Human-computer user interaction

• US 9,804,672 B2
• Filed: 05/19/2010
• Issued: 10/31/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Anderson, Thomas G., Anderson, Bill, Aviles, Walter, Aviles, Richard, Jones, Jake, Grafe, V. Gerald
• Primary Examiner(s): Young, Kevin L
• Assistant Examiner(s): STITT, ERIK V
• Application Number:
  US12/783,386
• Publication Number:
  US 20100261526A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,722 Days
• Field of Search: 715810, 715764, 715761
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user
• 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

Abstract

Methods of and apparatuses for providing human interaction with a computer, including human control of three dimensional input devices, force feedback, and force input.

Claims

1. A method of simulating breathing in a virtual environment,

comprising, by a processor:

displaying, on a display, a character being controlled by a user, wherein the character'"'"'s chest moves to represent breathing, and wherein the movement of the character'"'"'s chest changes to simulate a change in a breathing state caused by a virtual event experienced by the character;

creating a rhythmic force comprising a resulting force having vector components in two or more dimensions in space to simulate two or more effects including a breathing effect, the resulting force including a combination of force functions associated with the two or more effects, wherein the combination of force functions includes a force function for the breathing effect that generates a force in one direction when the character is breathing in, in an opposite direction when the character is breathing out, and has a variable rhythm based on the breathing state of the character; and

implementing the rhythmic force in a haptic device so that the haptic device applies the resulting force to simulate the two or more effects.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising adjusting a magnitude of the rhythmic force to correspond to a rate at which the character is shown to be breathing.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying step further comprises displaying the character with a mouth, and displaying gases flowing into and out of the character'"'"'s mouth to represent the breathing.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising of simulating breathing by a change in size of an object, wherein the size of the object increases in size when breathing in and the size of the object decreases in size when breathing out.