COMMAND OF A DEVICE BY GESTURE EMULATION OF TOUCH GESTURES

• US 20150029095A1
• Filed: 01/07/2013
• Published: 01/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Movea
• Original Assignee: Movea
• Inventors: Gomez, David, Cortenraad, Hubertus M.R.
• Granted Patent: US 9,841,827 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/156
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• 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 3/017 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 3/033 Pointing devices displaced or positioned by the user , e.g. mice, trackballs, pens or joysticks; Accessories therefor digitisers characterised by the transducing means G06F3/041
• 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 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04166 Details of scanning methods, e.g. sampling time, grouping of sub areas or time sharing with display driving Synchronisation with the driving of the display or the backlighting unit to avoid interferences generated internally G06F3/04184
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

A user to machine interface emulates a touch interface on a screen. The interface is configured for operating in a touch emulation mode based on a triggering event. A triggering event may be a rotation around a first axis of an angle higher than a first threshold. Analysis of the amount of rotation around a second axis may be used to determine the number of fingers defining a specific touch gesture. An infinite variety of touch gestures may therefore be emulated by a remote control based on application context thus allowing for multiple uses of the touch screen machine from a distance.

Claims

1. A user to machine interface comprising:

at least a remote control with motion sensing capabilities,

a communication link between the remote control and the machine, and

processing capabilities for processing the motion signals from said motion sensing capabilities,

said processing capabilities being further configured for initiating a touch emulation mode based on a triggering event, recognizing at least a gesture of a user with a remote control, and passing an output of said recognition to an operating system of the machine.

2. The interface of claim 1, wherein the touch emulation mode comprises a definition of a number N representative of a number of points on a screen connected to the machine, a movement or position of the points being controlled by the output of the recognition.

3. The interface of claim 2, wherein the movement or position of the points are part of the output of the recognition.

4. The interface of claim 1, wherein the triggering event is one of a contextual change in an application run by the machine, a press of a button on a remote control by a user and a gesture of a user with a remote control.

5. The interface of claim 2, wherein a gesture of a user with a remote control controls a joint movement of the N points on the screen.

6. The interface of claim 2, wherein the triggering event is a gesture of rotation imparted by a user to a remote control around a predefined axis of said remote control, with one of an angle of rotation and an energy of motion higher than a predetermined threshold.

7. The interface of claim 2, wherein the definition of the number N is given by one of the triggering event and a gesture of a user with a remote control.

8. The interface of claim 7, wherein the gesture is a rotation around a predefined axis, and the definition of the number N is determined using an angle of rotation a of the remote control around said axis.

9. The interface of claim 8, wherein, for a range of the angle α

from a threshold α

_min to a maximum α

_max and a maximum number of points N_max to be controlled by the remote control, N is defined by two plus an integer quotient of (α

−

α

_min)/(α

_max−

α

_min)*(N_max−

1).

10. The interface of claim 1, wherein the gesture being recognized defines a pressure applied by a user to a screen connected to the machine.

11. The interface of claim 10, wherein the gesture is a rotation around a predefined axis of angle α

, said angle α

defining the pressure applied by the user to the screen.

12. The interface of claim 1, further being configured for use by at least two users, at least one of them with a remote control for operating the interface in a touch emulation mode.

13. The interface of claim 12, wherein each one of the users using a remote control is defined by an index which is used to identify the gestures being recognized.

14. The interface of claim 3, wherein the processing capabilities can cause a remote control to operate in the touch emulation mode based on the determination that the machine is capable of recognizing movement or position of the points.

15. A method of operating a user to machine interface comprising:

moving in space by at least a user a remote control with motion sensing capabilities,

using a communication link between the remote control and the machine, and

processing signals from the motion sensing capabilities,

said method further comprising initiating a touch emulation mode based on a triggering event, recognizing a gesture imparted by a user to a remote control, and passing an output of said recognition to an operating system of the machine.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the touch emulation mode comprises a definition of a number N representative of a number of points on a screen connected to the machine, a movement or position of the points being controlled by the output of the recognition.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein a rotation around a predefined axis of the remote of an angle α

defines a touch gesture of a pinchor spread zooming of factor k, said factor k of zooming being a function of said angle α

.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein a rotation around a predefined axis of the remote of an angle α

defines a touch gesture of rotation of said angle α

.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the number N is at least partly defined by a value of an angle of a rotation around an axis of a remote control imparted by a user of said remote control relative to a threshold angle.