Video Buttons for Stage Lighting Console
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional touch screens lack tactile feedback, which is crucial for operators controlling stage lighting systems, as they cannot provide the necessary 'feel' for controlling multiple parameters and effects in a dynamic and intuitive manner.
Innovation Solution
Integration of solid-state video displays within buttons that can show information about their assigned functions, allowing for tactile feedback and dynamic assignment of controls, using a combination of video display elements, circuit boards, and CPU-driven graphics to display video, gobos, colors, and text, while maintaining a consistent spatial relationship to avoid parallax errors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If touch screens are used for control, then information display capability is improved, but tactile feedback is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines a video display element with a tactile button structure into a single integrated component. The display element is positioned behind a transparent window on the button, allowing both visual information display and tactile feedback to coexist in one control element. This merging resolves the contradiction by enabling operators to receive both visual cues and tactile response simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
A transparent window acts as an intermediary between the video display element and the external environment. This window allows light from the display to pass through while maintaining the physical integrity and tactile properties of the button. The intermediary enables the transmission of visual information without compromising the tactile feedback function.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple parameters are controlled by dynamically assigned buttons, then control versatility is improved, but button function identification becomes complex
Solution Approach 1:
The video display element provides preliminary visual information about the button's current function before the operator presses it. By displaying icons, text, or other visual cues in advance, the operator can identify the button's function without having to remember or infer from context. This preliminary action reduces the difficulty of detecting button functions in a dynamically assigned system.
Solution Approach 2:
The display element can use different colors, brightness levels, or visual patterns to indicate different button states or functions. This visual differentiation helps operators quickly identify button purposes without increasing physical button complexity, supporting versatile dynamic assignment while maintaining ease of identification.
Data Source
AI summary
Video buttons controlling stage lights. Each of the buttons includes a video part, which displays either video or an image that previews the function that is carried out by the button when it is pressed. The buttons can be full-color buttons that show full color videos. An array of buttons can be grouped together, so that the array can operate in different modes, one of which in which the array shows an overall display, and another of which in which the array shows a single function per button. Different technologies including analog switches, touch screens, and the like can be used.