Abstract:
A method and system for computer programming using speech and one or two hand gesture input is described. The system generally uses a plurality of microphones and cameras as input devices. A configurable event recognition system is described allowing various software objects in a system to respond to speech and hand gesture and other input. From this input program code is produced that can be compiled at any time. Various speech and hand gesture events invoke functions within programs to modify programs, move text and punctuation in a word processor, manipulate mathematical objects, perform data mining, perform natural language interne search, modify project management tasks and visualizations, perform  3 D modeling, web page design and web page data entry, and television and DVR programming.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
       [0001]    This application claims the benefit of application Ser. No. 61,134,196 filed Jul. 8, 2008. 
     
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0002]    Computer Programming. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    Humans naturally express continuous streams of data. Capturing this data for human computer interaction has been challenging because of the vast amount of data and the inherent way humans communicate is far from the basic operations of a computer. The human also expresses something in a way that assumes some knowledge not known by a computer. The human input must be translated in some way that results in meaningful output. To reduce this disparity historically tools such as punch cards, mice and keyboards were used to reduce the possible number of inputs so that human movements such as pressing a key results in a narrowly defined result. While these devices allowed us to enter sequences of instructions for a computer to process, the human input was greatly restricted. Furthermore, it has been shown that keyboard input is much slower than speech input and there is significant time wasted in both verifying and correcting misspellings and moving of the hand between the keyboard and mouse. 
         [0004]    Speech recognition in the last 40 years was one technique created widening the range and increasing the speed of computer input. But without additional context speech recognition results in at best a good method for dictation and at worst endless disambiguation. Hand gesture recognition in the last 25 years also widened the range of computer input however, like speech recognition, without additional context the input was ambiguous. Using hand gestures has historically required the user to raise their arms in some way for input tiring the user. 
         [0005]    The idea of combining such speech and gesture modalities for computer input was conceived at least 25 years ago and has been the subject of some research. A few computing systems have been built during this period that accept speech and gesture input to control some application. Special gloves with sensors to measure hand movements were used initially and video cameras subsequently to capture body movements. Other sensing techniques using structured light and ultrasonic signals have been used to capture hand movements. While there is a rich history of sensing and recognition techniques little research has resulted in an application that is useful and natural proven by everyday use. Without a different approach to processing computer inputs the keyboard and mouse will remain the most productive forms of input. 
         [0006]    Computer programming generally consists of problem solving with the use of a computer and finding a set of instructions to achieve some outcome. Historically, programs were entered using punch cards, magnetic tape, and with a keyboard and mouse. This has resulted in the problem solver spending more time getting the syntax correct so the program will execute correctly than finding a set of steps that will solve the original problem. In fact, this difficulty is so bad that an entire profession of programming had developed. Additionally, many programs are written over and over again as implementations of common requirements are not shared. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION AND ADVANTAGES 
       [0007]    This summary provides an overview so that the reader has a broad understanding of the invention. It is not meant to be comprehensive or delineate any scope of the invention. In one aspect of the invention, a method of capturing sensing data and routing related events is disclosed. Computer input can come from many sensors producing input data that must be transformed into useful information and consumed by various programs on a computer system. Speech and gesture input are used in this system as the main input method. Speech input is achieved through a basic personal computer microphone and gesture input is achieved through camera(s). When sensing data is acquired, it is transformed into meaning full data that must be routed to software objects desiring such input. Microphone data is generally transformed into words and camera data is transformed initially into 3D positions of the fingers. This data is recognized by various speech and gesture components that will in turn produce new events to be consumed by various software objects. 
         [0008]    In another aspect of the invention, a facility to configure the routing of sensor input and recognition of sensor data to an application. This facility may take the form of a program interface, a standalone graphical user interface, or an interface in a Integrated Development Environment. Example words or gestures to recognize can be made and assigned to specific named events. Further, the data passed to the recognizer and data passed on can be configured. The method of interpretation of events can be selected. 
         [0009]    In another aspect of the invention is the method of searching for finger parts for two hands. This method involves searching for light patterns to initially find unique lighting characteristics made by common lighting hand interaction. Hand constraints are applied to narrow the results of pattern matching. After the hand center is estimated, startpoints are determined and each finger is traversed using sample skin colors. Generally the hand movement from frame to frame is small so that the next hand or finger positions can be estimated reducing the required processing power required. Light patterns consist of patterns of varying colors. Part of the pattern to find may be skin color while the other part is a darker color representing a crack between fingers. There are many possible obstructions in traversing a finger. These include rings, tattoos, skin wrinkles, and knuckles. The traversal consists of steps that ensures the traversal of the finger in presence of the obstructions. Knuckle and fingertip detectors are used to determine various parts of the finger. The 3D positions of fingertips are then reported. 
         [0010]    In another aspect of the invention is the method of computer programming with speech and gesture input. This involves using an integrated development environment (IDE) that receives speech and gesture events, fully resolves these events and emits code accordingly. When the user performs some combination of speech and gesture, local object and local and internet libraries are searched to find a function matching the input. This results in the generation of instructions for the program. In the case that full matching cannot be found a disambiguation dialog is started. As a example, by touching a variable i and speaking “Add this to this” and touching the List variable A results in instruction A.Add(i). Metadata for various language constructs is used in the matching process. Statements may be rearranged through the speech and gesture matching process. 
         [0011]    The desired program can be described in natural language and corresponding program elements are then constructed. Variable, Function, Class, and Interface naming is something that is commonly critiqued. Various methods of naming may be selected via speech and gestures. These include but are not limited to Verbose, TypeVerbose, and Short. For example, a red bag variable may be represented by RedBag, oRedBag, or even RB. Lines of instructions or statements or parts of instructions may be re-arranged in a direct access and manipulation method. Pieces may be temporally stored on fingertip in order re-arrange instructions. 
         [0012]    Inheritance of objects is also determined by speech and gestures. The method of programming can be used with any language including assembly and natural language. 
         [0013]    In another aspect of the invention, utilizing speech and gestures, punctuation may be added during dictation and blocks of text may be rearranged in a word processing environment. Menu areas also appear from the recognition of speech and gestures. Lists of properties may be changed in a quick manner by touching the property and stating the change or new value. The output may be modified causing the rewriting of current instructions. Various other operations are enabled with this method including the direct manipulation of mathematics, equations, and formalisms. Spreadsheet manipulation, presentation assembly, data mining, hierarchical to-do list execution, game definition, project management software manipulation, data compression, control point manipulation, visualization modification, grammar definition and modification, state machine and sequence diagram creation and code generation, web page design and data entry, Internet data mining, television media programming. 
         [0014]    These techniques may be used in a desktop computer environment, portable device, or wall or whiteboard environment. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0015]      FIG. 1  illustrates the communication architecture, configuration, and hardware components to software objects. 
           [0016]      FIG. 2  illustrates an example graphical user interface that can be used to configure a recognizer, route events, route data, and select sensors and interpretation method, and adding handler for events in code. This drawing also shows how example speech words and graphical gestures can be recorded and tested. 
           [0017]      FIG. 3  illustrates the process for identifying finger and hand parts. 
           [0018]      FIG. 4   a  illustrates various light patterns that are matched in the process of  FIG. 3 . 
           [0019]      FIG. 4   b  illustrates a texture filter to identify variations in skin. 
           [0020]      FIG. 4   c  illustrates a fingertip detector. 
           [0021]      FIG. 4   d  illustrates how the process of  FIG. 3  works on a hand. 
           [0022]      FIG. 5  illustrates the process of traversing a finger for the process in  FIG. 3 . 
           [0023]      FIG. 6  illustrates an example event handler for speech and gesture for an Integrated Development Environment that process speech and gesture events to construct programming language instructions. 
           [0024]      FIG. 7  illustrates an example of code development with speech and gesture events along with example metadata and various program information that can be selected or referred to while programming. 
