Method and system for free-space imaging display and interface
First Claim
1. A system for creating a free-space display comprising a heat pump, means to introduce ambient air through the heat pump, means to create a thermal differential in the heat pump, means to extract condensate from the ambient air using the thermal differential, means to pass the condensate into an expansion chamber, means to atomize the condensate in the expansion chamber to create particle cloud material, ejection nozzle means to eject the particle cloud material into the air to create a particle cloud screen, means to eject a parallel laminar air stream enclosing the particle cloud, means to generate an image or images, projection means to project an image or images onto the particle cloud screen.
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Accused Products
Abstract
This invention comprises a method and system for displaying free-space, full color, high-resolution video or still images while simultaneously enabling the user to have real-time direct interaction with the visual images. The system comprises a self-generating means for creating a dynamic, non-solid particle cloud by ejecting atomized condensate present in the surrounding air, in a controlled fashion, into an invisible particle cloud. A projection system consisting of an image generating means and projection optics, projects an image onto the particle cloud. Any physical intrusion, occurring spatially within the image region, is captured by a detection system and the intrusion information is used to enable real-time user interaction in updating the image. This input/output (I/O) interface provides a display and computer link, permitting the user to select, translate and manipulate free-space floating visual information beyond the physical constraints of the device creating the image.
261 Citations
80 Claims
- 1. A system for creating a free-space display comprising a heat pump, means to introduce ambient air through the heat pump, means to create a thermal differential in the heat pump, means to extract condensate from the ambient air using the thermal differential, means to pass the condensate into an expansion chamber, means to atomize the condensate in the expansion chamber to create particle cloud material, ejection nozzle means to eject the particle cloud material into the air to create a particle cloud screen, means to eject a parallel laminar air stream enclosing the particle cloud, means to generate an image or images, projection means to project an image or images onto the particle cloud screen.
- 2. A system for creating a free-space display comprising a heat pump, means to introduce ambient air through the heat pump, means to create a thermal differential in the heat pump, means to extract condensate from the ambient air using the thermal differential, means to pass the condensate into an expansion chamber, means to atomize the condensate in the expansion chamber to create particle cloud material, ejection nozzle means to eject the particle cloud material into the air to create a particle cloud screen, means to eject a parallel laminar air stream enclosing the particle cloud, means to generate an image or images, projection means to project an image or images onto the particle cloud screen, detection means located adjacent to the particle cloud screen and adapted to capture intrusion within or adjacent to the projected image, means to read the location of each intrusion, means to send the intrusion location information to a controller, means to modify the image generator means in response to the intrusion location information.
- 57. A method for creating a free-space display comprising dehumidifying air, capturing the humidity, atomizing the humidity to create particle cloud material one to ten microns in diameter, ejecting the particle cloud material to create a particle cloud, surrounding the particle cloud with a parallel laminar air stream microenvironment of equal or similar velocity and trajectory to the particle cloud, generating an image or images, projecting the image or images onto the particle cloud.
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58. A method for creating an interactive free-space display comprising dehumidifying air, capturing the humidity, atomizing the humidity to create particle cloud material one to ten microns in diameter, ejecting the particle cloud material to create a particle cloud, surrounding the particle cloud with a parallel laminar air stream microenvironment of equal or similar velocity and trajectory to the particle cloud, generating an image or images, projecting the image or images onto the particle cloud, detecting an intrusion within or adjacent to the free-space display by detecting said intrusion to create trackable data and using the trackable data to computationally update the projection of the image.
- 60. A method for creating an interactive free-space display comprising dehumidifying air, capturing the humidity and ejecting it to re-humidify the air to create a surface or volume particle cloud comprising individual one to ten micron mean diameter particulates, surrounding the particle cloud with a microenvironment of equal or similar velocity, illuminating said cloud using an illumination source, passing the illumination onto, reflecting or passing through an image generating means to split projected images into a plurality of projection beams, redirecting projection beams and focusing said projection image from projection means onto the particle cloud to reflect, refract, and transmit light to generate a free-space image, detecting the intrusion of a physical object within or adjacent to the free-space image by video capture means by illuminating said intrusion and detecting said illumination in order to create trackable data and using the trackable data as input to computationally update the projection means.
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65. A system for creating a free-space display comprising a compressor-based condensing system to extract condensate from air, a holding vessel for collecting the condensate, an opening in the holding vessel for introduction of additional liquid, an atomizer to generate a particle cloud of condensate in an expansion chamber, an ejection nozzle connected to the expansion chamber to eject the particle cloud into the air, fans connected to the expansion chamber to move the particle cloud into the air, baffles or vents parallel to and spaced from the ejection nozzle, fans disposed adjacent to the baffles or vents to blow air through the baffles or vents, enclosing the particle cloud with parallel airstreams, light emitters and light detectors directed towards each other with the particle cloud in between to monitor the visibility of the particle cloud, a system for controlling the quantity of ejected particle cloud based upon the monitoring of the visibility of the particle cloud, an image projector directed towards and illuminating the particle cloud, to generate an image upon the particle cloud.
