Dynamic art form display apparatus

• US 6,339,429 B1
• Filed: 06/04/1999
• Issued: 01/15/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: MCMZ Technology Innovations LLC, Mzmz Technology Innovations LLC
• Original Assignee: Mzmz Technology Innovations LLC
• Inventors: Schug, Klaus
• Primary Examiner(s): Shalwala, Bipin
• Assistant Examiner(s): Osorio, Ricardo
• Application Number:
  US09/325,386
• Time in Patent Office: 956 Days
• Field of Search: 345/2, 345/63, 345/77, 345/89, 345/102, 345/589, 345/204, 348/227, 348/602, 348/603
• US Class Current: 345/589
• 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

Abstract

A dynamic art form display displays electronic and optical art, pictures and movies using various display alteration methods in conjunction with flat electronic and optical wall and hand-held, portable display devices. The display alteration methods include light phasing, image propagation, time of day synchronization and combinations thereof. Viewer, environmental and automated control of the display, including a programmable borders and frames, are provided. User controls come in a variety of options such as voice commands and push buttons, and may be completely hidden in the form of voice or touch screen input. Environmental inputs come in a number of forms including amount of light present (light phasing), human viewer proximity and noise level. Automated control comes in the form of programmed parameters such as time of day, image propagation, image propagation rate, display duration, display intensity, volume level and display selection. A wide spectrum of electronic and optical art form media input sources are accommodated, including removable media such as CD-ROM, DVD, digital cameras, memory flash cards and removable disks, and non removable media such as the Internet, other computer networks, modems, computers, satellites, cable television, pagers, and video phones. Power can be self contained, externally supplied and is managed and controlled through user selectable functions. This invention removes major restrictions from existing art, picture and movie displays and allows new art, picture and movie forms to be formed and displayed at a consumer product level.

Claims

1. A wall-mountable or portable dynamic art form display apparatus, comprising:

at least one art source operatively connected to said display device and supplying at least one art image;

a substantially planar display device displaying the art image; and

an image controlling device operatively connected to said display device and said art source, said image controlling device altering light phasing in the art image;

wherein,

when altering light phasing in the art image, said image controlling device alters the appearance of the displayed art image to simulate a viewer-noticeable changed lighting condition of an object depicted as part of the art image.

2. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image controlling device alters light phasing in the art image by simulating a change in at least one of lighting angle, intensity and type.

3. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said image controlling device further propagates at least one object in the art image to generate a propagated art image to depict a change in at least one physical characteristic of at least one object in the art image.

4. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said image controlling device alters light phasing to simulate the effect of moving shadows as the sun moves from East to West.

5. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said image controlling device alters light phasing to alter the appearance of at least one displayed image or image object by changing the light type, light types including sky lighting of direct and indirect sun and moon light at various angles and intensities.

6. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image controlling device alters light phasing in the art image without requiring user control inputs.

7. The wall-mountable dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an automated control device operatively connected to the display apparatus that operates the display without requiring user inputs.

8. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said dynamic art form apparatus further comprises an environmental sensor operatively connected to said image controlling device and detecting an environmental condition, said environmental sensor including one or more of the following:

a proximity sensor detecting physical proximity of a viewer,

a noise sensor detecting an ambient sound level,

a light sensor detecting an ambient light level,

a humidity sensor detecting ambient humidity,

a tracking device tracking a physical location of a viewer, or

a time sensor sensing a time of day.

9. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said dynamic art form apparatus further comprises an environmental sensor operatively connected to said image controlling device and detecting an ambient environmental condition around the apparatus, said image controlling device altering light phasing in relation to the environmental condition detected by said environmental sensor.

10. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said environmental sensor is mounted to the display apparatus or at a location remote to the apparatus.

11. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising:

a remote sensor interface device operatively connected to said image controlling device,

wherein said environmental sensor is mounted at a location remote to the apparatus, detects an ambient condition around said environmental sensor, and sends a sensor value signal to said remote sensor interface device,

said remote sensor interface device routing the sensor value signal from said environmental sensor to said image controlling device.

12. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image controlling device alters light phasing in the art image by manipulating pixels within the art image.

13. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image controlling device alters light phasing in the art form by controlling the routing of a series of at least two art images from said art source to said display device.

14. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a wall-mounting device attached to a back side of the apparatus that permits the apparatus to be mounted to a wall.

15. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is a portable device.

16. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said display apparatus further comprises an environmental sensor operatively connected to said image controlling device and detecting an environmental condition, said image controlling device altering light phasing in the art image in relation to the environmental condition detected by said environmental sensor and in relation to a time reference.

17. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image controlling device alters light phasing in the art image in relation to a time reference, wherein the time reference is a clock signal in synchronism with an actual time of day.

18. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the time reference is of an actual time of day at a location distinct from a location of the dynamic art form display apparatus.

19. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image controlling device alters the light phasing at a rate related to the actual time of day, week, month, year or other time unit.

20. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a time reference table operatively connected to said image controlling device, said table storing a time reference of a relationship between actual time of day and simulated lighting conditions;

wherein said image controlling device accesses said time reference table and thereby alters the light phasing in the art image to simulate different lighting conditions.

21. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

said image controlling device also propagates at least one object in the art image to generate a propagated art image to depict a change in at least one physical characteristic of at least one object in the art image,

said display device displaying the art image and the propagated art image.

22. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 21, wherein said image controlling device propagates at least one object in the art image to depict a change in at least one size, position, shape, color, apparent age, viewing angle, and rotation angle of at least one object within the art image.

23. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 22, wherein the object is a person and said image controlling device depicts aging of the person via image propagation.

24. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 22, wherein the object is a geographical location and said image controlling device depicts changes to the geographical location over time.

25. The wall-mountable dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 21, further comprising an automated control device operatively connected to the display apparatus that operates the display without requiring user inputs.

26. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 21, wherein said dynamic art form apparatus further comprises an environmental sensor operatively connected to said image controlling device and detecting an environmental condition, said environmental sensor including one or more of the following:

a proximity sensor detecting physical proximity of a viewer,

a noise sensor detecting an ambient sound level,

a light sensor detecting an ambient light level,

a humidity sensor detecting ambient humidity,

a tracking device tracking a physical location of a viewer, or

a time sensor sensing a time of day.

27. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 21, wherein said dynamic art form apparatus further comprises an environmental sensor operatively connected to said image controlling device and detecting an ambient environmental condition around the apparatus, said image controlling device propagating the art image in relation to the environmental condition detected by said environmental sensor.

28. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 27, wherein said environmental sensor is mounted to said display apparatus or at a location remote to the apparatus.

29. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 27, further comprising:

a remote sensor interface device operatively connected to said image controlling device,

wherein said environmental sensor is mounted at a location remote to the apparatus, detects an ambient condition around said environmental sensor, and sends a sensor value signal to said remote sensor interface device,

said remote interface sensor device routing the sensor value signal from said environmental sensor to said image processing device.

30. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 21, wherein said image controlling device propagates the art image by manipulating pixels within the art image.

31. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 21, wherein said image controlling device propagates the art image by controlling the routing of a series of at least two art images from said art source to said display device.

32. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 21, further comprising a wall-mounting device attached to a back side of the apparatus that permits the apparatus to be mounted to a wall.

33. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the apparatus is a portable device.

34. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 21, wherein said display apparatus further comprises an environmental sensor operatively connected to said image controlling device and detecting an environmental condition, said image controlling device propagating the art image in relation to the environmental condition detected by said environmental sensor and in relation to a time reference.

35. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 34, wherein the time reference is a clock signal in synchronism with an actual time of day.

36. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 35, wherein the actual time of day is an actual time of day at a location distinct from a location of the dynamic art form display apparatus.

37. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 34, wherein said image controlling device propagates the art image at a rate related to an actual time of day, week, month, year or other time unit.

38. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 34, further comprising:

a time reference table operatively connected to said image processing device, said table storing a time reference of a relationship between an actual time of day and an image propagation pattern;

wherein said image controlling device accesses said time reference table and thereby propagates the art image in accordance with the image propagation pattern.

39. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a programmable border area surrounding a viewing area of said display device.

40. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 39, further comprising:

an environmental sensor operatively connected to said image controlling device, said environmental sensor sensing an environmental condition;

said image controlling device altering the art image such that the art form changes according to a change in an environmental condition sensed by said environmental sensor.

41. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 40, said image controlling device altering light phasing in the art image in relation to the environmental condition detected by said environmental sensor.

42. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 41, wherein the light phase alteration includes altering lighting angle, intensity or type.

43. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 40, wherein said environmental sensor includes one or more of the following:

a proximity sensor detecting physical proximity of a viewer,

a noise sensor detecting an ambient sound level,

a light sensor detecting an ambient light level,

a humidity sensor detecting ambient humidity,

a tracking device tracking a physical location of a viewer, or

a time sensor sensing a time of day.

44. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 40, said image controlling device propagating the art image in relation to the environmental condition detected by said environmental sensor.

45. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 44, wherein, when propagating, said image controlling device depicts a change in at least one of size, position, shape, color, apparent age, viewing angle, and rotation angle of at least one object within the art image.

46. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 40, further comprising a sensor calibrator operatively connected to said environmental sensor.

47. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 39, further comprising an automated control device operatively connected to the display apparatus that operates the display without requiring user inputs.

48. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said art source is a removable art form input device.

49. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said art source is a non-removable art form input device.

50. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a user control input device operatively connected to the apparatus permitting a user to control the apparatus.

51. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 50, said

image controlling device altering the art image to generate a processed art image in relation to user inputs from said user control input device.

52. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 51, wherein said user control input device includes one or more of the following:

voice command input device,

push buttons input device,

dial input device,

alphanumeric key input device,

touch screen input device, or

wireless remote control input device.

53. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 51, wherein said user input device is physically connected to the apparatus.

54. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 51, wherein said user input device is at a location remote to the apparatus and sends a user input signal to said wall-mountable dynamic art form display apparatus.

55. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 51, further comprising:

a remote user interface device operatively connected to said image controlling device,

wherein said user input device is a remote user input device at a location remote to the apparatus,

said remote user interface device routing the user input signal from said remote user input device to said image controlling device.

56. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image controlling device alters light phasing in the art image by manipulating pixels within the art image.

57. The dynamic art form display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image controlling device alters light phasing in the art image by controlling the routing of a series of at least two art images from said art source to said display device.