Gesture interaction with a driver information system of a vehicle

• US 10,585,487 B2
• Filed: 10/21/2016
• Issued: 03/10/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG
• Original Assignee: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG
• Inventors: Menath, Andreas
• Primary Examiner(s): Leiby, Christopher E
• Application Number:
  US15/299,705
• Publication Number:
  US 20170038851A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,236 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/146 Instrument input by gesture
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/1464 3D-gesture
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/10 Input arrangements, i.e. from user to vehicle, associated with vehicle functions or specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/22 Display screens
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/81 for controlling displays
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• 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 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/28 Recognition of hand or arm movements, e.g. recognition of deaf sign language static hand signs G06V40/113

Abstract

A control system is provided for moving and/or magnifying display content, wherein the control system includes: a display unit having display content; at least one camera, which is designed to record a sensing region in front of the display unit; a gesture-recognition unit, which is coupled to the at least one camera and is designed to recognize a predetermined gesture performed with a hand and a current position of the gesture in the sensing region; and a display-content adapting unit, which is designed to adapt the display content in accordance with a change of the current position of the gesture, in particular to move the display content accordingly in the event of a change of the position in a plane parallel to the display unit and/or to enlarge or reduce the size of the display content in the event of a change of the position toward or away from the display unit.

Claims

1. A control system for moving and/or magnifying display content, comprising:

a display unit having the display content;

at least one camera which is designed to record a sensing region in front of the display unit;

a gesture recognition unit which is coupled to the at least one camera and is designed to recognize a predetermined gesture performed with a hand and a current position of the gesture in the sensing region; and

a display content adapting unit which is designed to adapt the display content in accordance with a change of the current position of the gesture, including moving the display content accordingly in the event of a change of the position in a plane parallel to the display unit and/or enlarging or reducing the size of the display content in the event of a change of the position toward or away from, respectively, the display unit;

wherein the display content adapting unit is designed to move the display content, in horizontal and vertical directions, distances equal to distances by which the hand is moved in the horizontal and vertical directions;

wherein the display content adapting unit is designed, as soon as a last position of the gesture has been acquired, to allow the display content to continue to run for a predetermined amount of time at a last sensed speed at which the position of the gesture has changed, and thereafter to slow down continuously until the display content comes to a standstill; and

wherein the gesture recognition unit calculates a corresponding position of the at least one camera in each of x, y, and z directions in accordance with relationships including;

P_VCnx=P_VC1x*2{circumflex over ( 

)}((G_nx−

G_1x)/f_x),

P_VCny=P_VC(n-1)y+P_VCnx*(G_ny−

G_(n-1)y))*f_y), and

P_VCnz=P_VC(n-1)z+P_VCnx*(G_nz−

G_(n-1)z)*f_z),

where P_VCnx, P_VCny, and P_VCnz are the corresponding positions, G is the gesture, f_x, f_y, f_z are sensitivity parameters, n is an index for the corresponding positions sensed during an interaction, and 1<

n≤

k, where k is a number of position coordinates.

2. The control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein two cameras are provided for recording the sensing region in front of the display unit, and the gesture recognition unit determines the current position of the gesture in the sensing region by stereoscopy.

3. The control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one camera is an infrared camera, a time-of-flight camera and/or a structured-light camera.

4. The control system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the at least one camera is an infrared camera, a time-of-flight camera and/or a structured-light camera.

5. The control system as claimed claim 1, wherein the gesture recognition unit and/or the display content adapting unit are designed to move and/or to magnify the display content as long as the predetermined gesture is recognized.

6. The control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein, the sensing region is a predetermined space in front of the display unit.

7. The control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the display content adapting unit is designed to enlarge or to reduce the size of the display content in the case of a change of the position toward or away from the display unit by a factor, the factor corresponding to a power of base 2 with a change of the distance between the position of the gesture and the display unit as exponent.

8. The control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the display content adapting unit is designed to move the display content with a change in the position in a plane parallel to the display unit correspondingly such that a length of a movement of the display content corresponds to a distance of the movement of the position of the gesture in the plane parallel to the display unit.

9. The control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the display content is a map section of a map which is stored in a database of a navigation system, and the display content adapting unit adapts the map section in accordance with the change in the current position of the gesture.

10. A vehicle, comprising:

a driver information system which has at least one display unit for displaying graphical data; and

a control system for moving and/or magnifying display content, including;

a display unit having the display content;

at least one camera which is designed to record a sensing region in front of the display unit;

a gesture recognition unit which is coupled to the at least one camera and is designed to recognize a predetermined gesture performed with a hand and a current position of the gesture in the sensing region; and

a display content adapting unit which is designed to adapt the display content in accordance with a change of the current position of the gesture, wherein the adaption includes moving the display content accordingly in the event of a change of the position in a plane parallel to the display unit and/or enlarging or reducing the size of the display content in the event of a change of the position toward or away from, respectively, the display unit;

wherein the display content adapting unit is designed to move the display content, in horizontal and vertical directions, distances equal to distances by which the hand is moved in the horizontal and vertical directions;

wherein the display content adapting unit is designed, as soon as a last position of the gesture has been acquired, to allow the display content to continue to run for a predetermined amount of time at a last sensed speed at which the position of the gesture has changed, and thereafter to slow down continuously until the display content comes to a standstill; and

wherein the gesture recognition unit calculates a corresponding position of the at least one camera in each of x, y, and z directions in accordance with relationships including;

P_VCnx=P_VC1x*2{circumflex over ( 

)}((G_nx−

G_1x)/f_x),

P_VCny=P_VC(n-1)y+P_VCnx*(G_ny−

G_(n-1)y))*f_y), and

P_VCnz=P_VC(n-1)z+P_VCnx*(G_nz−

G_(n-1)z)*f_z),

where P_VCnx, P_VCny, and P_VCnz are the corresponding positions, G is the gesture, f_x, f_y, f_z are sensitivity parameters, n is an index for the corresponding positions sensed during an interaction, and 1<

n≤

k, where k is a number of position coordinates.

11. The vehicle as claim in claim 10, wherein the vehicle is a motor vehicle.

12. The vehicle as claimed in claim 10, wherein the graphical data is graphical data of a navigation system.

13. The vehicle as claimed in claim 10, wherein the graphical data is graphical data of an Internet browser.