CN118484411A - Transfer method, transfer device and related display - Google Patents

Abstract

The present application relates to a switching method, a switching device and a related display. A switching method is used to switch a device to multiple hosts. The switching method includes: determining a first host and a second host among the hosts according to a first control signal generated by the device; generating a pseudo signal; and transmitting a first data signal generated by the device to the first host, and transmitting the pseudo signal to the second host, so that the first host and the second host simultaneously maintain a handshake completion state with the device.

Description

Transfer method, transfer device and related display

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a switching method, a switch and a related display, and in particular to a switching method, a switch and a related display for reducing the delay between switching.

Background Art

When the adapter is connected to multiple hosts, each host switching operation requires a new handshake with the host to be used, and the handshake takes time, so that the user feels a delay before and after the host switching operation.

Summary of the invention

The present invention discloses a switching method for switching a device to multiple hosts. The switching method comprises: determining a first host and a second host among the hosts according to a first control signal generated by the device; generating a pseudo signal; and transmitting a first data signal generated by the device to the first host, and transmitting the pseudo signal to the second host, so that the first host and the second host simultaneously maintain a handshake completion state with the device.

The present invention discloses an adapter for transferring a device to multiple hosts. The adapter includes an adapter unit and a signal generating unit. The adapter unit is used to receive a first control signal generated by the device, and determine the first host and the second host among the hosts according to the first control signal. The first host is in action, and the second host is idle. The signal generating unit is used to generate a pseudo signal. The adapter unit is also used to transmit the first data signal generated by the device to the first host, and transmit the pseudo signal to the second host, so that the first host and the second host simultaneously maintain a handshake completion state with the device.

The present invention discloses a display for switching a device to multiple hosts. The display includes a signal generating unit, a switching unit and a panel. The signal generating unit is used to generate a pseudo signal. The switching unit is used to perform the following steps: receiving a first control signal generated by the device, and determining a first host and a second host among the hosts according to the first control signal; transmitting a first data signal generated by the device to the first host, and transmitting a pseudo signal to the second host, so that the first host and the second host simultaneously maintain a handshake completion state with the device; and receiving a first image signal generated by the first host according to the first data signal. The panel is used to display the first image signal.

Compared with the prior art, the switching method, the adapter and the related display of the present invention can use pseudo signals to keep the idle host handshake, thereby reducing the delay generated when switching the host, so as to enhance the user experience.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The various embodiments of the present invention can be best understood when reading the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the various features in the drawings are not drawn to scale in accordance with standard operating practices in the art. In fact, the size of certain features may be deliberately enlarged or reduced in order to clearly describe.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an adapter in some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a transmission diagram of a USB interface in some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a display in some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a switching method in another embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

4: Transfer method

10: Adapter

11: Installation

12: Installation

13: Installation

14: Host

15: Host

20: Display

21: Installation

22: Installation

23: Host

24: Host

31: Interface

32: Interface

33: Interface

34: Interface

35: Interface

41: Interface

42: Interface

43: Interface

44: Interface

110: Switching unit

120: Signal generating unit

210: Switching unit

220: Signal generating unit

Data: data packet

M: Host

P1: Identification process

P11: Phase 1

P12: Phase 2

P2: Data transfer

S: Device

S41: Steps

S42: Steps

S43: Steps

S44: Steps

S45: Steps

SC: Control signal

SD: Data signal

SH: Handshake signal

SI: driving signal

SP: False Signal

Status: Handshake packet

Token: Mark packet

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an adapter 10 connecting devices 11, 12, 13 and hosts 14, 15 in some embodiments of the present invention. The adapter 10 is used to connect devices 11, 12, 13 to hosts 14, 15. In some embodiments, the devices 11, 12, 13 are a mouse, a keyboard, and a display, respectively. When a user uses a mouse, a keyboard, and a display to communicate with multiple hosts 14, 15, the adapter 10 allows the user to operate multiple hosts 14, 15 using only one set of devices (i.e., a mouse, a keyboard, and a display) without having to prepare a set of devices for each host 14, 15. For example, when the user decides to use the host 14, the mouse (device 11) or the keyboard (device 12) can be used to generate a control signal SC to be transmitted to the adapter 10 to inform the adapter 10 to switch the host 14 to active and the host 15 to idle. And vice versa.

