Extending the free fingers typing technology and introducing the finger taps language technology

• US 10,209,881 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2012
• Issued: 02/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cherradi El Fadili, Ibrahim Farid
• Original Assignee: Cherradi El Fadili, Ibrahim Farid
• Inventors: Cherradi El Fadili, Ibrahim Farid
• Primary Examiner(s): Olson, Jason
• Assistant Examiner(s): Neupane, Krishna
• Application Number:
  US14/383,921
• Publication Number:
  US 20150084884A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,532 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0233 Character input methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0304 Detection arrangements using opto-electronic means constructional details of pointing devices not related to the detection arrangement using opto-electronic means G06F3/033; optical digitisers G06F3/042
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0425 using a single imaging device like a video camera for tracking the absolute position of a single or a plurality of objects with respect to an imaged reference surface, e.g. video camera imaging a display or a projection screen, a table or a wall surface, on which a computer generated image is displayed or projected tracking a projected light spot to determine a position on a display surface G06F3/0386
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

The user taps with free fingers on a surface, the finger-taps are organized in groups of simultaneously occurring taps called combinations of concurrent finger-taps. Successions of combinations of one or more concurrent finger-taps are executed. To distinguish between two successive combinations of simultaneous finger-taps, the user produces them separated by short time intervals. A sensing device detects finger-taps; their location and time of occurrence are acquired. The fingers producing the taps are identified. Combinations of fingers producing concurrent taps are associated to linguistic primitives like phonemes or morphemes. Series of linguistic primitives are converted to vocal speech; this method is called Finger Taps Language Technology.

Claims

1. A method for producing finger sign languages, wherein said method is based on associating linguistic phonemes and morphemes with specific fingers and wherein said method comprises:

producing taps with the fingers on a surface wherein a tap is a time event of one or more fingers entering in contact with a surface,

detecting said fingers taps on said surface based on the time event of specific fingers entering simultaneously in contact with the surface,

identifying said specific fingers, and

producing on an information processing device a sign language corresponding to said linguistic phonemes and morphemes associated to said specific fingers.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein finger-taps are sorted by:

considering that all finger-taps detected during a same time interval T belong to a same group of said concurrent finger-taps; and

considering that two successive groups of concurrent finger-taps are separated by a time interval U.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein a finger-tap is characterized by:

a time when the finger enters in contact with the surface;

a time when the finger leaves the surface; and

a location of occurrence of said finger-tap.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein a speed of movement of the finger preceding the tap and a duration of the contact of the finger with the surface are measured and exploited for producing linguistic phonemes and morphemes.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said information processing device includes one or more of computer, personal digital assistant, cellular phone, photo/video camera, gaming device, musical equipment, and other computer based device as well as, other keyboard based device and pointer/selector based device.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said linguistic phonemes and morphemes are assigned to said combinations of fingers by:

assigning codes to said combinations of fingers; and

assigning linguistic phonemes and morphemes to said codes.

7. The method according to claim 6 wherein said codes are created according to a coding scheme.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said phonemes and morphemes are converted to speech.

9. An information processing device for producing sign language based on associating linguistic phonemes and morphemes with specific fingers comprising:

detecting means for detecting fingers taps on a surface based on a time event of specific fingers entering simultaneously in contact with the surface,

identifying means for identifying said specific fingers, and

producing means for producing a sign language corresponding to said linguistic phonemes and morphemes associated to said specific fingers.

10. The information processing device of claim 9 wherein information based on said linguistic phonemes and morphemes is processed locally or sent via wired or wireless connection to another information processing device.

11. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having executable instructions to cause one or more processing units to perform the steps of:

detecting fingers taps on a surface based on a time event of specific fingers entering simultaneously in contact with the surface,

identifying said specific fingers, and

producing on an information processing device a sign language corresponding to said linguistic phonemes and morphemes associated to said specific fingers.

12. An information processing device for producing speech from sign language based on associating linguistic phonemes and morphemes with specific fingers comprising:

detecting means for detecting fingers taps on a surface based on a time event of specific fingers entering simultaneously in contact with the surface,

identifying means for identifying said specific fingers,

producing means for producing a sign language corresponding to said linguistic phonemes and morphemes associated to said specific fingers,

converting means for converting the phonemes and morphemes into speech, and

outputting means for outputting the speech.