Gesture control

• US 9,304,591 B2
• Filed: 08/10/2010
• Issued: 04/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo PC International Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Lenovo Singapore Pte Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Cromer, Daryl, Flores, Axel Ramirez, Ganey, Harriss Christopher Neil, Johnson, Jay Wesley, Locker, Howard, Stewart, Aaron Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Nicholas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Adediran, Abdul-Samad A
• Application Number:
  US12/853,747
• Publication Number:
  US 20120038546A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,065 Days
• Field of Search: 345165-183, 345/156, 345/660, 455/414.2
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1684 Constructional details or arrangements related to integrated I/O peripherals not covered by groups G06F1/1635 - G06F1/1675
• 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 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• 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: G09G 5/00 Control arrangements or circuits for visual indicators common to cathode-ray tube indicators and other visual indicators image data processing or generation, in general G06T
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72454 according to context-related or environment-related conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10

Abstract

An apparatus includes sensor circuitry configured to sense spatial phenomena; application circuitry configured to respond to sensation of a spatial phenomenon by the sensor circuitry where a pre-existing relationship exists between the spatial phenomenon and the response of the application circuitry; and regulation circuitry configured to regulate the response of the application circuitry to the spatial phenomenon based at least in part on sensation of a different spatial phenomenon by the sensor circuitry. Various other apparatuses, systems, methods, etc., are also disclosed.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a processor;

memory operatively coupled to the processor;

a planar touchscreen display operatively coupled to the processor;

sensor circuitry that comprises an accelerometer that senses a spatial phenomenon for determining displacement of the planar touchscreen display along an axis normal to the planar touchscreen display and rotational orientation of the planar touchscreen display about the axis and a detector that senses a spatial phenomenon for determining distance along the axis between the planar touchscreen display and an object;

zoom circuitry that automatically zooms information presented on the planar touchscreen display responsive to a change in displacement of the planar touchscreen display along the axis sensed by the accelerometer based at least in part on a determined distance between the planar touchscreen display and the object, and based at least in part on information type;

regulation circuitry that disables zoom of the information by the zoom circuitry based at least in part on a comparison of a determined distance between the planar touchscreen display and the object sensed by the detector to a zoom disable distance.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the regulation circuitry disables zoom of the image based at least in part on a zoom stop distance.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the regulation circuitry enables zoom of the image based at least in part on a zoom start distance.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the sensor circuitry senses, for at least one of the spatial phenomena, a time dependency.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the time dependency comprises a velocity or acceleration.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the apparatus comprises a member selected from a group consisting of a mobile phone, a tablet, a notebook, a slate, a pad, a personal data assistant, a camera, and a global positioning system device.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising control circuitry for display of a control graphical user interface to the planar touchscreen display to set a zoom stop distance to disable zoom of the image by the zoom circuitry wherein the zoom stop distance corresponds to a distance between the planar touchscreen display and the object sensed by the detector.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising a processor and memory operatively coupled to the processor wherein the planar touchscreen display is operatively coupled to the processor.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising control circuitry for display of a control graphical user interface to the planar touchscreen display to set one or more zoom control parameters.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the one or more zoom control parameters comprises a zoom start distance.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the one or more zoom control parameters comprises a zoom stop distance.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the one or more zoom control parameters comprises a zoom start distance and a zoom stop distance.

13. An apparatus comprising:

a processor;

memory operatively coupled to the processor;

a planar touchscreen display operatively coupled to the processor;

first sensor circuitry that senses a first type of physical phenomenon associated with displacement of the planar touchscreen display along an axis normal to the planar touchscreen display and rotational orientation of the planar touchscreen display about the axis;

second sensor circuitry that senses a second type of physical phenomenon associated with displacement along the axis of an object with respect to the planar touchscreen display;

zoom circuitry that automatically zooms information presented on the planar touchscreen display responsive to a change in displacement of the planar touchscreen display along the axis sensed by the first sensor circuitry based at least in part on a determined distance between the planar touchscreen display and the object, and based at least in part on information type; and

regulation circuitry that disables zoom of the image by the zoom circuitry based at least in part on a comparison of a displacement between the planar touchscreen display and the object sensed by the second sensor circuitry to a zoom disable distance.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the first type of physical phenomenon comprises a member selected from a group consisting of distance and acceleration.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the second type of physical phenomenon comprises a member selected from a group consisting of distance, sound, light, and acceleration.

16. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the apparatus comprises a member selected from a group consisting of a mobile phone, a tablet, a notebook, a slate, a pad, a personal data assistant, a camera, and a global positioning system device.

17. A method comprising:

displaying information associated with an application to a touchscreen display;

sensing a first physical phenomenon to determine a distance between the touchscreen display and an object;

sensing a second physical phenomenon associated with movement of the touchscreen display along an axis normal to the touchscreen display;

automatically zooming the information on the touchscreen display responsive to the sensing of the second physical phenomenon based at least in part on the determined distance, and based at least in part on information type;

sensing the first physical phenomenon associated with displacement of the object with respect to the touchscreen display, the displacement along the axis normal to the touchscreen display; and

responsive to the sensing of the first physical phenomenon, stopping the zooming responsive to the sensed displacement of the object with respect to the touchscreen display being less than a preset distance.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the zooming comprises orientating the information to maintain a prior, relative orientation of the information.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the prior, relative orientation comprises a landscape orientation or a portrait orientation.