SYSTEM PERMITTING THE DISPLAY OF VIDEO OR STILL IMAGE CONTENT ON SELECTED DISPLAYS OF AN ELECTRONIC DISPLAY NETWORK

Abstract: Commercial advertisers, such as consumer product companies and the advertising agents that represent them, directly access a network of thousands of large, high resolution electronic displays located in high traffic areas and directly send their own advertisements electronically to the network to be displayed at locations and times selected by the advertisers. In another application, operators of digital movie theaters have ongoing, continuous access to tens of thousands of movies that can be ordered in digital form for display on selected screens at their theaters at selected times.

Description: SYSTEM PERMITTING THE DISPLAY OF VIDEO OR STILL IMAGE CONTENT ON SELECTED DISPLAYS OF AN ELECTRONIC DISPLAY NETWORK FIELD OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to the display of video or still image content on electronic displays. More particularly, the invention relates to a network of thousands of electronic displays, such as electronic billboards or electronic digital movie displays, and a related system that permits display of content on selected displays according to customer dictates. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Background. Advertising/Billboards Consumer product advertising takes many forms, such as television commercials, newspaper and magazine advertisements, mailings, point-of-sale displays, outdoor billboards, etc. Using current advertising media, advertisers engage in a constant struggle to efficiently use their budgets to most effectively reach their geographic and demographic targets. Focusing on the outdoor advertising component of advertising by consumer product companies, it is well known that outdoor billboards have traditionally taken the form of single-message displays formed of printed sheets or painted surfaces containing the advertising content adhered to a flat backing. This time-honored outdoor advertising technique has remained essentially unchanged throughout the twentieth century. The high cost of printing, transporting and mounting a message on a conventional billboard has dictated that the same message remain in place for a considerable period of time. Thus, a conventional billboard cannot be readily changed to reflect current events within the geographic area of the billboard. Additionally, the content on a conventional billboard tends to become essentially "invisible" as a part of the landscape after its content has been in place for a relatively short period of time, especially to commuters and others who regularly pass the billboard. Beyond the above problems with cost, single-message content, lack of content changeover capability, and the like, conventional outdoor billboards have come under increasing criticism because in their large numbers, and often tattered condition, they clutter highways with a distasteful form of visual "pollution". A reduction in the number of billboards and improvement of the appearance of those that remain, if accomplished while increasing the overall advertising impact afforded by outdoor advertising, would please virtually everyone. The use of electronic billboards has been suggested, for example, in U.S. Patent No. 5,612,741. However, there is no electronic billboard network in operation whereby commercial advertisers may directly place ads onto selected billboards at selected times through direct access to a master network. Such a network, properly designed and operated, promises to overcome the numerous disadvantages currently associated with the outdoor advertising industry, while also meeting the above needs of consumer products advertisers. Background. Distribution and Display of Movies at Movie Theaters For virtually the entire twentieth centuiy the practice of distributing movies on film reels to movie theaters has gone fundamentally unchanged. As is well known, movie content is stored on large reels of film, one or more copies of which must be physically transported to each movie theater where the movie will be shown. The films are bulky, heavy, and expensive to reproduce and ship to movie theaters. Films also show wear and eventually must be removed from use. Obviously, a movie theater's ability to show a particular movie is subject to the film reels being physically present at the proper time. Thus, substantial lead time must be provided anytime a movie theater operator is preparing the schedule for his screen(s). In addition to the above problems inherent in the current movie distribution scheme, the high cost of conventional film reel movie distribution results in most movies not going to full distribution. In this regard, the full distribution of a movie (the cost of film reels, transportation, etc.) can run up to four to five million dollars or more. As a related problem, the cost of making film reels of older movies, particularly non-"blockbuster" movies, available on an ongoing basis is prohibitive. Thus, theater owners and movie goers are deprived of movie theater screening for the vast majority of available movie content because the movies are not in current distribution. Importantly, as well, content providers (e.g., Disney, Warner Brothers, etc.) are deprived of the revenue from the movies for which ongoing, continuous distribution is simply too expensive. There is an acute need for a new movie distribution system for the twenty first century that will overcome the above shortcomings of current movie distribution practices Background. Point of Purchase Advertising Turning now to point of purchase advertising, it is well known that various retail stores such as department stores, fast food restaurants, building supply stores, and the like, utilize point of purchase displays to inform customers of product specifications and pricing and to promote periodic special value or "sale" items These point of purchase displays usually take the form of inexpensive paper product displays that are mounted adjacent to products being promoted, or displays located in a general store location (such as the entrance) to communicate more general information to consumers Other forms of point of purchase displays may be used, such as electronic displays, for example, displays utilizing "electronic ink" technology Current product advertising techniques do not effectively tie point of purchase displays to other forms of advertising, particularly to outdoor advertising Summary of the Invention The present invention, in one broad respect, is