Intuitive control of portable data displays

Abstract

A virtual computer monitor is described which enables instantaneous and intuitive visual access to large amounts of visual data by providing the user with a large display projected virtually in front of the user. The user wears a head-mounted display or holds a portable display containing a head-tracker or other motion tracker, which together allow the user to position an instantaneous viewport provided by the display at any position within the large virtual display by turning to look in the desired direction. The instantaneous viewport further includes a mouse pointer, which may be positioned by turning the user's head or moving the portable display, and which may be further positioned using a mouse or analogous control device. A particular advantage of the virtual computer monitor is intuitive access to enlarged computer output for visually-impaired individuals.

Description

[0001]This application claims the benefit of provisional applicationpriority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 101,433, filed Sep. 22, 1998, and is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 264,799, filed on Mar. 9, 1999, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,084,556 on Jul. 4, 2000, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 235,096, filed Jan. 21, 1999, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,127,990 on Oct. 3, 2000, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08 / 563,525, filed Nov. 28, 1995, now abandoned. This application also is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 373,186, filed Aug. 12, 1999, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,359,603 on Mar. 19, 2002, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 235,096, filed Jan. 21, 1999, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,127,990 on Oct. 3, 2000, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. 08 / 563,525, filed Nov. 28, 1995, now abandoned.FIELD O...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0046]It is an additional advantage of the present invention that it provides hands-free instantaneous selection from between many concurrently active computer applications by changing one's line-of-sight from one application window's virtual location to another.

[0047]It is yet another advantage of the present invention that it provides and maintains a cursor at a user-selectable position within the user's field-of-view, in order to support use of the virtual computer display by users with arbitrary, non-central preferred retinal loci.

[0048]It is still another advantage of the present invention that it alerts the user to events occurring outside of the user's instantaneous field-of-view through the use of spatialized audio alerts perceived to originate from the direction of the event, thus causing the user to turn and look in the direction of the event.

[0049]It is yet a further advantage of the present invention that it provides effective operation at magnifications much greater than those possible using fixed monitors, by using a novel technique known as spatial compression.

[0050]It is still another advantage of the present invention that it provides improved scrolling of imagery across the user's field-of-view, through application of smoothing, thresholding, prediction, and drift compensation algorithms to improve response to raw data representing the user's instantaneous line of sight.

[0051]It is still a further advantage of the present invention that it provides a computer display for visually-impaired users that is convenient, lightweight, low-cost, minimally power hungry, and capable of portable operation without degraded performance.

Problems solved by technology

This can result in lags between commanding the computer to pan and seeing the new image.

Unfortunately, there are two basic shortcomings to the conventional approach, even with hardware acceleration.

The first problem is spatial orientation, in that it is difficult to determine where on the page one's view is directed at any given time.

This spatial orientation problem is exacerbated for high magnifications and for portable systems employing small display monitors.

At 15×, a 15″ monitor can only display about 1% of a standard 8.5″×11″ page, making most computer work essentially impossible for such users.

The second fundamental problem in the conventional approach is dynamic control, in that all of the various control schemes for navigating about the page are cumbersome, confusing, and slow.

This is because the navigation methods are unintuitive, relying on such logic as “use joystick to move cursor around screen, and when cursor reaches the edge of the screen, the next portion of document in that direction will be displayed.” Alternatively, some screen enlargers maintain the cursor at the center of the screen, and require the user to position a desired insertion point over the cursor by moving the entire virtual page with a mouse or joystick.

In all cases, dynamic control is not only unintuitive, but requires use of at least one hand, which negatively impacts productivity, and may make use by physically-impaired users difficult or impossible.

First, the LVES does not incorporate a head-tracker to provide a hands-free means for navigating within computer data.

Further, the LVES suffers from a jitter problem exactly analogous to that experienced by users of binoculars or telescopes.

In simple terms, any jitter in the user's line-of-sight is magnified by the same factor as the imagery, which causes the image provided to the user to appear unsteady.

However, no connection to a computer for viewing computer-generated imagery is disclosed or anticipated, and no incorporation of a head-tracking device is disclosed or anticipated.

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