User centric adaptation of vehicle entertainment system user interfaces

• US 10,306,294 B2
• Filed: 01/08/2018
• Issued: 05/28/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thales Avionics Incorporated (Thales SA)
• Original Assignee: Thales Avionics Incorporated (Thales SA)
• Inventors: Couleaud, Jean-Yves, Decuir, Tracy
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Hai V
• Application Number:
  US15/864,535
• Publication Number:
  US 20180131992A1
• Time in Patent Office: 505 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/59 inside of a vehicle, e.g. relating to seat occupancy, driver state or inner lighting conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/168 Feature extraction; Face representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/174 Facial expression recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/176 Dynamic expression
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/62 for transportation systems, e.g. in vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/65 for using the result on users' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2146 located in mass transportation means, e.g. aircraft, train or bus flight-deck installations for entertainment or communications B64D11/0015; arrangements specially adapted for transportation systems in broadcast systems H04H20/62; moving wireless networks H04W84/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41422 located in transportation means, e.g. personal vehicle arrangements specially adapted for transportation systems in broadcast systems H04H20/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42201 biosensors, e.g. heat sensor for presence detection, EEG sensors or any limb activity sensors worn by the user input arrangements for interaction with the human body based on nervous system activity detection G06F3/015
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4668 for recommending content, e.g. movies
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4825 using a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlists
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4858 for modifying screen layout parameters, e.g. fonts, size of the windows
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source

Abstract

A vehicle entertainment system includes a video display unit and a user interface (UI) control processor. The UI control processor is configured to receive passenger attributes sensed from the passenger operating the video display unit, generate a passenger metric that characterizes the passenger based on the attribute, and control a UI of the video display unit based on the passenger metric. The passenger metric may be a passenger demographic metric determined based on facial features of the passenger. The passenger demographic metric may be a passenger emotion metric, a passenger attentiveness metric, a passenger UI operational effectiveness metric, a passenger biometric feature metric, etc.

Claims

1. A vehicle entertainment system comprising:

a video display unit configured to provide content to a passenger of a vehicle comprising the vehicle entertainment system;

a camera configured to output a camera signal containing data representing viewing location of the passenger'"'"'s eyes;

a user interface (UI) control processor configured to;

process the camera signal to identify how long the passenger'"'"'s eyes are directed at content displayed on the video display unit;

generate a passenger metric that indicates a level of attentiveness of the passenger to the content displayed by the video display unit based on how long the passenger'"'"'s eyes are directed at the content displayed on the video display unit and a phase of travel of the vehicle; and

control a UI of the video display unit based on the level of attentiveness indicated by the passenger metric and the phase of travel of the vehicle, by operations that comprise;

generating a list of content that is available in a memory to be displayed through the UI of the video display unit operated by the passenger;

filtering the list of content based on the level of attentiveness indicated by the passenger metric and the phase of travel of the vehicle to generate a filtered list of content; and

displaying the filtered list of content through the UI of the video display unit.

2. The vehicle entertainment system of claim 1, wherein the UI control processor is configured to control the UI of the video display unit based on the level of attentiveness indicated by the passenger metric, by operations that comprise:

controlling a font size and/or font shape of text displayed through the UI of the video display unit operated by the passenger, based on the level of attentiveness indicated by the passenger metric.

3. The vehicle entertainment system of claim 1, wherein the UI control processor is configured to control the UI of the video display unit based on the level of attentiveness indicated by the passenger metric, by operations that comprise:

controlling a size and/or shape of passenger selectable widgets displayed through the UI of the video display unit operated by the passenger, based on the level of attentiveness indicated by the passenger metric.

4. The vehicle entertainment system of claim 1, wherein the UI control processor is configured to control the UI of the video display unit based on the level of attentiveness indicated by the passenger metric, by operations that comprise:

generating a list of movies, television programs, audio programs, and/or applications that are available from the memory within a content server to be displayed through the UI of the video display unit operated by the passenger;

filtering the list of movies, television programs, audio programs, and/or applications based on the level of attentiveness indicated by the passenger metric to generate a filtered list of movies, television programs, audio programs, and/or applications; and

displaying the filtered list of movies, television programs, audio programs, and/or applications through the UI of the video display unit.

5. The vehicle entertainment system of claim 4, wherein filtering the list of movies, television programs, audio programs, and/or applications based on the level of attentiveness indicated by the passenger metric to generate a filtered list of movies, television programs, audio programs, and/or applications, further comprises:

controlling a number of items provided in a recommended list of movies, television programs, audio programs, and/or applications that is displayed on the video display unit to the passenger based on the level of attentiveness indicated by the passenger metric.

6. The vehicle entertainment system of claim 1, wherein the UI control processor is configured to control the UI of the video display unit based on the level of attentiveness indicated by the passenger metric, by operations that comprise:

controlling an order with which content is identified in the list based on the level of attentiveness indicated by the passenger metric, the content being available for display through the UI of the video display unit responsive to passenger selection among the ordered list of content;

displaying at least a portion of the ordered list of content through the UI of the video display unit.

