Data processing: generic control systems or specific application – Generic control system – apparatus or process – Sequential or selective
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-07
2003-05-13
Gordon, Paul P. (Department: 2121)
Data processing: generic control systems or specific application
Generic control system, apparatus or process
Sequential or selective
C700S083000, C700S019000, C382S254000, C382S274000, C463S031000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06564108
ABSTRACT:
PARTIAL WAIVER OF COPYRIGHT
All of the material in this patent application is subject to copyright protection under the copyright laws of the United States and of other countries. As of the first effective filing date of the present application, this material is protected as unpublished material.
However, permission to copy this material is hereby granted to the extent that the copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentation or patent disclosure, as it appears in the United States Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Not Applicable
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention generally relates to the field of effects lighting and more particularly to the field of illumination sources synchronized to produce visual effects during the presentation of a multimedia presentation.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Consumers continue to demand and expect more realistic experiences while viewing multimedia program such as television, movie theaters and computer games. The realism first started with the addition of better color technologies in the 1950's. More recently surround sound systems have beginning to proliferate in the movie theaters initially and more recently in the home market. Home theater advanced forward in the late 1980s when Dolby Laboratories introduced Dolby Surround-the home version of the Dolby Stereo that was first introduced in movie theaters back in 1977 with “Star Wars.” The system put two speakers up front and two in the rear in an attempt to recreate the sound of movie theaters. Dolby Surround was supplanted by Dolby Pro Logic, which added a front-center channel to improve the reproduction of dialogue, and steering logic to direct the sounds to the appropriate speakers. Like Dolby Surround, the rear surround channel signal is sent to two speakers. It is, however, a mono signal. Dolby Pro Logic is now found on virtually all midline A/V receivers.
Surround sound provides 3-D (3 dimensional) depth to systems. A perspective view of typical surround sound theater system
100
is shown FIG.
1
. The movie is typically projected on the screen
112
in a darken room. The audience faces the screen
112
in the theater seating
114
. A total of five speakers are shown, left front speaker
102
, right front speaker
104
, left rear speaker
106
, right rear speaker
108
, center speaker
118
and sub-woofer
110
. The screen typically has a wide aspect ration of 9 to 16 to improve the visual perception of the scene by the audience. The left front speaker
102
and the right front speaker
104
offer the traditional stereo sound. The left rear speaker
106
and the right rear speaker
108
provide stereophonic rear imaging. The sub-woofer offers frequencies (typically below 120 Hz) that provide the rumbles of an explosion or the deep bass in a musical piece. The sound is what puts us in the middle of the action. Take away the sound, and a movie stops being a total experience. It would be like watching “Jurassic Park” without the hearing the realism of gigantic dinosaur stomps toward you or feeling the power of an alien spacecraft hovering over the White House in “Independence Day.”
FIG.2
is the home theater
200
counterpart to the surround sound theater of FIG.
1
. It is noted that when a movie that was seen at the movie theater is seen at home, it is not as moving as the theater experience. This is in part because of the aspect ratio. In a theater the screen has a wide aspect ratio 9 to 16, or similar. This same movie when broadcast on TV is 4 to 5, unless a letter box format has been chosen. This squarer video image chops off the left and right margins. The peripheral images are missing. The “important” part if the video is in tact but the peripheral vision input is reduced.
Never the less, the state of the art home theater has the latest surround sound features, which includes speakers in the corners of the TV room. The speakers are labeled left front
202
, right front
204
, left rear
206
and finally right rear
208
. Some surround sound products have sub-woofers
210
, and a center channel speaker,
218
. The home entertainment equipment providers, such as Sony™, Hitachi™, RCA™ and others provide surround sound using all of the speakers, to simulate real life. An example of a surround sound system available for home theater today is the Dolby Digital™ 5.1 surround technology, which has six independent channels of sound. Digital 5.1 offers five full-frequency, discrete and independent audio channels (front-left
202
, front-center
218
, front-right
204
, right-rear
208
and left rear
206
) plus a dedicated low-frequency effects channel that directs bass information to the subwoofer
210
. Connected to the TV is an optional digital game unit,
250
, such as those available from Sega, Sony and Nintendo.
While home theaters continue to advance to provide the desired realism of the movie theater, home theaters are not without their shortcoming. One shortcoming is ambient light. Unlike the movie theaters of
FIG. 1
, most home theater rooms have one or more windows
216
. These windows allow in light without respect to the TV video being viewed by the TV home seating
214
. The ambient outside light through windows
216
often time spoils the home theater realism. For example, if one has a nighttime video on the TV the light from the daytime window spoils the effect. Therefore in a typical TV room it is even more difficult to become engrossed in the total movie experience because of the ambient lighting in the room. Curtains and shades can reduce the ambient lighting interference.
Another shortcoming with home theaters today is the poor aspect ration of home theater TV
212
of 4 to 5. In order to improve the aspect ratio of home theater systems
200
, the TV broadcast industry has begun a change from the NTSC PAL or SCAM analog standard to an all-digital HDTV standard. The HDTV standard has the same aspect ratio as movie theaters and will therefore restore the theater experience on HDTV in the home, with respect to the aspect ratio. The home TV will gain back the lost part of the video experience (4 to 5 back to 9 to 16). Never the less, there is a need for encircling visual stimulus in a TV environment in order to better visually engross the viewer with the home theater experience.
But even if the aspect ratio of the TV
212
of the home theater is increased to match the 9 to 16 aspect ratio, the image is still not “real” life. In a typical day one receives visual stimulus from all around one's self. In fact some of the most surprising or frightening things happen just outside the field of view. According there is a need for encircling visual stimulus in a theater in order to have viewers engrossed in the action of multimedia presentations such as movies, games, and television.
Along with the quick advances in home theater systems
200
, the PC multimedia equipment also has been advancing.
FIG. 3
is a perspective illustration of a typical PC multimedia environment
300
. The PC monitor
312
has an aspect ratio of 4 to 5 like TV
212
. But unlike the TV
212
, the PC monitor
312
is setup is for very close viewing, interaction through user input and listening. The user, usually singular, interacts with a keyboard and a pointing device (mouse), where as TV is in general a passive watching experience.
Current PC multimedia equipment has the latest surround sound features. These features included a left front speaker
302
, a right front speaker
304
, and some advanced PC have optional left rear speakers
306
and right rear speaker
308
. Also shown, as an optional feature is the sub-woofers
310
. The PC operator in seat
314
sits in front, in such a way that they are at an arm's length to the PC's keyboard
316
, and optional pointing device, not shown. All of the visual information comes from the PC monitor,
312
. There is usually a room window(s)
318
, which allows in light. And as d
Makar Michael G.
Mosley Joseph M.
Tindall Tracy A.
Fleit Kain Gibbons Gutman & Bongini P.L.
Gibbons Jon A.
Gordon Paul P.
The DelFin Project, Inc.
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