a system that permits video (e g , movies) or still image content to be displayed on selected ones of multiple, networked electronic displays at selected times according to dictates of the customers of the system According to one implementation of the invention, commercial advertisers, such as consumer product companies and the advertising agents that represent them, directly access a network of multiple, large, high resolution electronic displays located in high traffic areas and directly send their own advertisements electronically to the network to be displayed at locations and times selected by the advertisers In preferred embodiments, this implementation of the invention includes a central information processing center that permits customers to review a schedule of times and electronic display locations that are available for placement of advertisements, and also permits customers to purchase available times at selected electronic display locations for placement of their advertising content The customer then transmits his video or still image advertising content to the processing center where the content is reviewed for appropriateness and then - 4 - transmitted to the customer-selected electronic display(s). The electronic displays preferably are large (e.g., 23 X 3314 ft.) flat LED displays that are driven by their own video or image servers. Verification that the advertisements run as ordered is facilitated by an information storage module or, more preferably, by a digital camera or series of digital cameras. A traffic counter may be used to determine the traffic that passed by the display while the advertisement was running. Bills and reports containing market and demographic analysis are generated and sent to the customer. In another implementation of the invention, the operators of digital movie theaters have ongoing, continuous access to tens of thousands of movies that can be ordered in digital form for display on selected "screens" at their theaters at selected times. The movie theater operator is a customer of a system that permits the customer to review movies that are available in digital form and thereafter schedule and purchase a movie for display on the digital movie screens located at the customer's movie theater. The movies may be transmitted by the system to the movie theater operators by a number of transmission modes, most preferably a satellite uplink/downlink system that transmits the movies in non-real time (allowing faster transmission speeds) in encoded digital format, with a decoder at the movie theater to protect against piracy. The system may include means for generating bills to the customers and forwarding the bills for debit payment. The system may also include means for generating royalty payment information for use in paying the content providers for the display of their movies. In another implementation of the invention, there is provided a system that permits a commercial advertiser with retail store(s) to place video or still-image advertisements at selected times on a network of multiple roadside electronic displays, and to tie the roadside advertisements into point of purchase displays at the advertiser's retail stores. As an example, both the roadside advertisement and the point of purchase displays may focus on specific special value or "sale" items, with the point of purchase displays repeating the sale information and directing customers to the store location(s) where the sale items may be found. The point of purchase displays may be electronic displays, most preferably displays employing electronic ink technology. Electronic point of purchase displays may be incorporated into the same network as the roadside electronic displays or they ma> be operated by a pπvate netwoik controlled by the commeicial ad\ertιser who owns the retail stores Brief Description of the Drawings Some of the features of the invention having been stated, other featuies will appear as the description proceeds, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which — Figure 1 is a block diagram showing the pπncφal components of a system constructed in accordance with the present invention foi ad\ertιsιng purposes Figuie 2 is a view of one of the electronic displays of the network of Figure 1 Figure 3 is a block diagram showing the pnncipal components of a system constructed in accordance with the present invention for the purpose of distributing digital movies to movie theaters Figure 4 is a block diagram showing a system that is used for both advertising purposes and for the distribution of digital movies to movie theaters Figure 5 is a block diagram showing the principal components of a system constructed in accordance with the present invention for permitting retail stores to place advertisements on roadside electronic billboard displays that tie into point of purchase displays at the store Figure 6 is a view of a roadside electronic display of the network of Figure 5 that is displaying special value items that are being offered at a retailer's area stores, as well as a map and street address information useful to locate the stores Figuie 7 shows the entrance to one of the area stores of the retailer who placed the roadside advertisement shown in Figure 6, and also shows a point of purchase display next to the entrance The content of the point of purchase display ties into the content of the roadside advertisement Detailed Description of the Invention While the present invention will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, m which aspects of the preferred manner of practicing the present invention are shown, it is to be understood at the outset of the description which follows that persons of skill in the appropriate arts may modify the invention herein described while still achieving the favorable results of this invention. Accordingly, the description which follows is to be understood as being a broad, teaching disclosure directed to persons of skill in the appropriate arts, and not as limiting upon the present invention. The Invention Applied to the Display of Commercial Advertising and Other Content Referring to the drawings, and particularly to Figure 1 , there is shown a block diagram of a system 20 for direct placement of commercial advertisements, public service announcements and other content on electronic displays. System 20 includes a network comprising a plurality of electronic displays 30 that are located in high traffic areas in various geographic locations. The displays may be located in areas of high