Hand-mounted device with finger motion triggering

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9507988-B2
Application number	US-201514979709-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 28, 2015
Priority date	Apr 1, 2014
Publication date	Nov 29, 2016
Grant date	Nov 29, 2016

Abstract

A wearable device is worn on the back of a user's hand such that the act of pointing the user's index finger is sufficient to align the device and trigger a process. Triggering is achieved by sensing the user's finger in an image or by breaking a light path in a photogate.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An image-capturing device, comprising:
an image-capturing subsystem including a multi-element image sensor for capturing images of the image-capturing subsystem's field of view;
a hand-mounted housing substantially enclosing the image-capturing subsystem, wherein the hand-mounted housing comprises finger rings to attach to the user's middle and ring fingers so that, when a user makes a fist and fully extends the user's index finger, the user's index finger and the image-capturing subsystem are pointed substantially in the same direction; and
a non-mechanical trigger mechanism configured to initiate an image-capturing sequence performed by the image-capturing subsystem if the user's index finger is detected in the images captured by the image-capturing subsystem.

2. The image-capturing device according to claim 1 , comprising a processor for decoding indicia information within the image-capturing subsystems field of view and for analyzing the images captured by the image-capturing subsystem to detect the presence of a user's finger.

3. The image-capturing device according to claim 1 , wherein the image-capturing device comprises a laser for emitting light, a scanning mechanism for scanning the emitted light, and a detector for sensing laser light reflected or scattered off an object.

4. The image-capturing device according to claim 1 , wherein the multi-element image sensor comprises a CCD having a plurality of pixels.

5. The image-capturing device according to claim 4 , wherein the CCD captures color images.

6. The image-capturing device according to claim 1 , comprising a lens.

7. The image-capturing device according to claim 1 , comprising an input/output subsystem for outputting signals to a host computer.

8. The image-capturing device according to claim 1 , wherein the image-capturing device is powered by a battery.

9. A method, comprising:
providing an image-capturing device that comprises an image-capturing subsystem for capturing images of the image-capturing subsystem's field of view and a non-mechanical trigger mechanism for initiating an image-capturing sequence via a trigger signal;
capturing images of the image-capturing subsystem's field of view; and
generating a trigger signal if a user's finger is detected in the captured images;
wherein the image-capturing device comprises two finger rings to attach to a user's middle and ring fingers so that when attached, the image-capturing device rests on the user's middle and ring fingers between the user's knuckle and first joint of the middle and ring fingers.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein detecting the user's index finger in the captured images comprises:
pointing the image-capturing subsystem towards an indicium for decoding, and
extending the user's index finger to point at the indicium for decoding.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein detecting the user's index finger in the captured images comprises detecting if the user's index finger is moving laterally towards the image-capturing subsystem.

12. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the image-capturing subsystem comprises a multi-element image sensor.

13. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the multi-element image sensor is a CCD.

14. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the CCD captures color images.

15. A non-mechanical triggering mechanism for a finger-mounted image-capturing device, comprising:
a multi-element image sensor for repeatedly capturing images of a field of view; and
a processor communicatively coupled to the multi-element image sensor, the processor configured by software to:
receive a captured image from the multi-element image sensor;
analyze the received captured image for the presence of a finger; and
generate, if a finger is present in one or more captured images, a trigger signal to initiate an image-capturing sequence;

wherein the finger-mounted image-capturing device comprises two finger rings for a user's middle and ring fingers.

16. The non-mechanical triggering mechanism for a finger-mounted image-capturing device according to claim 15 , wherein the multi-element image sensor is a CCD.

17. The non-mechanical triggering mechanism for a finger-mounted image-capturing device according to claim 16 , wherein the CCD captures color images.

18. The non-mechanical triggering mechanism for a finger-mounted image-capturing device according to claim 15 , wherein the finger present in the one or more captured images is the user's index finger.

Assignees

• Hand Held Prod Inc

Inventors

• Van Horn Erik
• Colavito Stephen
• Rueblinger Gregory
• Germaine Gennady

Classifications

• H01Q1/52

  Means for reducing coupling between antennas; Means for reducing coupling between an antenna and another structure (absorbing means H01Q17/00) · CPC title

• G06K7/10554

  Moving beam scanning · CPC title

• H01Q1/2283

  mounted in or on the surface of a semiconductor substrate as a chip-type antenna or integrated with other components into an IC package · CPC title

• H01Q9/42

  with folded element, the folded parts being spaced apart a small fraction of the operating wavelength · CPC title

• G06K7/1091

  means to wake up the scanner from a sleep mode, e.g. using an acceleration sensor indicating that the scanner is being picked up by a user · CPC title