US 7,542,814 B2
Home entertainment apparatus and method
Craig Barr, 2925 Alta Ter., La Cresenta, Calif. 91214 (US)
Filed on Jun. 01, 2004, as Appl. No. 10/860,356.
Prior Publication US 2005/0278764 A1, Dec. 15, 2005
Int. Cl. G06F 17/00 (2006.01); H04B 1/00 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 700—94  [381/119] 21 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A combination home audio-visual entertainment system for providing immediately and in response to excitement and emotion experienced by a user of an audio-visual program a user-selected supplemental audio content played along with the audio portion of the audio-visual program, said home audio-visual entertainment system comprising:
a visual display unit having a display for presenting to a user the visual portion of an audio-visual program;
an audio output signal originating with the audio-visual program;
a speaker for receiving said audio signal originating with said audio-visual program and providing an audible output to the user;
an audio supplementation device receiving said audio output signal and also storing multiple supplemental audio files each having a respective address for selective mixing with said audio output signal under user control where the user always has instant single button parallel access to several audio files at once, where the selection decision of which button is pushed is a purely manual response to unfolding events and sounds of the audio-visual program as they are revealed for providing said audio signal to said speaker;
said audio supplementation device including a controller receiving and storing user input information for execution under user control in controllably mixing said audio signal and a selected one of said supplemental audio files substantially immediately and without delay in response to a user input to provide said audio signal, said controller effecting random access to any one of said multiple supplemental audio files immediately and substantially with no time delay in response to a user input command selecting said one of said multiple supplemental audio files to be immediately mixed with said audio signal, said user making said user input during the audio-visual program and thus indicating the respective address for said one supplemental audio file to be played at the immediate moment and without delay;
whereby, said audio supplementation device promotes a spontaneous dynamic environment for a user of the device in which the user may supplement the audio content of an audio-visual program during the audio-visual program by substantially instantaneously adding a selected one of said multiple audio files with a single push of a remote control button which effects the user input command and results in substantially instantaneous addition of the selected supplemental audio file to the audio content of the audio-visual program.