Patent Application
20220406209
The present invention pertains to methods and apparatus for the presentation of audio and visual information by a lecturer, said presentation generally intended to be either broadcast and/or recorded for later viewing.
Traditionally the presenting of information to an audience in various settings have required some means for presenting both audio and visual information by a lecturer. Lecturers in higher education are an example of one such application. One of the first apparatus to accomplish this task is the blackboard, alleged to have first been introduced in about 1801 by James Pillans, a headmaster and geography teacher at the Old High School in Edinburg, Scotland. Headmaster Pillans' innovative use of slate sheets upon which he could present visual information by writing upon the slate with a piece of chalk was rapidly adopted and by 1809 it is believed most public schools in metropolitan areas used blackboards in teaching, although the term “blackboard” itself is not considered to have been generally adopted until about 1815.
The next advancement in the method and apparatus of presenting both audio and visual information by a lecturer is believed to have occurred in the early 1960's when the use of slate to form a conventional blackboard were replaced by what came to be called a “greenboard” comprising a steel plate coated with a porcelain-based enamel. This enamel coating approach was considered an improvement because chalk powder could be more easily removed from the greenboard material compared to a sheet of slate and because the green color was considered more pleasing and easier on viewer's eyes than the stark black or dark grey of conventional slate blackboards. The greenboard was also regarded as more durable than the relatively fragile sheets of slate previously used with conventional blackboards and further regarded as lighter in weight, thereby reducing shipping costs.
The use of chalk was eventually eliminated in some settings with the introduction in the 1980's of the so-called “whiteboard” comprising dry erase board used in combination with certain types of ink markers. With the introduction of the whiteboard chalk was no longer required for use by the lecturer and the clouds of chalk dust associated therewith was beneficially eliminated. By the mid 1990's many colleges and universities in the United States and elsewhere had switched entirely over to whiteboards.
All of these various blackboards, greenboards and whiteboards, however, suffer from one unavoidable and highly noticeable disadvantage; the lecturer has to turn their back on their audience in order to write visual information upon the board. Audience are estimated to view only the posterior of their lecturer for up to half the time the lecturer is making their presentation. Numerous patents have issued for various systems configured to image written material contemporaneously written by a lecturer during an audio-visual presentation, although typically at the expense of foregoing imaging of the lecturer making the audio-visual presentation. U.S. Pat. No. 10,523,893 solved this problem in a studio setting, enabling a lecturer to face an audience viewing an audio-visual presentation by broadcast or recorded viewing by affording a camera imaging the lecturer through a transparent surface upon which a lecturer would write visual material with an appropriate ink marker along with circuitry for reversing the left-right orientation of that writing. While solving the two-hundred-year-old problem of having a lecturer facing away from their audience, the U.S. Pat. No. 10,523,893 solution still required the use of sophisticated equipment and a video studio to effectuate. The present invention solves these and other limitations of the prior art.
The present invention overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art by providing methods and apparatus enabling a lecturer to present both audio and visual to an audience without requiring the lecturer to turn away from an audience to write written material upon a presentation surface and without necessitating the use of sophisticated equipment and a video studio to effectuate.
One embodiment of the present invention comprises a visual presentation system enabling audio and visual presentations by a lecturer with an imaging device. The invention includes a generally transparent pane and a reflective pane, the reflective pane having one end disposed adjacent an end of the generally transparent pane to form an acute angle. The lecturer is able to write written material on a surface of the generally transparent pane facing towards them. When the imaging device is oriented to image reflections of the written material off the reflective pane, the written material is imaged with a legible left-to-right orientation and the lecturer is observed behind the written material. The imaging device used on conjunction with the present invention may be any conventional smart phone such as an Apple brand i-Phone or an Android brand type of smart phone or a tablet-like device such as an Apple brand iPad or, alternatively, a video camera for recording and/or transmission device.
According to one embodiment of the method of the present invention a lecturer presents both audio and visual material to an audience by providing a generally transparent pane and a reflective pane disposed adjacent the generally transparent pane, the lecturer then making a presentation both verbally and by writing written material on a surface of the generally transparent screen facing the lecturer, and imaging the lecturer making the presentation by using an imaging device oriented to image a reflection of the lecturer and a reflection of the written material off of the reflective pane, the reflection of the written material being imaged in the reflection with a legible left-to-right orientation.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention an apparatus enabling audio and visual presentations by a lecturer comprises a generally transparent pane, a reflective pane pivotally coupled to one end of the generally transparent screen, and a base element contacting an end of the generally transparent pane and an end of the reflective pane, said base element being pivotally coupled to one of the generally transparent pane and the reflective pane.
The foregoing and further advantages, features and principles of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description of several preferred embodiments of the present invention detailed below, with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Referring to the figures, and more particularly
The generally transparent pane 12 may be fabricated from any of a variety of glass or plastic materials. In one presently preferred embodiment the generally transparent pane 12 is made of Starphire brand glass material. The generally transparent pane 12 may further be mounted in a frame 17 encasing edges of the generally transparent pane 12 so as to protect those edges from blows that could potentially chip the generally transparent pane 12, particularly during transport from one location to another. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention the reflective pane 13 includes a first surface reflective mirror. Second surface reflective mirrors, however, may also be employed without departing from the scope of the present invention.
