Freely rotatable physical object with multiple faces communicating rotation information to a data handling system

• US 9,740,306 B1
• Filed: 06/02/2015
• Issued: 08/22/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Brian K. Buchheit
• Original Assignee: Brian K. Buchheit
• Inventors: Buchheit, Brian K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Martello, Edward
• Application Number:
  US14/728,558
• Time in Patent Office: 812 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04802 3D-info-object: information is displayed on the internal or external surface of a three dimensional manipulable object, e.g. on the faces of a cube that can be rotated by the user
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0236 using selection techniques to select from displayed items
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning

Abstract

A physical object with multiple faces can freely rotate. For each rotation from one face to another of the physical object, a data structure having a plurality of discrete ordered items is advanced by one item. Wireless communications are established between the physical object and a data system. The data system navigates the data structure per the rotations of the physical object. The number of faces of the physical object is different from the number of discrete ordered items of the data structure.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a graphical user interface comprising:

establishing a communications pathway between a data handling system and a physical input device, wherein the data handling system comprises one or more processors, one or more memories, and program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more memories, wherein at least one of the one or more processors execute the program instructions, wherein said physical input device is a physical object having M faces along a first axis of rotation and having N faces along a second axis of rotation;

presenting within a field of a graphical users interface (GUI) a content item from a multi-dimensional data structure of the data handling system, wherein a first dimension of the multi-dimensional data structure has O discrete ordered items, wherein a second dimension of the multi-dimensional data structure has P discrete ordered items, where O is different than M and where P is different than N;

detecting rotations of the physical object along the first axis of rotation, wherein each rotation of one of the M faces results in an incremental navigation by one ordered item through the first dimension of the O discrete ordered items;

detecting rotations of the physical object along the second axis of rotation, wherein each rotation of one of the N faces results in an incremental navigation by one ordered item through the second dimension of the P discrete ordered items; and

responsive to each navigation through the multi-dimensional data structure occurring as a result of the detected rotations, presenting a data item of the multi-dimensional data structure in the field, where the presented data item corresponds to the incremental navigation of the multi-dimensional data structure in the first and second dimension.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting the rotationally-dependent dataset further comprises:

rendering a digital object with multiple faces along different directional axes within a display area of the GUI; and

rotating the digital object along an identical directional axis as the physical object is manipulated, wherein motion of the digital object mirrors a physical motion of the physical object.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the physical object is a solid polyhedral object.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the physical object is a die.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the physical object is a free moving object that is not physically coupled to the data handling system, wherein the physical object comprises at least one sensor to determine which of the faces of the physical object is upwardly facing, wherein the physical object wirelessly communicates with the data handling system, wherein the wireless communications comprise sending an indication from the at least one sensor to the data handling system.

6. The method of claim 1, where O is greater than M.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein P is greater than N.

13. The method of claim 1, where O is greater than M.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the physical object is a two-sided object.

8. A method for controlling a graphical user interface comprising:

establishing a communications pathway between a data handling system and a physical input device, wherein the data handling system comprises one or more processors, one or more memories, and program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more memories, wherein at least one of the one or more processors execute the program instructions, wherein said physical input device is a physical object having M faces along a first axis of rotation;

presenting within a field of a graphical users interface (GUI) a content item from a data structure of the data handling system, wherein the data structure has O discrete ordered items, where O is different than M;

detecting rotations of the physical object along the first axis of rotation, wherein each rotation of one of the M faces results in an incremental navigation by one ordered item through the O discrete ordered items; and

responsive to each navigation through the data structure occurring as a result of the detected rotations, presenting a data item of the data structure in the field, where the presented data item corresponds one of the O discrete ordered items determined by the incremental navigation.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein presenting the rotationally-dependent dataset further comprises:

rendering a digital object with multiple faces along one directional axis within a display area of the GUI; and

rotating the digital object along the one directional axis as the physical object is manipulated, wherein motion of the digital object mirrors the physical motion of the physical object.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the physical object is a solid polyhedral object.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the physical object is a die.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the physical object is a free moving object that is not physically coupled to the data handling system, wherein the physical object comprises at least one sensor to determine which of the faces of the physical object is upwardly facing, wherein the physical object wirelessly communicates with the data handling system, wherein the wireless communications comprise sending an indication from the at least one sensor to the data handling system.