Displaying messages on created collections of displays

• US 20110267256A1
• Filed: 04/30/2010
• Published: 11/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Wilson, John D., Ward, Gary A., Grim, Clifton E., Stevens, Mark B., Marzke, Rex E.
• Granted Patent: US 8,558,756 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/1.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1423 controlling a plurality of local displays, e.g. CRT and flat panel display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1446 display composed of modules, e.g. video walls
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/022 Centralised management of display operation, e.g. in a server instead of locally
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2380/06 Remotely controlled electronic signs other than labels

Abstract

Collections of displays are created from a number of displays, based on display attributes of each display, to yield display collection attributes for each collection. It is determined whether any of a number of messages should be displayed on any of the collections of displays, based at least on message attributes of each message and on the display collection attributes of each collection. Where it has been determined that a given message should be displayed on a given collection of displays, at least a portion of the given message is transmitted to each display within the given collection to display the given message on the given collection of displays. The displays may be movable displays on vehicles and that are functional while the vehicles are moving, billboard displays on billboards along a road, stationary displays on buildings within a given location, or other types of displays.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

creating one or more collections of displays from a plurality of displays, by a computing device, based on a plurality of display attributes of each display, to yield a plurality of display collection attributes for each collection of displays;

determining whether any of a plurality of messages should be displayed on any of the collections of displays, by the computing device, based at least on a plurality of message attributes of each message and on the display collection attributes of each collection of displays; and

,

where the computing device has determined that a given message should be displayed on a given collection of displays,

transmitting at least a portion of the given message by the computing device to each display within the given collection of displays to display the given message on the given collection of displays.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting that a new display has been added to the plurality of displays or that an existing display has been removed from the plurality of displays, and,

in response to detecting that the new display has been added or that the existing display has been removed, repeating the method at creating the collections of displays from the plurality of displays.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting that the display attributes of an existing display within the plurality of displays have changed; and

,

in response to detecting that the display attributes of an existing display have changed, repeating the method at creating the collections of displays from the plurality of displays.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting that a new message has been added to the plurality of messages or that an existing message has been removed from the plurality of messages; and

,

in response to detecting that the new message has been added or that the existing message has been removed, repeating the method at determining whether any of the messages should be displayed on any of the collections of displays.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting that the message attributes of an existing message within the plurality of messages have changed; and

,

in response to detecting that the message attributes of the existing message have changed, repeating the method at determining whether any of the messages should be displayed on any of the collections of displays.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether any of the messages should be displayed on any of the collections of displays is further based on one or more current conditions of locations in which the collections of displays are situated.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

detecting that any of the current conditions of the locations in which the collections of displays are situated have changed; and

,

in response to detecting that any of the current conditions of the locations in which the collections of displays are situated have changed, repeating the method at determining whether any of the messages should be displayed on any of the collections of displays.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the displays comprise a plurality of movable displays positioned on movable vehicles such that the movable displays are functional while the movable vehicles are moving.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the displays comprise a plurality of billboard displays positioned on billboards located at various distances away from one another along a road,

and wherein the display attributes of each billboard display comprise a location of the billboard display with respect to the road.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the displays comprise a plurality of stationary displays positioned on buildings within a same location,

and wherein the display attributes of each stationary display comprise a location of the stationary display with respect to the buildings.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the displays comprise:

one or more first displays owned and operated by a first party; and

,

one or more second displays different than the first displays and owned and operated by a second party different than the first party.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the display attributes of each display by receiving user input corresponding to the display attributes of the display.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the display attributes of each display by receiving communication from the display as to the display attributes of the display, such that the display attributes are generated at each display and transmitted to the computing device without user interaction.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein each display of the given collection of displays is to be display a different portion of the given message, where the different portions of the given message make up a contiguous image such that the given collection of displays serves as a virtual display to display the contiguous image, where the virtual display is larger than each display within the given collection.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein each display of the given collection of displays is to be display a different portion of the given message, where the different portions of the given message are different images that are related to one another but that do not make up a contiguous images such that the given collection of displays do not serve as a virtual display to display the contiguous image.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the display attributes of each display comprise one or more of:

a cost to use the display;

a cognition time of the display, where the cognition time is an expected length of time that viewers have to view the display to understand contents displayed on the display;

display rendering quality of the display, where the display rendering quality is how well the display displays contents under various conditions; and

, restrictions of use of the display.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the display collection attributes of each collection of displays are attributes abstracted from the display attributes of the displays of the collection.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the message attributes of each message comprise one or more of:

a cognition time of the message, where the cognition time is an expected length of time that viewers have to view the message to understand the message;

conditions under which the message is to be displayed;

mood of the viewers when the message is to be displayed; and

, maximum cost willing to be paid to display the message.

19. A computing device comprising:

a processor;

first logic implemented by the processor to create one or more collections of displays from a plurality of displays, based on a plurality of display attributes of each display, yielding a plurality of display collection attributes for each collection of displays;

second logic implemented by the processor to determine whether any of a plurality of messages should be displayed on any of the collections of displays, based at least on a plurality of message attributes of each message and on the display collection attributes of each collection of displays; and

,

a hardware communication component to, where the second logic has determined that a given message should be displayed on a given collection of displays, transmit at least a portion of the given message by the computing device to each display within the given collection of displays to display the given message on the given collection of displays.

20. A computer program product comprising:

a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable code embodied therein, the computer-readable code executable by a computing device, the computer-readable code comprising;

first computer-readable code to create one or more collections of displays from a plurality of displays, based on a plurality of display attributes of each display, yielding a plurality of display collection attributes for each collection of displays;

second computer-readable code to determine whether any of a plurality of messages should be displayed on any of the collections of displays, based at least on a plurality of message attributes of each message and on the display collection attributes of each collection of displays; and

,

third computer-readable code to, where the second computer-readable cause has determined that a given message should be displayed on a given collection of displays, cause at least a portion of the given message by the computing device to be transmitted to each display within the given collection of displays to display the given message on the given collection of displays.