MULTI-TOUCH FINGER REGISTRATION AND ITS APPLICATIONS

• US 20120154313A1
• Filed: 12/16/2011
• Published: 06/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
• Original Assignee: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
• Inventors: AU, Kin Chung, TAI, Chiew-Lan
• Granted Patent: US 9,104,308 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04808 Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

Described herein are finger registration systems and methods for use with a multi-touch device that can facilitate in place execution of commands or operations, thereby reducing focus switching and minimizing hand movement. The finger registration methods are simple and robust, using only contact points on the touch-based device, without requiring additional hardware. Direct mapping of operations to gestures involving individual fingers or combination of fingers (e.g., finger chords), provides a new and rich set of direct manipulation without focus switching for selecting commands/operations.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

detecting contact points corresponding to at least a thumb, an index finger and a middle finger of a hand on a multi-touch device;

computing a reference point from the contact points;

connecting the contact points to the reference point;

calculating spanning angles between the contact points utilizing the reference point as a vertex;

associating fingers with the contact points based on the spanning angles and distances between contact points; and

determining whether the hand is a left hand or a right hand.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining contact times for the contact points;

comparing the contact times to a threshold time; and

characterizing each of the contact points as distinct when a respective contact time is greater than the threshold time.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining distances between the contact points;

comparing the distances to a threshold distance; and

characterizing each of the contact points as distinct when a respective distance is greater than the threshold distance.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing further comprises computing a center point with respect to the contact points as the reference point.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the calculating the spanning angles comprises summing, for the contact points, a first angle on a left side of a connecting line between a contact point and the reference point and a second angle on a right side of a connecting line between the contact point and the reference point.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the associating further comprising associating the thumb with a contact point with the largest spanning angle.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the associating further comprises associating the index finger with a contact point next to a contact point identified as the thumb.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining further comprises determining a left hand or a right hand based on an orientation of a thumb and an index finger.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating the contact points with a middle finger, a ring finger, and a pinkie finger based on the left hand or the right hand.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising rejecting the associating in response to one of the magnitudes of the spanning angles falling outside a range of acceptable angles.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting further comprises detecting contact points corresponding to at least a thumb, an index finger and a middle finger of two or more hands on the multi-touch device;

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the two or more hands belong to same user or different users.

13. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions, the instructions comprising:

detecting contact points corresponding to at least a thumb, an index finger and a middle finger of one or more hands on a multi-touch device;

associating fingers with the contact points;

associating one or more hands with the fingers; and

adjusting a layout of a user interface based on locations of the fingers.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the associating fingers with the contact points further comprises:

grouping the contact points into groups corresponding to different hands;

computing a reference point for each group;

for each group, connecting each contact point of the group to the reference point corresponding to the group;

associating fingers with the contact points in each group based on spanning angles and distances between the contact points; and

determining if each hand is a left hand or a right hand.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising receiving a touch input from the user corresponding to a function of the user interface.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, having instructions stored thereon further comprising hiding the user interface after a length of time of no interaction from the user.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the adjusting the layout of the user interface further comprises adjusting a location, a scale or a spatial arrangement of elements of the user interface based on the locations of the fingers.

18. A system, comprising:

a registration component configured to detect at least six contact points on a multi-touch device, group the at least six contact points into at least two groups and associate each group with a hand;

an orientation component configured to determine an orientation and a scale for each hand; and

a layout component configured to adjust a layout of a user interface based on orientation, scale and contact points of one hand or orientation, scale and contact points of two hands of the same user.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the user interface comprises a pop up user interface generated after the determination of the contact points.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the user interface comprises a window, a text box or an image box that exists before the determination of the contact points.

21. The system of claim 18, further comprising an interaction component configured to allow a user to interact with the user interface according to a touch input.

22. The system of claim 18, further comprising a hide component configured to hide the user interface a length of time of no interaction from a user.

23. The system of claim 18, wherein a first hand is from a first person and a second hand is from a second person

24. The system of claim 18, wherein a first hand is a left hand and a second hand is a right hand.

25. The system of claim 18, wherein the layout component is further configured to adjust a location, a scale or a spatial arrangement of elements of the user interface based on the locations of fingers of at least one hand.