The adapter 10 includes an adapter unit 110, a signal generating unit 120, an interface 31, an interface 32, an interface 33, an interface 34, and an interface 35. As shown in FIG1 , the adapter unit 110 is connected to the interfaces 31-35 and the signal generating unit 120 respectively. The adapter 10 uses the interfaces 31, 32, and 33 to connect the devices 11, 12, and 13 respectively, and uses the interfaces 34 and 35 to connect the hosts 14 and 15 respectively, wherein the interfaces 31-35 of the present invention are not limited to various specifications, such as USB, RS232, HDMI, DP, etc. Because of the configuration of the interfaces 31-35, the adapter 10 can transfer devices and hosts of various different communication protocols.

After the devices 11, 12, 13 are connected to the adapter 10, each of the hosts 14, 15 transmits a driving signal SI to the devices 11, 12, 13 through the adapter 10 to identify the devices 11, 12, 13 for handshaking. After the handshake is completed, the hosts 14, 15 transmit handshake signals SH to the devices 11, 12, 13, respectively, indicating that the hosts 14, 15 are ready to receive data signals SD from the devices 11, 12, 13 or transmit data signals SD to the devices 11, 12, 13.

FIG2 is a transmission diagram of a USB interface in some embodiments of the present invention. Taking the USB interface as an example, before the host M and the device S perform data transmission P2 through the adapter 10, they will first go through an identification process P1. The identification process P1 includes a first stage P11 and a second stage P12. In the first stage P11, the host M determines the descriptor set and allocation position of the device S. In the second stage P12, the host M displays that the enumeration and configuration are completed.

Each of the first phase P11, the second phase P12 and the data transmission P2 includes the transmission of three packets: the host M transmits a mark packet Token (such as the above-mentioned driving signal SI) to the device S; based on the content of the mark packet Token, it is determined whether the host M transmits the data packet Data to the device S or the device S transmits the data packet Data to the host M; the host M transmits a handshake packet Status (such as the above-mentioned handshake signal SH) to the device to determine whether the transmission is successful.

When the handshake packet Status in the second stage P12 shows that the transmission of the second stage P12 is successful, the host M and the device S can perform data transmission P2 (for example, transmit the above-mentioned data signal SD). In some embodiments, when the host M is not switched to an idle state, the host M and the device S can perform multiple data transmissions P2 without re-performing the identification process P1. For ease of explanation, in the present invention, the situation in which the host M can directly perform multiple data transmissions P2 without re-performing the identification process P1 is called maintaining the "handshake completed" state. In other words, if the host M is in the handshake completed state, it means that the host M can immediately communicate with the device S without performing the previous identification process P1.

In some embodiments, the host M may be the host 14 and/or the host 15 , and the device S may be the device 11 , 12 , or 13 .

In some prior arts, when the host is switched from an idle state to an active state, the host needs to re-identify (e.g., identification process P1) the device before data transmission P2 can be performed with the device, and when the host is switched to an idle state, the host needs to perform identification process P1 again before the next data transmission P2 is performed. In addition, if no other operations are performed within a predetermined period of time after the host completes the handshake, the host may be considered idle, and the host needs to perform identification process P1 again before data transmission P2 can be performed with the device again. Therefore, when the user switches the host, the host needs to perform identification process P1, so the user will feel a delay for a period of time before the host continues to execute the data signal generated by the user through the device. Compared with these prior arts, the adapter 10 of the present invention can keep the host 14 and/or the host 15 in the state of completing the handshake when idle, so that the host does not need to re-perform identification process P1 and can directly perform data transmission P2. Specifically, the adapter 10 uses the signal generating unit 120 to generate a pseudo signal SP, and transmits the pseudo signal SP to the idle host to maintain the state of completing the handshake.