7. The vehicle entertainment system of claim 1, wherein the UI control processor is configured to control the UI of the video display unit based on the level of attentiveness indicated by the passenger metric, by operations that comprise:

selecting an advertisement from among a plurality of different defined advertisement based on the level of attentiveness indicated by the passenger metric; and

displaying the advertisement that was selected through the UI of the video display unit.

8. The vehicle entertainment system of claim 1, wherein:

the vehicle comprises an in-flight entertainment system configured to mounted within an aircraft fuselage; and

the video display unit is configured to be mounted to a seatback surface of seat or mounted to an armrest of a seat.

9. The vehicle entertainment system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle comprises an aircraft;

and

wherein the phase of travel comprises one or more of a boarding phase of a flight of the aircraft, a departure taxi phase of a flight of the aircraft, a take off phase of a flight of the aircraft, a cruise phrase of a flight of the aircraft, landing phase of a flight of the aircraft, arrival taxi phrase of a flight of the aircraft, and a disembarking phase of a flight of the aircraft.

10. The vehicle entertainment system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle comprises a cabin;

and

wherein the user interface (UI) control processor is further configured to generate the passenger metric that indicates the level of attentiveness of the passenger based on a cabin event that occurs with the cabin.

11. The vehicle entertainment system of claim 10, wherein the cabin event is one or more of a meal and/or beverage service provided to the passenger within the cabin, a crew announcement provided to the passenger within the cabin, and a turbulence event experienced by the passenger within the cabin.

12. The vehicle entertainment system of claim 1, wherein the operation of filtering the list of content based on the level of attentiveness indicated by the passenger metric comprises:

determining the passenger metric is less than a threshold level of attentiveness;

responsive to determining the passenger metric is less than the threshold level of attentiveness, expanding the list of content.

13. A vehicle entertainment system comprising:

a video display unit configured to provide content to a passenger of a vehicle comprising the vehicle entertainment system;

a camera configured to output a camera signal containing data representing viewing location of the passenger'"'"'s eyes;

a user interface (UI) control processor configured to;

process the camera signal to identify how long the passenger'"'"'s eyes are directed at content displayed on the video display unit;

generate a passenger metric that indicates a level of attentiveness of the passenger to the content displayed by the video display unit based on how long the passenger'"'"'s eyes are directed at the content displayed on the video display unit and a phase of travel of the vehicle; and

control a UI of the video display unit based on the level of attentiveness indicated by the passenger metric, by operations that comprise;

selecting an operational flow between passenger selectable widgets of different UI layers from among a plurality of different defined operational flows between passenger selectable widgets of different UI layers displayable on the video display unit based on the level of attentiveness indicated by the passenger metric and the phase of travel of the vehicle; and

controlling the operational flow between the passenger selectable widgets of the different UI layers displayed through the UI of the video display unit operated by the passenger, based on the operational flow that was selected and the phase of travel of the vehicle.

14. The vehicle entertainment system of claim 13, wherein:

the vehicle comprises an in-flight entertainment system configured to mounted within an aircraft fuselage; and

the video display unit is configured to be mounted to a seatback surface of seat or mounted to an armrest of a seat.

15. The vehicle entertainment system of claim 13, wherein the operation of selecting the operational flow from among the plurality of different defined operational flows between passenger selectable widgets of the different UI layers displayable on the video display unit further comprises selecting an operational flow from among the plurality of different defined operational flows that comprises a subset of an array of operational features of the different UI layers.

16. The vehicle entertainment system of claim 13, wherein the operation of selecting the operational flow from among the plurality of different defined operational flows between passenger selectable widgets of the different UI layers displayable on the video display unit further comprises selecting an operational flow from among the plurality of different defined operational flows that comprises an array of advanced operational features of the different UI layers.

17. A vehicle entertainment system comprising:

a video display unit configured to provide content to a passenger of a vehicle comprising the vehicle entertainment system;

a camera configured to output a camera signal containing data representing viewing location of the passenger'"'"'s eyes;

a user interface (UI) control processor configured to;

process the camera signal to identify how long the passenger'"'"'s eyes are directed at content displayed on the video display unit;

generate a passenger metric that indicates a level of attentiveness of the passenger to the content displayed by the video display unit based on how long the passenger'"'"'s eyes are directed at the content displayed on the video display unit and a phase of travel of the vehicle; and

control a UI of the video display unit based on the level of attentiveness indicated by the passenger metric and the phase of travel of the vehicle, by operations that comprise;

controlling a size and/or shape of passenger selectable widgets displayed through the UI of the video display unit operated by the passenger, based on the level of attentiveness indicated by the passenger metric and the phase of travel of the vehicle.

18. The vehicle entertainment system of claim 17, wherein:

the vehicle comprises an in-flight entertainment system configured to mounted within an aircraft fuselage; and

the video display unit is configured to be mounted to a seatback surface of seat or mounted to an armrest of a seat.

19. The vehicle entertainment system of claim 17, wherein the level of attentiveness indicates the passenger is exhibiting inattentiveness towards the content displayed by the video display unit.

20. The vehicle entertainment system of claim 19, wherein the operation of controlling the size and/or shape of passenger selectable widgets displayed through the UI of the video display unit operated by the passenger comprises increasing the size and/or altering the shape of the passenger selectable widgets displayed based on the level of attentiveness indicating the passenger is exhibiting inattentiveness towards the content displayed by the video display unit.