Rotating an object on a screen

• US 10,102,612 B2
• Filed: 05/02/2012
• Issued: 10/16/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Inventors: Chen, Njin-Zu, Logghe, Dennis Omer
• Primary Examiner(s): Xavier, Antonio
• Application Number:
  US14/111,293
• Publication Number:
  US 20140062870A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,358 Days
• Field of Search: 345 65, 345419
• 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 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/20 Editing of 3D images, e.g. changing shapes or colours, aligning objects or positioning parts
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2219/2016 Rotation, translation, scaling
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/60 Rotation of whole images or parts thereof

Abstract

An apparatus (1) for rotating objects (40) on screens (9) defines a hand axis (20) in response to 3D position information related to the hands (21, 22) of a user and detects a changed orientation of the hand axis (20) with respect to a 3D space and calculates a rotation for the object (40) on the screen (9) in response to said detecting. This way, to rotate the object (40) on the screen (9), an imaginary copy of the object (40) is considered to be inside an imaginary ball (41) held by the user, which imaginary ball (41) is being rotated. The changed orientation of the hand axis (20) comprises changes in angles between the hand axis (20) and the axes (31, 32, 33) of the 3D space. To improve stability in case of each one of said changes being unequal to zero, the apparatus (1) further detects the angles and compares the respective angles with respective thresholds and reduces or weights the respective changes in response to respective comparison results.

Claims

1. An apparatus for rotating an object on a screen, the apparatus comprising:

a hand axis determiner configured to;

determine an orientation of a hand axis between respective points of a first hand and a second hand in a 3D space in a real world environment, based on first position information from a sensor related to the first hand and based on second position information from the sensor related to the second hand,

a hand axis change determiner configured to;

determine a change in the orientation of the hand axis with respect to an axis of the 3D space in the real world environment, and

a rotation calculator configured to;

calculate a rotation of the object on a screen in response to the change in orientation of the hand axis, wherein said calculated rotation comprises;

determine a size of the change in orientation of the hand axis with respect to at least one axis of the 3D space;

determine whether the determined size of the change in orientation of the hand axis is less than a corresponding threshold value associated with at least one axis of the 3D space, and

when the determined size of the change in orientation is less than a corresponding threshold value associated with at least one axis of the 3D space,

determine a size of a processed change orientation of the hand axis, wherein the size of the processed change orientation represents a weighted reduction of the size of the change in orientation with respect to said associated at least one axis, said weighting being based on the size of the change in orientation and greater than zero (0) percent; and

orient the object based on the calculated rotation.

2. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, the change in the orientation of the hand axis comprising:

a first change in a first angle between the hand axis and a first axis of the 3D space;

a second change in a second angle between the hand axis and a second axis of the 3D space; and

a third change in a third angle between the hand axis and a third axis of the 3D space.

3. The apparatus as defined in claim 2, wherein each of the first and second and third changes being unequal to zero.

4. The apparatus as defined in claim 2, the hand axis change determiner comprising:

an angle detector configured to detect the first angle, the second angle and the third angle;

a comparator configured to compare the first, second and third angles with respective first threshold, second threshold and third threshold;

a reducer configured to;

alter at least one of the first angle, the second angle, and the third angle in response to respective first, second, and third comparison results, wherein the alteration reduces a corresponding one of the first change, the second change and the third change; and

determine the processed changed orientation based on at least one of the reduced first change, the reduced second change and the reduced third change.

5. The apparatus as defined in claim 4, one of the first, the second and the third comparison results indicating a corresponding angle being equal to or smaller than a corresponding one of the first threshold, the second threshold and the third threshold, and the reducer reducing the corresponding change towards zero.

6. The apparatus as defined in claim 4, one of the first, the second and the third comparison results indicating a corresponding angle being equal to or smaller than a corresponding one of the first threshold, the second threshold and the third threshold, and the reducer weighting the corresponding change.

7. The apparatus as defined in claim 4, wherein two of the first, the second and the third comparison results indicating corresponding angles being equal to or smaller than a corresponding one of the first threshold, the second threshold and the third threshold, and the reducer weighting the corresponding changes.

8. The apparatus as defined in claim 2, wherein at least one of the first, the second and the third changes being unequal to zero.

9. The apparatus as defined in claim 2, each one of the first, the second and the third changes being a change per time-interval.

10. The apparatus as defined in claim 2, the first axis of the 3D space being an X-axis, the second axis of the 3D space being a Y-axis and the third axis of the 3D space being a Z-axis.

11. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the first position information related to the first hand of the user comprising one of:

a first absolute and a relative coordinate and the second position information related to the second hand of the user comprising one of;

a second absolute and a relative coordinate and the hand axis passing both coordinates.

