Method and apparatus for utilizing motion user interface to determine command availability

• US 9,495,015 B1
• Filed: 11/26/2014
• Issued: 11/15/2016
• 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, Kinsolving, Arthur
• Primary Examiner(s): Crawley, Keith
• Application Number:
  US14/555,547
• Time in Patent Office: 720 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 to interact with a mobile device is described. In one embodiment, the system includes a mobile device including motion controls comprising a motion sensor and a processor including a motion navigation system. The motion navigation system comprises, in one embodiment a gesture library including a plurality of gesture commands available to the motion navigation system, and an intelligent signal interpretation engine (ISIE) to receive data from the motion sensor and identify a gesture based in data in the gesture library. The motion navigation system further comprises in one embodiment, an adjustment logic to determine whether the gesture is usable as a gesture command, based on current circumstances, and a translator to generate one or more commands to execute the action associated with the gesture.

Claims

1. A mobile device including motion controls comprising:

a motion sensor;

a processor including a motion navigation system, the motion navigation system comprising;

a gesture library including a plurality of gesture commands available to the motion navigation system;

an intelligent signal interpretation engine (ISIE) to receive data from the motion sensor and identify a gesture based in data in the gesture library;

a set of one or more conditions set up by the motion navigation system, each condition setting a current availability of one or more commands for the motion navigation system based on the motion navigation system'"'"'s detection that a particular interfering motion activity is occurring;

an adjustment logic to determine whether the one or more commands associated with the gesture is available and has not been shut off based on a condition of the set of conditions; and

a translator to generate the one or more commands associated with the gesture identified by the ISIE for execution by the mobile device.

2. The mobile device of claim 1, further comprising:

a gesture registration logic to register gestures for the gesture library, the gesture registration logic to compare a suggested gesture to accidental movements, and to reject the suggested gesture if it matches the accidental movements.

3. The mobile device of claim 2, wherein the gesture registration logic is further to compare the suggested gesture to previously registered gestures.

4. The mobile device of claim 2, wherein the gesture registration logic is further to determine whether a command associated with the suggested gesture will occur when a concurrent user activity would make the suggested gesture hard to recognize.

5. The mobile device of claim 1, further comprising:

the adjustment logic to adjust the gesture commands for the ISIE based on an ambient noise level.

6. The mobile device of claim 1, further comprising:

the adjustment logic to identify a cadence of motion of the mobile device, and to adjust the gesture commands for the ISIE based on the cadence.

7. The mobile device of claim 1, further comprising:

an emergency logic to initiate an emergency process when an emergency gesture is received, the emergency process including one or more of;

recording data and calling an emergency contact.

8. The mobile device of claim 7, further comprising:

a recorder to securely record the data from the device when the emergency logic initiates an emergency, the secure recording set so it cannot be deleted.

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

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

10. The mobile device of claim 8, further comprising the emergency logic further to establish a connection with a contact, and to transmit data to the contact.

11. A method of providing gesture control to a device, the method comprising, when activated:

receiving motion data from a motion sensor;

comparing the motion data to a gesture library including a plurality of gesture commands;

determining whether one or more commands associated with the gesture is available and has not been shut off based on a condition of a set of one or more conditions set up by the motion navigation system, each condition setting a current availability of one or more commands for the motion navigation system based on the motion navigation system'"'"'s detection that a particular interfering motion activity is occurring;

identifying a particular gesture command invoked by the motion data; and

generating one or more available commands associated with the particular gesture command for execution by the mobile device.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

enabling a user to register gestures for the gesture library;

comparing a suggested gesture to accidental movements; and

rejecting the suggested gesture if it matches the accidental movements, and registering the gesture as a gesture command in the gesture library when it does not match the accidental movements.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining the current motion level associated with an expected use of the suggested gesture, and rejecting the suggested gesture if it could not be recognized at the motion level.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein an adjusting of a recognition algorithm is based on a current user activity.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

initiating an emergency process upon recognition of an emergency gesture, the emergency process including one or more of;

recording data and calling an emergency contact.

16. A mobile device including motion controls comprising:

a motion sensor;

a processor including a motion navigation system, the motion navigation system comprising;

a gesture library including a plurality of gesture commands available to the motion navigation system;

an intelligent signal interpretation engine (ISIE) to receive data from the motion sensor and identify a gesture based in data in the gesture library, the ISIE adjusting a recognition algorithm based on a current user activity;

a set of one or more conditions set up by the motion navigation system, each condition setting a current availability of one or more commands for the motion navigation system based on the motion navigation system'"'"'s detection that a particular interfering motion activity is occurring;

an adjustment logic to turn off a particular command of the one of more commands based on a condition of the set of conditions;

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

17. The mobile device of claim 16, wherein a subset of the plurality of gesture commands are associated with one of:

actions unlikely to be taken during the current user activity, and gestures unlikely to be recognized based on the particular interfering motion associated with the current user activity.

18. The mobile device of claim 16, further comprising:

a gesture registration logic to register gestures for the gesture library, the gesture registration logic to identify potential concurrent user activities for a command, and to compare a suggested gesture to accidental movements associated with the potential concurrent user activities, and to reject the suggested gesture if it matches the accidental movements.