BINDING USERS TO A GESTURE BASED SYSTEM AND PROVIDING FEEDBACK TO THE USERS

• US 20100281436A1
• Filed: 05/01/2009
• 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: Guo, William, Polzin, R. Stephen, Kipman, Alex, Perez, Kathryn Stone
• Granted Patent: US 9,015,638 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/863
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/213 comprising photodetecting means, e.g. cameras, photodiodes or infrared cells A63F13/219, A63F13/655 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/22 Setup operations, e.g. calibration, key configuration or button assignment
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/28 responding to control signals received from the game device for affecting ambient conditions, e.g. for vibrating players' seats, activating scent dispensers or affecting temperature or light controlling the output signals based on the game progress A63F13/50
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/42 by mapping the input signals into game commands, e.g. mapping the displacement of a stylus on a touch screen to the steering angle of a virtual vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/428 involving motion or position input signals, e.g. signals representing the rotation of an input controller or a player's arm motions sensed by accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/53 involving additional visual information provided to the game scene, e.g. by overlay to simulate a head-up display [HUD] or displaying a laser sight in a shooting game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/812 Ball games, e.g. soccer or baseball
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/814 Musical performances, e.g. by evaluating the player's ability to follow a notation
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/833 Hand-to-hand fighting, e.g. martial arts competition A63F13/837 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/843 involving concurrently two or more players on the same game device, e.g. requiring the use of a plurality of controllers or of a specific view of game data for each player
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1093 using visible light
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6045 for mapping control signals received from the input arrangement into game commands
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6607 for animating game characters, e.g. skeleton kinematics
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• 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: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

Techniques for managing a set of states associated with a capture device are disclosed herein. The capture device may detect and bind to users, and may provide feedback about whether the capture device is bound to, or detecting a user. Techniques are also disclosed wherein virtual ports may be associated with users bound to a capture device and feedback about the state of virtual ports may be provided.

Claims

1. A method for managing a set of states associated with a user of a gesture based system, the method comprising:

determining a current state from the set of states, wherein the set of states comprises a bound state in which the user is bound to the gesture based system and an unbound state in which the user is not bound to the gesture based system; and

providing feedback corresponding to the current state, the feedback comprising a bound indicator associated with the bound state;

wherein the feedback changes when the current state changes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the feedback comprises visual feedback.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the unbound state comprises an unbound/detected state, and wherein there is an unbound indicator associated with the unbound state.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the bound state comprises a bound/undetected state, and wherein the bound indicator comprises a bound/undetected indicator.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the unbound state comprises an unbound/undetected state, and wherein the unbound indicator comprises an unbound/undetected indicator.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the bound state comprises a bound/detected state, and wherein the bound indicator comprises a bound/detected indicator.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein binding the user comprises providing at least one of gesture based control or vocal command control to the user.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising a primary virtual port, and at least one secondary virtual port, wherein each virtual port is configurable for association with a different user.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein when the user is not fully within a capture area of the gesture based system, the feedback comprises notification that the user is not fully within the capture area.

10. A system for managing a set of states associated with a user of a gesture based system, comprising:

a capture device for binding to the user;

a feedback mechanism; and

a processor that executes instructions comprising;

determining a current state from the set of states, wherein the set of states comprises a bound state in which the user is bound to the gesture based system and an unbound state in which the user is not bound to the gesture based system; and

providing feedback via the feedback mechanism corresponding to the current state, the feedback comprising a bound indicator associated with the bound state,

wherein the feedback changes when the current state changes.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the capture device comprises a depth camera.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the feedback mechanism comprises at least one of a visual display or an audio signal generator.

13. The system of claim 10 wherein there is an unbound indicator associated with the unbound state, and the unbound state comprises:

an unbound/undetected state, wherein the unbound indicator comprises an unbound/undetected indicator; and

an unbound/detected state, wherein the unbound indicator comprises an unbound/detected indicator.

14. The system of claim 10 wherein the bound state comprises:

a bound/detected state, wherein the bound indicator comprises a bound/detected indicator; and

a bound/undetected state, wherein the bound indicator comprises an bound/undetected indicator.

15. A computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions for managing a set of states associated with a user of a gesture based system, the instructions comprising:

determining a current state from a set of states, wherein the set of states comprises a bound state in which a user is bound to the gesture based system and an unbound state in which no user is bound to the gesture based system; and

providing feedback about the current state, the feedback comprising a bound indicator associated with the bound state;

wherein the feedback changes when the current state changes.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15 wherein binding the user comprises providing at least one of gesture based control, or vocal command control to the user.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 15 wherein the unbound state comprises:

an unbound/undetected state, wherein there is an unbound indicator associated with the unbound state, and the unbound indicator comprises an unbound/undetected indicator; and

an unbound/detected state, wherein the unbound indicator comprises an unbound/detected indicator.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 15 wherein the bound state comprises:

a bound/detected state, wherein the bound indicator comprises a bound/detected indicator; and

a bound/undetected state, wherein the bound indicator comprises an bound/undetected indicator.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 15 wherein the feedback comprises visual feedback.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 15 further comprising a primary virtual port, and at least one secondary virtual port, wherein each virtual port is configurable for association with a different user.