METHODS AND DEVICES FOR IDENTIFYING USERS BASED ON TREMOR
Systems and methods according to the present invention address these needs and others by providing a handheld device, e.g., a 3D pointing device, which uses hand tremor as an input. One or more sensors within the handheld device detect a user's hand tremor and identify the user based on the detected tremor.
1 . A method for identifying a user of a handheld device comprising the steps of:
detecting a hand tremor associated with a user holding said handheld device; and
identifying said user based on said detected hand tremor.
2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of:
selectively turning on a system associated with said handheld device on based upon said step of identifying.
3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of:
restricting access to a system associated with said handheld device based upon an identity of said user.
4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein said system is a media system and said step of restricting access further comprises the step of:
selectively permitting said user to access a media item based upon said identifying step.
5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of:
determining an identity of said user by comparing a set of detected tremor features with a plurality of stored tremor classes.
6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein said detected tremor features and said plurality of stored tremor classes are associated with frequency domain data.
7 . The method of claim 5 , wherein said detected tremor features and said plurality of stored tremor classes are associated with time domain data.
8 . The method of claim 5 , wherein if a match does not occur between said detected tremor features and said plurality of stored tremor classes, then said detected tremor features are used to establish a new user identity.
9 . The method of claim 5 , wherein if a match does not occur between said tremor features and said plurality of stored tremor classes, then said user is assigned a default set of system access permissions.
10 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of:
retrieving preference settings associated with said user in response to said identifying step.
11 . A computer-readable medium, capable of storing program instructions which, when executed perform the steps of:
detecting a hand tremor associated with a user holding said handheld device; and
identifying said user based on said detected hand tremor.