2292 results about "Head position" patented technology

A system and method tracks the movements of a driver or passenger in a vehicle (ground, water, air, or other) and controls devices in accordance with position, motion, and / or body or hand gestures or movements. According to one embodiment, an operator or passenger uses the invention to control comfort or entertainment features such the heater, air conditioner, lights, mirror positions or the radio / CD player using hand gestures. An alternative embodiment facilitates the automatic adjustment of car seating restraints based on head position. Yet another embodiment is used to determine when to fire an airbag (and at what velocity or orientation) based on the position of a person in a vehicle seat. The invention may also be used to control systems outside of the vehicle. The on-board sensor system would be used to track the driver or passenger, but when the algorithms produce a command for a desired response, that response (or just position and gesture information) could be transmitted via various methods (wireless, light, whatever) to other systems outside the vehicle to control devices located outside the vehicle. For example, this would allow a person to use gestures inside the car to interact with a kiosk located outside of the car.

Systems and methods for dynamically controlling vergence and focus for a see-through head-mounted display (ST-HMD) used as part of an augmented reality (AR) system are disclosed. The ST-HMD (40) allows a user (30) to view left and right images (150L, 150R) through corresponding left and right eyepieces (104L, 104R) so that a single virtual object (150V) based on the right and left images as seen at a real object such as a screen (20). When the user moves relative to the real object, however, the vergence changes and the virtual object does not appear in focus at the real object. Changes in the vergence are compensated by tracking the user's head position with a tracking unit (350) and providing the tracking data to a controller (180). Based on the tracking data and the interpupilary distance (IPD) of the user, the controller calculates the offset (H) needed to be imparted to the images formed in the eyepieces to maintain the vergence of the virtual object at the real object even when the user's position changes relative to the real object.

A positional relationship between image capturing means and a player is properly adjusted before a game is started. An image of a player P is captured by a camera unit 42, and from this image the head position of the player is recognized, so that the game proceeds based on the recognized result. At this time, the player image is displayed on the title screen, and the position where the head position of the player P should be located is displayed distinctively in the player image. As a result, the player P can properly adjust the positional relationship between the camera unit 42 and himself / herself before starting a game.

A listener can experience the sound of virtual loudspeakers over headphones with a level of realism that is difficult to distinguish from the real loudspeaker experience. Sets of personalized room impulse responses (PRIRs) are acquired for the loudspeaker sound sources over a limited number of listener head positions. The PRIRs are then used to transform an audio signal for the loudspeakers into a virtualized output for the headphones. Basing the transformation on the listener's head position, the system can adjust the transformation so that the virtual loudspeakers appear not to move as the listener moves the head.

A remote control microdisplay device that uses hand movement, body gesture, head movement, head position and / or vocal commands to control the headset, a peripheral device, a remote system, network or software application, such as to control the parameters of a field of view for the microdisplay within a larger virtual display area associated with a host application, a peripheral device or host system. The movement and / or vocal commands are detected via the headset and / or detachable peripheral device connected to the headset microdisplay device via one or more peripheral ports.

In a technique for collecting and analyzing physiological signals to detect sleep apnea, a small light-weight physiological monitoring system, affixed to a patient's forehead, detects and records the pulse, oximetry, snoring sounds, and head position of a patient to detect a respiratory event, such as sleep apnea. The physiological monitoring system may contain several sensors including a pulse oximeter to detect oximetry and pulse rate, a microphone to detect snoring sounds, and a position sensor to detect head position. The physiological monitoring system also can contain a memory to store or record the signals monitored by the mentioned sensors and a power source. The physiological monitoring system may be held in place by a single elastic strap, thereby enabling a patient to use the system without the assistance of trained technicians.

A 3-dimensional video game apparatus comprises display 40 for displaying an image; image-processing means 16 for creating a 3-dimensional image from the viewpoint of a simulated camera and displaying that image on a display screen; and game controller 14 which conducts the game in response to reactions of the player, responsive to images displayed on display 40. The game apparatus further comprises camera unit 42 which can be arranged in such an orientation that its field of view is the play area in front of the display screen, and which periodically captures images of the play area in the state thus arranged; a position recognizing part which detects the player's head from the captured image, and detects the two-dimensional movement of the detected head position; and viewpoint change processor which moves the viewpoint of said simulated camera in conjunction with the change direction and change amount of the position of the detected marked region.

