Enhanced cursor control using interface devices

• US 6,816,148 B2
• Filed: 09/18/2001
• Issued: 11/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Immersion Corporation
• Original Assignee: Immersion Corporation
• Inventors: Beamer, Jonathan L., Mallett, Jeffrey R., Martin, Kenneth M., Rosenberg, Louis B., Braun, Adam C., Chang, Dean C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chang, Kent
• Application Number:
  US09/956,453
• Publication Number:
  US 20020033799A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,148 Days
• Field of Search: 345/856, 345/156, 345/157, 345/161, 345/163, 345/701, 345/702, 463/30, 463/31, 463/37
• US Class Current: 345/157
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/014 Force feedback applied to GUI
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/015 Force feedback applied to a joystick
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0354 with detection of 2D relative movements between the device, or an operating part thereof, and a plane or surface, e.g. 2D mice, trackballs, pens or pucks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03548 Sliders, in which the moving part moves in a plane
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0421 by interrupting or reflecting a light beam, e.g. optical touch-screen

Abstract

An interface device and method for providing enhanced cursor control with force feedback. A force feedback interface device includes a manipulandum, such as a mouse, that is moveable in a local workspace. The device is coupled to a host computer that displays a cursor in a graphical environment, such as a GUI, on a display screen. An interior region and a border region in the local workspace is defined. One mapping of device movement to cursor movement is used for the interior region, and a different mapping is used for the border region. Mapping methods include ballistics, absolute, linear, rate control, and variable absolute. Rate control embodiments can be single axis or dual axis. In one embodiment, when the mouse moves from the interior region to the border region, the mapping providing the greater cursor velocity is used to better conserve device workspace in the direction of travel and to decrease any sense of mapping mode change to the user. Other features include an autocentering function for reducing offset between local and host frames.

Claims

1. A tactile feedback interface device providing cursor control, said interface device in communication with a host computer that displays graphical objects in a graphical environment on a display screen, said interface device comprising:

a manipulandum movable in a physical workspace that controls a position of a cursor displayed by said host computer within said graphical environment, said physical workspace having limits to motion of said manipulandum;

at least one sensor operative to detect motion of said manipulandum and provide a sensor signal, wherein sensor data based on said sensor signal is reported to said host computer to allow positioning of said cursor, wherein a border region and an interior region are defined in said physical workspace of said interface device, and wherein a position-control mapping of movement of said manipulandum is applied to movement of said cursor when said manipulandum is positioned in said interior region, and a rate control mapping of movement of said manipulandum is applied to movement of said cursor when said manipulandum is positioned in said border region; and

at least one actuator operative to output a tactile sensation to a user.

2. A tactile feedback interface device as recited in claim 1 wherein said rate control mapping uses penetration of said manipulandum into said border region to control a speed of movement of said cursor along a particular direction on said display screen.

3. A tactile feedback interface device as recited in claim 2 wherein said tactile sensation output to said user is a resistive force on said manipulandum resisting penetration of said manipulandum into said border region from said interior region, a magnitude of said force being based on the depth of said penetration into said border region.

4. A tactile feedback interface device as recited in claim 1 further comprising a processor operative to provide signals to said at least one actuator to control said output of said tactile sensation to said user.

5. A tactile feedback interface device as recited in claim 1 wherein said position control mapping is a ballistics mapping, wherein a speed of said cursor in said graphical environment depends on a speed of said manipulandum in said physical workspace.

6. A method of providing control of a cursor displayed on a screen using a tactile feedback interface, said method comprising:

providing a user manipulatable object, said object moveable by a user in at least one degree of freedom in a workspace;

providing at least one sensor for detecting and reporting the motion of said user manipulatable object in said at least one degree of freedom;

enabling control of a graphical cursor on said screen, said cursor being controllable through two different modes, a position control mode and a rate control mode, said position control mode mapping displacement of said user manipulatable object to displacement of said cursor, said rate control mode mapping displacement of said user manipulatable object to a rate of displacement of said cursor, wherein said position control mode is used when said user manipulatable object is in a predefined center region of said workspace and wherein said rate control mode is used when said user manipulatable object is at or outside borders of said predefined center region of said workspace; and

enabling the output of tactile sensations to said user through said tactile feedback interface, said tactile sensations corresponding with said cursor moving between graphical elements displayed on said screen, wherein said tactile sensations are based on a position of said user manipulatable object when said position control mode is in use, and said tactile sensations include sensations based on time when a rate control mode is in use.

