Apparatus, system and method for interpreting and reproducing physical motion

[0001] The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/660,261, filed Mar. 10, 2005, entitled “System and Method for Interpreting and Reproducing Physical Motion,” which is incorporated herein by reference.

[0002] The present invention is directed to the field of analyzing motion and more specifically to an apparatus, system and method for interpreting and reproducing physical motion.

[0003] Motion sensing devices and systems, including utilization in virtual reality devices, are known in the art, see U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2003/0024311 to Perkins, U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2002/0123386 to Perlmutter, U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,206 to Horton, et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,898,421 to Quinn; U.S. Pat. No. 5,694,340 to Kim; and U.S. Pat. No. RE37,374 to Roston, et al., which are all incorporated herein by reference.

[0004] Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus, system and method that can facilitate the interpretation and reproduction of sensed physical motion.

[0005] An apparatus, system and method for turning physical motion into an interpretable language which when formed into sentences represents the original motion. This system may be referred to herein as a “Motion Description System.” Physical motion is defined as motion in one, two or three dimensions, with anywhere from 1 to 6 degrees of freedom. Language is defined as meaning applied to an abstraction.

[0008] It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed. It may be noted that, as used in the specification and the appended claims, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. References cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety, except to the extent that they conflict with teachings explicitly set forth in this specification.

[0009] Referring now to the FIGURE of the drawing, the FIGURE constitutes a part of this specification and illustrates exemplary embodiments of the invention. It is to be understood that in some instances various aspects of the invention may be shown schematically or may be exaggerated to facilitate an understanding of the invention.

[0010] The FIGURE is a schematic illustration of a system 1000 used to turn physical motion into an interpretable language, according to various embodiments of the present invention. When formed into sentences the interpretable language may be used to abstractly replace the original physical motion. Embodiments of system components are described below.

Motion Sensing

[0011] In one embodiment, a motion sensing unit 10 is described as follows. Physical motion is captured using a motion capture device 12 such as, but not limited to, one or more of the following: accelerometer, gyroscope, RF tag, magnetic sensor, compass, global positioning unit, fiber-optic interferometers, piezo sensors, strain gauges, cameras, etc. Data is received from the motion capture device 12 and transferred to the motion interpretation unit 100, for example via a data reception and transmission device 14. As shown by the multiple embodiments illustrated, the motion data may then be transferred directly to the motion interpretation unit 100 or may be transferred via an external application 20, such as a program that utilizes the raw motion data as well as the commands received from the motion interpretation unit 100 (described below). Data transfer may be accomplished by direct electrical connection, by wireless data transmission or by other data transfer mechanisms as known to those of ordinary skill in the art.

Motion Interpretation

[0012] In one embodiment, a motion interpretation unit 100 contains the following components:

Data Processor 110

[0013] Raw motions are periodically sampled from the one or more physical motion capture devices 12 of the motion sensing unit 10.

[0014] Raw non-motion data is periodically sampled and input from a non-motion data device 112 (i.e. keyboard, voice, mouse, etc.).

[0015] A single sample of Complex Motion data is preliminarily processed. The Complex Motion data is defined as the combined sample of all raw physical motion captured by the motion capture device(s) and all non-motion data as defined above.

[0016] All the Single Degree Motion (SDM) components are identified from the Complex Motion data. The Single Degree Motion components are defined as the expression of a multi-dimensional motion in terms of single dimension vectors in a given reference frame.

Token Identifier (TI) or Tokenizer 120

[0017] The tokenizer 120 receives as input a stream of Single Degree Motion component samples.

[0018] Every time subsequent subset of samples is marked as a possible token.

[0019] A token dictionary 122 exists. The token dictionary is defined as a list of simple meanings given to SDM components. The token dictionary is editable.

[0020] Sample groups marked for tokenization are compared against the token dictionary 122 and are either discarded (as bad syntax) or given token status.

Parser 130

[0021] The parser 130 receives as input a stream of tokenized 3D Complex Motion/Non-Motion data.

[0022] Using a language specification 132, the tokens are grouped into sentences. In one embodiment, the system contains a default language specification.

Command Generator 140

[0023] The command generator 140 receives as input a sentence and outputs commands based on sentences and non-motion related inputs.

[0024] At any time a user may create or teach the system new language (i.e. tokens, sentences) by associating a raw motion with an output command. Output commands can include, but are not limited to, application context specific actions, keystrokes, mouse movements. In one embodiment, the output command is sent to the external application 20.

[0025] Languages may be context driven and created for any specific application.

[0026] In the one embodiment, for example golf, motions of the club may be interpreted too mean “good swing,” “fade to the right,” etc.

[0027] The Motion Description System is suitable for a number of applications:

• [0028] Sports—Allowing a user to describe Complex Motion in terms of user-understandable language. For example: Golf. The system provides for the ability to allow a user to identify only an “in-to-out, open-faced, 43 mph” swing. Other sports could include, but are not limited to, Baseball, Football, Soccer, Hockey, Tennis, Racquetball, Squash, etc.
• [0029] Sign Language to Spoken Language Translation—The Motion Description System can translate the signing motions into written or spoken language.
• [0030] Military Signing—The Motion Description System can allow the military to translate silent communications via gestures, securely, to written or spoken language.
• [0031] Musical Applications—The Motion Description System can allow time syncing a Conductor's baton to various metronomic devices via MIDI or other synchronization protocols.
• [0032] 3D Virtual Reality Control and Video Game Interaction—The Motion Description System allows for game developers to use human-understandable motion terms (e.g. “Run,”“Jog,” “Jab”) during development. These terms can then be interpreted by the Motion Description System to generate and map appropriate motions to screen/world activity.
• [0033] Computer Control—The Motion Description System can allow for computer users to control their environment through the use of simple gestures.

[0034] Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from a consideration of the specification or practice of the invention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with the true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims.