DVD MENU REPRESENTATION VIA OPTICAL CHARACTER RECOGNITION

• US 20090195712A1
• Filed: 02/04/2008
• Published: 08/06/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Strohmaier, Jason
• Granted Patent: US 9,013,640 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/837
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2011/0288 Apparatus made of several modules independently mounted
• 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 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42646 for reading from or writing on a non-volatile solid state storage medium, e.g. DVD, CD-ROM
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/485 End-user interface for client configuration

Abstract

An entertainment system for a vehicle is provided comprising a front display screen in a front seat area of the vehicle and a rear display screen in a rear seat area of the vehicle. The entertainment system further provides a DVD player for reading a DVD including video content of the DVD. The DVD player can be connected to the rear display screen for displaying the video content of the DVD thereon. The video content can include a DVD menu. A controller can be connected to the DVD player and the front display screen. The controller generates a DVD menu representation corresponding to the DVD menu for display on the front display screen.

Claims

1. An entertainment system for a vehicle comprising:

a front display screen in a front seat area of the vehicle;

a rear display screen in a rear seat area of the vehicle;

a DVD player for reading a DVD including video content of the DVD, the DVD player connected to the rear display screen for displaying the video content of the DVD thereon, the video content including a DVD menu; and

a controller connected to the DVD player and the front display screen, the controller generating a DVD menu representation corresponding to the DVD menu for display on the front display screen.

2. The entertainment system of claim 1 further including front controls disposed in the front seat area that operate the DVD player according to the DVD menu representation displayed on the front display screen.

3. The entertainment system of claim 2 wherein the front display screen is a touch screen interface that includes the front controls, the front controls displayed on the touch screen interface and operable by selective touching of designated areas of the touch screen interface.

4. The entertainment system of claim 3 wherein the touch screen interface is a navigational screen associated with navigational software.

5. The entertainment system of claim 2 further including a head unit disposed in the front seat area, the head unit including the front controls.

6. The entertainment system of claim 5 wherein the head unit includes the front display screen.

7. The entertainment system of claim 1 further including rear controls disposed in the rear seat area that operate the DVD player in conjunction with the DVD menu displayed on the rear display screen.

8. The entertainment system of claim 1 wherein the DVD menu includes menu items and graphical video data, the DVD menu representation including only the menu items without the graphical video data.

9. The entertainment system of claim 8 wherein each of the menu items includes label information, a function and location information. The DVD menu representation including representative menu items corresponding respectively to the menu items of the DVD menu, each of the representative menu items displayed on the front display screen according to the location information of the corresponding menu item and sharing the function of the corresponding menu item.

10. The entertainment system of the claim 9 wherein the controller includes an optical character recognition (OCR) engine for reading the label information of each of the menu items of the DVD menu and generating representative label information to be displayed on the front display screen for each of the representative menu items.

11. The entertainment system of claim 10 wherein the OCR engine generates a blank menu button for display on the front display screen as the DVD menu representation for any menu item of the DVD menu that does not include readable text.

12. The entertainment system of claim 10 wherein the representative label information includes a text label selected from a catalogue of text labels stored in the controller, the OCR engine determining the appropriate text label from the catalogue of text labels for each menu item of the DVD menu.

13. The entertainment system of claim 8 wherein the controller includes an optical character recognition (OCR) engine for reading label information of the menu items of the DVD menu.

14. The entertainment system of claim 13, wherein the controller actuates the function shared by one of the representative menu items on the DVD menu representation, the one of the representative menu items selected based on its probability to autoplay the DVD.

15. A method of minimizing visual distractions on a front display screen in a front seat area of a vehicle when operating a DVD player for playback on a rear display screen in a rear seat area of the vehicle, comprising:

reading video content from a DVD, said video content including a DVD menu;

displaying said DVD menu on the rear display screen;

generating a DVD menu representation corresponding to said DVD menu, said DVD menu representation having any graphical images of said DVD menu suppressed; and

displaying said DVD menu representation on the front display screen in a front seat area of the vehicle.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein reading said video content includes using an OCR engine to isolate text of said DVD menu from graphical images of said DVD menu for generating said DVD menu representation.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein the front display screen is navigational screen and a touch screen interface.

18. The method of claim 15 further including:

actuating one item of a plurality of menu items of said DVD menu; and

selecting said one item of said plurality of menu items based on a probability that said one item will autoplay said DVD.

19. An entertainment system for a vehicle that minimizes visual distractions on a front display screen of the vehicle when operating a DVD player in a front seat area of the vehicle for playback in a rear seat area of the vehicle, comprising:

a DVD player for reading video content from a DVD, said video content including a DVD menu;

a controller for processing said video content, including said DVD menu, and generating a DVD menu representation corresponding to said DVD menu, said DVD menu including visual images and menu text, said DVD menu representation including only said menu text without said visual images.

20. The entertainment system of claim 19 wherein said controller includes an OCR engine for processing said video content and generating said DVD menu representation without said visual images.