Controlling electronic components in a computing environment

• US 8,132,126 B2
• Filed: 08/14/2008
• Issued: 03/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wilson, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): HAILU, TADESSE
• Application Number:
  US12/191,883
• Publication Number:
  US 20080313575A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,300 Days
• Field of Search: 715/863, 715/866, 715/771, 704/270.1, 704/275
• US Class Current: 715/863
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0381 Multimodal input, i.e. interface arrangements enabling the user to issue commands by simultaneous use of input devices of different nature, e.g. voice plus gesture on digitizer
• 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 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/00 Arrangements for transmitting signals characterised by the use of a wireless electrical link
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/31 Voice input
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/32 Remote control based on movements, attitude of remote control device
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/41 Remote control of gateways
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/50 Receiving or transmitting feedback, e.g. replies, status updates, acknowledgements, from the controlled devices

Abstract

The present invention is directed toward a system and process that controls a group of networked electronic components using a multimodal integration scheme in which inputs from a speech recognition subsystem, gesture recognition subsystem employing a wireless pointing device and pointing analysis subsystem also employing the pointing device, are combined to determine what component a user wants to control and what control action is desired. In this multimodal integration scheme, the desired action concerning an electronic component is decomposed into a command and a referent pair. The referent can be identified using the pointing device to identify the component by pointing at the component or an object associated with it, by using speech recognition, or both. The command may be specified by pressing a button on the pointing device, by a gesture performed with the pointing device, by a speech recognition event, or by any combination of these inputs.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented process for controlling a user-selected electronic component within an environment using a pointing device, comprising:

a waiting step for waiting for an orientation message to be received;

a receiving step for receiving orientation messages transmitted by the pointing device, said orientation messages comprising at least one orientation sensor reading generated by at least one orientation sensor of the pointing device;

a switch state determining step for determining whether a switch state indicates that a pointing device switch has been activated by the user to indicate that a gesture is being performed, said switch state determining step being executed whenever an orientation message is received;

a repeating step for repeating the waiting step, the receiving step, and the switch state determining step whenever it is determined that the switch state does not indicate that the pointing device switch is activated;

a recording step for recording a prescribed one or ones of the pointing device sensor outputs taken from the orientation message received, in accordance with a determination that the switch state indicates that the pointing device switch is activated;

a determining step for determining whether a threshold if just one, or all the thresholds if more than one, of a gesture threshold definition under consideration are exceeded by the recorded sensor output associated with the same sensor output as the threshold for the gesture threshold definition assigned to the selected electronic component;

a designating step for designating that the user has performed the gesture associated with the gesture threshold definition whenever it is determined that the threshold if just one, or all the thresholds if more than one, of the gesture threshold definition are exceeded by the recorded sensor output associated with the same sensor output; and

an implementing step for implementing the control action represented by the gesture that the user was designated to have performed.

2. The process of claim 1, wherein prior to performing the determining step, performing an establishing step for establishing, for the gesture representing the control action for the selected electronic component, the gesture threshold definition, said gesture threshold definitions comprising either (i) a prescribed threshold applicable to a particular single sensor output or (ii) a set of thresholds applicable to a particular group of sensor outputs, which are indicative of the pointing device being moved in a particular direction from a starting point wherein the pointing device is pointed at the object in the environment corresponding to or associated with the selected electronic component.

3. The process of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensor of the pointing device comprises at least one accelerometer.

4. The process of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensor of the pointing device comprises at least one gyroscope.

5. The process of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensor of the pointing device comprises at least one accelerometer and at least one gyroscope.

6. The process of claim 1, wherein the at least one orientation sensor reading comprises an acceleration value.

7. The process of claim 1, wherein the environment includes more than one electronic component.

8. The process of claim 1, wherein the prescribed one or ones of the pointing device sensor outputs taken from the orientation message received are recorded only when it is determined that the switch state indicates that the pointing device switch is activated.