System and method for advanced interfaces for virtual environments

• US 20020080193A1
• Filed: 08/03/2001
• Published: 06/27/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Edwin R. Cole, Jonathan D. Courtney, Yeshwant K. Muthusamy
• Original Assignee: Edwin R. Cole, Jonathan D. Courtney, Yeshwant K. Muthusamy
• Inventors: Cole, Edwin R., Muthusamy, Yeshwant K., Courtney, Jonathan D.
• Granted Patent: US 6,683,625 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/848
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object

Abstract

A system and method for providing a controllable virtual environment includes a computer (11) with processor and a display coupled to the processor to display 2-D or 3-D virtual environment objects. Speech grammars are stored as attributes of the virtual environment objects. Voice commands are recognized by a speech recognizer (19) and microphone (20) coupled to the processor whereby the voice commands are used to manipulate the virtual environment objects on the display. The system is further made role-dependent whereby the display of virtual environment objects and grammar is dependent on the role of the user.

Claims

1. A virtual environment system comprising:

a database of virtual environment objects;

a display for displaying appearance of virtual environment objects;

a processor coupled to said database and said display for displaying virtual environment objects dependent on speech input;

said database storing information about possible natural interaction of a user with said virtual environment objects as attributes of said virtual environment objects along with graphical information describing said object'"'"'s visual appearance; and

a recognizer coupled to said processor and responsive to said natural interaction of said user for recognizing said natural interaction of said user to manipulate said virtual environment objects.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said virtual environment objects inherit functional properties from other objects through inheritance.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said virtual environment objects inherit functional properties through aggregation.

4. A role-dependent virtual environment system comprising:

a storage of role-dependent virtual objects wherein virtual object interfaces are role dependent;

a display; and

a processor coupled to said storage and said display and responsive to role of user for providing a display of virtual objects dependent on role of said user.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein said storage stores information about possible interactions with said virtual environment objects as attributes inside said virtual objects along with graphical information describing the object'"'"'s visual appearance.

6. The system of claim 5 including a speech recognizer coupled to said processor and said role dependent storage includes speech grammars as attributes in said virtual objects.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein said objects inherit function properties from other classes through inheritance and aggregation.

8. A virtual environment system comprising:

a database of virtual environment objects, said database storing information about possible gesture interaction with said virtual environment objects as attributes of said virtual objects along with graphical information describing said objects'"'"' appearances;

a display for displaying appearance of virtual environment objects;

a processor coupled to said database and said display for displaying virtual environment objects dependent on gesture input; and

a recognizer coupled to said processor and responsive to user gesture to manipulate said virtual environment objects.

9. A method for providing a controllable virtual environment comprising the steps of:

providing a processor and a display coupled to said processor to display virtual environment objects,

storing a set of virtual environment objects and storing information about possible interactions with said virtual environment objects as attributes inside said virtual environment objects along with graphical information describing the object'"'"'s visual appearance,

sensing user interactions with said virtual environment objects and providing control signals to said processor to display said interactions; and

coupling said processor to said set of virtual environment objects and virtual object attributes for displaying sensed user interactions with said virtual environment objects.

10. The method of claim 9 including the step of storing said virtual environment objects in classes according to the function and enabling said virtual environment objects to inherit functional properties from other object classes through inheritance and aggregation.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein for voice command interaction appropriate speech grammars are attributes of the virtual environment objects.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein for gesture command interaction the steps include providing a gesture sensor and gesture features stored inside the environment'"'"'s objects for given functions.

13. A multi-user virtual environment system comprising:

a storage of role dependent virtual environment objects wherein virtual environment interfaces to said virtual environment object are attributes of said virtual environment objects;

a display; and

a processor coupled to a display and coupled to said storage responsive to role of a user for providing interfaces to virtual environment objects dependent on the role of said user.