System and Method for Remotely Monitoring the Operating Life of Electronic Displays

• US 20110283199A1
• Filed: 01/07/2011
• Published: 11/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Manufacturing Resources International, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Manufacturing Resources International, Inc.
• Inventors: Schuch, John, De Laet, Rick
• Granted Patent: US 9,812,047 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/740
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1454 involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/08 Arrangements within a display terminal for setting, manually or automatically, display parameters of the display terminal
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/145 the light originating from the display screen
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/042 for monitor identification
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/006 Electronic inspection or testing of displays and display drivers, e.g. of LED or LCD displays testing individual LED's G01R31/2635; testing lamps G01R31/44; testing of optical features of LCD displays G02F1/1309
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/00 Control arrangements or circuits for visual indicators common to cathode-ray tube indicators and other visual indicators image data processing or generation, in general G06T
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/003 Details of a display terminal, the details relating to the control arrangement of the display terminal and to the interfaces thereto specific for a CRT G09G1/165; for a flat panel G09G3/2092
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 17/00 Diagnosis, testing or measuring for television systems or their details
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 17/004 for digital television systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41415 involving a public display, viewable by several users in a public space outside their home, e.g. movie theatre, information kiosk
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4424 Monitoring of the internal components or processes of the client device, e.g. CPU or memory load, processing speed, timer, counter or percentage of the hard disk space used error monitoring in general G06F11/30; arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/32; diagnosis, testing or measuring for television receivers H04N17/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4425 Monitoring of client processing errors or hardware failure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/173 with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal

Abstract

A system for remotely monitoring and controlling one or more electronic displays containing several hardware components. The components may electronically communicate with a network connection which can be used to establish communication with a local area network and/or the internet. A personal computing device can be used to run a user interface which allows the user to access a wealth of information from the electronic display as well as change controlling software, operating parameters, and check for downtime incidents or failures. Various sensors and measurement devices can be installed within the display to provide the information which may be stored locally or stored remotely for real-time access or on-demand access.

Claims

1. A system for remotely-monitoring and controlling an electronic display comprising:

an electronic display having a backplane;

a color light sensor placed in front of the electronic display and in electrical communication with the backplane;

a network connection with the backplane; and

a computing device in electrical communication with the network connection and adapted to display a user interface;

wherein the user interface is adapted to display the brightness output by the display and accept a new desired brightness level for the display.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a power module in electrical communication with the backplane.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein:

the user interface is adapted to display the current draw of the power module.

4. The system of claim 3 further comprising:

a temperature sensing device placed to measure the temperature of the power module and placed in electrical communication with the backplane.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein:

the user interface is further adapted to display the temperature of the power module.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a fan placed in electrical communication with the backplane.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein:

the user interface is adapted to display the speed of the fan.

8. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

an AC current monitoring device in electrical communication with the backplane.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein:

the user interface is adapted to display the data from the AC current monitoring device.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the electronic display is a liquid crystal display.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the electronic display is an OLED display.

12. A system for remotely-monitoring and controlling an liquid crystal display (LCD), the system comprising:

an LCD having a backlight;

a backplane placed in electrical communication with the LCD and backlight;

a temperature sensing device placed to measure the temperature of the backlight and placed in electrical communication with the backplane;

a light sensing device placed to measure the light emitted from the backlight and placed in electrical communication with the backplane;

a fan placed to draw cooling air over the backlight and placed in electrical communication with the backplane;

a network connection with the backplane; and

a computing device in electrical communication with the network connection and adapted to display a user interface which displays the data from the light sensing device, fan, and temperature sensing device.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein:

the network connection is a wireless network.

14. The system of claim 12 further comprising:

a power module in electrical communication with the backplane.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein:

the user interface is adapted to display the current draw of the power module.

16. The system of claim 15 further comprising:

a temperature sensing device placed to measure the temperature of the power module and placed in electrical communication with the backplane.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein:

the user interface is adapted to display the temperature of the power module.

18. A system for remotely-monitoring a plurality of electronic displays comprising:

a plurality of electronic displays, each display having

a display assembly,

a backplane in electrical communication with the display assembly,

an ambient light sensor in electrical communication with the backplane,

a power module in electrical communication with the backplane;

a temperature sensor in electrical communication with the backplane and placed to measure the temperature of the power module,

a fan in electrical communication with the backplane, and

a network communication port in electrical communication with the backplane,

a local area network (LAN) connecting the network communication port of each display with the internet; and

a computing device connected to the internet and adapted to display;

the speed of the fan,

the current draw and temperature of the power module, and

the data from the ambient light sensor.

19. A computing device for remotely monitoring and controlling an electronic display having a display assembly, a backplane in electrical communication with the display assembly, an ambient light sensor in electrical communication with the backplane, a power module in electrical communication with the backplane, a temperature sensor in electrical communication with the backplane and placed to measure the temperature of the power module, and a fan in electrical communication with the backplane, the device comprising:

an electronic storage medium in electrical communication with a processor, a display, and a network communication port;

wherein the electronic storage medium contains operating instructions to accept and display the speed of the fan, the current draw and temperature of the power module, and the data from the ambient light sensor.

20. The device of claim 19 wherein:

the electronic storage medium further contains operating instructions which provide an acceptable range for the current draw and temperature of the power module and analyze the incoming current draw and temperature data to determine if it has fallen outside the acceptable range.