vehicular traffic, and also at indoor and outdoor locations of high pedestrian traffic, as well as in movie theaters, restaurants, sports arenas, casinos or other suitable locations. Thousands of displays, up to 10,000 or more displays worldwide, may be networked according to the present invention. In preferred embodiments, each display is a large (for example, 23 feet by 33 '/2 feet), high resolution, full color display that provides brilliant light emission from a fl t panel screen. A customer of system 20, for example an in-house or agency representative of a consumer products company, may access a central information processing station of the system via the Internet through a Customer Interface Web Server 40. The customer interface web server has a commerce engine and permits the customer to obtain and enter security code and billing code information into a Network Security Router/Access module 50. Alternatively, high usage customers of the system may utilize a customer interface comprising a high speed dedicated connection to module 50. Following access, the customer reviews options concerning his order by reviewing available advertising time/locations through a Review Schedule and Purchase Time module 60 that permits the customer to see what time is available on any display throughout the world and thereafter schedule and purchase the desired advertising time slot. Next, the customer transmits the advertising content on-line through the Internet, a direct phone line or a high speed connection (for example, ISDN, or other suitable high speed information transfer line) for receipt by the system's Video & Still Image Review and Input module 70 In parallel, the system operator may provide public service announcements and other content to module 70 All content, whether still image or video, is formatted in NTSC, PAL, SECAM, YUV, YC, VGA or other suitable formats In a preferred embodiment, the format is VGA, while all other formats, including but not limited to NTSC, PAL and SECAM, can be run through the video converter 110 The video & still image review and input module 70 permits a system security employee to conduct a content review to assure that all content meets the security and appropriateness standards established by the system, prior to the content being read to the server 100 associated with each display 30 where the content being transmitted to the server 100 will be displayed Preferably, the servers are located at their respective displays and each has a backup An example of a suitable server is the IBM RISC 6000 server The means for transmitting content information to the display locations may take a number of forms, with it being understood that any form, or combination thereof, may be utilized at various locations within the network As shown in Figure 1 , the means include a High speed cable b Satellite c Dedicated phone d High speed line (e g , ISDN, ADSL) e Cellular, PCS or other data transmission at available frequencies f Internet g Radio/radio pulse transmission h High speed optical fiber i Physical delivery of digitally stored information medium A video converter/sealer function and a video controller function provided by module 1 10 may be utilized in connection with those servers 100 and associated displays 30 that require them, according to data transmission and required reformatting practices well known in the art Verification that adλ ertisements do, in fact, lun at the intended time at the intended displays may be piovided by an information storage module (not shown) linked to each display Anothei form of verification may be achieved by a Digital Camera and Tiaffic Count Recordei 120 that continuously records the content appearing at its lespective display 30 and digitally transmits video verification information to a Veπfication Archives module 150 Recorder 120 also provides traffic count information (for example, 225 vehicles passed the display while an advertisement ran) to verification archives module 150 Information from veiification archives module 150 is utilized by a demographic analysis module 160 and a maiket analysis module 170 to generate information for reports to be sent to customers after their advertisements run To this end, analysis data from modules 160 and 170 is tiansmitted to a Billing and Report Generation module 190 where reports are assembled showing, foi example, the time of the advertisement, the content of the advertisement, the traffic count and residence/median income information about those who saw the advertisement A representative, simplified report foi an advertisement running on a single display is as follows Customer ABC Cola Co Ad Content Ocean Scene with graphics (content code 1 1 1 1) Location Atlanta, Georgia, Interstate 75N, milepost 125 (site code XXXX) Time 7 30 AM, June 30, 2000 Vehicle Count 225 Viewer Demogiaphics 340 • 50% Resident Cobb Country, GA Median household income $60,000/yr • 30% Resident DeKalb County, Ga Median household income $52,000/yr • 20% Median household income $55,000/yr Advertising Cost $X For an advertisement that may have run at multiple displays, for example 100 displays, a representative report may appear as follows Customer ABC Cola Co Ad Content Mountain Scene with graphics (content code 2222) Location 100 sites (site codes YYY ZZZ) Time 8 30 AM, July 10, 2000 Vehicle Count 21 ,500 Viewer Demographics Median household income $49,5000 Advertising Cost $Y Module 190 also produces bills that may be transmitted by phone lines for a debit payment such as a direct bank draft, or other suitable payment mode Referring to Figure 2, there is shown a pictorial view of one prefeπ-ed form for the electronic displays 30 In this embodiment, display 30 takes the form of a 23 feet by 33V . feet seamless flat screen display including multiple flat panel display modules The panels utilize advanced semiconductor technology to provide high resolution, full color images utilizing light emitting diodes (LED's) with very high optical power (1.5 - 10 milliwatts or greater) that are aligned in an integrated array with each pixel having a red, green and blue LED It will be appreciated that multiple LED's of a given color may be used at pixels to produce the desired light output, for example, three 1 5 milliwatt blue LED's may be used to produce a 4.5 milliwatt blue light output Each red, green and blue emitter is accessed with 24 bit resolution, providing 16 7 million colors for every pixel An overall display of 23 feet by 33!