Detecting, representing, and interpreting three-space input: gestural continuum subsuming freespace, proximal, and surface-contact modes

A system comprising:

• a data funnel coupled to a processor, wherein the data funnel collates input data from a plurality of sources, wherein the input data is semantically uncorrelated three-space data of an instantaneous spatial and geometric state of an object in a frame of reference of the object, wherein the plurality of sources comprise disparate sources, wherein the data funnel conforms the input data into a stream of spatiotemporal data, wherein the spatiotemporal data of the stream is uniformly represented;
• a gesture engine coupled to the data funnel, wherein the gesture engine generates gestural events from the spatiotemporal data using a plurality of gesture descriptions, wherein the gesture engine represents the gestural events in a protoevent comprising a data format that is application-neutral and fully articulated;
• and
• a distributor coupled to the gesture engine, wherein the distributor provides access to the gestural events by at least one event consumer via corresponding protoevents in a spatial-semantic frame of reference of the at least one event consumer.