Patent Application
20070001009
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing method and system using a terminal apparatus. Particularly, it relates to an information processing method and system using a terminal apparatus, in which a subject is indicated by the terminal apparatus so that attribute information of the subject is displayed on the terminal apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nowadays, there are often various kinds of electric and electronic apparatuses arranged in a home or in an office. In this case, it is necessary to operate these apparatuses by use of remote controllers in accordance with these apparatuses or by use of operating buttons attached to these apparatuses. Although examples of these apparatuses may include a television set, a DVD recorder, an air conditioner, a refrigerator, a washing machine, a ceiling (lighting fixture), a personal computer, a printer, a facsimile machine, a copying machine, etc., the invention is not limited thereto. In the case where one of these apparatuses needs to be operated, it is necessary to find the place where the remote controller of the apparatus is located when the remote controller is not at hand, or it is necessary to go to the place where the apparatus is located, so as to operate the apparatus. For this reason, operability is poor. In addition, when one of these apparatuses needs to be repaired or exchanged for a new apparatus, instructions for the apparatus has to be found and read or the apparatus has to be checked immediately, in order to know how to repair, the new apparatus to be exchanged, or how to exchange. This is inconvenient.
In connection with this kind of problem, for example, JP-A-2003-70075 has proposed an adaptive operation aid apparatus for simplifying selection of a plurality of kinds of electronic apparatuses and selection of a plurality of kinds of actions of each electronic apparatus. In such an aid apparatus, a portable phone device is used for selection of the electronic apparatuses or selection of the actions of the apparatus. Therefore, electronic apparatuses such as a television set, a telephone, an interphone, etc. can be operated. On a liquid crystal display panel of the portable phone device, the electronic apparatuses and the actions of the electronic apparatuses are displayed. When one of these electronic apparatuses is selected, various kinds of actions each of which can be achieved by the selected electronic apparatus are displayed. At the time of display, these actions are displayed in order of frequency in use so that selection from these actions can be made. Accordingly, selection of an action with highest priority can be made and the number of operations on the portable phone device can be reduced so that improvement in operability can be improved.
In the method disclosed in JP-A-2003-70075, an operation of selecting a desired one from a plurality of electronic apparatuses is required first. However, it cannot be said that the method is sufficient in terms of operability. In this method, there is a problem that operability is deteriorated as the number of electronic apparatuses as objects to be operated increases. This is because it is not easy to select a desired one from a large number of electronic apparatuses on a small display screen of the portable phone device. When electronic apparatuses of this type have to be repaired or exchanged for new apparatuses in the background-art method, it is necessary to refer to instructions for these apparatuses and make phone calls or send messages through a facsimile machine in order to make repair requests for the apparatuses individually or place orders for the new apparatuses to be exchanged. This leaves room for improvement.
Accordingly, the invention provide s an information processing method and system using a terminal apparatus, in which a subject is indicated by the terminal apparatus so that attribute information of the subject is displayed on the terminal apparatus.
The invention may provide an information processing method using a terminal apparatus, including: applying light with a concentric ring-like interference fringe pattern on one of subjects by using a pointer provided in the terminal apparatus; detecting the interference fringe pattern by using a detector; calculating an optical axis of the pointer on the basis of a detection signal obtained from the detector; specifying attribute information of the subject on the basis of arrangement information of the subject intersected by the optical axis in the condition that arrangement information of the subjects and attribute information of the subjects are stored in a storage device in advance while the arrangement information of each subject and the attribute information of the subject are associated with each other; and displaying the attribute information of the specified subject on the terminal apparatus.
The invention may provide an information processing system using a terminal apparatus, including: a terminal apparatus including a pointer, and a communication device, the pointer being provided for applying light with a concentric ring-like interference fringe pattern on one of subjects to indicate the subject; a detector for detecting the interference fringe pattern; a storage device for storing arrangement information of the subjects and attribute information of the subjects in advance while associating the arrangement information of the subjects with the attribute information of the subjects; and an arithmetic unit for calculating an optical axis of the pointer on the basis of a detection signal obtained from the detector and specifying a subject intersected by the optical axis on the basis of the optical axis and the arrangement information of the subjects; wherein the attribute information of the specified subject is transmitted to the communication device of the terminal apparatus and displayed on the terminal apparatus.
