Unlocking a head mountable device

• US 9,377,869 B2
• Filed: 09/02/2015
• Issued: 06/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Tait, Matthew, Billinghurst, Mark Nathan, The, Richard Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Lao, Lun-Yi
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hegarty, Kelly B
• Application Number:
  US14/843,797
• Publication Number:
  US 20160062474A1
• Time in Patent Office: 300 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/017 Head mounted
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/012 Head tracking input arrangements
• 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: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

Embodiments described herein may help to provide a lock-screen for a computing device. An example method involves, while a computing device is in a locked mode, the computing device: (a) analyzing head-pose data to determine whether a head pose associated with the computing device matches a predetermined head pose, (b) analyzing touchpad data associated with the computing device to detect a predetermined sequence of touch gestures, (c) if both (i) the head pose matches the predetermined head pose and (ii) the predetermined sequence of touch gestures is detected, then the computing device switching to an unlocked mode, and (d) otherwise, refraining from causing computing device switch to the unlocked mode.

Claims

1. A computing device comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable medium; and

program instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium and executable by at least one processor to;

cause a computing device to operate in a locked mode; and

while the computing device is in the locked mode;

(a) analyze head-pose data to determine a head pose associated with the computing device;

(b) analyze touchpad data associated with the computing device to detect a sequence of touch gestures; and

(c) determine both (i) that the determined head pose matches a predetermined head pose and (ii) that the detected sequence of touch gestures matches a predetermined sequence of touch gestures, and responsively cause the computing device to switch to an unlocked mode.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the program instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium and executable by at least one processor to determine that the head pose associated with the computing device matches the predetermined head pose comprise program instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium and executable by at least one processor to:

determine whether or not the head pose associated with the computing device is within a predetermined range of head poses.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the predetermined head pose is defined by a pitch, a roll, and a yaw.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the predetermined head pose is defined by a pitch range, a roll range, and a yaw range.

5. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the predetermined sequence of touch gestures comprises at least:

one or more tap gestures and one or more swipe gestures.

6. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the predetermined sequence of touch gestures comprises at least two or more of the following:

one or more tap gestures, one or more forward swipe gestures, one or more backward swipe gestures, one or more forward-and-backward swipe gestures, and one or more backward-and-forward swipe gestures.

7. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the predetermined sequence of touch

gestures comprises at least two or more of the following:

one or more single-point tap gestures, one or more single-point forward swipe gestures, one or more single-point backward swipe gestures, one or more single-point forward-and-backward swipe gestures, one or more single-point backward-and-forward swipe gestures, one or more multi-point tap gestures, one or more multi-point forward swipe gestures, one or more multi-point backward swipe gestures, one or more multi-point forward-and-backward swipe gestures, and one or more multi-point backward-and-forward swipe gestures.

8. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the predetermined sequence of touch gestures comprises one or more horizontal swipe gestures.

9. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the predetermined sequence of touch gestures comprises one or more vertical swipe gestures.

10. The computing device of claim 1, further comprising program instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium and executable by at least one processor to:

as the touchpad data is analyzed, cause a display of the computing device to display visual feedback corresponding to at least one of head pose indicated by the head-pose data and touch gestures detected in the touchpad data.

11. The computing device of claim 1, further comprising program instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium and executable by at least one processor to:

as the touchpad data is analyzed, cause an audio system of the computing device to play out audible feedback that indicates whether or not touch gestures detected in the touchpad data match the predetermined sequence of touch gestures.

12. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the computing device is a head-mountable computing device, the computing device further comprising program instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium and executable by at least one processor to:

while the computing device is in the locked mode;

analyze data associated with the computing device to determine whether or not the computing device is being worn; and

refrain from carrying out (a) to (c) until a determination is made that the computing device is being worn.

13. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the switch to the unlocked mode is conditioned upon the associated head pose continuing to match the predetermined head pose while the predetermined sequence of touch gestures are being detected.

14. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the program instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium and executable by at least one processor to detect the sequence of touch gestures further comprise program instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium and executable by at least one processor to:

determine whether a rhythm with which touch gestures are detected matches a predetermined rhythm pattern.