Patent Application
20140218695
Consumers have become inundated with static image content at the point of purchase. The static image content typically promotes or provides information about products in an attempt to influence consumers' purchasing decisions. However, determining the effectiveness of such static image content can be difficult. There is thus a need for new ways to attract the attention of consumers in providing them with advertisements or other product promotional content. One approach involves converting these static surfaces to video surfaces and providing video content for advertisements, attempting to attract consumers' attention through an active type of content. This video content is typically provided on flat screen display devices, such as liquid crystal display devices, proximate or near the product being promoted. The effectiveness of this type of advertisement may be limited when the consumers are simply viewing potential products to purchase and not viewing the display. Accordingly, there is a need for a new way to delivery video content, particular on surfaces that may resemble actual product containers.
A system for projecting changeable electronic content onto multiple display surfaces, consistent with the present invention, includes first and second display surfaces and a projector located for projecting electronic content to the display surfaces. The first and second display surfaces are arranged at a non-zero angle with respect to one another. When the projector receives converted electronic content and projects the converted electronic content to the first and second display surfaces, those surfaces display the converted electronic content undistorted to a viewer.
A method for projecting changeable electronic content onto multiple display surfaces, consistent with the present invention, includes providing a plurality of display surfaces arranged at a non-zero angle with respect to one another and receiving changeable electronic content. The content is converted for display on the plurality of display surfaces, and the converted content is projected and displayed on those display surfaces such that the converted content appears undistorted to a viewer.
The accompanying drawings are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification and, together with the description, explain the advantages and principles of the invention. In the drawings,
Embodiments of the present invention include display systems having two or more display surfaces of varied orientation in space. The display surfaces can be orthogonal to one another and can have edges in physical contact or adjacent one another. In one embodiment, the display surfaces are three orthogonal planes that meet to form a corner display, for example the corner of a rectangular shaped product container or housing. The display system can also be modified for viewing from one or more perspectives to provide a dual view display.
A system for projecting content onto non-planar display surfaces is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0327297, which is incorporated herein by reference as if fully set forth. A system for projecting content on multiple display surfaces is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/195,965, filed Aug. 2, 2011, and entitled “Display System and Method for Projection onto Multiple Surfaces,” which is incorporated herein by reference as if fully set forth. Rear projection screens, including shaped screens, are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,923,675 and 6,870,670, both of which are incorporated herein by reference as if fully set forth.
System 10 is shown as transforming the corner of a cube-like container or housing into a multi-surface display for illustrative purposes. Other configurations of display surfaces in different planes are also possible. Instead of being orthogonal to one another, the display surfaces can be arranged at other non-zero angles with respect to one another for display of content across the surfaces. As shown in
The optics optimization (step 32) can include, for example, the following steps 1-4. These steps 1-4 can be automated to provide real-time, or essentially real-time, data on the optimization of a display system where the parameter to be optimized is viewer observation of display brightness over all display surfaces with minimized stray image reflection at each display surface.
Step 1. The inputs for step 1 are the following: the required number of display surfaces S1-Sn; and a location to fix viewer perspective. When a corner display is being configured, the input requirement includes three orthogonal surfaces S1-S3 with the viewer orientation shown in
Step 2. This step involves fixing the projector location, projecting onto all display surfaces S1-Sn, and determining the in-focus area for each display surface. This step outputs a matrix of rays for each display surface characterized by spherical coordinates (radius r, azimuth angle Φ, polar angle Θ). Ray tracing methodology can be implemented with the MATLAB program (The MathWorks, Inc.) in the design process to establish the initial display area of each face. The projector can be placed at point Q (0,0,0), representing the position of projector 24, and focused at the corner (point 23) of the display at coordinate P (8,8,8).
Step 3. This step involves designing light directing films and characterizing the films by their distinct transmission and reflection ray maps. The inputs for this step include the following: material refractive index; microstructure surface topology; and incoming light direction (Φ, Θ). The outputs for this step includes the following: a light impingement limit for optimum transmission and minimum reflection; and outgoing light direction (Φ, Θ). Ray tracing can be used in the design process to characterize light directing films comprising varied surface topologies. The following describes the characteristics of an image directing film comprising a 60° prismatic surface with collimated light arriving from the prism side. In utilizing this film, the exit light direction should coincide with the fixed viewer perspective as set up in step 2. A similar treatment for characterizing reflected light arriving at the prism surface derives the following condition for maximum transmission and minimized stray light reflection.
