Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display peripheral interface input device – Cursor mark position control device
Reexamination Certificate
2001-11-15
2004-03-09
Wu, Xiao (Department: 2674)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display peripheral interface input device
Cursor mark position control device
C345S169000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06704000
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of remote operation of computer systems. More specifically, the invention relates to a method for remotely operating a computer system by means of a wireless optical device.
2. Description of Related Art
The use of computer systems greatly enhances and simplifies public presentations of information. Text can be generated and manipulated within computer files to yield an attractive presentation without the potential waste generated by mistakes in slides or overhead transparencies. Conventionally, a desktop or laptop computer is connected with a projector, such as an LCD projector, which projects the output display of the computer onto a larger screen or surface for viewing by an audience. The computer can be instructed to switch among screens of information during the course of the presentation via various devices that instruct the computer to switch among screens.
As the amount of information that a single speaker may present has increased, the need has arisen for devices that can be used to execute a range of commands within the computer that goes beyond switching screens. Prior devices that allowed a user to switch between screens did not allow for more robust operation of a computer system, such as the remote manipulation of the internal cursor or mouse pointer projected from the computer onto the projection surface. Additionally, commands requiring the use of keystrokes or mouse commands, such as clicking combinations used to open files and manipulate command menus, were outside the functions of remote wireless devices. Thus, the speaker was forced either to use wired devices, which limited movement throughout the speaking area; or to return to the computer to execute commands via a keyboard or mouse; or to instruct a second person to operate the computer system. All of these options limited the speaker's ability to deliver an uninterrupted presentation while interacting well with an audience.
Several devices have attempted to overcome these problems, by using conventional remote control technology. Early technologies allowed a user to depress buttons on a remote control device, and commands were issued by the device to a receiver, via RF or IR signal transmission. The receiver processed and relayed the signals to the computer, and corresponding commands were executed. These systems were limited by the speaker's direction and distance relative to the signal receiver, as well as the common interference problems associated with RF and IR technologies. Additionally, the speaker could only direct an audience's attention to a specific point on the screen with great difficulty. A track ball, touch pad, or joystick on the remote control device had to be manipulated by the user in order to reposition a pointer or cursor. This was a slow and cumbersome task that often interrupted the flow of the user's presentation. Though conventional remote technologies were later combined with an optical pointer to designate objects on a projected image, there was no guiding of a cursor about the projected image. Hence, there was no correspondence between the position of the optical point and the commands issued by the remote device.
Recent systems have attempted to address these concerns. U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,459 to Marshall, et al., describes an early system, in which a wand with a light on its tip is used to guide a cursor around a projected image and to issue commands by blinking the light. A computer output display is projected onto a screen by an overhead projector. The image is captured by a charge coupled device (CCD), which feeds the signals it receives from the projected image and wand to a signal processor. The signal processor converts the signals into data that relate to coordinates of the projected image. This data is used to position a cursor about the computer's output display, and hence about the projected image. Blinks in the light source on the wand are used to execute mouse commands, by detecting brief interruptions in the presence of the light source in the signals captured by the CCD. The patented invention is useful, but it still limits the range of movement available to a speaker by the length of the wand. The patent does not teach the additional functionalities necessary for a conventional handheld laser pointer to accomplish the same functions. Additionally, such systems have made a limited market impact, due to the great cost of charge coupled devices, their associated capture cards, and external signal processors. The great cost of this extra hardware is rarely justified for simple remote operation systems, due to the limited utility of the hardware for other purposes that the common speaker is likely to require.
Early efforts at remote operation systems were displaced by the use of less expensive cameras that did not require communication with external signal processors. U.S. Pat. No. 6,275,214 to Hansen describes such a system, using a conventional video camera to capture the output image generated by a computer and projected by an LCD projector. A speaker uses an optical pointer to emit a point onto the projected image. This point is received by the video camera, and its position is translated into a new position for a cursor on the projected image. However, executing commands still requires that the optical point either blink or alter its properties. The patent discloses the alteration of the shape of the optical point, the color of the beam, the number of beams present, or other properties that are used in combination with position to constitute a command at the position of the optical point.
The Hansen system introduces remote operation via an optical pointer that can be used at a significant distance from the projected image. Nonetheless, challenges still exist. One category of challenges addresses the optical pointer itself. First, a conventional optical pointer cannot be used, because properties of the optical point or beam must change to execute mouse commands. This necessitates additional cost for specialized optical pointers. Additionally, users suffer from the same difficulties as systems in which blinking of the optical point is used to generate commands to the computer. Blinking (or changing beam properties) is performed by depressing and releasing a button. This causes the tip of the optical pointer—hence, the point it projects on the projected image—to move from the position at which a command must be executed. Thus, a learning curve is necessary to effectively use the systems, and the curve varies among users. Though some tolerance can be built into a system to account for negligible movements in the optical point, many users find commands difficult to execute.
Additionally, previous systems have been limited by the calibration processes performed before operation. Simple calibration processes have been used in the past, in order to minimize set-up time. They produce simple means for translating between points on a captured image and points on an output display or projected image, minimizing the delay between movement of an optical point and movement of the computer's mouse pointer or cursor on the projected image. However, these processes are limited in the accuracy of their translations. Simple quadratic methods, such as those used by Hansen and Marshall only preserve parallel lines between the projected and captured images. Thus, the use of distracting fiducials on the projected image is required to account for even slight amounts of skew or differences in scale between the projected image and captured image.
There are many other common imperfections that the translation and calibration processes of the prior art do not account for. First, images are often non-rectangular, whether at projection or capturing. Images captured by a digital camera are often quadrilateral, but camera placement relative to a projected image often prevents them from being perfectly rectangular. Thus, there may be few or no parallel li
Blue Iris Technologies
Burb Matthew
Wu Xiao
Wynne Moster
LandOfFree
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