Wireless Hands-Free Computing Headset With Detachable Accessories Controllable by Motion, Body Gesture and/or Vocal Commands

• US 20110187640A1
• Filed: 02/01/2011
• Published: 08/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kopin Corporation
• Original Assignee: Kopin Corporation
• Inventors: Jacobsen, Jeffrey J., Pombo, Stephen A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,855,719 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/156
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0138 comprising image capture systems, e.g. camera
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/014 comprising information/image processing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0187 slaved to motion of at least a part of the body of the user, e.g. head, eye
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/017 Head mounted
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0381 Multimodal input, i.e. interface arrangements enabling the user to issue commands by simultaneous use of input devices of different nature, e.g. voice plus gesture on digitizer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/012 Head tracking input arrangements
• 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 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback

Abstract

A remote control microdisplay device that uses hand movement, body gesture, head movement, head position and/or vocal commands to control the headset, a peripheral device, a remote system, network or software application, such as to control the parameters of a field of view for the microdisplay within a larger virtual display area associated with a host application, a peripheral device or host system. The movement and/or vocal commands are detected via the headset and/or detachable peripheral device connected to the headset microdisplay device via one or more peripheral ports.

Claims

1. A headset portable device comprising:

one or more microdisplays, for displaying visual information received from a local processor;

one or more peripheral ports, for supporting one or more peripheral devices that provide one or more peripheral input signals indicating a sensor input or at least one of a user motion and/or vocal input;

a local processor located in the headset portable device and further comprising;

one or more receivers, for receiving the peripheral inputs;

a translator, for translating sensor information, user motion and/or vocal input from one or more peripheral ports into one or more user commands;

a communication interface, for forwarding the user command to a host processor, and for receiving a reply from the host processor; and

a display controller, for forwarding information to be displayed on the one or more microdisplays in response to the reply, including at least an audible and/or visual confirmation of the local processor having processed the user commands.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the one or more peripheral devices comprise:

one or more microphones, for receiving audio signals from the user, and

wherein the local processor further comprises;

a speech recognizer, for processing the audio signals to produce vocal commands; and

wherein the translator further uses the vocal commands to determine the host commands.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the one or more peripheral devices is a motion detector and the motion detector provides two or more motion inputs indicative of motion along two or more axes.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the motion detector is a camera for detecting hand and/or body gesture movements of the user.

5. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the motion detection is a head movement tracking device for detecting 3 axis up to 9 axis degrees of freedom head movements of the user.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the communication interface is one or more wireless links between the headset portable device and the host processor.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the user commands are processed by the local processor to control aspect of the presentation of visual information displayed on the microdisplay.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the user commands control a field of view.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the user commands control a zoom, pan, or scale factors.

10. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the user command selects a hyperlink item in a web page display.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the one or more peripheral ports are a wireless interface to two or more remote cameras or one or more other peripheral devices.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the user commands are forwarded as a host command to the host processor.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the reply results in a cursor movement.

14. A method for operating a headset portable device having a microdisplay, one or more peripheral ports, one or more wireless communication interfaces, and a local processor, comprising:

displaying visual information received from the local processor on a microdisplay;

using one or more peripheral ports for supporting one or more sensors or peripheral devices for detecting sensor and user input from a user;

translating sensor and/or user input into user commands; and

controlling at least one aspect of the headset, peripheral devices, remote host systems or visual information presented on the microdisplay based on the user commands.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the aspect of the visual information is a field of view.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the aspect of the visual information is a zoom, pan, scale factor and or 3D effect

17. The method of claim 14 additionally comprising:

forwarding the user commands to a host processor using the wireless interface.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein the user input is two or more motion inputs indicative of motion of the user in two or more axes.

19. The method of claim 14 wherein the user input is a camera for detecting hand movement or body gesture of the user.

20. The method of claim 14 wherein the user input is derived from head movement and positioning sensors for detecting and tracking as little as 3 axis degrees of freedom or up to 9 axis degrees of freedom.