Electronic display device medium and screen display control method used for electronic display medium

• US 8,184,132 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2006
• Issued: 05/22/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Sakamoto, Kiyomi, Matsuoka, Masaharu, Morikawa, Takanori
• Primary Examiner(s): Boddie, William
• Application Number:
  US11/883,561
• Publication Number:
  US 20080117323A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,276 Days
• Field of Search: 345156-158, 715/784, 705/14.41
• US Class Current: 345/690
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/013 Eye tracking input arrangements G06F3/015 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/193 Preprocessing; Feature extraction
• 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

When an electronic book is activated, a video image obtaining section starts taking face images of a user. Next, an analysis section analyzes the face images of the user taken by the video image obtaining section, thereby inferring a physiological condition of a user. Then, a display control section adjusts, in units of predetermined time periods, a display state of a screen, such as brightness and contrast, in accordance with the physiological condition.

Claims

1. An electronic display medium comprising:

a screen for displaying content;

a video image obtaining section for taking a face image of a user;

an analysis section for obtaining, as physiological information about a human, eye information about activities or changes in an eyeball and a peripheral body part of the eyeball, from the face image taken by the video image obtaining section, and for analyzing the eye information, thereby inferring that a physiological condition of the user is in a drowsy state when a number of nictitations is larger than a normal average number of nictitations and cluster nictitation occurs more than once within one or two seconds or when a pupil diameter of the user is 3 mm or smaller and a reaction speed of a pupil is a predetermined value or larger, or inferring that the physiological condition of the user is in a tired state when a period of time from when a closed eyelid starts opening to when an eyelid has completely opened is longer than a predetermined period of time or when the pupil diameter is 3 mm or smaller and the reaction speed of the pupil is a predetermined value or smaller; and

a display control section for controlling, in accordance with the physiological condition inferred by the analysis section, a display state of the screen displaying the content, wherein

the analysis section starts obtaining the physiological information after a visual information processing task is completed, and finishes obtaining the physiological information when a predetermined period of time has passed after starting obtaining the physiological information, and

when the analysis section analyzes the eye information and determines that the physiological condition of the user is in the tired state, the display control section increases, for the screen displaying the content, at least one of;

contrast;

brightness; and

coloring, so as to increase the arousal level of the user, and when the analysis section determines that the physiological condition of the user is in the drowsy state, the display control section reduces, for the screen displaying the content, at least one of;

contrast;

brightness; and

coloring.

2. The electronic display medium according to claim 1, further comprising an operation button for switching the content, wherein

the analysis section starts obtaining the physiological information by setting a time point, at which an input is provided through the operation button, to be a time point at which the visual information processing task is completed.

3. The electronic display medium according to claim 1, wherein

the screen selectively displays, as the content, a program and a commercial,

the electronic display medium further comprises commercial detection means for detecting a switch in the content from the program to the commercial, and

the analysis section starts obtaining the physiological information by setting a time point, at which the content switches from the program to the commercial, to be a time point at which the visual information processing task is completed.

4. A screen display control method used for an electronic display medium, the screen display control method comprising:

a video image obtaining step of taking a face image of a user;

an analyzing step of obtaining, as physiological information about a human, eye information about activities or changes in an eyeball and a peripheral body part of the eyeball, from the face image taken at the video image obtaining step, and analyzing the eye information, thereby inferring that a physiological condition of the user is in a drowsy state when a number of nictitations is larger than a normal average number of nictitations and cluster nictitation occurs more than once within one or two seconds or when a pupil diameter of the user is 3 mm or smaller and a reaction speed of a pupil is a predetermined value or larger, or inferring that the physiological condition of the user is in a tired state when a period of time from when a closed eyelid starts opening to when an eyelid has completely opened is longer than a predetermined period of time or when the pupil diameter is 3 mm or smaller and the reaction speed of the pupil is a predetermined value or smaller; and

a display control step of controlling, in accordance with the physiological condition inferred at the analyzing step, a display state of a screen displaying content, wherein

the analyzing step starts obtaining the physiological information after a visual information processing task is completed, and finishes obtaining the physiological information when a predetermined period of time has passed after starting obtaining the physiological information, and

when the analyzing step analyzes the eye information and determines that the physiological condition of the user is in the tired state, the display control step increases, for the screen displaying the content, at least one of;

contrast;

brightness; and

coloring, so as to increase the arousal level of the user, and when the analyzing step determines that the physiological condition of the user is in the drowsy state, the display control step reduces, for the screen displaying the content, at least one of;

contrast;

brightness; and

coloring.