/ 2 feet, so constructed, has a high spatial resolution defined by approximately 172,000 pixels at an optical power that is easily viewable in bright sunlight Suitable display modules for displays 30 are manufactured by Lighthouse Technologies of Hong Kong, China, under Model No. LV50 that utilize, for blue and green, InGaN LED's fabricated on single crystalline Al 2 O 3 (sapphire) substrates with a suitable buffer layer such as A1N and, for red, superbright AlInGaP LED's fabricated on a suitable substrate such as GaP These panels have a - 10 - useful life in excess of 50,000 hours, for example, an expected life under the usage contemplated for network 20 of 150,000 hours and more In preferred embodiments, the panels are cooled from the back of the displays, preferably via a refrigerant-based air conditioning system (not shown) such as a forced air system or a thermal convection or conduction system Non refrigerant-based options may be used in locations where they produce satisfactory cooling The displays preferably have a very wide viewing angle, for example, 160° While the Lighthouse Technologies displays utilize the InGaN on sapphire and AlInGaP on GaP LED's described above (and in certain cases InGaN on SiC), other materials may be used for the LED's as follows 2 (Blue/green) InGaN on SiC, preferably with a suitable buffer layer such as AIN 3 (Blue/green) InGaN on GaN 4. (Blue/green) InGaN on AIN, preferably with a suitable buffer layer such as AIN. 5 (Blue/green) AIN or AlN-containing compound on AIN, sapphire or SiC. It will be appreciated that the InGaN on sapphire and the other solid state LED's described above have substrates with high optical transmissivity and produce very high optical power. This is important for a number of reasons, including giving the electronic display designers the ability to create very wide viewing angles up to approximately 160°, and the resultant increase in visibility of the displays to viewers in oncoming traffic In addition to the particular solid state LED's mentioned above, the discrete sources of blue, green and red light at each pixel may take other forms such as composite devices including an ultraviolet LED that is utilized to excite a phosphor that, in turn, produces light of a selected spectrum The ultraviolet LED may be formed from a GaN or GaN-containing compound on sapphire with or without suitable buffer layer, or a GaN or GaN-containing compound on SiC, preferably with a suitable buffer layer, or an AIN or AlN-containing compound on AIN, sapphire, SiC or GaN, with or without a suitable buffer layer In one embodiment, ultraviolet LED's are incorporated into three different composite - 1 1 - de\ ιces, each w ith a diffei ent phosphoi foi producing blue, gi een and red lespectively In anothei embodiment a phosphor is selected to pioduce white light and a desπed color is pioduced by passing the white light thiough a band pass filter Accoiding to this w hite-light embodiment, filtei s of blue gi een and led may be used to create discrete composite devices that pioduce blue, gi een and led light at each pixel The use of white light with appropriate band pass filtei s has the advantage of pioducmg a colored light with an excellent wa\ e length distπbution that will not change appieciably o\ er time, a desnable property foi coloi balancing On the othei hand, the use of thiee different phosphors to dπ ectly produce blue, gieen and l ed without a filtei has the of highei efficiency because light is not filtei ed out Both appi oaches ha\ e the advantage of excellent peisistence which, as known m the art is a desnable featui e that is especially important in \ideo applications, particulaily digital movie theatei applications that ai e discussed m detail below It w ill be appreciated that energy sources othei than ultraviolet LED's may be used to excite the phosphoi s of the composite devices discussed immediately above In the case of low ambient light applications, such as digital movie theaters, lower power LED's may be used Furthermoi e, higher powei LED's may be used to provide a light source for an LCD shutter-type screen as descπbed in U S Patent No 5,724,062, lncorpoiated herein by leference The piovision of one or moie high lesolution, highly aligned digital cameras at each display site, for example the camera or cameras utilized in digital ca eia and traffic countei 120, oi othei specifically dedicated cameias, piovides a means permitting in situ diagnostics and cahbiation of the displays As known in the art, certain digital cameras have a resolution of ovei 7,000,000 pixels — as compared to approximately 172,000 pixels on the above-described 23 X 33'/ 2 ft display Thus, by directing a digital camera at a display or dnectmg multiple digital cameias at different disci ete portions of a display, a correspondence may be attained where a portion of each digital camera's image corresponds to a single pixel in the display Suitable means for aligning the digital camera with the display is used, for example, optical means such as laser alignment maiks At selected times set aside for diagnostics and calibration, such as a five minute period each night, the entire display may be run red, then green, then blue, followed by white, all at multiple power levels In order to reduce interference, the LED's may be switched on individually for a short period, for example one millisecond each In the most basic diagnostic operation earned out when the display is run red/green/ blue, the camera(s), mounted at a selected distance from the display such as sixty feet away, are capable of detecting nonfunctioning or excessively degraded LED's for replacement Beyond replacing defective LED's, each night the system may auto- matically re-calibrate all LED's in the display To this end, the display is run red/green/blue at several iterative power levels (e g , 20%/40%/60%/80%/100%) and the optical power output of each LED is sensed for each power level, with the goal being to calibrate the system so that each red, green or blue LED has the same optical power output at each power level as do the other LED's of the same color. Calibration preferably is achieved by diode recalibration sealer software (e.g., look up table) that may be associated with a sealer (not shown) that acts independently in conjunction with the video converter/sealer at 1 10 (Figure 1). The diode recalibration sealer receives information from the diagnostic equipment indicating the optical power output of each LED at the various power levels and, through an associated automatic calibration LED look-up table, accounts for