate value and setting said second-axis coordinate value to a minimum second coordinate value if the second sum is greater than the maximum second coordinate value;
• an overlay unit for generating an RGB signal corresponding to said cursor coordinates in synchronization with horizontal and vertical sync signals, mixing the generated RGB signal with the RGB signal generated by said controller, and outputting the result;
• and
• an RGB mixer for mixing the RGB signal generated by said overlay unit with an external RGB signal in synchronization with said horizontal and vertical sync signals.

A method for controlling a screen overlay device in response to an infrared (IR) signal corresponding to a key-input and movement of a pointing device and overlaying a cursor and menu on a screen, said method comprising the steps of:

• (a) determining whether said IR signal corresponds to movement of said pointing device;
• (b) determining whether the screen is in a menu mode, if said IR signal corresponds to the movement of said pointing device in step (a);
• (c) determining whether said IR signal is an X-axis signal or a Y-axis signal, only if in step (b) the screen is determined to be in a menu mode;
• (d) performing an X-axis signal inspection and coordinate calculation, only if in step (c) said IR signal is determined to be an X-axis signal;
• and
• (e) performing a Y-axis signal inspection and coordinate calculation, only if in step (c) said IR signal is determined to be a Y-axis signal,
• wherein said step (d) comprises the steps of:
• storing said X-axis signal as a displacement variable .DELTA.X;
• adding said displacement variable .DELTA.X to a current X-axis coordinate value;
• setting the current X-axis coordinate value to an X-axis minimum coordinate value X.sub.min, if the result of said adding step is smaller than the X-axis minimum coordinate value X.sub.min ;
• and
• setting an X-axis maximum coordinate value X.sub.max to the current X-axis coordinate value, if the result of said adding step is larger than the X-axis maximum coordinate value X.sub.max.

A method for controlling a screen overlay device in response to an infrared (IR) signal corresponding to a key-input and movement of a pointing device and overlaying a cursor and menu on a screen, said method comprising the steps of:

• (a) determining whether said IR signal corresponds to movement of said pointing device;
• (b) determining whether the screen is in a menu mode, if said IR signal corresponds to the movement of said pointing device in step (a);
• (c) determining whether said IR signal is an X-axis signal or a Y-axis signal, only if in step (b) the screen is determined to be in a menu mode;
• (d) performing an X-axis signal inspection and coordinate calculation, only if in step (c) said IR signal is determined to be an X-axis signal;
• and
• (e) performing a Y-axis signal inspection and coordinate calculation, only if in step (c) said IR signal is determined to be a Y-axis signal, wherein said step (e) comprises the steps of:
• storing said Y-axis signal as a displacement variable .DELTA.Y;
• adding said displacement variable .DELTA.Y to the current Y-axis coordinate value;
• setting the current Y-axis coordinate value to a Y-axis minimum coordinate value Y.sub.min, if the result of said adding step is smaller than the Y-axis minimum coordinate value Y.sub.min ;
• and
• setting the current Y-axis coordinate value to a Y-axis maximum coordinate value Y.sub.max, if the result of said adding step is larger than the Y-axis maximum coordinate value Y.sub.max.

A television employing a screen overlay device for overlaying a cursor and menu on a screen, said television comprising:

• a pointing device wireless transmitter for transmitting an infrared (IR) signal corresponding to a key-input and movement of a pointing device;
• an IR signal receiving and amplifying unit for receiving said IR signal and amplifying the signal by a predetermined gain;
• a controller for generating a red-green-blue (RGB) signal corresponding to on-screen display (OSD) data related to said menu in response to said amplified signal, outputting a phase-locked loop (PLL) data signal corresponding to a channel selection signal and calculating cursor coordinates corresponding to movement of said pointing device by adding a first displacement value based on the movement of the pointing device to a current first-axis coordinate value thereby generating a first sum and setting said first-axis coordinate value to a minimum first coordinate value if the first sum is less than the minimum first coordinate value and setting said first-axis coordinate value to a maximum first coordinate value if the first sum is greater than the maximum first coordinate value, and adding a second displacement value based on the movement of the pointing device to a current second-axis coordinate value thereby generating a second sum and setting said second-axis coordinate value to a minimum second coordinate value if the second sum is less than the minimum second coordinate value and setting said second-axis coordinate value to a minimum second coordinate value if the second sum is greater than the maximum second coordinate value;
• a tuner for selecting a television broadcast signal in response to said PLL data signal;
• an intermediate frequency amplifier for receiving said selected signal, removing a carrier frequency, separating an video signal and an audio signal from said selected signal and outputting an automatic frequency control signal to said controller;
• a chroma/sync signal separator unit for receiving said video signal and separating an RGB signal, a horizontal and a vertical sync signal from said video signal;
• an overlay unit for generating OSD data related to said menu and an RGB signal corresponding to said cursor coordinates in synchronization with the horizontal and vertical sync signals;
• and
• an RGB mixer for mixing the RGB signal generated by said overlay unit with the RGB signal separated by said chroma/sync signal separator in synchronization with said horizontal and vertical sync signals.