ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND METHOD OF ADJUSTING VIEWING ANGLES OF LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAYS

• US 20110261038A1
• Filed: 09/17/2010
• Published: 10/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: REN, FAN, YU, XIAO-GUANG, JIANG, WEI
• Application Number:
  US12/884,209
• Publication Number:
  US 20110261038A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/207
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/1323 Arrangements for providing a switchable viewing angle
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/84 output devices, e.g. displays or monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/028 by changing the viewing angle properties, e.g. widening the viewing angle, adapting the viewing angle to the view direction
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2358/00 Arrangements for display data security
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/00 Control arrangements or circuits for visual indicators common to cathode-ray tube indicators and other visual indicators image data processing or generation, in general G06T

Abstract

In an electronic device and a method of adjusting a viewing angle of a liquid crystal display (LCD), a face recognition reference is established. The face recognition reference is compared with faces in an image which is captured by a camera unit to locate a matched face. An adjusted viewing angle of the LCD is computed according to a default viewing angle of the LCD and an angle between a perpendicular of the LCD and a line formed by connecting a center of the LCD and a center of two eyes in the matched face. A voltage value is computed according to the adjusted viewing angle, and a voltage is applied to the liquid crystal molecules of the LCD according to the voltage value to change the default viewing angle of the LCD to the adjusted viewing angle.

Claims

1. A method of adjusting a viewing angle of a liquid crystal display (LCD) of an electronic device, comprising:

(a) selecting a face recognition reference from a storage unit, and turning on a camera unit of the electronic device;

(b) comparing faces in a current image which is captured by the camera unit with the face recognition reference, to determine that whether there is a face in the current image matching the face recognition reference;

(c) locating a matched face;

(d) computing an angle between a perpendicular of the LCD and a line formed by connecting a center of the LCD and a center of two eyes in the matched face;

(e) computing an adjusted viewing angle of the LCD according to a default viewing angle of the LCD and the angle computed above;

(f) computing a voltage value according to the adjusted viewing angle; and

(g) applying a voltage to the liquid crystal molecules of the LCD according to the voltage value, to change the default viewing angle of the LCD to the adjusted viewing angle.

2. The method as described in claim 1, further comprising:

(h) blackening the screen of the LCD and giving an alarm upon condition that there is no face in the current image matching the face recognition reference.

3. The method as described in claim 1, wherein a degree of match between the matched face and the face recognition reference is greater than a predetermined percent.

4. The method as described in claim 1, before (a), further comprising:

providing a reference image which contains at least one image;

prompting the user to select a face in the reference image; and

determining that a selected face is a face recognition reference, and storing the dace recognition reference into the storage unit.

5. The method as described in claim 4, wherein the reference image is originally stored in the storage unit or is captured by the camera unit.

6. A non-transitory storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method of adjusting a viewing angle of a liquid crystal display (LCD) in an electronic device, comprising:

(a) selecting a face recognition reference from a storage unit, and turning on a camera unit of the electronic device;

(b) comparing faces in a current image which is captured by the camera unit with the face recognition reference, to determine that whether there is a face in the current image matching the face recognition reference;

(c) locating a matched face;

(d) computing an angle between a perpendicular of the LCD and a line formed by connecting a center of the LCD and a center of two eyes in the matched face;

(e) computing an adjusted viewing angle of the LCD according to a default viewing angle of the LCD and the angle computed above;

(f) computing a voltage value according to the adjusted viewing angle; and

(g) applying a voltage to the liquid crystal molecules of the LCD according to the voltage value, to change the default viewing angle of the LCD to the adjusted viewing angle.

7. The non-transitory storage medium as described in claim 6, wherein the method further comprises:

(h) blackening the screen of the LCD and giving an alarm upon condition that there is no face in the current image matching the face recognition reference.

8. The non-transitory storage medium as described in claim 6, wherein a degree of match between the matched face and the face recognition reference is greater than a predetermined percent.

9. The non-transitory storage medium as described in claim 6, wherein before (a), the method further comprises:

providing a reference image which contains at least one image;

prompting the user to select a face in the reference image; and

determining that a selected face is a face recognition reference, and storing the dace recognition reference into the storage unit.

10. The non-transitory storage medium as described in claim 9, wherein the reference image is originally stored in the storage unit or is just captured by the camera unit.

11. A electronic device, comprising:

a liquid crystal display (LCD);

a camera unit;

at least one processor;

storage unit;

one or more programs that are stored in the storage unit and are executed by the at least one processor, the one or more programs comprising;

a reference establishment module to establish a face recognition reference;

a face recognition module to compare faces in a current image which is captured by the camera unit with the face recognition reference , to determine that whether there is a face in the current image matching the face recognition reference, and to locate a matched face;

an adjusted viewing angle computation module to compute an adjusted viewing angle of the LCD according to a default viewing angle of the LCD and an angle between a perpendicular of the LCD and a line formed by connecting a center of the LCD and a center of two eyes in the matched face; and

a voltage applying module to compute a voltage value according to the adjusted viewing angle of the LCD, and apply a voltage to the liquid crystal molecules of the LCD according to the voltage value to change the default viewing angle of the LCD to the adjusted viewing angle.

12. The electronic device as described in claim 11, wherein the reference establishment module further to store the face recognition reference into the storage unit.

13. The electronic device as described in claim 11, wherein a degree of match between the matched face and the face recognition reference may be greater than a predetermined percent.

14. The electronic device as described in claim 11, further comprising :

an alarm module to blacken the screen of the LCD and give an alarm if there is no face in the current image matching the face recognition reference.

15. The electronic device as described in claim 11, wherein the camera unit is fixed at the front of the electronic device.

16. The electronic device as described in claim 11, wherein the face recognition reference is established by:

selecting a face from a reference image which contains at least one face as the face recognition reference.

17. The electronic device as described in claim 16, wherein the reference image is originally stored in the storage unit or is captured by the camera unit.