System, control module, and method for remotely controlling a computer with optical tracking of an optical pointer

A system for remotely controlling a computer, the computer outputting an image frame that contains at least one icon, said system comprising:

• a projector adapted to be connected electrically to the computer for projecting the image frame from the computer onto a remotely located screen;
• a hand-held optical pointer for projecting an optical cursor generated thereby onto the screen;
• an image capturing device for capturing a series of images of the projected image frame and the optical cursor;
• and
• a control module adapted to be connected electrically to the computer for receiving and storing the image frame therefrom, and connected electrically to said image capturing device for receiving and storing the images captured by said image capturing device;
• wherein said control module detects a position of the optical cursor in each of the captured images, obtains a close-loop optical track of the optical cursor based on the detected positions of the optical cursor, selects an image portion of one of the captured images based on the close-loop optical track of the optical cursor to serve as a standard sample image, compares the standard sample image with the image frame so as to determine an image block from the image frame most similar to the standard sample image and containing at most one icon, and outputs a control signal based on the image block to the computer such that the computer executes a command associated with the icon contained in the image block in response to the control signal from said control module.

A control module adapted for use with

• a computer outputting an image frame that contains at least one icon,
• a projector connected electrically to the computer for projecting the image frame onto a remotely located screen,
• a hand-held optical pointer for projecting an optical cursor generated thereby onto the screen, and
• an image capturing device for capturing a series of images of the projected image frame and the optical cursor,
• said control module being adapted to be connected electrically to the computer and the image capturing device, and comprising:
• a memory unit for storing the image frame from the computer and the images captured by the image capturing device;
• a sample-selecting unit coupled to said memory unit, detecting a position of the optical cursor in each of the captured images, obtaining a close-loop optical track of the optical cursor based on the positions of the optical cursor detected thereby, and selecting an image portion of one of the captured images stored in said memory unit based on the close-loop optical track of the optical cursor to serve as a standard sample image;
• a comparing unit coupled to said memory unit and said sample-selecting unit for comparing the standard sample image selected by said sample-selecting unit with the image frame stored in said memory unit so as to determine an image block from the image frame most similar to the standard sample image and containing at most one icon;
• and
• a control signal generating unit coupled to said comparing unit, adapted to be connected electrically to the computer, and outputting a control signal to the computer based on the image block determined by said comparing unit such that the computer executes a command associated with the icon contained in the image block in response to the control signal from said control signal generating unit.

A method for generating a control signal to remotely control a computer, the computer outputting an image frame that contains at least one icon and being used in conjunction with

• a projector for projecting the image frame from the computer onto a remotely located screen,
• a hand-held optical pointer for projecting an optical cursor generated thereby onto the screen, and
• an image capturing device for capturing a series of images of the projected image frame and the optical cursor,
• said method comprising the steps of:
• i) detecting a position of the optical cursor in each of the captured images;
• ii) obtaining a close-loop optical track of the optical cursor based on the detected positions of the optical cursor;
• iii) selecting an image portion of one of the captured images based on the close-loop optical track of the optical cursor to serve as a standard sample image;
• iv) comparing the standard sample image with the image frame so as to determine an image block from the image frame most similar to the standard sample image and containing at most one icon;
• and
• v) generating the control signal based on the image block to control the computer to execute a command associated with the icon contained in the image block.