daily variance in LED output (degradation or increase) by adjusting the power curve by which the LED will be driven the next day. This periodic (e.g. daily) in situ recalibration has the benefit of greatly reducing on site maintenance since LED's that have degraded can be run harder to compensate for the degradation, eliminating the need for frequent replacement As an alternative to using digital cameras for the diagnostic and calibration function, in other embodiments miniature photodector chips, with or without band pass filters, may be located in close proximity to each LED in the display for measuring LED light output during diagnostic/calibration operations. As another alternative, a programmable chip may be located at each pixel so that each individual chip may be reprogrammed as necessary during each calibration sequence to raise or lower the effective light output of the LED's contained in the pixel As an alternative to performing daily in situ calibration by looking at every pixel in sequence and adjusting the scaling value for each pixel, a statistical modeling approach may be utilized According to this approach, selected LED's or groups of LED's may be run in iterative power cycles in order to optimize the overall screen color through statistical analysis to provide a new scaling value for each LED or group of LED's When the diagnostic operation operates with an all white display, the three LED's at each pixel may be evaluated individually and collectively to assure that the pixel is contributing the proper spectrum and amount of white light Through a diagnostic/calibration software package that interrelates output and peak wave length response for each red/green/blue LED at a pixel to the desired white light response, an iterative calibration may be undertaken at each pixel to adjust the values contained in the diode recalibration sealer software or to reprogram programmable logic chips that determine the drive current for each LED located in a specific pixel It will be appreciated that split screen images may be displayed at the displays 30 In the simplest application, a still image advertisement may be one half corporate logo and one half scenery Beyond this simple application, split screen capability may be used to present a portion of the image as a corporate logo, or the like, and the remainder either real time (or near real time) video or still frame For example, a previously qualified customer with acceptable internal content review procedures may have direct access to a display or displays for the purpose of displaying a real time (or near real time) sports event, news event, or the like, in conjunction with the customer's corporate logo This display may be achieved by utilizing high speed servers 100 or by bypassing the servers altogether High speed still image or video transfer may be facilitated by compression techniques such as JPEG and MPEG II, known in the art While advertising scheduling and purchasing may take place as described above where customers directly purchase time from available slots according to a fixed fee schedule, it will be appreciated that alternative modes may be used For example, an auction system such as introduced by eBay Corporation may be used where all previously purchased slots and all unsold slots are auctioned through a bid process (a "total" auction) Additionally, a limited auction may be utilized where time may be purchased and booked for a set price, but all time not purchased at the set price becomes available through auction at a fixed time before the run time, for example, one month before run time As another alternative for a portion of the available time slots, a high usage customer may establish a monthly advertising budget with the system operator that authorizes the operator to select the time slots for display of the customer's advertisements at "best available rate" pricing, taking advantage of last minute availability of time slots and other time slot placement techniques that enable the operator to more completely utilize the network This or similar time slot placement practices when used for a portion of the available time slots may be implemented by a software package that takes into account the needs of both the customer and the system operator It will be appreciated that advertising content information may be transmitted to the electronic display locations by physically delivering a suitable information storage device such as CD ROM, zip drive, DVD ROM or DVD RAM. This approach may be utilized to transmit information to displays at any desired location, for example, to remote locations, to movie theaters, etc The Invention Applied to Distribution of Movies in Digital Form to Movie Theaters Referring to Figure 3, there is shown a block diagram of a system 220 for distribution of movies in digital form to movie theaters. System 220 includes a network connecting a plurality of electronic movie display devices 230 located in movie theaters of customers of system 220 The movie theaters may be "single screen" theaters having only one display device 230, such as small art houses. The theaters may also be smaller theaters with only two or three screens up to large mega-theaters having twenty or more display devices 230 The electronic movie display devices 230 may take several forms, each of which is fully capable of displaying movies to an audience of 50-100 or more movie goers The various types of display devices 230 will be described in detail below. A customer of system 220, a responsible party representing the movie theater and referred to herein as a movie theater operator, may access a central information processing station of the system via the Internet through a Customer Interface Web Server 240. The customer interface web server has a commerce engine and permits the customer to obtain and enter security code and billing code information into a Network Security Router/Access module 250. Alternatively, high usage customers of the system may utilize a customer interface comprising a high speed dedicated connection to module 250. Following access, the customer reviews options concerning his order by reviewing the available movies through a Review Available Movies and Purchase module 260 that permits the customer to see what movies are available, and thereafter schedule and purchase a movie for display utilizing one or more of the customer's electronic movie display devices 230. Following scheduling and purchasing, the customer-ordered movie is transmitted to a server 300 associated