초록 ▼

An item of electronic equipment is described that includes a machine and executable program code. The executable program code is stored on a non volatile memory. The executable program code is to be executed by the machine. The executable program code is to perform a method. The method is in relatio

An item of electronic equipment is described that includes a machine and executable program code. The executable program code is stored on a non volatile memory. The executable program code is to be executed by the machine. The executable program code is to perform a method. The method is in relation to a location on a display, or proximate to the display, that is pointed to by a handheld device. The method includes executing at least one of the following methods: (i) displaying a cursor on said display at said location, said location on said display; (ii) highlighting a menu option on said display at said location, said location on said display; (iii) triggering action taken by said electronic equipment in response to said handheld device's sending of a signal to indicate said action is desired.

대표청구항 ▼

The invention claimed is: 1. An item of electronic equipment comprising a machine and executable program code, said executable program code stored on a non volatile memory, said executable program code to be executed by said machine, said executable program code to perform a method, said method in

The invention claimed is: 1. An item of electronic equipment comprising a machine and executable program code, said executable program code stored on a non volatile memory, said executable program code to be executed by said machine, said executable program code to perform a method, said method in relation to a location on a display, or proximate to said display, that is pointed to by a handheld device, said method comprising: receiving information derived from coordinates processed from image data of one or more images appearing on a pixelated sensor in said handheld device, said images' coordinate data requiring less data than said image data, said images resulting from passing non-visible radiation of a predetermined frequency band emitted from one or more spatially fixed markers through an imaging element while substantially excluding other radiation, said handheld device having a processor for performing the following operations to process the image data: determining an intensity value for each pixel of the pixelated sensor, the intensity value attaining one of three or more quantized intensity values; identifying pixels which have an intensity value above a specified threshold; using only those pixels which have an intensity value above the specified threshold, generating coordinate data based on both the intensity value for each of the pixels and the location of each of the pixels on the pixelated sensor; said handheld device capable of processing the image data when said one or more spatially fixed markers are positioned in arbitrary locations within three dimensions defined by x, y and z coordinates relative to a display; determining said location on said display from said received information; and executing at least one of the following methods: (i) displaying a cursor on said display at said location; (ii) highlighting a menu option on said display at said location; and (iii) triggering an action to be taken by said electronic equipment in response to said received information and said handheld device's sending of a signal to indicate that said action is desired. 2. The item of electronic equipment of claim 1 wherein said item of electronic equipment comprises electronic circuitry selected from the group consisting of: a) television circuitry; b) satellite TV receiver circuitry; c) cable TV receiver circuitry; d) VCR circuitry; e) DVD player circuitry; f) computer circuitry; g) CD player circuitry; h) music receiver circuitry; i) IPTV television and/or receiver circuitry; j) gaming circuitry; k) home automation circuitry; l) receiver circuitry. 3. The item of electronic equipment of claim 1 wherein said machine is a processor. 4. The item of electronic equipment of claim 1 wherein said machine is a controller. 5. The item of electronic equipment of claim 1 wherein said method further comprises: translating locations of said one or more images into said location's coordinate values, wherein said received information includes data describing said locations of said images. 6. The item of electronic equipment of claim 5 wherein method (i) is performed and said method further comprises: displaying a second cursor at a second location on said display, said second cursor pointed to by a second handheld device and said second cursor visibly distinguishable from said cursor of said handheld device. 7. The item of electronic equipment of claim 1 wherein said signal identifies that a button on said handheld device has been pressed. 8. The item of electronic equipment of claim 1 wherein said method further comprises determining said location on or near said display from said received information. 9. The item of electronic equipment of claim 8 wherein said processing by said handheld device comprises: using data taken from said sensor from within a region of pixels that surround one of said images; said data containing intensity value information on each of said pixels; summing across said data in a first direction and in a second direction; fitting a first curve to a first profile that results from said summing in said first direction; fitting a second curve to a second profile that results from said summing in a second direction; identifying as a first coordinate of said image's coordinates a center of said first curve; and identifying as a second coordinate of said image's coordinates a center of said second curve; wherein said first direction is along a row of said sensor's pixels and said second direction is along a column of said sensor's pixels. 