Input method applied in electronic devices

• US 8,791,914 B2
• Filed: 02/08/2012
• Issued: 07/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Inventec Appliances Corporation Shanghai, Inventec Appliances Company Limited (Inventec Corporation), Inventec Appliances Corporation (Inventec Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Inventec Appliances Corporation Shanghai, Inventec Appliances Corporation (Inventec Corporation)
• Inventors: Zhao, Rui
• Primary Examiner(s): Chow, Van
• Application Number:
  US13/369,041
• Publication Number:
  US 20120200492A1
• Time in Patent Office: 902 Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0304 Detection arrangements using opto-electronic means constructional details of pointing devices not related to the detection arrangement using opto-electronic means G06F3/033; optical digitisers G06F3/042
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/107 Static hand or arm
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/175 Static expression
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/176 Dynamic expression
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/20 Movements or behaviour, e.g. gesture recognition recognition of facial expressions G06V40/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/70 Multimodal biometrics, e.g. combining information from different biometric modalities

Abstract

An input method applicable for inputting into an electronic device, which includes the steps of capturing a lip motion of a person; receiving an image of the lip motion; encoding the lip motion image to obtain a lip motion code; comparing the lip motion code with a plurality of standard lip motion codes to obtain a first text result matching the lip motion code; and displaying the first text result on the electronic device if the first text result is obtained. If the first text result is not obtained, the method may further include activating an auxiliary analyzing mode for the electronic device for recognizing a facial expression, a hand gesture, or an audio signal to be inputted. The input method can diversify input methods for the electronic device.

Claims

1. An input method applicable for inputting into an electronic device having an image capturing unit, a processing module, a lip-reading analyzing unit, a lip motion code database, a display module, a facial expression analyzing unit and a facial expression code database, and the input method comprising the steps of:

capturing a lip motion of a person through the image capturing unit;

receiving an image of the lip motion from the image capturing unit;

encoding the lip motion image through the lip-reading analyzing unit to obtain a lip motion code;

the processing module comparing the lip motion code with a plurality of standard lip motion codes stored in the lip motion code database, to obtain a first text result matching the lip motion code;

displaying the first text result through the display module if the first text result is obtained;

activating an auxiliary analyzing mode, if the first text result is not obtained, wherein the auxiliary analyzing mode is a facial expression analyzing mode;

capturing a facial expression of the person through the image capturing unit;

receiving an image of the facial expression from the image capturing unit;

encoding the facial expression image through the facial expression analyzing unit to obtain a facial expression code;

the processing module comparing the facial expression code with a plurality of standard facial expression codes stored in the facial expression code database, and comparing the lip motion code with the plurality of standard lip motion codes, to obtain a second text result matching the facial expression code and the lip motion code; and

displaying the second text result through the display module if the second text result is obtained.

2. The input method of claim 1, wherein the lip motion code comprises a coordinate value of each lip motion characteristic point in the lip motion image, and the coordinate value is in a Cartesian coordinate system and calculated by the lip-reading analyzing unit.

3. The input method of claim 1, wherein the step of encoding the lip motion image comprises or follows recognizing the lip motion from the lip motion image.

4. The input method of claim 1, returning to the step of capturing a lip motion through the image capturing unit for capturing another lip motion image input by the person, if the first text result is not obtained.

5. The input method of claim 1, wherein the auxiliary analyzing mode comprises a facial expression analyzing mode, a hand gesture analyzing mode, or an audio analyzing mode.

6. The input method of claim 1, wherein the facial expression code comprises a coordinate value of each facial expression characteristic point in the facial expression image, and the coordinate value is in a Cartesian coordinate system and calculated by the facial expression analyzing unit.

7. The input method of claim 1, wherein the step of encoding the facial expression image comprises or follows recognizing the facial expression from the facial expression image.

8. The input method of claim 1, wherein the electronic device further comprises a hand gesture analyzing unit and a hand gesture code database, the auxiliary analyzing mode is a hand gesture analyzing mode, and the input method further comprises the steps of:

capturing a hand gesture of the person by the image capturing unit;

receiving an image of the hand gesture from the image capturing unit;

encoding the hand gesture image through the hand gesture analyzing unit to obtain a hand gesture code;

the processing module comparing the hand gesture code with a plurality of standard hand gesture codes stored in the hand gesture code database, and comparing the lip motion code with the plurality of standard lip motion codes, to obtain a third text result matching the hand gesture code and the lip motion code; and

displaying the third text result through the display module if the third text result is obtained.

9. The input method of claim 8, wherein the step of encoding the hand gesture image comprises or follows recognizing the hand gesture from the hand gesture image.

10. The input method of claim 1, wherein the electronic device further includes an audio analyzing unit, an audio input unit, and an audio code database, the auxiliary analyzing mode is an audio analyzing mode, and the input method further comprises the steps of:

receiving an audio signal from the audio input unit, the audio signal being input by the person into the audio input unit;

encoding the received audio signal through the audio analyzing unit to obtain an audio code;

the processing module comparing the audio code with a plurality of standard audio codes stored in the audio code database, and comparing the lip motion code with the plurality of standard lip motion codes, to obtain a fourth text result matching the audio code and the lip motion code; and

displaying the fourth text result through the display module if the fourth text result is obtained.

11. The input method of claim 10, wherein the step of encoding the received audio signal comprises or follows recognizing an audio message from the received audio signal.

12. The input method of claim 1, wherein the lip motion code database is configured to store the plurality of standard lip motion codes for languages of different countries, and provides for setting one of the languages as a default language to be used on the electronic device.