with the customer ' s movie theater. Preferably, the servers are located at their respective displays 230 and each has a backup. An example of a suitable server is the IBM RISC 6000 server. The means for transmitting digital movie content to the movie theaters may take a number of forms, with it being understood that any form, or combination thereof, may be used at various locations within the network. In one preferred embodiment of the invention as used in association with the distribution of digital movies, a satellite uplink/downlink system is used to transmit high speed, compressed, non-real time data on a plurality of channels. Each movie theater is in communication via a satellite downlink and has a decoder and a computer-based data storage device. As an example, a satellite may dedicate 100 channels to the continuous transmission of movies in non-real time, for example 3 X real time transmission rates, so that approximately 4000 movies per day can be transmitted and are available for movie theater reception. The server (storage device) at each movie theater is programmed at the time the theater owner places an order for a movie to receive and store the particular movie when it is transmitted so that it can be available for screening at the theater at the desired time. In addition to the above described satellite transmission system, other transmission systems (for example, certain ones of the systems discussed in connection with Figure 1 ) may be used either with real time or non-real time transmission. Thus, using a proprietary network of the present invention, a movie theatei operator can schedule eι the Internet which movies he ants to receive to his seιver(s) Movies will be encoded so that they will play only on a proprietary operating system The operating system pieferably has a modem that may be queried by the system's billing system on a periodic basis to bill the account By continuously providing significant content thi ough the satellite transmission system, movie produceis, or other content owneis, always have all of then content available for sale Because the system will be providing its own leceπ er, server and proprietary software system that will support the digital projection units, the encoded content transmitted to each theater is protected from privacy In addition to the transmission techniques descπbed above, it will be appreciated that the system may operate utilizing a "plattei" of CD ROM, DVD RAM, DVD ROM, tapes or the like on site at each servei associated with each digital movie display device 230 As stated above, any suitable type of digital movie display device may be utilized in the movie theaters that ai e customers of system 220 Examples are as follows 1 A large, seamless, flat screen LED display having relatively low power LED's suitable for the low ambient light conditions of a movie theater 2 A high resolution, full color display utilizing high power LED's providing a light source for an LCD shutter-type screen as described in U S Patent No 5,724,062, incorporated herein by reference 3 A projection system based on the digital light processing (DLP) technology developed by Texas Instruments Complete electronic movie display systems utilizing the Texas Instruments DLP technology are sold by various manufacturers, including Runco, foi example, Runco product VX7 4 Reflective LCD technology developed by Hughes/JVC and Reflective Technologies can provide a completely digital, flat panel, full color movie screen Figure 4 illustrates another system 420 including a network connecting both electronic displays 30 intended for advertising in high traffic areas and electronic movie display devices 30M intended for use as movie "screens" in digital movie theaters According to this embodiment of the invention, input module 470 transmits advertising content to displays 30 in the manner described above in connection with the embodiment of Figure 1 , while also serving to transmit movies in digital form to movie theaters having a server 100M and electronic movie display devices 30M. The Invention Applied to Tying in the Content of Electronic Billboards Adjacent Roadways to Point of Purchase Displays Located at Retail Stores Referring to Figures 5-7, there is shown another implementation of the invention wherein electronic displays 30 in the form of electronic billboards adjacent roadways are used in conjunction with point of purchase displays 30POP that are located in retail stores. According to this implementation of the invention, an advertiser, such as a chain of retail stores, may place advertisements on selected roadside displays 30 in particular geographic location(s) to inform consumers of special value or promotional items at the advertiser's place(s) of business. In the example illustrated in Figures 6 and 7, the advertiser, "Home Building Depot", places advertisements through system 420 at selected times and on a selected number of roadway-adjacent electronic displays 30 (only one shown) informing consumers that certain items are on sale at the company's area stores. In this case, 2x4's are $5.00, grass seed in fifty-pound bags is $30.00, a Toro riding lawn mower is $800.00, etc. The advertisement at roadway-adjacent displays 30 may also give the location(s) of the company's local stores by street address, by map location, or both. In conjunction with this highway-adjacent billboard advertising, the advertiser, Home Building Depot, utilizes point of purchase displays at the area stores to tie into the billboard advertisement, for example, by repeating the special sale items and prices and directing the customers to the store aisles where the particular products may be found. In preferred embodiments, the point of purchase displays 30POP take the form of electronic displays, for example electronic ink displays produced under the IMMEDIA brand by E-Ink Corporation of Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The electronic ink displays will hold text for an extended period of time without consuming power and the message can be changed virtually instantly to a new message. In certain embodiments, the format and content of displays 30POP (whether electronic or otherwise) may be controlled by each store without direct input from the other stores or the company's headquarters, other than to assure that the point of purchase displays 30POP are coordinated with the company's roadway advertisements implemented through system 420. In more preferred embodiments, the format and content of displays 30POP are controlled by the