Display

• US 20050198661A1
• Filed: 01/21/2005
• Published: 09/08/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Europe (Amsterdam) BV (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Europe Limited (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Siereveld, Eric Rudolf, Charles Labrousse, Stephane Daniel Andre, Collins, Andrew, Gillard, Clive Henry, Porter, Robert Mark Stefan, Jennings, Victoria Sophia, Rambaruth, Ratna, Kilner, Andrew Roger, Paszkowicz, Sebastian Aleksander
• Granted Patent: US 7,636,456 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/19
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 27/00 Combined visual and audible advertising or displaying, e.g. for public address

Abstract

A display arrangement comprises an image display device having two or more sets of images for display; a camera directed towards positions adopted by users viewing the display; a face detector for detecting human faces in images captured by the camera, the face detector being arranged to detect faces in at least two face categories; and means, responsive to the a frequency of detection of categories of faces by the face detector at one or more different periods, for selecting a set of images to be displayed on the image display device at that time of day.

Claims

1. A display arrangement comprising:

an image display device having two or more sets of images for display;

a camera directed towards positions adopted by users viewing said display;

a face detector for detecting human faces in images captured by said camera, said face detector being arranged to detect faces in at least two face categories; and

a selector, responsive to a frequency of detection of categories of faces by said face detector in respect of one or more different periods, for selecting a set of images to be displayed on said image display device at that period.

2. An arrangement according to claim 1, in which said sets of images comprise advertising images.

3. An arrangement according to claim 1, in which said categories comprise two or more age categories.

4. An arrangement according to claim 1, in which said categories comprise gender categories.

5. An arrangement according to claim 1, in which said categories comprise two or more facial expression categories.

6. An arrangement according to claim 5, comprising a store to store data indicating said viewers'"'"' facial expression category in respect of each set of images.

7. An arrangement according to claim 1, in which said face detector is arranged to detect a dwell time in respect of each detected face, being the time for which that face is directed towards the display screen.

8. An arrangement according to claim 7, in which said selector is operable to select a set of images in dependence on a cumulative dwell time for faces in each category.

9. An arrangement according to claim 7, in which said face detector is arranged to detect a time for which a detected face is not directed towards said display screen.

10. An arrangement according to claim 1,

said image display device having at least an idle mode and an active mode, said image display device being coupled to said face detector so that:

said image display device changes from said active mode to said idle mode if no faces are detected for at least a predetermined time; and

said image display device changes from said idle mode to the active mode in response to detection of a face.

11. An arrangement according to claim 10, in which said idle mode is a power-saving mode.

12. An arrangement according to claim 1, in which said selector is responsive to face category frequency data detected during that period.

13. An arrangement according claim 1, in which said selector is responsive to face category frequency data detected during a corresponding previous period.

14. An arrangement according to claim 13, in which said corresponding previous period is a period at substantially the same time on a previous day.

15. A display method comprising the steps of:

capturing images of users viewing an image display device;

detecting human faces in said captured images, said faces being detected in at least two face categories; and

selecting a set of images to be displayed on said image display device in respect of one or more different periods in response to a frequency of detection of categories of faces by said face detector at those periods.

16. A providing medium by which computer software having program code for carrying out steps of a method according to claim 15 is provided.

17. A medium according to claim 16, the medium being a transmission medium.

18. A medium according to claim 16, the medium being a storage medium.