KR20100103927A - Input apparatus and method for using image information - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An inputting device and a inputting method using an image information is utilized as an input and control device instead of a keyboard, a touch LCD, and a mouse in all kinds of electronic devices that attached a camera. CONSTITUTION: A sensing unit(110) senses a surface area and direction of a subject which is neighbor to a camera. The sensing unit forms a motion vector of the subject. A storage unit(120) stores a character information and an input information. A control unit(130) forms the character information and the input information corresponding to the movement vector as a control signal. The control unit performs an operation processing corresponding to the control signal.

Description

Input device and method using image information {INPUT APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR USING IMAGE INFORMATION}

The present invention relates to an input device and a method, and more particularly, to an input device and a method capable of sensing a user's movement and performing control signals and text input.

Mobile communication terminals continue to achieve convergence for multimedia. Initially pursuing only the phone function, gradually the schedule management (schedule management, to-do management, D-day management), convenience functions (stopwatch, alarm) functions are added, and portable electronic devices such as MP3 player or PMP Even features of. With the addition of multimedia parts, it has become common to attach devices such as cameras.

Various devices are attached and used for convergence, but functional overlap between the attached devices is also occurring. For example, devices such as a wireless LAN and a Bluetooth may perform overlapping in that they may perform data communication.

Conventionally, a camera attached to a mobile communication terminal has been used for taking pictures and storing them, but the number of pixels of the camera has gradually increased to perform the functions of a portable camcorder. It also has a separate camera for video calls. As various devices are attached to a mobile communication terminal, the mobile communication terminals are becoming more and more complicated, and the devices to be attached are becoming smaller.

However, despite the miniaturization of the devices attached to the mobile communication terminal, the mobile communication terminal is inevitably increased in size, and there is a problem that the complexity and material cost also increase.

The present invention provides an input device and method capable of sensing a movement of a hand to perform control signals and text input.

According to the input device of the present invention, a sensing unit for detecting the area and the direction occupied by a subject adjacent to the camera to form a motion vector of the subject; A storage unit which stores text information and input information; And a controller configured to form the text information and the input information corresponding to the motion vector as a control signal and to perform an operation process corresponding to the control signal.

According to the input method of the present invention, a) storing text information and input information; b) sensing the area and direction occupied by a subject adjacent to the camera to form a motion vector of the subject; c) forming the text information and the input information corresponding to the motion vector as a control signal; And d) performing device operation processing corresponding to the control signal.

The input device using the image information of the present invention may be used as an input and control device in place of input devices such as a keyboard, a touch LCD, a mouse, and the like in various electronic devices with a camera.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, well-known functions or constructions will not be described in detail if they obscure the subject matter of the present invention.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an input device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The input device of the present invention includes a detector 110, a storage 120, and a controller 130.

The detector 110 detects a movement of a user image (hereinafter referred to as a subject) to form a motion vector. A method of extracting the motion vector of the sensor 110 will be described later with reference to FIGS. 7A to 8B.

The storage unit 120 stores text information and input information. The character information includes information about consonants as shown in FIG. 2A and information about vowels as shown in FIG. 2B. As shown in FIG. 3, the input information stores input information corresponding to mouse input information in the form of a mapping table.

The controller 130 forms a control signal for using the corresponding character information and the input information as an input signal by comparing the motion vector with the character information and the control information. In addition, the controller 130 performs an operation process corresponding to the control signal using the control signal. For example, it is possible to switch to a direction input mode for receiving a direction signal from the user with an input corresponding to one triple click of the mouse, and to receive text information from the user with an input corresponding to two triple clicks of the mouse. You can switch to the character input mode.

In other words, when the information of the subject is acquired near a camera (not shown), the illuminance is low, so that it is usually black and the margin is white. The black and white contrast difference is used to extract the motion of the subject as a motion vector, The vector can be used to convert into a control signal.

4 is an exemplary view showing a filter of a detector according to an embodiment of the present invention. The detector 110 for extracting the user's image information as a motion vector includes an edge filter 210 and a center filter 220.

5 is an exemplary view showing a detailed configuration of a filter according to an embodiment of the present invention. The filters 210 and 220 are formed of a grid of black and white, and are black / white at a predetermined period (for example, 10 msec). The grid is inverted so that the area and direction of the user image (hereinafter referred to as the subject) information can be detected. The white part of the grid is a part where no subject information exists, and the black part is a part where subject information exists. The reason for extracting the subject information in the shape of the grid is to make it easy to obtain the subject area, and to reduce the error when the subject is frequently shaken to perform detailed measurement. Although the gratings of the filters 210 and 220 should appear in white, being displayed in black means that a part of the subject exists at the corresponding position.

6 is an exemplary view showing a process of setting a reference point of a motion vector using the edge filter 210 and the center filter 220 using a user's finger according to an embodiment of the present invention. The point where the information of the index finger image starts in the specific region 222 of the center filter 220 and is located in the lower specific region 212 of the edge filter 210 is set as the reference point SP of the motion vector. The reference point SP of the motion vector may be set by the user appropriately adjusting the distance between the user and the camera.

