Display Apparatus Screen Visibility Control for Cleaning Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing display apparatuses lack a mechanism to automatically determine the necessity of screen cleaning and encourage users to clean the screen at appropriate times, leading to potential neglect of dirty screens.
Innovation Solution
A display apparatus with a controller that implements a cleanup management mode, where the controller accumulates parameters such as elapsed time, number of operations, or number of persons approaching the screen since the last cleanup, and reduces the screen's display content visibility accordingly, encouraging user-initiated cleaning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the degree of completion of cleaning is determined using accumulated number of touched pixels, then the ease of cleaning improves, but the necessity for cleaning is not taken into account and cleaning timing is left to voluntary user action
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides visual feedback by displaying a dirty state indicator that changes based on the accumulated number of touched pixels. This feedback mechanism informs users about the cleaning necessity without requiring voluntary monitoring, thereby resolving the contradiction between ease of cleaning and reliability of cleaning timing.
Solution Approach 2:
The system automatically tracks and accumulates the number of touched pixels to determine cleaning necessity, eliminating the need for manual monitoring by users. This self-service approach ensures reliable cleaning timing while maintaining ease of operation.
2Reliability
If a hard key is provided to disable operations during cleaning, then the reliability of cleaning improves, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical hard key system with a software-based operation disabling mechanism. The controller automatically disables operations during cleaning based on detected cleaning actions, eliminating the need for additional physical components while maintaining cleaning reliability.
3Ease of operation
If the screen visibility is maintained at normal level, then the user experience is good, but the screen may be left unattended without being cleaned when there is no problem in visibility
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the visual appearance of the screen by displaying a dirty state indicator that reflects the accumulated usage. This visual change prompts users to clean the screen based on actual contamination levels rather than maintaining normal visibility regardless of cleaning status, thereby improving cleaning execution reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
A multi-function printer, which is an example of a display apparatus, includes a display section with a screen and a controller that changes display content of the screen. The multi-function printer includes the display section including an input section for input of a location on the screen as a contact location by a touch on the screen, and the controller that controls the display section. At least one of the factors indicating the degree of contamination of the screen since the previous screen cleanup is used as a parameter. In this case, the controller accumulates the value of at least one parameter since the previous screen cleanup and, in accordance with the accumulated value of the parameter, reducing the degree of visibility of display content displayed on the screen.