U.S. patent application number 09/315111 was filed with the patent office on 2001-08-09 for system permitting the display of video or still image content on selected displays of an electronic display network according to customer dictates.
Invention is credited to HUNTER, CHARLES ERIC.
Application Number | 20010013015 09/315111 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 26972166 |
Filed Date | 2001-08-09 |
United States Patent
Application |
20010013015 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
HUNTER, CHARLES ERIC |
August 9, 2001 |
SYSTEM PERMITTING THE DISPLAY OF VIDEO OR STILL IMAGE CONTENT ON
SELECTED DISPLAYS OF AN ELECTRONIC DISPLAY NETWORK ACCORDING TO
CUSTOMER DICTATES
Abstract
Commercial advertisers, such as consumer product companies and
the advertising agents that represent them, directly access a
network of thousands of large, high resolution electronic displays
located in high traffic areas and directly send their own
advertisements electronically to the network to be displayed at
locations and times selected by the advertisers. In another
application, operators of digital movie theaters have ongoing,
continuous access to tens of thousands of movies that can be
ordered in digital form for display on selected screens at their
theaters at selected times.
Inventors: |
HUNTER, CHARLES ERIC;
(HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SC) |
Correspondence
Address: |
RICHARD S FAUST
8384 SIX FORKS RD
SUITE 204
RALEIGH
NC
27615
|
Family ID: |
26972166 |
Appl. No.: |
09/315111 |
Filed: |
May 18, 1999 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
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09315111 |
May 18, 1999 |
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09301102 |
Apr 28, 1999 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
705/27.1 ;
348/E7.063; 348/E7.071 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 30/0227 20130101;
H04N 7/17318 20130101; H04N 21/26258 20130101; G06Q 30/02 20130101;
G06Q 30/0641 20130101; H04N 21/41415 20130101; H04N 21/2543
20130101; H04N 21/812 20130101; H04N 21/47202 20130101; G06Q
30/0643 20130101; H04N 21/8153 20130101; H04N 7/165 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/27 |
International
Class: |
G06F 017/60 |
Claims
That which is claimed:
1. A system permitting video or still image content to be displayed
on selected ones of multiple electronic displays at selected times
according to the dictates of system customers, said system
comprising: a network connecting to a plurality of electronic
displays; at least one central information processing station
including: a customer interface permitting system customers to
access the system; means permitting system customers to review
options concerning their orders; means permitting a system customer
to place an order for a particular video or still image content to
be displayed on a particular electronic display of the network;
means for transmitting customer-ordered video or still image
content to the customer-selected electronic display location; and
means for driving each electronic display to display
customer-ordered video or still image content.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein the electronic displays are
located in outdoor or indoor high traffic areas primarily for
advertising purposes, the video or still image content comprises
advertising content and the central information processing station
includes means for receiving customer-transmitted video or still
image advertising content.
3. The system of claim 1 wherein the electronic displays are
electronic movie display devices located in movie theaters, the
video or still image content comprises movies in digital form and
the system customers comprise movie theater operators.
4. A system for the distribution of movies owned by content
providers and for display of the movies in digital movie theaters
according to the dictates of movie theater operators who are the
customers of the system, said system comprising: a network
connecting to a plurality of electronic movie display devices
located in movie theaters; at least one central information
processing station including: a customer interface permitting
system customers to access the system; means permitting a system
customer to review movies that are available in digital form to the
customer; means permitting a system customer to schedule and
purchase a movie for display on a particular electronic movie
display device located at the customer's movie theater; and means
for transmitting a customer-ordered movie in digital form to the
customer's movie theater location.
5. The system of claim 4 wherein the electronic movie display
devices are selected from the group consisting of LED displays, LCD
shutter-type screens, digital light processing systems and
reflective LCD displays.
6. The system of claim 4 including means for generating bills to
customers.
7. The system of claim 4 including means for generating royalty
payment information for use in paying the content providers for use
of their content.