A moving magnet actuator for providing haptic feedback. The actuator includes a grounded core member, a coil is wrapped around a central projection of the core member, and a magnet head positioned so as to provide a gap between the core member and the magnet head. The magnet head is moved in a degree of freedom based on an electromagnetic force caused by a current flowed through the coil. An elastic material, such as foam, is positioned in the gap between the magnet head and the core member, where the elastic material is compressed and sheared when the magnet head moves and substantially prevents movement of the magnet head past a range limit that is based on the compressibility and shear factor of the material. Flexible members can also be provided between the magnet head and the ground member, where the flexible members flex to allow the magnet head to move, provide a centering spring force to the magnet head, and limit the motion of the magnet head.

A system and method tracks the movements of a driver or passenger in a vehicle (ground, water, air, or other) and controls devices in accordance with position, motion, and / or body or hand gestures or movements. According to one embodiment, an operator or passenger uses the invention to control comfort or entertainment features such the heater, air conditioner, lights, mirror positions or the radio / CD player using hand gestures. An alternative embodiment facilitates the automatic adjustment of car seating restraints based on head position. Yet another embodiment is used to determine when to fire an airbag (and at what velocity or orientation) based on the position of a person in a vehicle seat. The invention may also be used to control systems outside of the vehicle. The on-board sensor system would be used to track the driver or passenger, but when the algorithms produce a command for a desired response, that response (or just position and gesture information) could be transmitted via various methods (wireless, light, whatever) to other systems outside the vehicle to control devices located outside the vehicle. For example, this would allow a person to use gestures inside the car to interact with a kiosk located outside of the car.

In a technique for collecting and analyzing physiological signals to detect sleep apnea, a small light-weight physiological monitoring system, affixed to a patient's forehead, detects and records the pulse, oximetry, snoring sounds, and head position of a patient to detect a respiratory event, such as sleep apnea. The physiological monitoring system may contain several sensors including a pulse oximeter to detect oximetry and pulse rate, a microphone to detect snoring sounds, and a position sensor to detect head position. The physiological monitoring system also can contain a memory to store or record the signals monitored by the mentioned sensors and a power source. The physiological monitoring system may be held in place by a single elastic strap, thereby enabling a patient to use the system without the assistance of trained technicians.

A method for detecting direction when interfacing with a computer program is provided. The method includes capturing an image presented in front of an image capture device. The image capture device has a capture location in a coordinate space. When a person is captured in the image, the method includes identifying a human head in the image and assigning the human head a head location in the coordinate space. The method also includes identifying an object held by the person in the image and assigning the object an object location in coordinate space. The method further includes identifying a relative position in coordinate space between the head location and the object location when viewed from the capture location. The relative position defines a pointing direction of the object when viewed by the image capture device. The method may be practiced on a computer system, such as one used in the gaming field.

System and method for monitoring the physiological behavior of a driver that includes measuring a physiological variable of a driver, assessing a driver's behavioral parameter on the basis of at least said measured physiological variable, and informing the driver of the assessed driver's behavioral parameter. The measurement of the physiological variable can include measuring a driver's eye movement, measuring a driver's eye-gaze direction, measuring a driver's eye-closure amount, measuring a driver's blinking movement, measuring a driver's head movement, measuring a driver's head position, measuring a driver's head orientation, measuring driver's movable facial features, and measuring a driver's facial temperature image.

A method of guiding a vehicle to a region for initiating a parallel parking maneuver. A region of feasible starting locations for successfully performing a parallel parking maneuver is determined by a processor. A position of the vehicle relative to the region of feasible starting locations is determined. A determination is made whether the vehicle is in a zero heading position. The vehicle is guided along an initial target path by controlling a steering actuator until the vehicle is in a zero heading position relative to the road of travel in response to the vehicle is not in the zero heading position. A planned path is generated that includes two arc-shaped trajectories extending between the vehicle at the zero heading position and a position within the region of feasible starting locations as determined by the processor. The steering actuator is controlled to follow the planned path to the feasible region.

An improved multiple-sensor vision system for use on vehicles or aircraft. The system utilizes a plurality of fixed sensors, such as infrared sensors, that provide signals that are recorded on tape and / or stored in memory. A processor digitally samples the stored images and provides output to a helmet-mounted display. Desirably, the sensors are arrayed in series such that their images may be juxtaposed and blended to provide a wider field-of-view image. A tracking system desirably monitors the head position of the operator, which position is then used to select various images from the processor. In this way, the operator can select various views by simply looking in that direction. In one embodiment, the array of sensors is forward-looking and positioned close to the head position of the operator to minimize parallax issues. In addition to forward-looking sensors, other sensors mounted around the vehicle / aircraft may provide rearward, hemispherical, or complete spherical coverage. Sensors that monitor the status of various instruments on board the vehicle can also provide input to the helmet-mounted display, including a moving map tile that is displayed below or to the side of the main image.

