Multiplexing storage element interface

#The field of the invention is electrical devices having human interfaces, including especially cameras, radios, televisions, telephones, kitchen appliances, and the like.

#Audio systems have long included individual components in separate housings. Since at least the 1950s, for example, a component stereo system might well include a tuner, amplifier, tape deck, and some sort of rotating media player. Sophisticated video systems have also long been “componentized”, so that a component video system might include a television linked with a VCR or DVD player, and a personal video camera or PVR.

#Whether analog or digital, communication between such components has traditionally (i.e. prior to this invention) comprised a raw point-to-point data stream. A speaker, for example, merely accepts an analog signal from an amplifier. The information is assumed to be reliable, and there is no error checking, resending of information or the like. Even a DVD player sends raw data on an extension of its native bus.

#FIG. 1A is a schematic of a traditional component personal video recorder in which the elements shown are coupled by a memory bus.

#FIG. 1B is a schematic of a virtual component personal video recorder in which the elements shown are coupled by a native bus virtualized using IP.

#FIG. 2 is a schematic of a home entertainment system in which the elements shown are coupled by a wireless virtual bus using IP.

#In FIG. 1B a virtual component personal video recorder 20 is an electrical device (which term is used herein to include electronic devices) that generally includes a human interface 21, a tuner element 22, a storage element 23, and a video decoder element 24, all connected by IP across a network or virtualized native bus 29.

#In this configuration, the tuner element 22, for example, would send information to the storage element 23 using packets having a header that contains the IP address of the storage element 23. Similarly, the storage element 23 would send information back to the tuner element 22 using packets having a header that contains the IP address of the tuner element 22.

#It should be appreciated that each of the various elements 21-24 would need to have sufficient functionality to communicate using IP. That functionality could be designed into the elements, or added on to existing elements using an IP adapter 30. Indeed, the adapter in such circumstances would essentially be a simple block-to-packet and packet-to-block translator.