WO2016042200A1

WO2016042200A1 - Display language arrangement

Info

Publication number: WO2016042200A1
Application number: PCT/FI2014/050719
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jukka Salmikuukka; Jere VUORENALA; Kim BERGMAN; Mika BELOV; Hannu NOUSU
Original assignee: Kone Corporation
Priority date: 2014-09-19
Filing date: 2014-09-19
Publication date: 2016-03-24
Also published as: US20170166417A1; CN107077811A; EP3195298A1; EP3195298A4; EP3195298B1; US10427910B2

Abstract

Public displays are used for various purposes. They are used for displaying any kind of information and even for controlling devices such as elevators. In order to provide best possible benefit the public display should be displaying information in a language that the viewer understands and in a manner that the user can read the text on the display. The user preferences may be selected and applied by requesting a user preference indication from a mobile device. If the room includes more than one person the user preference indication is received from a plurality of persons and the decision of user preferences to be used is done then based on the received indications.

Description

DISPLAY LANGUAGE ARRANGEMENT

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to public displays and in particularly to choosing the language of operation for such display.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Public displays are commonly available in various applications. For example, a public display can be located in an elevator. The display can be used for various purposes including displaying important information, commercial messages and other messages. Sometimes the public display is used even for elevator controls. The display may be a touch sensitive display or there may be further control keys in the vicinity of the display, such as conventional buttons. In some applications public display system includes a plurali^¬ ty of displays configured to show different infor^¬ mation on each of the screens in a manner that the us- er experience is maximized. An important issue in max^¬ imizing the user experience is the language of the display. When messages are shown to a person in a pre^¬ ferred language the user experience is maximized.

The most conventional solution is to include all information in a plurality of languages, however, in more advanced solutions including displays may in^¬ clude a plurality of language versions and only the chosen is shown. In prior art solutions the language can be chosen manually, for example, by tapping an icon showing a flag on the touch screen or by introducing a key card, or other electronic key acting as a key card, for example a mobile device using near field communication, at the elevator panel. In this case the language selection has been previously stored to the key card. The problem with the prior art is that the language selection is done only after touching the display or introducing the key card or similar. Furthermore, as the key cards are typically site specific in many cases the key card does not work when the per^¬ son wishing to change the language is not in an eleva^¬ tor connected to the system controlling his key card or other access control device. SUMMARY

Public displays are used for various purpos^¬ es. They are used for displaying any kind of information and even for controlling devices such as elevators. In order to provide best possible benefit the public display should be displaying information in a language that the viewer understands. Furthermore, the properties of the display should be adjusted so that a person can read the text on the display without bur^¬ den. For example, the font should be large enough and the contrast and color selection should be adjusted such that the text is easy to read. In an embodiment of the invention user preferences may be selected by requesting a user preference indication from a mobile device. If the room or space includes more than one person the user preference indication is received from a plurality of persons and the decision of preferences to be used is done then based on the received indica^¬ tions, however, possible legal limitations are taken into account. For example, the law may require that the control panel of an elevator is available also in an official language of the state.

In a further embodiment of the invention is implemented as a method for choosing a language for a public display arrangement. In the method at least one mobile device in the vicinity of the display is de^¬ tected. The communication between the public display and the detected mobile devices is established. The communication is established by using a connection covering at least the area from where the content of said public display can be seen. For example, if the public display has been installed to an elevator the communication technology should be able to cover the whole elevator so that the passengers need not to in^¬ teract in the process but it is performed automatical^¬ ly, for example, when the mobile device is in a pocket or bag. Using the communication at least one indica^¬ tion of at least one preferred language from at the at least one mobile device is received. At least one lan^¬ guage of operation for the at least one public display based on the received at least one indication is de- termined. In the end the determined at least one lan^¬ guage to the at least one public display respectively is applied.

The above mentioned at least one indication of at least one user preference may indicate more than one user preference in order of preference. The indi^¬ cation may be received from an application executed in a mobile device or it may be retrieved from a public profile such as Bluetooth profile of the device. In an embodiment of the invention the method disclosed above is implemented as a computer program that is executed in a computing device.

The computing device may be an apparatus com^¬ prising processor, at least one memory and a wireless network connection. The apparatus is configured to detect at least one mobile device in the vicinity of said display, establish communication between said public display and said detected mobile devices, re^¬ ceive at least one indication of at least one user preference from at said at least one mobile device, determine at least one user preference for said at least one public display based on said received at least one indication, and apply said determined at least one user preference to said at least one public display respectively.

The apparatus may be further configured to receive said at least one indication of at least one user preference indicating more than user preference in order of preference. The apparatus may be config^¬ ured to receive the indication from a mobile device using a controlling application or by retrieving a public profile of a mobile device, such as Bluetooth public profile. In a further embodiment the apparatus described above is incorporated to an elevator car.

