Television upgrade

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12413810-B2
Application number	US-202418440313-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 13, 2024
Priority date	May 10, 2022
Publication date	Sep 9, 2025
Grant date	Sep 9, 2025

Abstract

Disclosed herein are system, apparatus, article of manufacture, method and/or computer program product embodiments, and/or combinations and sub-combinations thereof, for upgrading one or more display device hardware components. In one embodiment, as new television hardware components become available, the technology described herein allows replacement of original hardware components by external hardware components implemented as an add-in card, stick or equivalent circuitry and operational instructions. In some embodiments, the technology described herein may implement an application programming interface (API) that exposes hardware of a new external device communicatively coupled to the display device (e.g., television) to take control of one or more components of an existing internal system. Various interface technologies, such as HDMI and USB, may be used to connect the external hardware to the internal systems.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computing device, comprising:
a memory; and
one or more processing devices configured to execute instructions from the memory including instructions to:
detect a connection of the computing device to an external High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) port of a display device;
upon detecting the connection, request from the display device a hardware configuration of internal hardware of the display device;
recognize, based on the hardware configuration, an internal controller within the display device, wherein the internal controller is configured to render media content on the display device based on first display device commands;
request, based on a communication from the computing device to the display device, control of the internal controller;
upon receiving control of the internal controller, generate a hardware call to redirect the first display device commands originating from the internal controller to the computing device; and
communicate, to the internal controller and based on processing one or more of the redirected first display device commands, second display device commands based, at least in part, on the computing device replacing one or more hardware components of the internal hardware of the display device.

2. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein the first display device commands include hardware abstraction messages forwarded from the internal controller.

3. The computing device of claim 1 , further comprising one or more operating system upgrades to display device resident software operative with the internal hardware of the display device.

4. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein the hardware configuration of the internal hardware of the display device further comprises settings of the display device.

5. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein the display device comprises a television.

6. The computing device of claim 1 wherein the external HDMI port is configured to communicate the first display device commands and the second display device commands based on an HDMI Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) specification.

7. The computing device of claim 6 , wherein the one or more processing devices are configured to, upon detecting the connection, automatically enable communications based on the HDMI CEC specification.

8. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein the computing device further comprises one or more display hardware components that are absent from the internal hardware of the display device.

9. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein the internal controller comprises a host controller interface (HCI) and the receiving control of the internal controller is based on enabling an HDMI host controller for the HCI.

10. The computing device of claim 1 , further comprising a wireless multimedia interface configured to wirelessly communicate the first display device commands and the second display device commands based on a wireless communication specification.

11. A computer-implemented method for upgrading a display device, the computer-implemented method comprising:
detecting, by at least one computer processor, a connection of a computing device to an external High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) port of the display device;
upon detecting the connection, requesting from the display device a hardware configuration of internal hardware of the display device;
recognizing, based on the hardware configuration, an internal controller within the display device, wherein the internal controller is configured to render media content on the display device based on first display device commands;
requesting, based on a communication from the computing device to the display device, control of the internal controller;
upon receiving control of the internal controller, generating a hardware call to redirect the first display device commands originating from the internal controller to the computing device; and
communicating, to the internal controller and based on processing one or more of the redirected first display device commands, second display device commands based, at least in part, on the computing device replacing one or more hardware components of the internal hardware of the display device.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein the external HDMI port is configured to communicate the first display device commands and the second display device commands based on an HDMI Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) specification.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein the first display device commands include hardware abstraction messages forwarded from the internal controller.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein the processing further comprises processing the one or more redirected first display device commands with one or more operating system upgrades for the display device.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein the hardware configuration of the internal hardware of the display device further comprises settings of the display device.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein the display device comprises a television.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one computing device, cause the at least one computing device to perform operations comprising:
detecting a connection of the at least one computing device to an external High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) port of a display device;
upon detecting the connection, requesting from the display device a hardware configuration of internal hardware of the display device;
recognizing, based on the hardware configuration, an internal controller within the display device, wherein the internal controller is configured to render media content on the display device based on first display device commands;
requesting, based on a communication from the at least one computing device to the display device, control of the internal controller;
upon receiving control of the internal controller, generating a hardware call to redirect the first display device commands originating from the internal controller to the at least one computing device; and
communicating, to the internal controller and based on processing one or more of the redirected first display device commands, second display device commands based, at least in part, on the at least one computing device replacing one or more hardware components of the internal hardware of the display device.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the connection of the external HDMI port further comprises enabling communications based on an HDMI Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) specification.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the first display device commands include hardware abstraction messages forwarded from the internal controller.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 , the operations further comprising: processing the one or more redirected first display device commands with one or more operating system upgrades for the display device.

Assignees

• Roku Inc

Inventors

• Riepling Eric Casten

Classifications

• H04N21/43635 Primary

  HDMI · CPC title

• H04N21/42225

  characterized by types of remote control, e.g. universal remote control · CPC title

• H04N21/4183

  providing its own processing capabilities, e.g. external module for video decoding · CPC title

• H04N21/43615 Primary

  Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals (home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805) · CPC title