The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 18, 2002
Filed:
Mar. 31, 1997
Mark Leavy, Beaverton, OR (US);
Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and an apparatus for navigating and manipulating a virtual object in a virtual space using a digital camera as an input device are described. The method comprises the following steps. A plurality of video frames are received and analyzed by a video data analyzer to determine whether a predetermined set of data is present. The predetermined set of data includes several variables. First, whether a person is present in the video frame. Second, if a person is present, then whether the person's head is visible in the video frame. If the person's head is visible, then the position of the person's head in 3-D space is determined and recorded. Finally, the orientation of the person's head in 3-D space is also determined. The third variable is to determine whether a hand or hands are visible. If a hand is visible, the position of the hand in 3-D space is determined and recorded. The orientation of the hand in 3-D space is then determined and recorded. Finally, the state of the hand, whether it is open or closed, is determined and recorded. Information related to these three variables provides most of the information needed by a user to navigate through the virtual space and/or to manipulate a virtual object in the virtual space. The recognition of these three variables is obtained using well-known pattern recognition algorithms.