8. The system of claim 4 wherein the system includes at least one
receiver and at least one server for each customer's movie theater
location.
9. The system of claim 4 wherein said means for transmitting a
customer-ordered movie in digital form to the customer's movie
theater includes a satellite downlink at each customer's movie
theater location.
10. The system of claim 9 wherein the movies are transmitted in
encoded digital form and the satellite downlink includes a decoder
protecting against piracy.
11. The system of claim 10 wherein the movies are transmitted in
non-real time.
12. The system of claim 4 wherein said central information
processing station includes a customer interface web server
permitting Internet access to the system.
13. A method for distribution of movies owned by content providers
and for display of the movies in digital movie theaters according
to the dictates of movie theater operators who are the customers,
said method comprising the steps of: permitting customers to review
movies that are available in digital form to the customers;
permitting a customer to schedule and purchase a movie for display
on a particular electronic movie display device located at the
customer's movie theater; and transmitting a customer-ordered movie
in digital form to the customer's movie theater location.
Description
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application is a continuation in part of Ser. No.
09/301,102, filed Apr. 28, 1999.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The invention relates to the display of video or still image
content on electronic displays. More particularly, the invention
relates to a network of thousands of electronic displays, such as
electronic billboards or electronic digital movie displays, and a
related system that permits display of content on selected displays
according to customer dictates.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] Background, Advertising/Billboards
[0004] Consumer product advertising takes many forms, such as
television commercials, newspaper and magazine advertisements,
mailings, point-of-sale displays, outdoor billboards, etc. Using
current advertising media, advertisers engage in a constant
struggle to efficiently use their budgets to most effectively reach
their geographic and demographic targets.
[0005] Focusing on the outdoor advertising component of advertising
by consumer product companies, it is well known that outdoor
billboards have traditionally taken the form of single-message
displays formed of printed sheets or painted surfaces containing
the advertising content adhered to a flat backing. This
time-honored outdoor advertising technique has remained essentially
unchanged throughout the twentieth century. The high cost of
printing, transporting and mounting a message on a conventional
billboard has dictated that the same message remain in place for a
considerable period of time. Thus, a conventional billboard cannot
be readily changed to reflect current events within the geographic
area of the billboard. Additionally, the content on a conventional
billboard tends to become essentially "invisible" as a part of the
landscape after its content has been in place for a relatively
short period of time, especially to commuters and others who
regularly pass the billboard. Beyond the above problems with cost,
single-message content, lack of content changeover capability, and
the like, conventional outdoor billboards have come under
increasing criticism because in their large numbers, and often
tattered condition, they clutter highways with a distasteful form
of visual "pollution". A reduction in the number of billboards and
improvement of the appearance of those that remain, if accomplished
while increasing the overall advertising impact afforded by outdoor
advertising, would please virtually everyone.
[0006] The use of electronic billboards has been suggested, for
example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,612,741. However, there is no
electronic billboard network in operation whereby commercial
advertisers may directly place ads onto selected billboards at
selected times through direct access to a master network. Such a
network, properly designed and operated, promises to overcome the
numerous disadvantages currently associated with the outdoor
advertising industry, while also meeting the above needs of
consumer products advertisers.
[0007] Background, Distribution and Display of Movies at Movie
Theaters
[0008] For virtually the entire twentieth century the practice of
distributing movies on film reels to movie theaters has gone
fundamentally unchanged. As is well known, movie content is stored
on large reels of film, one or more copies of which must be
physically transported to each movie theater where the movie will
be shown. The films are bulky, heavy, and expensive to reproduce
and ship to movie theaters. Films also show wear and eventually
must be removed from use. Obviously, a movie theater's ability to
show a particular movie is subject to the film reels being
physically present at the proper time. Thus, substantial lead time
must be provided anytime a movie theater operator is preparing the
schedule for his screen(s).
