Recognition of human gestures by a mobile phone

• US 20090009588A1
• Filed: 07/02/2007
• Published: 01/08/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Jain, Mukul, Kumar, Sanjeev, Patel, Labhesh, Shaffer, Shmuel
• Granted Patent: US 8,817,061 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/14.80
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1616 with folding flat displays, e.g. laptop computers or notebooks having a clamshell configuration, with body parts pivoting to an open position around an axis parallel to the plane they define in closed position
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/012 Head tracking input arrangements
• 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: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/62 user interface aspects of conference calls
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method includes electronically detecting a gesture of a user listening to a speaker via a communication device, and generating an audible and/or visual response that corresponds to the gesture. The audible and/or visual response is then communicated to the speaker. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

electronically detecting a gesture of a user listening to a speaker via a communication device;

generating a sensory response that corresponds to the gesture; and

communicating the sensory response to the speaker.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the communicating comprises sending the audible and/or visual response to the speaker via a first channel over a network, the first channel being separate from a second channel utilized for communications between the user and the speaker.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the sensory response comprises an audible and/or visual response.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the gesture comprises either an up-and-down or a side-to-side head movement of the user.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the audible and/or visual response comprises an affirmative indication when the gesture comprises the up-and-down head movement and a negative indication when the gesture comprises the side-to-side head movement of the user.

6. A method comprising:

receiving affirmative and negative gesture responses from participants listening to a speaker in a conference session via a plurality of endpoint devices, the affirmative and negative gesture responses being made in response to one or more statements of the speaker and electronically detected by the endpoint devices;

generating statistics based on a percentage or number of affirmative responses and a percentage or number of negative gesture responses received;

communicating the statistics to the speaker via a sensory output.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the sensory output comprises an audible and/or visual response.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising communicating the statistics to the participants.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the detecting occurs during a sampling period.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein the speaker is connected to the conference session via a communication device having a display screen, and further wherein the communicating of the statistics comprises graphically displaying on the display screen the percentage or number of the affirmative responses and a percentage or number of the negative responses.

11. The method of claim 6 wherein the affirmative and negative gesture responses are detected by sensing head movements of the participants utilizing motion detectors respectively attached to or incorporated within the endpoint devices of the participants.

12. The method of claim 6 wherein the endpoint devices comprise at least one mobile phone.

13. The method of claim 6 wherein the endpoint devices comprise at least one headset or earpiece device communicatively coupled with a mobile phone.

14. The method of claim 6 wherein the affirmative and negative responses are received via a data or control channel of a network, the data communications channel being separate from a voice channel utilized for communication of the one or more statements to the participants.

15. The method of claim 6 wherein each of the affirmative responses corresponds to an up-and-down head movement and each of the negative responses corresponds to a side-to-side head movement.

16. An apparatus comprising:

a loudspeaker;

a microphone, the loudspeaker and the microphone being housed in a unit;

a motion detector that electronically detects head gestures of the user when the unit is positioned such that the loudspeaker is near or against an ear of a user, with the microphone being positioned to capture speech of the user; and

means for placing a call over a network to a remote endpoint, the means also for communicating information indicative of the head gestures to the remote endpoint during a time when the user is listening to speech from the remote endpoint.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the means comprises one or more processors coupled with a wireless transceiver operable to transmit voice communications between the user and the remote endpoint over a first communications channel, and to transmit the information indicative of the head gestures over a second communications channel.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the head gestures include affirmative and negative responses of the user to one or more statements of a speaker associated with the remote endpoint.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the speaker comprises an interactive voice response system (IVR).

20. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein each of the affirmative responses corresponds to an up-and-down head movement of the user and each of the negative responses corresponds to a side-to-side head movement of the user.

21. A system comprising:

a conferencing server that connects with a plurality of endpoint devices each configured with a motion detector for detecting gestures of a user, the motion detector producing an affirmative output responsive to an up-and-down gesture and a negative output responsive to a side-to-side gesture, the conferencing server connecting with the endpoint devices over a network; and

a gesture server coupled over the network with the endpoint devices for receiving the affirmative and negative responses from each of a set of the endpoint devices and for generating a sensory output that reflects a percentage or number of the affirmative responses and a percentage or number of the negative responses.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the sensory output comprises an audible and/or visual gesture, and wherein the gesture server is further operable to communicate the audible and/or visual output to the set of the endpoint devices.

23. An apparatus comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory comprising one or more instructions executable at the processors, the one or more processors being operable, when executing the instructions, to;

receive affirmative and negative gesture responses from participants listening to a speaker in a conference session via a plurality of endpoint devices, the affirmative and negative gesture responses being made in response to one or more statements of the speaker and electronically detected by the endpoint devices;

generate statistics based on a percentage or number of affirmative responses and a percentage or number of negative gesture responses received; and

communicate the statistics to the speaker via a sensory output.

24. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein the one or more processors is further operable, when executing the instructions, to communicate the statistics to the participants.

25. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein the sensory output comprises an audible and/or visual response.