Eyewear with time shared viewing supporting delivery of differing content to multiple viewers

• US 9,979,954 B2
• Filed: 12/30/2010
• Issued: 05/22/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Avago Technologies General IP PTE Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bennett, James D., Seshadri, Nambirajan, Karaoguz, Jeyhan, Jagmag, Adil
• Primary Examiner(s): MCINNISH, KEVIN K
• Application Number:
  US12/982,273
• Publication Number:
  US 20110169930A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,700 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/00 Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 35/24 using apertured or refractive resolving means on screens or between screen and eye
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2300/023 Display panel composed of stacked panels
• 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 2370/04 Exchange of auxiliary data, i.e. other than image data, between monitor and graphics controller
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/003 to produce spatial visual effects
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/20 for presentation of an assembly of a number of characters, e.g. a page, by composing the assembly by combination of individual elements arranged in a matrix no fixed position being assigned to or needed to be assigned to the individual characters or partial characters
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/003 Details of a display terminal, the details relating to the control arrangement of the display terminal and to the interfaces thereto specific for a CRT G09G1/165; for a flat panel G09G3/2092
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/00 Stereoscopic video systems; Multi-view video systems; Details thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/139 Format conversion, e.g. of frame-rate or size
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/161 Encoding, multiplexing or demultiplexing different image signal components for multi-view video sequence encoding H04N19/597
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/189 Recording image signals; Reproducing recorded image signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/194 Transmission of image signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/305 using lenticular lenses, e.g. arrangements of cylindrical lenses
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/31 using parallax barriers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/312 the parallax barriers being placed behind the display panel, e.g. between backlight and spatial light modulator [SLM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/315 the parallax barriers being time-variant
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/332 : Displays for viewing with the aid of special glasses or head-mounted displays [HMD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/351 : for displaying simultaneously
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/359 : Switching between monoscopic and stereoscopic modes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/361 : Reproducing mixed stereoscopic images; Reproducing mixed monoscopic and stereoscopic images, e.g. a stereoscopic image overlay window on a monoscopic image background
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/366 : using viewer tracking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/383 : for tracking with gaze detection, i.e. detecting the lines of sight of the viewer's eyes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/398 : Synchronisation thereof; Control thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2013/403 : the images being monoscopic
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2013/405 : the images being stereoscopic or three dimensional
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 : Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4122 : additional display device, e.g. video projector digital output for controlling a plurality of local displays G06F3/1423
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 : Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/303 : Tracking of listener position or orientation

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided in which eyewear with time shared viewing is capable of supporting delivery of differing content to multiple viewers/users. The content that is delivered to each viewer includes a respective frame sequence that is displayed on a screen. The frame sequences are mixed when they are displayed on the screen. A lens assembly may be used by each viewer to view the frame sequence that is delivered to that viewer. For instance, a first lens assembly may pass a first frame sequence but not frame sequences other than the first frame sequence. A second lens assembly may pass a second frame sequence but not frame sequences other than the second frame sequence, and so on. The content that is delivered to a viewer may depend on a maturity of the viewer (e.g., whether the viewer'"'"'s maturity is less than a maturity threshold).

Claims

1. An eye-wear architecture used by a first viewer and a second viewer to selectively display first video content and second video content, the eye-wear architecture comprising:

a screen being viewed by the first viewer and the second viewer;

display circuitry directing display of a first frame sequence of the first video content in a first area of the screen, while directing display of a second frame sequence of the second video content in a second area of the screen, and the first area of the screen and the second area of the screen having an area of overlap and having areas that do not overlap;

the screen displaying a combined video frame sequence in the area of overlap, the combined video frame sequence being constructed by mixing at least part of the first frame sequence within the area of overlap with at least part of the second frame sequence within the area of overlap;

a first lens assembly sized for wear by the first viewer;

a second lens assembly sized for wear by the second viewer; and

the first lens assembly blocking the at least part of the first frame sequence within the area of overlap, while the second lens assembly blocks the at least part of the second frame sequence within the area of overlap.