[0009] In addition to the above problems inherent in the current
movie distribution scheme, the high cost of conventional film reel
movie distribution results in most movies not going to full
distribution. In this regard, the full distribution of a movie (the
cost of film reels, transportation, etc.) can run up to four to
five million dollars or more. As a related problem, the cost of
making film reels of older movies, particularly non-"blockbuster"
movies, available on an ongoing basis is prohibitive. Thus, theater
owners and movie goers are deprived of movie theater screening for
the vast majority of available movie content because the movies are
not in current distribution. Importantly, as well, content
providers (e.g., Disney, Warner Brothers, etc.) are deprived of the
revenue from the movies for which ongoing, continuous distribution
is simply too expensive.
[0010] There is an acute need for a new movie distribution system
for the twenty first century that will overcome the above
shortcomings of current movie distribution practices.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0011] The present invention, in one broad respect, is a system
that permits video (e.g., movies) or still image content to be
displayed on selected ones of multiple, networked electronic
displays at selected times according to dictates of the customers
of the system.
[0012] According to one implementation of the invention, commercial
advertisers, such as consumer product companies and the advertising
agents that represent them, directly access a network of multiple,
large, high resolution electronic displays located in high traffic
areas and directly send their own advertisements electronically to
the network to be displayed at locations and times selected by the
advertisers. In preferred embodiments, this implementation of the
invention includes a central information processing center that
permits customers to review a schedule of times and electronic
display locations that are available for placement of
advertisements, and also permits customers to purchase available
times at selected electronic display locations for placement of
their advertising content. The customer then transmits his video or
still image advertising content to the processing center where the
content is reviewed for appropriateness and then transmitted to the
customer-selected electronic display(s). The electronic displays
preferably are large (e.g., 23.times.331/2 ft.) flat LED displays
that are driven by their own video or image servers. Verification
that the advertisements run as ordered is facilitated by an
information storage module or, more preferably, by a digital camera
or series of digital cameras. A traffic counter may be used to
determine the traffic that passed by the display while the
advertisement was running. Bills and reports containing market and
demographic analysis are generated and sent to the customer.
[0013] In another implementation of the invention, the operators of
digital movie theaters have ongoing, continuous access to tens of
thousands of movies that can be ordered in digital form for display
on selected "screens" at their theaters at selected times. The
movie theater operator is a customer of a system that permits the
customer to review movies that are available in digital form and
thereafter schedule and purchase a movie for display on the digital
movie screens located at the customer's movie theater. The movies
may be transmitted by the system to the movie theater operators by
a number of transmission modes, most preferably a satellite
uplink/downlink system that transmits the movies in non-real time
(allowing faster transmission speeds) in encoded digital format,
with a decoder at the movie theater to protect against piracy. The
system may include means for generating bills to the customers and
forwarding the bills for debit payment. The system may also include
means for generating royalty payment information for use in paying
the content providers for the display of their movies.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0014] Some of the features of the invention having been stated,
other features will appear as the description proceeds, when taken
in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which
[0015] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the principal components
of a system constructed in accordance with the present invention
for advertising purposes.
[0016] FIG. 2 is a view of one of the electronic displays of the
network of FIG. 1.
[0017] FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the principal components
of a system constructed in accordance with the present invention
for the purpose of distributing digital movies to movie
theaters.
[0018] FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a system that is used for
both advertising purposes and for the distribution of digital
movies to movie theaters.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0019] While the present invention will be described more fully
hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which
aspects of the preferred manner of practicing the present invention
are shown, it is to be understood at the outset of the description
which follows that persons of skill in the appropriate arts may
modify the invention herein described while still achieving the
favorable results of this invention. Accordingly, the description
which follows is to be understood as being a broad, teaching
disclosure directed to persons of skill in the appropriate arts,
and not as limiting upon the present invention.
