Automatic correspondence of encoders and decoders to video ports

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11637913-B2
Application number	US-202117375915-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 14, 2021
Priority date	Jul 15, 2020
Publication date	Apr 25, 2023
Grant date	Apr 25, 2023

Abstract

Methods and systems for automatically determining correspondences between communication ports of a networked device and encoders and decoders connected to those communication ports. In some embodiments, the networked device and the encoders and decoders are connected to a video communications network provided by a switch. The networked device can query the video communications network for information related to the encoders and decoders to determine and save the port-to-device correspondences. In some embodiments, the networked device can extract device information from video signals received at its input ports to map the input ports to respectively connected decoders. In similar fashion, the networked device may transmit or embed port-specific information from its output ports to respectively connected encoders. Then, the networked device can query the video communications network for the port-specific information received at the encoders to map the output ports to respectively connected encoders.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for mapping communications ports of a network device to encoders and decoders coupled to the network device, comprising, at a network device comprising a plurality of input ports and a plurality of output ports and coupled to a video communications network:
querying the video communications network to identify a plurality of encoders and a plurality of decoders connected to the video communications network;
at each input port of the plurality of input ports, providing port-specific information from a respective input port to a decoder connected to the respective input port, wherein the port-specific information identifies the respective input port;
querying the plurality of identified decoders over the video communications network for the port-specific information received at each decoder of the plurality of identified decoders;
mapping the plurality of input ports to a plurality of corresponding decoders in a mapping table based on the queried port-specific information, wherein each input port is mapped to a decoder associated with the port-specific information identifying the respective input port;
at each output port of the plurality of output ports, receiving encoder-specific information from an encoder connected to a respective output port, wherein the encoder-specific information identifies the encoder;
querying the plurality of identified encoders over the video communications network for the encoder-specific information associated with each encoder of the plurality of identified encoders; and
mapping the plurality of output ports to a plurality of corresponding encoders in the mapping table based on the queried encoder-specific information, wherein each output port is mapped to an encoder associated with the encoder-specific information identifying the encoder.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein querying the video communications network to identify the plurality of encoders and the plurality of decoders comprises:
transmitting a query to a network management application coupled to the video communications network, wherein the network management application monitors encoders and decoders connected to the video communications network.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the port-specific information and the encoder-specific information comprise Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) information.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the port-specific information is provided from the respective input port to the decoder connected to the respective input port using a Display Data Channel (DDC) and wherein the encoder-specific information is received from the encoder at the respective output port using the DDC.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the encoder-specific information received from the encoder at the corresponding respective output port comprises a serial number that identifies the encoder.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the port-specific information from the respective input port comprises data identifying the network device and the respective input port of the network device.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network device comprises a graphical user interface (GUI) that permits a user to view port mappings.

8. The method of claim 7 , comprising:
displaying, by the GUI, a configuration screen for mapping ports to connected devices;
while displaying the configuration screen, receiving from the user a selection of an option in the configuration screen for initiating automatic mapping between ports of the network device and connected devices; and
responding to the selection of the option, initiating the querying of the video communications network to identify the plurality of encoders and the plurality of decoders, the querying of the plurality of identified decoders for the port-specific information received at each decoder, the mapping of the plurality of input ports to the plurality of corresponding decoders in the mapping table, the querying of the plurality of identified encoder for the encoder-specific information, and the mapping of the plurality of output ports to the plurality of corresponding encoders in the mapping table.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the plurality of output ports comprises a first output port for transmitting outputs of the GUI, and wherein the mapping table comprises a mapping between the first output port and a first encoder from the plurality of identified encoders, and wherein the method comprises:
querying each decoder of the plurality of identified decoders over the video communications network for device information received at each decoder from a corresponding display device connected to the decoder;
determining a first decoder from the plurality of identified decoders as being connected to a display designated for displaying the outputs of the GUI based on the device information queried from each decoder; and
saving a correspondence between the determined first decoder and the designated display.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein determining the first decoder from the plurality of identified decoders comprises: determining that the device information received at the first decoder comprises data that identifies the designated display.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the designated display comprises a touch panel.

12. The method of claim 9 , comprising: routing the outputs of the GUI from the first output port through the first encoder to the first decoder to enable the user to view the outputs of the GUI on the designated display coupled to the first decoder.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one encoder of the plurality of encoders or one decoder of the plurality of decoders is connected to the video communications network through a respective Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) connection.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one encoder of the plurality of encoders or one decoder of the plurality of decoders is connected to the video communications network through a respective User Datagram Protocol (UDP) connection.

15. The method of claim 1 , comprising: receiving a video signal from a first input port of the plurality of input ports; and performing one or more functions on the video signal, the one or more functions comprising: overlaying data on the video signal, recording images or video from the video signal, or streaming the video signal to one or more remote devices.

16. A method for mapping communications ports of a network device to encoders and decoders coupled to the network device, comprising, at a network device comprising a plurality of input ports and a plurality of output ports and coupled to a video communications network:
at each output port of the plurality of output ports, embedding port-specific information to a video output signal transmitted by a respective output port to an encoder connected to the respective output port, wherein the port-specific information identifies the respective output port;
querying the video communications network for a plurality of encoders connected to the video communications network and a plurality of port-specific information received and detected by the plurality of respective encoders;
mapping the plurality of output ports to a plurality of corresponding encoders in a mapping table based on the queried port-specific information, wherein each output port is mapped to an encoder associated with the port-specific information detected by the encoder and embedded into the video output signal transmitted by the respective output port;
for each input port of the plurality of input ports, detecting

Assignees

• Stryker Corp

Inventors

• Hunter Brandon
• Hereford Eric
• Roy Suman

Classifications

• H04L69/16

  Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] · CPC title

• H04N21/222

  Secondary servers, e.g. proxy server, cable television Head-end {(provisioning of proxy services in data packet switching networks H04L67/56)} · CPC title

• H04L12/2827

  Reporting to a device within the home network; wherein the reception of the information reported automatically triggers the execution of a home appliance functionality · CPC title

• H04N21/43635

  HDMI · CPC title

• H04L65/70

  Media network packetisation · CPC title