Human interface equipment and human interface system

• US 20060268109A1
• Filed: 06/01/2006
• Published: 11/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Inventors: Miyoshi, Takashi, Iwaki, Hidekazu, Kosaka, Akio
• Application Number:
  US11/445,439
• Publication Number:
  US 20060268109A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/143
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0325 using a plurality of light emitters or reflectors or a plurality of detectors forming a reference frame from which to derive the orientation of the object, e.g. by triangulation or on the basis of reference deformation in the picked up image
• 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 3/0425 using a single imaging device like a video camera for tracking the absolute position of a single or a plurality of objects with respect to an imaged reference surface, e.g. video camera imaging a display or a projection screen, a table or a wall surface, on which a computer generated image is displayed or projected tracking a projected light spot to determine a position on a display surface G06F3/0386

Abstract

A human interface equipment includes an outer shell. A photographing device is arranged inside the outer shell and photographs a neighborhood of the outer shell via a photographing optical system. A variation recognition device recognizes a variation in an image photographed by the photographing device.

Claims

1. A human interface equipment comprising:

an outer shell,

a photographing device which is arranged inside the outer shell and photographs a neighborhood of the outer shell via a photographing optical system, and

a variation recognition device which recognizes a variation in an image photographed by the photographing device.

2. The human interface equipment according to claim 1, wherein the depth of field of the photographing optical system is limited to a neighborhood of the outer shell.

3. The human interface equipment according to claim 1, wherein the outer shell is formed of a resilient material and a preset pattern is drawn on the interior surface thereof.

4. The human interface equipment according to claim 3, wherein the photographing device photographs the pattern, and the variation recognition device is a deformation recognition device which measure deformation of the pattern photographed by the photographing device.

5. The human interface equipment according to claim 4, wherein the human interface equipment further comprises a force estimation device which estimates force applied to the outer shell based on a deformation amount measured by the deformation recognition device.

6. The human interface equipment according to claim 1, wherein the photographing optical system is configured by a fisheye lens.

7. The human interface equipment according to claim 1, wherein the photographing optical system is configured by a reflection mirror having a reflection surface of one of a hyperboloid, paraboloid and conical surface, and an image-forming lens.

8. The human interface equipment according to claim 1, which includes a hand/finger position/pose estimation device which estimates a shape of a hand and fingers based on deformation of the outer shell.

9. The human interface equipment according to claim 1, which has an inner shell formed of a transmission material and harder than the outer shell inside the outer shell.

10. The human interface equipment according to claim 1, wherein the exterior surface of the outer shell is a diffusion surface and the interior surface is a transmission surface.

11. The human interface equipment according to claim 10, wherein the human interface equipment includes a contact surface detecting device which detects touch of a hand and fingers closely adhered to the outer shell based on a variation in an image recognized by the variation recognition device, and a force estimation device which estimates force applied to the outer shell based on a variation in the image.

12. The human interface equipment according to claim 10, wherein the photographing optical system is configured by a fisheye lens.

13. The human interface equipment according to claim 10, wherein the photographing optical system is configured by a reflection mirror having a reflection surface of one of a hyperboloid, paraboloid and conical surface, and an image-forming lens.

14. The human interface equipment according to claim 10, which comprises a hand/finger position/pose estimation device which estimates a contact shape of a hand and fingers based on a pattern of a contact surface and a photographed image.

15. The human interface equipment according to claim 10, wherein the outer shell is formed of a visible light cut filter which transmits infrared rays and illumination light of the illumination device is infrared rays.

16. The human interface equipment according to claim 1, which generates a command based on at least one of deformation or force distribution.

17. The human interface equipment according to claim 1, which registers or learns a command based on at least one of deformation or force distribution.

18. The human interface equipment according to claim 1, which further comprises a position/pose detecting device which detects three-dimensional position/pose.

19. The human interface equipment according to claim 15, which comprises a venous pattern detecting section which detects a venous pattern of a palm and a hand and fingers, a venous pattern correcting section which normalizes a detected venous pattern, and a venous pattern collating section which collates the corrected venous pattern with a previously registered venous pattern.

20. A human interface system comprising:

an outer shell,

a human interface equipment which includes a photographing device which is arranged inside the outer shell and photographs a neighborhood of the outer shell via a photographing optical system, and a variation recognition device which recognizes a variation in an image photographed by the photographing device, and

a communication device.