           [0025]      FIG. 8  illustrates an example of describing a program and code that is constructed, the parts of speech for a sample speech input and resulting code, and various speech input resulting in the same instruction. 
           [0026]      FIG. 9  illustrates the process of changing the naming style of variables and the effect. Illustrates how instructions may be attached to fingers while rearranging code. 
           [0027]      FIG. 10  illustrates the process of mapping fields of one object to another, interface metadata, and changing the inheritance map for some classes 
           [0028]      FIG. 11  illustrates how gestures are used in dictation and text selection and movement in word processing. This figure also shows how a user may select an object and send it to another person. 
           [0029]      FIG. 12  illustrates Menu areas that may appear during a gesture. Here the user selects a circular object and expands fingers and a context menu appears 
           [0030]      FIG. 13  illustrates properties that are modified by selecting a property with a hand gesture and speaking the change in value 
           [0031]      FIG. 14  illustrates a example of modifying the output of a program that results in changes to the instructions. 
           [0032]      FIG. 15  illustrates an example of speech and gestures to indicate that a group of instruction should run in parallel 
           [0033]      FIG. 16  illustrates an example of direct manipulation of mathematical entities or formalisms, along with the concept of factoring using speech and gestures. 
           [0034]      FIG. 17  illustrates an example of Matrix decomposition or factoring, factoring a number into factors, and combining numbers in to a product 
           [0035]      FIG. 18  illustrates an example of direct manipulation of matrix elements selecting a column, performing matrix inversion and transposition using speech or gestures 
           [0036]      FIG. 19  illustrates direct random access changing values in a matrix, row and column changes, performing operations on and retrieving characteristic information of a matrix through speech and gestures 
           [0037]      FIG. 20  illustrates set operations, construction of category diagrams, and term manipulation of equations using speech and gestures, 
           [0038]      FIG. 21  illustrates the use speech and gestures to manipulate a spreadsheet 
           [0039]      FIG. 22  illustrates the use of speech and gestures to assemble a presentation 
           [0040]      FIG. 23  illustrates the use of speech and gestures to perform data mining steps 
           [0041]      FIG. 24  illustrates a hierarchical to-do list and the definition of a game using speech and gestures 
           [0042]      FIG. 25  illustrates game definition, in-game instructions, and game interface using speech and gestures 
           [0043]      FIG. 26   a  illustrates the direct manipulation of a Gantt chart and project management data using speech and gestures 
           [0044]      FIG. 26   b  illustrates using speech and gestures to change the compression of data 
           [0045]      FIG. 26   c  illustrates the raising of the palm to pause an application, speech synthesis/dialog, or to begin undoing an operation 
           [0046]      FIG. 27  illustrates the selection of examples or selection of menu areas in construction software, the continue and reverse gestures applied to a scrolling list, and the modification of control points in 3D design. 
           [0047]      FIG. 28  illustrates an extrusion process, subdivision, and selection of forward and inverse kinematic limits, and axes and link structures. 
           [0048]      FIG. 29  illustrates the manipulation of an equation and visualization for a function of time and frequency using speech and gestures 
           [0049]      FIG. 30  illustrates the use of speech and gestures to define and modify a grammar 
           [0050]      FIG. 31  illustrates direct entry and modification of operational, axiomatic, and denotational semantics, and text file/XML document using speech and gestures 
           [0051]      FIG. 32   a  illustrates the use of speech and gestures in the definition and modification of a state machine resulting in code that can be executed 
           [0052]      FIG. 32   b  illustrates the use of speech and gestures in the definition and modification of a sequence diagram resulting in code that can be executed 
           [0053]      FIG. 32   c  illustrates the use of speech and gestures in the design of a web page. 
           [0054]      FIG. 33  illustrates the use of speech and gestures in the description of the web page operation and code modification, and population of web page data 
           [0055]      FIG. 34  illustrates using speech and gestures to perform natural language queries and optimization problem definition using internet data 
           [0056]      FIG. 35  illustrates entering instructions in television/media to perform recording, playlist modification, and fine, course, and channel direction. 
           [0057]      FIG. 36  illustrates entering program instructions in assembly language and in Hardware Description Language(HDL) using speech and gestures, 
           [0058]      FIG. 37  illustrates common environments and hardware that can be used in connection with these methods 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0059]    The process, method, and system disclosed consists of a speech recognition system, gesture recognition system, and an Integrated Development patterns found together should form a somewhat linear relationship, that is, the top knuckles are generally linear and thus so should the light patterns. 
         [0060]    It should be noted that it is okay but not preferred if there are extra light patterns found. These will be filtered out later in the process. If there are any changes  310  to the center estimate after some light patterns are removed the process is repeated. Then finally the top knuckles are estimated and the fingers are initially labeled along there linear appearance  312 . For example, if there are four light patterns, then knuckles are labeled for all fingers and the thumb. If less than four, then they are labeled as fingers with other possible fingers on either side. Then, the starting points  418  for finger traversal are determined  314 . Since there is assumed skin area found by the light patterns, a pixel around each side of the skin area serves as a starting point. The skin is sampled and this color is used to begin the finger traversal. This occurs for each finger. The finger is then traversed using an angle called Major Angle. This represents the angle between the top of each light pattern and the hand center estimate. This sets a general direction for traversal. 
         [0061]    The fingers are then traversed  338  looking for a goal feature such as a fingertip. If all fingertips were found then the recognition is considered good, else bad. The traversal step is able to estimate fingertips not found and will result in a good recognition even though they were not found. 
         [0062]    If the recognition was not bad then a predictive step may be made using a kalman filter or by tracking center values from a previous frame. With 30 frames per second processing most a center value on a finger traversal may serve as the next starting point  334 . However, it is preferred that the search area is reduced encompassing the previous area where the light patterns were found before proceeding to the next frame  332 ,  330 . 
         [0063]      FIG. 5  illustrates the process of finger traversal. The first step in a broad sense it to look around and make sure that there are two sides to the finger. Initially in the traversal this will not be the case because of hand orientation, lighting, and thresholding if performed. The traversal attempts to step to best points in the presence of rings, wrinkles, tattoos, hair, or other foreign elements on the fingers. A safe distance is determined in the following way. A reference line is drawn between the tops of two neighboring light patterns. A best step  502  must be taken in the direction of the major angle until traversing the perpendicular to the major angle results in finding both edges of the fingers. This safe distance line is shown in  FIG. 4   d    420 . Traversal  424  represents the best steps. Once the traversal is past the safe distance  504 , both sides of the finger are determined. This may occur at each step or a sampling of steps. The major angle/calc angle  506  represent follow the bone structure of the finger. After some distance, the LookAhead distance  510 , a search is done for the goal feature or the fingertip  512 . Various tip detectors  414  may be used for this feature. A successful one is shown in  FIG. 4   c . The center values  404 ,  408  calculated during the traversal follow the bone structure  406 . With each step past the LookAhead point, three additional traversals are made at some configurable angle from the centerline or bone. The angle should be larger for wider fingers and small for smaller fingers such as the smallest finger. If three edges are found then the fingertip has been found. If the tip is not found then the process returns to  502  to take another step. If the tip is found, the fingertip is recorded. If all five tips have been found the data is reported  526 . 
         [0064]    It can be worth doing an additional type of recognition  528  to locate starting points for traversal on missing fingers. This may include scanning neighboring regions for similar skin colors. If a start point is determined and after it&#39;s finger traversal, the resulting fingertip is very near a fingertip already found then the starting point was part of a finger traversed. 
         [0065]    After using the final start point for finger traversal missing fingertip may be estimated from previous frames and posture history and hand constraints. Calc Angle is used instead of Major Angle after the safe distance and is represented by line  406  calculated from sample center values. 
