Wireless hands-free pointer system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10814491-B2
Application number	US-201715727113-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 6, 2017
Priority date	Oct 6, 2017
Publication date	Oct 27, 2020
Grant date	Oct 27, 2020

Abstract

A wireless hands-free pointer system includes a wearable unit and a base station. The wearable unit includes a head-mountable portion and a neck-mountable portion. The head-mountable portion includes an inertial measurement unit to detect movements of the head of a wearer. The neck-mountable portion includes a power supply, a microcontroller, and a wireless transmitter module and is formed to allow wearing by draping it about a wearer's neck to rest on their shoulders. The head-mountable portion is electrically coupled to the neck-mountable portion to receive power from the power supply. The head-mountable portion is also communicatively coupled to the neck-mountable portion to transmit detected movements of the head of a wearer to the microcontroller for determining position data for transmission to the base station using the wireless transmitter module. The base includes a wireless receiver module to receiving position data and can communicate the position data to a processing unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wearable unit of a wireless hands-free pointer system, the wearable unit comprising:
a link cable having two opposed ends;
a head-mountable portion adapted as an ear clip that is coupled to a first end of the link cable, the head-mountable portion including an inertial measurement unit to detect movements of the head of a wearer, the inertial measurement unit including an accelerometer wherein the head-mountable portion is adapted to be clipped onto an ear of the wearer so as to maintain the head-mountable portion in a substantially vertical position when the head-mountable portion is worn by the wearer; and
a neck-mountable portion including a power supply, a microcontroller, and a wireless transmitter module, the neck-mountable portion formed to allow wearing by draping the neck-mountable portion about the neck of the wearer to rest on the shoulders of the wearer,
wherein the head-mountable portion is electrically coupled to the neck-mountable portion to receive power from the power supply and communicatively coupled to the neck-mountable portion to transmit detected movements of the head of the wearer to the microcontroller for determining position data for transmission to a base station using the wireless transmitter module.

2. The wearable unit of claim 1 wherein the neck-mountable portion is flexible and conforms to the neck and shoulders of the wearer when worn.

3. The wearable unit of claim 1 wherein the neck-mountable portion is wishbone shaped.

4. The wearable unit of claim 1 wherein the electrical and communicative coupling are provided by a link cable.

5. The wearable unit of claim 4 wherein the link cable and the neck-mountable portions are formed with connectors to allow the link cable to be selectively attached to the neck-mountable portion.

6. The wearable unit of claim 1 wherein the neck-mountable portion further includes a second inertial measurement unit to detect movements of the torso of the wearer and wherein the position data is further determined based on detected movements of the torso of the wearer.

7. The wearable unit of claim 1 wherein the power supply includes a battery having a capacity sufficient to power the wearable unit for at least the duration of a particular medical procedure.

8. The wearable unit of claim 1 wherein the inertial measurement unit further includes at least one of a gyroscope or a compass.

9. The wearable unit of claim 1 further comprising at least one microphone.

10. The wearable unit of claim 9 wherein the at least one microphone is included in said neck-mountable portion.

11. The wearable unit of claim 1 wherein the wearable unit is a component of a surgical navigation system.

12. The wearable unit of claim 1 wherein the wearable unit is configured to control a pointer on a display screen for at least one of directly interacting with a software interface and selecting at least one target location for at least one of focusing thereon, moving thereto, and centering thereon in relation to a microscope and an exoscope.

13. A system comprising:
a base station including a wireless receiver module for receiving position data; and
a wearable unit including:
a link cable having two opposed ends;
a head-mountable portion adapted as an ear clip that is coupled to a first end of the link cable, the head-mountable portion including an inertial measurement unit to detect movements of the head of a wearer, the inertial measurement unit including an accelerometer, wherein the head-mountable portion is adapted to be clipped onto an ear of the wearer so as to maintain the head-mountable portion in a substantially vertical position when the head-mountable portion is worn by the wearer; and
a neck-mountable portion including a power supply, a microcontroller, and a wireless transmitter module, the neck-mountable portion formed to allow wearing by draping the neck-mountable portion about the neck of the wearer to rest on the shoulders of the wearer,
wherein the head-mountable portion is electrically coupled to the neck-mountable portion to receive power from the power supply and communicatively coupled to the neck-mountable portion to transmit detected movements of the head of the wearer to the microcontroller for determining the position data for transmission to the base station using the wireless transmitter module, and
wherein the base station is adapted for communicating the position data to a processing unit for use in controlling a pointer on a display screen.

14. The system of claim 13 further comprising a processing unit coupled to the base station to receive the position data therefrom and configured to control a pointer on a display screen based on the position data.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the pointer allows a target location to be selected for at least one of focusing thereon, moving thereto, or centering thereon in relation to at least one of a microscope or an exoscope.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein an optical field of view represented on the display screen is synchronized with detected movements of the head of the wearer.

17. The system of claim 14 wherein the processing unit further receives an activation input and wherein the processing unit is adapted to provide a focus-on-location mode and a pan-to-location mode wherein in the focus-on-location mode in which a displayed field of view is focused-on or panned-to a position in the field of view, respectively, the position determined based on a location of the pointer upon activation.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the wearable unit further includes a microphone and wherein the activation input is received via the microphone.

19. The system of claim 14 wherein the neck-mountable portion further includes a second inertial measurement unit to detect movements of the torso of the wearer and wherein the position data received by the processing unit includes data regarding detected movements of the torso of the wearer and wherein the processing unit is operable to decouple the movements of the head of the wearer from the movements of the torso of the wearer based on the position data and to control the pointer based on the decoupled head movements.

20. The system of claim 13 further comprising a processing unit coupled to the base station to receive the position data therefrom and configured to control a robotic arm of a robotic drive system based on the position data.

Assignees

• Hodges Wesley Bryan
• Pajek Daniel Christopher John
• Synaptive Medical Barbados Inc

Inventors

• Hodges Wesley Bryan
• Pajek Daniel Christopher John

Classifications

• G06F3/012 Primary

  Head tracking input arrangements · CPC title

• G06F3/0346

  with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a three-dimensional [3D] space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors · CPC title

• G06F1/163

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

• G16H40/63

  for local operation · CPC title

• G06F3/0487

  using specific features provided by the input device, e.g. functions controlled by the rotation of a mouse with dual sensing arrangements, or of the nature of the input device, e.g. tap gestures based on pressure sensed by a digitiser · CPC title