7A to 7D are exemplary views showing a motion vector forming method for four directions according to an embodiment of the present invention. 7A and 7B illustrate a method of forming a motion vector when moving from the reference point SP to the right or left side, that is, in the horizontal direction. The reference point SP of the motion vector may be set to a position of a black subject located in a specific region 222 of the center filter 220 where the subject is located and a specific region 212 below the edge filter 210. Since the black and white gratings of the filters 210 and 220 are inverted at a cycle of 10 msec, the detector 110 may detect whether the subject moves. However, the setting of the reference point SP of the motion vector is not limited to the above description, and may be set at any position of the detector 110. Assuming that the subject has moved within 500 msec to the right or left from the reference point SP, the detector 110 detects the movement of the subject in a cycle of 10 msec using the filters 210 and 220. Therefore, after 500 msec, it is confirmed that there is no information on the subject at the start position SP, and that the information exists on the subject in the right or left specific region of the edge filter 210. Therefore, the sensing unit 110 may recognize as information that the subject has moved to the right or the left.

7C is a diagram illustrating a method of forming a motion vector when moving upward from a reference point. The information that the subject has moved upward at the reference point SP is extracted in the entire area of the center filter 220 in black, and the upper area 214 and the lower area 212 of the edge filter 210 are extracted in black. I can understand that. 7D is a diagram illustrating a method of forming a motion vector when moving downward from a reference point. The information indicating that the subject has moved downward at the reference point SP may be understood that the entire area of the center filter 220 is extracted in white and the lower area 212 of the edge filter 210 is extracted in black.

It is possible to extract motion vectors for the four directions described with reference to FIGS. 7A to 7D, and to extract motion vectors for 16 and 32 directions by subdividing the areas where the filters 210 and 220 appear in black. have.

8A is an exemplary diagram illustrating a method of forming a motion vector with information regarding a distance from a subject. Assume that the subject is at the reference point SP. If the area occupied by the black subject of the center filter 220 becomes smaller and the area occupied by the subject in the lower specific region 212 of the edge filter 210 also becomes smaller, this is extracted as a motion vector meaning that the subject is far away. can do. This can be switched to release the button from the mouse, or move to move the mouse up to cancel it, and can also be switched to the end of the motion vector extraction.

FIG. 8B is an exemplary view showing a method of forming information on approaching a subject as a motion vector. If the entire center filter 220 is extracted in black, and the lower left and right areas of the edge filter 210 and the entire area below the edge filter 210 are extracted in black, the motion vector means that the subject is closer. Can be extracted. This can be switched to a button press of the mouse, or to a bottoming position for starting and moving the mouse, and can also be switched to a motion at which motion vector extraction begins.

In addition, by using the time information on the extracted subject information, it is possible to switch to the moving speed. Referring to FIG. 7A as an example, it is assumed that the reference movement time was 500 msec. If the travel time calculated by the sensing unit 110 was 300 msec, it may be extracted at a fast moving speed. On the contrary, if it was 1000 msec, it may be extracted at a slow moving speed. This is applicable to all extracted motion vectors and can add movement speed to the motion vectors.

While the above methods have been described through specific embodiments, the methods may also be implemented as computer readable code on a computer readable recording medium. Computer-readable recording media include all kinds of recording devices that store data that can be read by a computer system. Examples of computer-readable recording media include ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, floppy disks, optical data storage devices, and the like, which are also implemented in the form of carrier waves (for example, transmission over the Internet). Include. The computer readable recording medium can also be distributed over network coupled computer systems so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion. In addition, functional programs, codes, and code segments for implementing the above embodiments can be easily deduced by programmers of the present invention.

In addition, while the present invention has been described in connection with some embodiments, it is to be understood that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as will be understood by those skilled in the art. You will need to know It is also contemplated that such variations and modifications are within the scope of the claims appended hereto.

1 is a block diagram showing an input device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2a is an exemplary view showing the character information for consonants according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2b is an exemplary view showing the character information for the vowel according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is an exemplary view showing input information corresponding to mouse input information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 and 5 is an exemplary view showing a filter of the detection unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

6 is an exemplary view showing a reference point setting process of a motion vector according to an embodiment of the present invention.

7A to 7D are exemplary views illustrating a method of extracting subject information in four directions according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

8A is an exemplary view showing a method of extracting information regarding a distance from a subject, according to an embodiment of the present invention, as subject information.

8B is an exemplary view illustrating a method of extracting, as subject information, information about an approaching subject according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (9)

In the input device using the image information, A detector configured to detect an area and a direction occupied by a subject adjacent to the camera to form a motion vector of the subject; A storage unit which stores text information and input information; And A controller configured to form the character information and the input information corresponding to the motion vector as a control signal and perform an operation process corresponding to the control signal; Including, the input device. The method of claim 1, The motion vector is The input device is formed using the difference between the contrast of the subject. The method of claim 1, The motion vector is The input device is formed further comprising the speed information of the subject. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, The detection unit, And a center filter and an edge filter for forming motion information of the subject. The method of claim 4, wherein The storage unit, And the text information regarding consonants and vowels is stored in a table form, and the input information corresponding to input information of a mouse is stored in a table form. In the input method using the image information, a) storing character information and input information; b) sensing the area and direction occupied by a subject adjacent to the camera to form a motion vector of the subject; c) forming the text information and the input information corresponding to the motion vector as a control signal; And d) performing a device operation process corresponding to the control signal; Input method comprising a. The method of claim 6, The motion vector is The input method is formed using the difference between the contrast of the subject. The method of claim 6, The motion vector is And the speed information of the subject is further formed. 9. The method according to any one of claims 6 to 8, And a center filter and a border filter for forming a motion vector of the subject.

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