MOTION-BASED GESTURES FOR A COMPUTING DEVICE

• US 20140368441A1
• Filed: 06/12/2013
• Published: 12/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Touloumtzis, Michael P.
• Granted Patent: US 10,031,586 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1637 Sensing arrangement for detection of housing movement or orientation, e.g. for controlling scrolling or cursor movement on the display of an handheld computer
• 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 3/0487 using specific features provided by the input device, e.g. functions controlled by the rotation of a mouse with dual sensing arrangements, or of the nature of the input device, e.g. tap gestures based on pressure sensed by a digitiser
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

Approaches to enable a computing device, such as a phone or tablet computer, to use sensor information obtained from sensors of the computing device to interpret one or more gestures and/or other input provided by the user. In particular, the computing device may use information about the movement of the device gathered from an accelerometer or gyroscope in combination with input data detected by the touch screen or cameras of the device in order to disambiguate between several different types of gestures for the device.

Claims

1. A computing device, comprising:

one or more sensors configured to capture sensor data, the sensor data capable of indicating a movement of the computing device;

a touch screen;

at least one processor; and

memory including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing device to;

detect touch input caused by one or more fingers contacting the touch screen, the touch input corresponding to at least one of;

a first gesture or a second gesture;

analyze the sensor data to determine information about movement of the computing device during a time of the touch input detected by the touch screen;

in response to determining that the computing device remained substantially stationary during the time of the touch input, select the first gesture;

in response to determining that the movement of the computing device corresponds to the second gesture, select the second gesture; and

invoke a first function of the computing device for the first gesture or a second function for the second gesture.

2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors further comprise at least one of:

an accelerometer configured to measure an acceleration of the computing device;

or a gyroscope configured to measure an orientation of the computing device.

3. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the first gesture corresponds to a first function of rotating an orientation of a graphical image being displayed on the touch screen display, and

wherein the second gesture corresponds to a second function of switching the touch screen display to a portrait display mode or a landscape display mode.

4. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the memory further includes instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing device to:

determine whether the touch input was caused by (a) the one or more fingers physically moving while the computing device remained substantially motionless or by (b) the computing device physically moving while the one or more fingers remained substantially motionless.

5. A computer implemented method, comprising:

under the control of a computing device configured with executable instructions,

receiving user input from at least one of a touch screen or a camera;

processing data captured by one or more sensors of the computing device to determine a movement of the computing device;

analyzing the movement of the computing device and the user input to determine a gesture of a user; and

invoking a function of the computing device corresponding to the gesture.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the gesture corresponds to one of:

at least two fingers of a user rotating while making physical contact with a touch screen of the computing device;

or

the at least two fingers of a user remaining substantially motionless while the touch screen of the computing device is rotated.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 6, further comprising:

in response to determining the gesture, performing one of;

invoking a first function that causes an orientation of a graphical image displayed on the touch screen to be rotated;

or

invoking a second function to switch the touch screen into a portrait display mode or a landscape display mode.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the gesture corresponds to one of:

at least one user'"'"'s finger sliding across at least a portion of the touch screen while the computing device remains substantially motionless;

or

the at least one user'"'"'s finger remaining substantially motionless while the computing device is physically moved underneath the at least one user'"'"'s finger.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the gesture corresponds to one of:

a bezel swipe by at least one user'"'"'s finger associated with an operating system function of the computing device;

or

a screen swipe by the at least one user'"'"'s finger associated with an application function.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 5, further comprising:

detecting that the physical movement of the computing device corresponds to a tilting of the computing device while a user'"'"'s finger is making physical contact with a touch screen of the computing device and is remaining substantially motionless; and

pinning a graphical element displayed proximate to the user'"'"'s finger on the touch screen while removing one or more other graphical elements from being displayed of the touch screen.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the user input corresponding to the gesture is detected using image data captured by a camera of the computing device.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the one or more sensors of the computing device further comprise at least one of:

an accelerometer configured to measure an acceleration of the computing device;

or

a gyroscope configured to measure an orientation of the computing device.

13. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a computing system to:

receive user input from at least one of a touch screen or a camera;

process data captured by one or more sensors of the computing device to determine a movement of the computing device;

analyze the movement of the computing device and the user input to determine a gesture of a user; and

invoke a function of the computing device corresponding to the gesture.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the gesture corresponds to one of:

at least two fingers of a user rotating while making physical contact with a touch screen of the computing device;

or

the at least two fingers of a user remaining substantially motionless while the touch screen of the computing device is rotated.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a computing system to:

in response to determining the gesture, invoke one of;

a first function that causes an orientation of a graphical image displayed on the touch screen to be rotated;

or

invoke a second function to switch the touch screen into a portrait display mode or a landscape display mode.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the gesture corresponds to one of:

at least one user'"'"'s finger sliding across at least a portion of a touch screen while the computing device remains substantially motionless; and

the at least one user'"'"'s finger remaining substantially motionless while the computing device is physically moved underneath the at least one user'"'"'s finger.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the gesture corresponds to one of:

a bezel swipe by at least one user'"'"'s finger associated with an operating system function of the computing device; and

a screen swipe by the at least one user'"'"'s finger associated with an application function.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a computing system to:

detect that the physical movement of the computing device corresponds to a tilting of the computing device while a user'"'"'s finger is making physical contact with a touch screen of the computing device and is remaining substantially motionless; and

pin a graphical element displayed proximate to the user'"'"'s finger on the touch screen while removing one or more other graphical elements from being displayed of the touch screen.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the user input corresponding to the gesture is detected using image data captured by a camera of the computing device.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the one or more sensors of the computing device further comprise at least one of:

an accelerometer configured to measure an acceleration of the computing device;

or

a gyroscope configured to measure an orientation of the computing device.