System and method for advanced interfaces for virtual environments

• US 6,310,629 B1
• Filed: 11/09/1998
• Issued: 10/30/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Inventors: Courtney, Jonathan D., Cole, Edwin R., Muthusamy, Yeshwant K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayerl, Raymond J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Thai, Cuong T.
• Application Number:
  US09/188,995
• Time in Patent Office: 1,086 Days
• Field of Search: 345/339, 345/349, 345/326, 345/978, 345/358, 345/355, 704/9, 704/231, 704/246, 704/250, 704/251, 704/255, 706/55, 706/59, 706/60
• US Class Current: 715/727
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object

Abstract

A system and method for providing a controllable virtual environment includes a computer (11) with processor and a display coupled to the processor to display 2-D or 3-D virtual environment objects. Speech grammars are stored as attributes of the virtual environment objects. Voice commands are recognized by a speech recognizer (19) and microphone (20) coupled to the processor whereby the voice commands are used to manipulate the virtual environment objects on the display. The system is further made role-dependent whereby the display of virtual environment objects and grammar is dependent on the role of the user.

Claims

1. A virtual environment system comprising:

a database of virtual environment objects;

a display for displaying appearance of virtual environment objects;

a processor coupled to said database and said display for displaying virtual environment objects dependent on speech input;

said database storing speech grammars about possible natural interactions of a user with said virtual objects as attributes of said virtual environment objects along with graphical information describing said object'"'"'s appearance; and

a speech recognizer coupled to said processor and responsive to natural interaction speech of said user for recognizing said natural interaction speech of said user to manipulate said virtual environment objects.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said virtual environment objects inherit speech grammar attributes from other objects through inheritance.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said virtual environment objects inherit speech grammar attributes through aggregation.

4. A virtual environment system comprising:

a data base of virtual environment objects, said database storing information about possible speech command grammars with said virtual environment objects attributes of said virtual objects along with graphical information describing said object'"'"'s appearances;

a display for displaying appearance of virtual environment objects;

a processor coupled to said database and said displaying virtual environment objects dependent on speech command input; and

a speech recognizer coupled to said processor and responsive to user'"'"'s speech commands to manipulate said virtual environment objects.

5. A method for providing a controllable virtual environment comprising the steps of:

providing a processor and a display coupled to said processor to display virtual environment objects;

storing a set of virtual environment objects and storing information including speech grammars about possible interactions with said virtual environment objects as attributes inside said virtual environment objects along with graphical information describing the object'"'"'s visual appearance;

providing a speech recognizer and recognizing input speech of said user associated with said virtual objects and providing control signals to said processor to display said interactions; and

coupling said processor to said set of virtual environment objects and virtual object attributes for displaying user speech interactions with said virtual environment objects.

6. The method of claim 5 including the step of storing said virtual environment objects in classes according to the function and enabling said virtual environment objects to inherit functional properties from other object classes through inheritance and aggregation.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein for voice command interaction appropriate speech grammars are attributes of the virtual environment objects.

8. A virtual environment system that enables rapid creation of complex, dynamic environments comprising:

a mechanism for presenting speech input and a display for displaying displaying appearance of virtual environment objects;

a database containing a toolbox of virtual environment objects that afford needed speech interfaces and that support said speech input; and

a processor coupled to said database and said mechanism for creation of dynamic virtual environments including displaying virtual environment objects using a set of objects from said toolbox of virtual environment objects dependent on user speech input.