INTERACTIVE VIDEO BASED GAMES USING OBJECTS SENSED BY TV CAMERAS

• US 20130169527A1
• Filed: 12/14/2012
• Published: 07/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PSTP Technologies, LLC
• Original Assignee: PSTP Technologies, LLC
• Inventors: Pryor, Timothy R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,760,398 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/156
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1012 involving biosensors worn by the player, e.g. for measuring heart beat, limb activity
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1087 comprising photodetecting means, e.g. a camera
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0331 Finger worn pointing device
• 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 3/0325 using a plurality of light emitters or reflectors or a plurality of detectors forming a reference frame from which to derive the orientation of the object, e.g. by triangulation or on the basis of reference deformation in the picked up image
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/042 by opto-electronic means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0425 using a single imaging device like a video camera for tracking the absolute position of a single or a plurality of objects with respect to an imaged reference surface, e.g. video camera imaging a display or a projection screen, a table or a wall surface, on which a computer generated image is displayed or projected tracking a projected light spot to determine a position on a display surface G06F3/0386
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/20 Movements or behaviour, e.g. gesture recognition recognition of facial expressions G06V40/16

Abstract

A method and apparatus for interactive TV camera based games in which position or orientation of points on a player or of an object held by a player are determined and used to control a video display. Both single camera and stereo camera pair based embodiments are disclosed, preferably using stereo photogrammetry where multi-degree of freedom information is desired. Large video displays, preferably life-size may be used where utmost realism of the game experience is desired.

Claims

1. A control interface comprising:

an electro-optical sensor including a sensor field of view, the electro-optical sensor including an output; and

a processing unit operatively coupled to the sensor output and adapted to detect a gesture performed by a user in the sensor field of view, wherein the processing unit assigns a computer input command to the detected gesture for subsequent use by the user.

2. The control interface of claim 1 further including a computer readable memory, wherein the assigned computer input command and the detected gesture are stored to a look-up table in the computer readable memory.

3. The control interface of claim 1 wherein the computer input command is a word processing function.

4. The control interface of claim 1 wherein the computer input command is a spreadsheet function.

5. The control interface of claim 1 further including a display viewable by the user and fixed in relation to the electro-optical sensor.

6. The control interface of claim 1 wherein the electro-optical sensor includes a single camera.

7. The control interface of claim 1 wherein the electro-optical sensor includes a stereo pair of cameras.

8. A computer implemented method comprising:

providing an electro-optical sensor including a field of view; and

detecting, using the electro-optical sensor, a gesture performed by the user in the sensor field of view; and

assigning a computer input command to the detected gesture based on an additional input by the user.

9. The method according to claim 8 wherein the additional input includes a voice instruction.

10. The method according to claim 8 wherein the additional input includes a keyboard instruction.

11. The method according to claim 8 further including storing the assigned command and the detected gesture to a lookup table in computer readable memory.

12. The method according to claim 11 wherein the lookup table includes a plurality of gestures each corresponding to one of a plurality of computer input commands.

13. The method according to claim 8 further including providing a processing unit to detect the gesture repeated by the user.

14. The method according to claim 13 wherein the processing unit is adapted to perform the assigned computer input command in response to the repeated gesture.

15. A control interface comprising:

a camera to detect a gesture performed in the camera field of view; and

a processing unit operatively coupled to the camera and adapted to assign a computer input command to the detected gesture in response to a user designation, wherein the user designation includes a voice instruction.

16. The control interface of claim 15 wherein the computer input command and the gesture are stored to a computer readable memory for subsequent use of the gesture by the user.

17. The control interface of claim 15 wherein computer input command is a word processing function.

18. The control interface of claim 15 wherein the computer input command is a spreadsheet function.

19. The control interface of claim 15 further including a display viewable by the user and fixed in relation to the camera.

20. The control interface of claim 15 wherein the camera is a first camera and further including a second camera, the first and second cameras forming a stereo pair.