         [0066]    Gesture and Speech Enabled IDE 
         [0067]    The gesture and speech enabled integrated development environment is able to receive 3D hand gestures events and speech events. The development environment is used to construct programs from various components both local to the computer and from a network such as the internet. The IDE assembles these components along with instructions and translates them into a format that can be executed by a processor or set of processors. The IDE has some ability to engage in dialog with the user while disambiguating human input. The IDE need not be a separate entity from the operating system but is a clustering of development features. 
         [0068]      FIG. 6  represents the method of event processing by the IDE. New events arrive  622  and are received  600 . Gesture events proceed to be resolved  602  to determine what they are referring to. Some gestures refer to the selection of objects in which case a hit test is performed to determine which object has been selected. For example, for a tap gesture event will invoke a hit test. The IDE must search  606  its local objects to match the event set with metadata for the local objects. If a function matches, that function is executed. This is usually the case for events such as a speech event for the utterance “Create a class”. The IDE will cause the creation of class as specified by the language. Other events such as selection of blocks of code are handled by the IDE. If no match is found then local and network libraries are searched  608 . If there is a match then code for that function is created  618 . If no match is found a process of interactive disambiguation  612 , 614 , 616 , 620  is invoked. The IDE will attempt to understand the received events by finding the closest meanings and query the user in some way to narrow the meanings until the event can be fully resolved, or, the user exits the disambiguation process. If the meaning is determined by this process, the code for the function is created. This disambiguation process is not confined to just creating code but for any object such as disambiguating the entry of function parameters for a code statement. A user may exit the disambiguation through some utterance or gesture such as the lifting of the hand. 
         [0069]    This process also enables the visual construction of programs. It is more natural to work graphically on parts of a program that will be used in a graphical sense, such as a graphical user interface. The speech and gesture based IDE facilitates the construction of such an interface. The user interface can be made up of individual objects each with some graphical component to fully create the interface. This interface may be used locally on a machine or used over a network such as the internet. In the latter case, the html user interface model may be used as shown in  FIG. 32   c . The programmer may design the interface using a speech and gesture enabled library of objects to create Images, Hyperlinks, Text, Video, and other user interface elements, and further program the functionality of these components in a declarative or imperative way  3300 , including giving certain elements the ability to respond to gesture and speech input. 
         [0070]      FIG. 7  illustrates one example in the programming process. The user has created a variables i and A  700  and defined i  702  by stating “let i=5”. The user states “Add that”  706  and selects the variable i, which causes a tap gesture event. The user then states “to that”  710  and selects variable A  708  creating a second tap gesture event. The tap events are resolved using hit tests to be variables i and A. This input is then matched to the function Add using the class  714 ,  716  and function  718 , 720 , 722  metadata for a List class. The code is then generated for this function, A.Add(i)  712  which adds an integer to a list A. In the programming process various entities may be referenced through speech and gesture. For example, variables can be referenced not only from the code in view but from the displays of variables,  730 , 732 , 734 , 736 , 738 . The display of entities may vary depending on one particular user&#39;s preference and what parts of the program the user is currently working on. The Add function is defined in  724  and has statement metadata  726  and the function statements  728 . 
         [0071]    A program can be described in an interactive dictation way allowing the programmer to make some statements about the program and the IDE making some program interpretation. For example in  FIG. 8  the user utters sentences  800  and  802 . The utterances are parsed and code is produced accordingly. Since the Bag is not defined it uses a common interpretation of a bag from an network or local resource. Two bags are created  804 . The bags are colored according to the sentence parse of  800  and  802 . The marbles are also created similarly. An example parse is  806  in reference to statement  808 . The code is created in a similar way to  712 . Many user inputs may result in the same action as shown in  812 , 814 , 816 . There are many ways to change the color of a marble. The first “Color the red marble blue” is similar to  712  in that a color set property is matched. The second utterance “change the red marble&#39;s color to blue” resolves to change a property (color) of the red marble. The third utterance and gesture “make that [tap] blue”  814  resolves again to changing an objects color property to blue. A hit test is performed to resolve the tap gesture. The RedMarble object identifier is found. The specific language and compiler designers have some involvement in how a match is made from the events to the creation of code for a program. For example, if a language does not have classes, the IDE should not try to create one if the programmer utters “create a class”. So the programmer may perform direct entry as in  FIG. 7 , or may elect to describe how the program works as in  FIG. 8  and make modifications as the program is developed. 
