LIMITING AVATAR GESTURE DISPLAY

• US 20110298827A1
• Filed: 06/02/2010
• Published: 12/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Perez, Kathryn Stone
• Granted Patent: US 9,245,177 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/647
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/28 Recognition of hand or arm movements, e.g. recognition of deaf sign language static hand signs G06V40/113

Abstract

Technology determines whether a gesture of an avatar depicts one of a set of prohibited gestures. An example of a prohibited gesture is a lewd gesture. If the gesture is determined to be a prohibited gesture, the image data for display of the gesture is altered. Some examples of alteration are substitution of image data for the prohibited gesture, or performing a filtering technique to the image data depicting the gesture to visually obscure the prohibited gesture.

Claims

1. In a computer system for controlling an avatar, a method for limiting gesture display of an avatar comprising:

determining from motion tracking data whether a gesture for the avatar is one of a set of prohibited gestures; and

responsive to the gesture being of the set of prohibited gestures, altering image data representing the gesture for the avatar.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising tracking motions of a user in real-time for display by the avatar.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein responsive to the gesture being of the set of prohibited gestures, altering image data representing the gesture for the avatar further comprises altering image data representing the gesture for the avatar based on criteria from the group consisting of:

whether the image data representing the gesture is being transmitted to another computer, or displayed locally, or whether the image data representing the gesture is being received from another computer.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein altering image data representing the gesture for the avatar further comprises performing a filtering technique to the image data representing the gesture to visually obscure the prohibited gesture on a display.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein performing a filtering technique to the image data representing the gesture includes performing pixelation on the image data representing the prohibited gesture.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein altering image data representing the gesture for the avatar further comprises substituting image data for the image data representing the prohibited gesture by replacing motion data for the gesture with different motion data for the avatar.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein substituting image data for the image data representing the prohibited gesture further comprises moving a scene object or a body part to avoid displaying interaction with a prohibited zone associated with a model of the avatar.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein determining whether image data of a gesture of the avatar depicts one of a set of prohibited gestures further comprises one of:

determining whether image data representing a gesture of the avatar depicts a prohibited interaction with another scene object determining whether image data representing a gesture of the avatar depicts a prohibited interaction with another avatar in a scene.

9. A computer-implemented system for limiting gesture display of an avatar comprising:

an image capture system for capturing image data representative of live motions of a user,

one or more processing modules communicatively coupled to the image capture system for executing instructions for receiving the captured image data;

one or more memory devices accessible by the one or more processing modules for storing motion tracking data received from the image capture system;

the one or more processing modules executing instructions for updating motion tracking data for the user based on the received motion tracking data;

the one or more processing modules executing instructions for tracking the user'"'"'s live motions to motions for an avatar associated with the user;

the one or more processing modules determining whether a gesture performed by the user is one of a set of prohibited gestures based on parameter data defining criteria for motions representative of a set of prohibited gestures; and

responsive to the gesture being of the set of prohibited gestures, the one or more processing modules altering data representing the gesture of the avatar for display.

10. The system of claim 9 further comprising the one or more processing modules replacing the prohibited gesture with substitute image data in the avatar'"'"'s image data by replacing motion data for the gesture with different motion data for the avatar.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the one or more processing modules further executes instructions comprises logic for altering image data representing the gesture of the avatar for display based on criteria from the group consisting of:

whether the image data representing the gesture is being transmitted to another computer, or displayed locally, or whether the image data representing the gesture is being received from another computer.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein the one or more processing modules further comprises logic for altering image data representing the gesture for the avatar by performing a filtering technique to the image data representing the gesture to visually obscure the prohibited gesture on a display.

13. The system of claim 9 wherein the image capture system comprises a microphone for capturing audio data of the user and the one or more processing modules further comprises logic for editing speech data generated by the user while performing the prohibited gesture.

14. One or more computer-readable storage media comprising instructions encoded thereon for causing a processor on a first processing device to execute a method for limiting gesture display of an avatar, the method comprising:

determining whether motion for performance by the avatar on a display represents one of a set of prohibited gestures based on motion tracking data for control of the avatar;

determining whether the representation of the avatar is converted to image data for transmission to a second processing device; and

responsive to the gesture being of the set of prohibited gestures and the image data being for transmission to the second processing device, replacing motion data for the gesture with different motion data for the avatar.

15. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 14 wherein the different motion data for the avatar is stored in a motion capture file.

16. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 14 wherein the method further comprises tracking in real-time motions of a user determined from image data of the user to image data for displaying motions by the avatar.

17. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 14 wherein the image data for transmission to a second processing device comprises a stored video file, and further comprising regenerating motion tracking data for an avatar in the stored video file responsive to an indication that the video file is being transmitted.

18. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 14 wherein the method further comprises tracking in real-time motions of an avatar for data being received over a network in real-time.

19. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 14 wherein replacing motion data for the gesture with different motion data for the avatar further comprises

replacing motion data for the gesture with different motion data for the avatar based on criteria from the group consisting of:

whether the gesture is being transmitted to another computer, or displayed locally, or whether the gesture is being received from another computer.

20. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 14 wherein replacing motion data for the gesture with different motion data for the avatar further comprises replacing motion for one or more body parts used in the gesture with motion for the same one or more body parts.