Taking the embodiment of FIG. 1 as an example, when the devices 11 to 13 and the hosts 14 and 15 are connected to the adapter 10, the hosts 14 and 15 complete the identification process P1. At this time, the user decides to use the host 14, so the adapter 10 receives the corresponding control signal SC to keep the host 14 in action and switches the host 15 to an idle state. Among them, the adapter 10 enables the host 14 and the devices 11 to 13 to perform data transmission P2 through the adapter unit 110. In order to maintain the state of the host 15 completing the handshake, the adapter unit 110 transmits a pseudo signal SP to the host 15, so that the host 15 and the adapter 10 perform data transmission P2.

Because the idle host 15 does not perform data transmission P2 with any of the devices 11-13, the data packets Data generated by the devices 11-13 will not be transmitted to the host 15. And because the host 15 does not receive the data signal SD actually transmitted by the user through the devices 11-13, the host 15 maintains the original state when performing the data transmission P2 operation with the adapter 10. In other words, the pseudo signal SP is only to keep the host 15 in the state of completing the handshake, but the pseudo signal SP does not actually make the host 15 perform other operations.

When the user decides to use the host 15, the adapter 10 receives the corresponding control signal SC to switch the host 15 to the active state and switches the host 14 to the idle state. Similarly, through the adapter unit 110, the host 15 and the devices 11-13 perform data transmission P2, and the adapter unit 110 transmits the pseudo signal SP to the host 14, so that the host 14 and the adapter 10 perform data transmission P2.

It should be understood that FIG2 is only a schematic diagram of USB transmission, and the present invention is not limited to the USB communication protocol. In various communication protocols, there is a preparatory process (such as the identification process P1 in FIG2 ) before transmitting a data signal (such as the data transmission P2 in FIG2 ).

In some embodiments, the adapter unit 110 of the adapter 10 has a function of supporting different versions of communication protocols. When this function is turned on, the data signal SD between the devices 11, 12, 13 and the hosts 14, 15 can be compatible and transmitted normally. When the adapter 10 performs the function of supporting different versions of communication protocols, additional computing resources are required. Therefore, in some embodiments, the user can generate a control signal SC through one of the devices 11, 12, 13 to turn on or off the function of the adapter 10 supporting different versions of communication protocols. For example, when the communication protocol versions of the devices 11, 12, 13 and the hosts 14, 15 are the same, the user can turn off the function of the adapter 10 supporting different versions of communication protocols to reduce the workload of the adapter 10.

In some embodiments, the adapter unit 110 has the function of supporting HDMI 2.0 and HDMI 1.4. In some embodiments, the adapter unit 110 has the function of supporting HDCP 2.2 and HDCP 1.4.

In order to allow the user to quickly switch between the hosts 14 and 15, in some embodiments, the user inputs a set of input combinations (also called shortcut keys, hot keys) on the keyboard (device 12) to generate a control signal SC. The adapter 10 is used to identify the control signal SC represented by the input combination, wherein when the adapter 10 receives the control signal SC representing the input combination, the control signal SC is not transmitted to the hosts 14 and 15, but the hosts 14 and 15 are switched according to the control signal SC. For example, inputting CTRL+1 can switch the host 14 to active and the host 15 to idle; and inputting CTRL+2 can switch the host 15 to active and the host 14 to idle.

In other embodiments, the user can also control the on-screen display (OSD) settings of the display (device 13) through the control signal SC. For example, the user inputs a corresponding input combination on the keyboard (device 12), and after being recognized by the adapter 10, the eagle eye mode of the display is turned on.

