IP Library › Granted Patent US 12664865

Granted Patent B2

US 12664865 · App. 18/676,177 · Granted Jun 23, 2026

Configuring the appearance and visibility of electronic devices

Inventors: Sunil Ramesh (Saratoga, CA); Mustafa Ozgen (Palo Alto, CA); Robert Caston Curtis (Napa, CA); Patrick Brouillette (Tempe, AZ); Charles Brian Pinkerton (Boulder, CO); Karina Levitian (Austin, TX); Gregory Garner (Key Colony Beach, FL)

Assignee: Roku, Inc.

G08B13/19632 H04N7/181 H04N23/61 H04N23/695

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Quick Facts

Patent No.: US 12664865
App. No.: 18/676,177
Granted: Jun 23, 2026
Kind: B2

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Abstract

Disclosed herein are system, apparatus, article of manufacture, method and/or computer program product embodiments, and/or combinations and sub-combinations thereof, for altering the appearance of electronic devices. An example process can include obtaining a visibility configuration for altering an appearance of an exterior surface of an electronic device; and modifying at least a portion of the exterior surface of the electronic device based on the visibility configuration.

Claims (49)

1 . A system comprising:

one or more memories; and

at least one processor coupled to the one or more memories and configured to perform operations comprising:

determining whether to initiate or terminate a reduced-visibility mode of an electronic device based on at least one of an environmental context of the electronic device, sound detected in a physical environment of the electronic device, a user detected in a scene of the electronic device, and an identity of the user, wherein the reduced-visibility mode comprises a display setting that modifies an appearance of the electronic device based on a visual output estimated to reduce an appearance-based visibility of the electronic device in the physical environment, relative to the appearance-based visibility of the electronic device corresponding to the appearance of the electronic device without the visual output, wherein the visual output is estimated to reduce the appearance-based visibility of the electronic device based on a first visibility metric associated with the appearance of the electronic device modified by the visual output and a second visibility metric associated with the appearance of the electronic device without the visual output, the first visibility metric and the second visibility metric being based on image data depicting the scene;

in response to determining to initiate the reduced-visibility mode, determining the visual output based on one or more features extracted from the image data corresponding to at least a portion of the scene, the visual output comprising a visual pattern associated with a similarity metric indicating a visual similarity between visual attributes of the visual pattern and the portion of the scene, wherein the similarity metric is based on the one or more features extracted from the image data; and

in response to initiating the reduced-visibility mode, modifying the appearance of the electronic device based on the visual output, wherein the visual output is displayed on a display of the electronic device.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the environmental context of the electronic device comprises at least one of the scene of the electronic device, one or more lighting conditions in the scene or physical environment of the electronic device, and one or more weather conditions in the physical environment of the electronic device, the physical environment of the electronic device comprising at least one of a location of the electronic device.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more features extracted from the image data comprise one or more visual features of the scene, and wherein the visual output is based on the one or more visual features of the scene and a surface of the electronic device.

4 . The system of claim 3 , wherein determining whether to initiate or terminate the reduced-visibility mode of the electronic device comprises:

determining the appearance of a surface of the electronic device and an appearance of one or more elements of the scene depicted in the image data, the one or more elements comprising at least one of an object in the scene, a background of the scene, and a color of a depicted surface in the scene;

based on the appearance of the surface of the electronic device and the appearance of the one or more elements of the scene, determining one or more modifications to the appearance of the surface of the electronic device, the one or more modifications to the appearance of the surface of the electronic device comprising a modification to at least one of an optical contrast, a visual pattern, a texture, a color, and a brightness of the surface of the electronic device; and

determining the visual output based on the one or more modifications to the appearance of the surface of the electronic device.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform operations comprising:

determining a visibility score associated with the appearance-based visibility of the electronic device and a different visibility score based on the one or more features extracted from the image data and a revised visibility configuration of the electronic device, wherein the revised visibility configuration comprises a visibility configuration of the electronic device corresponding to a respective appearance of an exterior surface of the electronic device modified based on the visual output, and wherein modifying the appearance of the electronic device comprises modifying the respective appearance of the exterior surface of the electronic device based on the revised visibility configuration.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform operations comprising:

determining that the image data depicts a person in the scene; and

determining, based on the image data, that the electronic device is within a view or field-of-view of the person in the scene.

7 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform operations comprising:

in response to the determining that the electronic device is within the view or field-of-view of the person in the scene, determining to notify the person of a presence of a video recording device, the video recording device comprising the electronic device; and

in response to determining to notify the person of the presence of the video recording device, generating an alert or sending a visibility notification to a user device associated with the person.

8 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform operations comprising:

based on the person depicted in the scene and the determining that the electronic device is within the view or field-of-view of the person, terminating the reduced-visibility mode of the electronic device.

9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the system comprises the electronic device and the electronic device comprises a rotating camera, and wherein the image data is captured by the rotating camera while adjusting a field of view of the rotating camera.

10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the system comprises the electronic device and an exterior surface of the electronic device comprises at least one of an emissive display, a non-emissive display, an electrochromic material, and an electroluminescent material.

11 . A computer-implemented method comprising:

12 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein the environmental context of the electronic device comprises at least one of the scene of the electronic device, one or more lighting conditions in the scene or physical environment of the electronic device, and one or more weather conditions in the physical environment of the electronic device, the physical environment of the electronic device comprising at least one of a location of the electronic device.

13 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more features extracted from the image data comprise one or more visual features of the scene, and wherein the visual output is based on the one or more visual features of the scene and a surface of the electronic device.

14 . The computer-implemented method of claim 13 , wherein determining whether to initiate or terminate the reduced-visibility mode of the electronic device comprises:

determining the visual output based on the one or more modifications to the appearance of the surface of the electronic device.

15 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , further comprising:

receiving determining a visibility score associated with the appearance-based visibility of the electronic device and a different visibility score based on the one or more features extracted from the image data and a revised visibility configuration of the electronic device, wherein the revised visibility configuration comprises a visibility configuration of the electronic device corresponding to a respective appearance of an exterior surface of the electronic device modified based on the visual output, and wherein modifying the appearance of the electronic device comprise modifying the respective appearance of the exterior surface of the electronic device based on the revised visibility configuration.

16 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , further comprising:

determining that the image data depicts a person in the scene; and

determining, based on the image data, that the electronic device is within a view or field-of-view of the person in the scene.

17 . The computer-implemented method of claim 16 , further comprising:

in response to determining to notify the person of the presence of the video recording device, generating an alert or sending a visibility notification to a user device associated with the person.

18 . The computer-implemented method of claim 16 , further comprising:

19 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein an exterior surface of the electronic device comprises at least one of an emissive display, a non-emissive display, an electrochromic material, and an electroluminescent material.

20 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one computing device, cause the at least one computing device to perform operations comprising: