Methods and devices for identifying users based on tremor

• US 20070247425A1
• Filed: 06/20/2007
• Published: 10/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DRNC Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hillcrest Laboratories Incorporated (CEVA Incorporated)
• Inventors: Gritton, Charles, Simpkins, Daniel, Liberty, Matthew, Roller, Christopher
• Granted Patent: US 8,994,657 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/158
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1101 Detecting tremor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/117 Identification of persons methods or arrangements for recognising patterns, e.g. fingerprints, G06F18/00, G06V40/00; identification of persons by analysing their voice or speech G10L17/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1171 based on the shapes or appearances of their bodies or parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6825 Hand
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6897 Computer input devices, e.g. mice or keyboards
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• 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 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/10 Human or animal bodies, e.g. vehicle occupants or pedestrians; Body parts, e.g. hands
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/32 Remote control based on movements, attitude of remote control device
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/61 Password, biometric
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42222 Additional components integrated in the remote control device, e.g. timer, speaker, sensors for detecting position, direction or movement of the remote control, microphone or battery charging device

Abstract

Systems and methods according to the present invention address these needs and others by providing a handheld device, e.g., a 3D pointing device, which uses hand tremor as an input. One or more sensors within the handheld device detect a user'"'"'s hand tremor and identify the user based on the detected tremor.

Claims

1. A method for identifying a user of a handheld device comprising the steps of:

detecting a hand tremor associated with a user holding said handheld device; and

identifying said user based on said detected hand tremor.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

selectively turning on a system associated with said handheld device on based upon said step of identifying.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

restricting access to a system associated with said handheld device based upon an identity of said user.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said system is a media system and said step of restricting access further comprises the step of:

selectively permitting said user to access a media item based upon said identifying step.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

determining an identity of said user by comparing a set of detected tremor features with a plurality of stored tremor classes.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said detected tremor features and said plurality of stored tremor classes are associated with frequency domain data.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein said detected tremor features and said plurality of stored tremor classes are associated with time domain data.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein if a match does not occur between said detected tremor features and said plurality of stored tremor classes, then said detected tremor features are used to establish a new user identity.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein if a match does not occur between said tremor features and said plurality of stored tremor classes, then said user is assigned a default set of system access permissions.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

retrieving preference settings associated with said user in response to said identifying step.

11. A computer-readable medium, capable of storing program instructions which, when executed perform the steps of:

detecting a hand tremor associated with a user holding said handheld device; and

identifying said user based on said detected hand tremor.