INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS AND OPERATION METHOD OF INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS

• US 20110279373A1
• Filed: 04/14/2011
• Published: 11/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: YOKOYAMA, Daiki, Fujii, Yasutaka
• Granted Patent: US 8,947,359 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/168
• 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 2200/1637 Sensing arrangement for detection of housing movement or orientation, e.g. for controlling scrolling or cursor movement on the display of an handheld computer
• 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 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor

Abstract

An information processing apparatus includes: an apparatus body including a body having a keyboard and a display unit attached to the body so as to be opened and closed; an acceleration sensor mounted on the apparatus body; a gesture motion determination unit mounted on the apparatus body and determining a reference posture of a holding state of the apparatus body taken when a user executes a given gesture function while holding the apparatus body based on acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor as well as determining a gesture motion executed by the user by detecting posture change of the apparatus body from the reference posture based on acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor; and an operation execution unit mounted on the apparatus body and executing a given operation corresponding to the gesture motion executed by the user based on the determination result in the gesture motion determination unit.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus comprising:

an apparatus body including a body having a keyboard and a display unit attached to the body so as to be opened and closed;

an acceleration sensor mounted on the apparatus body;

a gesture motion determination unit mounted on the apparatus body and determining a reference posture of a holding state of the apparatus body taken when a user executes a given gesture function while holding the apparatus body based on acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor as well as determining a gesture motion executed by the user by detecting posture change of the apparatus body from the reference posture based on acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor; and

an operation execution unit mounted on the apparatus body and executing a given operation corresponding to the gesture motion executed by the user based on the determination result in the gesture motion determination unit.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the gesture motion determination unit sets a virtual axis in which acceleration on the axis is zero when the apparatus body is in the reference position of the gesture motion and the acceleration on the axis varies in accordance with change when the apparatus body changes its posture from the reference posture, and calculates the acceleration on the virtual axis based on the acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor as well as determines the gesture motion executed by the user based on the calculated acceleration on the virtual axis.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein the acceleration sensor is an acceleration sensor detecting acceleration of directions of three axes orthogonal to one another,

the gesture motion determination unit, when the given gesture function is executed by associating a turning motion of the apparatus body about a given axis of the acceleration sensor as a central axis with the given operation, sets a virtual axis parallel to a horizontal direction in a surface orthogonal to the given axis, calculates acceleration on the virtual axis based on acceleration on two axes other than the given axis and an opening angle between the body and the display unit as well as determines the turning motion executed by the user based on the calculated acceleration on the virtual axis.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3,

wherein the opening angle between the body and the display unit is the maximum as well as 180 degree or less.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the gesture motion determination unit is formed by an microcomputer.

6. An operation method of an information processing apparatus including an apparatus body including a body having a keyboard and a display unit attached to the body so as to be opened and closed, an acceleration sensor mounted on the apparatus body, a gesture motion determination unit determining a gesture motion executed with respect to the apparatus body by a user and an operation execution unit executing a given operation corresponding to the gesture motion, the method comprising the steps of:

determining a reference posture of a holding state of the apparatus body taken when the user executes a given gesture function while holding the apparatus body based on acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor by the gesture motion determination unit;

determining a gesture motion executed by the user by detecting posture change of the apparatus body from the reference posture based on acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor by the gesture motion determination unit; and

executing a given operation corresponding to the determined gesture motion executed by the user based on the determination result of the gesture motion by the operation execution unit.