State machine based tracking system for screen pointing control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10222869-B2
Application number	US-201514816953-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 3, 2015
Priority date	Aug 3, 2015
Publication date	Mar 5, 2019
Grant date	Mar 5, 2019

Abstract

Generally, this disclosure provides systems, devices, methods and computer readable media for state machine based pointing control. A method may include receiving a position estimate of a first location associated with a first portion of a pointing device and a position estimate of a second location associated with a second portion of the pointing device; calculating a vector from the estimated position of the first location to the estimated position of the second location; and resolving the vector into a first distance component (Dx) and a second distance component (Dy), the Dy component orthogonal to the Dx component. The method may further include tracking temporal changes of the Dx and Dy components; updating an interaction state based on a rate of change of the Dx and Dy components; and moving a cursor position on a display element screen based on the temporal change and the interaction state.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for pointing control, said system comprising:
vector calculation circuitry to:
receive a position estimate of a first location associated with a first portion of a pointing device and a position estimate of a second location associated with a second portion of said pointing device;
calculate a vector from said estimated position of said first location to said estimated position of said second location; and
resolve said vector into a first distance component (Dx) and a second distance component (Dy), said Dy component orthogonal to said Dx component, wherein said first distance component (Dx) and said second distance component (Dy) represent a distance between the first and second locations in an x plane and a y plane, respectively, and a length of said vector in said x and y plane, wherein the pointing device is configured such that the length of said vector can change in response to movement of said pointing device;

tracking circuitry to track temporal change of said Dx and Dy components and to calculate a rate of change of said Dx and Dy components;
state machine circuitry to maintain and update an interaction state based on said rate of change of said Dx and Dy components; and
screen coordinate update circuitry to move a cursor position on a display element screen to a new screen coordinate based on said temporal change and said interaction state;
wherein:
said interaction state comprises a coarse pointing state, a fine pointing state and a freeze pointing state;
cursor position movement associated with said coarse pointing state is greater than cursor position movement associated with said fine pointing state; and
cursor position movement is disabled in association with said freeze pointing state; and
the system further comprises stabilization circuitry to perform different degrees of temporal low pass filtering of said cursor position movement based on whether said interaction state is said coarse pointing state, said fine pointing state, or said freeze pointing state.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein said pointing device is a hand and said first location is associated with the center of mass of the palm of said hand and said second location is associated with the tip of the index finger of said hand.

3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a 3-dimensional (3-D) visual tracking system to provide said estimated position of said first location and said estimated position of said second location.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein movement of said pointing device causes said first location to move relative to said second location, thereby causing a change in the length of said vector.

5. The system of claim 1 , further comprising calibration circuitry to determine a maximum value of said Dx and Dy components based on the length of said pointing device; and to normalize said Dx and Dy components based on said maximum value.

6. The system of claim 5 , further comprising screen coordinate projection circuitry to scale said normalized Dx and Dy components based on resolution of said display element screen, wherein said new screen coordinate is further based on said scaled Dx and Dy components.

7. The system of claim 1 , further comprising user initiation detection circuitry to detect user initiation of said pointing control system based on detection of proximity of said user to said display element screen crossing a threshold distance, or based on detection of a gesture of said user.

8. A method for pointing control, said method comprising:
receiving a position estimate of a first location associated with a first portion of a pointing device and a position estimate of a second location associated with a second portion of said pointing device;
calculating a vector from said estimated position of said first location to said estimated position of said second location;
resolving said vector into a first distance component (Dx) and a second distance component (Dy), said Dy component orthogonal to said Dx component, wherein said first distance component (Dx) and said second distance component (Dy) represent a distance between the first and second locations in an x plane and a y plane, respectively, and a length of said vector in said x and y plane, wherein the length of said vector can change in response to movement of said pointing device;
tracking temporal change of said Dx and Dy components;
updating an interaction state based on a rate of change of said Dx and Dy components; and
moving a cursor position on a display element screen based on said temporal change and said interaction state,
wherein:
said interaction state comprises a coarse pointing state, a fine pointing state and a freeze pointing state;
cursor position movement associated with said coarse pointing state is greater than cursor position movement associated with said fine pointing state; and
cursor position movement is disabled in association with said freeze pointing state; and

the method further comprises performing different degrees of temporal low pass filtering of said cursor position movement based on whether said interaction state is said coarse pointing state, said fine pointing state, or said freeze pointing state.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein said pointing device is a hand and said first location is associated with the center of mass of the palm of said hand and said second location is associated with the tip of the index finger of said hand.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising receiving said position estimates from a 3-dimensional (3-D) visual tracking system.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein movement of said pointing device causes said first location to move relative to said second location, thereby causing a change in the length of said vector.

12. The method of claim 8 , further comprising performing a calibration to determine a maximum value of said Dx and Dy components based on the length of said pointing device; and normalizing said Dx and Dy components based on said maximum value.

13. The method of claim 8 , further comprising detecting user initiation of said pointing control based on detection of proximity of said user to said display element screen crossing a threshold distance, or based on detection of a gesture of said user.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon which when executed by a processor result in the following operations for pointing control, said operations comprising:
receiving a position estimate of a first location associated with a first portion of a pointing device and a position estimate of a second location associated with a second portion of said pointing device;
calculating a vector from said estimated position of said first location to said estimated position of said second location;
resolving said vector into a first distance component (Dx) and a second distance component (Dy), said Dy component orthogonal to said Dx component, wherein said first distance component (Dx) and said second distance component (Dy) represent a distance between the first and second locations in an x plane and a y plane, respectively, and a length of said vector in said x and y plane, wherein the length of said vector can change in response to movement of said pointing device;
tracking temporal change of said Dx and Dy components;
updating an interaction state based on a rate of change of said Dx and Dy components; and
moving a cursor position on a display element screen based on said temporal change and said interaction state;
wherein:
said interaction state comprises a coarse pointing state, a fine pointing state a

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Moran Amit

Classifications

• G06F3/0482

  Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus · CPC title

• G06F3/017 Primary

  Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures (interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883) · CPC title

• G06F3/0393

  Accessories for touch pads or touch screens, e.g. mechanical guides added to touch screens for drawing straight lines, hard keys overlaying touch screens or touch pads · CPC title