The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 06, 2010
Filed:
Apr. 29, 2004
Michael Weber, Hannover, DE;
Ingo Hütter, Pattensen, DE;
Michael Weber, Hannover, DE;
Ingo Hütter, Pattensen, DE;
Thomson Licensing, Boulogne Billancourt, FR;
Abstract
The invention relates to the field of domestic network technology. The control of an appliance in the network via a central appliance for the network and having a display unit is normally simplified with the aid of user interfaces. When an audio-video datastream has to be transmitted between two network appliances, then this takes place via data links that are set up. There is then a close relationship between the connected appliances, and this requires frequent switching between the user interfaces of the two appliances. For example, when the user interface for a CD player is displayed, this user interface must first of all be closed and a user interface for an amplifier in the network must be started, usually by selection from the list of all the appliances in the network, in order then to set the volume for the amplifier. The aim of the invention is to simplify the control of such appliances which are coupled to one another via a data link that has been set up. This is achieved by providing a field in the user interface for an appliance to be controlled, in which field a list of those appliances which maintain a connection that has been set up is displayed, and the user interface of that appliance is displayed with it. This results in a preselection from the list of all of the appliances in the network, allowing the desired user interface to be selected more quickly.