User control of the display of matrix codes

• US 8,439,257 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2010
• Issued: 05/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dish Technologies LLC (Echostar Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Echostar Technologies LLC (Echostar Corporation)
• Inventors: Beals, William Michael, Zetterower, Charlie William
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Thien M
• Assistant Examiner(s): MARSHALL, CHRISTLE I
• Application Number:
  US12/958,073
• Publication Number:
  US 20120139826A1
• Time in Patent Office: 895 Days
• Field of Search: 235435-46249
• US Class Current: 235/435
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/045 Zooming at least part of an image, i.e. enlarging it or shrinking it
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0464 Positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window

Abstract

An electronic device determines to transmit an image including a matrix code to a display, receives input specifying to alter the matrix code, generates an updated image according to the input, and transmits the updated image to the display. The device may alter a size and/or position of the matrix code, a display duration and/or complexity of the matrix code, and so on. The device may generate the matrix code and modify it in response to input, receive different matrix code versions and select a different version in response to input, receive the image including the matrix code and generate a replacement to overlay over the image, and so on Additionally, independent of input, the device may receive an image, detect an included first matrix code, generate a second matrix code based on the first, and generate an updated image by adding the second matrix code to the image.

Claims

1. A method for user control of matrix codes, the method comprising:

receiving at an electronic device at least one display image including either at least one matrix code, or at least one display image and additional information to be encoded in at least one matrix code;

encoding the additional information if received in at least one matrix code to be included with the at least one display image;

determining to transmit the at least one display image that includes at least one matrix code from the electronic device to a display device;

receiving, utilizing the electronic device, at least one user input that specifies to alter at least one aspect of how the at least one matrix code is displayed;

generating an updated at least one display image from the received at least one display image in accordance with the at least one user input utilizing the electronic device; and

transmitting the updated at least one display image from the electronic device to the at least one display device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said operation of determining to transmit at least one display image that includes at least one matrix code from an electronic device to a display device further comprises transmitting the at least one display image that includes that at least one matrix code until the at least one user input is received.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one matrix code has at least one of a size or a position, the at least one user input specifies to alter the at least one of the size or the position, and said operation of generating an updated at least one display image in accordance with the at least one user input comprises generating the updated at least one display image including a version of the at least one matrix code with the altered at least one of the size or the position.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said operation of determining to transmit at least one display image that includes at least one matrix code from an electronic device to a display device further comprises transmitting a series of display images wherein each display image of the series except the first display image includes a larger version of the at least one matrix code than the previous display image of the series.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said operation of transmitting a series of display images further comprises transmitting the series of display images until the at least one user input is received.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said operation of determining to transmit at least one display image that includes at least one matrix code from an electronic device to a display device further comprises:

transmitting a series of image frames from the electronic device to the display device;

detecting, utilizing the electronic device, that the at least one matrix code is present in an image frame of the series of image frames; and

transmitting the image frame of the series of image frames from the electronic device to the display device until the at least one user input is received.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one matrix code is at least one of generated by the electronic device and included by the at least one electronic device in the at least one display image or selected by the electronic device from a plurality of versions of the at least one matrix code and included by the at least one electronic device in the at least one display image.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic device receives the at least one display image that includes the at least one matrix code and said operation of generating an updated at least one display image in accordance with the at least one user input further comprises:

analyzing the at least one display image, utilizing the electronic device;

to detect the at least one matrix code;

decoding the at least one matrix code utilizing the electronic device;

coding an additional at least one matrix code that includes information decoded from the at least one matrix code, utilizing the electronic device, in accordance with the at least one user input; and

including the additional at least one matrix code in the updated at least one display image utilizing the electronic device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein generating an updated at least one display image further comprises:

compressing information, utilizing the electronic device, wherein the information is included in the at least one matrix code;

coding an additional at least one matrix code that includes the compressed information utilizing the electronic device; and

including the additional at least one matrix code in the updated as least one display image utilizing the electronic device.

