Motion and gesture input from a wearable device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2019220099-A1
Application number	US-201916365257-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 26, 2019
Priority date	Sep 30, 2014
Publication date	Jul 18, 2019
Grant date	—

Abstract

This relates to a device that detects a user's motion and gesture input through the movement of one or more of the user's hand, arm, wrist, and fingers, for example, to provide commands to the device or to other devices. The device can include a plurality of myoelectric sensors configured to detect one or more electrical signals from a body part of a user indicative of one or more movements. A plurality of signals indicative of the detected one or more electrical signals may be generated. The device may also include a wireless communication transmitter configured to communicate with a peripheral device and a processor. The processor may be configured to receive the plurality of signals from the plurality of myoelectric sensors, use the plurality of signals together to determine a gesture, and communicate one or more of: the plurality of signals and the gesture to the peripheral device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A portable electronic device comprising:
a plurality of myoelectric sensors configured to:
detect one or more electrical signals from a body part of a user indicative of one or more movements, and
generate a plurality of signals indicative of the detected one or more electrical signals;
a wireless communication transmitter configured to communicate with a peripheral device; and a processor configured to:
receive the plurality of signals from the plurality of myoelectric sensors,
use the plurality of signals together to determine a gesture, and
communicate one or more of: the plurality of signals and the gesture to the peripheral device.

2 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the device is located in a band, the band including:
a first portion, wherein at least one of: the processor and the wireless communication transmitter are disposed in the first portion; and a second portion coupled to the first portion, wherein the band is configured to be contact the body part of the user.

3 . The device of claim 2 , wherein at least one of the plurality of myoelectric sensors is disposed proximate to an inner circumference of the band.

4 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the one or more movements includes one or more of: a hand movement, a wrist movement, a finger movement, and a whole arm movement.

5 . The device of claim 1 , further comprising a database, wherein the database stores a plurality of pre-defined gestures.

6 . The device of claim 5 , wherein the processor is further configured to compare properties of the plurality of signals to properties of the plurality of pre-defined gestures to determine the gesture.

7 . The device of claim 5 , wherein the database includes a plurality of commands, each of the plurality of commands associated with at least one of the plurality of pre-defined gestures.

8 . The device of claim 7 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
associate the determined gesture with at least one of the plurality of commands; and send instructions to perform the at least one of the plurality of commands to the peripheral device based on the comparison.

9 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
track the determined gesture; track a task that follows the determined gesture; predict an associated command based on the determined gesture and the task; and automatically execute the associated command based on the prediction.

10 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the determined gesture corresponds to a movement of a dorsal side of a wrist of the user facing an eye of the user, wherein the processor is configured to:
associate the determined gesture with waking up the device; and automatically waking up the device based on the determined gesture.

11 . The device of claim 1 , further comprising an inertial sensor configured to generate a plurality of second signals indicative of one or more of: translational motion and rotational motion.

12 . The device of claim 11 , wherein the inertial sensor comprises one or more of: an accelerator and a gyroscope.

13 . The device of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of second signals is used together with the plurality of signals to determine the gesture.

14 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the device is configured to perform a user specific calibration procedure to establish a baseline for comparing to the plurality of signals.

15 . A computing system comprising:
a portable device including:
a plurality of sensors configured to:
detect one or more electrical signals from a user's body part, and
generate a plurality of signals indicative of the detected one or more electrical signals;

a wireless communication transmitter; and
a host device in communication with the portable device through the wireless communication transmitter, wherein the host device includes; a processor configured to:
receive the plurality of signals from the plurality of sensors;
use the plurality of signals together to determine a gesture.

16 . The device of claim 15 , further comprising an application interface, wherein the application interface enables the processor to:
record one or more programmed gestures defined by the user; and associate a command with the one or more programmed gestures.

17 . The system of claim 15 , further comprising a second portable electronic device, wherein the second portable electronic device is configured to:
generate a plurality of second signals; and communicate the plurality of second signals to the processor, wherein the plurality of signals and the plurality of second signals are used to determine the gesture.

18 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the host device further comprises storage for tracking a user gesture history.

19 . The system of claim 18 , wherein the processor is configured to:
record the user gesture history; process the user gesture history; send a result based on the processed user gesture history to the portable device; and adjust operation of the portable device based on the result.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Baranski Andrzej
• Shedletsky Anna-Katrina
• Lonkar Kuldeep P
• Isikman Serhan
• Lynch Stephen Brian
• Ely Colin M
• Werner Christopher
• De Jong Erik
• Weiss Samuel B

Classifications

• G06F3/014

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

• A61B5/6824

  Arm or wrist · CPC title

• A61B5/7475

  User input or interface means, e.g. keyboard, pointing device, joystick · CPC title

• A61B5/11

  Measuring movement of the entire body or parts thereof, e.g. head or hand tremor or mobility of a limb {(A61B5/1038 takes precedence; motion detection to correct for motion artifacts in physiological signals A61B5/721)} · CPC title

• G06F3/015

  Input arrangements based on nervous system activity detection, e.g. brain waves [EEG] detection, electromyograms [EMG] detection, electrodermal response detection · CPC title