Display control apparatus and display control method

• US 20110001763A1
• Filed: 06/09/2010
• Published: 01/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Saturn Licensing LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Murakami, Tomoyuki
• Granted Patent: US 8,963,950 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/661
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0261 in the context of movement of objects on the screen or movement of the observer relative to the screen
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0407 Resolution change, inclusive of the use of different resolutions for different screen areas
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0464 Positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/431 Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440263 by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for displaying on a connected PDA
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44218 Detecting physical presence or behaviour of the user, e.g. using sensors to detect if the user is leaving the room or changes his face expression during a TV program methods or arrangements for recognising human body or animal bodies or body parts G06V40/10; methods or arrangements for acquiring or recognising human faces, facial parts, facial sketches, facial expressions G06V40/16; methods or arrangements for recognising movements or behaviour G06V40/20; arrangements for identifying users in broadcast systems H04H60/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications

Abstract

There is provided a display control apparatus including a pickup image acquisition unit that acquires a pickup image of a viewer viewing a display image, a detection unit that detects a viewing position and a viewing distance of the viewer with respect to the display image based on the pickup image of the viewer acquired by the pickup image acquisition unit, and a display control unit that changes a size of the display image in accordance with the viewing distance of the viewer detected by the detection unit while associating the viewing position of the viewer detected by the detection unit with a display position of the display image.

Claims

1. A display control apparatus, comprising:

a pickup image acquisition unit that acquires a pickup image of a viewer viewing a display image;

a detection unit that detects a viewing position and a viewing distance of the viewer with respect to the display image based on the pickup image of the viewer acquired by the pickup image acquisition unit; and

a display control unit that changes a size of the display image in accordance with the viewing distance of the viewer detected by the detection unit while associating the viewing position of the viewer detected by the detection unit with a display position of the display image.

2. The display control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit causes a display screen to display a plurality of display images and

associates the display position of one display image of the plurality of display images with the viewing position of the viewer to cause the display screen to display other display images around the one display image.

3. The display control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the display control unit controls a display number of the plurality of display images in accordance with the viewing distance of the viewer.

4. The display control apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the display control unit changes the display number of the plurality of display images in accordance with the viewing distance of the viewer while associating the display position of one display image of the plurality of display images with the viewing position of the viewer.

5. The display control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the one display image is content being reproduced.

6. The display control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the one display image is the display image displayed on a full screen of the display screen.

7. The display control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the detection unit detects a line-of-sight position of the viewer based on the pickup image of the viewer acquired by the pickup image acquisition unit and the display control unit selects and displays one display image from the plurality of display images in accordance with the line-of-sight position of the viewer detected by the detection unit.

8. The display control apparatus according to claim 7, wherein if the one display image is selected and displayed for a predetermined time or longer in accordance with the line-of-sight position of the viewer, the display control unit causes the display screen to reproduce content associated with the one display image.

9. The display control apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the detection unit detects a face direction of the viewer based on the pickup image of the viewer acquired by the pickup image acquisition unit and

the display control unit causes the plurality of display images displayed on the display screen to scroll in accordance with the face direction of the viewer or the line-of-sight position of the viewer.

10. The display control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the display control unit deletes the display images positioned outside a displayable region of the display screen after causing the plurality of display images to scroll in a horizontal direction and causes the display screen to display other display images than the plurality of display images in the displayable region of the display screen where the plurality of display images is not displayed.

11. A display control method, comprising the steps of:

acquiring a pickup image of a viewer viewing a display image;

detecting a viewing position and a viewing distance of the viewer with respect to the display image based on the acquired pickup image of the viewer; and

changing a size of the display image in accordance with the detected viewing distance of the viewer while associating the detected viewing position of the viewer with a display position of the display image.