HMD information apparatus and method of operation thereof

• US 20060044265A1
• Filed: 07/15/2005
• Published: 03/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Min, Kyung-Tae
• Application Number:
  US11/182,316
• Publication Number:
  US 20060044265A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/156
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/017 Head mounted

Abstract

An apparatus and method for inputting a key input in an information terminal integrated with an HMD. The user is provided with a virtual screen, including a key map and a preview window, as a display screen via a display unit having a micro display. A detection signal generation unit generates signals, which are sensed by a detection signal sensing unit and recognized by a recognition unit, so that a telecommunication terminal can recognize the user'"'"'s motion without any separate HMD input device. Therefore, the user can input a desired key to an information terminal simply by moving their hands without any separate input device. This further improves the portability of the information terminal.

Claims

1. An assembly of an information terminal including an HMD (head mounted display) and a key input apparatus, the assembly comprising:

a micro display for displaying a virtual screen;

a key information storage unit for storing key map information of the virtual screen displayed by the micro display;

a detection signal generation unit for generating detection signals for identifying a user motion within a sensing distance set by a user;

a detection signal sensing unit having a reflection signal sensing unit for sensing detection signals reflected by the user'"'"'s body;

a recognition unit for recognizing the user motion based on reflected detection signals and key information based on the user motion; and

a control unit for displaying the key map information, sensing the user motion based on detection signals, and recognizing the sensed motion as specific key input.

2. The assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the micro display displays a screen in which left and right menus are switched so that left and right hands can be used interchangeably.

3. The assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the key information storage unit stores key map information on at least one key input mode of a telecommunication terminal manufacturer.

4. The assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the detection signal generation unit uses IR (Infrared) signals as detection signals.

5. The assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the detection signal sensing unit senses reflected detection signals only within a range set by the user by varying an effective sensing distance setup in conformity with a service environment.

6. The assembly as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an external interface unit for connecting to at least one of an external extended memory and an external extended battery.

7. The assembly as claimed in claim 6, wherein the external interface unit is connected to one of a laptop PC (Personal Computer) and a POST PC for input of the key input based on the user motion input via the micro display and the detection signal sensing unit.

8. A method for receiving a key input in an information terminal having an HMD (Head Mounted Display), the method comprising the steps of:

loading virtual screen information;

displaying a virtual screen based on the loaded virtual screen information;

generating detection signals for detecting a user motion;

adjusting a sensing distance of the detection signals;

sensing detection signals reflected by the user'"'"'s body;

recognizing a key based on the reflected signals; and

receiving input of a key value based on the recognized key.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the virtual screen information includes screen switching information based on a user selection to switch contents to be displayed on a right side of the screen and those to be displayed on a left side thereof, and key map information set by the user.

10. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein, in the step of adjusting the sensing distance, a setup value of an effective sensing distance is input by the user.

11. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein, in the step of adjusting the sensing distance, any one of optimized sensing distance values, which have been determined through experiments for optimizing the sensing distance values in different circumstances, is selected by the user and the sensing distance is automatically adjusted based on the optimized sensing distance value.

12. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the step of sensing detection signals comprises the steps of:

extracting detection signals having motion, as visual information, from images input to the sensing camera of the information terminal;

selecting visual information, from which reflection signals have been sensed, from the extracted visual information as user visual information based on the user motion;

analyzing the user visual information;

recognizing a part of the user visual information intersecting with the boundary between the outside and inside of the currently displayed screen as the start point of the user visual information;

recognizing a farthest point from the start point within a range included in the user visual information as an end point;

loading key information corresponding to the end point from the virtual screen information; and

recognizing the loaded key information as a value selected by the visual information based on the user motion.

13. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the step of receiving input of a key value comprises the steps of:

loading at least one key value corresponding to a key selected in the step of sensing detection signals;

determining if a character selection key has been input by the user to select any one of the key values;

selecting a key value, when the character selection key has been input; and

receiving input of the key value based on the selected character selection key as a key input selected by the user.

14. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the step of selecting the key value comprises selecting a key value set as default, when the user has input no character selection key.