Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
CA 02659480 2009-03-19
METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR REMOTELY PROVIDING VIDEO CONTENT TO
AN ELECTRONIC SCREEN
FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE
[0001] The present disclosure relates to digital advertising displays and
electronic
screens, and to the display of content on digital billboards, electronic signs
or
displays.
BACKGROUND
[0002] The prior art approach to electronic signage is to maintain a data
transmission line between a central location and a target computer adapted to
control the electronic screen. At pre-determined intervals, the target
computer
polls the central location and asks whether new content is available. If new
content is available, it is downloaded to the target computer and displayed on
the
electronic screen according to a schedule.
[0003] One such prior art system is described in US2007/0271140 to Kanno.
[0004] Such systems have major drawbacks, such as the expenses associated to
maintaining a dedicated data transmission line, as well as the bandwidth
wasted
in polling. Moreover, depending on the length of intervals between polling,
there
may be a significant delay between the time that new content is ready, and the
time that it is displayed.
SUMMARY
[0005] The present disclosure provides for an improved system and method for
delivering content to an electronic screen, and in particular an electronic
screen
2
CA 02659480 2009-03-19
used for public display. Specifically, the present disclosure does not require
a
dedicated communication line.
[0006] Rather, the user of a system according to the present disclosure may
use
any existing internet communication line for the time required for the desired
digital content to be transmitted to the remote target location.
[0007] Thus, the present disclosure includes a mechanism for enabling the
transfer of created content from any standard computer, located anywhere
around the globe to a target location, also anywhere around the globe, as long
as
both the standard computer and the target location are connected to the
Internet.
[0008] According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, there is
provided
a method for providing content to a remote electronic screen, the remote
electronic screen comprising a screen and a target computer, comprising the
steps of: establishing a connection, from a first terminal, to the target
computer;
transferring a content file from the first terminal to the target computer;
invoking,
from the first terminal, software residing on the target computer to display
the
content file on the screen.
[0009] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, there is
provided a system for controlling an electronic screen comprising: an
electronic
screen; a target computer, the target computer including: screen control
software, the screen control software being adapted to control the display of
the
electronic screen; a communications module for communicating with a network
and with the electronic screen, the communications module being adapted to
allow remote users to transfer files to the target computer and to invoke the
screen control software.
3
CA 02659480 2009-03-19
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0010] The present disclosure will be better understood with reference to the
drawings, in which:
Figure 1 shows a block diagram of a system implementing the method
according to one embodiment.
Figure 2 shows a process diagram of a method according to one
embodiment of the present disclosure;
Figure 3 shows a block diagram of a system for implementing the method
according to one embodiment of the present disclosure; and
Figure 4 shows a block diagram of a target computer according to one
embodiment of the present disclosure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0011] Reference is now made to Figure 1. According to one embodiment of the
present disclosure, a user may log in to a first computer terminal 12, which
is
connected, either temporarily or permanently to a network 14. In one
embodiment, the network 14 is the Internet, but the present disclosure is not
so
limited and the network 14 could be any Wide Area Network (WAN).
[0012] From the computer terminal 12, the user may access the target computer
16, which is also connected to the network 14. According to the embodiment
where the network 14 is the Internet, this is done by typing in a Uniform
Resource Locator (URL) such as a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) web
address in a browser. In other embodiments this is done by any other means of
connecting to a remote computer known in the art.
[0013] In one embodiment the user must first be authenticated before having
access to the target computer 16. This step may take the form of prompting the
4
CA 02659480 2009-03-19
user for a user name and password, or any other authentication method known in
the art, such as biometrics.
[0014] In one embodiment, the target computer has as part of its motherboard
at
least two USB ports, at least two Ethernet ports, at least one VGA video port,
at
least one hard drive, and a CPU that can fully handle DirectX to handle all
types
of video files. In other embodiments, the target computer can have other
configurations.
[0015] Once the user is logged on to the target computer 16, the next step is
to
transfer the content file 13, which is residing on the computer terminal 12,
to the
target computer 16. As will be appreciated, target computer includes storage
means 17, such as a hard drive, for storing, inter alia, content files. The
content
file 13 may be simple - consisting of only an image - or it may be more
complex
- consisting of multiple images, animated images, audio and/or video. It will
be
appreciated that the present system and method can accommodate any type of
file format as long as the file contains media to be displayed on an
electronic
screen. Examples of such formats include, but are not limited to JPG, FLASH,
WMV, MPEG, AVI, RSS, URL, HTML, BMP, PNG, TIFF, PCX, TGA, MHT,
images displayed as a slide show, scrolling text, webcam feeds, or television
via
a TV tuner card.