7. A method as recited in claim 6 wherein said graphical elements include menu elements in a menu, and wherein said tactile sensations indicate when said cursor moves from one menu element to another menu element in said menu.

8. A method as recited in claim 7 wherein said position-based tactile sensations are detent sensations and wherein said time-based tactile sensation are vibration sensations.

9. A method as recited in claim 6 wherein said tactile sensations output when said rate control mode is in use include a resistive spring force in addition to said time based tactile sensations, wherein a magnitude of said resistive spring force is based on said distance of said mouse past a border of said border region.

10. A method as recited in claim 9 wherein said time based tactile sensations are output synchronized with cursor interactions with graphical elements displayed on said screen.

11. A method as recited in claim 6 wherein said position control mode provides ballistic control of said cursor.

12. A method for providing cursor control on a cursor control interface device, said interface device coupled to a host computer that displays graphical objects in a graphical environment on a display screen, said interface device including a manipulandum movable in a physical workspace in order to control the position of a cursor displayed by said host computer within said graphical environment, the method comprising,

enabling an interior mapping of movement of said manipulandum to be applied to movement of said cursor when said manipulandum is positioned in an interior region of said physical workspace;

enabling a border mapping of movement of said manipulandum to be applied to movement of said cursor when said manipulandum is positioned in a border region adjacent to said interior region; and

enabling a selected one of said interior mapping and said border mapping of movement of said manipulandum to be applied to movement of said cursor when said manipulandum crosses from said interior region to said border region, wherein said selected mapping causes a greater velocity of said cursor than the unselected mapping.

13. A method as recited in claim 12 wherein said border region is adjacent to at least one limit of said physical workspace.

14. A method as recited in claim 12 further comprising outputting a force on said manipulandum when said manipulandum is in said border region.

15. A method as recited in claim 12 further comprising outputting a force on said manipulandum resisting said penetration into said border region, a magnitude of said force being based on the depth of said penetration into said border region.

16. A method as recited in claim 15 wherein said border mapping is a rate control mapping wherein said penetration into said border region is used to control a speed of movement of said cursor along a particular direction on said display screen.

17. A method as recited in claim 12 wherein said interior mapping is a ballistics mapping wherein a speed of said cursor depend on speed of said manipulandum.

18. A method as recited in claim 15 wherein said force resists motion of said mouse only toward said physical limit adjacent to said border region.

19. A method as recited in claim 12 further comprising determining an amount of screen pixels that each of said mappings would cause said cursor to move past, and applying said mapping that causes said cursor to move past the greater number of screen pixels.

20. A force feedback device providing automatic centering, said device in communication with a host computer that displays graphical objects in a graphical environment on a display screen, said device comprising:

a manipulandum movable in at least one degree of freedom in a local frame, wherein said manipulandum has physical limits to said movement in said local frame;

at least one position sensor detecting motion of said manipulandum and providing a sensor signal, wherein sensor data based on said sensor signal is provided to said host computer to allow positioning of said cursor in a screen frame; and

at least one actuator outputting a force on said manipulandum in at least one degree of freedom of said manipulandum and causing said manipulandum to move in said local frame to decrease an offset between said local frame and said screen frame.

21. A force feedback device as recited in claim 20 wherein said actuator additionally outputs forces coordinated with the display of images displayed by said host computer.

22. A force feedback device as recited in claim 20 further comprising a processor operative to provide signals to said actuator to control said force to move said manipulandum in said local frame.

23. A force feedback device as recited in claim 20 further comprising a contact sensor operative to determine when said user is contacting said manipulandum, wherein when said user is not contacting said manipulandum, said forces to move said manipulandum in said local frame to decrease said offset between said local frame and said screen frame.

24. A force feedback device as recited in claim 20 wherein said manipulandum is moved with said forces to a location at a predetermined distance from a nearest workspace limit.

25. A force feedback device as recited in claim 20 wherein said manipulandum is moved decrease said offset between said local frame and said screen frame after said offset increases over a predetermined threshold offset after use of said force feedback device.