Information processing device, information processing method, and program

• US 9,507,414 B2
• Filed: 08/11/2011
• Issued: 11/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Noda, Takuro, Komori, Akihiro, Satoh, Nariaki, Shigeta, Osamu, Yamamoto, Kazuyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): FARAGALLA, MICHAEL A
• Application Number:
  US13/207,778
• Publication Number:
  US 20120047466A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,937 Days
• Field of Search: 345173-179
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00

Abstract

There is provided an information processing device including an acquisition section configured to acquire an operation vector based on a movement of a body part of a user, a correction section configured to correct a direction of the acquired operation vector, and a process execution section configured to execute a process in accordance with the corrected operation vector.

Claims

1. An information processing device comprising:

an acquisition section configured to acquire an operation vector based on image analysis of a movement of a body part of a user, wherein the image analysis comprises recognizing the body part of the user and identifying a position of the body part of the user throughout the movement by dividing the movement into frames, wherein each frame represents a predetermined unit of time during the movement, and the acquired operation vector is a vector going from a start point to an end point of the movement in the predetermined unit of time for each frame;

a correction section configured to correct a direction of the acquired operation vector to a predetermined linear direction of a plurality of predetermined linear directions, wherein the correction section corrects the direction of the acquired operation vector when an angle between a linear direction of the acquired operation vector and the predetermined linear direction of the plurality of predetermined linear directions is less than an angular threshold; and

a process execution section configured to execute a process in accordance with the corrected operation vector,

wherein the acquisition section, the correction section, and the process execution section are each implemented via at least one processor.

2. The information processing device according to claim 1, wherein the correction section corrects the direction of the acquired operation vector when a magnitude of the acquired operation vector is greater than a magnitude threshold.

3. The information processing device according to claim 1, wherein

the acquisition section acquires a position of a center part of the body of the user, and

the correction section corrects the direction of the acquired operation vector when the movement of the body part is identified as being in a region whose distance from the position of the center part of the body is greater than a distance threshold.

4. The information processing device according to claim 1, wherein the acquired operation vector is a three-dimensional vector containing components in at least one of a width direction, a height direction, and a depth direction of a three-dimensional space in which the user is located.

5. The information processing device according to claim 4, further comprising a display control section configured to display an object in a virtual three-dimensional space, wherein the process execution section moves the object displayed by the display control section in accordance with the corrected operation vector.

6. The information processing device according to claim 5, wherein the correction section corrects the linear direction of the acquired operation vector to any of the width direction, the height direction, and the depth direction of the virtual three-dimensional space.

7. The information processing device according to claim 6, wherein the correction section corrects the direction of the operation vector when the direction of the acquired operation vector makes an angle that is less than a second angular threshold with one of the width direction, the height direction, and the depth direction of the virtual three-dimensional space.

10. The information processing device of claim 1, wherein the acquisition section is further configured to acquire a plurality of operation vectors based on image analysis of movements of a plurality of body parts of the user, and wherein the image analysis comprises recognizing the plurality of body parts of the user and identifying a position of each of the plurality of body parts of the user throughout the movements using speckle patterns.

11. The information processing device of claim 1, wherein the acquisition section is further configured to acquire a plurality of operation vectors based on image analysis of movements of at least one body part of each of a plurality of users, and wherein the image analysis comprises recognizing the at least one body part of each of the plurality of users and identifying a position of each recognized body part of each of the plurality of users throughout the movements using speckle patterns.

12. The information processing device of claim 1, wherein the acquisition section is configured to acquire the operation vector without a secondary device attached to the body part of the user.

13. The information processing device of claim 1, wherein identifying the position of the body part of the user throughout the movement comprises using triangulation.

14. The information processing device of claim 1, wherein identifying the position of the body part of the user throughout the movement comprises using time of flight.

17. The information processing device of claim 1, wherein the acquisition section comprises a camera or infrared technology located opposite the user, wherein the camera maps a physical space in which the user exists, and wherein the image analysis uses speckle patterns to recognize the body part of the user and identify the position of the body part of the user throughout the movement.

8. An information processing method, performed via at least one processor, the method comprising:

acquiring an operation vector based on image analysis of a movement of a body part of a user, wherein the image analysis comprises recognizing the body part of the user and identifying a position of the body part of the user throughout the movement by dividing the movement into frames, wherein each frame represents a predetermined unit of time during the movement, and the acquired operation vector is a vector going from a start point to an end point of the movement in the predetermined unit of time for each frame;

correcting a direction of the acquired operation vector to a predetermined linear direction of a plurality of predetermined linear directions, wherein the correction section corrects the direction of the acquired operation vector when an angle between a linear direction of the acquired operation vector and the predetermined linear direction of the plurality of predetermined linear directions is less than an angular threshold; and

executing a process in accordance with the corrected operation vector.

15. The information processing method of claim 8, wherein acquiring the operation vector is performed without a secondary device attached to the body part of the user.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having embodied thereon a program, which when executed by a processor of an image processing apparatus causes the processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

acquiring an operation vector based on image analysis of a movement of a body part of a user, wherein the image analysis comprises recognizing the body part of the user and identifying a position of the body part of the user throughout the movement by dividing the movement into frames, wherein each frame represents a predetermined unit of time during the movement, and the acquired operation vector is a vector going from a start point to an end point of the movement in the predetermined unit of time for each frame;

correcting a direction of the acquired operation vector; and

executing a process in accordance with the corrected operation vector.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein acquiring the operation vector is performed without a secondary device attached to the body part of the user.