Step 4. This step involves comparing the outputs of steps 2 and 3 in order to test the ability of the image light redirecting film at each display surface. Parameters to be optimized are minimum reflection striking all surfaces S1-S3 (for an orthogonal display system). The transmitted light should not only be maximized but work in tandem with the projection screen material. In one mode the projection screen material can be 3M VIKUITI Rear Projection Film (RPF) with optimized light acceptance angle normal to its surface with a deviation of ± 15°. The image light redirecting film is orientated in space so as to meet these requirements.
In orthogonal display surfaces, for example the embodiment of
Instead of three display surfaces as shown in
A microreplicated tool was prepared as follows. A one dimensional structure (linearly extending prisms with a 50 micron pitch) on a metallic cylindrical tool was made by cutting into the copper surface of the cylindrical tool using a precision diamond turning machine. The resulting copper cylinder with precision prismatic cut features was chrome plated in order to promote release of the cured resin during the microreplicated process.
A UV curable acrylate resin (refractive index ˜1.49) was prepared by mixing 85 parts by weight Photomer 6210, 15 parts by weight 1,6-hexanedioldiacrylate and 1 part by weight LUCIRIN TPO.
Turning film was made by casting the UV curable acrylate resin onto 50 micron (2 mil) MELINEX 454 PET film and curing against the precision patterned cylindrical tool using an LED-based UV curing unit. The resulting turning film contained 60 degree included angle prisms with 50 micron pitch on 50 micron (2 mil) backing. The prisms had no canting and were symmetrical.
A display box measuring 27 cm (10½ inches) wide×25 cm (10 inches) high×38 cm (15 inches) deep was fabricated from transparent PLEXIGLAS MC UF-5 Acrylic sheeting. An MP160 projector was positioned inside the display box along the box diagonal with the light output directed toward a top corner. Beaded VIKUITI XRVS projection screen pieces were attached on the outer surface of the display box with the beaded side facing inward. With an observer positioned in direct line of sight with the projector (the observer position is hereinafter denoted Viewpoint 1), a piece of prismatic sheeting was rotated while contacting the upper inner face of the display box (microreplicated structures contacting the inner surface; that is pointing away from the projector). The optimum orientation of the turning film, determined as the orientation giving the brightest observed image, had the axes of the prisms of the turning film oriented approximately perpendicular to the viewer as shown in
Similar rotation of prismatic sheeting on the side surfaces adjacent to the top face showed optimal orientation for both films with the axis of the prisms oriented vertically as shown in
From the perspective of Viewpoint 1, distinct imagery on all three surfaces of the display box was observed.
Utilizing the display set up of Example 1, the viewer was moved to a position away from the line of sight of the projector (the viewer position is hereinafter denoted Viewpoint 2). A sheet of prismatic turning film was rotated while contacting the upper inner face of the display (microreplicated structures contacting the inner surface; that is pointing away from the projector). The optimum orientation of the prismatic turning film, determined as the orientation giving the brightest image observed, had the axes of the prisms approximately perpendicular to the viewer as shown in
A display box with an open back was fabricated from five sheets of 3.2 mm (⅛ inch) thickness acrylic sheeting of dimension 38.7 cm (15¼ inches)×26.7 cm (10½ inches) (top and bottom faces), 37.3 cm (14 11/16 inches) high×26.7 cm (10½ inches) wide (front face), and 36.7 cm (14 7/16 inches) high×38.7 cm (15¼ inches) wide (right and left side faces). The parts were temporarily clamped together for the purpose of determining the projected image size and location.
