Display control apparatus, display control method, and display control program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9830004-B2
Application number	US-201615095308-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 11, 2016
Priority date	Sep 4, 2009
Publication date	Nov 28, 2017
Grant date	Nov 28, 2017

Abstract

A display control apparatus includes a recognizing unit configured to recognize a position of an operator and a position of a hand or the like of the operator, a calculating unit configured to regard a position of the operator in a screen coordinate system set on a screen as an origin of an operator coordinate system and multiply a position of the hand or the like with respect to the origin of the operator coordinate system by a predetermined function, thereby calculating a position of display information corresponding to the hand or the like in the screen coordinate system, and a control unit configured to cause the display information to be displayed at the position in the screen coordinate system calculated by the calculating unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A display control apparatus comprising:
circuitry configured to:
control a position of at least one pointing image in a virtual depth direction of a virtual three-dimensional space in accordance with movement of a control device operated in a real depth direction of a real three-dimensional space, wherein at least one of item images arranged in the virtual three-dimensional space is operable with the at least one pointing image;
control at least one of positions of the item images in the virtual three-dimensional space, at least some of the item images being arranged at different positions in the virtual depth direction; and
control, based on a movable range of the control device, display of the at least one pointing image or the item images such that a movable range within which the at least one pointing image is movable in the virtual depth direction contains a virtual depth range within which all of the item images are arranged, in which an end of the movable range of the control device in the real depth direction is scaled to correspond to an end of the virtual depth range in the virtual depth direction.

2. The display control apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to arrange the virtual depth range for the item images within the movable range of the at least one pointing image such that an operator is able to operate all of the item images without moving forward or backward in the real three-dimensional space.

3. The display control apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to arrange the at least some of the item images over a line parallel to a line of sight of an operator.

4. The display control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the circuitry is configured to
estimate a real operation range within which the control device of an operator reaches from a present position of the operator in the real three-dimensional space, and
set the movable range of the at least one pointing image to correspond to the real operation range.

5. The display control apparatus according to claim 4 ,
wherein the real operation range is estimated based on a size of a body of the operator.

6. The display control apparatus according to claim 5 ,
wherein the size of the body of the operator is based on an estimated age and recognition of a face of the operator.

7. The display control apparatus according to claim 6 ,
wherein the estimated age is estimated based on the recognition of the face of the operator.

8. The display control apparatus according to claim 4 ,
wherein the real operation range is determined based on gesture operation of the operator.

9. The display control apparatus according to claim 4 ,
wherein the real operation range is determined based on a positional relationship between the operator and the control device recognized from a camera image.

10. The display control apparatus according to claim 4 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to set the movable range of the at least one pointing image to correspond to an arm length of the operator in the real three-dimensional space such that the movable range of the at least one pointing image contains the virtual depth range of the item images.

11. The display control apparatus according to claim 10 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to set a scaling ratio of the item images with respect to the movable range of the at least one pointing image such that the movable range of the at least one pointing image contains an entirety of the virtual depth range of the item images.

12. The display control apparatus according to claim 11 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to set the scaling ratio of the item images such that the at least one pointing image moves to a deepest position of the virtual three-dimensional space in the virtual depth direction.

13. The display control apparatus according to claim 12 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to set the scaling ratio of the item images such that the deepest position of the virtual three dimensional space corresponds to a deepest position of the movable range of the at least one pointing image.

14. The display control apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to set a first movement quantity of the at least one pointing image smaller than a second movement quantity of the at least one pointing image, and
wherein
the first movement quantity is a movement quantity of the at least one pointing image moving in accordance with movement of the control device forward or backward from a first position,
the second movement quantity is a movement quantity of the at least one pointing image moving in accordance with movement of the control device forward or backward from a second position, and
the first position is closer to an operator of the control device than the second position is.

15. The display control apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to
detect a position of the control device with a light signal from the control device, and
control a display position of the at least one pointing image in accordance with the detected position of the control device.

16. The display control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the virtual depth direction is perpendicular to a screen configured to display the virtual three-dimensional space.

17. The display control apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to:
set a position of the operator in the real three-dimensional space as an origin in a screen coordinate system set to the virtual three-dimensional space, and
set the origin in the screen coordinate system as a center of the movable range of the at least one pointing image.

18. A display control method comprising:
controlling a position of at least one pointing image in a virtual depth direction of a virtual three-dimensional space in accordance with movement of a control device operated in a real depth direction of a real three-dimensional space, wherein at least one of item images arranged in the virtual three-dimensional space is operable with the at least one pointing image;
controlling at least one of positions of the item images in the virtual three-dimensional space, at least some of the item images being arranged at different positions in the virtual depth direction; and
controlling, based on a movable range of the control device, display of the at least one pointing image or the item images such that a movable range within which the at least one pointing image is movable in the virtual depth direction contains a virtual depth range within which all of the item images are arranged, in which an end of the movable range of the control device in the real depth direction is scaled to correspond to an end of the virtual depth range in the virtual depth direction.

19. A non-transitory computer readable recording medium configured to store a program that causes an information processing apparatus to execute:
controlling a position of at least one pointing image in a virtual depth direction of a virtual three-dimensional space in accordance with movement of a control device operated in a real depth direction of a real three-dimensional space, wherein at least one of item images arranged in the virtual three-dimensional space is operable with the at least one pointing image;
controlling at least one of positions of the item images in the virtual three-dimensional space, at least some of the item images being arranged at different p

Assignees

• Sony Corp

Inventors

• Shigeta Osamu
• Noda Takuro

Classifications

• G06F3/011

  Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality (blind teaching G09B21/00) · CPC title

• G06F3/038 Primary

  Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry · 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

• G06F3/005

  Input arrangements through a video camera · CPC title

• G06F3/0304 Primary

  Detection arrangements using opto-electronic means (constructional details of pointing devices not related to the detection arrangement using opto-electronic means G06F3/033; optical digitisers G06F3/042) · CPC title