A method of writing product servo bursts to a disk in a disk drive is disclosed. An external spiral servo writer comprising a head positioning pin and head positioning mechanics periodically writes a plurality of reference servo bursts in a plurality of spiral reference patterns to the disk. The reference servo bursts in the spiral reference patterns are processed to write product servo bursts to the disk. In one embodiment control circuitry within the disk drive processes the reference servo bursts to self-servo write the disk drive, and in another embodiment an external product servo writer processes the reference servo bursts to write the product servo bursts to the disk. In one embodiment, a slope of each spiral reference pattern is selected so that each spiral reference pattern is written over at least twenty revolutions of the disk to increase the accuracy of the head position error generated from the reference servo bursts.

A method for determining the positional laydown accuracy of an automated lamination machine during fabrication of a multiple layered part is described. The method includes measuring a position of a placement head of the lamination machine in a coordinate system, determining a location of a ply edge with respect to the placement head, transforming the location of the ply edge into the coordinate system, based on the measured head position, transforming the location of the ply edge from the coordinate system into a second coordinate system that is associated with the part being fabricated, and comparing actual ply edge location in the second coordinate system to an expected ply edge location defined in the second coordinate system, the second coordinate system associated with the part being fabricated, to determine the laydown accuracy of the machine.

A method of writing product servo sectors to a disk of a disk drive is disclosed. An external spiral servo writer writes a plurality of spiral tracks to the disk by actuating in a closed loop system a head positioning pin inserted into the disk drive. Each spiral track comprises a high frequency signal interrupted at a predetermined interval by a sync mark. The high frequency signal and sync marks in the spiral tracks are demodulated to maintain synchronization of a servo write clock as well as maintain the head along a circular target path while writing product servo sectors to the disk.

A method is disclosed for improving head position accuracy in a disk drive during track following of concentric data storage tracks through real-time identification of external vibration and monitoring of write-unsafe (WUS) occurrences. In the method, after a seek operation to a predetermined data storage track, the track is followed using a servo control loop having a nominal gain and responsive to a position error signal (PES). After waiting a vibration detection delay period, occurrences of the PES exceeding a WUS limit are counted generating a WUS limit exception count. Also, a property of a variance is determined from spectral power values generated from the PES during track following. If the WUS limit exception count exceeds a first threshold, and if the property of the variance exceeds a second threshold, the nominal gain is increased to a vibration gain within a frequency band, to attenuate the effect of external vibration.

A disk drive is disclosed comprising a plurality of servo sectors that define a plurality of tracks, and a head comprising a read element radially offset from a write element. The read element is positioned over a first track, and the first track is read to generate first read wedge repeatable runout (WRRO) values. A first seek operation of the head positions the read element over a second track, and the second track is read to generate first write WRRO values. The first write WRRO values are used to write the first read WRRO values to the first track. A second seek operation of the head positions the read element over a third track, and the third track is read to generate second write WRRO values. The second write WRRO values are used to write the first write WRRO values to the second track.

A display assembly, comprising: a display device (30); a microlens array (34); and an eye tracker (8), for example a pupil tracker (8), and / or a head tracker; wherein plural pixels (150) or sub-pixels of the display device (30) are provided for each microlens (160) of the microlens array (34). The display may be adapted such that only certain pixels / sub-pixels (150) are activated / selected for any particular determined pupil / eye / head position, for example such that for each microlens (160), only one respective pixel / sub-pixel (150) is activated / selected for any particular determined pupil / eye / head position. The display device (30) may be a transparent display device (30), the microlens array (34) may be a switchable microlens array (34), and the display assembly may further comprise a light blocking device (32) that is switchable between a substantially light blocking state and a substantially light passing state.

A tape printer, wherein when a label tape (36) is fed to a tape cutting position after the label (39) of the label tape (36) is printed out, the heating elements (R1 to Rn) of a thermal head (9) are disposed so as to be opposed to the position of a next printed label (39) slightly on the upstream side of a label head position on the downstream side of thereof in the feeding direction and to be opposed to the position of the next printed label (39) on the downstream side of the printing start position thereof (so that a<b can be established in FIG. 7), and a mark detection sensor (12)is disposed on the upstream side of the heating elements (R1 to Rn) so as to be opposed to the position slightly on the downstream side of the position opposed to a position detection mark (39B) (so that c<e can be established in FIG. 7).

