Title of Invention

AN INTEGRATED COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION-EDUCATION-ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM

Abstract

An integrated computer-communication-education-entertainment ayStem comprising an INTEL 486 based system controller with keyboard, colour monitor and printer, the said system controller being connected to a TV/VCR interface controller; a fax-telephone Interface; and a C D interface; the said TV/VCR interface controller comprising a TV tuner, a video , two banks of VRAMS for odd/even fields, n memory controller, DAC with switcher, PLD , audio detector and processor; the said fax-telephone interface including circuits for PSTN interface, analog to digital conversion, digital to analog conversion, DTMF and ring detec¬tion; the said CD interface including a DSP/ISA interface chip.

Full Text

This invention relat-es to an integrated computer-communication-education-entertainment system. The system proposed herein can be used as a single utility system for viewing TV/video tape pro¬grammes, sending & receiving Fax/Telephone mes¬sages, scientific and commercial data processing applications, data retrieval and sending of data & software programs. This system integrates the capabilities of a commercial TV receiver, a VCR, a scientific computer and a communication system. A separate interface/controller board for each of the above functions can be plugged into a single mother board - INTEL 486 based system controller. Various other features of this invention will be apparent from the following further description thereof given hereunder. The integrated computer-communication-education-entertainment system, according to this invention, comprises an INTEL 486 based system controller with keyboard, colour monitor and printer, the said system controller being connected to a TV/VCR interface controller; a fax-telephone interface; and a C D interface; the said TV/VCR interface controller comprising a TV tuner, a video decoder , two banks of VRAMS for odd/even fields, a memory controller, DAC with switcher, PLD, audio detector and processor; the said fax-telephone interface including circuits for PSTN interface, analog to digital conversion, digital to analog conversion, DTMF and ring detection; the said CD interface including a DSP/ISA inter¬face chip . This invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings which illustrate, by way of example, one of various possible embodiments of the system proposed here¬in, wherein Fig.l illustrates the circuitry of the TV/VCR interface/controller Fig.2 illustrates the circuitry relating to the fax-telephone interface Fig.3 illustrates the circuitry relating to the CD interface Fig. 4 illustrates the circuitry relating to the Intel 486 based controller and Fig. 5 illustrates the circuitry relating to the system proposed herein TV - VCR INTERFACE/COTROLLER (Fig.l) This card captures video and overlays it on the system monitor . This board can display real time full motion video of up to 30 frames per second. The input can be any standard video input sources like TV, VCR, Camcorder and Laser Disc. The video is presented as a fully scalable window under software control. The card can be used to capture, cut, edit, cap¬tion, freeze, posterize, mirror image reversal, slow motion, zoom (in horizontal, vertical or both directions) etc. of the full motion video. Built-in TV tuner helps to watch live TV channels. The video can be overlaid/captured in user defined window of any size and position. It is also possi¬ble to get a print-out of the video image. TV timer program provides automatic ON/OFF timer for the screen, presetting start and stop time or automatic start-up upon ent ing windows. Programs belonging to PAL/NTSC/SECAM can be received (present card features only PAL programs). The Audio stage can provide mono/stereo audio outputs. Bass/Treble and volume can be adjusted for bright¬ness, contrast, saturation, hue, sharpness and auto channel search. A menu driven remote control unit provides all the functions of a VCR like fast forward rewind, pause etc. The board consists of a TV tuner, SAA7110 single chip video decoder. two banks of VRAMs for odd/even fields, a memory controller, triple DAC with switcher and audio processor. SAA7110 digi¬tizes analog baseband video signals and decodes it into colour difference information (YUV in CCIR format). The chip can also receive S-video or any other six analog video inputs. The chip can oper¬ate on PAL/NTSC/SECAM standards. The chip also provides sync. and blanking information to the memory controller. The memory controller converts the digital YUV data into 24 bit digital R,G,B, (8 bit each). The data is stored in VRAM banks. The memory controller scan converts the RGB data to the VGA timing frequencies/moclr playback of live video clips. The clips also provides I C bus control of other devices. The serial port of the VRAM is used by the graphics display processor for high speed display. The DAC converts the digital RGB into analog RGB and mixes with the analog RGB from VGA card under memory control. On a typical display screen we may have graphics and live video at the same time. A number of special effects like zoom, change of picture size etc. can be achieved. The audio is detected at the tuner output and is processed in the digitally controlled stereo audio processor (TDA7318). It can optionally accept four stereo inputs. The input gain can be adjusted. It provides volume control in 1.25 dB steps. It has bass and treble control. It also provides balance control between left and