ELECTRIC SHAVER WITH IMAGING CAPABILITY

• US 20120320180A1
• Filed: 06/20/2012
• Published: 12/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: May Patents Ltd.
• Original Assignee: May Patents Ltd.
• Inventors: BINDER, Yehuda
• Granted Patent: US 9,174,351 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/77
• CPC Class Codes: A45D 26/00 Hair-singeing apparatus; Apparatus for removing superfluous hair, e.g. tweezers removing hair using electrosurgical instruments A61B18/04, A61B18/18
• CPC Class Codes: B26B 19/00 Clippers or shavers operating with a plurality of cutting edges, e.g. hair clippers, dry shavers
• CPC Class Codes: B26B 19/3806 Accessories
• CPC Class Codes: B26B 19/382 Built-in accessories
• CPC Class Codes: B26B 19/3853 Housing or handle
• CPC Class Codes: B26B 19/3873 Electric features; Charging; Computing devices
• CPC Class Codes: B26B 19/388 Sensors; Control
• CPC Class Codes: B26B 19/46 providing for illuminating the area to be shaved or clipped
• CPC Class Codes: B26B 19/48 Accessory implements for carrying out a function other than cutting hair, e.g. attachable appliances for manicuring massage means per se A61H7/00 - A61H23/00
• CPC Class Codes: B26B 21/405 Electric features; Charging; Computing devices
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 37/00 Panoramic or wide-screen photography; Photographing extended surfaces, e.g. for surveying; Photographing internal surfaces, e.g. of pipe
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 3/548 the power on the line being DC arrangements for feeding power H04L12/10; extracting feeding power from signals H04L25/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/10 Current supply arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/14 Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/194 Transmission of image signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/239 using two 2D image sensors having a relative position equal to or related to the interocular distance H04N13/243 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/11 for generating image signals from visible and infrared light wavelengths
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/45 for generating image signals from two or more image sensors being of different type or operating in different modes, e.g. with a CMOS sensor for moving images in combination with a charge-coupled device [CCD] for still images
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/50 Constructional details
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/51 : Housings
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/55 : Optical parts specially adapted for electronic image sensors; Mounting thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/57 : Mechanical or electrical details of cameras or camera modules specially adapted for being embedded in other devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/63 : by using electronic viewfinders
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/633 : for displaying additional information relating to control or operation of the camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/65 : Control of camera operation in relation to power supply
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/661 : Transmitting camera control signals through networks, e.g. control via the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/69 : Control of means for changing angle of the field of view, e.g. optical zoom objectives or electronic zooming
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/698 : for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/41 : Extracting pixel data from a plurality of image sensors simultaneously picking up an image, e.g. for increasing the field of view by combining the outputs of a plurality of sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/709 : Circuitry for control of the power supply
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/75 : Circuitry for providing, modifying or processing image signals from the pixel array
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/262 : Studio circuits, e.g. for mixing, switching-over, change of character of image, other special effects ; Cameras specially adapted for the electronic generation of special effects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/30 : Transforming light or analogous information into electric information scanning details H04N3/00; cameras or camera modules comprising electronic image sensors, or control thereof H04N23/00; circuitry of solid-state image sensors [SSIS] or control thereof H04N25/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/015 : High-definition television systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/185 : from a mobile camera, e.g. for remote control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 : WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

System and method for improving the shaving experience by providing improved visibility of the skin shaving area. A digital camera is integrated with the electric shaver for close image capturing of shaving area, and displaying it on a display unit. The display unit can be integral part of the electric shaver casing, or housed in a separated device which receives the image via a communication channel. The communication channel can be wireless (using radio, audio or light) or wired, such as dedicated cabling or using powerline communication. A light source is used to better illuminate the shaving area. Video compression and digital image processing techniques are used for providing for improved shaving results. The wired communication medium can simultaneously be used also for carrying power from the electric shaver assembly to the display unit, or from the display unit to the electric shaver.

Claims

1. A system for capturing and displaying video using a video camera device and a digital display device connected via a cable, the system comprising:

a video camera device comprising in a first single enclosure;

an optical lens for focusing received light from an image;

a photosensitive image sensor array disposed approximately at an image focal point plane of the optical lens for capturing the image;

an analog to digital (A/D) converter coupled to said image sensor array for generating digital video data representing the image;

a first connector connectable to said cable; and

a video data transmitter coupled between said first connector and said analog to digital (A/D) converter for transmitting said digital video data to said cable via said first connector;

a digital video display device comprising in a second single enclosure;

a screen for displaying received digital video data;

a second connector mating with said first connector connectable to said cable; and

a video data receiver coupled between said second connector and said screen for displaying the digital video data received from the cable via said second connector,

wherein said cable is connected to concurrently carry the digital video data and a power signal; and

wherein at least one of said video camera device and said digital display device is at least in part power fed from the power signal.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein said image sensor array is based on Charge-Coupled Devices (CCD) or Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) devices.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein:

said video camera device is powered from a power source;

said first connector is coupled to the power source for receiving the power signal therefrom; and

said digital display device is at least in part power fed from said power signal.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein:

said digital display device is powered from a power source;

said second connector is coupled to the power source for receiving the power signal therefrom; and

said video camera device is at least in part power fed from the power signal.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein said system further comprises a battery, and said digital display device or said video camera device is power fed from said battery.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein said battery is rechargeable or a primary type.

