INFORMATION DISPLAYING APPARATUS AND INFORMATION DISPLAYING METHOD

• US 20110050656A1
• Filed: 12/15/2009
• Published: 03/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Maeda, Shigenori, Sakata, Kotaro
• Granted Patent: US 8,421,782 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1454 involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/12 Overlay of images, i.e. displayed pixel being the result of switching between the corresponding input pixels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2354/00 Aspects of interface with display user
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2223 being a public access point, e.g. for downloading to or uploading from clients arrangements specially adapted to plural spots in a confined site in broadcast systems H04H20/63
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42201 biosensors, e.g. heat sensor for presence detection, EEG sensors or any limb activity sensors worn by the user input arrangements for interaction with the human body based on nervous system activity detection G06F3/015
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440245 the reformatting operation being performed only on part of the stream, e.g. a region of the image or a time segment
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44218 Detecting physical presence or behaviour of the user, e.g. using sensors to detect if the user is leaving the room or changes his face expression during a TV program methods or arrangements for recognising human body or animal bodies or body parts G06V40/10; methods or arrangements for acquiring or recognising human faces, facial parts, facial sketches, facial expressions G06V40/16; methods or arrangements for recognising movements or behaviour G06V40/20; arrangements for identifying users in broadcast systems H04H60/45

Abstract

The present invention provides an information displaying apparatus which efficiently arouses an interest of the audience member to content to be displayed.

An information displaying apparatus (10) includes: a displaying unit (14) which displays first content on a display; an audience state detecting unit (11) which detects an audience state representing a physical state of an audience member positioned in front of the display; an interest degree estimating unit (12) which estimates an interest degree based on the audience state detected by the audience state detecting unit (11), the interest degree indicating a degree of interest of the audience member in the first content displayed on the display by the displaying unit (14); and a display control unit (13) which causes the displaying unit (14) to display second content with a clarity degree or an exposure degree of at least a part of the second content reduced below a predetermined clarity degree or a predetermined exposure degree when magnitude of a change rate of the interest degree estimated by the interest degree estimating unit (12) is smaller than a first threshold.

Claims

1. An information displaying apparatus comprising:

a displaying unit configured to display first content on a display;

an audience state detecting unit configured to detect an audience state representing a physical state of an audience member positioned in front of the display;

an interest degree estimating unit configured to estimate an interest degree based on the audience state detected by said audience state detecting unit, the interest degree indicating a degree of interest of the audience member in the first content displayed on the display by said displaying unit; and

a display control unit configured to cause said displaying unit to is display second content with a clarity degree or an exposure degree of at least a part of the second content reduced below a predetermined clarity degree or a predetermined exposure degree when magnitude of a change rate of the interest degree estimated by said interest degree estimating unit is smaller than a first threshold.

2. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said display control unit is further configured to raise the clarity degree or the exposure degree of the second content displayed on the display when the magnitude of the change rate of the interest degree estimated by said interest degree estimating unit exceeds a second threshold.

3. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said display control unit is configured to raise the clarity degree or the exposure degree of the second content displayed on the display when the interest degree estimated by said interest degree estimating unit exceeds a third threshold.

4. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said display control unit is further configured to cause said displaying unit to display the second content when (i) the magnitude of the change rate of the interest degree estimated by said interest degree estimating unit is smaller than the first threshold, and (ii) a state in which the magnitude of the change rate of the interest degree estimated by said interest degree estimating unit is smaller than the first threshold lasts for a predetermined time period.

5. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said audience state detecting unit is configured to detect a traveling direction of the audience member as the audience state, and

said interest degree estimating unit is configured to estimate that the interest is higher as the traveling direction of the audience member detected by said audience state detecting unit is more similar to a direction from the audience member to either (i) a position of the display or (ii) a position at which the first content is displayed.

6. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said audience state detecting unit is configured to detect a traveling speed of the audience member as the audience state, and

said interest degree estimating unit is configured to estimate that the interest degree is higher as the traveling speed of the audience member detected by said audience state detecting unit is lower.

7. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said audience state detecting unit is configured to detect a position of the audience member as the audience state, and

said interest degree estimating unit is configured to estimate that the interest degree is higher as distance is shorter between a position at which the first content is displayed and the position of the audience member detected by said audience state detecting unit.

8. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said audience state detecting unit is configured to detect an eye-gaze direction of the audience member as the audience state, and

said interest degree estimating unit is configured to estimate that the interest degree is higher as the eye-gaze direction of the audience member detected by said audience state detecting unit is more similar to a direction from the audience member to either (i) a position of the display or (ii) a position at which the first content is displayed.

9. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a targeted audience member selecting unit configured to select a targeted audience member from among audience members positioned in front of the display,

wherein, when magnitude of a change rate of an interest degree of the targeted audience member selected by said targeted audience member selecting unit is smaller than the first threshold, said display control unit is configured to cause said displaying unit to display the second content.

10. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 9,

wherein, when the interest degree estimated by said interest degree estimating unit is equal to or greater than a fourth threshold, said targeted audience member selecting unit is configured to select an audience member matching with the interest degree as the targeted audience member.

11. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 9,

wherein, when distance between a position at which the first content is displayed and a position of an audience member is smaller than a fifth threshold, said targeted audience member selecting unit is configured to select the audience member as the targeted audience member.

12. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a content database which stores at least an application area indicating a position of a part showing essential information which is a part of the second content and is intended to be directed to an audience member,

wherein said display control unit is configured to cause said displaying unit to display the second content with a clarity degree or an exposure degree of the application area of the second content reduced below the predetermined clarity degree or the predetermined exposure degree, the second content being stored in said content database.

13. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the predetermined clarity degree or the predetermined exposure degree is the clarity degree or the exposure degree of the first content, and

said display control unit is configured to cause said displaying unit to display the first content as the second content.

14. A method of displaying information, comprising:

displaying first content on a display;

detecting an audience state representing a physical state of an audience member positioned in front of the display;

estimating an interest degree based on the audience state detected in said detecting, the interest degree indicating a degree of interest of the audience member in the first content displayed on the display in said displaying the first content; and

displaying second content with an area of a clarity degree or an area of an exposure degree of at least a part of the second content reduced below a predetermined clarity degree or a predetermined exposure degree when magnitude of a change rate of the interest degree estimated in said estimating is smaller than a first threshold.

15. A computer-readable storage medium which stores a program causing a computer to execute the method of displaying information according to claim 14.