Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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BACKGROUND OF THE tNVENT'ION
The advertiser uses Outdoor / Out-of home advertising to deliver a message to
a select group of
people. An advertising agency will create a static advertisement designed to
promote and sell
the advertiser's product or service. Once the artwork is complete, in
electronic form, it is ready
to be physically built for display to the public. Currently in Outdoor / Out-
of home advertising,
before the advertisement can be seen by the public in its final form, it must
first be printed on
paper, mounted on a board, and erected on a frame or mounted against a wall to
be seen. This is
a time consuming and an expensive process. Because the current process is
labor intensive and
involves many tradesmen, the process to change the advertisement content, once
printing of the
advertisement has started, is a lengthy and costly process for the advertiser.
With Remote
Outdoor / Out-of home Projection Advertising the advertisement is projected
onto a flat, white
and reflective surface. Because the source of information is in electronic
form, the current digital
61e can be easily and quickly replaced with another file containing new
information. A projector
is used for projecting information onto a screen, which is any clear
reflective surface suitable for
viewing a light projection of an image. Two examples of a screen are the blank
unused face of a
billboard or a large screen hanging from the ceiling inside a shopping mall.
The projector will
receive the advertisement, an electronic file, from the computer [2] it is
connected to. The
computer [2] gets the electronic file from the central server [ I ]. The
server ( 1 ] stores all the
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advertisements that are projected by any one of mmy projectors electronically
connected to a
data network. A control program on the server schedules the downloading of
electronic files to
the computer [2], and sends all the control data needed by the computer [2] to
control the
projector [3] and advertisement. This method of Outdoor / Out-of home
advertising requires low
ambient light levels, which can be obtained indoors during any 24 hour period,
and outdoors
when the screen is not in direct sunlight.
Current Outdoor / Out-of home advertising attracts limited attention from the
public due to the
static nature of the advertisements. Using a computer to provide and control
advertising
information sent to a projector, motion can be added to Outdoor / Out-of home
advertisements,
thus attracting more attention whilst selling to an audience in motion.
In addition to advertising, this system can be widely used to broadcast news
to promote public
well being and general awareness about people in our society.
DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART
Patent Application: CA 2171280
MOTION PICTURE BILLBOARD
Examination requested: June 7, 1996
Abstract:
This invention is titled the motion picture billboard, and is to be utilized
in billboard advertising.
The standard "still" used in billboard advertising, will now be converted into
"motion pictures,"
yet this invention is not a film or video. It does, however, still implement
the concept of motion
pictures, of a certain number of "frames", or visuals, per second that flash
by the viewer's eyes.
This creates a uniform sequence of images that appear to be in motion. Hence,
motion picture
billboards. The billboard surfacx itself is divided into several "rollers"
that fit closely together,
horizontally. These "rollers" are long, circular bars. The diameter of the bar
is generally quite
small. In behind each "roller", is a set of "paper-feeds." on these "paper-
feeds", is paper, with
images on it. The image-laden paper leaves paper-feed a, is "rolled" around
the rollers, then onto
paper-feed b. There are several rollers to a billboard. All the images are
sized and timed to work
in unison, creating a motion picture billboard.
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DESCRIPTION
~ Remote Outdoor / Out-of home Projection Advertising (ROOPA)
~ This display method uses computers and projectors to improve the
effectiveness of
Outdoor / Out-of home advertising by adding motion to the advertisement. It
gives the
advertiser the ability to change the advertisement content and display time
quickly and
easily, at a lower cost than is currently possible.
~ Motion is added to Outdoor / Out-of home advertisements that sell to an
audience in
motion. The Outdoor/Out-of home Media Vehicles that can be adapted to display
motion
include:
Standard Posters made of paper stock or wood base
Super-boards that are hand painted on wood or metal sections, or computer
printed on super-flex flexible vinyl
Mall posters made of high quality paper frame
The adaptation required for the above Media Vehicles is to modify the surface
to be used
as a screen to achieve a white blank surface that is effective as a light
projection screen
for viewing an image.
~ Current Outdoor advertising attracts limited attention from the public due
to the static
nature of the advertisements. With Remote Outdoor Projection Advertising the
computer
[2] feeds multiple frames of the advertisement to the projector [3], each
frame
representing a small change similar to motion pictures, creating a moving
advertisement.
The multiple frames of the advertisement are stored in electronic files. The
light
projector [3] can be an LCD or DLP type projector.
~ Current Outdoor advertising does not give the advertiser the flexibility
required to easily
and quickly change the advertising content. With Remote Outdoor Projection
Advertising the advertisements are stored as electronic files. The electronic
files are
stored on a server [1 ], physically located at any distance from the computer
[2] and
projector [3]. The electronic files are then downloaded to a computer [2]. The
computer
[2] will download the advertisement frames to the projector [2] that will
display the
advertisement. Once the advertiser has a new advertisement in an electronic
file format,
created by an advertising agency, the electronic file is simply loaded onto
the server, then
from the server [1 ] to the computer [2] that will automatically feed the
projector [3],
which will project the new advertisement onto a screen [4].
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~ This advertising can be applied in a shopping mall. Retailers can display
their
advertisements onto a screen [4] during peak shopping hours. Each advertiser
will
provide an electronic file with the advertising contents for the public to
view. These files
will be loaded onto the server [ t ]. The server will automatically download
the files to the
computer [2] that feeds and controls the projector [3].
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