7. The system according to claim 1, further operative to be powered from AC power, wherein said digital display device or said video camera device further comprises:

an AC power plug for connecting to an AC power outlet for AC power feeding therefrom; and

a power supply connected to said AC power plug to be power fed by the AC power.

8. The system according to claim 7, wherein said power supply comprises a step-down transformer and an AC/DC converter for DC powering said digital display device or said video camera device.

9. The system according to claim 1, further wherein said first and second connectors are standard digital video data connectors.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein said digital video data connectors and the digital video data carried over the cable are according to, or based on, one or more out of USB (universal Serial Bus), SDI (Serial Digital Interface), FireWire™

, HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface), DVI (Digital Visual Interface), UDI (Unified Display Interface), DisplayPort™

, and Digital Component Video.

11. The device according to claim 9, wherein the digital video data carried over the cable has a format based on one out of:

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format), RAW format, AVI, DV, MOV, WMV, MP4, DCF (Design Rule for Camera Format), ITU-T H.261, ITU-T H.263, ITU-T H.264, ITU-T CCIR 601, ASF, Exif (Exchangeable Image File Format) and DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) standards.

12. The system according to claim 1, further comprising an electrically operated hair removing device for removing hair from a skin area, wherein said video camera device is operative to capture an image of a human skin area.

13. The system according to claim 1, wherein said video camera device is further operative to compress the digital video data and further comprises a video compressor coupled between said analog to digital (A/D) converter and said video data transmitter for compressing the digital video data before transmission to the cable.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein the compression is based on intraframe or interframe compression, and wherein the compression is lossy or non-lossy.

15. The system according to claim 13, wherein the compression is based on a standard compression algorithm which is one or more out of JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) and MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group), ITU-T H.261, ITU-T H.263, ITU-T H.264 and ITU-T CCIR 601.

16. The system according to claim 1, wherein communication over the cable is according to a wired PAN (Personal Area Network) or a LAN (Local area Network) standard, and wherein the communication is based on serial or parallel transmission.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein:

the cable is a LAN cable substantially according to EIT/TIA-568 or EIA/TIA-570, comprising UTP or STP twisted-pairs;

the first and second connectors are RJ-45 type;

the communication over the cable substantially conforms to IEEE802.3 Ethernet 10BaseT or 100BaseTX or 1000BaseT; and

the video data transmitter is comprised in a LAN transceiver.

18. The system according to claim 16, wherein the communication over the cable, the video data transmitter and the first and second connectors substantially conforms to one out of IEEE1394, USB (Universal Serial Bus), EIA/TIA-232 and IEEE1284.

19. The system according to claim 1, wherein the power signal is a DC (Direct Current) power signal.

20. The system according to claim 1, wherein the power signal is an AC (Alternating Current) power signal.

21. The system according to claim 1, wherein the cable comprises multiple insulated wires, and wherein the power signal is carried over dedicated wires distinct from wires carrying the digital video data.

22. The system according to claim 1, wherein the cable comprises multiple insulated wires, and wherein the same wires are used to simultaneously carry both the power signal and the digital video data.

23. The system according to claim 22, wherein the power is DC power and is carried over a phantom channel over the wires in the cable.

24. The system according to claim 23, wherein:

the cable is a LAN cable substantially according to EIT/TIA-568 or EIA/TIA-570 and comprises UTP or STP twisted-pairs;

the first and second connectors are RJ-45 type;

communication over the cable substantially conforms to IEEE802.3 Ethernet 10BaseT or 100BaseTX or 1000BaseT;

the digital video transmitter is a LAN transceiver; and

the power signal is carried over the cable substantially according to IEEE802.3af or IEEE802.3at standards.

25. The system according to claim 22, wherein:

the power signal and the digital video data are carried over the same wires using Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM);

the power signal is carried at a power frequency; and

the digital video data is carried in a communication frequency band distinct from, and higher than, the power frequency.

26. The system according to claim 25, further comprising a low pass filter coupled between said first connector and said video data transmitter for substantially passing only the power frequency, for powering the video data transmitter from the power signal.

27. The system according to claim 25, further comprising a high pass filter coupled between said first connector and said video data transmitter for substantially passing only the communication frequency band, for passing the digital video data between said first connector and said video data transmitter.