A local communication method is used for communication between a public display and mobile device. Any suitable communication method may be used, howev- er, the method must be such that the public display arrangement is able to communicate with the mobile de^¬ vice without any actions performed by the user of the device. Thus, the mobile device must be able to com^¬ municate with the public display, for example, when it is in a bag or pocket. For example, in an application involving a public display in an elevator this means the communication distance is few meters and in a larger space application, such as a lobby, the distance may be chosen according to the application need, however, typically not longer than average eye-sight but long enough that people passing by do not need to go closer in order to apply their user preferences.

The benefits of the invention include an ad^¬ vanced selection of user preferences for public dis- plays. The advanced selection provides the best possi^¬ ble understandability for viewers by choosing user preferences, such as language, font size, color, con^¬ trast and similar according to the received preferred user preference indications. Thus, the system is capa- ble of providing the information shown on the public display in a language that the majority of viewers un^¬ derstand in a manner that they can read. Furthermore, the user preferences are not limited only to the man^¬ ner how the information is displayed but also which content is displayed. Furthermore, the benefits of the invention include the automatic indication of user preferences. Thus, the person viewing the public dis^¬ play does not need to be active in applying user pref^¬ erences but user preferences are chosen automatically. Furthermore, the automatic user preference appliance works even in those cases where the person viewing the display is not even aware of possibility of applying user preferences. A further benefit of the invention is that the selection may be performed even if the person is located too far from the conventional selec^¬ tor that needs to be touched. For example, in a modern large elevator the distance may be few meters.

In addition to the improved user experience the benefits of the invention include that the user does not need any separate key card and there is no need to store user preferences to a database associat- ed with said key card.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and constitute a part of this specification, illus^¬ trate embodiments of the invention and together with the description help to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of an example embodiment of the present invention, and

Fig. 2 is a flow chart of a method according to the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

In figure 1 a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. In the embodiment a language selection is used as an example, however, other user preferences are applied correspondingly. Furthermore, it is possible to receive indication or indications for a plurality of user preferences that may be ap^¬ plied if it is possible. In the embodiment a public display 11 is located in an elevator car 10. The pub^¬ lic display 11 may be related to controlling of the movements of the elevator car 10 or it may be a sepa- rate system displaying important information, entertainment, advertisements or any kind of information what could be of interest. Passengers travelling using the elevator car 10 have a mobile device 13 which is communicating with the public display by using a wire- less communication method 14. The wireless communica^¬ tion method is typically Bluetooth, WiFi or similar local communication method, which can communicate over a small distance without a need of close contact com^¬ parable to an introduction of key card. The network connectivity means may be incorporated with the public display or there may be a separate transceiver coupled to the controller controlling the display. The public display may include controller for controlling the device or the controller may be an external server 12. In case of an external server 12 the server 12 comprises a processor 15 and at least one memory 16 need^¬ ed for processing requests, executing computer programs and for storing different language versions. The at least one memory 16 may be a combination of vola- tile and non-volatile memories of different technolo^¬ gies. Thus, the public display 11 receives instruc^¬ tions from the server 12 located somewhere else. When the person enters the elevator car 10 the public dis^¬ play 11 detects a new mobile device 13. A communica^¬ tion is established between the public display 11 and mobile device 13.

After establishing the communication between the public display 13 and the mobile device 11 the mo^¬ bile device 13 submits an indication of at least one preferred language to the public display. The communi^¬ cation may be initiated by public display 11 or mobile device 13. For example, the mobile device may include an application that is used for controlling services relating public displays. Then, the mobile device 13 may send the indication of at least one preferred lan^¬ guage, however, the owner of the mobile device 13 may prevent the transmittal if he wishes so. Correspond^¬ ingly, if the public display 11 requests the indica^¬ tion from the application the owner may prevent it. In other implementation the network connection involves public profile information, such as Bluetooth profile. The profile may include a language indication, which is then automatically read by the public display 13.

With the received at least one indication the public display may adapt languages in a manner that preferences of as large portion people as possible are taken into account. Thus, the public display will be able to show all information so that majority of peo^¬ ple seeing the display will understand the message.

In figure 2 a flow chart of a method accord^¬ ing to the present invention is disclosed. In the method the language selection of a public display, such as a display located in an elevator, is controlled by mobile device, such as a mobile phone. The method is initiated by detecting a mobile phone in the vicinity of a public display, step 20. This can be be achieved, for example, by detecting a device transmit^¬ ting Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or similar signal that can be received at the public display or the receiver con- nected to the controller of the public display. Then the communication between the mobile device and the public screen is initiated, step 21. This can be done by various ways. For example, in an embodiment of the invention the connectivity type used for communication comprises a profile including a language that can be requested. In another embodiment the mobile device comprises an application for controlling a plurality of features related to the public display or for exam- pie, to the elevator. In case of the application the public display will request the application to provide the language information.

As a response to the request an indication of the preferred language is received at the public dis- play, step 22. The received indication may include more than one language, for example, if the person is of the opinion that Finnish language is preferred, however, if it is not possible to use Finnish English language is also acceptable. The number of preferred languages is not limited to two.

The public display may receive more than one indication. Thus, when determining the language to be used in step 23, the public display must solve from the received indications what is the best language to be used or if it is possible to use two or more lan^¬ guages which is the best combination according to the received indications.