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66. A system for creating a free-space display comprising a thermo-electric condensing system to extract condensate from air, a holding vessel for collecting the condensate, an opening in the holding vessel for introduction of additional liquid, an atomizer to generate a particle cloud of condensate in an expansion chamber, an ejection nozzle connected to the expansion chamber to eject the particle cloud into the air, fans connected to the expansion chamber to move the cloud into the air, baffles or vents parallel to and spaced from the ejection nozzle, fans disposed adjacent to the baffles or vents to blow air through the baffles or vents, enclosing the particle cloud with parallel airatreams, light emitters and light detectors directed towards each other with the particle cloud in between to monitor the visibility of the particle cloud, a system for controlling the quantity of ejected particle cloud based on the monitoring of the visibility of the particle cloud, an image projector directed towards and illuminating the particle cloud, to generate an image upon the particle cloud.
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67. A system for creating an interactive free-space display comprising a compressor-based condensing system to extract condensate from air, a holding vessel for collecting the condensate, an opening in the holding vessel for introduction of additional liquid, an atomizer to generate a particle cloud of condensate in an expansion chamber, an ejection nozzle connected to the expansion chamber to eject the particle cloud into the air, fans connected to the expansion chamber to move the particle cloud into the air, baffles or vents parallel to and spaced from the ejection nozzle, fans adjacent to the baffles or vents to blow air through the baffles or vents, enclosing the particle cloud with parallel arstreams, light emitters and light detectors directed towards each other with the particle cloud in between to monitor the visibility of the particle cloud, a system for controlling the quantity of ejected particle cloud based upon the monitoring of the visibility of the particle cloud, an image projector directed towards and illuminating the particle cloud, light emitters to create one or more planes of light parallel to or coplanar with the particle cloud, optical sensors to detect physical intrusion within the planes of light, position-tracking software to track physical intrusion in the planes of light for controlling the image projection within a graphic user environment.
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68. A system for creating an interactive free-space display comprising a thermo-electric condensing system to extract condensate from air, a holding vessel for collecting the condensate, an opening in the holding vessel for introduction of additional liquid, an atomizer to generate a particle cloud of condensate in an expansion chamber, an ejection nozzle connected to the expansion chamber to eject the particle cloud into the air, fans connected to the expansion chamber to move the particle cloud into the air, baffles or vents parallel to and spaced from the ejection nozzle, fans disposed adjacent to the baffles or vents to blow air through the baffles or vents, enclosing the particle cloud with parallel airstreams, light emitters and light detectors directed towards each other with the particle cloud in between to monitor the visibility of the particle cloud, a system for controlling the quantity of ejected particle cloud based upon the monitoring of the visibility of the particle cloud, an image projector directed towards and illuminating the particle cloud, light emitters to create one or more planes of light parallel to or coplanar with the particle cloud, optical sensors to detect physical intrusion within the planes of light, position-tracking software to track physical intrusion in the planes of light for controlling the image projection within a graphic user environment.
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69. A system for creating a free-space display comprising a compressor-based condensing system to extract condensate from air, a holding vessel for collecting the condensate, an opening in the holding vessel for introduction of additional liquid, an atomizer to generate a particle cloud of condensate in an expansion chamber, an ejection nozzle connected to the expansion chamber to eject the particle cloud into the air, fans connected to the expansion chamber to move the particle cloud into the air, baffles or vents parallel to and spaced from the ejection nozzle, fans disposed adjacent to the baffles or vents to blow air through the baffles or vents, enclosing the particle cloud with parallel airstreams, light emitters and light detectors directed towards each other with the particle cloud in between to monitor the visibility of the particle cloud, a system for controlling the quantity of ejected particle cloud based upon the monitoring of the visibility of the particle cloud, an image projector directed towards a plurality of mirrors to split and redirect the projected image towards locations surrounding the particle cloud and focus the projected image onto the particle cloud.