28. The system according to claim 25, wherein said cable is AC power wiring, the power signal is AC power, the first connector is an AC power plug for connecting to the AC power wiring, and the digital video transmitter is part of a powerline modem.

29. The system according to claim 28, wherein the powerline modem and the communication over the AC power wiring substantially conform to HomePlug or UPB standards.

30. The system according to claim 25, further comprising a low pass filter coupled between said second connector and said video data receiver for substantially passing only the power frequency, for powering the video data receiver from said power signal.

31. The system according to claim 25, further comprising a high pass filter coupled between said second connector and said video data receiver for substantially passing only the communication frequency band, for passing the digital video data between said second connector and said video data receiver.

32. The system according to claim 31, wherein the power signal is AC power, the second connector is an AC power plug for connecting to AC power wiring, and the digital video receiver is part of a powerline modem.

33. The system according to claim 32, wherein the powerline modem and the communication over the AC power substantially conform to HomePlug or UPB standards.

34. The system according to claim 1 further operative for 3-D operation, the video camera device further comprising in the said first single enclosure:

an additional optical lens for focusing received light;

an additional photosensitive image sensor array disposed approximately at an image focal point plane of the additional optical lens for capturing an additional image; and

an additional analog to digital (A/D) converter coupled to said additional image sensor array for generating an additional digital video data representation of the additional image.

35. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a digital image processor for processing the digital video data.

36. The system according to claim 35, wherein the digital image processor is operative to identify elements in an image captured by said photosensitive image sensor array.

37. The system according to claim 36, wherein the captured image is that of human skin, and wherein the digital image processor is operative to identify individual hairs or a hairy area in the captured image.

38. The system according to claim 37, wherein the system is further operative to display the image in which the individual hairs or the hairy area are marked.

39. he system according to claim 1, further comprising an electric motor and a cutter driven by said motor.

40. A video camera device for capturing video, and for transmitting the video and a power signal over a cable, the device comprising:

a video camera device comprising, in a single enclosure;

an optical lens for focusing received light from an image;

a photosensitive image sensor array disposed approximately at an image focal point plane of the optical lens for capturing the image;

an analog to digital (A/D) converter coupled to said image sensor array for generating digital video data representing the image;

a connector connectable to said cable; and

a video data transmitter coupled between said first connector and said analog to digital (A/D) converter for transmitting the digital video data to the cable via said first connector.

wherein;

the cable is connected to concurrently carry the digital video data and a power signal;

said video camera device is couplable to be powered from a power source; and

said connector is couplable to the power source for receiving the power signal therefrom.

41. The device according to claim 40, wherein said image sensor is based on Charge-Coupled Devices (CCD) or Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) devices.

42. The device according to claim 40, wherein the power source is a battery.

43. The device according to claim 42, wherein the battery is rechargeable or a primary type.

44. The device according to claim 40, wherein:

the power source is AC power; and

said device further comprises an AC power plug for connecting to an AC power outlet for AC power feeding therefrom, and a power supply coupled to said AC power plug for being powered from said AC power.

45. The device according to claim 44, wherein said power supply comprises a step-down transformer and an AC/DC converter for DC powering said device.

46. The device according to claim 40, further wherein said connector is a standard digital video data connector.

47. The device according to claim 46, wherein the digital video data connector and digital video data carried over the cable are according to, or based on, one or more out of USB (universal Serial Bus), SDI (Serial Digital Interface), FireWire™

, HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface), DVI (Digital Visual Interface), UDI (Unified Display Interface), DisplayPort™

, and Digital Component Video.

48. The device according to claim 46, wherein the digital video data carried over the cable has a format based on one out of:

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format), RAW format, AVI, DV, MOV, WMV, MP4, DCF (Design Rule for Camera Format), ITU-T H.261, ITU-T H.263, ITU-T H.264, ITU-T CCIR 601, ASF, Exif (Exchangeable Image File Format) and DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) standards.

49. The device according to claim 40, further comprising an electrically operated hair removing device for removing hair from a skin area, and wherein said video camera device is operative to capture the image of a human skin area.

50. The device according to claim 40, further operative to compress the digital data video, the device further comprising a video compressor coupled between said analog to digital (A/D) converter and said video data transmitter for compressing the digital video data before transmission to the cable.

51. The device according to claim 50, wherein the compression is based on intraframe or interframe compression, and wherein the compression is lossy or non-lossy.

52. The device according to claim 50, wherein the compression is based on a standard compression algorithm which is one or more out of JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) and MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group), ITU-T H.261, ITU-T H.263, ITU-T H.264 and ITU-T CCIR 601.

53. The device according to claim 40, wherein communication over the cable is according to a wired PAN (Personal Area Network) or a LAN (Local area Network) standard, and wherein the communication is based on serial or parallel transmission.

