Method and apparatus for utilizing motion user interface

• US 8,902,154 B1
• Filed: 07/11/2007
• Issued: 12/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: DP Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Kahn, Philippe Richard, Kinsolving, Arthur
• Primary Examiner(s): Cheng, Joe H
• Assistant Examiner(s): CRAWLEY, KEITH L
• Application Number:
  US11/776,532
• Time in Patent Office: 2,701 Days
• Field of Search: 345156-184, 702/141, 73488-491, 735033-50418, 7351401-51439, 455/90.1, 455/564, 379 37- 51
• US Class Current: 345/156
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1637 Sensing arrangement for detection of housing movement or orientation, e.g. for controlling scrolling or cursor movement on the display of an handheld computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72418 for supporting emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/045 using recorded signals, e.g. speech

Abstract

A method and apparatus for utilizing gestures for navigating.

Claims

1. A motion navigation system comprising:

an intelligent signal interpretation engine (ISIE) to receive motion data and to compare the motion data to registered motions corresponding to a gesture, and reject the motion data when the motion data does not match any the registered motions, and to identify a gesture based on the motion data when the motion data matches the registered motions;

a gesture library to associate the gesture with an action;

a gesture registration logic to enable a user to add a new gesture to the gesture library, the gesture registration logic to compare a suggested gesture to a subset of known accidental motion patterns associated with activities that may be concurrent with the action associated with the suggested gesture prior to adding the suggested gesture to the gesture library as the new gesture, and to reject the suggested gesture when the suggested gesture matches any known accidental motion pattern in the subset of the known accidental motion patterns informing the user of the rejection and enabling the user to override the rejection and add the suggested gesture to the gesture library; and

a translator to generate one or more commands to execute the action associated with the gesture.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the gesture registration logic is further to compare the suggested gesture to previously registered gestures.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an adjustment logic to identify an ambient noise level in the accelerometer data, and to adjust the gesture library to account for the ambient noise level.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an adjustment logic to identify a cadence of motion of the user, and to adjust the gesture library to account for the cadence of motion.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an adjustment logic to turn off availability of a gesture, when the gesture conflicts with a current activity level of the user.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the gesture is only permitted registration when the current activity level and a command associated with the gesture do not occur concurrently.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an emergency logic to initiate an emergency process when an unobtrusive emergency gesture is received, the unobtrusive gesture designed to be difficult to observe by a third party.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

a black box recorder to automatically initiate a full recording of data in a secure store on the device when the emergency logic initiates an emergency.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the data comprises one or more of the following:

audio data, video data, location data, and sensor data.

10. The system of claim 7, further comprising the emergency logic further to establish a connection with a contact, and to transmit data to the contact, without providing an audio or visual feedback at the mobile device.

11. A gesture recognition system in a handheld device including an accelerometer, the gesture recognition system comprising:

a gesture registration logic to register a series of motions as a gesture made with the handheld device, the gesture registration logic to enable the user to register an unobtrusive emergency routine initiation gesture, the emergency routine initiation gesture designed to be easily performed and not easily viewed as an action by a third party observer, the emergency routine initiation gesture verified as not matching a subset of known accidental motion sequences associated with activities that may be concurrent with the initiation gesture;

the gesture registration logic further to verify that a suggested gesture does not match the subset of known accidental motion sequences associated with activities that may be concurrent with the gesture, and to reject the suggested gesture when the suggested gesture matches any known accidental motion sequence in the subset of known accidental motion sequences, the gesture registration logic enabling the user to override the rejection and add the suggested gesture to the gesture library;

an intelligent signal interpretation engine (ISLE) to recognize user movements as the emergency routine initiation gesture;

an emergency logic to initiate an emergency sequence in response to the unobtrusive emergency routine initiation gesture, the emergency sequence designed to call for help on behalf of the user without providing visual or auditory feedback on the handheld device which may be detected by the third party observer.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

a black box recorder to automatically initiate a full recording of data from the device in a secure store on the device when the emergency logic initiates an emergency.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the data comprises one or more of the following:

audio data, video data, location data, and sensor data.

14. The system of claim 11, further comprising the emergency logic further to establish a connection with a contact, and to transmit data to the contact.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the data comprises one or more of the following:

an emergency notification message, location data, and current data obtained by the handheld device.

16. A method comprising:

receiving a proposed new gesture for addition to a gesture library from a user;

determining a command associated with the proposed new gesture;

determining a plurality of activities that may be concurrent with the command associated with the proposed new gesture;

rejecting the proposed new gesture when the proposed new gesture is determined to be too close to a subset of known accidental motion patterns associated with the plurality of activities that may be concurrent with the command associated with the proposed new gesture, or when the proposed new gesture is determined to be too close to an existing gesture, and otherwise adding the proposed new gesture to the gesture library;

informing the user of the rejection and enabling the user to override the rejection and add the suggested gesture to the gesture library;

receiving accelerometer data;

identifying a gesture based on the accelerometer data and the gesture library; and

generating one or more commands based on the identified gesture.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

rejecting the proposed new gesture if it is too close to an existing gesture in the gesture library.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

adjusting the gestures in the gesture library based on an ambient noise level.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

an adjustment logic to identify a cadence of motion of the user, and to adjust the gesture library to account for the cadence of motion.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

enabling registration of an unobtrusive emergency gesture to initiate an emergency process when the unobtrusive emergency gesture is detected.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

turning off a gesture in the gesture library if the gesture conflicts with a current activity level of the user.