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:
Apr. 10, 2012
Filed:
Feb. 23, 2009
Jonathan R. Cohen, San Francisco, CA (US);
Debby Hindus, San Francisco, CA (US);
Bonnie M. Johnson, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Andrew J. Singer, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Lisa J. Stifelman, Cambridge, MA (US);
William L. Verplank, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Scott C. Wallters, Cupertino, CA (US);
M. Margaret Withgott, Los Altos Hills, CA (US);
Jonathan R. Cohen, San Francisco, CA (US);
Debby Hindus, San Francisco, CA (US);
Bonnie M. Johnson, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Andrew J. Singer, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Lisa J. Stifelman, Cambridge, MA (US);
William L. Verplank, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Scott C. Wallters, Cupertino, CA (US);
M. Margaret Withgott, Los Altos Hills, CA (US);
Vintell Applications NY, LLC, Dover, DE (US);
Abstract
A computerized interactor system uses physical, three-dimensional objects as metaphors for input of user intent to a computer system. When one or more interactors are engaged with a detection field, the detection field reads an identifier associated with the object and communicates the identifier to a computer system. The computer system determines the meaning of the interactor based upon its identifier and upon a semantic context in which the computer system is operating. The interactors can be used to control other systems, such as audio systems, or it can be used as intuitive inputs into a computer system for such purposes as marking events in a temporal flow. The interactors, as a minimum, communicate their identity, but may also be more sophisticated in that they can communicate additional processed or unprocessed data, i.e. they can include their own data processors. The detection field can be one-dimensional or multi-dimensional, and typically has different semantic meanings associated with different parts of the detection field.