Mobile Device Tracking for Large Display Interactions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Large computer-driven displays, especially non-touch-sensitive ones, are expensive and lack personalized interaction capabilities, limiting their functionality and user engagement in collaborative environments.
Innovation Solution
Combining mobile devices with people tracking technology to enable interactions on non-touch-sensitive displays by simulating touch events based on user proximity and identity, allowing personalized content configuration and interaction, such as annotations and pointer controls, without the need for specialized hardware.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a non-touch-sensitive large display is used, then cost is reduced, but interaction capability is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces mobile computing devices as intermediaries between users and the large display. These devices capture user interactions (touches, gestures) and transmit them to the display system, which then maps them to appropriate locations on the large screen. This mediator approach enables interaction capability without requiring the display itself to be touch-sensitive, thus maintaining cost savings while gaining versatility.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the physical touch-sensitive surface mechanism with a vision-based tracking system. Instead of relying on mechanical or capacitive touch sensors embedded in the display, the system uses cameras and computer vision algorithms to detect and track user interactions with mobile devices in proximity to the display, substituting optical detection for direct mechanical contact sensing.
2Adaptability or versatility
If touch-sensitive display hardware is used, then interaction capability is improved, but cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a virtual copy of touch interaction capability through software and vision tracking rather than implementing physical touch-sensitive hardware. The system captures images of user interactions, processes them through computer vision algorithms, and generates corresponding interaction events, effectively copying the functionality of touch-sensitive displays using cheaper components.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the fundamental operating parameters of the display system from direct electrical sensing (touch-sensitive) to optical detection (vision-based). By altering the detection mechanism from electrical fields to optical fields, the system achieves similar interaction capabilities through different physical principles, enabling cost reduction while maintaining functionality.
3Adaptability or versatility
If user tracking is implemented, then personalized interaction is enabled, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the mobile computing devices serve multiple functions: they act as input devices for capturing user interactions, as tracking objects for vision-based location detection, and as identity carriers for user identification. By leveraging the inherent capabilities of existing mobile devices rather than adding separate specialized components, the system enables personalized interaction without proportionally increasing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system utilizes the mobile devices' own built-in sensors, cameras, and processing capabilities to contribute to the interaction system. The devices self-identify through their existing hardware identifiers, and their onboard sensors provide tracking data, reducing the need for additional external tracking infrastructure and simplifying the overall system architecture.
Data Source
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AI summary
The large display interaction implementations described herein combine mobile devices with people tracking to enable new interactions including making a non-touch-sensitive display touch-sensitive and allowing personalized interactions with the display. One implementation tracks one or more mobile computing device users relative to a large computer-driven display, and configures content displayed on the display based on a distance a given mobile computing device user is from the display. Another implementation personalizes user interactions with a large display. One or more mobile computing device users are tracked relative to a display. The identity of each of the one or more mobile computing device users is obtained. Content displayed on the display is configured based on a distance an identified mobile computing device user is from the display and the identity of the user that provides the content.