Cooperative wireless luminescent imagery

• US 6,965,785 B2
• Filed: 10/10/2001
• Issued: 11/15/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Varia Holdings LLC
• Original Assignee: Wildseed Ltd. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Engstrom, G. Eric, Nash, Paul R., Mager, Gary N.
• Primary Examiner(s): Trost, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): ZEWDU, MELESS NMN
• Application Number:
  US09/975,524
• Publication Number:
  US 20030017823A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,497 Days
• Field of Search: 455/412.1, 455/414.1, 455/414.3, 455418-420, 455/3.06, 455/456.1, 455/456.3, 455/456.6, 455/457, 455/500, 455/502, 455/503, 455/507, 455/514, 455/550.1, 455/566, 455/41.2, 455 59- 60, 455/66.1, 455/422.1, 455429-430, 455506-513, 455/553.1, 455/556.1, 455/556.2, 455/557, 455/560, 345 11- 13, 345 21- 23, 345/39, 345 45- 46, 345 55- 56, 345213-214, 345/694, 345/970.1, 345/31, 345/3.1, 345/63, 345/589, 348/14.02, 348/14.03, 348/14.12, 348/14.15, 348/14.16, 348 46- 48, 348/52, 348/370, 348521-524, 348/561, 340/7.55, 340/7.56, 340/323.R, 340/815.5
• US Class Current: 455/566
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3888 Arrangements for carrying or protecting transceivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0283 for providing a decorative aspect, e.g. customization of casings, exchangeable faceplate
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/22 Illumination; Arrangements for improving the visibility of characters on dials
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72427 for supporting games or graphical animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7246 by connection of exchangeable housing parts
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/30 Determination of the location of a subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4228 in networks
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/155 Coordinated control of two or more light sources
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/19 via wireless transmission

Abstract

A wireless communication device having luminescent display capabilities in accordance with various embodiments is provided with a machine accessible medium including instructions to receive data representing a set of one or more picture elements of an audience assisted image to facilitate coordinated display of a luminescent representation of a portion of the audience assisted image by the wireless communication device in cooperation with one or more additional wireless communication devices, as well as a processor to execute the instructions.

Claims

1. A wireless communication device comprising:

a machine accessible medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions, which when executed, cause the wireless communication device to

receive wirelessly or retrieve locally data for one or more picture elements for one or more portions of one or more images, and

generate a first luminescent representation of a first of the one or more portions of a first of the one or more images, based at least in part upon the received or retrieved data for the picture element(s) of the first portion of the first image, without generating luminescent representations of other portions of the first image, to contribute to a cooperative generation of a multi-part luminescent representation of the first image with other wireless communication devices; and

a processor coupled to the storage medium to execute said instructions.

2. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further designed to enable the wireless communication device to

determine which of the one or more portions of the first image to have a luminescent representation generated by the wireless communication device.

3. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further designed to enable the wireless communication device to determine which of said one or more images is to have a luminescent representation of one of its portions generated by the wireless communication device.

4. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the instructions are designed to enable the wireless communication device to receive wirelessly said data from a wireless communication server.

5. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the wireless communication device further comprises one or more LEDs, and said instructions are further adapted to

cause the one or more LEDs to be illuminated to generate the first luminescent representation of the first portion of the first image.

6. The wireless communication device of claim 5, wherein at least a subset of the one or more LEDs is adapted to illuminate in one or more of a multiple of colors.

7. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein said plurality of instructions are further adapted to enable the wireless communication device to generate a second luminescent representation of a second of the one or more images, based at least in part upon the received or retrieved data for the picture element(s) of the second portion of the second image, without generating luminescent representations of other portions of the second image, to contribute to a cooperative generation of a multi-part luminescent representation of the second image with other wireless communication devices.

8. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein said plurality of instructions are further adapted to receive one or more synchronization signals to facilitate synchronizing said generating of the first luminescent representation of the first portion of the first image by said wireless communication device with the generations of the other luminescent representations of the other portions of the first image by said other wireless communication devices.

9. The wireless communication device of claim 8, wherein said instructions are further adapted to enable the wireless communication device to receive periodic radio frequency signals as said synchronization signals.

10. The wireless communication device of claim 8, wherein said plurality of instructions are further adapted to enable the wireless communication device to receive location information identifying a location of said wireless communication device relative to said other wireless communication devices.

11. The wireless communication device of claim 10, wherein the instructions are further adapted to enable the wireless communication device to determine which of the one or more portions of the first image to have a luminescent representation generated by the wireless communication device, based at least in part on the relative location of said wireless communication device to the other wireless communication devices.

