Display apparatus

What is this patent about?

’780 is related to the field of digital image display systems and, more specifically, to methods for interfacing a display apparatus with portable image sources like digital cameras or mobile phones. The background context involves the transition from analog to digital connections, where high-definition content requires efficient handling of compressed data and metadata across various physical and wireless interfaces to maintain user convenience and copyright protections.

The underlying idea behind ’780 is a pull-based slide show mechanism where the display apparatus actively manages the retrieval of image data from an external source. Rather than acting as a passive monitor, the display sends periodic acquisition requests to a connected camera or portable device, fetching compressed image files—such as JPEG data—over either a wired USB connection or a wireless network. This allows the display to control the timing and presentation of a slide show or thumbnail gallery while offloading the storage burden to the portable device.

The claims of ’780 focus on an image display apparatus equipped with both dual-interface circuitry—specifically USB and wireless LAN—and a dedicated processing pipeline for external content. The independent claims cover the specific workflow of transmitting a signal to a digital camera to trigger the output of compressed still pictures, receiving that data, and then utilizing an internal decoder and resizing processor to format the images for a slide show. This includes the ability to address the camera via an IP address when operating over a wireless network.

In practice, the invention functions by allowing a user to initiate a slide show via a remote control, which prompts the television to request images at predetermined intervals. The display apparatus handles the heavy lifting of decoding and pixel-grid scaling to ensure that high-resolution photos from a camera are correctly fitted to the television's specific screen dimensions. This architecture supports both sequential full-screen viewing and the generation of multi-image thumbnail layouts, providing a unified interface for browsing external media regardless of the connection type.

This approach differs from prior solutions by shifting the control logic from the source device to the display apparatus, utilizing the CEC line or network protocols to bridge disparate hardware makers. Unlike standard monitors that simply receive a video stream, this system treats the external camera as a remote storage volume, fetching raw compressed files and applying local image effects or rotation. This ensures that the display quality is optimized by the television's own hardware while maintaining a seamless, automated user experience across both wired and wireless environments.