same person(s) who places the roadside billboard advertisements through system 420. Preferably, this coordination of content between the roadway-adjacent displays 30 and the point of purchase displays 30POP is achieved by utilizing electronic displays 30POP whose format and content is controlled through a network from a personal computer. This control may be achieved through system 420, in which case displays 30POP are part of the network of electronic displays (Figure 1), with data transmission being carried out as described above. In this regard, because of the small amount of information needed for communicating a simple message for certain types of electronic point of purchase displays 30POP, a satellite paging communications system may be used to transmit data to displays 30POP. Alterna- tively, each retailer that uses system 420 for its roadside sign advertising may connect its displays 30POP through the Internet, a private intranet or other suitable means. While the present invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, it will be appreciated that modifications may be made without departing from the true spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims: C L A I M S 1 A system permitting \ideo oi still image content to be displayed on selected ones of multiple electiomc displays at selected times according to the dictates of system customers, said system comprising a netwoik connecting to a plurality of electronic displays, at least one central information processing station including a customer interface permitting system customers to access the system, means permitting system customers to ieview options concerning their oiders, means permitting a system customer to place an order for a particular video or still image content to be displayed on a particular electronic display of the network, means for transmitting customei -ordered video or still image content to the customer-selected electronic display location, and means for driving each electronic display to display customer- ordered video or still image content 2 The system of claim 1 , wherein the electronic displays are located in outdoor or mdoor high traffic areas primarily for advertising purposes, the video or still image content comprises advertising content and the central information processing station includes means for receiving customer-transmitted video or still image advertising content 3 The system of claim 2, wherein advertisements on the electronic displays tie into point of purchase displays at stores of the advertisers 4 The system of claim 1 , wherein the electronic displays are electronic movie display devices located in movie theaters, the video or still image content comprises movies in digital form and the system customers comprise movie theater operators 5 A system for the distribution of movies owned by content providers and for display of the movies in digital movie theaters according to the dictates of movie theater operators who are the customers of the system, said system composing a netwoik connecting to a plurality of electronic ιe display devices located in moue theaters, at least one central information processing station including a customer interface permitting system customers to access the system, means permitting a system customei to ieview movies that are available in digital form to the customer, means permitting a system customer to schedule and purchase a movie foi display on a particular electronic movie display device located at the customer's movie theatei, and means for transmitting a customei -ordeied movie in digital form to the custome s movie theater location 6 The system of claim 5, wherein the electronic movie display devices are selected from the group consisting of LED displays, LCD shutter-type screens, digital light processing systems and reflective LCD displays 7 The system of claim 5, including means foi generating bills to customers 8 The system of claim 5, including means foi generating royalty payment information for use in paying the content providers for use of their content 9 The system of claim 5, wherein the system includes at least one receiver and at least one server for each custome s movie theater location 10 The system of claim 5, wherein said means for transmitting a customer-ordered movie in digital form to the customer's movie theater includes a satellite downlink at each customer's movie theater location 1 1 The system of claim 10, wherein the movies are transmitted in encoded digital form and the satellite downlink includes a decoder protecting against piracy 12 The system of claim 1 1 , wherein the movies are transmitted in non- 13 The system of claim 5, wherein said central information processing station includes a customer interface web server permitting Internet access to the system 14. A method for distribution of movies owned by content providers and for display of the movies in digital movie theaters according to the dictates of movie theater operators who are the customers, said method comprising the steps of: permitting customers to review movies that are available in digital form to the customers; peimitting a customer to schedule and purchase a movie for display on a particular electronic movie display device located at the customer's movie theater; and transmitting a customer-ordered movie in digital form to the customer's movie theater location. 15. A system permitting commercial advertisers to directly place video or still image advertisements at selected times and locations on a network of multiple electronic displays, said system comprising: a network including a plurality of electronic displays located in high traffic areas such as areas of high vehicular traffic, indoor and outdoor areas with high pedestrian traffic, movie theaters, restaurants, sports arenas and casinos; at least one central information processing station including: means permitting commercial advertising customers of the system to review a schedule of times and electronic display locations that are available for placement of advertisements and permitting customers to purchase available times at desired electronic display locations for placement of their advertising content; means for receiving customer transmitted video or still image advertising content; means for transmitting the advertising content received from the customer to the customer-selected electronic display location; and means for driving each selected electronic display to display the customer's advertising content at the customer-selected time. 16. The system of claim 15, wherein at least a substantial number of electronic displays are LED displays. 