The present invention relates generally to TVs the height and/or angular orientation of which are automatically adjusted based on viewer location.
TVs are typically disposed in a room for viewing at heights and angles that are not changed regardless of where the viewer is unless the viewer might take the effort to manually move the TV. Even then, particularly in the case of raising or lowering the TV, the viewer may be able to make at most limited changes in height if any at all.
A system includes a movable support assembly configured to support a TV. The system also includes a person sensor configured to sense a viewer of the TV. A processor receives signals from the person sensor to determine a viewer angle parameter and a viewer distance parameter. Based on the parameters the processor automatically establishes an angular orientation of the movable support assembly and a height of the movable support assembly.
In example implementations the movable support assembly can telescope relative to a base in which the movable support assembly reciprocates. The processor may execute a face recognition module to determine the parameters. If desired, the processor can wait for the elapse of a steady state period in the event that one or more detected viewers are moving at a speeds and distances greater than a motion threshold prior to moving the movable support assembly.
In some example embodiments a viewer can establish a correlation between at least one viewer distance parameter and a height of the movable support assembly. If multiple viewers are detected, the parameters can be averages of corresponding individual viewer parameters.
In another aspect, a system includes a movable support assembly configured to support a TV. The system also includes a person sensor configured to sense a viewer of the TV. A processor receives signals from the person sensor to determine a viewer distance parameter. Based on the viewer distance parameter the processor automatically establishes a height of the movable support assembly.
In another aspect, a system includes a movable support assembly configured to support a TV. The system also includes a person sensor configured to sense a viewer of the TV. A processor receives signals from the sensor to determine a viewer angle parameter. Based on the viewer angle parameter the processor automatically establishes an angular orientation of the movable support assembly. The processor waits for the elapse of a steady state period in the event that one or more detected viewers are moving at a speeds and distances greater than a motion threshold prior to moving the movable support assembly.
The details of the present invention, both as to its structure and operation, can best be understood in reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals refer to like parts, and in which:
Referring initially to
The TV 10 may include a cathode ray tube or a flat panel display. The TV 10 may be a standard definition or high definition TV and may be an analog or digital TV. Typically the TV 10 (which encompasses standalone TVs as well as TV-set top box combinations) includes a TV tuner 24, a TV processor 26 communicating with the TV tuner 26, and a tangible computer-readable medium 28 such as solid state storage, disk-based storage, etc. that is accessible to the TV processor 26.
Turning now to
The face recognition module, in one example embodiment, may be a relatively simple algorithm that detects human eyes in images from the camera. If the camera is stationary the axis of the field of view of the camera may be assumed by the processor 30 to be a neutral axis of the TV, e.g., the axis to which the TV display is perpendicular when the stand 12 is in a default position. Or, if the camera moves with the stand 12 and/or TV 10 as shown in
In any case, using the face recognition module and principles above the processor 30 can determine, from images received from the camera, the locations of viewers' eyes relative to the angular orientation of the TV for purposes more fully described below. Additionally, the processor 30 can determine the distance of viewers from the TV by, e.g., correlating the distance between the images of two eyes of a viewer to a distance or by correlating a size of an image of a person to a distance or by correlating the signal strength of an IR signal from the person to a distance.
In accordance with logic below, the processor 30 may control a height motor 34 to move to raise and lower a translating output shaft 36 that is coupled to the movable support 20 shown in
Also, the processor 30 may control a rotational motor 38 coupled to output gearing 40 that is configured for imparting motion generated by the motor 38 to rotational motion of the movable support 20. For example, the output gearing 40 may be reduction gears that impart angular rotation of the motor 38 shaft to rotational motion of the movable support 20, albeit at a lower angular velocity than the velocity of the motor 38 shaft.
Or, as shown in
The output shaft 44 can also include a toothed portion 50 that meshes with one or more gears 52 which in turn engage a translational toothed rod 54. The toothed rod 52 may be engaged with the movable support 20 shown in
A rotatable motion clutch 56 can be controlled by the processor 30 shown in
At block 62, in example embodiments the processor 30 may wait for the elapse of a steady state period in the event that one or more detected viewers are moving at a speeds and distances greater than a motion threshold prior to moving the stand 12 at block 64. Thus, for example, the motion threshold typically is higher than motion of a sitting viewing simply moving his head but lower than the motion of a viewer walking about in front of the TV, and the steady state period may be one or a few seconds. In this way, excessive motion of the system that might otherwise occur while viewers are moving into preferred viewing locations is avoided, both to conserve energy and to avoid potentially constant repositioning of the TV, which might be distracting.
At block 64, the movable support 20 (and, hence, TV 10) is automatically cased to rotate by the processor 30 to cause the TV 10 (equivalently, the assumed axis of the TV 10 when the TV 10 is placed as intended on the stand 12) to directly face the viewer. When multiple viewers are detected, the average of the angular locations of the viewers can be used.
Blocks 66-70 of
At block 66, one or more viewers are detected when the TV 10 is energized in accordance with principles discussed above, and then at block 68 the distance between each detected viewer and the TV is determined, also in accordance with principles discussed above. If multiple viewers are present an average viewer distance may be calculated. Or, only a single distance, e.g., the further viewer distance or the closest viewer distance, may be used.
In any case, at block 70 the distance output at block 68 (e.g., average distance, closest distance, further distance, or only viewer distance) is correlated to height. The TV height is then established by the processor 30 automatically.
While the particular TV WITH VIEWER-ADAPTED HEIGHT AND ANGLE ADJUSTMENT is herein shown and described in detail, it is to be understood that the subject matter which is encompassed by the present invention is limited only by the claims.