Portable electronic equipment with automatic control to keep display turned on and method

• US 8,723,979 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2012
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Mobile Communications AB (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Katz, Darius
• Primary Examiner(s): HANNETT, JAMES M
• Application Number:
  US13/406,805
• Publication Number:
  US 20120157169A1
• Time in Patent Office: 805 Days
• Field of Search: 348/222.1, 348/333.11
• US Class Current: 348/222.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3231 Monitoring the presence, absence or movement of users
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3265 Power saving in display device
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/161 Detection; Localisation; Normalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/022 in absence of operation, e.g. no data being entered during a predetermined time
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2354/00 Aspects of interface with display user
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/20 for presentation of an assembly of a number of characters, e.g. a page, by composing the assembly by combination of individual elements arranged in a matrix no fixed position being assigned to or needed to be assigned to the individual characters or partial characters
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3406 Control of illumination source illumination devices structurally associated with liquid crystal cells G02F1/1336
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/003 Details of a display terminal, the details relating to the control arrangement of the display terminal and to the interfaces thereto specific for a CRT G09G1/165; for a flat panel G09G3/2092
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/52 including functional features of a camera constructional features concerning the integration of cameras in portable phones H04M1/0264
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/611 where the recognised objects include parts of the human body
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/027 by controlling a display operation or backlight unit
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Apparatus and method provide a hold on function in a mobile phone or other portable electronic equipment keeps the display thereof turned on in spite of a screensaver or other power saving feature while a user is reading or watching the display and allows activating of power saving facilities of the mobile phone or equipment only when a user no longer is reading or watching the display. Also, a computer program product stored in a storage medium, includes a storage medium, a computer program including face recognition software to recognize whether an input image represents that of a human face, and a control program to control operation of portable electronic equipment depending on whether or not an input image represents a human face.

Claims

1. Portable electronic equipment, comprising:

a housing,

a display located in a front portion of the housing,

a first camera located in the front portion of the housing facing a first direction for capturing images of a user viewing the display,

a second camera located in a back portion of the housing facing a second direction opposite the first direction, and

circuitry configured to effect turning on the display in response to recognizing an image of a human face provided by the first camera.

2. The equipment of claim 1, said circuitry comprising face recognition software adapted to recognize characteristics of a human face as the specified image, and software stored in a machine readable medium and configured to hold on the display in response to recognizing characteristics of a human face.

3. The equipment of claim 2, the circuitry configured to effect a power saving mode for the display in the absence of a human face being seen by the first camera.

4. The equipment of claim 1, at least one of the display or circuitry having a screensaver function for the display, and the circuitry configured to override the screensaver function at least while a human face is recognized.

5. The equipment of claim 4, wherein the screensaver function effects a power saving mode for the display after expiration of a period of time that no input has been provided the equipment, and the circuitry prevents expiration of the time period at least while an image of a human face is recognized, and the circuitry is configured to prevent such expiration of the time period for a duration after an image of a human face has been recognized.

6. The equipment of claim 1, wherein the first camera is located in the equipment to face in a direction away from the direction that a user of the equipment would view the display, and further comprising at least one of optical elements or a light path to provide to the first camera views looking toward the direction that the user of the equipment would view the display to provide to the first camera a view of the face of the user of the equipment while the user is viewing the display.

7. The equipment of claim 1 further comprising a fish eye lens for the first camera to obtain a wide angle view to facilitate receiving an image of the face of a user of the equipment.

8. The equipment of claim 1, the equipment comprising a mobile phone, and the first camera and the second camera comprising a standard camera of the mobile phone.

9. The equipment of claim 1, wherein the circuitry includes memory and program code stored in the memory and configured to recognize a human face from the first camera and to control operation of a power saving feature associated with the display in response to whether or not an the of a human face is recognized.

10. The equipment of claim 9, wherein the portable electronic equipment is a mobile phone, and further comprising a communications module adapted to wirelessly transmit and receive signals, a speaker, and a microphone.

16. The equipment of claim 1, said circuitry configured to at least one of answer an incoming phone call, initiate a phone call, send a text message or receive a text message in response to recognizing an image of a human face.

11. A method of operating portable electronic equipment, comprising

detecting whether an image of a human face is received by a camera of the equipment, and

operating the equipment in response to detecting an image of a human face being received, said operating comprising at least one of turning on a display of the equipment, answering an incoming phone call, initiating a phone call, sending a text message or receiving a text message.

12. The method of claim 11, said detecting comprising using a fish eye lens to obtain a wide angle view by the camera.

13. The method of claim 11, said operating comprising controlling operation of a display of the equipment by holding on the display in response to receiving an image of a human face by the camera.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the portable electronic equipment is a mobile phone having a display and a screen saver function for the display, said detecting comprising detecting whether an image of a human face is received by a camera of the mobile phone, and said operating comprising effecting control or overriding of a screensaver function for the display of the mobile phone.

15. A non-transitory machine readable storage medium storing a computer program product, comprising

a computer program including face recognition software to recognize whether an input image represents that of a human face, and

a control program to control operation of portable electronic equipment depending on whether or not an input image represents a human face,

said control program, when executed, configured at least one of to turn on a display of the portable electronic equipment and to hold on the display, to answer an incoming phone call received by the portable electronic equipment, to initiate a phone call by the portable electronic equipment, to send a text message by the portable electronic equipment or to receive a text message by the portable electronic equipment.