Systems and methods of free-space gestural interaction
During control of a user interface via free-space motions of a hand or other suitable control object, switching between control modes can be facilitated by tracking the control object's movements relative to, and its contact with a “virtual touch plane or surface” (i.e., a plane, portion of a plane, and/or surface computationally defined in space, or corresponding to any physical surface).
1. A method of disambiguating among input commands generated by free-space gestures, the method including:
detecting a compound free-space gesture in a three-dimensional (3D) sensory space, wherein the compound free-space gesture includes a sequence of gesture primitives;
setting a context for gesture interpretation responsive to a virtual interaction between a first gesture primitive of the compound free-space gesture and a virtual plane defined in the 3D sensory space that is within a 3D field of view, wherein an orientation and location of the virtual plane is dependent upon a current location and a tracked orientation of a pointing direction of a single point of the first gesture primitive extending along a length of the single point of the first gesture primitive without being dependent upon an orientation of a physical screen for displaying a proximate interface control;
responsive to a position of the virtual interaction with the virtual plane, tentatively selecting the proximate interface control displayed on the physical screen and visually indicating, on the physical screen, the tentative selection of the proximate interface control, the tentative selection of the proximate interface control representing a selection of the proximate interface control without activating a function corresponding to the proximate interface control;
detecting a second gesture primitive of the compound free-space gesture (i) anywhere in the 3D field of view, (ii) without maintaining a virtual contact between the first gesture primitive of the compound free-space gesture and the virtual plane and (iii) while the proximate interface control remains tentatively selected; and
initiating the function corresponding to the proximate interface control based on the second gesture primitive.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein gestures are made by a control object that includes a human hand, further including performing the first gesture primitive using a first finger of a control object and performing the second gesture primitive using a second finger of the control object.
3. The method of claim 1 , further including producing affine mapping between the first gesture primitive and the second gesture primitive and resulting actuation of the proximate interface control by applying a scaling function that automatically proportions responsiveness of the proximate interface control to the first gesture primitive and the second gesture primitive.
4. A method of interpreting free-space gestures in an augmented reality environment, the method including:
detecting a compound free-space gesture in an augmented reality (AR) environment, wherein the compound free-space gesture includes a sequence of gesture primitives;
instantiating a free-floating interaction modality in a real world physical space in response to a first virtual interaction between a first gesture primitive of the compound free-space gesture and a virtual plane in a three-dimensional (3D) sensory space that is within a 3D field of view, wherein an orientation and location of the virtual plane is dependent upon a current location and a tracked orientation of a pointing direction of a single point of the first gesture primitive extending along a length of the single point of the first gesture primitive without being dependent upon an orientation of a physical screen for displaying a proximate modality control;
setting a context for free-space gestural interaction with the free-floating interaction modality responsive to a second virtual interaction between a second gesture primitive of the compound free-space gesture and the virtual plane;
responsive to a position of the second virtual interaction with the virtual plane, tentatively selecting the proximate modality control displayed on the physical screen and visually indicating, on the physical screen, the tentative selection of the proximate modality control, the tentative selection of the proximate modality control representing a selection of the proximate modality control without activating a function corresponding to the proximate modality control;
detecting a third gesture primitive of the compound free-space gesture (i) anywhere in the 3D field of view, (ii) without maintaining a virtual contact between the first gesture primitive of the compound free-space gesture and the virtual plane and (iii) while the proximate modality control remains tentatively selected; and
initiating the function corresponding to the proximate modality control the third gesture primitive.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the first virtual interaction is a sweeping intersection of the virtual plane by the first gesture primitive.
6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the second virtual interaction is a normal intersection of the virtual plane by the first gesture primitive.
7. The method of claim 4 , wherein the third gesture primitive represents a confirmatory gesture.
8. A method of preventing false selections during free-space gestural interactions in a three-dimensional (3D) sensory space, the method including:
setting a context for gesture interpretation by detecting a virtual contact between a first control object and a virtual plane computationally defined as substantially perpendicular to an orientation of a pointing direction of the first control object extending along a length of the first control object in the 3D sensory space, wherein an orientation and location of the virtual plane is dependent upon a location and a tracked orientation of the pointing direction of the first control object extending along the length of the first control object without being dependent upon an orientation of a physical screen for displaying a proximate interface control;
responsive to a position of the virtual contact with the virtual plane, tentatively selecting the proximate interface control displayed on the physical screen and visually indicating, on the physical screen, the tentative selection of the proximate interface control, the tentative selection of the proximate interface control representing a selection of the proximate interface control without activating a function corresponding to the proximate interface control;
detecting a free-space confirmatory gesture of a second control object (i) anywhere in a 3D field of view, (ii) without maintaining the virtual contact between the first control object and the virtual plane and (iii) while the proximate interface control remains tentatively selected; and
initiating the function corresponding to the proximate interface control based on the free-space confirmatory gesture.