FUNCTION ALLOCATION FOR VIRTUAL CONTROLLER

• US 20180203502A1
• Filed: 10/26/2017
• Published: 07/19/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Kobayashi, Tony, Du Bois, Paul, Winston, Lauren
• Granted Patent: US 10,459,519 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0382 Plural input, i.e. interface arrangements in which a plurality of input device of the same type are in communication with a PC
• 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 3/012 Head tracking input arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user
• 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 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0487 using specific features provided by the input device, e.g. functions controlled by the rotation of a mouse with dual sensing arrangements, or of the nature of the input device, e.g. tap gestures based on pressure sensed by a digitiser
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/00 Manipulating 3D models or images for computer graphics

Abstract

A method includes: associating, in a computer system, a virtual controller with a physical controller; allocating a first function to the virtual controller, the allocation providing for performance of the first function using the physical controller; detecting a gesture performed using the physical controller; and in response to detecting the gesture, de-allocating the first function from, or allocating a second function to, the virtual controller.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

associating, in a computer system, a virtual controller with a physical controller;

allocating a first function to the virtual controller, the allocation providing for performance of the first function using the physical controller;

detecting a gesture performed using the physical controller; and

in response to detecting the gesture, de-allocating the first function from, or allocating a second function to, the virtual controller.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual controller is a first virtual controller, and wherein the physical controller is a first physical controller, the method further comprising:

associating a second virtual controller in the computer system with a second physical controller; and

allocating the second function to the second virtual controller.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein in response to detecting the gesture, the first function is de-allocated from the first virtual controller, the first function is allocated to the second virtual controller, and the second function is de-allocated from the second virtual controller, and the second function is allocated to the first virtual controller.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first function includes a brush function in a virtual painting program and the second function includes a palette function in the virtual painting program, and wherein detecting the gesture triggers a swapping of the brush function and the palette function in the virtual painting program.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the gesture is made using the first and second physical controllers.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the gesture involves the first and second physical controllers being brought towards each other and thereafter away from each other.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the gesture involves respective ends of the first and second physical controllers being brought toward each other, and the ends then brought apart from each other.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the respective ends of the first and second physical controllers are respective bottom ends of the first and second physical controllers.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein the first and second physical controllers are identical to each other.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing, in response to detecting the gesture, the de-association of the first function from, or the association of the second function with, the virtual controller, as a default in the computer system.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual controller is defined in a virtual space generated by the computer system, and wherein the first function is de-allocated from the virtual controller in response to detecting the gesture, the method further comprising defining a point in the virtual space, and, in response to detecting the gesture, associating the first function with the point.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the second function had already been allocated to the virtual controller before the gesture was detected.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the virtual controller is a first virtual controller, and wherein the physical controller is a first physical controller, the method further comprising:

associating a second virtual controller in the computer system with a second physical controller; and

allocating the second function to the second virtual controller.

14. The method of claim 13, the method further comprising allocating the second function also to the first virtual controller.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the first function includes a palette function in a virtual painting program, wherein the second function includes a brush function in the virtual painting program, and wherein the de-association of the first function from the first virtual controller provides that the first and second physical controller can both be used to perform the brush function in the virtual painting program.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the gesture is detected using a sensor.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the sensor is located on the physical controller.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising extrapolating velocity and position information about the physical controller from sensor data generated by the sensor.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising extrapolating orientation data about the physical controller from the sensor data.

20. A computer program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory storage medium, the computer program product including instructions that when executed cause a processor to perform operations including:

associating, in a computer system, a virtual controller with a physical controller;

allocating a first function to the virtual controller, the allocation providing for performance of the first function using the physical controller;

detecting a gesture performed using the physical controller; and

in response to detecting the gesture, de-allocating the first function from, or allocating a second function to, the virtual controller.

21. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory storage medium, the computer program product including instructions that when executed cause the processor to perform operations including;

associating, in a computer system, a virtual controller with a physical controller;

allocating a first function to the virtual controller, the allocation providing for performance of the first function using the physical controller;

detecting a gesture performed using the physical controller; and

in response to detecting the gesture, de-allocating the first function from, or allocating a second function to, the virtual controller.