METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR TOUCHLESS USER INTERFACE CONTROL
A sensing unit ( 110 ) and method ( 200 ) for touchless interfacing using finger signing is provided. The sensing unit can include a sensor element ( 113 ) for tracking a touchless finger sign, a pattern recognition engine ( 114 ) for tracing a pattern in the touchless finger sign, and a processor ( 115 ) for performing an action on an object in accordance with the at least one pattern. The object may be a cursor, an object handled by the cursor, or an application object. A finger sign can be an touchless finger movement for controlling an object, or a touchless writing of an alpha-numeric character that is entered in an object. The processor can visually or audibly present the pattern in response to a recognition of the finger sign.
1 . A sign engine for controlling an object via touchless sensing comprising
a sensing unit that detects at least one touchless finger sign;
a pattern recognition engine operatively connected to the sensing unit that identifies at least one pattern in the touchless finger sign; and
a processor operatively coupled to the pattern recognition engine that performs an action on the object in accordance with the at least one pattern.
2 . The sign engine of claim 1 , wherein the processor visually presents the at least one pattern.
3 . The sign engine of claim 1 , wherein the processor audibly presents the at least one pattern.
4 . The sign engine of claim 1 , further comprising:
a voice recognition unit that captures a spoken utterance from a user and determines whether the at least one finger sign was correctly recognized in response to the spoken utterance.
5 . The sign engine of claim 1 , wherein the pattern recognition engine recognizes and authenticates a finger signature for a secure application.
6 . The sign engine of claim 1 , wherein the pattern recognition engine automatically completes a finger sign that is partially recognized.
7 . A method for touchless interfacing using signing, the method comprising
detecting a touchless finger movement in a touchless sensing space;
identifying a finger sign from the touchless finger movement; and
performing a control action on an object in accordance with the finger sign.
8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising recognizing an alpha-numeric character, and providing the alpha-numeric character to an application.
9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the step of performing a control action includes issuing a single click, a double click, a scroll, a left click, a middle click, a right click, or a hold of the object.
10 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the step of performing a control action includes adjusting a value of the object, selecting the object, moving the object, or releasing the object.
11 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the step of performing a control action includes performing a hot-key combination in response to recognizing a finger sign.
12 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the step of performing a control action includes expanding a view in response to a clockwise finger motion, and collapsing the view in response to a counter-clockwise finger motion.
13 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the object is an audio control, a video control, a voice control, a media control, or a text control.
14 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the step of performing a control action performs a cut-and-paste operation, a text highlight operation, a drag-and-drop operation, a shortcut operation, a file open operation, a file close operation, a toolbar operation, a palette selection, a paint operation, a custom key shortcut operation, or a menu selection operation corresponding to a menu entry item in a windows application program.
15 . The method of claim 7 , wherein a finger sign is a letter, a number, a circular pattern, a jitter motion, a sweep motion, a jitter motion, a forward projecting motion, a retracting motion, an accelerated sweep, or a constant velocity motion.
16 . A method for touchless text entry via finger signing, comprising:
tracking a touchless finger movement in a touchless sensing space;
tracing out a pattern in accordance with the tracking; and
recognizing an alpha-numeric character from the pattern, wherein the pattern is a letter, a number, a symbol, or a word.
17 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising:
presenting the alphanumeric character to a text messaging application or a phone dialing application.
18 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising recognizing a finger signature and authenticating the finger signature.
19 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the finger signature is a password that identifies a user.
20 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising:
recognizing when a user is having difficulty finger signing; and
presenting visual notations of finger signs for conveying finger sign examples to the user.