FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to public furniture

(i.e. furniture for public places), and to methods for providing geolocated information.

More particularly, the invention concerns public furniture including an electronic screen and a controller adapted for driving the screen.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Such public furniture can be found for instance in the streets, in shopping malls, in airports, and so on.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One object of the present invention is to further improve such public furniture, in particular for providing better service to the users.

To this end, the invention provides public furniture adapted to be installed in a place defined by predetermined positioning data in a standard radio- positioning system (by satellite or by cellular telecommunication network) , said public furniture including :

an electronic screen,

- a controller controlling said screen,

wherein said controller has access to at least one geolocated application using positioning data and is adapted to run said geolocated application, said controller having access to said predetermined positioning data and being programmed to input said predetermined positioning data to the geolocated application each time said geolocated application requires positioning data, said public furniture being deprived of any receiver adapted for radio-positioning said public furniture.

Thanks to these features, the public furniture is able to give geolocated information to the user through the screen (weather, points of interest, trip planning, etc.) using resources in memory and web resources, and this without use of any radio-positioning receiver. Further, said application may be any standard application usually using positioning data from a standard radio-positioning system by satellite (e.g. GPS) or by cellular telecommunication system (e.g. UMTS), thus giving access to a wide range of existing applications at a low cost.

In various embodiments of the invention, one may further use one or several of the following features, which may possibly be used independently from one another and independently from the above features:

said electronic screen is a touch screen (having for instance a diagonal of at least 50 cm) and said controller is a screen controller having a driver for controlling said touch screen and receiving inputs generated by interaction of a user with said touch screen: the public furniture may thus be able to use existing geolocated applications usually used in smartphones and smartpads ;

the screen controller is a standardly used controller for smartphones and/or smartpads;

the screen controller is an ARM® controller;

- the public furniture further includes a communication interface enabling communication between said controller and the internet.

Besides, the invention also provides a method for providing geolocated information through a public furniture adapted to be installed in a place defined by predetermined positioning data in a standard radio-positioning system, said method including the steps of :

- running a geolocated application on a controller in said public furniture, said geolocated application using positioning data,

each time said geolocated application requires positioning data, inputting said predetermined positioning data to the geolocated application from a memory, without receiving said positioning data from any receiver adapted for radio-positioning said public furniture.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other features and advantages of the invention will appear from the following description of one embodiment thereof, given as non-limiting example, with regards to the enclosed drawings.

In the drawings:

- Figure 1 is a schematic perspective view of an example of public furniture according to one embodiment of the invention, constituting a bus shelter,

Figure 2 is a block diagram off the bus shelter figure 1,

Figure 3 is and example of home page being adapted to be displayed by the screen of the bus shelter of Figure 1, and

Figure 4 is a logical diagram explaining one aspect of the ergonomic operation of the screen of the bus shelter of Figure 1.

MORE DETAILED DESCRIPTION

On the different figures, the same references denote identical or similar elements.

Figure 1 shows an example of public furniture 1 which may incorporate the present invention. In this example, the public furniture 1 is a bus shelter, but might be another public transportation shelter useable e.g. for trams, trains or publically shared vehicles, any other type of public furniture (display panels, walls, tables, ground element , etc . ) .

The bus shelter 1 may include for instance a roof 2 (for instance made of or including an active glass panel having electrically controlled optical properties, in particular electrically controlled transparency) supported for instance by one or more post(s) 3 and/or one or more wall(s) 4, and further including glass walls 5 in this example. The roof 2 may include lights 6 for lightening the space inside the shelter 1 at night.

The public furniture 1 further includes a touch screen 7 (more specially a multi-touch screen) , which may be integrated in the wall 4 in the example shown and which may have a diagonal of at least 50 cm, in particular more than 80 cm, specially more 110 cm. The public furniture 1 might have several touch screens 7, possibly one of them having a diagonal of less than 80 cm (e.g. an additional touch screen for disabled people, at chair's height) .

