Apparatus and method for controlling object

• US 8,890,807 B2
• Filed: 07/14/2011
• Issued: 11/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Lee, Hyun Jeong, Han, Jae Joon, Park, Joon Ah
• Primary Examiner(s): LEE, NICHOLAS J
• Application Number:
  US13/137,007
• Publication Number:
  US 20120038551A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,223 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 345/157
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors

Abstract

An object controlling apparatus and method are provided. An object of a virtual world may be more intuitively and readily manipulated by controlling an operation, a state, a shape, and the like of the object based on transform information associated with the object and a pointing signal for manipulating the virtual that is received from an input device. In addition, by manipulating the object based on information matching the input pointing signal between internal transform information and total transform information, a unique transform operation may be assigned to each object and thus, the user may be provided with a variety of functions. Here, the internal transform information is uniquely set for each object and the total transform information is set to be commonly applied to all the objects of the virtual world.

Claims

1. An object controlling apparatus, comprising:

an input unit to receive, from an input device, a pointing signal for manipulating an object of a virtual world;

a database to store object information associated with the object including a transform of the object;

a decision unit to determine that the received pointing signal is a valid signal when the received pointing signal matches the transform of the object stored in the database and to determine that the received pointing signal is an invalid signal when the received pointing signal does not match the transform of the object; and

a controller to control at least one of an operation, a state, and a shape of the object based on the received pointing signal and the object information when the decision unit determines that the received pointing signal matches the transform of the object stored in the database and otherwise to not control the operation, the state, or the shape of the object based on the received pointing signal when the decision unit determines that the received pointing signal is the invalid signal.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the object comprises at least one subpart, and

the object information comprises at least one of identification information used to identify the at least one subpart, and transform information associated with a transform of the at least one subpart.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the transform information comprises at least one of translation information associated with a translation of the at least one subpart, rotation information associated with a rotation of the at least one subpart, and scaling information associated with scaling of the at least one subpart.

4. An object controlling apparatus for controlling an object of a virtual world, comprising:

an input unit to receive a pointing signal for manipulating the object from an input device;

a database to store internal transform information associated with an internal transform of the object and total transform information associated with a total transform of the object;

a first decision unit to determine whether the pointing signal corresponds to a valid input signal;

a second decision unit to determine whether the pointing signal matches the internal transform information, when the pointing signal corresponds to the valid input signal; and

a controller to control the internal transform of the object based on the internal transform information when the pointing signal matches the internal transform information, and to control the total transform of the object based on the total transform information when the pointing signal does not match the internal transform information.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein:

the object comprises at least one subpart, and

the internal transform information comprises at least one of identification information used to identify the at least one subpart, translation information associated with a translation of the at least one subpart, rotation information associated with a rotation of the at least one subpart, and scaling information associated with scaling of the at least one subpart.

6. An object controlling method comprising:

receiving, from an input device, a pointing signal for manipulating an object of a virtual world, wherein the received pointing signal includes at least one of a first pointing signal for internally transforming the object and a second pointing signal for totally transforming the object;

determining that the received pointing signal is a valid signal when the received pointing signal matches one of a pointing signal for an internal transform of the object stored in the database and a pointing signal for a total transform of the object stored in the database;

determining that the received pointing signal is an invalid signal when the received pointing signal does not match one of the pointing signal for the internal transform of the object stored in the database and the pointing signal for the total transform of the object stored in the database; and

controlling at least one of an operation, a state, and a shape of the object based on the received pointing signal and the object information when the received pointing signal is determined as the valid signal and otherwise to not control the operation, the state, or the shape of the object based on the received pointing signal when the received pointing signal is determined as the invalid signal.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein:

the object comprises at least one subpart, and

the object information comprises at least one of identification information used to identify the at least one subpart, and transform information associated with a transform of the at least one subpart.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising a program for instructing a computer to perform the method of claim 6.

9. An object controlling method of controlling an object of a virtual world, comprising:

receiving, from an input device, a pointing signal for manipulating the object;

determining whether the pointing signal corresponds to a valid input signal;

determining whether the pointing signal matches internal transform information associated with an internal transform of the object stored in a database, when the pointing signal corresponds to the valid input signal; and

controlling, by way of a processor, the internal transform of the object based on the internal transform information when the pointing signal matches the internal transform information, and controlling a total transform of the object stored in the database when the pointing signal does not match the internal transform information.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising a program for instructing a computer to perform the method of claim 9.

11. A method comprising:

obtaining a plurality of pointing signals;

obtaining internal transform information of at least one subpart of a virtual object;

determining whether the plurality of pointing signals match the internal transform information of the at least one subpart of the virtual object; and

controlling an internal transform of the virtual object when the plurality of pointing signals match the internal transform information of the at least one subpart of the virtual object.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the plurality of pointing signals include a first pointing signal and a second pointing signal,

the at least one subpart of the virtual object include a first subpart and a second subpart, and

the determining comprises

matching the first pointing signal against internal transform information of the first subpart; and

matching the second pointing signal against internal transform information of the second subpart.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein:

the matching the first pointing signal comprises

matching a vector of the first pointing signal against a vector included in the internal transform information of the first subpart, and

the matching the second pointing signal comprises

matching a vector of the second pointing signal against a vector included in the internal transform information of the second subpart.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the plurality of pointing signals include a first pointing signal and a second pointing signal,

the at least one subpart of the virtual object include a first subpart, and

the determining comprises

matching the first pointing signal against internal transform information of the first subpart; and

matching the second pointing signal against the internal transform information of the first subpart.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein:

the matching the first pointing signal comprises

matching a vector of the first pointing signal against a vector included in the internal transform information of the first subpart, and

the matching the second pointing signal comprises

matching a vector of the second pointing signal against the vector included in the internal transform information of the first subpart.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the internal information of the at least one subpart comprises at least one of position information, orientation information, and scale factor information.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

controlling a total transform of the virtual object when the plurality of pointing signals do not match the internal transform information of the at least one subpart of the virtual object.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising a program for instructing a computer to perform the method of claim 11.