Electronic device, electronic device control method, and electronic device system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9277171-B2
Application number	US-201414191924-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 27, 2014
Priority date	Dec 28, 2010
Publication date	Mar 1, 2016
Grant date	Mar 1, 2016

Abstract

An electronic device includes: a digital signal transmission/reception unit configured to perform two-way transmission of a digital signal using multiple differential signal lanes prepared at a transmission path with an external device; a transmission path arrangement determining unit configured to determine a transmission path arrangement including the number of use lanes, a use lane number, and a transmission direction by performing communication with the external device using a two-way communication line prepared at the transmission path with the external device; and a transmission path arrangement control unit configured to control the arrangement of the digital signal transmission/reception unit based on the information of the transmission path arrangement determined at the transmission path arrangement determining unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic device comprising:
circuitry that:
determines whether an external device connected to said electronic device is compatible with two-way transmission or not;
performs said two-way transmission of a digital signal using a plurality of differential signal lanes prepared at a transmission path with said external device;
determines a transmission path arrangement including number of use lanes, a use lane number, a transmission direction, and carrier clock frequency of said digital signal transmitted by one of said number of use lanes by performing communication with said external device using a two-way communication line prepared at said transmission path with said external device; and
controls said transmission path arrangement of said plurality of differential signal lanes based on information of said transmission path arrangement.

2. The electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein
said circuitry that
performs, when said external device is not activated, communication with said external device using said two-way communication line prepared at said transmission path to activate said external device, and determines said transmission path arrangement including said number of use lanes, said use lane number, and said transmission direction.

3. The electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein
said circuitry that
uses a mutually independent carrier clock as a carrier clock of said digital signal transmitted using said plurality of differential signal lanes.

4. The electronic device according to claim 3 , wherein
said circuitry that
transmits, when transmitting said digital signal using a predetermined differential signal lane, said digital signal by superimposing said carrier clock on said digital signal.

5. The electronic device according to claim 4 , wherein
said digital signal is a digital video signal, and
wherein said carrier clock is a carrier clock synchronized with a pixel clock of said digital video signal.

6. The electronic device according to claim 4 , wherein
said circuitry that
informs, when transmitting said digital signal using said predetermined differential signal lane, said external device of frequency information of said carrier clock superimposed on said digital signal via said two-way communication line before transmitting said digital signal.

7. The electronic digital signal device according to claim 4 , wherein
said circuitry that
transmits, when transmitting said digital signal using said predetermined differential signal lane, a reference clock synchronized with said carrier clock superimposed on said digital signal to said external device before transmitting said digital signal.

8. The electronic device according to claim 7 , wherein
said circuitry that
transmits said reference clock to said external device, and
after receiving from said external device, notice that said reference clock is synchronized with a transmission clock through said two-way communication line, starts transmission of said digital signal to said external device.

9. The electronic device according to claim 4 , wherein
said circuitry that
inserts a fixed pattern for extracting a carrier clock during an invalid data section or a control data section of said digital signal.

10. The electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein
said circuitry that
transmits said digital signal to packing processing according to said number of use lanes to generate said digital signal to be transmitted at each lane.

11. The electronic device according to claim 10 , wherein
said circuitry that
transmits said digital signal to be transmitted at each lane by superimposing a carrier clock on each thereof.

12. The electronic device according to claim 10 , wherein said transmission digital signal is transmitted from another external device using a predetermined number of differential signal lanes.

13. The electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein
said circuitry that
extracts a carrier clock from a digital signal transmitted at a predetermined differential signal lane, and performs reception processing of said digital signal using said extracted carrier clock.

14. The electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein
said circuitry that:
obtains information from said external device via said transmission path; and
displays said information of a connected source device of said electronic device, and a connected source device of said external device.

15. A control method for an electronic device operable to perform two-way transmission of a digital signal using a plurality of differential signal lanes prepared at a transmission path with an external device, said method comprising:
determining whether said external device connected to said electronic device is compatible with said two-way transmission or not;
determining a transmission path arrangement including number of use lanes, a use lane number, a transmission direction and carrier clock frequency of said digital signal transmitted by one of said number of use lanes by performing communication with said external device using a two-way communication line prepared at said transmission path with said external device; and
controlling said transmission path arrangement of said plurality of differential signal lanes based on information of said transmission path arrangement determined at said determined transmission path arrangement.

Assignees

• Sony Corp

Inventors

• Toba Kazuaki
• Ichimura Gen
• Suzuki Kazuyoshi
• Hayashi Toshihide
• Suzuki Hideyuki

Classifications

• H04N7/14 Primary

  Systems for two-way working ({H04N7/12, } H04N7/173 take precedence) · CPC title

• H04N21/43635

  HDMI · CPC title

• H04N21/4305 Primary

  Synchronising client clock from received content stream, e.g. locking decoder clock with encoder clock, extraction of the PCR packets (arrangements for synchronising receiver with transmitter by comparing receiver clock with transmitter clock H04L7/0012; arrangements for synchronising receiver with transmitter wherein the receiver takes measures against momentary loss of synchronisation H04L7/0083) · CPC title

• H04N21/43615

  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

• H04N21/4402

  involving reformatting operations of video signals for household redistribution, storage or real-time display {(details of conversion of video standards at pixel level H04N7/01; video transcoding H04N19/40; adapting incoming signals to the display format of the display terminal G09G5/005; media handling at the source in data packet switching networks H04L65/764)} · CPC title