3D pointing devices and methods

• US 20080158154A1
• Filed: 06/20/2007
• Published: 07/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DRNC Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hillcrest Laboratories Incorporated (CEVA Incorporated)
• Inventors: Turner, Mark, Liberty, Matthew G., Simpkins, Daniel S., Hunleth, Frank A., Gritton, Charles W.K.
• Granted Patent: US 9,261,978 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/158
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3215 Monitoring of peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3259 Power saving in cursor control device, e.g. mouse, joystick, trackball
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0383 Remote input, i.e. interface arrangements in which the signals generated by a pointing device are transmitted to a PC at a remote location, e.g. to a PC in a LAN
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0384 Wireless input, i.e. hardware and software details of wireless interface arrangements for pointing devices
• 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 3/0383 Signal control means within the pointing device
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/20 Movements or behaviour, e.g. gesture recognition recognition of facial expressions G06V40/16
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

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 at least one sensor to detect motion of the handheld device. The detected motion can then be mapped into a desired output, e.g., cursor movement.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a system comprising the steps of:

detecting movement associated with a device;

determining if said movement indicates that said device is currently being held by a user; and

controlling said system based on a result of said determining step.

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

identifying said user based upon a tremor pattern associated with said movement.

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

selectively turning said system on based upon said step of identifying.

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

turning said system on if said device is currently being held by a user.

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

restricting access to said system based upon an identity of said user.

6. The method of claim 5, 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 identity.

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

determining an identity of said user by comparing said tremor pattern with a plurality of stored tremor patterns.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said tremor pattern and said plurality of stored tremor patterns are in the frequency domain.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein said tremor pattern and said plurality of stored tremor patterns are in the time domain.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein if a match does not occur between said tremor pattern and said plurality of stored tremor patterns, then said tremor pattern is stored.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein if a match does not occur between said tremor pattern and said plurality of stored tremor patterns, then said user is assigned a default set of system access permissions.

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

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