Input device interaction

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10416776-B2
Application number	US-201514863832-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 24, 2015
Priority date	Sep 24, 2015
Publication date	Sep 17, 2019
Grant date	Sep 17, 2019

Abstract

A method and system for interacting with an input device is provided. The method includes initializing a virtual keyboard viewable via an eyewear based video display enabled computing device. The eyewear based video display enabled computing device determines that two hands of a user are viewable via a view screen of the eyewear based video display enabled computing device. In response, characters or symbols of the virtual keyboard are mapped to a position and associated scaling of the two hands of the user. Movement of the hands is tracked and associated with gestures enabled by the movement. The associated gestures are converted into associated characters or symbols and input data specified by the user is received.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An input device interaction method comprising:
initializing, by a computer processor of an embedded computing device comprised by an eyewear based video display enabled computing device in response to a hand based gesture thumb swipe enabled command from a user, a virtual keyboard viewable via said eyewear based video display enabled computing device, wherein said eyewear based video display enabled computing device comprises a prescriptive lens for correcting a vision deficiency of said user;
determining, by said computer processor, that two hands of said user are viewable via a view screen of said eyewear based video display enabled computing device;
mapping, by said computer processor, characters or symbols of said virtual keyboard to a position and associated scaling of said two hands of said user;
tracking, by said computer processor, movements of said two hands;
associating, by said computer processor based on said tracking, said movements with associated gestures enabled by said movements;
converting, by said computer processor, said associated gestures into associated characters or symbols of said characters or symbols;
virtually super-imposing, by said processor based on results of said mapping, said associated characters on finger tips and finger joints of said two hands of said user such that a character map comprising said associated characters virtually super-imposed on said finger tips and finger joints of said two hands is presented, without said virtual keyboard, to said user via said eyewear based video display enabled computing device;
receiving, by said computer processor from said associated characters or symbols virtually super-imposed and enabled by said user, input data specified by said user;
switching during said virtually super-imposing, by said computer processor in response to said user performing an additional hand based gesture including a palm flip gesture, between different virtual keyboard views and associated modes;
virtually toggling, by said computer processor in response to said user performing a further hand based gesture, between an alphabetical virtual keyboard and numerical virtual keyboard virtual view of said virtual keyboard via said eyewear based video display;
disabling, by said computer processor in response to said user performing a thumb related gesture command, said virtual keyboard; and
deactivating, by said processor in response to said disabling, said eyewear based video display and associated sensor devices.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said two hands comprise associated palms and finger tips and finger joints viewable via said view screen.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said command comprises a voice command executed by said user.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein said command comprises a switch activated command executed by said user.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein said switch activated command is activated by a switch selected from the group consisting of a physical switch and a virtual switch.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said tracking said movements of said at least one hand comprises tracking movements of fingers and associated finger joints of said at least one hand.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said associated gestures comprise gestures selected from the group consisting of finger tap gestures, finger swipe gestures, and custom gestures with respect to associated actions, events and interactions.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein custom gestures comprise gestures selected from the group consisting of a closing and opening with respect to a fist gesture, a thumbs tap gesture, a thumbs up gesture, and a directional thumb slide across palm gesture.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein said input data comprises text input associated with said virtual keyboard and event trigger data associated with an application menu of said embedded computing device.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
switching, by said computer processor, between a single hand operation mode and a double hand operation mode.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
switching, by said computer processor, between a keyboard based layout and application menu layouts.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
converting, by said computer processor, said associated gestures into associated commands for enabling or disabling said embedded computing device.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing at least one support service for at least one of creating, integrating, hosting, maintaining, and deploying computer-readable code in the computing system, said code being executed by the computer processor to implement: said initializing, said determining, said mapping, said tracking, said associating, said converting, and said receiving.

14. An embedded computing device comprising a computer processor coupled to a computer-readable memory unit, said memory unit comprising instructions that when executed by the computer processor implements an input device interaction method comprising:
initializing, by said computer processor in response to a hand based gesture thumb swipe enabled command from a user, a virtual keyboard viewable via said eyewear based video display enabled computing device, wherein said eyewear based video display enabled computing device comprises a prescriptive lens for correcting a vision deficiency of said user;
determining, by said computer processor, that two hands of said user are viewable via a view screen of said eyewear based video display enabled computing device;
mapping, by said computer processor, characters or symbols of said virtual keyboard to a position and associated scaling of said two hands of said user;
tracking, by said computer processor, movements of said two hands;
associating, by said computer processor based on said tracking, said movements with associated gestures enabled by said movements;
converting, by said computer processor, said associated gestures into associated characters or symbols of said characters or symbols;
virtually super-imposing, by said processor based on results of said mapping, said associated characters on finger tips and finger joints of said two hands of said user such that a character map comprising said associated characters virtually super-imposed on said finger tips and finger joints of said two hands is presented, without said virtual keyboard, to said user via said eyewear based video display enabled computing device;
receiving, by said computer processor from said associated characters or symbols virtually super-imposed and enabled by said user, input data specified by said user;
switching during said virtually super-imposing, by said computer processor in response to said user performing an additional hand based gesture including a palm flip gesture, between different virtual keyboard views and associated modes;
virtually toggling, by said computer processor in response to said user performing a further hand based gesture, between an alphabetical virtual keyboard and numerical virtual keyboard virtual view of said virtual keyboard via said eyewear based video display;
disabling, by said computer processor in response to said user performing a thumb related gesture command, said virtual keyboard; and
deactivating, by said processor in response to said disabling, said eyewear based video display and associated sensor devices.

15. The embedded computing device of claim 14 , wherein said two hands comprise associated palms and finger tips and finger joints viewable via said view screen.

16.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Dash Samir K

Classifications

• G06F3/011

  Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality (blind teaching G09B21/00) · CPC title

• G06F3/014

  Hand-worn input/output arrangements, e.g. data gloves · CPC title

• G06F3/0304

  Detection arrangements using opto-electronic means (constructional details of pointing devices not related to the detection arrangement using opto-electronic means G06F3/033; optical digitisers G06F3/042) · CPC title

• G06F1/163

  Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt · CPC title

• G06F3/04886

  by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus · CPC title