USING A PHYSICAL OBJECT AND ITS POSITION ON A SURFACE TO CONTROL AN ENABLEMENT STATE OF A SURFACE BASED COMPUTING DEVICE

• US 20090109030A1
• Filed: 10/24/2007
• Published: 04/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: NESBITT, PAMELA A., SEACAT, LISA A., DO, LYDIA M.
• Application Number:
  US11/877,889
• Publication Number:
  US 20090109030A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/572.100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0425 using a single imaging device like a video camera for tracking the absolute position of a single or a plurality of objects with respect to an imaged reference surface, e.g. video camera imaging a display or a projection screen, a table or a wall surface, on which a computer generated image is displayed or projected tracking a projected light spot to determine a position on a display surface G06F3/0386

Abstract

The present invention can include a solution for toggling an enablement state of a surface based computing device using a physical object. In the solution, a physical object external to a surface based computing device can be identified, which is able to be placed on a surface of the surface based computing device. The surface based computing device can detect a change in a positioning of the physical object relative to the surface. Responsive to the change of positioning, an enablement state of the surface based computing device can be changed.

Claims

1. A method for controlling an enablement state of a surface based computing device comprising:

identifying a physical object external to a surface based computing device, which is able to be placed on a surface of the surface based computing device;

the surface based computing device detecting a change in a positioning of the physical object relative to the surface; and

responsive to the positioning change, changing an enablement state of the surface based computing device, whereby positioning of the physical object refers to a presence or absence of the object on the surface as well as which side of an N-sided object is downward facing.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the change of enablement state is from an active state to an inactive state, said method further comprising:

preserving state information of an active session in a data store accessible by the surface based computing device.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

detecting a second change in a positioning of the physical object relative to the surface;

responsive to the positioning change, retrieving previously stored state information of the active session from the data store;

changing the enablement state of the surface based computing device to an active state; and

applying the retrieved state information to a newly activated session.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of an original enablement state from which the changing step occurs and a resultant state achieved after the changing state completes is a locked state in which an interactive session is locked.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the physical object is an N-sided object, wherein when a first side of the N-sided object is faced upwards, the surface based computing device is placed in an active state, and wherein when a second side of the N-sided object is faced upwards, the surface based computing device is placed in an inactive state.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second sides of the two sided object are marked in a user-readable fashion to permit a user to discern by looking at the N-sided object an enablement state of the surface based computing device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein when the physical object is placed on the surface, one enablement state results and when the physical object is absent from the surface, a different enablement state results.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the physical token is a security artifact, which must be placed upon the surface before a user is able to access functionality of the surface based computing device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the surface is segmented into a plurality of separate sub regions, wherein the physical object controls an enablement state of one and only one of said sub regions.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said steps of claim 1 are performed by at least one machine in accordance with at least one computer program stored in a computer readable media, said computer programming having a plurality of code sections that are executable by the at least one machine.

11. A surface based computing device comprising:

an enablement engine of a surface based computing device, wherein said enablement engine is a software engine controlling an enablement state of the surface based computing device, said enablement state comprising at least an active state and an inactive state, wherein state information is preserved when the enablement engine changes from the active state to the inactive state so that when the state is changed back from the inactive state to the active state using the enablement engine, state information is restored; and

an enablement token detector configured to detect a positioning of a physical object relative to a surface of the surface based computing device, wherein different detected positionings of the physical object correspond to different enablement states, wherein when the enablement token detector detects a change in the positioning of the physical object, a command is automatically conveyed to the enablement engine to change an enablement state of the surface based computing device to match an enablement state indicated by the physical token, whereby positioning of the physical object refers to a presence or absence of the object on the surface as well as which side of an N-sided object is downward facing.

12. The device of claim 11, wherein the physical object is a two sided object, wherein when a first side of the two sided object is faced upwards, the surface based computing device is placed in an active state, and wherein when a second side of the two sided object is faced upwards, the surface based computing device is placed in an inactive state.

13. The device of claim 11, wherein when the physical object is placed on the surface, one enablement state results and when the physical object is absent from the surface a different enablement state results.

14. The device of claim 11, wherein the physical object is a security artifact, which must be placed upon the surface before a user is able to access functionality of the surface based computing device.

15. The device of claim 11, further comprising:

at least one infrared projector aimed at the surface, which produce infrared emissions that are reflected back when objects touch the surface;

at least one infrared camera configured to detect reflections of the produced infrared emissions, wherein detected reflections from objects placed on the surface, wherein said objects comprise said physical object;

at least one projector configured to produce visible emissions, which cause images and text to appear upon the surface, wherein the at least one projector is configured to generate visible emissions to produce visual output for the surface; and

a computing unit configured to receives input, to perform processing operations, and to control output for the surface based computer, and wherein computing unit executes code of the enablement engine and code of the enablement token detector.

16. A physical token for controlling an enablement state of a surface based computing device comprising:

at least one unique characteristic that is configured to be detected by a surface based computing device when the physical token is placed on a surface of the surface based computing device, wherein a positioning of the physical token relative to the surface corresponds to different enablement states for the surface based computing device, wherein the different enablement states comprise at least an active state and an inactive state, wherein state information is preserved when the surface based computing device changes from the active state to the inactive state so that when surface based computing device changes back from the inactive state to the active state, state information is restored.

17. The physical token of claim 16, further comprising at least two sides, wherein when a first side of the physical token is faced downwards on the surface, the surface based computing device is placed in an active state, and wherein when a second side of the physical token is faced downwards, the surface based computing device is placed in an inactive state.

18. The physical token of claim 16, wherein when the physical token is placed on the surface, one enablement state results and when the physical object is absent from the surface, a different enablement state results.

19. The physical token of claim 16, wherein the surface based computing device comprises at least one infrared projector aimed at the surface, which produce infrared emissions that are reflected back when objects touch the surface and at least one infrared camera configured to detect reflections of the produced infrared emissions, wherein detected reflections from objects placed on the surface, wherein said unique characteristic of said physical token causes infrared emissions to be reflected in a specific way able to be detected by the at least one infrared camera, wherein these reflections are used to determine the positioning of the physical token relative to the surface.

20. The physical token of claim 16, wherein the physical token is a security artifact, which must be placed upon the surface before a user is able to access functionality of the surface based computing device, wherein the physical token comprises at least one radio frequency identification (RFID) tag that contains a security key, wherein the security key is read from the RFID tag by the surface based computing device to authenticate the physical token.