17. The system of claim 16, wherein each electronic display has its own dedicated server that receives advertising content information from the central information processing station and drives its respective electronic display to display the customer's advertising content at the customer-selected time. 18. The system of claim 15, wherein the mode of transmission for said means for transmitting the advertising content to the customer-selected electronic display is selected from the group consisting of high speed cable, satellite, dedicated phone, high speed line (e.g., ISDN), cellular, Internet, radio/radio pulse transmission and high speed optical fiber. 19. The system of claim 15, wherein said central information processing system includes a customer interface web server permitting public Internet access to the system. 20. The system of claim 15, including means for permitting review of customer advertising content before the content is transmitted to the customer- selected electronic display. 21. The system of claim 15, including means for generating a bill for the advertising time. 22. The system of claim 15, including means for generating a report to be sent to the customer confirming that an advertisement has run as ordered. 23. The system of claim 22, wherein said means for generating a report serves to generate demographic or market analysis. 24. The system of claim 15, wherein at least a substantial number of said electronic displays have associated cameras. 25. A system providing video or still image advertisements at selected times and locations on a network of multiple electronic displays, said system comprising: a network including a plurality of electronic displays located in high traffic areas such as areas of high vehicular traffic, indoor and outdoor areas with high pedestrian traffic, movie theaters, restaurants, sports arenas and casinos; at least one central information processing station including: means permitting advertising customers of the system to purchase time slots at selected electronic display locations for display of their advertising content; means for transmitting customer advertising content to the selected electronic display locations; and means for driving the electronic display at each selected location to display the customer's advertising content at the selected time. 26. A method of providing video or still image advertisements at selected times and locations on a network of multiple electronic displays that are located in high traffic areas such as areas of high vehicular traffic, indoor and outdoor areas with high pedestrian traffic, movie theaters, restaurants, sports arenas and casinos; permitting advertising customers of the system to purchase time slots at selected electronic display locations for display of their advertising content; transmitting customer advertising content to the selected electronic display locations; and driving the electronic display at each selected location to display the customer's advertising content at the selected time. 27. A system permitting a commercial advertiser with retail stores to place video or still-image advertisements at selected times and locations on a network of multiple electronic roadside displays, and to tie the roadside advertisements into point of purchase displays at the advertiser's retail stores, said system comprising: a network including a plurality of roadside electronic displays; means permitting a commercial advertiser with retail stores to place video or still-image advertisements at selected times on selected ones of the network's roadside electronic displays; and point of purchase displays at selected ones of the commercial advertiser's retail stores displaying content that ties into the content of the video or still-image advertisements run on the roadside electronic displays. 28. The system of claim 27, wherein said means permitting a commercial advertiser to place advertisements includes a central processing station that permits a commercial advertiser to transmit its advertising content to the station from which it is routed for display at the customer-selected roadside electronic displays. 29. The system of claim 28, wherein the point of purchase displays at selected ones of the commercial advertiser's retail stores are electronic point of purchase displays, said network of electronic displays includes the point of purchase displays and the content of the point of purchase displays is transmitted by the advertiser thiough said central processing station 30 The system of claim 27 wherein the point of pui chase displays at selected ones of the commercial advertiser ' s retail stores aie electronic point of purchase displays 31 The system of claim 30, wherein said electiomc point of purchase displays compπse electiomc ink displays 32 The system of claim 30, wherein the electiomc point of puichase displays are part of a network of point of purchase displays m multiple stores, said netwoik being independent of said roadside electronic display netw oik and controlled by the commercial advertiser 33 The system of claim 27, wherein the loadside advertisements display information concerning special value or promotional items foi sale at the advertiser's retail stoies and the point of purchase displays repeat the special value or promotional sale information 34 The system of claim 27, wherein the roadside advertisements include information concerning the locations of area stores of the commercial advertiser 35 A method permitting a commercial advertiser with retail stores to place video or still-image advertisements at selected times and locations on a network of multiple electronic roadside displays, and to tie the roadside advertisements into point of purchase displays at the advertise s retail stores, said method comprising permitting a commercial advertiser with retail stores to place video or still-image advertisements at selected times on selected roadside electronic displays, and providing point of purchase displays at selected ones of the commercial advertiser's retail stores displaying content that ties into the content of the video or still-image advertisements run on the roadside electronic displays

Inventors: HUNTER CHARLES ERIC, HUNTER, CHARLES, ERIC
Applicants: HUNTER CHARLES ERIC, WORLD THEATRE INC, HUNTER, CHARLES, ERIC, WORLD THEATRE, INC.
Application year: 2000
Main classification: G11B
IPC codes: G06Q30, G06Q50, G09F19, G11B33, H04N7