Calibration method for an electronic display screen for touchless gesture control

Abstract

A computer-implemented method of calibrating an electronic display screen for touchless gesture control using a calibration device having a calibration pattern, wherein the method comprises: detecting, using at least one depth camera, the calibration pattern of the calibration device, the calibration device being placed on the electronic display screen in a calibration position; determining borders of the electronic display screen based at least on the detected calibration pattern, a reference pattern being usable for determining an orientation of the detected calibration pattern, and a screen dimension information with respect to the electronic display screen; defining a touchless gesture control input area for the electronic display screen being observable by the at least one depth camera.

1 . A computer-implemented method of calibrating an electronic display screen for touchless gesture control using a calibration device having a calibration pattern, wherein the computer-implemented method comprises:
 detecting, using at least one depth camera, the calibration pattern of the calibration device while the calibration device is placed on the electronic display screen in a calibration position;   determining borders of the electronic display screen based at least on the detected calibration pattern, a reference pattern which is usable for determining an orientation of the detected calibration pattern, and screen dimension information with respect to the electronic display screen; and   defining a touchless gesture control input area for the electronic display screen being observable by the at least one depth camera.   
     
     
         2 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 displaying a calibration guiding mark on the electronic display screen for guiding a user to place the calibration device in the calibration position.   
     
     
         3 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , wherein the calibration guiding mark comprises at least two markings being displayed on the electronic display screen. 
     
     
         4 . The computer-implemented method according to  claim 2 , wherein the calibration guiding mark comprises at least one orientation reference marking for unequivocally guiding a user to place the calibration device on the electronic display screen in a specific rotational orientation with respect to a plane-normal of the electronic display screen. 
     
     
         5 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein at least the steps of detecting the calibration pattern, determining borders of the electronic display screen and defining a touchless gesture control input area are triggered upon receiving a user input or upon automatically detecting that the calibration device is in the calibration position. 
     
     
         6 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein determining borders of the electronic display screen comprises at least one base transformation operation of a coordinate system. 
     
     
         7 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein determining borders of the electronic display screen comprises:
 determining, using the at least one depth camera, a center of the calibration pattern in 3D and defining a coordinate system, wherein the center of the calibration pattern is the origin of the coordinate system; and   shifting the origin of the coordinate system orthogonal to the electronic display screen surface so that the origin of the coordinate system is in the plane of the electronic display screen surface.   
     
     
         8 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the screen dimension information with respect to the electronic display screen is received via user input and/or is determined automatically based on a resolution of the electronic display screen and based on a pixel density of the electronic display screen. 
     
     
         9 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein detecting the calibration pattern of the calibration device is performed using two depth cameras;
 wherein the two depth cameras are arranged at borders of the electronic display screen.   
     
     
         10 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein determining a touchless gesture control input area comprises a definition of a virtual screen layer being essentially parallel to the electronic display screen. 
     
     
         11 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the calibration pattern is a fiducial marker, and/or a three-dimensional pattern. 
     
     
         12 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising outputting a signal upon starting, successfully ending, aborting, and/or failing the calibration of the electronic display screen. 
     
     
         13 . (canceled) 
     
     
         14 . (canceled) 
     
     
         15 . (canceled) 
     
     
         16 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , wherein the calibration guiding mark indicates a predetermined orientation of the calibration device with respect to the electronic display screen. 
     
     
         17 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 3 , wherein the markings are visually distinguishable, in particular by means of different colors and/or shapes 
     
     
         18 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 5 , wherein detecting that the calibration device is in the calibration position includes detecting a calibration triggering mark of the calibration device, wherein the calibration triggering mark may be an acoustic mark and/or a visual mark 
     
     
         19 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 9 , wherein the two depth cameras are arranged at opposing borders of the electronic display screen. 
     
     
         20 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 10 , wherein the virtual screen layers is at a distance to the electronic display screen. 
     
     
         21 . A data processing apparatus configured to calibrate an electronic display screen for touchless gesture control using a calibration device, the data processing apparatus comprising:
 a processor;   a memory communicatively connected to the processor; and   computing instructions stored in the memory, that when executed by the processor, causes the processor to:
 detect, using the at least one depth camera, the calibration pattern of the calibration device while the calibration device is placed on the electronic display screen in a calibration position, 
 determine borders of the electronic display screen based at least on the detected calibration pattern, a reference pattern which is usable for determining an orientation of the detected calibration pattern, and screen dimension information with respect to the electronic display screen, and 
 define a touchless gesture control input area for the electronic display screen being observable by the at least one depth camera. 
   
     
     
         22 . The data processing apparatus of  claim 21 , wherein the calibration device comprises:
 a main body defining a main axis of the calibration device;   a footing at a distal end of the main body, the footing having at least one footing surface being placeable on the electronic display screen such that the footing surface is in contact with to the electronic display screen; and   a calibration pattern comprising a machine-readable pattern being detectable by at least one depth camera, wherein the at least one depth camera is arranged at or near the electronic display screen and is configured to observe a spatial area in front of the electronic display screen in order to detect a gesture input of a user.   
     
     
         23 . A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions for calibrating an electronic display screen for touchless gesture control using a calibration device having a calibration pattern, the computing instructions when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to:
 detect, using at least one depth camera, the calibration pattern of the calibration device while the calibration device is placed on the electronic display screen in a calibration position;   determine borders of the electronic display screen based at least on the detected calibration pattern, a reference pattern which is usable for determining an orientation of the detected calibration pattern, and screen dimension information with respect to the electronic display screen; and   define a touchless gesture control input area for the electronic display screen being observable by the at least one depth camera.