Terminal device and method for controlling operations

• US 9,342,153 B2
• Filed: 10/14/2014
• Issued: 05/17/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Takatsuka, Susumu, Okumura, Yasushi, Yamano, Ikuo, Mizunuma, Hiroyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): OSORIO, RICARDO
• Application Number:
  US14/514,198
• Publication Number:
  US 20160103495A1
• Time in Patent Office: 581 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/163 Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/324 by lowering clock frequency
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/325 Power saving in peripheral device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04106 Multi-sensing digitiser, i.e. digitiser using at least two different sensing technologies simultaneously or alternatively, e.g. for detecting pen and finger, for saving power or for improving position detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/014 Hand-worn input/output arrangements, e.g. data gloves
• 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 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A device includes circuitry configured to acquire detection data from at least one sensor device corresponding to movement of the device. The circuitry is also configured to control at least one sensitivity detection mode of the at least one sensor device and determine a sampling rate for the at least one sensor device based on the at least one sensitivity detection mode. The circuitry is also configured to determine gestures performed by a user based on the detection data from the at least one sensor device and control operation of the device based on the gestures performed by the user.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

circuitry configured to

acquire detection data from at least one sensor device corresponding to movement of the device,

control at least one sensitivity detection mode of the at least one sensor device,

determine a sampling rate for the at least one sensor device based on the sensitivity detection mode,

determine gestures performed by a user based on the detection data from the at least one sensor device, and

control operation of the device based on the gestures performed by the user.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensor device includes at least one of an acceleration sensor, a gyro sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and a heart rate sensor.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensitivity detection mode includes a high sensitivity detection mode and a low sensitivity detection mode.

4. The device of claim 3, wherein a first sampling rate is associated with the low sensitivity detection mode.

5. The device of claim 4, wherein a second sampling rate that is higher than the first sampling rate is associated with the high sensitivity detection mode.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the gestures performed by the user include movement of a hand wearing the device in an upward or downward direction.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the gestures performed by the user include tap operations performed by at least one finger of the user.

8. The device of claim 7, wherein the circuitry is configured to determine the at least one finger that performed the tap operations in a high sensitivity detection mode.

9. The device of claim 7, wherein the user operates the device based on the tap operations performed by the at least one finger.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is configured to control the at least one sensitivity detection mode based on an amount of time since a display of the device was turned on and an amount of time since a tap operation was detected.

11. The device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is configured to control the at least one sensitivity detection mode based on a touch operation performed by the user.

12. The device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is configured to determine that the device is in a finger gesture enable state.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein the circuitry is configured to determine that the device is in the finger gesture enable state when at least one predetermined screen is displayed.

14. The device of claim 12, wherein the circuitry is configured to determine that the device is in the finger gesture enable state when at least one predetermined gesture is performed by the user.

15. The device of claim 12, wherein the circuitry is configured to determine that the device is in the finger gesture enable state when an orientation and the movement of the device are approximately unchanged for a predetermined period of time.

16. The device of claim 12, wherein the circuitry is configured to control the at least one sensitivity detection mode based on an amount of time since the finger gesture enable state was enabled and an amount of time since a tap operation was detected.

17. The device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is configured to wirelessly transmit the detection data to a server.

18. The device of claim 17, wherein the circuitry is configured to receive gesture determination information determined by the server.

19. A method of controlling operation of a device, comprising:

acquiring detection data from at least one sensor device corresponding to movement of the device;

controlling at least one sensitivity detection mode of the at least one sensor device;

determining a sampling rate for the at least one sensor device based on the sensitivity detection mode;

determining gestures performed by a user based on the detection data from the at least one sensor device; and

controlling operation of the device based on the gestures performed by the user.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored therein that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method of controlling operation of a device, wherein the device includes a motion sensor, the method comprising:

acquiring detection data from at least one sensor device corresponding to movement of the device;

controlling at least one sensitivity detection mode of the at least one sensor device;

determining a sampling rate for the at least one sensor device based on the sensitivity detection mode;

determining gestures performed by a user based on the detection data from the at least one sensor device; and

controlling operation of the device based on the gestures performed by the user.