Image-based touchscreen
First Claim
1. A touch activated computer system, comprising:
- a display terminal including a screen for displaying a computer generated image, at least a portion of the screen occupying a planar region;
a camera having an optical axis aligned parallel to the planar region, the camera capturing frames representing a scene in front of the screen viewed from adjacent the screen, each frame including a plurality of pixel values;
means for comparing the pixel values of a selected captured frame with pixel values of a reference frame of the scene, the scene of the reference frame being unoccupied; and
means for selecting an action if the difference between the pixel values of a predetermined portion of the reference frame and a corresponding portion of the selected frame exceeds a predetermined threshold.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
In a touch activated computer system, a display terminal displays an image on a screen of the terminal. The image includes one or more visual option buttons arranged in a predetermined pattern. Each button corresponds to a specific application program which can be executed by the system. A camera has a lens oriented to capture frames representing a scene in front of the screen. Each frame includes a plurality of regularized pixel values. The system includes an image registration subsystem for comparing the pixel values of successive frames. A particular application is selected for execution when the pixel values corresponding to that portion of the scene directly in front of a particular button differ in successive frames more than a predetermined threshold value.
224 Citations
12 Claims
-
1. A touch activated computer system, comprising:
-
a display terminal including a screen for displaying a computer generated image, at least a portion of the screen occupying a planar region; a camera having an optical axis aligned parallel to the planar region, the camera capturing frames representing a scene in front of the screen viewed from adjacent the screen, each frame including a plurality of pixel values; means for comparing the pixel values of a selected captured frame with pixel values of a reference frame of the scene, the scene of the reference frame being unoccupied; and means for selecting an action if the difference between the pixel values of a predetermined portion of the reference frame and a corresponding portion of the selected frame exceeds a predetermined threshold. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. A computer implemented method for activating a computer action, the method comprising the steps of:
-
displaying an image on a screen of a display terminal, the terminal including a screen at least a portion of which occupies a planar region; capturing, from an orientation along an axis aligned parallel to the planar region, frames representing a scene in front of the screen viewed from adjacent the screen, each frame including a plurality of pixel values; comparing the pixel values of a captured frame with pixel values of a reference frame of the scene, the scene of the reference frame being unoccupied; and selecting an action if the difference between the pixel values of a predetermined portion of the reference frame and the pixel values of a corresponding portion of the captured frame exceeds a predetermined threshold value. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
-
Specification