DISPLAY DEVICE AND METHOD OF SWITCHING DISPLAY DIRECTION

• US 20130069988A1
• Filed: 02/21/2012
• Published: 03/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sovereign Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Kamei, Rinako, Matsui, Norihiro, Matsumoto, Takuya, Ohtsubo, Shohji, Ohama, Iku
• Granted Patent: US 9,507,379 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/658
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1637 Details related to the display arrangement, including those related to the mounting of the display in the housing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1614 Image rotation following screen orientation, e.g. switching from landscape to portrait mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72454 according to context-related or environment-related conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/52 including functional features of a camera

Abstract

A portable display device comprises: a tilt detection unit detecting an angle of rotation, measured between a vertical plane component of a tilt vector of a predetermined reference line in the display and a gravitational vector, as a display tilt; a facial orientation specification unit recognizing a face of a person facing the display and specifying an upright orientation of the face; a terminal orientation determination unit establishing a plurality of angle ranges, and determining whether the display tilt newly detected by the tilt detection unit exceeds a given angle range and enters another angle range, the given angle range including the angle detected by the tilt detection unit upon updating a previous display orientation; and a control unit causing the facial orientation specification unit to begin the specification when the terminal orientation determination unit makes an affirmative determination, and updating the display orientation according to the specified upright orientation.

Claims

1. A portable display device having a display, operable to switch a display orientation of a display object on the display among a plurality of available display orientations, the display device comprising:

a tilt detection unit detecting an angle of rotation as being a display tilt, the angle being measured between a vertical plane component of a tilt vector of a predetermined reference line in the display and a gravitational vector;

a facial orientation specification unit recognizing a face of a person facing the display and specifying an upright orientation of the face relative to a current position of the display;

a terminal orientation determination unit establishing a plurality of angle ranges within each of which the display orientation remains unchanged depending on the available display orientations, and determining whether or not the display tilt newly detected by the tilt detection unit exceeds a given angle range and enters another angle range among the established angle ranges, the given angle range including the angle detected by the tilt detection unit upon updating a previous display orientation; and

a control unit causing the facial orientation specification unit to begin the specification when the terminal orientation determination unit makes an affirmative determination, and updating the display orientation according to the upright orientation of the face specified for display.

2. The display device of claim 1, wherein

the terminal orientation determination unit makes the affirmative determination when the display tilt newly detected by the tilt detection unit exceeds the given angle range that includes the angle detected by the tilt detection unit upon updating the previous display orientation, and the display tilt enters the other angle range upon exceeding a limit of the given angle range by at least a predetermined amount.

3. The display device of claim 2, wherein

the terminal orientation determination unit makes the determination based on the angle detected by the tilt detection unit between the vertical plane component of the tilt vector and the reference line, with respect to a display plane.

4. The display device of claim 3, further comprising a memory unit storing therein the previous display orientation of the display object on the display, wherein

the facial orientation specification unit includes a face recognition unit recognizing facial elements in a captured facial image by referencing a facial element recognition template stored in advance and having a designated orientation, and

the face recognition unit references the template by initially designating an upward orientation of the display object according to the display orientation stored in the memory unit as an upward orientation of the template.

5. The display device of claim 4, wherein

when the face recognition unit fails to recognize the facial elements, the facial orientation specification unit detects a current top edge of the display from the angle detected by the tilt detection unit, and specifies the upright orientation of the face such that the detected edge is oriented upward.

6. The display device of claim 5, wherein

the tilt detection unit is an acceleration sensor.

7. The display device of claim 6, wherein

the display has four available display orientations, and the angle ranges depending on the selected number each include 90°

.

8. The display device of claim 3, wherein

the facial orientation specification unit includes a face recognition unit recognizing facial elements in a captured facial image by referencing a facial element recognition template stored in advance and having a designated orientation, and

the face recognition unit detects a current top edge of the display from the angle detected by the tilt detection unit, initially designates the detected edge as the upward orientation of the template, and then references the template.

9. A display orientation switch method for a portable display device having a display, operable to switch a display orientation of a display object on the display among a plurality of available display orientations, comprising:

a tilt detection step of a tilt detection unit detecting an angle of rotation as being a display tilt, the angle being measured between a vertical plane component of a tilt vector of a predetermined reference line in the display and a gravitational vector;

a facial orientation specification step of a facial orientation specification unit recognizing a face of a person facing the display and specifying an upright orientation of the face relative to a current position of the display;

a terminal orientation determination step of a terminal orientation determination unit establishing a plurality of angle ranges within each of which the display orientation remains unchanged depending on the available display orientations, and determining whether or not the display tilt newly detected in the tilt detection step exceeds a given angle range and enters another angle range among the established angle ranges, the given angle range including the angle detected in the tilt detection step upon updating a previous display orientation; and

a control step of a control unit causing the facial orientation specification step to begin when the terminal orientation determination step results in an affirmative determination, and updating the display orientation according to the upright orientation of the face specified for display.