Compact programmable network display system for portable projectors

• Published in: IEEE transactions on consumer electronics 2009-05, Vol.55 (2), p.312-315
• Main Authors: Tsunashima, Kenji, Shida, Tetsuro, Kawano, Hideki, Sato, Toshimitsu, Kosaka, Hideaki
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Circuit boards; Computer programs; Data buses; Decoding; Digital signal processing chips; Displays; network; Network interfaces; Network servers; Networks; Personal communication networks; Printed circuit boards; Printed circuits; Product introduction; Projectors; Prototypes; Signal design; Software; Universal Serial Bus; video streaming; VNC; Wireless communication; Wireless networks
• ISSN: 0098-3063; 1558-4127
• DOI: 10.1109/TCE.2009.5174386

This paper describes a compact display system with a network interface designed to receive video signals from an external server device such as a PC. This system has been built on a small printed circuit board (PCB) with an embedded DSP&CPU chip, and has been integrated into our prototype portable projector. With this PCB, the projector is capable of displaying multiple PC desktop screens from remote PCs connected through a network on a single projector screen. In addition, using the DSP's ability to decode compressed audio and video signals, the projector can be used to display network video streaming. In order to minimize its size the network interface is made detachable by using a network adaptor on a USB port. This architecture makes it highly configurable and easy to change its functions according to customers' needs. Following the description of its hardware and software architecture, we set forth the method introduced to debug the system software with the final prototype board using the wireless network connection established through the USB wireless LAN network adaptor.