12. A device comprising:

an apparatus comprising;

a hand axis determiner configured to determine the orientation of a hand axis between respective points at a first hand and a second hand in a 3D space, in response to a first position information related to the first hand in the 3D space and in response to a second position information related to the second hand in the 3D space,

a hand axis detector configured to detect a changed orientation of the hand axis with respect to at least one axis of within the 3D space; and

a rotation calculator configured to;

calculate a rotation in response to the changed orientation, said calculated rotation comprising;

determine a processed change orientation based on a determination of a size of the changed orientation with respect to at least one axis of the 3D space being less than a threshold value, wherein a size of the processed change orientation represents a weighted reduction of the size of the change in the orientation, said weighting being based on the size of the change in orientation and greater than zero (0) percent; and

orient an object displayed on a screen based on the calculated rotation associated with the hand axis adjusted by the processed change orientation; and

a position measurer to determine the first position and the second position information.

13. A method for operating an apparatus for rotating an object on a screen, the method comprising:

in an apparatus for rotating an object on a screen;

determining, via a hand axis determiner, the orientation of the orientation of a hand axis between respective points at a first hand and a second hand of a user in a real world environment, in response to a first 3D position information related to the first hand and in response to a second 3D position information related to the second hand,

detecting, via a hand axis detector, a change in the orientation of the hand axis with respect to an axis of a 3D space in the real world,

calculating, via an object rotation calculator;

a processed change orientation based on a determination of a size of change in the orientation with respect to at least one axis of the 3D space being less than a threshold value, wherein a size of the processed change orientation is based on a weighted reduction of the size of the change in the orientation, when said change in the orientation is less than said threshold value, said weighting being based on the size of the change in the orientation and greater than zero (0) percent; and

an orientation of the object on the screen based on the changed orientation of the hand axis and the processed change orientation.

14. A computer program product stored on a computer readable storage medium that is not a propagating signal or wave, the program product when communicating with an apparatus for rotating an object on a screen, is configured to control the apparatus to:

determine, via a hand axis determiner, an orientation of a hand axis between respective points at a first hand and a second hand, based on a first position information related to the first hand and a second position information related to the second hand;

detect, via a hand axis change detector, a change in the orientation of the hand axis with respect to an axis of a 3D space,

calculate, via an object rotation calculator, a rotation of the object on the screen in response to the change in the orientation, wherein the change in the orientation comprises;

determine an angular change of the change in the orientation with respect to at least one axis of the 3D space based on a comparison of a size of the change in the orientation with respect to a corresponding threshold value, wherein a size of the angular change of the change orientation is represents a weighted reduction of the size of the change in the orientation when the angular change is less than said corresponding threshold value, said weighting being based on the size of the change in the orientation and greater than zero (0) percent; and

orient the object based on the determined change in the orientation adjusted by the determined angular change.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the apparatus is controlled to:

determine, via the hand axis orientation detector processor, a first angle, a second angle, and a third angle with respect to a corresponding axis of the 3D space;

compare via the hand axis orientation detector processor, the first, the second and the third angles with respective first threshold, second threshold and third threshold;

alter at least one of the respective first angle, the second angle and third angle in response to respective first and second and third comparison results, wherein the altered one of the first angle, the second angle and the third angle reduces a corresponding angular change between the first angle and a first axis of the 3D space, the second angle and a second axis of the 3D space and a third angle and a third axis of the 3D space; and

determine the processed changed orientation based on the at least one of the reduced first angle, the reduced second angle and reduced third angle, wherein a size of the processed change orientation is based on the size of the change in the orientation.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the reduction in based on one of the first angle, the second angle and the third angle being less than a corresponding threshold value.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the reduction is a weighted reduction.

18. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the reduction tends toward zero.

19. A computer readable storage medium, that is not a propagating signal or a wave, for storing a computer program product, the computer program product configured to control an apparatus for rotating an object on a screen to:

define, via a hand axis definer, a hand axis between a first position information related to a first hand and a second position information related to a second hand,

detect, via a hand axis orientation detecting processor, a changed orientation of the hand axis with respect to an axis of a 3D space,

process, via a hand axis orientation detector, containing a processor, the detected changed orientation, said process comprising;

determine a processed changed orientation based on a determination of a size of said changed orientation with respect to a threshold value in at least one axis of the 3D space, wherein a size of the processed change orientation is based on a weighted reduction of the size of the change in the orientation when the changed orientation is less than said threshold value, said weighting being based on the size of the changed orientation and greater than zero (0) percent; and

calculate, via an object rotation calculator, a rotation of the object on the screen in response to the processed changed orientation.