Television – Special applications
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-22
2004-03-02
Kelley, Chris (Department: 2613)
Television
Special applications
C348S837000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06700602
ABSTRACT:
This invention relates to video display systems, and more specifically to video display systems mounted in and operating in mass transit subway cars.
It is commonplace to provide visual advertising displays such as posters in mass transit subway cars, where the displays are available for reading by subway passengers during travel. It is also known to equip subway cars with closed circuit television cameras, for surveillance of passenger behaviour and other safety checks. Images of such surveillance are either displayed at a central security facility, or recorded for subsequent viewing in the event of safety problems.
It is also commonplace to equip subway cars with audio public address systems for a myriad of uses, including transit service announcements, community service events, advertising, safety and emergency procedures, as well as inter-staff communications.
Proposals have been made previously to equip other transportation items, especially aircraft, with television or video systems, primarily for the entertainment of passengers on long journeys. Examples of such systems in the patent literature can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,647,980 Steventon et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,630,821 Greenwald, U.S. Pat. No. 4,352,124 Kline, U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,728 Gradin et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 3,457,006 Brown et al.
Entertainment of passengers on subway cars has until now generally been ignored, since the average journey taken by a passenger on a mass transit subway system is usually short, lasting perhaps fifteen minutes. Nevertheless, subway transit riders offer an attractive audience for visual advertising messages, as evidenced by the proliferation of advertising signs which commonly adorn a subway car. In addition, mass transit systems such as subways are in need of extra sources of revenue, to keep passenger fare structures at an affordable level as operating costs rise, and to avoid decreased ridership as a result.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a public service message display system, entertainment system and advertising system for mass transit subway cars.
It is a further object to provide a novel source of extra revenue for a mass transit subway system.
The present invention provides a television public service message display, entertainment and advertising system for subway cars, in which television monitors are provided at spaced intervals in subway cars, to display short duration televisual entertainment and advertising features to subway riders. The system is designed so that advertising spots on it can be sold by the transit system to potential advertisers and sponsors, for extra revenues for the transit system. It takes advantage of the fact that subway riders are, for the most part, occupying a subway car under relatively crowded conditions but for only a relatively brief duration. They are looking for something on which to focus their attention during their brief ride, whilst at the same time often finding it inconvenient to open newspapers, magazines or the like under crowded circumstances and becoming bored by static advertising or other displays around them. The present invention provides properly positioned television monitors displaying moving images of news items, advertising material and the like, viewable by substantially all riders in the car, and filling their need for visual entertainment during the brief duration of their subway ride.
Thus, according to the present invention, from one aspect, there is provided a video system for displaying televised material to passengers in a mass transit subway car, and comprising at least one video display monitor adapted for mounting inside a subway car so as to display televised materials to passengers riding therein, and a video signal source unit operatively connected to said at least one monitor.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a subway car for mass transportation and comprising a video display system including at least one video display monitor having a video screen, the monitor being mounted in the subway car in a manner such that the video screen thereof is readily visible to passengers in the subway car, and a video signal source unit operatively connected to said at least one monitor.
The term “video signal source unit” as used herein embraces player units for playing pre-recorded video material, such as computer-based digital video recorders (including CD-ROM players), video tape players and video disk players, and television receivers for receiving live or pre-recorded broadcast television signals from a remote transmitter and supplying these to the video display monitors mounted in the subway cars. One system according to the invention utilizes receivers including computer-based digital video recorders for receiving broadcast television signals from a remote transmitter as the video signal source unit. Such video signal source unit can be located either within the mass transits' premises or on a remote broadcasting site. Alternatively, the invention utilizes a video tape player, a video disk player, or a computer-based digital video recorder, as the video signal source unit. The video signal source unit may be located in the same subway car as that in which the monitor or monitors are located, or in adjacent or remote cars of the same train, with the necessary operative connection between the player and the monitor(s). An individual subway car can be equipped with its own video signal source unit, connected to a plurality of monitors mounted at different, appropriately chosen locations along the length of the subway car. Alternatively, one central video signal source unit can be located in one car of subway train, and connected to monitors in some or all of the cars of the train, to provide a central video signal source unit for the train.
Computer (PC) based digital video recorders basically transmit video signals from a hard drive or CD-ROM storage. They are however also capable of receiving transmitted input at intervals, e.g. news item updates, at, say, hourly intervals, to add to their stored transmittable video data. In this sense they also act as television receivers.
The video signal source unit and video display monitors used in the present invention can be of known, standard form, obtainable as off the shelf items from manufacturers and sales outlets. The connections between them, for display of televised material, are also standard and well within the skill of the art. For example, use can be made of the existing subway infrastructure by which audio announcements are currently transmitted. Alternatively, the connections may be by use of coaxial cables, fibre optics, cell phone systems or satellite transmission, or by other appropriate means.
A preferred system according to the invention is a subway car or plurality of subway cars equipped with a plurality of television monitors, especially LCD-based television monitors, and a video signal source comprising a video tape player, video disk player or computer-based digital video recorder, the video signal source and the monitors being interconnected by suitable electrical cable systems which are self-contained within the subway car. In this way, new subway cars can be built with the video system or parts thereof installed, and usable on substantially any transit system, since the operation of the video system is independent of any previously installed track, tunnel or control systems.
The video system according to the present invention provides a means for communicating a very wide range of information to viewers in an environment ideally suited to communicating short video messages to viewers, especially commercial messages or sponsored community service, or informational news bytes. Most subway rides are of short duration, e.g. 15-30 minutes or less. It is normally undesirable to play television programs of any significant length to subway passengers for fear of distracting them from their proper points of interchange and disembarkation on the subway system. However, the system accordin
Costellia Jeffrey L.
Kelley Chris
Nixon & Peabody LLP
Wong Allen
LandOfFree
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