System permitting the display of video or still image content on selected displays of an electronic display network according to customer dictates6424998Abstract 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. Claims What is claimed is: Description FIELD OF THE INVENTION
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:
50% Resident Cobb
County, GA
Median household
income: $60,000/yr.
30% Resident DeKalb
County, GA
Median household
income: $52,000/yr.
20% Median household
income $55,000/yr.
Advertising Cost: $X
For an advertisement that may have run at multiple displays, for example 100 displays, a representative report may appear as follows:
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
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. 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.2 O.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. C. 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: 1. (Blue/green) InGaN on SiC, preferably with a suitable buffer layer such as AlN 2. (Blue/green) InGaN on GaN 3. (Blue/green) InGaN on AlN, preferably with a suitable buffer layer such as AlN. 4. (Blue/green) AlN or AlN-containing compound on AlN, sapphire or SiC. 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. C., and the resultant increase in visibility of the displays to viewers in oncoming traffic. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. As an alternative to using digital cameras for the diagnostic and calibration function, in other embodiments miniature photodetector 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. The Invention Applied to Distribution of Movies in Digital Form to Movie Theaters 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. 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. 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. 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 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. 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. 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. 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: 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. 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. 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. 4. Reflective LCD technology developed by Hughes/JVC and Reflective Technologies can provide a completely digital, flat panel, full color movie screen. 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. 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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