12. A method of operation on a wireless communication device, the method comprising:

receiving wirelessly or retrieving locally data for one or more picture elements for one or more portions of one or more images; and

generating a first luminescent representation of a first of the one or more portions of a first of the one or more images, based at least in part upon the received or retrieved data for the picture element(s) of the first portion of the first image, without generating luminescent representations of other portions of the first image, to contribute to a cooperative generation of a multi-part luminescent representation of the first image with other wireless communication devices.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining which of the one or more portions of the first image is to have a luminescent representation generated by the wireless communication device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises determining which of said one or more images is to have a luminescent representation of one of its portions generated by the wireless communication device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said receiving or retrieving comprises receiving wirelessly said data from a wireless communication server.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein said generating comprises:

causing one or more LEDs disposed upon said wireless communication device to be illuminated.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

generating a second luminescent representation of a second of the one or more portions of a second of the one or more images, based at least in part upon the received or retrieved data for the picture element(s) of the second portion of the second image, without generating luminescent representations of other portions of the second image, to contribute to a cooperative generation of a multi-part luminescent representation of the second image with other wireless communication devices.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving one or more synchronization signals to facilitate synchronizing said generating of the first luminescent representation of the first portion of the first image by said wireless communication device with the generations of the luminescent representations of the other portions of the first image by said other wireless communication devices.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein said receiving of the one or more synchronization signals comprise receiving periodic radio frequency based signals.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises receiving location information identifying a location of said wireless communication device relative to said other wireless communication devices.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising determining which of the one or more portions of the first image to have a luminescent representation generated by the wireless communication device, based at least in part on the relative location of said wireless communication device to the other wireless communication devices.

22. The method of claim 12, wherein said data comprises real time data.

23. The method of claim 12, wherein the first image comprises a single crowd pattern.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the single crowd pattern is one of a sequence of crowd patterns.

30. The method of claim 13, wherein the single crowd pattern is one of a sequence of crowd patterns.

25. A method of operation on a wireless communication device, the method comprising:

establishing a communication session with a communication server;

providing to the communication server, a location of the wireless communication device or data allowing the location of the wireless communication device to be determined;

receiving from the communication server, a relative location of the wireless communication device to other wireless communication devices or data allowing the relative location of the wireless communication device to other wireless communication devices to be determined; and

generating a first luminescent representation of a first portion of a first image, based at least in part on its relative location to the other wireless communication devices, without generating luminescent representations of other portions of the first image, to contribute to a cooperative generation of a multi-part luminescent representation of the first image with the other wireless communication devices.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein said providing comprises providing to the communication server a seating identifier of a venue.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein said providing comprises providing data that allow the location of the wireless communication device to be determined by way of triangulation.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein the method further comprises generating a second luminescent representation of a second portion of a second image, based at least in part on its relative location to the other wireless communication devices, without generating luminescent representations for other portions of the second image, to contribute to a cooperative generation of a multi-part luminescent representation of the second image with the other wireless communication devices.

29. The method of claim 25, wherein the first image comprises a single crowd pattern.

31. A wireless communication device comprising:

light emitting means for emitting light;

visualization control means coupled to the light emitting means to selectively activate and deactivate the light emitting means as requested; and

visualization client means coupled to the visualization control means to request the visualization control means to selectively activate and deactivate the light emitting means to display a luminescent representation of a portion of an image, without displaying luminescent representations of other portions of the image, to contribute to a cooperative generation of a multi-part luminescent representation of the image with other wireless communication devices.

32. The wireless communication device of claim 31, further comprising:

display means, in addition to said light emitting means, for displaying alphanumeric data.

33. The wireless communication device of claim 31, wherein the wireless communication device comprises a wireless mobile phone.

34. The wireless communication device of claim 31, wherein the wireless communication device comprises a wireless PDA.

35. A method of operation on a server, the method comprising:

receiving first location information corresponding to a location of a first wireless communication device;

determining, based at least in part upon the first location information, data associated with a first portion of an image;

receiving second location information corresponding to a second location of a second wireless communication device;

determining, based at least in part upon the second location information, data associated with a second portion of the image; and

transmitting correspondingly and mutually exclusively the data associated with the first portion of the image to the first wireless communication device, and the data associated with the second portion of the image to the second wireless communication device, to facilitate the first and second wireless communication devices to correspondingly generate luminescent representations of the first and second portions of the image to contribute to a cooperative generation of a multi-part luminescent representation of the image by a plurality of wireless communication devices, including the first and the second wireless communication devices.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein at least one of the first location information and the second location information comprise seating location information of a venue.

37. The method of claim 35, wherein said transmitting comprises

transmitting data associated with all portions of the image to both the first and second wireless communication devices, accompanied with data allowing the first and the second wireless communication devices to identify and mutually exclusively generate luminescent representations the first and second portions of the image, respectively, instead.

38. The method of claim 37, further comprising:

transmitting synchronization information to the plurality of wireless communication devices to facilitate synchronizing the corresponding generations of the luminescent representations of the various portions of the image by the various wireless communication devices.

39. The method of claim 35, further comprising:

receiving the image from a camera.

40. A communication server comprising:

a machine accessible medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions, which when executed, provide support services to a plurality of wireless communication devices, the services including

services to receive corresponding location information of the wireless communication devices,

services to determine, based at least in part upon the location information, data associated with various portions of an image, and

services to transmit correspondingly and mutually exclusively the data associated with the various portions of the image to the various wireless communication devices to facilitate a coordinated generation of a multi-part luminescent representation of the image by the wireless communication devices; and

a processor coupled to the storage medium to execute said instructions.

41. The communication server of claim 40, wherein the location information comprises seating location information of a venue.

42. A wireless communication device comprising:

at least one light emitting device;

a microprocessor; and

means to selectively activate and deactivate the at least one light emitting device to display a luminescent representation of a portion of an image, without display luminescent representations of other portions of the image, to contribute to a cooperative generation of a multi-part luminescent representations of the image with other wireless communication devices.