Vizio Patent Would Use GPS to 'Automatically Default' TVs to Their Retail Mode

A TV can be fitted with a “software module” that can use GPS or an internet “reverse look up” to determine if the set resides in a “retail store location” so it can “automatically default” to its retail mode. So says a patent (9,621,835) that Vizio landed Tuesday from the Patent and Trademark Office, based on an October 2014 application, listing Chief Technology Officer Matthew McRae as the inventor. If the TV’s location is determined to be in a retail store, the set will “initialize the video and audio quality for a retail store environment,” and do the same for a “residential environment” if it’s determined the set is not located in a store, says the patent. TV sold at retail are “generally, manually placed” into retail mode to make picture and sound conducive to “environments where the ambient light levels and ambient audio levels are quite high,” it says. A TV with “brightness levels and color saturation suitable for the home environment will appear washed out and dim in a retail environment,” it says. “The inventor recognized a need for a television to automatically determine if it is in a retail environment or a home environment and to set up the display variables such that the first time power is applied, the screen variables are automatically set to be appropriate for the environment.” Vizio representatives didn’t comment Tuesday on whether the company plans to commercialize the invention.