Determined languages are then used when dis^¬ playing information to the audience, step 24. The in- formation may be any kind of information that is available on the specific language. For example in case of an elevator, the content of the information may relate to the user interface of the elevator and after passengers have chosen their floors the public display may be used for displaying informative messag^¬ es, entertainment, advertisements and similar. In a further embodiment of the invention the system determines that the display of the mobile de^¬ vice the person is using is capable of acting as a re^¬ placement to the public display. Thus, the language chosen is not presented on the public screen but the information is sent to screen of the mobile device in the selected language. The recognition may be included in the step of where the language indications are re^¬ ceived. Thus, for example, if one person has chosen a language that nobody else has chosen the information may be shown on the display of the mobile device of that person and when selecting the language for a pub^¬ lic display that language indication of a single per^¬ son does not need to be taken into account.

The above mentioned method may be implemented as computer software which is executed in a computing device able to communicate with a mobile device. When the software is executed in a computing device it is configured to perform the above described inventive method. The software is embodied on a computer reada^¬ ble medium so that it can be provided to the computing device, such as the server 12 of figure 1.

As stated above, the components of the exem^¬ plary embodiments can include computer readable medium or memories for holding instructions programmed ac^¬ cording to the teachings of the present inventions and for holding data structures, tables, records, and/or other data described herein. Computer readable medium can include any suitable medium that participates in providing instructions to a processor for execution. Common forms of computer-readable media can include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other suitable magnetic medi^¬ um, a CD-ROM, CD±R, CD±RW, DVD, DVD-RAM, DVD1RW, DVD±R, HD DVD, HD DVD-R, HD DVD-RW, HD DVD-RAM, Blu- ray Disc, any other suitable optical medium, a RAM, a PROM, an EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, any other suitable memory chip or cartridge, a carrier wave or any other suitable medium from which a computer can read.

It is obvious to a person skilled in the art that with the advancement of technology, the basic idea of the invention may be implemented in various ways. The invention and its embodiments are thus not limited to the examples described above; instead they may vary within the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for applying user preferences au^¬ tomatically for a public display arrangement compris^¬ ing :

detecting at least one mobile device in the vicin^¬ ity of said display;

establishing communication between said public display and said detected at least one mobile device, wherein said communication is established by using a connection covering at least the area from where the content of said public display can be seen;

receiving at least one indication of at least one user preference of said at least one mobile device; determining at least one user preference for said at least one public display based on said received at least one indication; and

applying said determined at least one user prefer^¬ ence to said at least one public display respectively.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said at least one user preference is the preferred language of operation.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein said at least one indication of at least one preferred language indicates more than one language in order of preference.

4. The method according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein said indication of at least one user preference is received from a mobile device using a control^¬ ling application.

5. The method according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein said indication of at least one user preference by retrieving a public profile of a mobile de^¬ vice, wherein said public profile comprises at least one user preference.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein said public profile is Bluetooth profile.

7. The method according to claims 1, 2 or 3, wherein said receiving at least one indication of at least one user preference further comprises:

receiving an identification from said at least one mobile device;

transmitting a request of at least one user pref^¬ erence to a server comprising user preferences associ^¬ ated with said identification; and

receiving indication of said at least one user preference as a response to said transmitted request.

8. A computer program for a server comprising code adapted to cause the method according to any of claims 1 - 7 when executed on a data-processing system.

9. An apparatus comprising:

processor (15) ;

at least one memory (16);

a wireless network connection (14);

wherein the apparatus is configured to:

detect at least one mobile device in the vicinity of said display;

establish communication between said public display and said detected at least one mobile device, wherein said communication is established by using a connection covering at least the area from where the content of said public display can be seen;

receive at least one indication of at least one user preference of said at least one mobile device; determine at least one user preference of opera- tion for said at least one public display based on said received at least one indication; and

apply said determined at least one user preference to said at least one public display respectively.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said at least one user preference is the pre^¬ ferred language of operation.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the apparatus is configured to receive said at least one indication of at least one preferred lan^¬ guage indicating more than one language in order of preference.

12. The apparatus according to claim 9, 10 or 11, wherein the apparatus is configured to receive said indication of at least one user preference from a mobile device using a controlling application.

13. The apparatus according to claim 9, 10 or

9, wherein in the apparatus is configured to receive said indication of at least one user preference by re^¬ trieving a public profile of a mobile device.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the apparatus further comprises a Bluetooth device and is further configured to retrieve said pub^¬ lic profile by using said Bluetooth device.

15. The apparatus according to claims 10, 11 or 12, wherein the apparatus, when receiving said at least one indication of at least one user preference, is further configured to:

receive an identification from said at least one mobile device;

transmit a request of at least one user preference to a server comprising user preferences associated with said identification; and

receive indication of said at least one user pref^¬ erence as a response to said transmitted request.

16. An apparatus according to any of preced- ing claims 9 - 15, wherein said communication is established by using Bluetooth or wireless local area network .

17. An elevator comprising an apparatus according to any of preceding claims 9 - 16.