10. The item of electronic equipment of claim 1 wherein said method further comprises: determining a distance between said handheld device and said display; determining a viewing angle between said handheld device and said display; calculating a scaling factor and/or offset from said distance and/or viewing angle; scaling said images' coordinates relative to reference coordinates identified for said images with said scaling factor and/or offset, wherein said received information includes said images' coordinates. 11. The item of electronic equipment of claim 10 wherein said method further comprises determining said handheld device's orientation and/or changes to said orientation from said images' coordinates. 12. The item of electronic equipment of claim 11 wherein said scaling factor and/or offset is also calculated from said images' coordinates. 13. The item of electronic equipment of claim 10 wherein said determining a distance and/or viewing angle further comprises tracking changes in the separations between two or more locations of said images of said markers. 14. The item of electronic equipment of claim 13 wherein said action comprises a sequence of instructions executed by said machine. 15. The item of electronic equipment as in claim 1 wherein the action includes actively controlling movement of the cursor displayed on the display, the cursor comprising a graphical element usable for selecting one or more other graphical elements from within a graphical user interface generated by the electronic equipment on the display. 16. An item of electronic equipment comprising a machine and executable program code, said executable program code stored on a non volatile memory, said executable program code to be executed by said machine, said executable program code to perform a method, said method in relation to a location on a display or proximate to said display that is pointed to by a handheld device comprises: receiving information derived from coordinates processed from image data of one or more images appearing on a pixelated sensor in said handheld device, said images' coordinate data requiring less data than said image data, said images resulting from passing non-visible radiation of a predetermined frequency band emitted from one or more spatially fixed markers through an imaging element while substantially excluding other radiation, said handheld device having a processor for performing the following operations to process the image data: determining an intensity value for each pixel of the pixelated sensor, the intensity value attaining one of three or more quantized intensity values; identifying pixels which have an intensity value above a specified threshold; using only those pixels which have an intensity value above the specified threshold, generating coordinate data based on both the intensity value for each of the pixels and the location of each of the pixels on the pixelated sensor; said handheld device capable of processing the image data when said one or more spatially fixed markers are positioned in arbitrary locations within three dimensions defined by x, y and z coordinates relative to a display; determining said location on said display from said received information; and executing at least one of the following methods: (i) displaying a cursor on said display at said location; (ii) highlighting a menu option on said display at said location; and (iii) triggering an action to be taken by said electronic equipment in response to said determining and said handheld device's sending of a signal to indicate that said action is desired, wherein said item of electronic equipment comprises electronic circuitry selected from the group consisting of: a) television circuitry; b) satellite TV receiver circuitry; c) cable TV receiver circuitry; d) VCR circuitry; e) DVD player circuitry; f) computer circuitry; g) CD player circuitry; h) music receiver circuitry; i) IPTV television and/or receiver circuitry; j) gaming circuitry; k) home automation circuitry; l) receiver circuitry. 17. The item of electronic equipment of claim 16 wherein said machine is a processor. 18. The item of electronic equipment of claim 16 wherein said machine is a controller. 19. The item of electronic equipment of claim 16 wherein said method further comprises: translating locations of said one or more images into said location's coordinate values, wherein said received information includes data describing said locations of said images. 20. The item of electronic equipment of claim 19 wherein method (i) is performed and said method further comprises: displaying a second cursor at a second location on said display, said second cursor pointed to by a second handheld device and said second cursor visibly distinguishable from said cursor of said handheld device. 21. The item of electronic equipment of claim 19 wherein method (i) is performed and wherein said pointed to location is determined by a second handheld device. 22. The item of electronic equipment of claim 16 wherein said signal identifies that a button on said handheld device has been pressed. 23. The item of electronic equipment of claim 16 wherein said method further comprises determining said location on or near said display. 