[0016] The transfer of the file can occur in any number of ways as is known in
the
art. In particular, if the user is accessing the target computer 16 via a web
page,
the user may be prompted to provide the directory path to the content file.
[0017] In another embodiment, the target computer 16 is adapted to provide
Remote Virtual Media functionality to the computer terminal 12. As will be
appreciated by a person skilled in the art, Remote Virtual Media allows a
local
system to read and write to the media, such as a hard drive, of a remote
system.
In such an embodiment, once the user is logged on to the target computer 16,
CA 02659480 2009-03-19
the hard drive, or other media, of the target computer 12 will appear as
though it
is local to the computer terminal 16. From the user's point of view, the
computer
terminal 12 can then read from and actually write to media belonging to the
target
computer 16 as if that media was physically connected to the computer terminal
12. Therefore, in such a method, the transfer of the content file 13 could be
performed by drag-and-drop.
[0018] Two main manufacturers of KVM technology are AvocentTM and Raritan TM
Both of these manufacturers' products are applicable to the present
disclosure.
[0019] Once the content file 13 is transferred to the target computer 16, the
user
must invoke screen control software residing on the target computer 16. As
seen
in Figure 1, target computer 16 is operatively connected to an electronic
screen
18. It is not critical to the present disclosure whether electronic screen 18
is a
large outdoor billboard or a smaller indoor sign, and the present disclosure
is
applicable to any type of electronic screen. Similarly, screen control
software
residing on target computer 16 may be of any type known in the art, as long as
it
provides the necessary functionality required to control the content displayed
on
electronic screen 18.
[0020] In a preferred embodiment, the full functionality of the screen control
software is made available on the computer terminal 12 through a remote user
interface. Accordingly, the user may make any changes to the content displayed
on screen 18 as required.
[0021] Another pitfall of the prior art addressed by the present disclosure is
the
problem which occurs if the target computer, which controls the display of the
electronic screen, fails or stops responding. In these cases, any
communication
with the target computer is impossible until a technician travels to the site
of the
target computer to fix the problem, at great cost. The present disclosure
6
CA 02659480 2009-03-19
provides a solution to this problem by allowing to remotely reboot the target
computer in the event it crashes.
[0022] According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, this
feature
is implemented by providing Keyboard-Video-Mouse ("KVM") technology with the
remote computer. KVM allows the keyboard and mouse inputs from one local
computer to be interpreted as actual keyboard and mouse inputs on a remote
computer, and to transmit the video display of the remote computer to the
local
computer.
[0023] As will be appreciated, in its simplest form, a KVM switch has separate
connections (ports) for each computer that will connect to the switch via a
keyboard cable, a mouse cable, and a video (e.g. VGA) cable. Inside the switch
there may be a separate chip set per port (some KVM switches have one set of
chips that can handle multiple ports) that will emulate an actual mouse and
keyboard so that when the user is connected to computer B for instance using a
two port KVM switch, computer A will still believe that a discrete mouse and
keyboard are connected to it. This is important because most computers running
some version of Windows, will "hang" if a keyboard and mouse are not sensed,
at all times. Just as with a typical workstation (desktop computer) there is a
one-
to-one relationship between the computer and its associated keyboard, mouse
and monitor. When the computer "hangs" or a "blue" screen is encountered, the
normal procedure is to depress simultaneously the CTRL-ALT-DELETE keys to
reboot the computer, a KVM switch enables the user to do exactly the same
procedure for every computer that is connected to the KVM switch.
[0024] The open architecture of the IBM PC enabled numerous manufacturers to
produce products that did not always function exactly the same way. The issue
of compatibility became a major concern and at the same time a monumental
task. As an example, the keyboard ports of different models of IBM PCs could
behave differently in their interaction with a keyboard. IBM defined three
different
7
CA 02659480 2009-03-19
sets of keyboard Scan Codes: Set 1 for the XT, Set 2 for the AT and Set 3 for
the
3270 terminal (the same keyboard for PCs). Most, but not all manufacturers of
IBM compatible PCs use Scan Set 2. A microprocessor with good emulation
should be able to handle all three sets of Scan Codes. A similar challenge
exists
for mice. Mice exist that use a serial DB-9 pin connector and others that use
a 6
pin mini-DIN (Deutsches Institut fur Normung, German Standards Institute)
connector.