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70. A system for creating free-space display comprising a thermo-electric condensing system to extract condensate from air, a holding vessel for collecting the condensate, an opening in the holding vessel for introduction of additional liquid, an atomizer to generate a particle cloud of condensate in an expansion chamber, an ejection nozzle connected to the expansion chamber to eject the particle cloud into the air, fans connected to the expansion chamber to move the cloud into the air, baffles or vents parallel to and spaced from the ejection nozzle, fans disposed adjacent to the baffles or vents to blow air through the baffles or vents, enclosing the particle cloud with parallel airstreams, light emitters and light detecors directed towards each other with the particle cloud in between to monitor the visibility of the particle cloud, a system for controlling the quantity of ejected particle cloud based on the monitoring of the visibility of the particle cloud, an image projector directed towards a plurality of mirrors to split and redirect the projected image towards locations surrounding the particle cloud and focus the projected image onto the particle cloud.
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71. A system for creating free-space display comprising a compressor-based condensing system to extract condensate from air, a holding vessel for collecting the condensate, an opening in the holding vessel for introduction of additional liquid, an atomizer to generate a particle cloud of condensate in an expansion chamber, an ejection nozzle connected to the expansion chamber to eject the particle cloud into the air, fans connected to the expansion chamber to move the particle cloud into the air, battles or vents parallel to and spaced from the ejection nozzle, fans disposed adjacent to the baffles or vents to blow air through the baffles or vents, enclosing the particle cloud with parallel airstreams, light emitters and light detectors directed towards each other with the particle cloud in between to monitor the visibility of the particle cloud, a system for controlling the quantity of ejected particle cloud based upon the monitoring of the visibility of the particle cloud, an image projector directed towards a plurality of mirrors to split and redirect the projected image towards locations surrounding the particle cloud and focus the projected image onto the particle cloud, light emitters to create one or more planes of light parallel to or coplanar with the particle cloud, optical sensors to detect physical intrusion within the plane of light, position-tracking software to track physical intrusion into the plane of light for controlling the image projection within a graphic user environment.
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72. A system for creating a free-space display comprising a thermo-electric condensing system to extract condensate from air, a holding vessel for collecting the condensate, an opening in the holding vessel for introduction of additional liquid, an atomizer to generate a particle cloud of condensate in an expansion chamber, an expansion chamber, an ejection nozzle connected to the expansion chamber to eject the particle cloud into the air, fans connected to the expansion chamber to move the cloud into the air, baffles or vents parallel to and spaced from the ejection nozzle, fans disposed adjacent to the baffles or vents to blow air through the baffles or vents, enclosing the particle cloud with parallel airstreams, light emitters and light detectors directed towards each other with the particle cloud in between them to monitor the visibility of the particle cloud, a control system for the atomizer to control particle cloud conditions based on the monitoring of the visibility of the particle cloud, an image projector directed towards a plurality of mirrors to split and redirect the projected image towards locations surrounding the particle cloud and focus the projected image onto the particle cloud, light emitters to create one or more planes of light parallel to or coplanar with the particle cloud, optical sensors to detect physical intrusion within the plane of light, position-tracking software to track physical intrusion in the plane of light for controlling the image projection within a graphic user environment.
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73. A method for creating a free-space display comprising condensing moisture from air and ejecting the moisture into the air to generate a particle cloud and projecting images onto the particle cloud.
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74. A method for creating a free-space display comprising condensing moisture from air and ejecting the moisture into the air to generate a particle cloud and projecting images onto the particle cloud from a plurality of sources surrounding the particle cloud.
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75. A method for creating an interactive free-space display comprising condensing moisture from air and ejecting the moisture into the air to generate a particle cloud and projecting images onto the particle cloud, and tracking the position of physical intrusion adjacent to or within the particle cloud for controlling the image projection within a graphic user environment.
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76. A method for creating an interactive free-space display comprising condensing moisture from air and ejecting the moisture into the air to generate a particle cloud and projecting images onto the particle cloud from a plurality of sources surrounding the particle cloud, and tracking the position of physical intrusion adjacent to or within the particle cloud for controlling the image projection within a graphic user environment.
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77. A method for creating a free-space display comprising condensing moisture from air and ejecting the moisture into the air to generate a particle cloud and projecting separate stereo images onto the particle cloud.
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78. A method for creating an interactive free-space display comprising condensing moisture from air and ejecting the moisture into the air to generate a particle cloud and projecting separate stereo images onto the particle cloud, while tracking the position of physical intrusion adjacent to or within the particle cloud for controlling the image projection within a graphic user environment.
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79. A method for creating a free-space display comprising condensing moisture from air and ejecting the moisture into the air to generate a particle cloud and projecting intersecting beams from a plurality of sources onto the particle cloud.
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80. A method for creating a free-space display comprising condensing moisture from air and ejecting the moisture into the air to generate a particle cloud and projecting intersecting beams from a plurality of sources onto the particle cloud, while tracking the position of physical intrusion adjacent to or within the particle cloud for controlling the projection within a graphic user environment.
Specification