Apparatus, method and article for a dual-program display
View Patent ↗A system for enabling two different users to independently view and listen to two completely different programs on the same display at the same time is provided. A user wears eyeglasses with filters to filter out light from the program which the user does not want to view, while allowing the light from the program the user does want to view to be seen by the user. Successive frames of a first program are displayed using light polarized in one direction in an alternating manner with frames of a second program using light polarized in another direction. A first user wears glasses with lenses configured to filter out the light from the second program while a second user wears glasses to filter out the light from the first program. Thus, while wearing the glasses, the first user can see the first program while watching the display, but not the second program. Simultaneously, while wearing the other glasses, the second user will see the second program, but not the first program.
1. A dual program display system, comprising:
a presentation device communicatively coupled to a display, the presentation device configured to output to the display frames of two full-screen video presentation in alternating succession;
first and second personal audio devices, each configured to play a soundtrack corresponding to a selected video presentation; and
first and second pairs of shutter glasses communicatively coupled to the presentation device, the shutter glasses synchronized to operate an active shutter at a single frequency substantially equal to a constant refresh rate of the display in response to a synchronization signal received from the presentation device, the shutter glasses configured to admit a full intensity of light from the display only within associated time intervals during which frames of a selected video presentation are presented on the display, and at all times when such frames of the selected video presentation are presented on the display, and otherwise to block all light from the display; and
a display control unit programmed to
transmit to the display first and second video signals corresponding to the first and second video presentations, and
transmit to each one of the first and second personal audio devices an audio signal corresponding to a soundtrack associated with the selected video presentation.
2. The system of claim 1 further comprising first and second remote control devices, each remote control device configured to control a corresponding one of the video presentations via the display control unit.
3. The system of claim 1 wherein the display appears to an unaided eye to present frames of the two full-screen video presentations simultaneously and independently.
4. The system of claim 2 wherein the display control unit is further programmed to receive user input via one or more of the remote control devices indicating first and second video presentations selected from an electronic programming guide (EPG).
5. The system of claim 1 wherein the shutter glasses are active liquid crystal shutter glasses and the shutter mechanism is a crystal orientation.
6. The system of claim 1 wherein the personal audio devices are headphones separate from the shutter glasses.
7. The system of claim 5 wherein the headphones are wireless headphones.
8. The system of claim 1 wherein the shutter glasses are equipped with circuitry and wireless receivers suitable to receive a synchronization signal from the display via a wireless connection.
9. The system of claim 8 wherein the synchronization signal received from the presentation device is one or more of an infrared signal, a radio frequency (RF) signal, a digital light processing link (DLP®) signal, or a Bluetooth® signal.
10. The system of claim 1 wherein the first and second video presentations include first and second EPGs.
11. A method of displaying dual programs on a same display, the method comprising:
transmitting a synchronization signal from a presentation device to first and second pairs of shutter glasses, the presentation device communicatively coupled to a display, and configured to output to the display frames of two-screen video presentation in alternating succession;
displaying on the display during a first time interval, a frame of a first program;
displaying on the display during a second time interval, a frame of a second program, different from the first program, such that the displaying the frame of the first program and the displaying the frame of the second program appears to an unaided human eye, to occur simultaneously and independently on the same display;
continuing to display successive frames of the first and second programs in a time-alternating manner on the same display,
such that the first program is enabled to be viewed by a first user, without the first user seeing the second program, through the first pair of shutter glasses synchronized to operate an active shutter at a single frequency substantially equal to a constant refresh rate of the display to admit a full light intensity only when the first program is displayed, and during all time intervals when the first program is displayed, and to block all light from the display while the second program is displayed, while the second program is enabled to be simultaneously viewed by a second user, without the second viewer seeing the first program, through the second pair of shutter glasses that are synchronized to admit a full light intensity only when the second program is displayed, and during all time intervals when the second program is displayed, and to block the full light intensity while the first program is displayed;
transmitting a first audio signal associated with the first program; and
transmitting a second audio signal associated with the second program.
12. The method of claim 11 wherein at least one of the first and second audio signals is a wireless signal.
13. The method of claim 11 wherein each frame is a frame of a digital video stream.
14. The method of claim 11 wherein each frame is a frame of a broadcast television program.