USER TRACKING FEEDBACK

• US 20100277411A1
• Filed: 06/22/2010
• Published: 11/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Perez, Kathryn Stone, Yee, Dawson
• Granted Patent: US 9,898,675 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/156
• 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 3/0304 Detection arrangements using opto-electronic means constructional details of pointing devices not related to the detection arrangement using opto-electronic means G06F3/033; optical digitisers G06F3/042
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/24 Aligning, centring, orientation detection or correction of the image
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/67 by interactive indications to the user

Abstract

Technology is presented for providing feedback to a user on an ability of an executing application to track user action for control of the executing application on a computer system. A capture system detects a user in a capture area. Factors in the capture area and the user'"'"'s actions can adversely affect the ability of the application to determine if a user movement is a gesture which is a control or instruction to the application. One example of such factors is a user being out of the field of view of the capture system. Some other factor examples include lighting conditions and obstructions in the capture area. Responsive to a user tracking criteria not being satisfied, feedback is output to the user. In some embodiments, the feedback is provided within the context of an executing application.

Claims

1. In a computer-implemented system executing software which tracks user action for control of a displayed object, a method for providing feedback to a user on an ability of the system to track user action comprising:

detecting the user in a capture area with a capture system;

tracking at least one body feature of the user based on data generated by the capture system;

responsive to user tracking criteria not being satisfied, determining a feedback response; and

outputting feedback to the user.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising wherein the feedback is contextual feedback which changes at least one action of an object on a display.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

wherein the capture system is an image capture system;

wherein the user tracking criteria not being satisfied is that a body part of the user which can control the displayed object is at least partially out of a field of view of the image capture system; and

wherein the at least one action of the object on the display provides a motivation in the context of the executing software for the user to move the body part towards the field of view.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the feedback response is determined based on a profile of the user including an age of the user.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the executing software is a game.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the displayed object is an avatar, and outputting a feedback response to the user comprises changing a displayed appearance of an avatar representing the user.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein outputting a feedback response to the user comprises displaying a visual indicator to the user indicating a user tracking criteria is not being satisfied.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein outputting a feedback response to the user comprises outputting an audio indicator to the user indicating a user tracking criteria is not being satisfied.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein outputting a feedback response to the user further comprises changing a visual characteristic of a displayed view of the user.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein outputting a feedback response to the user further comprising improving a visual characteristic of the displayed view as the body of the user moves towards a center of a field of the view of a capture device.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising wherein the user tracking criteria is based on a visibility factor of the group consisting of the following:

the location within a capture system'"'"'s field of view of a body part of the user which can control the displayed object;

lighting;

contrast; and

an obstruction of the body part of the user.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising wherein a user tracking criteria is based on a distinguishability factor which is an audio factor consisting of one of the following:

volume; and

distinguishability of speech.

13. A system for providing feedback to a user on an ability of the system to track user action comprising:

an image capture system for capturing image data of a user;

one or more processors communicatively coupled to the image capture system and accessible to a memory storing the image data and instructions;

the one or more processors executing instructions comprising

detecting at least one body part of a user in the image data,

tracking movement of the at least one body part,

responsive to user tracking criteria not being satisfied, determining feedback for display to a user,

displaying the feedback; and

a display communicatively coupled to the one or more processors for displaying the feedback to the user.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the one or more processors executing instructions further comprises executing instructions for assisting the user in selecting a capture area by:

displaying instructions to make at least one movement of the at least one body part;

tracking movement of the at least one body part;

responsive to user tracking criteria based on one or more visibility factors being satisfied, determining a tracking quality score based on visibility factors for a test capture area;

responsive to user tracking criteria based on one or more visibility factors not being satisfied;

determining how one or more visibility factors for the image data can be improved to satisfy the user tracking criteria; and

displaying feedback to the user identifying at least one change in the capture area to improve a visibility factor.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the one or more processors executing instructions further comprises executing instructions comprising

determining a tracking quality score for each of a plurality of test capture areas based on tracking criteria of visibility factors;

identifying the test capture area with the best score; and

displaying a recommendation of the test capture area with the best score.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein the one or more visibility factors includes one or more of the following:

the location within a capture system'"'"'s field of view of at least one body part of the user;

lighting;

contrast; and

an obstruction of at least one body part of the user.

17. The system of claim 13 wherein the display is an off-screen display device.

18. The system of claim 13 wherein the display displays the feedback on a screen of the display.

19. One or more computer readable storage media comprising instructions stored thereon for causing a processor to execute a method for providing user tracking feedback, the method comprising:

providing training objects on a display for instructing a user on the location of borders of a field of view for an image capture system;

tracking at least one body part of the user needed for control of an application based on data generated by the capture system;

responsive to user tracking criteria not being satisfied, determining a feedback response to motivate the user to improve the tracking quality; and

displaying the feedback response.

20. The one or more computer readable storage media of claim 19 wherein the feedback response is activity in a context of an executing application.