Systems and methods for adaptive gesture recognition

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for adaptively recognizing gestures indicated by user inputs received from a touchpad, touchscreen, directional pad, mouse or other multi-directional input device. If a user's movement does not indicate a gesture using current gesture recognition parameters, additional processing can be performed to recognize the gesture using other factors. The gesture recognition parameters can then be adapted so that subsequent user inputs that are similar to the previously-rejected inputs will appropriately trigger gesture commands as desired by the user. Gestural data or parameters may be locally or remotely stored for further processing.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method to process user inputs received from a multi-directional input device, the method comprising:
 receiving at least one of the user inputs from the multi-directional input device;   determining if the at least one user input forms a gesture based upon a set of parameters;   if the at least one user input does not form the gesture based upon the set of parameters, attempting to recognize the gesture based upon other factors that are different from the set of parameters; and   if the gesture is recognized based upon the other factors, adapting at the set of parameters based upon the at least one user input.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising storing the adapted set of parameters in a storage. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  further comprising retrieving the adapted set of parameters prior to performing subsequent determination of gestures formed by subsequent user inputs. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2  wherein the adapted set of parameters is stored at a remotely-located server system accessible via a network. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  further comprising retrieving the set of parameters from the remotely-located server system prior to the determining. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising issuing a user command in response to the gesture if the gesture is recognized from either the set of parameters or the other factors. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6  wherein the user command is issued to adjust an interface feature of a media player application. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the other factors comprise an approximation of the set of parameters. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the other factors comprise subsequent user inputs received after the at least one user input. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the set of parameters comprises a distance travelled for at least one gesture, and wherein the adapting comprises shortening the distance travelled for the at least one gesture. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the shortening comprises setting a new distance based upon a distance travelled in the at least one user input. 
     
     
         12 . A computing system comprising:
 an input device having a multi-directional sensing region, wherein the input device is configured to sense user inputs relative to a multi-directional sensing region and to provide output signals indicative of the sensed user inputs; and   a processor configured to receive the output signals from the input device and to initially recognize gestures from at least some of the sensed user inputs indicated in the output signals based upon a set of parameters, and to recognize subsequent gestures based upon an adapted set of parameters that is adapted based upon previously-received user inputs.   
     
     
         13 . The computing system of  claim 12  further comprising a network interface configured to facilitate communication on a network, and wherein the processor is configured to communicate with a server on the network via the network interface. 
     
     
         14 . The computing system of  claim 13  wherein the processor is further configured to provide at least some of the sensed user inputs to the server on the network to thereby allow the server to adapt at least some of the parameters in response to the sensed user inputs, and wherein the processor is further configured to receive the adapted set of parameters from the server on the network. 
     
     
         15 . The computing system of  claim 14  the set of parameters received from the server on the network is adapted based upon user inputs provided by a plurality of users operating a plurality of computing systems. 
     
     
         16 . The computing system of  claim 12  wherein the processor is further configured to adapt the set of parameters based upon sensed user inputs that are not recognized as the gestures. 
     
     
         17 . A computer-executable method to process user inputs obtained from at least one multi-directional input device, the method comprising:
 receiving the user inputs;   identifying at least some of the user inputs that are not recognized as gestures based upon a set of parameters, but that are recognized as gestures based upon other factors that are different than the set of parameters; and   adapting the set of parameters based upon the identified user inputs to create an adapted set of parameters.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17  wherein the method is executable by a server that receives the user inputs from a plurality of computing systems and that provides the adapted set of parameters to each of the plurality of computing systems via a network. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 17  wherein the method is executable by a processor in a computing system that comprises the at least one multi-directional input device, and wherein the processor is configured to recognize gestures in subsequent user inputs received from the at least one multi-directional input device based upon the adapted set of parameters. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 17  wherein the identifying comprises comparing at least some of the user inputs to subsequently-received user inputs that were recognized as gestures.