[0020] The Invention Applied to the Display of Commercial
Advertising and Other Content
[0021] Referring to the drawings, and particularly to FIG. 1, there
is shown a block diagram of a system 20 for direct placement of
commercial advertisements, public service announcements and other
content on electronic displays. System 20 includes a network
comprising a plurality of electronic displays 30 that are located
in high traffic areas in various geographic locations. The displays
may be located in areas of high vehicular traffic, and also at
indoor and outdoor locations of high pedestrian traffic, as well as
in movie theaters, restaurants, sports arenas, casinos or other
suitable locations. Thousands of displays, up to 10,000 or more
displays worldwide, may be networked according to the present
invention. In preferred embodiments, each display is a large (for
example, 23 feet by 331/2 feet), high resolution, full color
display that provides brilliant light emission from a flat panel
screen.
[0022] A customer of system 20, for example an in-house or agency
representative of a consumer products company, may access a central
information processing station of the system via the Internet
through a Customer Interface Web Server 40. The customer interface
web server has a commerce engine and permits the customer to obtain
and enter security code and billing code information into a Network
Security Router/Access module 50. Alternatively, high usage
customers of the system may utilize a customer interface comprising
a high speed dedicated connection to module 50. Following access,
the customer reviews options concerning his order by reviewing
available advertising time/locations through a Review Schedule and
Purchase Time module 60 that permits the customer to see what time
is available on any display throughout the world and thereafter
schedule and purchase the desired advertising time slot. Next, the
customer transmits the advertising content on-line through the
Internet, a direct phone line or a high speed connection (for
example, ISDN, or other suitable high speed information transfer
line) for receipt by the system's Video & Still Image Review
and Input module 70. In parallel, the system operator may provide
public service announcements and other content to module 70. All
content, whether still image or video, is formatted in NTSC, PAL,
SECAM, YUV, YC, VGA or other suitable formats. In a preferred
embodiment, the format is VGA, while all other formats, including
but not limited to NTSC, PAL and SECAM, can be run through the
video converter 110.
[0023] The video & still image review and input module 70
permits a system security employee to conduct a content review to
assure that all content meets the security and appropriateness
standards established by the system, prior to the content being
read to the server 100 associated with each display 30 where the
content being transmitted to the server 100 will be displayed.
Preferably, the servers are located at their respective displays
and each has a backup. An example of a suitable server is the IBM
RISC 6000 server.
[0024] The means for transmitting content information to the
display locations may take a number of forms, with it being
understood that any form, or combination thereof, may be utilized
at various locations within the network. As shown in FIG. 1, the
means include:
[0025] a. High speed cable
[0026] b. Satellite
[0027] c. Dedicated phone
[0028] d. High speed line (e.g., ISDN, ADSL)
[0029] e. Cellular, PCS or other data transmission at available
frequencies
[0030] f. Internet
[0031] g. Radio/radio pulse transmission
[0032] h. High speed optical fiber
[0033] i. Physical delivery of digitally stored information
medium.
[0034] A video converter/scaler function and a video controller
function provided by module 110 may be utilized in connection with
those servers 100 and associated displays 30 that require them,
according to data transmission and required reformatting practices
well known in the art.
[0035] Verification that advertisements do, in fact, run at the
intended time at the intended displays may be provided by an
information storage module (not shown) linked to each display.
Another form of verification may be achieved by a Digital Camera
and Traffic Count Recorder 120 that continuously records the
content appearing at its respective display 30 and digitally
transmits video verification information to a Verification Archives
module 150. Recorder 120 also provides traffic count information
(for example, 225 vehicles passed the display while an
advertisement ran) to verification archives module 150.
[0036] Information from verification archives module 150 is
utilized by a demographic analysis module 160 and a market analysis
module 170 to generate information for reports to be sent to
customers after their advertisements run. To this end, analysis
data from modules 160 and 170 is transmitted to a Billing and
Report Generation module 190 where reports are assembled showing,
for example, the time of the advertisement, the content of the
advertisement, the traffic count and residence/median income
information about those who saw the advertisement. A
representative, simplified report for an advertisement running on a
single display is as follows:
1 Customer: ABC Cola Co. Ad Content: Ocean Scene with graphics
(content code 1111) Location: Atlanta, Georgia, Interstate 75N,
milepost 125 (site code XXXX) Time: 7:30 AM, June 30, 2000 Vehicle
Count: 225 Viewer Count: 340 Viewer Demographics: .cndot. 50%
Resident Cobb County, GA Median household income: $60,000/yr.
