US 8,553,001 B2 · Methods and apparatus for determining local coordinate frames for a human hand

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for providing a local coordinate frame are described. A user may place the tips of all five digits on a multitouch user interface with a natural gesture to provide five touch points. A local coordinate frame may be constructed from the touch points. A local coordinate frame may be computed relative to the entire hand and/or relative to each individual digit. The technique may be agnostic in regard to the orientation of the device and to which hand is used. The user may move or rotate their hand, and the local coordinate frame is adjusted to the new positioning relative to the device. The technique may also infer a relative position of the palm from the digit input points, allowing the display of user interface elements where the elements are visible rather than occluded by the hand.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A method, comprising:

receiving, on a multitouch-enabled device, multitouch gesture input indicating contact of a plurality of digits of a human hand with a multitouch-sensitive screen of the device, the input indicating a plurality of touch points each corresponding to different ones of said plurality of digits on the screen;
calculating straight line distances from each of said plurality of touch points to every other of said plurality of touch points;
for each touch point, determining a mean of the straight line distances to the other touch points;
assigning the touch point with a largest mean straight line distance to the other touch points as a thumb touch point;
and
assigning each of the other plurality of touch points to particular digits based on the thumb touch point and straight line distances between the touch points.

3 more elements

A multitouch-enabled device, comprising:

at least one processor;
a multitouch-enabled screen;
and
a memory comprising program instructions, the program instructions executable by the at least one processor to:
receive multitouch gesture input indicating contact of a plurality of digits of a human hand with the multitouch-sensitive screen, the input indicating a plurality of touch points each corresponding to different ones of said plurality of digits on the screen;
calculate straight line distances from each of said plurality of touch points to every other of said plurality of touch points;
for each touch point, determine a mean of the straight line distances to the other touch points;
assign the touch point with a largest mean straight line distance to the other touch points as a thumb touch point;
and
assign each of the other plurality of touch points to particular digits based on the thumb touch point and straight line distances between the touch points.

7 more elements

A computer-readable storage device having program instructions stored thereon that, responsive to execution, perform a method comprising:

receiving multitouch gesture input indicating contact of a plurality of digits of a human hand with a multitouch-enabled device, the input indicating a plurality of touch points each corresponding to different ones of said plurality of digits on the screen;
calculating straight line distances from each of said plurality of touch points to every other of said plurality of touch points;
for each touch point, determine a mean of the straight line distances to the other touch points;
assigning the touch point with a largest mean distance to the other touch points as a thumb touch point;
and
assigning each of the other plurality of touch points to particular digits based on the thumb touch point and straight line distances between the touch points.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Methods and apparatus for determining local coordinate frames for a human hand

Life of this patent

Methods and apparatus for determining local coordinate frames for a human hand

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims21