Adaptive pedestrian billboard system and related methods

• US 9,087,465 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2009
• Issued: 07/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Griffin, Jason T., Scott, Sherryl Lee Lorraine
• Primary Examiner(s): Bugg, George
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dorsey, Renee
• Application Number:
  US12/394,243
• Publication Number:
  US 20100219973A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,335 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/005 including pedestrian guidance indicator
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 27/00 Combined visual and audible advertising or displaying, e.g. for public address

Abstract

An adaptive pedestrian billboard system may include a display for passing pedestrian traffic, and a memory for storing a plurality of notifications having different visual feature detail levels. The system may further include a controller configured to cooperate with the display and the memory for determining a density of the passing pedestrian traffic, select notifications from the memory based upon the density of the passing pedestrian traffic so that notifications for higher density passing pedestrian traffic have lower visual feature detail levels and so that notifications for lower density passing pedestrian traffic have higher visual feature detail levels, and display the selected notifications on the display.

Claims

1. An adaptive pedestrian billboard system comprising:

a display for passing pedestrian traffic;

a memory for storing a plurality of notifications having different visual feature detail levels; and

a controller configured to cooperate with said display and said memory to

determine a density of the passing pedestrian traffic based upon position information collected from mobile wireless communications devices of the pedestrians,

select notifications from said memory based upon the density of the passing pedestrian traffic so that notifications for higher density passing pedestrian traffic have lower visual feature detail levels and so that notifications for lower visual density passing pedestrian traffic have higher visual feature detail levels, and

display the selected notifications on said display.

2. The adaptive pedestrian billboard system of claim 1 wherein the different visual feature detail levels are based upon different densities of alphanumeric characters.

3. The adaptive pedestrian billboard system of claim 1 wherein the different visual feature detail levels are based upon different sizes of alphanumeric characters.

4. The adaptive pedestrian billboard system of claim 1 wherein the different visual feature detail levels are based upon different image detail levels.

5. The adaptive pedestrian billboard system of claim 1 wherein said controller further cooperates with said display to change a relative position of notifications based upon the density of the passing pedestrian traffic.

6. The adaptive pedestrian billboard system of claim 1 wherein the notifications comprise at least one of video images and static images.

7. The adaptive pedestrian billboard system of claim 1 further comprising at least one sensor in proximity to said display;

and wherein said controller cooperates with said at least one sensor to determine the density of passing pedestrian traffic.

8. The adaptive pedestrian billboard system of claim 1 wherein said memory and said controller are collocated with said display.

9. The adaptive pedestrian billboard system of claim 1 further comprising at least one speaker collocated with said display and cooperating with said controller for generating audio output for the notifications;

and wherein said controller also changes a volume level of the audio output based upon the density of the passing pedestrian traffic.

10. The adaptive pedestrian billboard system of claim 1 wherein the notifications comprise advertisements.

11. An adaptive pedestrian billboard system comprising:

a display for passing pedestrian traffic;

a memory for storing a plurality of notifications having different visual feature detail levels based upon at least one of different densities and sizes of alphanumeric characters; and

a controller configured to cooperate with said display and said memory to

determine a density of the passing pedestrian traffic based upon position information collected from mobile wireless communications devices of the pedestrians,

select notifications from said memory based upon the density of the passing pedestrian traffic so that notifications for higher density passing pedestrian traffic have lower visual feature detail levels and so that notifications for lower density passing pedestrian traffic have higher visual feature detail levels, and

display the selected notifications on said display.

12. The adaptive pedestrian billboard system of claim 11 wherein the different visual feature detail levels are also based upon different image detail levels.

13. The adaptive pedestrian billboard system of claim 11 wherein said controller further cooperates with said display to change a relative position of advertisements based upon the density of the passing pedestrian traffic.

14. The adaptive pedestrian billboard system of claim 11 wherein the advertisements comprise at least one of video images and static images.

15. The adaptive pedestrian billboard system of claim 11 further comprising at least one speaker collocated with said display and cooperating with said controller for generating audio output for the advertisements;

and wherein said controller also changes a volume level of the audio output based upon the density of the passing pedestrian traffic.

16. A method for displaying notifications on a display for passing pedestrian traffic and comprising:

storing a plurality of notifications having different visual feature detail levels in a memory;

determining a density of the passing pedestrian traffic based upon position information collected from mobile wireless communications devices of the pedestrians;

selecting notifications from the memory based upon the density of the passing pedestrian traffic so that notifications for higher density passing pedestrian traffic have lower visual feature detail levels and so that notifications for lower density passing pedestrian traffic have higher visual feature detail levels; and

displaying the selected notifications on the display.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the different visual feature detail levels are based upon different densities of alphanumeric characters.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the different visual feature detail levels are based upon different sizes of alphanumeric characters.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein the different visual feature detail levels are based upon different image detail levels.

20. The method of claim 16 further comprising changing a relative position of notifications on the display based upon the density of the passing pedestrian traffic.

21. The method of claim 16 further comprising at least one speaker collocated with the display and cooperating with the controller for generating audio output for the notifications;

and wherein the controller also changes a volume level of the audio output based upon the density of the passing pedestrian traffic.