.cndot. 30% Resident DeKalb County, GA Median household income:
$52,000/yr. .cndot. 20% Median household income $55,000/yr.
Advertising Cost: $X
[0037] For an advertisement that may have run at multiple displays,
for example 100 displays, a representative report may appear as
follows:
2 Customer: ABC Cola Co. Ad Content: Mountain Scene with graphics
(content code 2222) Locations: 100 sites (site codes YYY . . . ZZZ)
Time: 8:30 AM, July 10, 2000 Total Vehicle Count: 21,500 Total
Viewer Count: 37,200 Viewer Demographics: Median household income,
$49,500 Advertising Cost: $Y
[0038] Module 190 also produces bills that may be transmitted by
phone lines for a debit payment such as a direct bank draft, or
other suitable payment mode.
[0039] Referring to FIG. 2, there is shown a pictorial view of one
preferred form for the electronic displays 30. In this embodiment,
display 30 takes the form of a 23 feet by 331/2 feet seamless flat
screen display including multiple flat panel display modules. The
panels utilize advanced semiconductor technology to provide high
resolution, full color images utilizing light emitting diodes
(LED's) with very high optical power (1.5-10 milliwatts or greater)
that are aligned in an integrated array with each pixel having a
red, green and blue LED. It will be appreciated that multiple LED's
of a given color may be used at pixels to produce the desired light
output; for example, three 1.5 milliwatt blue LED's may be used to
produce a 4.5 milliwatt blue light output. Each red, green and blue
emitter is accessed with 24 bit resolution, providing 16.7 million
colors for every pixel. An overall display of 23 feet by 331/2
feet, so constructed, has a high spatial resolution defined by
approximately 172,000 pixels at an optical power that is easily
viewable in bright sunlight. Suitable display modules for displays
30 are manufactured by Lighthouse Technologies of Hong Kong, China,
under Model No. LV50 that utilize, for blue and green, InGaN LED's
fabricated on single crystalline Al.sub.2O.sub.3 (sapphire)
substrates with a suitable buffer layer such as AlN and, for red,
superbright AlInGaP LED's fabricated on a suitable substrate such
as GaP. These panels have a useful life in excess of 50,000 hours,
for example, an expected life under the usage contemplated for
network 20 of 150,000 hours and more. In preferred embodiments, the
panels are cooled from the back of the displays, preferably via a
refrigerant-based air conditioning system (not shown) such as a
forced air system or a thermal convection or conduction system. Non
refrigerant-based options may be used in locations where they
produce satisfactory cooling. The displays preferably have a very
wide viewing angle, for example, 160.degree..
[0040] While the Lighthouse Technologies displays utilize the InGaN
on sapphire and AlInGaP on GaP LED's described above (and in
certain cases InGaN on SiC), other materials may be used for the
LED's as follows:
[0041] 1. (Blue/green) InGaN on SiC, preferably with a suitable
buffer layer such as AlN
[0042] 2. (Blue/green) InGaN on GaN
[0043] 3. (Blue/green) InGaN on AlN, preferably with a suitable
buffer layer such as AlN.
[0044] 4. (Blue/green) AlN or AlN-containing compound on AlN,
sapphire or SiC.
[0045] It will be appreciated that the InGaN on sapphire and the
other solid state LED's described above have substrates with high
optical transmissivity and produce very high optical power. This is
important for a number of reasons, including giving the electronic
display designers the ability to create very wide viewing angles up
to approximately 160.degree., and the resultant increase in
visibility of the displays to viewers in oncoming traffic.