24. The item of electronic equipment of claim 16 wherein said processing by said handheld device comprises: using data taken from said sensor from within a region of pixels that surround one of said images; said data containing intensity value information on each of said pixels; summing across said data in a first direction and in a second direction; fitting a first curve to a first profile that results from said summing in said first direction; fitting a second curve to a second profile that results from said summing in a second direction; identifying as a first coordinate of said image's coordinates a center of said first curve; and identifying as a second coordinate of said image's coordinates a center of said second curve; wherein said first direction is along a row of said sensor's pixels and said second direction is along a column of said sensor's pixels. 25. The item of electronic equipment of claim 16 wherein said method further comprises: determining a distance between said handheld device and said display; determining a viewing angle between said handheld device and said display; calculating a scaling factor and/or offset from said distance and/or viewing angle; scaling said images' coordinates relative to reference coordinates identified for said images with said scaling factor and/or offset, wherein said received information includes said images' coordinates. 26. The item of electronic equipment of claim 25 wherein said method further comprises determining said handheld device's roll angle orientation and/or changes to said roll angle orientation from said images' coordinates. 27. The item of electronic equipment of claim 26 wherein said scaling factor and/or offset is also calculated from said images' coordinates. 28. The item of electronic equipment of claim 26 wherein said handheld device's roll angle orientation and/or changes in said roll angle orientation are used as a virtual dial to control operational characteristics of said electronic equipment, said characteristics including: volume level; channel number; playback speed; page number; mode of operation; lighting level. 29. The item of electronic equipment of claim 26 which includes gaming circuitry, and in which one or more of the following handheld device's said determined properties: pointed to location; distance from display; orientation; view angle; is used to control one or more of the following attributes of said gaming circuitry: simulated motion and location within game; pointing direction and location within game; view angle of game scene; volume level and balance of game sound. 30. The item of electronic equipment of claim 25 wherein said determining a distance or viewing angle further comprises tracking changes in the separations between two or more locations of said images of said markers. 31. The item of electronic equipment of claim 30 wherein said action comprises a sequence of instructions executed by said machine. 32. The item of electronic equipment as in claim 16 wherein the action includes actively controlling movement of the cursor displayed on the display, the cursor comprising a graphical element usable for selecting one or more other graphical elements from within a graphical user interface generated by the electronic equipment on the display. 33. An item of electronic equipment comprising logic circuitry to perform the following methods: receiving information derived from coordinates processed from image data of one or more images appearing on a pixelated sensor in a handheld device, said images' coordinate data requiring less data than said image data, said images resulting from passing non-visible radiation of a predetermined frequency band emitted from one or more spatially fixed markers through an imaging element while substantially excluding other radiation, said handheld device having a processor for performing the following operations to process the image data: determining an intensity value for each pixel of the pixelated sensor, the intensity value attaining one of three or more quantized intensity values; identifying pixels which have an intensity value above a specified threshold; using only those pixels which have an intensity value above the specified threshold, generating coordinate data based on both the intensity value for each of the pixels and the location of each of the pixels on the pixelated sensor; said handheld device capable of processing the image data when said one or more spatially fixed markers are positioned in arbitrary locations within three dimensions defined by x, y and z coordinates relative to a display; determining said location on said display from said received information; and executing at least one of the following methods: (i) displaying a cursor on a display at a location pointed to by a handheld device; (ii) highlighting a menu option on said display at said location; and (iii) triggering an action to be taken by said electronic equipment in response to said handheld device's sending of a signal to indicate said action is desired; wherein said item of electronic equipment comprises electronic circuitry selected from the group consisting of: a) television circuitry; b) satellite TV receiver circuitry; c) cable TV receiver circuitry; d) VCR circuitry; e) DVD player circuitry; f) computer circuitry; g) CD player circuitry h) music receiver circuitry; i) IPTV television and/or receiver circuitry; j) gaming circuitry; k) home automation circuitry; l) receiver circuitry. 34. The item of electronic equipment as in claim 33 wherein the action includes actively controlling movement of the cursor displayed on the display, the cursor comprising a graphical element usable for selecting one or more other graphical elements from within a graphical user interface generated by the electronic equipment on the display.