Apparatus and method for controlling object

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9747018-B2
Application number	US-201113137875-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 20, 2011
Priority date	Nov 30, 2010
Publication date	Aug 29, 2017
Grant date	Aug 29, 2017

Abstract

An apparatus and method for controlling an object are provided. Motions of fingers present in a 3-dimensional (3D) sensing area are detected, and a pointer or an object being displayed is controlled corresponding to the detected motions. Therefore, input of a control signal may be achieved without a direct touch on a display device such as a terminal, thereby preventing leaving marks on a screen of the display. In addition, since the motions of fingers are detected within the 3D sensing area, not on a 2-dimensional (2D) plane, more types of input motions may be used.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of controlling an object, the method comprising:
detecting a position of at least one finger of a user, the at least one finger present in a 3-dimensional (3D) sensing area, and a number of the at least one finger present in the 3D sensing area, the 3D sensing area comprising a volume up to a predetermined height above a sensing panel of the sensing module, wherein the sensing panel comprises upper electrodes and lower electrodes to detect the position and the number of the at least one finger present in the 3D sensing area;
generating motion information regarding motions of the at least one finger based on the position and the number of the at least one finger; and
controlling at least one of a pointer and an object being displayed based on the motion information,
wherein the upper electrodes and the lower electrodes are arranged in a form of a grid,
wherein the detecting of the position and the number of the at least one finger comprises:
calculating curvatures of a plurality of portions included in the at least one finger in the 3D sensing area, wherein at least two portions of the plurality of portions correspond to different joints of the same finger;
detecting a position and a number of at least one portion, from among the plurality of portions, having a curvature greater than a reference curvature;
extracting at least one intersection between the at least one portion and vertices of a polygon connecting outermost vertices of a hand of the user; and
determining at least one finger tip of the user based on the at least one intersection.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the detecting of the position and the number of the at least one finger comprises:
processing execution operations corresponding to the motion information by referring to a table that contains the motions and the execution operations corresponding to the motions, the execution operations being related to at least one of the pointer and the object.

3. A non-transitory computer readable recording medium storing a program to cause a computer to implement the method of claim 1 .

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the detecting of the position and the number of the at least one finger comprises detecting the position and the number of the at least one finger present in the 3D sensing area through variation of a current intensity of an electric field generated between the upper electrodes and the lower electrodes.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the controlling of the at least one of the pointer and the object comprises rotating the object pointed to by the pointer when at least one of a first finger and a second finger in the 3D sensing area is detected as rotating.

6. A device having a display with a display surface, the device comprising:
a sensing module to calculate curvatures of at least one finger present in a 3-dimensional (3D) sensing area occupying a predetermined volume above the display surface, to detect a portion of the at least one finger, the portion having a greater curvature than a reference curvature, to extract at least one intersection between the portion and vertices of a polygon connecting outermost vertices of a hand of the user, and to determine at least one finger tip of the user based on the at least one intersection; and
a control module to control an object displayed on the display based on the detected portion having the greater curvature than the reference curvature.

7. The device of claim 6 , wherein the sensing module comprises a sensing panel having upper electrodes and lower electrodes that detect motion of at the least one finger present in the 3D sensing area through variation of a current intensity of an electric field generated between the upper electrodes and the lower electrodes.

8. The device of claim 6 , wherein the control module controls the displayed object to rotate when the at least one of finger in the 3D sensing area is detected as rotating.

9. The device of claim 6 , wherein the display further displays a pointer pointing to the object and wherein the control module selects an object pointed to by the pointer when the at least one finger is detected as moving toward the sensing panel by a longer distance than a predetermined distance and at a higher speed than a predetermined speed.

10. The device of claim 6 , wherein the reference curvature is less than a curvature of each finger tip of a user.

Assignees

• Han Seung Ju
• Park Joon Ah
• Lee Hyung Kew
• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Han Seung Ju
• Park Joon Ah
• Lee Hyung Kew

Classifications

• G06F3/044

  by capacitive means · CPC title

• G06F3/017 Primary

  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

• G06F2203/04101

  2.5D-digitiser, i.e. digitiser detecting the X/Y position of the input means, finger or stylus, also when it does not touch, but is proximate to the digitiser's interaction surface and also measures the distance of the input means within a short range in the Z direction, possibly with a separate measurement setup · CPC title

• G06F3/0488 Primary

  using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures · CPC title

• G06F2203/04104

  Multi-touch detection in digitiser, i.e. details about the simultaneous detection of a plurality of touching locations, e.g. multiple fingers or pen and finger · CPC title