DVD menu representation via optical character recognition

• US 9,013,640 B2
• Filed: 02/04/2008
• Issued: 04/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Strohmaier, Jason
• Primary Examiner(s): Michener, Joshua J
• Assistant Examiner(s): ADAMOS, THEODORE V
• Application Number:
  US12/025,551
• Publication Number:
  US 20090195712A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,633 Days
• Field of Search: 348836-843, 345/156, 345/168, 345/169, 345/173, 715/810, 715/821, 725/25
• US Class Current: 348/837
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2011/0288 Apparatus made of several modules independently mounted
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41422 located in transportation means, e.g. personal vehicle arrangements specially adapted for transportation systems in broadcast systems H04H20/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42646 for reading from or writing on a non-volatile solid state storage medium, e.g. DVD, CD-ROM
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/485 End-user interface for client configuration

Abstract

An entertainment system for a vehicle is provided comprising a front display screen in a front seat area of the vehicle and a rear display screen in a rear seat area of the vehicle. The entertainment system further provides a DVD player for reading a DVD including video content of the DVD. The DVD player can be connected to the rear display screen for displaying the video content of the DVD thereon. The video content can include a DVD menu. A controller can be connected to the DVD player and the front display screen. The controller generates a DVD menu representation corresponding to the DVD menu for display on the front display screen.

Claims

1. An entertainment system for a vehicle that minimizes visual distractions on a front display screen of the vehicle when operating a DVD player from a front seat area of the vehicle for playback on a rear display screen in a rear seat area of the vehicle, comprising:

a DVD player reading video content including a DVD menu with menu items having visual images and menu text from a DVD;

a controller configured to process the video content, including the DVD menu, to generate a DVD menu representation corresponding to the DVD menu when the DVD is read by said DVD player, said controller is configured to generate the DVD menu representation to include representative menu items having only the menu text of the menu items without the visual images of the menu items, said controller is configured to simultaneously;

display the DVD menu with the menu items including the menu text and visual images on the rear display screen; and

display the DVD menu representation including only the menu text of the menu items without the visual images on the front display screen,

a rear control disposed in the rear seat area that interfaces with the DVD menu displayed on the rear display screen and operates the DVD player according to a selection by the rear control of one of the DVD menu items, and

a front control disposed in the front seat area that interfaces with the DVD menu representation displayed on the front display screen and operates the DVD player according to a selection by the front control of one of the DVD menu representation items,

wherein each of the menu items further includes label information, a function and location information, wherein the location information specifies where on the rear display screen the menu item is to be displayed, and wherein the DVD menu representation includes representative menu items corresponding respectively to the menu items of the DVD menu, each of the representative menu items displayed on the front display screen according to the location information of the corresponding menu item so as to be located at a same position on the front display screen as the corresponding menu item is on the rear display screen, and sharing the function of the corresponding menu item.

2. The entertainment system of claim 1 wherein said controller includes an OCR engine for processing said video content and generating said DVD menu representation without said visual images.

3. The entertainment system of the claim 2 wherein the controller includes an optical character recognition (OCR) engine, the OCR engine reads label information for each of the menu items of the DVD menu and generates representative label information to be displayed on the front display screen for each of the representative menu items when generating the DVD menu representation.

4. The entertainment system of claim 3 wherein the OCR engine generates a blank menu button for display on the front display screen as one of the representative menu items for any menu item of the DVD menu that does not include readable text.

5. The entertainment system of claim 3 wherein the controller includes a memory having a catalogue of text labels and the representative label information includes a text label selected from the catalogue of text labels stored in the controller, the OCR engine determines the appropriate text label from the catalogue of text labels for each menu item of the DVD menu.

6. An entertainment system for a vehicle comprising:

a front display screen in a front seat area of the vehicle;

a rear display screen in a rear seat area of the vehicle;

a DVD player reading a DVD including video content having a menu of the DVD, the DVD player connected to the rear display screen and displaying the video content of the DVD thereon;

a controller connected to the DVD player, the rear display screen and the front display screen, wherein the controller is configured to process video content received from the DVD player to generate a DVD menu representation corresponding to the DVD menu, and to display the DVD menu representation on the front display screen when the DVD is read by the DVD player, wherein the DVD menu has menu items and visual graphics, the visual graphics including graphical video data, and the controller is configured to generate the DVD menu representation to have menu items corresponding to the DVD menu items but with reduced visual graphics relative to the DVD menu displayed on the rear display screen,

a rear control disposed in the rear seat area that interfaces with the DVD menu displayed on the rear display screen and operates the DVD player according to a selection by the rear control of one of the DVD menu items, and

a front control disposed in the front seat area that interfaces with the DVD menu representation displayed on the front display screen and operates the DVD player according to a selection by the front control of one of the DVD menu representation items,

wherein the controller is configured to generate the DVD menu representation to include only the menu items without the graphical video data, and the controller is configured to simultaneously;

display the DVD menu representation including only the menu items without the graphical video data on the front display screen; and

display the DVD menu including the menu items and the graphical video data on the rear display screen, and

wherein each of the menu items includes label information, a function and location information, wherein the location information specifies where on the rear display screen the menu item is to be displayed, and wherein the DVD menu representation includes representative menu items corresponding respectively to the menu items of the DVD menu, each of the representative menu items displayed on the front display screen according to the location information of the corresponding menu item so as to be located at a same position on the front display screen as the corresponding menu item is on the rear display screen, and sharing the function of the corresponding menu item.

7. The entertainment system of claim 6 wherein the front display screen is a touch screen interface that includes the front controls, the front controls displayed on the touch screen interface and operable by selective touching of designated areas of the touch screen interface.

8. The entertainment system of claim 7 wherein the touch screen interface is a navigational screen associated with navigational software.

9. The entertainment system of claim 6 further including a head unit disposed in the front seat area, the head unit including the front controls.

10. The entertainment system of claim 9 wherein the head unit includes the front display screen.

11. The entertainment system of the claim 6, wherein the controller includes an optical character recognition (OCR) engine, wherein the OCR engine reads the label information of each of the menu items of the DVD menu and generates representative label information to be displayed on the front display screen for each of the representative menu items when generating the DVD menu representation.

12. The entertainment system of claim 11 wherein the OCR engine generates a blank menu button for display on the front display screen as the DVD menu representation for any menu item of the DVD menu that does not include readable text.

13. The entertainment system of claim 11 wherein the controller indicates a memory having a catalogue of text labels and the representative label information includes a text label selected from the catalogue of text labels stored in the controller, the OCR engine determines the appropriate text label from the catalogue of text labels for each menu item of the DVD menu.

14. The entertainment system of claim 6 wherein the controller includes an optical character recognition (OCR) engine for reading label information of the menu items of the DVD menu.

15. The entertainment system of claim 14, wherein the controller actuates the function shared by one of the representative menu items on the DVD menu representation, the one of the representative menu items selected based on its probability to autoplay the DVD.