EXTERNAL USER INTERFACE FOR HEAD WORN COMPUTING

• US 20150205373A1
• Filed: 02/21/2014
• Published: 07/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/17/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mentor Acquisition One, LLC (Magic Leap, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Osterhout Design Group
• Inventors: Osterhout, Ralph F., Border, John N., Nortrup, Edward H.
• Granted Patent: US 11,231,817 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 2027/0178 Eyeglass type eyeglass details G02C
• 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: G04G 17/08 Housings
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 17/083 Watches distributed over several housings
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 21/00 Input or output devices integrated in time-pieces
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 21/025 for measuring physiological data
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 21/08 Touch switches specially adapted for time-pieces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/163 Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/005 Input arrangements through a video camera
• 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 3/0346 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 3/03542 Light pens for emitting or receiving light
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03545 Pens or stylus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0386 for light pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/044 by capacitive means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 : Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 : Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 : for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1454 : involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2354/00 : Aspects of interface with display user
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/06 : Consumer Electronics Control, i.e. control of another device by a display or vice versa
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/22 : Detection of presence or absence of input display information or of connection or disconnection of a corresponding information source
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/12 : Synchronisation between the display unit and other units, e.g. other display units, video-disc players

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to external user interfaces used in connection with head worn computers (HWC). Embodiments relate to an external user interface that has a physical form intended to be hand held. The hand held user interface may be in the form similar to that of a writing instrument, such as a pen. In embodiments, the hand held user interface includes technologies relating to writing surface tip pressure monitoring, lens configurations setting a predetermined imaging distance, user interface software mode selection, quick software application launching, and other interface technologies.

Claims

1. A user interface, comprising:

A hand-held housing including a surface-interaction end and an IMU, wherein the IMU monitors a position of the hand-held housing and wherein the user interface is adapted to change an interface mode based on a comparison of the position with a predetermined position threshold.

2. The user interface of claim 1, wherein the surface-interaction end includes an optical system adapted to capture images from a writing surface.

3. The user interface of claim 2, wherein the images are processed to determine a writing pattern.

4. The user interface of claim 1, wherein the surface-interaction end includes a force monitor adapted to monitor force applied to the surface-interaction end.

5. The user interface of claim 1, wherein the change in interface mode is from a mouse to a wand.

6. The user interface of claim 1, wherein the change in interface mode is from a pen to a wand.

7. The user interface of claim 1, wherein the predetermined position threshold is one of a plurality of predetermined position thresholds.

8. The user interface of claim 1, wherein the comparison predicts that the hand-held housing is in a writing position.

9. The user interface of claim 1, wherein the comparison predicts that the hand-held housing is in a wand position.

10. A method, comprising:

Automatically collecting contextual information from one or more input sources relating to a pen position;

Comparing the contextual information to a predetermined indication of user intent; and

In response to a substantial match between the contextual information and the predetermined indication, changing a user interface function associated with the pen.

11. An optical pen, comprising:

A hand-held housing including a surface-interaction end and an optical system adapted to image a writing surface, wherein the optical pen is adapted to change its interface mode to a writing interface mode when the optical system detects a writing surface within close proximity to the surface-interaction end.