Interface apparatus

• US 6,191,773 B1
• Filed: 01/02/1998
• Issued: 02/20/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Kondo, Kenji, Imagawa, Taro, Maruno, Susumu, Moriya, Michiyo
• Primary Examiner(s): Chow, Dennis-Doon
• Application Number:
  US08/945,628
• Time in Patent Office: 1,145 Days
• Field of Search: 661/04, 66/55, 66/13, 66/15, 661/20, 358/403, 379/93.14, 379/100.08, 379/88.13, 379/88.24, 345/427, 345/156, 345/157, 345/158, 345/173
• US Class Current: 345/158
• 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: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence

Abstract

The invention relates to an interface apparatus for making input and output of appliances having display such as computer, word processor, information appliance and television, comprising recognizing means for recognizing the shape or move of the hand of an operator, display means for displaying the features of the shape or move of the hand recognized by the recognizing means as special shape in the screen, and control means for controlling the information displayed in the screen by the special shape displayed in the screen by the display means, wherein the two-dimensional or three-dimensional information displayed in the screen can be selected, indicated or moved only by changing the shape or moving the hand, so that the interface apparatus of very excellent controllability and high diversity may be presented.

Claims

1. An interface apparatus comprising:

recognizing means for recognizing a shape of a hand and a given motion of the hand of an operator;

display means for displaying a visible menu programmed to correspond to the features of the shape of the hand recognized by the recognizing means on a screen; and

control means for selecting the visible menu displayed on the screen based on the features of the shape of the hand recognized by said recognizing means and for issuing an instruction based on the recognition of the given motion of the hand recognized by said recognizing means after selecting the menu.

2. An interface apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the given motion is the operator'"'"'s maintaining the shape of the hand for a specified time.

3. An interface apparatus of claim 2, wherein said display means displays said features of the shape of the hand on the screen as a special shape.

5. An interface apparatus of claim 3, wherein the recognizing means recognizes a number of fingers of the hand, the display means displays the number of fingers as the special shape and the control means selects the visible menu displayed on the screen based on the number of the fingers of the hand recognized by the recognizing means.

6. An interface apparatus as defined in claim 5, wherein the special shape is an icon representing a number, and the display means emphasizes a part of the menu corresponding to the number based on the number of fingers of the hand recognized by the recognizing means.

4. An interface apparatus comprising:

recognizing means for recognizing a shape of a hand and a given motion of the hand of an operator, wherein the given motion is the operator'"'"'s maintaining the shape of the hand for a specified time;

display means for displaying a visible menu programmed to correspond to the features of the shape of the hand recognized by the recognizing means on a screen wherein said display means displays said features of the shape of the hand on the screen as a special shape and the special shape is an icon representing a numeral; and

control means for selecting the visible menu displayed on the screen based on the features of the shape of the hand recognized by said recognizing means and for issuing an instruction based on the recognition of the given motion of the hand recognized by said recognizing means after selecting the menu.