As shown in Figures 1 and 2, the public furniture 1 may further include one or several of the following peripheral electric devices (in addition to the lighting system 6 (LIGHT) and the electrically controlled active glass panel 2 (GLASS)):

- one or more detector 14, 15 (DETECT.1, DETECT.2), for instance infra-red detectors or radar detectors, adapted to detect a presence in the vicinity of the public furniture (here, one detector 14 is for detecting presence of a user in the bus shelter 1 and another one 15 is for detecting presence of a vehicle near the bus shelter) ,

- an additional display 8 (DISPLAY 1), e.g. a LED display, for displaying updated general information such as waiting times for next public transportation vehicles, traffic information, weather information, news, etc. received e.g. from the internet (the shelter 1 may have two additional displays 8, one inside (DISPLAY 1) and one outside (DISPLAY 2) ) ,

- a set of microphone and loudspeaker 12, 13 (LP, MC) , - a camera 11 (CAM),

- a payment terminal 9 (EPT) e.g. for card payment,

a short range radio interface 10 e.g. for NFC communication,

- control buttons 7a, 7b (Bl, B2) controlling the touch screen (e.g. a "home" button 7a and a "back" button 7b, the use of which will be explained later (these physical buttons could be replaced, however, by virtual buttons displayed on the touch screen) .

As shown on Figure 2, the public furniture 1 further has a screen controller 20 (CPU) having a driver for controlling said touch screen 7 and receiving inputs generated by interaction of a user with said touch screen 7, and said screen controller 20 also controls said peripheral electric devices. The screen controller 20 may further be connected to an external permanent memory 21 (MEM) and to a communication interface 23 (MODEM) enabling communication between said screen controller 20 and the internet, preferably through a proxy server 24 (PROXY) filtering and controlling communication between said screen controller 20 and the internet, so as to enable access to only certain web sites and services. The screen controller 20 may also communicate with an administration server 25 (ADM), e.g. through the proxy server 24.

The screen controller 20 may be a standardly used controller for smartphones and/or smartpads, e.g. an ARM® controller, functioning under LINUX®/ANDROID®.

The screen controller 20 may be connected to the touch screen 7 and the above peripheral devices 2, 6, 7a, 7b, 8-15 through a connection card (INT) having several types of connectors 22a (e.g. USB ports, RS232 ports, RJ45 network ports, etc.) for connection to said touch screen and peripheral devices, thus enabling connection of the standard screen controller 20 to a wide range of peripheral devices. The peripheral devices controlled by the screen controller 20 may also include a power supply (not shown) , supplying electrical power for instance from a photovoltaic panel and a battery.

When the peripheral devices include a detector 14, 15 adapted for detecting a presence in a vicinity of the public furniture, the screen controller 20 may be programmed for modifying operation of another electric device according to detections performed by said detector 14, 15. For instance, the screen controller may be programmed to start or strengthen lighting by the lighting system 6, when a user is detected by detector 14 at night, and/or to start or modify the messages of display (s) 8 when a user is detected by detector 14 or a vehicle is detected by detector 15.

The screen controller 20 may also control transparency of the active glass panel 2 according to the time of the day and/or information received from the internet and/or information received from meteorological or luminosity detectors (not shown) .

Said screen controller 20 has access to a plurality of applications each corresponding to an icon 7d and is adapted to present said icons on the touch screen 7as shown on Figure 3. The controller 20 is adapted to run an application corresponding to an icon 7d when a user touches said icon on the touch screen.

The screen controller 20 runs a launcher, which is a program adapted to display a home page on the touch screen 7, giving access to the applications available. An example of such home page is shown on Figure 3, where said home page presents:

- icons 7d giving access to corresponding applications ,

thematic touch zones 7c enabling to obtain presentation of respective groups of icons 7d by touching said touch zones 7c,

and updated general information (weather, traffic, waiting times, news, etc.) shown e.g. in a strip 7e of the touch screen 7.

The launcher may also be adapted to display at least a screen saver (not shown), which may e.g. display at least one animation presenting services available through the touch screen 7 and possibly updated general information as defined above.

As shown on Figure 4, the displays presented on the touch screen 7 may be managed as follows by the launcher:

while the touch screen 7 is waiting for use, the screen saver is shown (step SI);

when a user touches the touch screen 7 while the screen saver is displayed (step S2), the launcher may be adapted to launch a predetermined application related to the animation presented by the screen saver, possibly after confirmation from the user (step S3), after which the application is either launched by launcher and run by the screen controller 20 (step S4) if confirmation, or the launcher launches the home page (step S7) if no confirmation;

- when the application is running on the screen controller 20, or at any time, pressing the "home" button (step S6) entails display of the home page on the touch screen 7 by the launcher (step S7) and from this home page, touching an icon (step S2) entails launching of the corresponding application by the launcher;

when the touch screen 7 has not received any touch from a user during a predetermined duration (step S5), the launcher is adapted to display the screen saver.