[0046] In addition to the particular solid state LED's mentioned
above, the discrete sources of blue, green and red light at each
pixel may take other forms such as composite devices including an
ultraviolet LED that is utilized to excite a phosphor that, in
turn, produces light of a selected spectrum. The ultraviolet LED
may be formed from a GaN or GaN-containing compound on sapphire
with or without suitable buffer layer, or a GaN or GaN-containing
compound on SiC, preferably with a suitable buffer layer, or an AlN
or AlN-containing compound on AlN, sapphire, SiC or GaN, with or
without a suitable buffer layer. In one embodiment, ultraviolet
LED's are incorporated into three different composite devices, each
with a different phosphor for producing blue, green and red,
respectively. In another embodiment, a phosphor is selected to
produce white light and a desired color is produced by passing the
white light through a band pass filter. According to this
white-light embodiment, filters of blue, green and red may be used
to create discrete composite devices that produce blue, green and
red light at each pixel. The use of white light with appropriate
band pass filters has the advantage of producing a colored light
with an excellent wave length distribution that will not change
appreciably over time, a desirable property for color balancing. On
the other hand, the use of three different phosphors to directly
produce blue, green and red without a filter has the advantage of
higher efficiency because light is not filtered out. Both
approaches have the advantage of excellent persistence which, as
known in the art, is a desirable feature that is especially
important in video applications, particularly digital movie theater
applications that are discussed in detail below.
[0047] It will be appreciated that energy sources other than
ultraviolet LED's may be used to excite the phosphors of the
composite devices discussed immediately above.
[0048] In the case of low ambient light applications, such as
digital movie theaters, lower power LED's may be used. Furthermore,
higher power LED's may be used to provide a light source for an LCD
shutter-type screen as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,062,
incorporated herein by reference.
[0049] The provision of one or more high resolution, highly aligned
digital cameras at each display site, for example the camera or
cameras utilized in digital camera and traffic counter 120, or
other specifically dedicated cameras, provides a means permitting
in situ diagnostics and calibration of the displays. As known in
the art, certain digital cameras have a resolution of over
7,000,000 pixels--as compared to approximately 172,000 pixels on
the above-described 23.times.331/2 ft. display. Thus, by directing
a digital camera at a display, or directing multiple digital
cameras at different discrete portions of a display, a
correspondence may be attained where a portion of each digital
camera's image corresponds to a single pixel in the display.
Suitable means for aligning the digital camera with the display is
used, for example, optical means such as laser alignment marks. At
selected times set aside for diagnostics and calibration, such as a
five minute period each night, the entire display may be run red,
then green, then blue, followed by white, all at multiple power
levels. In order to reduce interference, the LED's may be switched
on individually for a short period, for example one millisecond
each. In the most basic diagnostic operation carried out when the
display is run red/green/blue, the camera(s), mounted at a selected
distance from the display such as sixty feet away, are capable of
detecting nonfunctioning or excessively degraded LED's for
replacement.
[0050] Beyond replacing defective LED's, each night the system may
automatically re-calibrate all LED's in the display. To this end,
the display is run red/green/blue at several iterative power levels
(e.g., 20%/40%/60%/80%/100%) and the optical power output of each
LED is sensed for each power level, with the goal being to
calibrate the system so that each red, green or blue LED has the
same optical power output at each power level as do the other LED's
of the same color. Calibration preferably is achieved by diode
recalibration scaler software (e.g., look up table) that may be
associated with a scaler (not shown) that acts independently in
conjunction with the video converter/scaler at 110 (FIG. 1). The
diode recalibration scaler receives information from the diagnostic
equipment indicating the optical power output of each LED at the
various power levels and, through an associated automatic
calibration LED look-up table, accounts for daily variance in LED
output (degradation or increase) by adjusting the power curve by
which the LED will be driven the next day. This periodic (e.g.
daily) in situ recalibration has the benefit of greatly reducing on
site maintenance since LED's that have degraded can be run harder
to compensate for the degradation, eliminating the need for
frequent replacement.
[0051] As an alternative to using digital cameras for the
diagnostic and calibration function, in other embodiments miniature
photodector chips, with or without band pass filters, may be
located in close proximity to each LED in the display for measuring
LED light output during diagnostic/calibration operations.
