Dual pointer management method using cooperating input sources and efficient dynamic coordinate remapping
First Claim
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1. A pointer control apparatus comprising:
- a first input device that provides a position signal expressed using a first coordinate system associated with the first input device;
a second input device that provides a position signal expressed using a second coordinate system associated with the second input device;
a pointer generation system that generates for display in a common display space having a common display coordinate system a first pointer associated with the first input device and a second pointer associated with the second input device; and
a mapping integrator processor configured to compute the position of the first pointer within the display coordinate system based in part upon the position signal of the first input device and based in part upon the position signal of the second input device, and configured to compute the position of the second pointer within the display coordinate system based in part upon the position signal of the second input device and based in part upon the position signal of the first input device;
the mapping integrator processor being further configured to define a dynamic boundary within the common display coordinate system based on knowledge of the respective position signals of the first and second input devices and to compute the positions of the first and second pointers such that each is confined to a different side of the dynamic boundary within the common display coordinate system.
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Abstract
The pointer management technology establishes a protocol and method for dual pointer management in both absolute input mode and relative input mode. The method defines a set of properties/constraints for contextual dynamic remapping between input sensor coordinates and target screen coordinates. The remapping of the left pointer (respectively the right pointer) depends on the position of the right pointer (respectively the left pointer) in the target screen space. This inter-dependence enables a more flexible and more powerful interaction as it exploits the contextual layout to re-estimate the remapping transformations at each instant.
11 Citations
32 Claims
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1. A pointer control apparatus comprising:
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a first input device that provides a position signal expressed using a first coordinate system associated with the first input device; a second input device that provides a position signal expressed using a second coordinate system associated with the second input device; a pointer generation system that generates for display in a common display space having a common display coordinate system a first pointer associated with the first input device and a second pointer associated with the second input device; and a mapping integrator processor configured to compute the position of the first pointer within the display coordinate system based in part upon the position signal of the first input device and based in part upon the position signal of the second input device, and configured to compute the position of the second pointer within the display coordinate system based in part upon the position signal of the second input device and based in part upon the position signal of the first input device; the mapping integrator processor being further configured to define a dynamic boundary within the common display coordinate system based on knowledge of the respective position signals of the first and second input devices and to compute the positions of the first and second pointers such that each is confined to a different side of the dynamic boundary within the common display coordinate system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 32)
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21. A method of generating plural pointers on a display screen that are responsive to plural input devices, comprising:
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electronically receiving a first position signal from a first input device; electronically receiving a second position signal from a second input device; electronically processing said first and second position signals to calculate first and second pointer positions within a predefined display coordinate system associated with a display screen, the first and second pointer positions being different from one another and each being based on both said first and second position signals; and generating and displaying first and second pointers on said display screen, the first pointer being displayed at said first pointer position and the second pointer being displayed at said second pointer position; wherein said processing step is performed such that a dynamic boundary within the common display coordinate system is defined based on knowledge of the respective position signals of the first and second input devices and the first and second pointer positions are computed to be confined to different sides of the dynamic boundary within the display coordinate system. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. An apparatus for generating plural pointers on a display screen comprising:
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a multi-position input system receptive of position input data from a plurality of input devices; a pointer generation system that generates plural pointers for display on said display screen each at a different pointer location; and a mapping integrator processor configured to compute said different pointer locations by taking into account the position input data from all of said plurality of input devices in computing each pointer location; the mapping integrator processor being further configured to define a dynamic boundary and to compute said different pointer locations such that each location lies on a different side of the dynamic boundary based on knowledge of the input data from said plurality of input devices.
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Specification