Method using a predicted finger location above a touchpad for controlling a computerized system

A method for controlling an input from a user to a computerized system comprising a touchpad, at least one processor, and at least one display screen, the method comprising:

• using said at least one processor to display a graphical representation of a plurality of different control regions at different location coordinates on said display screen, said control regions responsive to touch input from said touchpad;
• obtaining data from the touchpad, the data being associated with the location and movement of a plurality of fingers and/or a hand of the user at an arbitrary location and angle with respect to the touchpad, and not associated with an image of the plurality of fingers from an image sensor, when the user operates the computerized system using the touchpad;
• communicating the data from the touchpad to the computerized system, and using said at least one processor to map said data from the touchpad to different location coordinates on said display screen, said display screen being in a different location from the location of said touchpad;
• using said at least one processor to analyze the data in accordance with a software model of a human hand and assigning said data to at least a specific first finger and a second finger on said model;
• wherein analyzing the data and assigning the data includes determining if the data may be assigned to one or more finger or hand portions on said model of the human hand according to a mathematical rotation operation upon at least a portion of the data;
• storing the data over a plurality of time intervals to form a history of recent finger positions;
• and determining an approximate fingertip location coordinates and fingertip identity of a fingertip that is not touching the touchpad at a present time interval according to the history and data from the touchpad obtained at the present time interval;
• using said at least one processor to predict, even when a the specific first finger is not in contact with said touchpad, the location coordinates of the specific first finger in accordance with the analyzed data and touchpad contact location coordinates of at least a second finger of the plurality of fingers different than the specific first finger, wherein at least the second finger and/or the hand is touching the touchpad;
• and
• determining, using said software model of a human hand, which of said plurality of fingers is the specific first finger, and that the specific first finger is positioned above but not touching a first control region that has location coordinates that are distinct from other control regions of the screen and associated mapped touchpad coordinates, thus distinguishing that said specific first finger is hovering specifically over the location coordinates of said first control region and not over location coordinates of other control regions.