Automatically adjusting media display in a personal display system

• US 20080276196A1
• Filed: 02/27/2008
• Published: 11/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Tang, John
• Granted Patent: US 8,549,415 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/800
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0187 slaved to motion of at least a part of the body of the user, e.g. head, eye
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/017 Head mounted
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/012 Head tracking input arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour

Abstract

A personal display system with which a user may adjust the configuration of displayed media is provided. The personal display system may include an electronic device operative to provide media to a personal display device operative to display the received media. Using one or more optical and digital components, the personal display device may adjust displayed media to overlay features of a theater, thus giving the user of the personal display device the impression of being in the theater. In some embodiments, the personal display device may receive a user selection of a seat in the theater from which to watch the media, and may adjust the media display accordingly. In some embodiments, the personal display device may detect the user'"'"'s movements using one or more sensors and may adjust the displayed image based on the user'"'"'s movements. For example, the device may detect a user'"'"'s head movement and cause the portion of media displayed to reflect the head movement.

Claims

1. A method for automatically adjusting the portion of media displayed to a user of a personal display device, comprising:

displaying media using a personal display device, wherein the portion of media displayed by the personal display device is less than the available media;

detecting a movement of the user'"'"'s head;

defining a rate and distance by which to displace the displayed portion of the media, wherein the defined rate comprises an initial delay; and

displacing the portion of the media displayed to follow the detected movement of the user'"'"'s head using the defined rate and distance.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting a movement of the user'"'"'s head further comprises detecting a movement of the user'"'"'s head using at least one sensor incorporated in the personal display device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the sensor comprises at least one of an accelerometer, a position sensor, a gyroscope, a distance sensor, a biological sensor, a geodetic sensor, an optical sensor, a video sensor, and a RF sensor.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein defining a rate of displacement of the displayed portion of the media further comprises:

defining at least one vector based on the output of the at least one sensor; and

defining the rate of displacement of the displayed portion of the media based on the at least one defined vector.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein displacing the portion of the media displayed further comprises linearly displacing the portion of the media displayed based on the detected movement of the user'"'"'s head.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether the periphery of the portion of media displayed in the display of the personal display device is less than the periphery of the available media.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the detected movement of the user'"'"'s head exceeds a defined floor; and

in response to determining that the detected movement of the user'"'"'s head does not exceed the defined floor, ignoring the detected movement of the user'"'"'s head.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether to detect movements of the user'"'"'s head; and

in response to determining to detect movements of the user'"'"'s head, detecting movements of the user'"'"'s head.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining whether to detect movements of the user'"'"'s head further comprises determining whether the user provided an instruction to detect movements of the user'"'"'s head.

10. A method for automatically adjusting the portion of media displayed to a user of a personal display device, comprising:

displaying media using a personal display device, wherein displaying media using the personal display device further comprises simultaneously displaying a left media image opposite the user'"'"'s left eye and a right media image opposite the user'"'"'s right eye, and wherein the portion of the media in at least one of the left media image and the right media image is less than all of the available media;

detecting a movement of at least one of the user'"'"'s eyes;

defining a rate of displacement of the displayed media image opposite the at least one of the user'"'"'s eyes, wherein the defined rate of displacement comprises an initial delay; and

displacing the media image opposite the at least one of the user'"'"'s eyes to follow the detected movement of the at least one of the user'"'"'s eyes using the defined rate of displacement.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein detecting a movement of at least one of the user'"'"'s eyes further comprises detecting a movement of at least one of the user'"'"'s eyes using at least one sensor incorporated in the personal display device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the sensor comprises at least one of an infrared sensor, an optical sensor, a light sensor, an image sensor, a photocell sensor, and a biological sensor.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein detecting a movement of at least one of the user'"'"'s eyes further comprises:

determining the amount of detected movement of the at least one of the user'"'"'s eyes;

comparing the determined amount of detected movement with movement floor; and

in response to determining that the determined amount of detected movement exceeds the movement floor, detecting the movement of the at least one of the user'"'"'s eyes.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving a user instruction to detect movement of at least one of the user'"'"'s eyes.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein displacing the media image opposite the at least one of the user'"'"'s eyes to follow the detected movement of the at least one of the user'"'"'s eyes further comprises displacing the media image opposite the at least one of the user'"'"'s eyes to non-linearly follow the detected movement of the at least one of the user'"'"'s eyes.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the displaying media further comprises displaying the left media image offset from the right media image such that the user has the impression of viewing the media in three dimensions.

17. A personal display device for reducing eye fatigue while adjusting a media display to follow a user'"'"'s movements, comprising a processor, a display, and a sensor, the processor operative to:

direct the display to display media, wherein the media extends beyond the periphery of the portion of the media displayed in the display;

receive an output from the sensor indicating that the user moved his head;

determine the manner in which to adjust the displayed media based on the received output; and

direct the display to adjust the media displayed in the determined manner, wherein the portion of the media displayed after adjusting comprises at least one element of the media that extended beyond the periphery of the portion of the media displayed prior to adjusting.

18. The personal display device of claim 17, wherein the processor is further operative to delay the adjustment of the media in response to receiving the output from the sensor to reduce eye fatigue.

19. The personal display device of claim 17, wherein the output from the sensor comprises data identifying at least one of the amount, direct, speed, and acceleration of the user'"'"'s head movement.

20. The personal display device of claim 17, wherein the processor is further operative to receive the media from an electronic device coupled to the personal display device.

21. A personal display device for automatically adjusting a media display of selected media, comprising a processor, a display, and a sensor, the processor operative to:

receive a user selection of a perspective from which to view the media;

adjust the media to reflect the selected perspective;

direct the display to display the adjusted media;

enable the sensor to track user head movements;

receive an output from the sensor indicating that the user moved his head;

determine the manner in which to adjust the displayed media based on the received sensor output; and

direct the display to adjust the media in the determined manner.

22. The personal display device of claim 21, wherein the processor is further operative to enable the sensor to track the user head movements in response to receiving a user input from a user interface.

23. The personal display device of claim 22, wherein the user interface comprises at least one of a button, a switch, and a touchpad.

24. The personal display device of claim 22, wherein the processor is further operative to disable the sensor from tracking the user head movements in response to receiving a second user input from the user interface.

25. The personal display device of claim 21, wherein the processor is further operative to receive a user selection to zoom the media.