In some embodiments, the user can use the position of the mouse (device 11) to move out of the boundary of the display range of the display (device 13) as a control signal for switching the hosts 14 and 15. When the user is using the host 14, the user moves the mouse to generate a data signal SD for moving the mouse position, and the adapter 10 transmits the data signal SD to the host 14. The host 14 generates an image signal (also a data signal SD) corresponding to the mouse movement and displays it on the display. When the adapter 10 recognizes that the position of the mouse has moved to the boundary of the display range of the display, the adapter 10 switches the host 14 to idle and switches the host 15 to active. After the switch, the user may continue to move the mouse and continue to generate the data SD signal. The host 15 will continue to receive the data signal SD to generate a corresponding image signal (also a data signal SD) to display on the display. Based on the above description, the data signal SD for moving the mouse position to the boundary of the display range of the display is a data signal SD and a control signal SC for the adapter 10.

In some embodiments, the signal generating unit 120 may be disposed within the adapter unit 110. For example, the adapter unit 110 and the signal generating unit 120 are disposed on the same integrated circuit.

FIG3 is a schematic diagram of a display 20 connecting devices 21, 22 and hosts 23, 24 in some embodiments of the present invention. In some embodiments, the display 20 also has the function of an adapter. In addition to displaying the image signal transmitted from the hosts 23, 24, the display 20 is also used to connect the devices 21, 22 to the hosts 23, 24.

The display 20 includes a panel 200, a switching unit 210, a signal generating unit 220, interfaces 41, 42, 43 and 44. The display 20 is connected to the device 21, the device 22, the host 23 and the host 24 through the interfaces 41-44 respectively.

Similar to the embodiment of FIG. 1 , the display 20 is used to switch between the hosts 23 and 24 , and when the host 23 or the host 24 is in an idle state, the host 23 or the host 24 is kept in a “handshake completed” state.

Specifically, the devices 21 and 22 are the same as the devices 11 and 12, the hosts 23 and 24 are the same as the hosts 14 and 15, the adapter unit 210 is the same as the adapter unit 110, and the signal generating unit 220 is the same as the signal generating unit 120, so the related operations are not repeated here. In some embodiments, the display 20 includes all the functions of the adapter 10.

In some embodiments, the display 20 includes a display chip (scaler IC), and the adapter unit 210 and the signal generating unit 220 are disposed on the display chip.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a conversion method 4 in some embodiments of the present invention. The conversion method 4 is used to convert a device and multiple hosts, such as the devices 11-13, hosts 14-15, devices 21-22, and hosts 23-24 in the embodiments shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 3. In some embodiments, the conversion method 4 is performed by the adapter 10. In some embodiments, the conversion method 4 is performed by the display 20. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the functions and operations of the adapter 10 and the display 20 are all within the scope of the conversion method 4.

The conversion method 4 comprises steps S41, S42, S43, S44 and S45. For ease of understanding, the conversion method 4 is explained according to the reference symbols in FIG. 1.

In step S41, the devices 11, 12, 13 are connected to the hosts 14, 15, so that each of the hosts 14, 15 transmits a driving signal SI to handshake with the devices 11, 12, 13. In step S42, one of the hosts 14, 15 is determined to be the first host (for example, the host 14) and the other is the second host (for example, the host 15) according to a first control signal (corresponding to the control signal SC) generated by one of the devices 11, 12. In step S43, a pseudo signal SP is generated. In step S44, a first data signal (corresponding to the data signal SD) generated by one of the devices 11, 12 is transmitted to the first host, and the pseudo signal SP is transmitted to the second host, so that the first host and the second host simultaneously maintain a handshake completion state with the devices 11, 12. In step S45, based on the second control signal (corresponding to the control signal SC) generated by one of the devices 11 and 12, the second data signal (corresponding to the data signal SD) generated by one of the devices 11 and 12 is transmitted to the second host, and the pseudo signal SP is transmitted to the first host, so that the first host and the second host simultaneously maintain a handshake completion state with the devices 11, 12, and 13.

