Autonomous handheld device having a drawing tool

• US 7,808,478 B2
• Filed: 08/14/2006
• Issued: 10/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Disatnik, Israel, Ben-Ami, Eli, Linder, Natan, Choi, Joon-Hyuk
• Primary Examiner(s): Shalwala; Bipin
• Assistant Examiner(s): CRAWLEY, KEITH L
• Application Number:
  US11/503,119
• Publication Number:
  US 20070067745A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,513 Days
• Field of Search: 345156-184, 382/103, 382/181, 382187-194, 382197-204, 382312-319, 382/107, 382/274, 382/283, 715856-864
• US Class Current: 345/158
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0317 in co-operation with a patterned surface, e.g. absolute position or relative movement detection for an optical mouse or pen positioned with respect to a coded surface
• 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 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

An autonomous handheld device comprises a drawing module having drawing capabilities for electronically editing a drawing and a motion sensing feature for sensing self-motion. The autonomous handheld device is configured to associate the motion sensing feature with the drawing capability thereby to allow sensed motion of the motion sensing feature to modify the electronic editing.

Claims

1. An autonomous handheld device, comprising:

a drawing module having drawing capabilities for electronically editing a drawing, said editing comprising creating said drawing, changing said drawing and relocating of elements within said drawing; and

a motion sensing feature comprising an image sensor for sensing self-motion;

wherein said autonomous handheld device is configured to associate said motion sensing feature with said drawing capability, the motion sensing feature comprising a motion vector detection module adapted to capture digital images during a displacement of said autonomous handheld device, said motion vector detection module being configured for generating a current motion vector of said image sensor in relation to said digital images currently being captured, wherein said motion vector detection module is operatively associated with said drawing module to modify said electronic editing by carrying out said creating, changing and relocating according to said current motion vector thereby to allow sensed motion of said motion sensing feature to modify said electronic editing, and said motion vector detection module is further configured such that said generating a motion vector comprises providing a brightness change compensation mask to convert representational values of pixels of respective grayscale digital image pixels by multiplying each pixel by a constant multiplicative factor whose value is determined according to the position of the multiplied pixel.

2. The autonomous handheld device of claim 1, further comprising a connection to a display device, said drawings being configured to be displayed on said display device.

3. The autonomous handheld device of claim 1, wherein said electronically editing comprises at least one member of the group consisting of:

drawing a line on said display device, drawing a graphical object on said display device, selecting colors for graphical objects on said display device, selecting line thicknesses for graphical objects on said display device, coloring graphical objects on said display device, changing textures for graphical objects on said display device, and sizing graphical objects on said display device.

4. The autonomous handheld device of claim 2, wherein said electronically editing comprises maneuvering graphical objects displayed on said display device according to a motion vector generated from currently sensed motion.

5. The autonomous handheld device of claim 1, wherein said digital images comprise a reference frame and a sample frame having background representational information, said motion vector detection module comprises a matching area module adapted to choose the position of a reference area within the boundaries of said reference frame and a matching area within the boundaries of said sample frame and a displacement detection module adapted to generate said current motion vector of the autonomous handheld device based upon the relative positions of said reference area and said matching area, said display device being adapted to generate a display according to said current motion vector.

6. The autonomous handheld device of claim 5, wherein said matching area module is adapted to choose the position of a reference area according to the non-uniformity level of a number of potential first areas, said non-uniformity level is a derivative of the uniformity of values of a respective potential first area'"'"'s pixels.

7. The autonomous handheld device of claim 1, wherein said image sensor comprises one of the following group:

a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensor and a charged coupled portable autonomous device (CCD) sensor.

8. The autonomous handheld device of claim 1, wherein said autonomous handheld device is one of the following group:

a mobile handset, a handheld device, and a processor-based multifunctional portable autonomous device.

9. The autonomous handheld device of claim 1, further comprising an amalgamating module adapted to receive said current motion vector, said amalgamating is configured to amalgamate said current motion vector with a sequence of consecutive motion vectors during said displacement, said drawing module being configured for editing said drawing according to said sequence of consecutive motion vectors.

10. The autonomous handheld device of claim 9, further comprising:

a movement pattern repository adapted to store a plurality of pattern sample records, each represents a predefined movement pattern; and

a movement pattern matching module adapted to match between one of said plurality of pattern sample records and said sequence of consecutive motion vectors;

wherein said drawing module is configured for editing said drawing according to said match.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein said predefined movement pattern is a non-linear movement pattern.

12. The device of claim 10, wherein said movement pattern matching module is configured to determine according to said match whether said digital images are being taken approximately along respective predefined movement patterns.

13. The device of claim 10, wherein said amalgamating module is adapted to be used for adding a new record to said plurality of pattern sample records, said new record being generated according to said digital images.

14. The device of claim 1, further comprising a user interface, said user interface being configured to allow a user to initiate and terminate the capturing of said digital images.

15. The device of claim 10, wherein each one of said plurality of pattern sample records comprises an array of motion vectors.

16. The autonomous handheld device of claim 10, wherein said drawing module being configured to perform according to said match at least one task of the group consisting of:

drawing a graphical object on a display device, selecting colors for graphical objects on a display device, selecting line thicknesses for graphical objects on a display device, coloring graphical objects on a display device, changing textures for graphical objects on a display device, and sizing graphical objects on a display device.

17. The autonomous handheld device of claim 10, wherein said drawing module is configured to draw a character on a display device according to said match.

18. The autonomous handheld device of claim 1, wherein said motion vector detection module is configured to calculate a sum of absolute differences for block matching, thereby to generate said motion vector.

19. The autonomous handheld device of claim 1, wherein said motion vector detection module is configured to generate said motion vector by matching of candidates in successive image captures, said matching of candidates using a helical search track to determine an order of candidates in said matching.