The invention may provide a terminal device including: a pointer for applying light with a concentric ring-like interference fringe pattern on one of subjects to indicate the subject; a communication device for receiving attribute information of the subject intersected by an optical axis of the pointer, the optical axis being calculated on the basis of a detection signal of the interference fringe pattern; and a display device for displaying the received attribute information of the subject.
An embodiment may be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings:
An embodiment of the invention will be described below. Although the embodiment will be described on the case where a portable terminal is taken as an example of a terminal apparatus, the invention is not limited thereto. In other words, though a portable terminal such as a portable phone, a PDA, etc. is preferably used as a terminal apparatus in the invention because of its small size and lightweight, the invention is not limited thereto. For example, a personal computer (PC) such as a notebook-size PC may be used as the terminal apparatus. Although the embodiment will be described on the case where a display screen is taken as an example of a means for displaying attribute information of a subject on the terminal apparatus, the invention includes not only a display device such as a display screen enabling visual display but also a display device enabling acoustic display through sound, voice, etc. or enabling permanent visual display on a sheet of paper, etc.
In the embodiment, arrangement information of a plurality of subjects in the room is stored as a database in the storage device 9 in advance in the aforementioned manner. The storage device 9 can be provided in the inside or outside of the PC 10. The pointer 3 has a special lens for generating light with a concentric ring-like interference fringe pattern. The pointer 3 is incorporated in the portable terminal 6. The pointer 3 is a device for generating light with a concentric ring-like interference fringe pattern. For example, the pointer 3 can be configured by the technique disclosed in JP-A-2004-28977. The configuration of the pointer 3 preferably used in this embodiment will be described later. The detector 7 has a photo acceptance element such as a CCD for detecting the interference fringe pattern 2. The detector 7 is disposed in the room 8. When a user uses the portable terminal 6 to indicate the direction of a desired subject 1 so that light with such a concentric ring-like interference fringe pattern 2 is applied on the subject 1, the interference fringe pattern 2 is detected by the detector 7. The PC 10 connected to the detector 7 calculates the optical axis 11 of the pointer 3 on the basis of the detected information of the interference fringe pattern 2. A method for calculating the optical axis will be described later. The subject indicated by the pointer 3 can be specified based on the optical axis 11 and the arrangement information of the subject.
The PC 10 transmits the attribute information of the subject to the portable terminal 6 by radio or by wire. Upon reception of the attribute information of the subject, the portable terminal 6 can appropriately display the received attribute information, related information stored in the portable terminal and a remote control screen on the display screen 5. On the other hand, when the user operates the remote control screen displayed on the portable terminal 6, the portable terminal 6 transmits an operation command to a corresponding subject through the PC 10. Alternatively, configuration may be made so that the portable terminal 6 directly transmits the operation command to the subject. In this manner, the user can operate any desired subject by using the portable terminal 6. Although inter communication between the portable terminal 6 and the PC 10 (or the subject) can be performed directly, such inter communication may be performed via a network such as the Internet, as will be described later. Wireless LAN, Bluetooth, infrared communication, etc. can be used as a communication means between the portable terminal 6 and the PC 10. The portable terminal 6 and the PC 10 can also communicate with each other by electronic mail. The arithmetic unit (PC) 10 and the storage device 9 may be incorporated in the portable terminal 6. In this case, the attribute information can be received through an internal line. When the direction indicating function of the pointer 3 and the input/display function of the portable terminal 6 are combined with each other in this manner, a compact and user-friendly indicator terminal can be achieved. Next, the configuration of the pointer 3 incorporated in the portable terminal 6 will be described.
As shown in
Light emitted from a laser beam source 20 is incident on the optical lens 1-3 through a collimator lens 1c. A light component transmitted through an upper half of the optical lens 1-3 with respect to the optical axis is applied on a subject 1 via light beam loci 2-3-1. Likewise, a light component transmitted through a lower half of the optical lens 1-3 with respect to the optical axis is applied on the subject 1 via light beam loci 2-3-2. Since light beams having arrived at one and the same point on the subject 1 are laser beams emitted from one and the same light source, the light beams interfere with each other to form an interference fringe pattern 2. In this manner, laser beams emitted from one light source are projected on the subject as if the laser beams were virtually emitted from two point light sources 2-1 and 2-2 in a plane on the optical axis. Although this example has shown the case where light beams from a point light source are collimated to parallel light beams by the collimator lens so that the parallel light beams are made incident on the lens 1-3, the parallel light beams can be regarded as light beams emitted from a light source located at an infinite distance. In this case, it may be conceived that the light source located at an infinite distance is virtually converted into two point light sources 2-1 and 2-2 by the lens 1-3.
