Gesture-based waking and control system for wearable devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9513703-B2
Application number	US-201314142700-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 27, 2013
Priority date	Dec 27, 2013
Publication date	Dec 6, 2016
Grant date	Dec 6, 2016

Abstract

A gesture-based waking and control system to wake a smartwatch device from a low-power state is described. In one embodiment, the system utilizes a pressure or proximity based wake gesture that is interpretable by low-power sensors. An embodiment of the system can be integrated within a wearable device, such as a smartwatch accessory that can be paired with a mobile electronic device, such as a smartphone. In one embodiment, the wearable device includes a set of low-power sensors that are to detect the wake gesture. In one embodiment, the wake gesture causes the device to enable an additional set of sensors and sensor processing logic to detect more advanced commands or gestures. In one embodiment, the wake gesture enables a display of the wearable device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system of electronic components comprising:
one or more displays, at least one of the displays including a touch sensitive region for touch input, wherein at least one of the one or more displays supports a low-power state;
processing logic coupled with the one or more displays, the processing logic to process and interpret sensor data to detect a gesture; and
a set of sensors coupled to the processing logic, the set of sensors including:
a first sub-set of sensors to operate in a normally active state, wherein the first sub-set of sensors includes a pressure sensor and at least one additional sensor to gather first sensor data for the processing logic, the first sensor data including at least pressure sensor data;
a second sub-set of sensors to operate in a normally low-power state, the second sub-set of sensors including an accelerometer;
wherein the processing logic is further to cause the second sub-set of sensors to enter an active state in response to detection of the gesture; and
wherein the pressure sensor and the accelerometer are configured to gather second sensor data corresponding to a command executable by the processing logic.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one additional sensor in the first sub-set of sensors includes a proximity sensor or a light sensor.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second sub-set of sensors further includes a gyroscope.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first sub-set of sensors or the second sub-set of sensors includes at least one touch sensor.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the set of sensors further includes a third sub-set of sensors to operate in the normally low-power state, and wherein the second sub-set of sensors gather data corresponding to a second gesture, wherein the second gesture is to cause the third sub-set of sensors to enter the active state.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the second sub-set or third sub-set of sensors includes an infrared sensor.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the infrared sensor is to detect sensor data indicating that one or more displays in a low power state is visible to a user, and wherein the one or more displays is enabled responsive to the indication.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is integrated into a wearable device.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the wearable device is a smartwatch.

10. A wearable device comprising:
processing logic to process and interpret sensor data to detect a gesture; and
a set of sensors coupled to the processing logic, the set of sensors including:
a first sub-set of sensors to operate in a normally active state, wherein the first sub-set of sensors includes a pressure sensor and at least one additional sensor to gather first sensor data for the processing logic, the first sensor data including at least pressure sensor data;
a second sub-set of sensors to operate in a normally low-power state, the second sub-set of sensors including an accelerometer, wherein the pressure sensor and the accelerometer are configured to gather second sensor data corresponding to a command executable by the processing logic.

11. The wearable device as in claim 10 , wherein the processing logic is further to cause the second sub-set of sensors to enter an active state in response to detection of the gesture.

12. The wearable device as in claim 10 , wherein the wearable device is a smartwatch device.

13. The wearable device as in claim 10 , wherein the pressure sensor includes one or more force sensitive resistors.

14. The wearable device as in claim 10 , wherein the processing logic processes the pressure sensor data via a trainable algorithm, the algorithm to detect that pressure continuously exceeds a threshold for greater than a period of time.

15. The wearable device as in claim 10 further comprising a light sensor, to generate light sensor data for the gesture, and wherein the processing logic is further to process the light sensor data detected by the light sensor to interpret the gesture.

16. The wearable device as in claim 10 , additionally including a display device.

17. The wearable device as in claim 10 , further comprising logic to cause the wearable device to enter a command input mode after waking from the low-power state, the command input mode to accept input commands and command gestures.

18. The wearable device as in claim 17 , wherein the pressure sensor is to receive command gesture input for execution by the wearable device when the wearable device is in the command input mode.

19. A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions to cause processing logic within a wearable device to perform operations, the operations comprising:
detecting a gesture by interpreting sensor data from a set of sensors coupled to the processing logic, the sensor data provided via a first sub-set of sensors configured to operate in a normally active state and a second sub-set of sensors configured to operate in a normally low-power state, the first sub-set of sensors including a pressure sensor and at least one additional sensor to gather first sensor data for the processing logic, the second sub-set of sensors including an accelerometer, and wherein the first sensor data includes at least pressure sensor data; and
gathering, via the pressure sensor and the accelerometer, second sensor data corresponding to a command executable by the processing logic.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as in claim 19 , the operations additionally comprising causing the second sub-set of sensors to enter an active state in response to detection of the gesture.

21. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as in claim 19 , wherein interpreting sensor data from a set of sensors includes detecting, via the pressure sensor data, pressure continuously exceeding a threshold for greater than a period of time.

22. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as in claim 19 , wherein interpreting sensor data from a set of sensors includes processing light sensor data detected by a light sensor to interpret the gesture.

23. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as in claim 19 , the operations additionally comprising causing one or more displays to transition from a low power state in response to receiving the command executable by the processing logic.

24. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as in claim 19 , further comprising instructions to perform additional operations including receiving accelerometer data from the accelerometer, the accelerometer data representing the command executable by the processing logic or a component of the gesture.

25. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as in claim 19 , wherein the second sub-set of sensors includes a microphone and a touch sensor.

26. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as in claim 25 , further comprising instructions to perform additional operations comprising receiving a voice command via the microphone.

27. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as in claim 25 , further comprising instructions to perform additional operations including receiving touch sensor data from the touch sensor, the touch sensor data representing at least a portion of the command executable by the processing logic or a component of the gesture.

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Whitney Kofi C
• Raffa Giuseppe
• Francis Mark R
• Idsinga Andy S
• Peek Gregory A

Classifications

• G06F3/014 Primary

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

• G06F3/03547

  Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface · CPC title

• A61B5/681

  Wristwatch-type devices · CPC title

• G06F3/017

  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