54. The device according to claim 53, wherein:

the cable is a LAN cable substantially according to EIT/TIA-568 or EIA/TIA-570 and comprises UTP or STP twisted-pairs;

said connector is of RJ-45 type;

the communication over the cable substantially conforms to IEEE802.3 Ethernet 10BaseT or 100BaseTX or 1000BaseT; and

the video data transmitter is comprised in a LAN transceiver.

55. The device according to claim 53, wherein the communication over the cable, the video data transmitter and the first and second connectors substantially conform to one out of IEEE1394, USB (Universal Serial Bus), EIA/TIA-232 and IEEE1284.

56. The device according to claim 40, wherein the power signal is a DC (Direct Current) power signal.

57. The device according to claim 40, wherein the power signal is an AC (Alternating Current) power signal.

58. The device according to claim 40, wherein the cable comprises multiple insulated wires, and the power signal is carried over dedicated wires distinct from wires carrying the digital video data.

59. The device according to claim 40, wherein the cable comprises multiple insulated wires, and the same wires are used to simultaneously carry both the power signal and the digital video data.

60. The device according to claim 59, wherein the power signal is DC power and is carried over a phantom channel over the wires in the cable.

61. The device according to claim 59, wherein:

the cable is a LAN cable substantially according to EIT/TIA-568 or EIA/TIA-570 and comprises UTP or STP twisted-pairs;

said connector is of RJ-45 type;

communication over the cable substantially conforms to IEEE802.3 Ethernet 10BaseT or 100BaseTX or 1000BaseT;

the digital video transmitter is a LAN transceiver; and

the power signal is carried over the cable substantially according to IEEE802.3af or IEEE802.3at standards.

62. The device according to claim 59, wherein:

the power signal and the digital video data are carried over the same wires using Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM);

the power signal is carried at a power frequency; and

the digital video data is carried in a communication frequency band distinct from, and higher than, the power frequency.

63. The device according to claim 62, further comprising a low pass filter coupled between said connector and said video data transmitter for substantially passing only the power frequency.

64. The device according to claim 62, further comprising a high pass filter coupled between said connector and said video data transmitter for substantially passing only the communication frequency band, for passing the digital video data between said connector and said video data transmitter.

65. The device according to claim 40 further operative for 3-D operation, the video camera device further comprising, in the said first single enclosure:

an additional optical lens for focusing received light;

an additional photosensitive image sensor array disposed approximately at an image focal point plane of the additional optical lens for capturing an additional image; and

an additional analog to digital (A/D) converter coupled to said additional image sensor for generating an additional digital video data representation of the additional image.

66. The device according to claim 40, further comprising a digital image processor for processing the digital video data.

67. The device according to claim 66, wherein the digital image processor is operative to identify elements in the captured image.

68. The device according to claim 67, wherein the captured image is human skin, and the digital image processor is operative to identify individual hairs or a hairy area in the captured image.

69. The device according to claim 68, wherein the device is further operative to display the image where the individual hairs or the hairy area are marked.

70. The device according to claim 40, further comprising an electric motor and a cutter driven by said motor.

74. The device according to claim 42, wherein the video camera device comprises a battery that is rechargeable or a primary type.

71. A hand-held battery-operated video camera device for capturing and for transmitting processed video, the device comprising in a single enclosure:

an optical lens for focusing received light from an image;

a photosensitive image sensor array disposed approximately at an image focal point plane of the optical lens for capturing the image;

an analog to digital (A/D) converter coupled to said image sensor array for generating digital video data representing the image;

a digital image processor operative to identify elements in the captured image and to mark the identified elements in the digital video data;

a digital video connector connectable to a digital video display; and

a digital video data transmitter coupled between said digital video connector and said analog to digital (A/D) converter for transmitting the digital video data to the digital video display via said digital video connector for displaying the identified elements on the digital video display.

72. The device according to claim 71, wherein the captured image is of human skin, and the digital image processor is operative to identify and mark individual hairs or a hairy area in the captured image.

73. The device according to claim 71, wherein said image sensor array is based on Charge-Coupled Devices (CCD) or Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) devices.

75. The device according to claim 71, wherein the digital video connector and the transmitted digital video data are according to, or based on, one or more out of USB (universal Serial Bus), SDI (Serial Digital Interface), FireWire™

, HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface), DVI (Digital Visual Interface), UDI (Unified Display Interface), DisplayPort™

, and Digital Component Video.

76. The device according to claim 71, wherein the transmitted digital video data has a format based on one out of:

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format), RAW format, AVI, DV, MOV, WMV, MP4, DCF (Design Rule for Camera Format), ITU-T H.261, ITU-T H.263, ITU-T H.264, ITU-T CCIR 601, ASF, Exif (Exchangeable Image File Format) and DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) standards.

77. The device according to claim 71, further comprising an electrically operated hair removing device for removing hair from a skin area, wherein said video camera device is operative to capture the image of a human skin area.