The imaging device 15 may comprise any of the type of now relatively commonplace smart phones and tablet devices capable of transmitting both audio and visual information via a variety of means such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular or via other communication modalities. Apple i-Phone brand smart phones and Android brand smart phones, and generally functionally similar tablet devices, such as the Apple i-Pad and the Microsoft Slate, are all examples of suitable imaging devices 15. Of course, other types of imaging devices may be employed in connection with use of the present invention such as, for example, a simple audio-visual video recording or transmission device capable of recording and/or transmitting a presentation by the lecturer 14 for contemporaneous and/or later transmission by other modalities.
In operation the present invention 10 is positioned on a support structure (not shown) such as a table of other supporting surface and the imaging device 15 is placed upon the support structure and oriented so as to capture an image reflecting off of the reflective pane 13. A lecturer 14 may then position themselves facing towards the transparent pane 12 and write written material upon a first surface 16 of the generally transparent pane 12 facing towards the lecturer with a marker pen (not shown) to present both audio and visual information to one or more viewers of the imaging device 15, or viewers of a recording made using the imaging device 15. The imaging device 15 may be configured to either transmit the image of the written material and the lecturer 14 or to record the same.
As shown in
Because smart phones and tablet devices suitable for use with the present invention now typically, but not necessarily always, include both a rearward facing camera and a forward facing camera, the imaging device 15 used in connection with the present invention may be oriented in a variety of different orientations depending upon the desires of the lecturer. For example, with smart phones and tablet devices which project an image on its screen of an image being captured by the imaging device, the screen-side of the imaging device 15 may be oriented generally vertically with respect to the generally transparent pane 12 and the reflective pane 13 with the imaging device 15 employing its rearward facing camera (i.e. the camera facing away from the lecturer 14). This orientation of the imaging device 15 combined with use of the rearward facing camera enables the lecturer to observe on the screen of the smart phone or tablet the image being sent to the lecturer's audience (and/or being recorded for subsequent presentation) so as to better gauge the visual impact of their audio and visual presentation. Any and all such orientations of the imaging device 15 relative to the reflective pane 13 are within the scope of the present invention.
The present invention affords numerous advantages over conventional methods for lecturers to present both audio and visual written material to viewers. Among these advantages is the elimination of any need for a film or videography studio to support the lecturer's presentation of audio and visual material. In additional embodiments of the present invention further detailed below the current invention 10 may be configured to collapse into an easily transportable self-contained package. This is a substantial advantage in an era where pandemic conditions have or may again arise necessitating cancellation of in-person forms of teaching classrooms full of students and reliance upon remote teaching under broadcast “television” type conditions. Further where self-quarantining of the lecturer may become necessary for a period of time teaching can continue with the use of the present invention from the lecturer's quarantine venue.
In a further embodiment of the present invention also depicted in
In another embodiment of the present invention further depicted in
Yet another embodiment of the present invention 10 is illustrated in
Yet another embodiment of the present invention includes side panels 38 and 40 preferably, but not necessarily, pivotally coupled to the base portion 30 as shown in
In one presently preferred embodiment the invention 10 is configured as follows: the reflective pane 13 and the frame 17 attached to the generally transparent pane 12 are preferably dimensioned to be about 23 inches wide and about 22 inches tall with the base portion 30 being dimensioned about 23 inches wide and about 18 inches long. When deployed for use these dimensions afford an angle at the apex between the generally transparent pane 12 and the reflective pane 13 of about 48 degrees with the angles between the base portion 30 and respective edges of the generally transparent pane 12 and reflective pane 13 forming angles of about 66 degrees each. In this preferred embodiment the generally transparent pane 12 spans a region within the frame 17 of approximately 21 inches wide by about 12 inches wide. Of course, other dimensions could be employed without departing from the scope of the present invention and its claims.
The present invention provides a dramatic method and apparatus for the presentation of audio and visual information to either individuals or group audiences through broadcast, streaming, recording or live presentations while eliminating the problem of a lecturer having their back to their audience while writing down the visual portion of their presentation and without requiring use of a video production studio, additional lighting or dedicated video hardware. Having described and illustrated the present invention in various embodiments, it should be readily apparent to those skilled in the relevant arts that the present invention can be modified in arrangement and detail to provide numerous other embodiments that do not depart from the spirit and scope of this invention. Accordingly, all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification above are intended to be encompassed within the scope of the present invention, as set forth in the claims below and equivalents thereof.
It is to be further understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purposes of description only and should not be regarded as limiting the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the foregoing description of the present invention is to be considered as illustrative only of the principles of the present invention. Further, since numerous modifications, changes and alternative embodiments will occur to those skilled in the art, the present invention is not to be limited to the structures, elements, construction and operation shown and described above, but solely by the claims set forth below and equivalents thereof.