right channels. It has independent mute function and fader facility plus equalization for noise reduction. The Programmable Logic Device (PLD) provides the necessary PAL decoding coefficients and other timing signals. FAX - TELEPHONE INTERFACE (Fig.2) This card provides connectivity between Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and the CCEE system. The fax and telephone lines are thus connected to the Intel 486 based system control¬ler . This system controller provides the overall management of the total system functions. The Fax - telephone interface card is a half size PC add on card with sufficient circuits for PSTM interface. Analog to digital conversion and digi¬tal to analog conversion, DTMF (Dual tone multiple frequency) detection, ring detection etc. Incoming calls in the DTMF mode will be detected by the processor card. To avoid spurious calls, a specified number of "DTMF' tones (rings) are fixed and thus only the genuine incoming calls/fax messages are detected. If it is a fax message,the system can receive it automatically as fax message and store it in a file for further processing, if required. These fax messages can be displayed on the monitor screen and can also be printed out or re-routed to any other destination. If the incoming call is detected as a voice call,then the system will automatically switch to voice mail functions such as voice prompting, voice digitisation and storage, message retrieval etc. The advantages of the system include user friendliness, paperless operation, auto dialling etc . CD INTERFACE (Fig.3) The functions of the CD interface card are cen¬tered around the DSP/ISA interface chip. This chip takes care of all the DSP/ISA bus interface. It provides all the interfacing and glue logic. It also provides hardware communications path for the system audio requirement, the ISA bus Codec and the DSP. The primary interface between the system controller and sound card is through a set of registers with jumper selectable base addresses. This card can provide the basic functions of CD interface. Digital audio playback and audio compression using the DSP chip. An addition of music ROM can give FM synthesis capability to the card. Since the DSP is reprogammable, different algorithms can be down loaded to allow custom algorithms to be run on the same hardware. The sound card also provides a microphone and auxiliary input facility. The outputs of the card include auxiliary output and speaker per channel of audio. The card is stereo compatible and accepts stereo input/output and can give sampling rate of up to 48 KHz at 16 bit resolution. INTEL 486 BASED SYSTEM CONTROLLER (Fig.4) The 80486 based controller forms the core of the system proposed herein. Intel 80486 DX2 processor base controller board has 16 MB dynamic Random Access Memory. The chip has got on-chip 8 KB cache for data and code. In addition there is a 128 KB external cache memory also. Bus structure used by the controller will be the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA). All the necessary interface/ controllers for the proposed system will be com¬patible with ISA bus architecture. The controllers used in this will be a) IDE (Intelligent Drive Electronics) controller for Hard disk and Floppy. b) VGA (Video Graphics Array) controller for display. c) PAL to VGA controller for converting signals from Cameras, VCR etc. to VGA format. d) Speech/voice interface and CD ROM interface card . The mother board is provided with two serial ports which may be used to connect Modems. The Modems can be used to receive/send fax and telephone messages. In addition, there will be a Centronix Compatible Printer Port. ADVANTAGES 1. The important present day needs namely scien¬ tific computations, educational aids, entertain¬ ment and communication are met by this single platform cost-ef fective , easy-to-use system. 2. Simultaneous retrleval of information and data on single monitor, that is, while watching a TV programme one can also use the system for data entry and other Computational/Communication needs. 3. Favourite TV programmes can be preprogrammed and viewed in the preprogrammed sequence . 4. The system provides multimedia capabilities. AREAS OF APPLICATION There are many possible areas of application for the system proposed herein - as a singl,e platform utility system for homes, hospitals & primary health centres, educational institutions, panchayats, public corporations among others. We Claim: l.An integrated computer-communication-education-entertainment system comprising an INTEL 486 based system controller with keyboard, colour monitor and printer, the said system controller being connected to a TV/VCR interface controller; a fax-telephone interface; and a C D interface; the said TV/VCR interface controller comprising a TV tuner , a video decoder, two banks of VRAMS for odd/even fields, a memory controller, DAC with switcher, PLD, audio detector and processor; the said fax-telephone interface including circuits for PSTN interface, analog to digital conversion, digital to analog conversion, DTMF and ring detec¬tion; the said CD interface including a DSP/ISA interface chip. 2. An integrated computer - communication - education -entertainment system substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated by Figs. 1 to 5 of the accompanying drawings.

Documents:

0494-mas-1996 abstract.pdf

0494-mas-1996 claims.pdf

0494-mas-1996 corresp0ndence-others.pdf

0494-mas-1996 corresp0ndence-po.pdf

0494-mas-1996 description(complete).pdf

0494-mas-1996 drawings.pdf

0494-mas-1996 form-1.pdf

0494-mas-1996 form-26.pdf