User input apparatus

• US 20040243342A1
• Filed: 11/26/2003
• Published: 12/02/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Rekimoto, Junichi
• Granted Patent: US 6,965,842 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/150
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2218/00 Aspects of pattern recognition specially adapted for signal processing
• 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 3/015 Input arrangements based on nervous system activity detection, e.g. brain waves [EEG] detection, electromyograms [EMG] detection, electrodermal response detection
• 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: G06V 40/20 Movements or behaviour, e.g. gesture recognition recognition of facial expressions G06V40/16

Abstract

A user input apparatus according to the present invention is configured like a wrist watch and a system can recognize the gesture such as “grip” and “release” or the like and can input the gesture as a command merely by attaching the user input apparatus to user'"'"'s wrist. Further, by adding an acceleration sensor or the like for measuring the movement of an arm itself to a bracelet, the user input apparatus can be configured so as to input more complicated instruction and command. The user input apparatus can be used as an input apparatus for a wearable computer (or wearable computer), or a controller to input a command for a game machine or the like.

Claims

1-8. -8. (Cancelled)

9. A user input apparatus that is used by attaching to a human body, the user input apparatus being characterized by comprising:

a plurality of transmission electrodes;

a plurality of reception electrodes;

a human body attaching means for attaching the transmission electrodes and reception electrodes alternately along a surface of the human body;

a signal generator for supplying a waveform signal of a predetermined frequency to each of the transmission electrodes; and

a receiver for receiving a waveform signal to be received at each of the reception electrodes,

wherein the user input apparatus comprises measurement means for measuring a gesture of a user with the plurality of transmission electrodes and the plurality of reception electrodes by using a change in a static capacity of a capacitor that is formed between the transmission electrode and the reception electrode and the surface of the human body, and for detecting results of the measurement as a multi-dimensional vector value,

wherein values of respective dimensions of the multi-dimensional vector value correspond to respective pairs of the transmission electrodes and the reception electrodes, the pairs being different from each others.

10. The user input apparatus according to claim 9, the user input apparatus being characterized by further comprising:

gesture registration means for registering a gesture to be registered and corresponding multi-dimensional vector value that is measured by the measurement means in between the respective transmission electrodes and reception electrodes; and

gesture recognition means for recognizing a gesture by comparing and checking a multi-dimensional vector value that is newly measured by the measurement means with a multi-dimensional vector value that is already registered in the gesture registration means.

11. The user input apparatus according to claim 9, the user input apparatus being characterized that:

the human body attaching means is configured like a bracelet capable of being attached to a wrist of a user.

12. The user input apparatus according to claim 10, the user input apparatus further comprising sensor means for measuring a physical quantity that changes in accordance with movement of a human body,

wherein the gesture registration means registers the gesture to be registered in association with the multi-dimensional vector value that is measured when the gesture is performed and the physical quantity;

and

wherein the gesture recognition means recognizes the gesture by comparing and checking the multi-dimensional vector value that is newly measured by the measurement means and the physical quantity that is measured by the sensor means in correspondence with the detected multi-dimensional vector value with the multi-dimensional vector value and the physical quantity that are already registered in the gesture registration means.

13. The user input apparatus according to claim 9, the user input apparatus being characterized that:

the human body attaching means is configured like a wearable shoe sole that follows a form of a foot sole of a user.

14. The user input apparatus according to claim 9, the user input apparatus being characterized that:

the human body attaching means is configured like a frame of eye glasses capable of being attached on a face of a user.