PASSENGER VEHICLE POLLING SYSTEMS AND METHODS

摘要

A passenger vehicle polling system is capable of polling one or more terminal units (30), where each terminal unit is provided at a different one of a plurality of passenger seats in a passenger vehicle such as an aircraft, to obtain information indicative of the state of each terminal unit (30). The polling is accomplished by transmitting a polling command signal from a head end apparatus through a transmission line (21) to the terminal units (30). Preferably, a sensor (39) is mounted adjacent each passenger seat to sense the status of the passenger seat. The sensed information is transmitted as a polling answer signal through the transmission line (21) to the head end apparatus so that the status of each passenger seat and the condition of each passenger can be checked at the head end apparatus, such as on a monitor display (81). Further, the system may transmit audio and video programmes to the terminal units (30), and the polling answer signal may indicate which audio or video programme has been selected at each terminal unit (30).