[0052] As another alternative, a programmable chip may be located
at each pixel so that each individual chip may be reprogrammed as
necessary during each calibration sequence to raise or lower the
effective light output of the LED's contained in the pixel.
[0053] As an alternative to performing daily in situ calibration by
looking at every pixel in sequence and adjusting the scaling value
for each pixel, a statistical modeling approach may be utilized.
According to this approach, selected LED's or groups of LED's may
be run in iterative power cycles in order to optimize the overall
screen color through statistical analysis to provide a new scaling
value for each LED or group of LED'S.
[0054] When the diagnostic operation operates with an all white
display, the three LED's at each pixel may be evaluated
individually and collectively to assure that the pixel is
contributing the proper spectrum and amount of white light. Through
a diagnostic/calibration software package that interrelates output
and peak wave length response for each red/green/blue LED at a
pixel to the desired white light response, an iterative calibration
may be undertaken at each pixel to adjust the values contained in
the diode recalibration scaler software or to reprogram
programmable logic chips that determine the drive current for each
LED located in a specific pixel.
[0055] It will be appreciated that split screen images may be
displayed at the displays 30. In the simplest application, a still
image advertisement may be one half corporate logo and one half
scenery. Beyond this simple application, split screen capability
may be used to present a portion of the image as a corporate logo,
or the like, and the remainder either real time (or near real time)
video or still frame. For example, a previously qualified customer
with acceptable internal content review procedures may have direct
access to a display or displays for the purpose of displaying a
real time (or near real time) sports event, news event, or the
like, in conjunction with the customer's corporate logo. This
display may be achieved by utilizing high speed servers 100 or by
bypassing the servers altogether. High speed still image or video
transfer may be facilitated by compression techniques such as JPEG
and MPEG II, known in the art.
[0056] While advertising scheduling and purchasing may take place
as described above where customers directly purchase time from
available slots according to a fixed fee schedule, it will be
appreciated that alternative modes may be used. For example, an
auction system such as introduced by eBay Corporation may be used
where all previously purchased slots and all unsold slots are
auctioned through a bid process (a "total" auction). Additionally,
a limited auction may be utilized where time may be purchased and
booked for a set price, but all time not purchased at the set price
becomes available through auction at a fixed time before the run
time, for example, one month before run time. As another
alternative for a portion of the available time slots, a high usage
customer may establish a monthly advertising budget with the system
operator that authorizes the operator to select the time slots for
display of the customer's advertisements at "best available rate"
pricing, taking advantage of last minute availability of time slots
and other time slot placement techniques that enable the operator
to more completely utilize the network. This or similar time slot
placement practices when used for a portion of the available time
slots may be implemented by a software package that takes into
account the needs of both the customer and the system operator.
[0057] It will be appreciated that advertising content information
may be transmitted to the electronic display locations by
physically delivering a suitable information storage device such as
CD ROM, zip drive, DVD ROM or DVD RAM. This approach may be
utilized to transmit information to displays at any desired
location, for example, to remote locations, to movie theaters,
etc.
[0058] The Invention Applied to Distribution of Movies in Digital
Form to Movie Theaters
[0059] Referring to FIG. 3, there is shown a block diagram of a
system 220 for distribution of movies in digital form to movie
theaters. System 220 includes a network connecting a plurality of
electronic movie display devices 230 located in movie theaters of
customers of system 220. The movie theaters may be "single screen"
theaters having only one display device 230, such as small art
houses. The theaters may also be smaller theaters with only two or
three screens up to large mega-theaters having twenty or more
display devices 230. The electronic movie display devices 230 may
take several forms, each of which is fully capable of displaying
movies to an audience of 50-100 or more movie goers. The various
types of display devices 230 will be described in detail below.
[0060] A customer of system 220, a responsible party representing
the movie theater and referred to herein as a movie theater
operator, may access a central information processing station of
the system via the Internet through a Customer Interface Web Server
240. The customer interface web server has a commerce engine and
permits the customer to obtain and enter security code and billing
code information into a Network Security Router/Access module 50.