Simulation was made to examine what interference fringe pattern was formed when light emitted from the semiconductor laser 20 was collimated to parallel light beams by the collimator lens 1c so that the parallel light beams were made incident on the lens 1-3. Since light emitted from the semiconductor laser generally has a Gaussian intensity distribution, simulation was made on the assumption that the intensity of light having passed through an outer diameter portion of the lens with an outer diameter of 3 mm was reduced to 3.4% as much as the intensity of light having passed through a central portion (optical axis) of the lens. As a result, it was proved that a concentric ring-like interference fringe pattern with a diameter of about 4 m was formed on a subject located 4 mm ahead. A part of the interference fringe pattern is shown in
Referring back to
On the other hand, in step 411, the subject specifying process is started in order to specify the subject indicated by the pointer 3. In step 412, the PC 10 waits for reception of a command from the portable terminal 6. In step 413, a judgment is made as to whether the subject specifying process is completed or not. When the subject specifying process is completed, the processing is terminated in step 414. When the subject specifying process is not completed, a judgment is made in step 415 as to whether there is any command input or not. When there is no command input, the routine of processing goes back to step 412 to repeat the aforementioned steps. When there is any command input, in step 416, information concerned with the optical axis of the pointer 3 is fetched from the step 404. In step 417, a subject intersected by the optical axis of the pointer 3 is determined on the basis of the information concerned with the optical axis of the pointer 3 and the arrangement information of the plurality of subjects stored in the storage device. The judgment as to whether the optical axis of the pointer 3 intersects a subject can be based on a judgment as to whether a vector indicating the optical axis calculated as described above passes through a region indicating one of the subjects stored in the storage device. When there is no subject intersected by the optical axis, in step 418, information of “no indication” is transmitted to the portable terminal 6. On the other hand, when there is a subject intersected by the optical axis, in step 419, the subject intersected by the optical axis is specified and attribution information of the specified subject is transmitted to the portable terminal 6. Then, the routine of processing goes back to the step 412.
In this embodiment, when a certain subject is indicated by the pointer 3 of the portable terminal 6, information concerned with the subject is transmitted to the portable terminal 6 in the aforementioned manner so that attribute information of the subject and an operation user interface are displayed on the screen of the portable terminal 6. The user can operate the portable terminal 6 while viewing the screen of the portable terminal 6 to transmit an operation command to the subject to make it possible to operate the subject.
In this embodiment, as shown in
The PC 10 transmits attribute information of the specified subject 1 to the portable terminal 6 through the server 61 and the base station 62. Upon reception of the attribute information of the subject 1, the portable terminal 6 can appropriately display the received attribute information, related information stored in the portable terminal and a remote control screen on the display screen 5. When the user operates the portable terminal 6, the portable terminal 6 transmits an operation command to a corresponding subject through the base station 62, the server 61 and the PC 10. In this manner, the user can operate the desired subject by operating the portable terminal 6.
In this embodiment, the attribute information of the subjects may be stored as a database (DB) in the storage device 9 connected to the PC 10 or may be stored as a database (DB) in a storage device 63 connected to the server 61. When the storage device 63 is used, attribute information concerned with subjects located in other rooms or departments can be collectively stored and managed.
On the other hand, in step 811, the subject coordinate value (coordinate information) process is started in order to obtain arrangement information (coordinate information) of the subject indicated by the pointer 3. In step 812, the PC 10 waits for reception of a command from the portable terminal 6. In step 813, a judgment is made as to whether there is any command input or not. When there is no command input, the routine of processing goes back to the step 812 to repeat the aforementioned steps. When there is any command input, in step 814, information concerned with the optical axis of the pointer 3 is fetched from the aforementioned step 804. In step 815, a judgment is made as to whether information concerned with the optical axis of the pointer 3 has been fetched twice or not. When the information has not been fetched twice yet, the routine of processing goes back to the step 812 to repeat the aforementioned steps. When the information has been already fetched twice, the line segment distance between the two optical axes is calculated in step 816. For example, the line segment distance between the two optical axes is calculated as follows.