Capacitive sensors used to detect force upon a transparency product for detecting and discriminating crash characteristics of a vehicle, as well as capacitive sensors used in conjunction with a conductive panel functioning as an airbag cover and ground plane for the capacitive sensors. The capacitive sensors are made up of electrodes, of which one may be a conductive coating. The capacitive sensors can be arranged upon a substrate and can include a reference sensor. Long term effects of temperature upon sensor output are compensated for with an algorithm comparing constant desired sensor output to low frequency drift due to temperature effects. Moisture upon a transparency product is distinguished from a nearby object due to the capacitance sensed. A sleep detection algorithm detects when a vehicle operator is drowsy. A capacitive sensor array having a nested circle sensor and L-shaped sensors, along with a dummy sensor is used in a sunroof-equipped vehicle for sensing occupant head position.

A goggle based light-weight VOG system includes at least one digital camera connected to and powered by a laptop computer through a firewire connection. The digital camera may digitally center the pupil in both the X and Y directions. A calibration mechanism may be incorporated onto the goggle base. An EOG system may also be incorporated directly into the goggle. The VOG system may track and record 3-D movement of the eye, track pupil dilation, head position and goggle slippage. An animated eye display provides data in a more meaningful fashion. The VOG system is a modular design whereby the same goggle frame or base is used to build a variety of digital camera VOG systems.

An advanced photo booth comprises a camera, a kiosk printer; and attraction means for inducing patronage of passers-by. The attraction means comprises: a camera and a touch screen for capturing and displaying passerby images; and interactive communication with passers-by. Interactive communication may include personalized greetings made possible through facial recognition techniques that compare a presently captured passerby image with previous passerby and patron images stored in a memory. Digital image processing techniques automatically permit proper tilting of a head in the display screen, regardless of a head position in captured passerby images. The attraction means also comprises a second exterior display screen usable for advertising and CATV broadcasts. The passerby touch screen or a touch screen display within the enclosure permits customization of digital images, including: face replacement, hair replacement, and background selection; and also permits previewing of customized images. Remote control capabilities enhance the flexibility of booth operations.

Disclosed is a method of retrieving video frames over a network for subsequent display. A user interaction (303) with a timeline (202) represented by a client (103) coupled to the network (105) is detected. From the detected interaction, a request (304) for video to be retrieved from a server (101) across the network is formed. A series of non-contiguous (scattered) sample frames (FIGS. 13-16) received in response to the request are then cached (104) for subsequent display. This method permits efficient handling of video scrubbing requests for streamlining video as only selected ones of the cached sample frames close to a GUI play head position (203) need be reproduced. Since the frames are non-contiguous, the scope of the source video is quickly sampled permitting improved user response and, where desired, adjustment of the play head position.

The present invention discloses a U-shaped travel pillow having a base cushion and raised cushion fixed to the top side of the base cushion. The inner peripheral walls of the base and raised cushions are mutually flush, while the rear walls are mutually flush and substantially flat for better contact with flat surfaces, such as a headrest, seat, or chair. Furthermore, the rear wall of the raised cushion is thinner than the sides, providing more liberty to adjust head position by easily adapting to the shape of the headrest, seat or chair. A removable cover is adapted to cover the base and raised cushions, while a drawstring with an adjustable cinch mechanism can be used for adjusting the travel pillow around the neck.

A listener can experience the sound of virtual loudspeakers over headphones with a level of realism that is difficult to distinguish from the real loudspeaker experience. Sets of personalized room impulse responses (PRIRs) are acquired for the loudspeaker sound sources over a limited number of listener head positions. The PRIRs are then used to transform an audio signal for the loudspeakers into a virtualized output for the headphones. Basing the transformation on the listener's head position, the system can adjust the transformation so that the virtual loudspeakers appear not to move as the listener moves the head.

An apparatus for simultaneously polishing wafers including at least a first and a second web of polishing media. At least two polishing heads are provided on a carrier coupled to a drive system such that one polishing head positions a wafer against the first web and a second polishing head positions a second wafer against the second web. The drive system imparts a programmed polishing motion or pattern to the polishing heads.