Alternatively, high usage customers of the system may utilize a
customer interface comprising a high speed dedicated connection to
module 50. Following access, the customer reviews options
concerning his order by reviewing the available movies through a
Review Available Movies and Purchase module 260 that permits the
customer to see what movies are available, and thereafter schedule
and purchase a movie for display utilizing one or more of the
customer's electronic movie display devices 230.
[0061] Following scheduling and purchasing, the customer-ordered
movie is transmitted to a server 300 associated with the customer s
movie theater. Preferably, the servers are located at their
respective displays 230 and each has a backup. An example of a
suitable server is the IBM RISC 6000 server.
[0062] The means for transmitting digital movie content to the
movie theaters may take a number of forms, with it being understood
that any form, or combination thereof, may be used at various
locations within the network. In one preferred embodiment of the
invention as used in association with the distribution of digital
movies, a satellite uplink/downlink system is used to transmit high
speed, compressed, non-real time data on a plurality of channels.
Each movie theater is in communication via a satellite downlink and
has a decoder and a computer-based data storage device. As an
example, a satellite may dedicate 100 channels to the continuous
transmission of movies in non-real time, for example 3.times.real
time transmission it rates, so that approximately 4000 movies per
day can be transmitted and are available for movie theater
reception. The server (storage device) at each movie theater is
programmed at the time the theater owner places an order for a
movie to receive and store the particular movie when it is
transmitted so that it can be available for screening at the
theater at the desired time.
[0063] In addition to the above described satellite transmission
system, other transmission systems (for example, certain ones of
the systems discussed in connection with FIG. 1) may be used either
with real time or non-real time transmission. Thus, using a
proprietary network of the present invention, a movie theater
operator can schedule over the Internet which movies he wants to
receive to his server(s). Movies will be encoded so that they will
play only on a proprietary operating system. The operating system
preferably has a modem that may be queried by the system's billing
system on a periodic basis to bill the account. By continuously
providing significant content through the satellite transmission
system, movie producers, or other content owners, always have all
of their content available for sale. Because the system will be
providing its own receiver, server and proprietary software system
that will support the digital projection units, the encoded content
transmitted to each theater is protected from privacy.
[0064] In addition to the transmission techniques described above,
it will be appreciated that the system may operate utilizing a
"platter" of CD ROM, DVD RAM, DVD ROM, tapes or the like on site at
each server associated with each digital movie display device
230.
[0065] As stated above, any suitable type of digital movie display
device may be utilized in the movie theaters that are customers of
system 220. Examples are as follows:
[0066] 1. A large, seamless, flat screen LED display having
relatively low power LED's suitable for the low ambient light
conditions of a movie theater.
[0067] 2. A high resolution, full color display utilizing high
power LED's providing a light source for an LCD shutter-type screen
as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,062, incorporated herein by
reference.
[0068] 3. A projection system based on the digital light processing
(DLP) technology developed by Texas Instruments. Complete
electronic movie display systems utilizing the Texas Instruments
DLP technology are sold by various manufacturers, including Runco,
for example, Runco product VX7.
[0069] 4. Reflective LCD technology developed by Hughes/JVC and
Reflective Technologies can provide a completely digital, flat
panel, full color movie screen.
[0070] FIG. 4 illustrates another system 420 including a network
connecting both electronic displays 30 intended for advertising in
high traffic areas and electronic movie display devices 230
intended for use as movie "screens" in digital movie theaters.
According to this embodiment of the invention, input module 470
transmits advertising content to displays 30 in the manner
described above in connection with the embodiment of FIG. 1, while
also serving to transmit movies in digital form to movie theaters
having a server 100M and electronic movie display devices 30M.
[0071] While the present invention has been described with
reference to specific embodiments, it will be appreciated that
modifications may be made without departing from the true spirit
and scope of the invention.
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