CONTROL EXPOSURE

• US 20130145380A1
• Filed: 03/02/2012
• Published: 06/06/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ewanchuk, Brian J., Olson, Lawrence W., Hillberg, Michael J., Kaza, Akhilesh, Gup, Jeremy B., Lamb, Austin M.
• Granted Patent: US 9,250,713 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/318
• 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 3/017 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

Abstract

Control exposure techniques are described. In one or more implementations, a determination is made by a computing device as to which of a plurality of controls correspond to one or more inputs detected using one or more magnetometers, cameras, or microphones. A result of the determination is exposed by the computing device to one or more applications that are executed by the computing device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining, by a computing device, which of a plurality of controls correspond to one or more inputs detected using one or more magnetometers, cameras, or microphones; and

exposing a result of the determination by the computing device to one or more applications that are executed by the computing device.

2. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the one or more cameras are configured to perform depth sensing.

3. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the one or more inputs are recognizable by the computing device as a gesture configured to initiate an operation that corresponds to the control of the determined result.

4. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the result is exposed as an event or command to the one or more applications.

5. A method as described in claim 4, wherein the result is a keyboard event.

6. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the determining includes ascertaining that the one or more applications are a target of the one or more inputs and the exposing is performed responsive to the determining.

7. A method as described in claim 6, wherein the determining includes converting the one or more inputs into the determined command that is compatible with the one or more applications.

8. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the determining and the exposing is performed through execution of an operation system by the computing device.

9. A method as described in claim 1, further comprising outputting the one or more inputs to the one or more applications.

10. A method as described in claim 9, wherein the outputting of the one or more inputs to the one or more applications is performed as a raw stream.

11. A method as described in claim 1, further comprising performing a handshake between the operating system that performs the determining and the exposing and the one or more applications, the handshake usable by the operating system to determine how and what to send in the result to the one or more applications.

12. A system implemented by a computing device, the system comprising:

one or more applications that are executable on hardware of the computing device; and

a module that is implemented at least partially using the hardware of the computing device, the module configured to receive one or more inputs that describe user interaction that is detected without using touch, determine which of the one or more applications is a target of the one or more inputs, convert the one or more inputs into events that are consumable by the targeted applications, and expose the events to the targeted applications.

13. A system as described in claim 12, wherein the module is implemented as part of an operating system of the computing device.

14. A system as described in claim 12, wherein the one or more events are associated with a particular control.

15. A system as described in claim 12, wherein the one or more inputs are detected without using touch by one or more cameras.

16. A system as described in claim 12, wherein the one or more inputs are detected without using touch by one or more microphones.

17. A system as described in claim 12, wherein the module is further configurable to output the one or more inputs to the one or more applications as a raw stream.

18. One or more computer-readable storage media comprising instructions stored thereon that, responsive to execution by a computing device, causes the computing device to implement an operating system configured to expose one or more events via an application programming interface for one or more controls identified by the operating system from inputs received from one or more cameras of the computing device.

19. One or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 18, wherein the inputs describes one or more gestures made by a user that are detected using the one or more cameras without involving touch.

20. One or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 18, wherein at least one said application is not configured to process the inputs to identify the one or more controls.