To increase the projected image size, an MP410 projector fitted with a 0.5× wide angle lens (Kenko SGW-05) was used. The throw distance and hence image size was further increased by bouncing the projected image off a mirror of dimension 30 cm (12 inches)×15 cm (6 inches) attached to the inner surface of the left hand face of the display with double sided adhesive. It was found that projection from the MP410/0.5× lens combination via the mirror reflector resulted in illumination of all three display surfaces. The location of the projected image coincident with the three faces was noted and the corresponding corner of the display comprising a portion of the top face, front face, and right face of the box was cut away for fabrication with a rear projection screen and light directing film. This corner consisted of a rectangular portion of the upper right hand corner of the front face (21.6 cm (8½ inches) wide×18.4 cm (7¼ inches) high), the upper left hand corner of the adjacent side face (18.4 cm (7¼ inches) high×17.1 cm (6¾ inches) wide), and a right-angled trapezoid section from the top face. The base of trapezoid was 21.6 cm (8½ inches) (for aligning with the front face cut-out), and the adjacent right side face of the trapezoid was 17.1 cm (6¾ inches) (for aligning with the right face cut-out). The inner surface of the three cut out pieces were laminated with VIKUITI XRVS Rear Projection film. The entire box was then assembled using a standard hot-melt adhesive. The attachment of the projection screen to the inner surface of the box ensured that the display would not suffer from inadvertent damage due to viewer contact.
The beaded screen on the top and front surface of the display was covered with 60 degree turning film with orientation optimized according to the method described in Example 1. It was observed that light rays hitting the right-face display surface was normal to the beaded screen surface and so required no turning film.
The display box was further fitted with a printed “graphic skin” with printed image relevant to the video image to be projected. The printed graphic skin was cut away to reveal the projected image except for a masking area of about 6 mm (¼ inch) around the edge of the display area.
This Example describes the general methodology for manually producing digital or still image content for a multi-surfaced display. For a display of the type described in Example 1a 40×30 gridded JPEG image consistent with the pixel resolution of the MP160 (800×600 pixel) was created using the ABODE PHOTOSHOP CS5 program. This was converted to a suitable video format on a standard digital editing suite (FINAL CUT PRO program). The video was then projected onto the display of Example 1 utilizing a laptop computer as the video player. The boundary edge of each display surface was then noted and marked out onto the original JPEG image.
The template was imported onto the timeline of a standard digital editing suite as a background image template (FINAL CUT PRO program). The template was then overlaid with three video tracks confining each track to its pre-determined image boundary and maintaining the required video resolution for that tract. Each image was “distorted” to fit within its image boundary with image distorting functionality of the photo editing software. The composite image was then exported from the timeline for viewing in the multi-surfaced display.
To illustrate how the images were “distorted” consider
The system of Example 3 was prepared. The “Corner Display Correction Algorithm” described below was implemented in the MATLAB program, and an image was projected into a corner of the display box. The result was an undistorted image displayed on the three surfaces in the corner of the display box.
Step 1: Prompt user to input names of content images to be displayed as well as whether the screen is mirror reversed, if the aspect ratio is to be maintained, and what file type the output image should be saved as (e.g., .bmp).
Step 2: Project mouse (cursor control device) cursor using same projector configuration and settings as to be used to display actual content.
Step 3: Prompt user to use projected mouse cursor to “select” four corners of each of the three surfaces content is to be projected onto.
Step 4: Store the 12 “selected” points (4 corner points for each of three surfaces) as projector “fiducials.”
Step 5: If aspect ratio of the original content is to be maintained, calculate and compare the aspect ratio of the content images and the projected area (determined by the projector “fiducials”). If aspect ratio is different, apply “letterboxing” to content images to maintain final aspect ratio.
Step 6: If projection is mirror reversed (as is common for rear-projection displays), mirror reverse content images using image distortion algorithm.
Step 7: Reference known points in the content (e.g., the four corner points of the image) to the corresponding projector “fiducials” and apply a perspective projective transform to each content image to correct for distortion such as, scaling, shearing, orientation, projective distortion, and location of content.
Step 8: In some cases, distortion of the content image shifts the location of the reference points relative to the projector “fiducials.” In this case, apply a correction to shift the final content location.
Step 9: Display (project) the images in the correct location with all of the appropriate transformations and save an image file for future use as well as the coordinates of the 12 fiducial points.
Table 1 provides sample code for implementing the Corner Display Correction Algorithm in software for execution by a processor such as processor-based device 25.