The launcher is adapted to reset applications previously used by a user, each time said home page or said screen saver are displayed on the touch screen.

Further, when the "back" button 7b is actuated by a user, the screen controller 20 goes back to the previous page displayed by the touch screen 7.

Among the applications available through the touch screen 7, may be at least one internet application requiring payments: in that case, the screen controller may be programmed so that this application is able to take into account a payment made through said electronic payment terminal 9.

Among the applications available through the touch screen 7, may also be at least one internet application providing voice and/or visual communication, in which case the screen controller 20 may use the camera 11 and/or the set of microphone and loudspeaker 12, 13.

Further, among the applications available through the touch screen 7, may be at least one application implying communication with a phone of a user, in which case the screen controller 20 may use the NFC interface 10.

Furthermore, among the applications available through the touch screen 7, may be at least one geolocated application using positioning data. In that case, the screen controller 20 may have access to predetermined positioning data representing, in a standard radio- positioning system, the position where the public furniture is installed. This predetermined positioning data may be stored for instance in permanent memory 21. The screen controller 20 may be programmed to input said predetermined positioning data to the geolocated application each time said geolocated application requires positioning data, said public furniture 1 being deprived of any radio receiver (satellite or cellular positioning receiver) adapted for radio-positioning said public furniture.

All the above applications, as well as others, may be either internet applications implying communication with the internet, or local applications running on the screen controller 20.

The administration server 25 and the set of pieces of public furniture 1, installed in several places, which communicate therewith, constitute an interactive public information system which is managed and supervised centrally by the administration server 25.

One of the tasks of said administration server 25 is to update the applications (addition, removal, change of version) in each piece of public furniture 1, in particular according to at least the place of each piece of public furniture. Update of the applications is not possible to a user through the touch screen 7.

The administration server 25 may have a database of the set of pieces of public furniture 1, including at least :

- a public furniture field corresponding to each piece of furniture in the set,

- a group field corresponding to groups of pieces of furniture in the set, having the same applications, each group of pieces of furniture being preferably composed of pieces of furniture 1 located in a same area,

- a contract field corresponding to a client associated to each piece of furniture 1 in the set,

- a type field corresponding to the launcher of the public furniture ,

possibly, a positioning field corresponding to the predetermined positioning data of each piece of furniture, - possibly, an application package field corresponding to a package of applications installed on the piece of furniture (an example of application package can be for instance a package of applications related to transportation, or related to some other theme) .

Advantageously, updates of the applications in the pieces of public furniture 1 are made according to the groups of pieces of furniture. Possibly, the updates can also be made according to the application packages, in which case all the public furniture having the same application package are updated together when an application package is updated.

The administration server 25 may also be adapted to supervise operation of the pieces of public furniture 1 either individually, or by groups (thus enabling for instance to spot problems in the communication network used between the public furniture and the server 25), or by contracts (thus enabling reporting to the client), or by application package or by application (thus enabling to build reports of use of applications or of application packages ) .

Said administration server 25 may also send said predetermined positioning data to the corresponding pieces of public furniture 1. Said predetermined positioning data may also be used for maintenance of the public furniture, e.g. to guide maintenance agents to the right public furniture .

It should be further noted that any of the applications may have a content specific to the public furniture or to the group of public furniture, and in particular specific to the position thereof. In some cases, this content may be updated by the administration server 25 (e.g., geolocated information can be updated by the server 25 in the controller 20, so as to present real time information in cartographic applications, showing for instance traffic information, or information about bicycles available in stations of free bicycles, or else) .

The administration server 25 may also be adapted to remotely control all or part of the peripheral devices and/or the touch screen 7, for instance to adjust brightness of the screen, simulate touches on the touch screen, control and/or receive images from the camera 11 e.g. for remote monitoring, receive alarms from the peripheral devices or from the touch screen 7, etc.