10. A method for user control of matrix codes, the method comprising:

receiving at an electronic device at least one display image including either at least one matrix code, or at least one display image and additional information to be encoded in at least one matrix code;

encoding the additional information if received in at least one matrix code to be included with the at least one display image;

determining to transmit the at least one display image that includes at least one matrix code from the electronic device to a display device;

receiving, utilizing the electronic device, at least one user input that specifies to alter at least one aspect of how the at least one matrix code is displayed, wherein the at least one user input specifies to keep displaying the at least one matrix code until an additional at least one user input is received;

generating an updated at least one display image from the received at least one display image in accordance with the at least one user input utilizing the electronic device, the updated at least one display image comprising the at least one display image; and

transmitting the updated at least one display image from the electronic device to the at least one display device until the additional at least one user input is received.

11. An electronic device, comprising:

one or more input components configured to receive either at least one display image including at least one matrix code, or at least one display image and additional information to be encoded in at least one matrix code;

at least one output component that determines to transmit at least one display image to a display device wherein the at least one display image includes at least one matrix code;

at least one input component that receives at least one user input specifying to alter at least one aspect of how the at least one matrix code is displayed; and

at least one processing unit, communicably coupled to the at least one output component and the one or more input components, that is configured to encode the additional information if received in at least one matrix code to be included with the at least one display image, and generate an updated at least one display image from the received at least one display image in accordance with the at least one user input;

wherein the at least one processing unit transmits the updated at least one display image to the display device via the at least one output component.

12. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the electronic device comprises a content receiver and the at least one input component receives the at least one user input from a user control device associated with the content receiver.

13. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the at least one matrix code includes information and, according to the user input, the at least one processing unit generates the updated at least one display image by compressing the information, coding at least one additional matrix code including the compressed information, and including the at least one additional matrix code in the updated at least one display image.

14. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the at least one processing unit generates the updated at least one display image by detecting the at least one matrix code in the at least one display image, decoding information encoded in the at least one matrix code, coding an additional matrix code including the decoded information according to the user input, and including the additional at least one matrix code in the updated at least one display image.

15. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the at least one display image comprises a series of image frames, the at least one processing unit sequentially transmits the series of image frames to the display device via the at least one output component until detecting that an image frame of the series includes the at least one matrix code and then transmits the image frame of the series to the display device until the user input is received.

16. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the at least one display image comprises a series of display images and each display image subsequent to the first display image of the series includes a larger version of the at least one matrix code than the previous display image of the series.

17. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the at least one processing unit,

generates the updated at least one display image including a version of the at least one matrix code in accordance with the at least one user input wherein the version of the at least one matrix code has at least one of a different size than the at least one matrix code or a different position than the at least one matrix code.

18. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the at least one output component transmits the at least one display image to the display device until the at least one user input is received.

19. An electronic device, comprising:

one or more input components configured to receive either at least one display image including at least one matrix code, or at least one display image and additional information to be encoded in at least one matrix code;

at least one output component that determines to transmit at least one display image to a display device wherein the at least one display image includes at least one matrix code;

at least one input component that receives at least one user input specifying to alter at least one aspect of how the at least one matrix code is displayed, wherein the at least one user input specifies to display the at least one matrix code until an additional user input is received; and

at least one processing unit, communicably coupled to the at least one output component and the one or more input components, that is configured to encode the additional information if received in at least one matrix code to be included with the at least one display image, and generate an updated at least one display image from the received at least one display image in accordance with the at least one user input, the updated at least one display image including the at least one matrix code;

wherein the at least one processing unit transmits the updated at least one display image to the display device via the at least one output component until the additional user input is received.

20. A method for providing matrix codes based on other matrix codes, comprising:

detecting, utilizing at least one electronic device, at least one matrix code included in at least one display image;

decoding information from the at least one matrix code utilizing the electronic device;

generating an additional at least one matrix code, utilizing the electronic device, that includes the decoded information;

modifying the at least one display image to include the additional at least one matrix code utilizing the electronic device; and

transmitting the modified at least one display image from the electronic device to a display device.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein said operation of modifying the at least one display image to include the additional at least one matrix code utilizing the electronic device further comprises positioning with the electronic device the additional at least one matrix code in the at least one display image based on a position of the at least one matrix code in the at least one display image.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein said operation of modifying the at least one display image to include the additional at least one matrix code utilizing the electronic device further comprises positioning with the electronic device the additional at least one matrix code in the at least one display image such that the additional at least one matrix code at least partially obscures the at least one matrix code in the at least one display image.