2. The eye-wear architecture of claim 1, wherein the first lens assembly blocks the at least part of the first frame sequence within the area of overlap and passes the at least part of the second frame sequence within the area of overlap, while the second lens assembly blocks the at least part of the second frame sequence within the area of overlap and passes the at least part of the first frame sequence within the area of overlap.

3. The eye-wear architecture of claim 1, wherein the first frame sequence includes a first plurality of sequential video frames interleaved with a second plurality of sequential video frames to provide a plurality of respective frame pairs that are configured to be perceived as a plurality of respective three-dimensional images.

4. The eye-wear architecture of claim 3, wherein the second frame sequence includes a third plurality of sequential video frames that is configured to be perceived as a plurality of respective two-dimensional images.

5. The eye-wear architecture of claim 3, wherein the second frame sequence includes a third plurality of sequential video frames interleaved with a fourth plurality of sequential video frames to provide a second plurality of respective frame pairs that are configured to be perceived as a second plurality of respective three-dimensional images.

6. The eye-wear architecture of claim 5, wherein the first plurality of sequential video frames and the second plurality of sequential video frames correspond to a first viewpoint of a scene;

and

wherein the third plurality of sequential video frames and the fourth plurality of sequential video frames correspond to a second viewpoint of the scene that is different from the first viewpoint.

7. The eye-wear architecture of claim 5, wherein the first plurality of sequential video frames and the second plurality of sequential video frames correspond to first image content;

and

wherein the third plurality of sequential video frames and the fourth plurality of sequential video frames correspond to second image content that is unrelated to the first image content.

13. The eye-wear architecture of claim 1, wherein the second frame sequence is a partially fast forwarded, partially rewound, or paused version of the first frame sequence.

8. A method used to selectively pass first video content and second video content for perception by a user, the method comprising:

receiving, at at least one lens assembly, a video frame sequence from a specified area of a screen within which a first area of the screen and a second area of the screen overlap, the first area of the screen and the second area of the screen having portions that do not overlap, the video frame sequence including a mixture of at least part of a first frame sequence of the first video content and at least part of a second frame sequence of the second video content, the first frame sequence corresponding to the first area of the screen, the second frame sequence corresponding to the second area of the screen;

blocking, using the at least one lens assembly, the at least part of the first frame sequence that is received from the specified area from being perceived by the user, while passing the at least part of the second frame sequence that is received from the specified area to be perceived by the user; and

determining, using processing circuitry, that a maturity that is associated with the user is less than a maturity threshold;

wherein blocking the at least part of the first frame sequence while passing the at least part of the second frame sequence is performed in response to determining that the maturity that is associated with the user is less than the maturity threshold.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein receiving the video frame sequence comprises:

receiving, at the at least one lens assembly, frames of the video frame sequence at a predefined rate; and

wherein the method further comprises;

synchronizing the at least one lens assembly with the predefined rate to support blocking the at least part of the first frame sequence and passing the at least part of the second frame sequence.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving, at the at least one lens assembly, a synchronization signal from the display system;

wherein synchronizing with the predefined rate comprises;

synchronizing the at least one lens assembly with the predefined rate based on the synchronization signal.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the first video content is unrelated to the second video content.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

not passing, through at least one speaker assembly, first audio that corresponds to the at least part of the first frame sequence for perception by the user in response to determining that the maturity that is associated with the user is less than the maturity threshold; and

passing, through the at least one speaker assembly, second audio that corresponds to the at least part of the second frame sequence for perception by the user in response to determining that the maturity that is associated with the user is less than the maturity threshold;

wherein the second audio is a censored version of the first audio.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the second frame sequence is a censored version of the first frame sequence.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the second frame sequence includes overlays to obscure mature content and the first frame sequence does not include the overlays.