IP Library Granted Patent US 11,344,374
Granted Patent B2
US 11,344,374 · App. 16/517,387 · Granted May 31, 2022

Detection of unintentional movement of a user interface device

Inventors: Kamilla Tekiela (San Francisco, CA); Joëlle K. Barral (Mountain View, CA); Caitlin Donhowe (Mountain View, CA)
Assignee: Verily Life Sciences LLC
A61B34/25A61B34/30A61B34/76B25J9/161B25J9/163B25J9/1607G06N3/08G06N20/00
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,344,374
App. No.
16/517,387
Granted
May 31, 2022
Kind
B2
Abstract

A user interface system includes one or more controllers configured to move freely in three dimensions, where the one or more controllers include an inertial sensor coupled to measure movement of the one or more controllers, and output movement data including information about the movement. The user interface system further includes a processor coupled to receive the movement data, where the processor includes logic that, when executed by the processor, causes the user interface system to perform operations, including receiving the movement data with the processor, identifying an unintentional movement in the movement data with the processor, and outputting unintentional movement data that identifies the unintentional movement.

Claims (32)

1. A user interface system, comprising:

one or more controllers configured to move freely in three dimensions, wherein the one or more controllers include an inertial sensor coupled to measure controller movement of the one or more controllers, and output movement data including information about the controller movement; and

a processor coupled to receive the movement data from the one or more controllers, wherein the processor includes logic that, when executed by the processor, causes the user interface system to perform operations, including:

receiving the movement data with the processor;

identifying an unintentional movement in the movement data with the processor;

outputting unintentional movement data that identifies the unintentional movement; and

sending the unintentional movement data to a robotic surgery system to enable the robotic surgery system to restrict robotic movement in response to receiving the unintentional movement data.

2. The user interface system of claim 1 , further comprising:

sending the unintentional movement data along with the movement data to the robotic surgery system.

3. The user interface system of claim 1 , wherein the unintentional movement includes at least one of a dropped controller, a jerked controller, a bobbled controller, or a shaken controller.

4. The user interface system of claim 1 , further comprising:

a tactile interface disposed in the one or more controllers and coupled to sense tactile input from a user of the user interface system and output tactile data including information about the tactile input, and wherein identifying the unintentional movement includes analyzing the tactile data, output from the tactile interface, with the processor.

5. The user interface system of claim 4 , wherein the tactile interface includes at least one of a button, a pressure sensor, or a capacitive sensor.

6. The user interface system of claim 1 , further comprising a machine learning algorithm disposed in logic, and wherein identifying an unintentional movement includes using the machine learning algorithm.

7. The user interface system of claim 6 , wherein the machine learning algorithm includes at least one of recurrent neural network (RNN) or a long-short term memory (LSTM) network.

8. The user interface of claim 6 , wherein the machine learning algorithm is used in conjunction with one or more heuristics to identify the unintentional movement.

9. The user interface of claim 1 , wherein the processor further includes logic that, when executed by the processor, causes the user interface system to perform operations, including:

outputting, in the unintentional movement data, a confidence interval that the unintentional movement occurred.

10. The user interface system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more controllers are physically unsupported when the user is operating the user interface system, and wherein the one or more controllers are shaped to be hand held or hand worn.

11. The user interface system of claim 10 , wherein the one or more controllers have six degrees of freedom.

12. A method of interacting with a robot, comprising:

receiving movement data, with a processor, from one or more controllers configured to move freely in three dimensions, wherein the one or more controllers include an inertial sensor disposed within the one or more controllers to measure controller movements of the one or more controllers, and output movement data including information about the controller movements;

identifying an unintentional movement in the movement data with the processor, wherein the unintentional movement includes at least one of a jerked controller, a bobbled controller, or a shaken controller;

outputting unintentional movement data, wherein the unintentional movement data identifies one of the controller movements described by the movement data as being associated with the unintentional movement; and

sending the unintentional movement data to a surgical robot to enable the surgical robot to restrict robotic movement in response to the unintentional movement data.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

receiving, with the processor, tactile data from the controller, wherein the tactile data is indicative of a user touching the controller, and wherein the unintentional movement is identified at least in part using the tactile data.

14. The method of claim 12 , and wherein the tactile data is output from at least one of a button, a pressure sensor, or a capacitive sensor.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the processor includes a machine learning algorithm disposed in logic, wherein the machine learning algorithm is used to identify the unintentional movement from the movement data and the tactile data.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the machine learning algorithm includes at least one of recurrent neural network (RNN) or a long-short term memory (LSTM) network.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the machine learning algorithm is used in conjunction with one or more heuristics in the logic to identify the unintentional movement.

18. The method of claim 12 , wherein the movement data includes information about six degrees of freedom of the one or more controllers.

Assignments (2)
CHANGE OF NAME Recorded Apr 1, 2026
From: VERILY LIFE SCIENCES LLC
To: VERILY HEALTH INC.
Reel/Frame 075367/0775 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jul 19, 2019
From: TEKIELA, KAMILLA; BARRAL, JOËLLE K.; DONHOWE, CAITLIN
To: VERILY LIFE SCIENCES LLC
Reel/Frame 049808/0378 →
Cited By (9)
US 12,290,319 US 12,478,398 US 12,575,825 US 12,616,542 US 12,629,838 US 12,690,883 US 12,690,931 US 12,703,098 US 12,714,523