In-flight entertainment system with wireless handheld controller and cradle having controlled locking and status reporting to crew

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9584846-B2
Application number	US-201314028185-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 16, 2013
Priority date	Dec 16, 2011
Publication date	Feb 28, 2017
Grant date	Feb 28, 2017

Abstract

A vehicle entertainment system is disclosed that includes docking cradles that can store handheld controllers, and a management terminal. The management terminal controls an electronically controlled lock apparatus of the cradles to selectively lock the handheld controllers in a stored position within the docking cradles. The management terminal may receive and display the status of which of the docking cradles store a handheld controller, and may display at least one user selectable indicia that is touch selectable by a user to control one or more of the docking cradles to lock and unlock handheld controllers stored therein. Related inductive charging circuits, theft alert circuits, and other components of the vehicle entertainment system are disclosed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A docking cradle of an entertainment system, the docking cradle comprising:
a housing having a recessed area to receive and store a handheld controller, wherein the housing comprises a retention surface that extends over the recessed area of the housing to engage a first end portion of the handheld controller stored in the docking cradle;
an electronically controlled lock apparatus connected to the housing and configured to lock the handheld controller within the recessed area of the housing preventing removal by a user responsive to a lock electrical signal from a management terminal separate from the docking cradle, and configured to unlock the handheld controller permitting removal by a user from the recessed area of the housing responsive to an unlock electrical signal from the management terminal; and
a locking tab that extends over the recessed area of the housing to engage a second end portion, opposite to the first end portion, of the handheld controller stored in the docking cradle,
wherein the electronically controlled lock apparatus responds to the unlock electrical signal from the management terminal by enabling movement of the locking tab to release the second end portion of the handheld controller when a user presses an unlock button connected to the housing, and responds to the lock electrical signal from the management terminal by disabling movement of the locking tab to prevent release of the second end portion of the handheld controller when a user presses the unlock button.

2. The docking cradle of claim 1 , wherein:
the electronically controlled lock apparatus comprises a solenoid controlled by an electronic control circuit that responds to the lock and unlock electrical signals, wherein the solenoid is controlled responsive to the lock electrical signal to move an arm structure to block movement of the locking tab when a user presses the unlock button, and the solenoid is controlled by the electronic control circuit responsive to the unlock electrical signal to move the arm structure to not block movement of the locking tab when a user presses the unlock button.

3. The docking cradle of claim 1 , further comprising:
an inductive charging circuit within the housing that inductively couples to a corresponding inductive charging circuit within a handheld controller, which is stored in the recessed area of the housing, to supply power to charge a battery of the handheld controller.

4. The docking cradle of claim 3 , further comprising:
an electronic control circuit that determines whether a handheld controller is stored in the recessed area of the housing by sensing whether the inductive charging circuit is inductively coupled to an inductive charging circuit within a handheld controller; and communicates with the management terminal to electronically report a status of whether a handheld controller is stored in the recessed area of the docking cradle.

5. The docking cradle of claim 4 , wherein the electronic control circuit monitors inductive loading of the inductive charging circuit to determine whether a handheld controller is stored in the recessed area of the housing.

6. The docking cradle of claim 1 , further comprising:
an electronic control circuit that communicates with the management terminal to report a status of whether a handheld controller is stored in the recessed area of the docking cradle.

7. The docking cradle of claim 6 , further comprising:
a network interface within the housing that communicates through a data network with a head end content server; and
a first transceiver circuit within the housing that communicates through a wireless communication link with a second transceiver circuit of a handheld controller to relay commands received via the second transceiver circuit from the handheld controller to the head end content server via the network interface, and to relay media received from the head end content server to the handheld controller via the second transceiver circuit.

8. The docking cradle of claim 7 , wherein:
the first transceiver circuit comprises a near field communication transceiver; and
the electronic control circuit determines whether a handheld controller is stored in the recessed area of the housing by attempting to communicate through the near field communication transceiver with a near field communication transceiver of the handheld controller, and communicates with the management terminal to report whether a handheld controller is stored in the recessed area of the housing.

9. A docking cradle of an entertainment system, the docking cradle comprising:
a housing having a recessed area to receive and store a handheld controller; and
an electronically controlled lock apparatus connected to the housing and configured to lock the handheld controller within the recessed area of the housing preventing removal by a user responsive to a lock electrical signal from a management terminal separate from the docking cradle, and configured to unlock the handheld controller permitting removal by a user from the recessed area of the housing responsive to an unlock electrical signal from the management terminal;
an electronic control circuit that communicates with the management terminal to report a status of whether a handheld controller is stored in the recessed area of the docking cradle; and
a mechanical or electromechanical switch that is actuated by storing and removing a handheld controller from the recessed area of the housing, wherein the electronic control circuit determines whether a handheld controller is stored in the recessed area of the housing responsive to a signal from the mechanical or electromechanical switch, and communicates with the management terminal to report whether a handheld controller is stored in the recessed area of the housing.

10. A docking cradle of an entertainment system, the docking cradle comprising:
a housing having a recessed area to receive and store a handheld controller; and
an electronically controlled lock apparatus connected to the housing and configured to lock the handheld controller within the recessed area of the housing preventing removal by a user responsive to a lock electrical signal from a management terminal separate from the docking cradle, and configured to unlock the handheld controller permitting removal by a user from the recessed area of the housing responsive to an unlock electrical signal from the management terminal; and
an electronic control circuit that communicates with the management terminal to report a status of whether a handheld controller is stored in the recessed area of the docking cradle,
wherein the electronic control circuit determines whether a handheld controller is stored in the recessed area of the docking cradle, and responds to receiving a command from the management terminal for the docking cradle to lock a handheld controller that is determined to not be presently stored in the recessed area by transmitting a sound generation command through a transceiver circuit to the handheld controller to command generation of an alert sound through a speaker of the handheld controller.

11. A vehicle entertainment system comprising:
a plurality of docking cradles, each comprising:
a housing with a recessed area to receive and store a handheld controller;
an electronically controlled lock apparatus connected to the housing and configured to lock the handheld controller within the recessed area of the housing preventing removal by a user responsive to a lock electrical signal, and configured to unlock the handheld controller permitting removal by a user from the recessed area of the housing responsive to an unlock electrical signal; and
an

Assignees

• Thales Avionics Inc

Inventors

• Bleacher Brett
• Mondragon Christopher K
• Smith Charles G
• Lopez Richard J

Classifications

• G08B21/0275

  Electronic Article Surveillance [EAS] tag technology used for parent or child unit, e.g. same transmission technology, magnetic tag, RF tag, RFID · 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

• G08B21/0261

  System arrangements wherein the object is to detect trespassing over a fixed physical boundary, e.g. the end of a garden · CPC title

• H04N21/2146

  located in mass transportation means, e.g. aircraft, train or bus (flight-deck installations for entertainment or communications B64D11/0015; arrangements specially adapted for transportation systems in broadcast systems H04H20/62; moving wireless networks H04W84/005) · CPC title

• H04N21/44227

  Monitoring of local network, e.g. connection or bandwidth variations; Detecting new devices in the local network (configuring of peripheral devices in general G06F9/4411; monitoring connectivity in data switched networks H04L43/0811) · CPC title