[0025] As PCs proliferated, manufacturers of good quality KVM switches,
recognized that in order to be successful and to be accepted by a wide and
diverse market, their products had to be compatible with the vast majority of
PCs,
keyboards and mice.
[0026] Accordingly, KVM may be used to remotely reboot the target computer by
pressing the keys CTRL-ALT-DELETE simultaneously as is known in the art.
Computers running Unix or Linux operating systems may have different rebooting
commands, but KVM technology allows for these as well.
[0027] KVM technology further provides the advantage of providing the user
with
the display information of the target computer as it is rebooting, which may
provide some useful information as to why the target computer had crashed. In
particular, it is possible using KVM technology to access the target
computer's
BIOS if required.
[0028] KVM provides further advantages to the present disclosure. In
particular,
KVM technology may be used to allow the user to more easily invoke and use
the screen control software of the target computer.
[0029] Reference is now made to Figure 2, which shows a process diagram of
the method according to the disclosure. As shown in Figure 2, the method
starts
at step 21 where a user logs in remotely to an IP appliance that includes the
8
CA 02659480 2009-03-19
target computer and the KVM circuit. The user is then authenticated at step
22.
Following that, the user transfers a content file from a first terminal to the
target
computer at step 23, and at step 24, screen control software residing on the
target computer is invoked to show the new content on the electronic screen.
[0030] The present disclosure also includes a system for implementing the
above
described method. Such a system is depicted in Figure 3.
[0031] The system, generally depicted at 10, includes a target computer 30, a
video link 36 or other communications link, and a screen 38. Target computer
30
is essentially a conventional computer, having a microprocessor, memory, and
storage devices, and includes an operating system. Importantly, target
computer
30 includes a communications module 32 and screen control software 34.
[0032] The communications module 32 is responsible for communicating with a
network, allowing remote users to log on to the target computer,
authenticating
users, and for communicating with the screen 38. As will be appreciated by a
person skilled in the art, the communications module 32 is also responsible
for
allowing for the transfer of the content file, and in one embodiment, for
providing
the Remote Virtual Media functionality. Furthermore, the communications
module interacts with the screen control software 34, in order that input from
a
user on a remote computer be received by the software 34, and in one
embodiment, to communicate back to the remote user any feedback provided by
the software 34 in response.
[0033] The screen control software 34 is responsible for dictating to the
screen
38 the content to be displayed. It does so by issuing commands to the screen
38
via the communications module 32 and the video link 36. As discussed above,
screen control software 34 receives input from a remote user via the
communications module, and in a preferred embodiment, provides feedback to
the communications module, which then transmits this information to the user.
9
CA 02659480 2009-03-19
1
[0034] In another preferred embodiment, the screen control software 34 allows
the user to specify a schedule for different content to be displayed at
different
times.
[0035] The video link 36 can be any suitable type of link known in the art,
including, but not limited to, wired communications, radio, or infrared.
[0036] The screen 38 is any type of known display screen adapted to display
digital images. It must include its own communications module for
communicating with the target computer 30, as is known in the art.
[0037] Reference is now made to Figure 4, which shows a block diagram of a
target computer according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
[0038] The target computer includes a chassis 41, which has been modified in
order to accommodate additional circuitry such as an Internet Protocol (IP)
appliance 43, and a KVM circuit 44. The KVM circuit 44 is connected to the
motherboard 42 at Universal Serial Bus (USB) port 45, and at video port 46.
The
KVM 44 circuit further connects to the computer's video out port 47, to which
is
connected an electronic screen 50.
[0039] An Ethernet port of the motherboard is connected to a first network
connection 48a. Additional network connection 48b may also be provided. The
IP appliance 43 is further connected to the KVM circuit 44, thereby allowing
the
KVM circuit 44 to communicate through the network.
[0040] The target computer further includes storage 49 which stores such
things
as operating system files, data files, such as media content, screen control
software files, and others, as is known in the art.
CA 02659480 2009-03-19
[0041] The embodiments described herein are examples of structures, systems
or methods having elements corresponding to elements of the techniques of this
application. This written description may enable those skilled in the art to
make
and use embodiments having alternative elements that likewise correspond to
the elements of the techniques of this application. The intended scope of the
techniques of this application thus includes other structures, systems or
methods
that do not differ from the techniques of this application as described
herein, and
further includes other structures, systems or methods with insubstantial
differences from the techniques of this application as described herein.
11
