Intelligent total access system

• US 7,363,398 B2
• Filed: 08/15/2003
• Issued: 04/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford Management Co.)
• Original Assignee: Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford Management Co.)
• Inventors: Scott, Neil G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel; Niketa
• Application Number:
  US10/642,022
• Publication Number:
  US 20040117513A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,712 Days
• Field of Search: 710/52
• US Class Current: 710/52
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A system for interfacing a user with an electronic device. An accessor device provides a user interface matched to the needs, abilities and intentions of the user and translates the user input commands and data into commands for the electronic device. An intelligent access port translates commands from the accessor into an input format required by the electronic device. A communication link connects the accessor device with the intelligent access port to send the translated user input commands and data from the accessor to the intelligent access port. The accessor device contains an intelligent access module and an interactive display. The intelligent access module contains a driver device for routing message packets, an interaction processor for processing incoming message packets and generating a message packet for the electronic device, and a communications channel. Communications between system components take place over a universal serial bus or over a wireless fidelity or ZigBee device. The interactive display can include a touch screen, browser, wireless transceiver and flash storage.

Claims

1. A system for interfacing a user with an electronic device, comprising:

a plurality of accessor devices with each accessor device classified by a level at which the accessor device is connected, wherein each accessor device (i) comprises an input sensor, including at least one of a keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, an electronic tablet, a handheld device, a pointing device, a head tracker, an eye gaze tracker, a microphone, a speech recognizer, a sonar device, a camera, a biosensor, and a electromagnetic sensor, for providing a user interface matched to an access need and an ability of the user, (ii) determines an intent from a user'"'"'s input actions, (iii) translates the user input actions and data into commands for the electronic device, and (iv) transfers the commands to an intelligent access port that translates the commands received from the accessor devices into an input format required by the electronic device; and

a communication link that connects each accessor device with the intelligent access port to send the translated user input actions and data from each accessor device to the intelligent access port.

2. The system for interfacing a user with an electronic device of claim 1 wherein the accessor device comprises, an input processor, an interaction processor and a wireless transceiver.

3. The system for interfacing a user with an electronic device of claim 2 wherein the input processor amplifies and processes user input actions received from the input sensor and transforms electrical signals into human language descriptions of the user'"'"'s actions.

4. The system for interfacing a user with an electronic device of claim 2 wherein the interaction processor merges a plurality of streams of incoming text, filters out words that are not recognized by the intelligent access port, and determines user intent from the stream of filtered text.

5. The system for interfacing a user with an electronic device of claim 2 wherein the wireless transceiver provides bi-directional streaming data between the accessor device and intelligent access port.

6. The system for interfacing a user with an electronic device of claim 1 wherein the intelligent access port comprises a wireless transceiver, an interaction processor and a device control interface.

7. The system for interfacing a user with an electronic device of claim 6 wherein the wireless transceiver provides bi-directional streaming data between the intelligent access port and the accessor device.

8. The system for interfacing a user with an electronic device of claim 6 wherein the interaction processor merges a plurality of streams of incoming text from the accessor device, filters out words that are not recognized by the intelligent access port, and determines user intent from the stream of filtered text.

9. The system for interfacing a user with an electronic device of claim 8 wherein the device control interface translates user intent into commands that are used by the electronic device.

10. The system for interfacing a user with an electronic device of claim 1 wherein at least one accessor device comprises a speech recognizer or head tracker providing for specialized user input.

11. The system for interfacing a user with an electronic device of claim 1 wherein at least one accessor device comprises an electronic tablet or handheld device including a touch screen interface providing individual user access.

12. The system for interfacing a user with an electronic device of claim 1 wherein at least one accessor device comprises a group accessor including at least one of a pointer and remote keyboard.

13. The system for interfacing a user with an electronic device of claim 12 wherein at least one accessor device comprises a cluster accessor that merges inputs received from a plurality of group accessors.

14. The system for interfacing a user with an electronic device of claim 1 wherein at least one accessor device is an intelligent access port that merges commands from a plurality of processors and generates commands for the electronic device.

15. The system for interfacing a user with an electronic device of claim 1 wherein at least one accessor device comprises an intelligent access module and an interactive display.

16. The system for interfacing a user with an electronic device of claim 1 wherein the electronic device comprises at least one of a computer, an appliance, and an electronically controlled device.

17. The system for interfacing a user with an electronic device of claim 1 wherein each accessor device comprises a cascading interface that connects the accessor device with a lower level accessor device through a communications interface.