In some embodiments, the conversion method 4 further includes turning on or off the function of supporting the communication protocol according to a third control signal (corresponding to the control signal SC) generated by one of the devices 11 and 12. In some embodiments, the conversion method 4 further includes executing OSD settings to control the display (device 13) according to a fourth control signal (corresponding to the control signal SC) generated by one of the devices 11 and 12.

In some embodiments, the conversion method 4 further includes transmitting a first image signal (corresponding to the data signal SD) generated by the first host according to the first data signal to a display; transmitting a third data signal (corresponding to the data signal SD) generated by one of the devices 11 and 12 to the first host, and transmitting a pseudo signal SP to the second host; according to the third data signal, after transmitting the third data signal to the first host, transmitting a fourth data signal (corresponding to the data signal SD) generated by one of the devices 11 and 12 to the second host, and transmitting the pseudo signal SP to the first host; and transmitting a second image signal (corresponding to the data signal SD) generated by the second host according to the fourth data signal to the display.

The above description briefly presents the features of certain embodiments of the present invention, so that those skilled in the art to which the present invention belongs can more fully understand the various implementation methods of the present invention. Those skilled in the art to which the present invention belongs can understand that they can easily use the present invention as a basis to design or change other processes and structures to achieve the same purpose and/or achieve the same advantages as the implementation methods described herein. Those skilled in the art to which the present invention belongs should understand that these equivalent implementation methods still belong to the concept and scope of the present invention, and they can be subjected to various changes, substitutions and changes without departing from the concept and scope of the present invention.

Claims (10)

1. A switching method for switching a device to a plurality of hosts comprises the following steps:

determining a first host and a second host of the plurality of hosts according to a first control signal generated by the device;

Generating a false signal; and

Transmitting a first data signal generated by the device to the first host and transmitting the dummy signal to the second host, so that the first host and the second host can simultaneously keep a handshake completed state with the device.

2. The transit method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

the device is connected with the hosts, so that each host transmits a driving signal to be in a handshake with the device.

3. The switching method according to claim 1, wherein the dummy signal is used to make the second host perform no other operation while maintaining the handshake completed.

4. The switching method of claim 1, further comprising:

According to a second control signal generated by the device, a second data signal generated by the device is transmitted to the second host, and the pseudo signal is transmitted to the first host, so that the first host and the second host can keep the handshake completed state with the device at the same time.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the dummy signal is used to make the first host perform no other operation while maintaining the handshake completed.

6. The transit method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

A support function of a communication protocol is turned on or off according to a third control signal generated by the device.

7. The transit method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

According to a fourth control signal generated by the device, a screen display setting is performed to control a display.

8. The transit method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

Transmitting a first image signal generated by the first host according to the first data signal to a display;

transmitting a third data signal generated by the device to the first host and transmitting the dummy signal to the second host;

transmitting a fourth data signal generated by the device to the second host and transmitting the dummy signal to the first host after transmitting the third data signal to the first host according to the third data signal; and

And transmitting a second image signal generated by the second host according to the fourth data signal to the display.

9. An adapter for transferring a device to a plurality of hosts, comprising:

the switching unit is used for receiving a first control signal generated by the device and determining a first host and a second host in the plurality of hosts according to the first control signal, wherein the first host is active and the second host is idle; and

A signal generating unit for generating a dummy signal,

The switching unit is also used for transmitting a first data signal generated by the device to the first host and transmitting the pseudo signal to the second host, so that the first host and the second host can simultaneously keep a handshake completed state with the device.

10. A display for switching a device to a plurality of hosts, comprising:

a signal generating unit for generating a dummy signal,

A switching unit for:

receiving a first control signal generated by the device, determining a first host and a second host of the hosts according to the first control signal,

Transmitting a first data signal generated by the device to the first host and transmitting the dummy signal to the second host, so that the first host and the second host simultaneously maintain a handshake completed state with the device, and

Receiving a first image signal generated by the first host according to the first data signal; and

A panel for displaying the first image signal.