Set-Top Box Wireless Content Pairing and Voice Control
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The hospitality lodging industry faces challenges in providing enhanced content in an easy-to-use platform for guests, as existing set-top boxes lack advanced functionality and user-friendly interfaces, failing to meet consumer demands for seamless access to various forms of content and control over amenities.
Innovation Solution
A set-top box with a wireless transceiver, processor, and memory, capable of pairing with wireless-enabled interactive devices to stream content and provide virtual remote control functionality through spoken commands, enabling guests to control television and hotel amenities, while offering a customized experience with guest-specific profiles and preferences.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a traditional set-top box is used in hospitality lodging, then basic television functionality is provided, but enhanced content access and ease of use are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The set-top box is designed to perform multiple functions beyond basic television broadcasting, including wireless content streaming from guest devices, internet content delivery, and control of hotel amenities. The system universally accepts content from various sources (broadcast, streaming, internet) and provides unified access through a single interface, eliminating the need for multiple separate devices or complex configurations.
Solution Approach 2:
The set-top box acts as an intermediary device between the guest's wireless-enabled device and the television display system. It receives content from the guest device via wireless transceiver, processes and reformats the content, then outputs it to the television. This intermediary role simplifies the user experience by handling complex tasks (wireless pairing, content formatting, device coordination) automatically without requiring direct user intervention.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple separate devices are provided for content access and amenity control, then functionality is comprehensive, but device complexity and ease of operation deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple previously separate functions into a single integrated set-top box device. It combines wireless content reception from guest devices, internet content streaming, television signal processing, and hotel amenity control capabilities all within one unit. This consolidation reduces the total number of devices guests need to interact with while maintaining comprehensive functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The set-top box is designed as a universal platform that handles diverse functions through a single interface. It can simultaneously manage television broadcasting, wireless content streaming from various device types (smartphones, tablets, laptops), internet content delivery, and control of different hotel amenities (lights, thermostat, curtains), replacing the need for multiple specialized devices.
3Adaptability or versatility
If wireless content streaming from guest devices is implemented, then adaptability improves, but processing requirements and device complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The set-top box dynamically adjusts processing parameters based on the incoming content format and destination display capabilities. It automatically detects the content type, resolution, and encoding from the guest device, then reformats and reencodes the content in real-time to match the television's display parameters. This adaptive parameter transformation enables compatibility with various content sources without requiring excessive processing power for all possible formats simultaneously.
Data Source
AI summary
A set-top box with enhanced content and system and method for use of the same are disclosed. In one embodiment, a wireless transceiver is located within a housing, which also interconnectively includes a television input, television output, a processor, and memory. The set-top box may establish a pairing with a proximate wireless-enabled interactive programmable device having a display. Content, such as the Internet, movies, music, or games, for example, may be imported from the programmable device and reformatted at the set-top box for display on a television via the television output, thereby creating an experience on the television parallel to the experience on the programmable device. Virtual remote control functionality may then be provided by a spoken sequence of words.