Display with robotic pixels

• US 9,082,233 B2
• Filed: 03/05/2014
• Issued: 07/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ETH Zurich, Disney Enterprises Incorporated (The Walt Disney Company)
• Original Assignee: ETH Zurich, Disney Enterprises Incorporated (The Walt Disney Company)
• Inventors: Beardsley, Paul, Breitenmoser, Andreas, Rufli, Martin, Siegwart, Roland, Matthews, Iain, Yamane, Katsu, Alonso Mora, Javier
• Primary Examiner(s): Tung, Kee M
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHEN, FRANK S
• Application Number:
  US14/197,735
• Publication Number:
  US 20140292770A1
• Time in Patent Office: 496 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/1666 Avoiding collision or forbidden zones
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/80 2D [Two Dimensional] animation, e.g. using sprites
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/01 Mobile robot
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/46 Sensing device

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for controlling robot pixels to display a visual representation of an input. The input to the system could be an image of a face, and the robot pixels deploy in a physical arrangement to display a visual representation of the face, and would change their physical arrangement over time to represent changing facial expressions. The robot pixels function as a display device for a given allocation of robot pixels. Techniques are also disclosed for distributed collision avoidance among multiple non-holonomic robots to guarantee smooth and collision-free motions. The collision avoidance technique works for multiple robots by decoupling path planning and coordination.

Claims

1. A method for generating, by mobile entities, a dynamic visual representation for display, comprising:

receiving an input image;

determining an available number of the mobile entities;

computing a distribution of goal positions for the mobile entities to generate a visual representation of the input image, wherein the distribution of the goal positions is based on the available number of mobile entities;

assigning each one of the mobile entities to a respective one of the goal positions, wherein the steps of determining, computing, and assigning are repeated to generate the dynamic visual representation of images that corresponds to an animation sequence; and

controlling visual features of the mobile entities that correspond to the animation sequence, wherein the visual features, when displayed by the mobile entities, exhibit the dynamic visual representation, wherein the visual features are generated by respective color changing devices on the mobile entities.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

waiting for a timestep while each one of the mobile entities follows a trajectory towards the respective goal position to which the mobile entity is assigned;

reassigning the mobile entities to the goal positions based on current positions of the mobile entities after the timestep; and

repeating the waiting and reassigning until the current positions coincide with the goal positions.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating the goal positions by using a characteristic of the input image.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising assigning a mass density function to connected regions of the input image.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the animation sequence represents a human or animal or animated character.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile entities are robots configured to move in three-dimensional space and display colors to generate the dynamic visual representation.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile entities are robots with a set of specific shapes including the shape of a nose and other parts of a face, and the dynamic visual representation is achieved by selecting and positioning of one or more shapes from the set of specific shapes.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the input image represents a human face or expression or a human pose.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein an environment in which the mobile entities generate the dynamic visual representation includes one or more obstacles.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

removing one of the mobile entities or adding an additional mobile entity; and

recomputing the distribution of goal positions for the mobile entities to generate the dynamic visual representation.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the current positions coincide with the goal positions when the current positions are each within a maximum error value of the respective goal positions.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein each one of the mobile entities moves toward the respective goal position assigned to the respective mobile entity.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile entities are capable of sensing an environment and reacting to the environment to generate the dynamic visual representation.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a color map assigning the colors to image positions within the color map, wherein the image positions correspond to the goal positions.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the color changing devices comprise lights.

16. A method for generating, by mobile robots, a visual representation for display, comprising:

receiving an input image;

determining an available number of the mobile robots;

computing a distribution of goal positions for the mobile robots to generate the visual representation of the input image, wherein the distribution of the goal positions is based on the available number of mobile robots; and

assigning each one of the mobile robots to a respective one of the goal positions, wherein each of the goal positions correspond to at least one color selected from a plurality of colors, wherein the mobile robots are configured to display the plurality of colors to generate the visual representation of the input image when the mobile robots reach the respective goal positions.

17. A method for generating, by mobile robots, a dynamic visual representation for display, comprising:

receiving an input image;

determining an available number of the mobile robots;

generating the goal positions by using a characteristic of the input image;

computing a distribution of the goal positions for the mobile robots to generate a visual representation of the input image, wherein the distribution of the goal positions is based on the available number of mobile robots; and

assigning each one of the mobile robots to a respective one of the goal positions, wherein the steps of determining, computing, and assigning are repeated to generate the dynamic visual representation of images that corresponds to an animation sequence; and

controlling visual features of the mobile robots that correspond to the animation sequence, wherein the visual features, when displayed by the mobile robots, exhibit the dynamic visual representation, wherein the visual features are generated by respective color changing devices on the mobile robots.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

generating a color map assigning the colors to image positions within the color map, wherein the image positions correspond to the goal positions.