Point-of-view object selection
AssigneeGoogle Inc.
InventorThad Starner
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Example methods and systems may be implemented by a wearable computer to utilize optical-flow analysis to recognize a predetermined user-action, such as selecting an object. An example method may involve a wearable computing device: (a) receiving video data from a video camera of a wearable computing device: (b) determining optical flow for the video data; (c) determining that an optical-flow differential exists at an area within the optical flow for the video data; and (d) responsive to determining that the optical-flow differential exists at the area: (i) identifying an object that is located at the area where the optical-flow differential exists; (ii) performing a search on the object; and (iii) causing a graphical display to display information that corresponds to results from the search.
Claims24
A method comprising:
- receiving video data;
- determining optical flow for the video data;
- determining that an optical-flow differential exists at an area within the optical flow for the video data wherein determining that the optical-flow differential exists comprises:
- determining that optical flow within the area is of substantially different magnitude than optical flow outside of the area;
- and
- determining that at least a portion of the optical flow for the video data has a curvature that is characteristic of a predetermined user-action associated with selection of the object;
- and
- responsive to determining that the optical-flow differential exists at the area within the optical flow:
- identifying an object that is located at the area where the optical-flow differential exists;
- performing a search on the object that is located at the area where the optical-flow differential exists;
- and
- causing a graphical display to display information that corresponds to results from the search.
A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions comprising:
- instructions for receiving video data;
- instructions for determining optical flow for the video data;
- instructions for determining when an optical-flow differential exists at an area in the optical flow for the video data by:
- determining that optical flow within the area is of substantially different magnitude than optical flow outside of the area;
- and
- determining that at least a portion of the optical flow for the video data has a curvature that is characteristic of a predetermined user-action associated with selection of the object;
- and
- instructions for, responsive to determining that the optical-flow differential exists:
- identifying an object in the video data that is located at the area of the optical-flow differential;
- causing a search to be performed on the object that is located at the area of the optical-flow differential;
- and
- causing a graphical display to display information that corresponds to results from the search.
A system comprising:
- an interface to a display of a computing device;
- an interface to a video camera configured to record video data;
- and
- an on-board computing system operable to:
- determine optical flow for video data;
- determine when an optical-flow differential exists at an area in the optical flow for the video data based on (a) a determination that optical flow within the area is of substantially different magnitude than optical flow outside of the area and (b) a determination that at least a portion of the optical flow for the video data has a curvature that is characteristic of a predetermined user-action associated with selection of the object;
- responsive to determining that the optical-flow differential exists:
- identify an object in the video data that is located at the area of the optical-flow differential;
- perform a search on the object that is located at the area of the optical-flow differential;
- and
- cause the display to display graphical information that corresponds to results from the search.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.