Television – Special applications – Manufacturing
Utility Patent
1996-12-10
2001-01-02
Lee, Michael (Department: 2714)
Television
Special applications
Manufacturing
C348S563000, C348S564000, C348S588000, C345S173000
Utility Patent
active
06169568
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device that is part of an entertainment system. More particularly, the display device is useful in circumstances where installation space is limited, for example, in an aircraft environment.
Currently, efforts are being made to put into practical use a video distribution system that will allow a user to view a video program whenever the user wishes, hereinafter called the “video-on-demand system”. Presently, video-on-demand systems are being developed to connect a delivery center for distributing video programs to a personal home, and development of these systems is being expedited because of their potential application in passenger aircraft where it would lead to great service improvements for the passengers.
When designing video-on-demand systems it is desirable to integrate input devices such as operation keys in the display device to effectively utilize the limited space that is available. For example, an approach is to create an image representing icons, and operation keys and display it on the display screen. The icons, and operation keys can be manipulated using a touch panel display. Using a first approach, the icons and operation keys can be overlayed on a video image, or using a second approach, the video image can be reduced, and the icons displayed in the empty space left after the video image is reduced in size.
When using this first approach, however, the icons can obscure the video image in some areas, so this approach is not suitable for displaying icons or operation keys which need to be constantly displayed. Additionally, the screen at the areas where the icons or operation keys are usually displayed becomes dirty from the fingers touching the screen, making the video image difficult to see even in the case when the display of the icons is temporary. In the second approach, since the video image is horizontally reduced and displayed in a display screen with aspect ratio of 4:3, the deterioration of the image quality is unavoidable due to distortion caused by such video image compression in the horizontal scanning direction.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is made to overcome the above problems and consists of a liquid crystal display device with a touch panel, and an entertainment system using the liquid crystal display device.
It is an object of the present invention to display a video image simultaneously with an icon image both of which have an aspect ratio of 4:3 side by side on a display screen with aspect ratio of 16:9.
It is another object of the present invention to prevent the video image from being difficult to see due to dirt and grease from the fingers operating the touch panel of the display screen.
According to an aspect of the present invention an entertainment system includes a transmitting unit and several receiving units connected to the transmitting unit through a communication line. The transmitting unit reads a video image from a storage section, the video image being obtained by compressing and encoding a video image provided with an aspect ratio of 4:3, and each of the receiving units includes a liquid crystal display device with a display screen having an aspect ratio of 16:9 and on which a touch panel is disposed. The liquid crystal display device includes an image output section for displaying the video image and several icon images, wherein the video image and the icon images have the same aspect ratio of 4:3 as that of a source image, and wherein the video image and the icon images are displayed on the display screen with an aspect ratio of 16:9 in a manner that the video image and the icon images are arranged side by side without overlapping.
The above and other objects, advantages and features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following description of the invention.
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Lee Michael
Lo Linus H.
Maioli Jay H.
Sony Corporation
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