{right arrow over (P)}={right arrow over (a)}+m·{right arrow over (s)} (1)
{right arrow over (Q)}={right arrow over (b)}+n·{right arrow over (t)} (2)
Because the fact that the length of a line segment PQ is equal to the shortest distance between the two straight line means the fact that the line segment PQ is perpendicular to the two straight lines, the sum of the inner product of the direction vector of one straight line and the vector PQ and the inner product of the direction vector of the other straight line and the vector PQ is zero.
{right arrow over (P)}·({right arrow over (P)}−{right arrow over (Q)})=0 (3)
{right arrow over (Q)}=({right arrow over (P)}−{right arrow over (Q)})=0 (4)
Since the points a and b and the vectors s and t can be obtained on the basis of measurement of a concentric ring-like interference fringe pattern, unknown quantities m and n can be obtained as follows. When the expressions (1) and (2) are put in the expressions (3) and (4), the unknown quantities m and n can be calculated. When the quantities m and n are put in the expressions (1) and (2), coordinates of the points P and Q can be calculated. The line segment distance between the two optical axes can be obtained on the basis of the coordinates of the points P and Q.
Referring back to
For example, the region near the point of intersection of the two optical axes can be calculated on the basis of the coordinates of the points P and Q as follows. As the simplest method, the region can be set in the form of an adequate three-dimensional region including the points P and Q. The region may be input in an interactive manner so that the region can be input as a region closer to the real region, compared with the case where the region is calculated automatically. For example, the region is calculated by the steps of:
1. presenting candidates of the three-dimensional region such as a rectangular parallelepiped, a circular cylinder, a cone, a tetragonal spindle, a sphere, etc. with the line segment as its center on the basis of the coordinates of the points P and Q;
2. urging the user to input parameters corresponding to the three-dimensional region when one of the candidates is selected by the user, the parameters being width, height and depth when a rectangular parallelepiped is selected, the parameters being diameter and height when a circular cylinder is selected, the parameters being diameter when a sphere is selected; and
3. urging the user to input values to correct the position when the respective numerical values are input, because the region indicated by the pointer is not always located in the center of the subject.
In this manner, input of arrangement information (coordinate parameters) of the certain subject in a virtual space is completed. According to this embodiment, a means for inputting arrangement information of a subject in a room can be formed so that the subject is indicated by the portable terminal moved in two places so that a region (including a point of intersection of two optical axes) near the point of intersection of the two optical axes can be registered as arrangement information of the subject.
When “1” is keyed in through a numeric keypad of the portable terminal on the screen shown in
When, for example, “4” is keyed in through the numeric keypad of the portable terminal on the screen shown in
When, for example, a refrigerator in the room is indicated by the portable terminal, a screen for indicating the status of the refrigerator and controlling the status of the refrigerator is displayed on the portable terminal as shown in
When, for example, a ceiling (lighting fixture) in the room is indicated by the portable terminal, a screen concerned with the ceiling as shown in
In this manner, in the invention, when an operation command is transmitted from the portable terminal to a desired subject, maintenance or control of the subject can be performed.
The invention relates to an information processing method and system using a terminal apparatus. Particularly, it relates to an information processing method and system using a terminal apparatus, in which a subject is indicated by the terminal apparatus so that attribute information of the subject is displayed on a display screen of the terminal apparatus. The invention therefore has industrial applicability.
According to the invention, it is possible to provide an information processing method and system using a terminal, in which a subject is indicated by the terminal apparatus so that attribute information of the subject is displayed on the terminal apparatus. Accordingly, by the behavior to indicate a subject (substance) in a real space, information concerned with the indicated subject can be browsed on a display device such as a display screen of the terminal apparatus at hand. The user can operate the subject in a key operation manner or in a touch panel operation manner by using the display device. The operation easy for the user to understand can be provided. Moreover, when the subject has to be repaired or exchanged for a new subject, the user can send a request to repair the subject or can order a new subject as a replacement through a network such as the Internet in a key operation manner or in a touch panel operation manner by using the display device of the terminal apparatus.
The entire disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No.2005-195073 filed on Jul. 4, 2005 including specification, claims, drawings and abstract is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| P.2005-195073 | Jul 2005 | JP | national |