         [0072]    Program modification can take many forms and is fully enabled by speech and gesture input. For example, in  FIG. 9 , the display style of variables of a program may be changed to suit an individual programmer or some best practice within some group of programmers. Here  900  the programmer selects the variable and states a style change.  900 ,  902 , and  904  illustrate example variable styles for called ‘verbose’, ‘TypeVerbose’, and ‘Short’. 
         [0073]    In the arrangement of instructions and program parts, the hand may act as a kind of clipboard storing instructions to be re-inserted while editing as shown in  912 , 914 , 916 . 
         [0074]    Event matching metadata may be added to any development construct including interfaces  1010 , 1012 . In  FIG. 10 , an interface for ICollection is defined with interface metadata and function metadata. 
         [0075]    This process is not limited to particular types of language. For example, in  FIG. 36  metadata is added to a module in a Hardware Description Language and assembly language. 
         [0076]    Fields may be mapped between objects in two systems so that they may exchange data  1000 , 1002 , 1004 , 1006 . This can be done using some speech and gesture utterance.  1008  indicates some function required such as concatenating two fields for map to a single field in the other system. A user or programmer may utter “concatenate Field three and four and map it to Field three”. Alternatively, the user may utter “concatenate this [tap] to this [tap] and map it to here [tap]”. This results in both speech and gesture events. 
         [0077]    Further illustrated in  FIG. 10 , the programmer may define and change the inheritance hierarchy for any object using speech and gesture events. 
         [0078]    Word Processing 
         [0079]    One of the problems with dictation is that it is unclear whether the speaker is desiring direct input, giving commands to a program, or describing what they are dictating and how it is displayed. Using hand gestures along with speech resolves many of these problems. For example, while dictating the sentence “In the beginning, there were keyboards and mice.” The user would normally have to say the words ‘comma’ and ‘period’. But this is awkward. Especially if the sentence was “My friend was in a coma, for a very long period”. Using hand gestures as parallel input to speech as shown in  1100 , the sentence is conveyed nicely. Punctuation gestures are performed to insert appropriate punctuation during dictation. 
         [0080]    Hand gestures may also be useful in selecting beginning and ending text positions in a paragraph to remove or rearrange the text as shown at  1112 , 1114 , 1116 . 
         [0081]    Sending Data 
         [0082]    Simple data transfers are enabled with gesture input. The user selects  1118  an object and drags  1120  the object to a contact name  1122 . 
         [0083]    Menu Areas 
         [0084]    Menu areas are displayed in response to speech and gesture input as indicated in  FIG. 12 . The user bay select  1200  and object  1206  and perform a spreading or stretching motion  1202  and  1204  invoking a menu area  1208 ,  1210 . The user may then select areas of the menu to perform some operation or selection. 
         [0085]    Quick Property Modification 
         [0086]    Object property values may be modified in a quick fashion as shown in  FIG. 13 . Here  1300 , a list of properties is displayed and corresponding values  1304 . The user may select and state quickly what the new value should be. Here the properties are “Color, Left Position, Top Position, Style”. The user may touch these and utter “[tap]Blue [tap] 135 [tap ] 211 [tap] Cool”  1306  shown without the gesture tap events. 
         [0087]    Output Modification 
         [0088]    Frequently in program development the output is not as desired. So instead of making blind changes to the program to fix the output, the user or programmer may make changes to the output directly and disambiguate the code changes desired. This is depicted in  FIG. 14 . A print statement is made  1400  resulting in output  1404 . The programmer does not like the spacing and number format of the output. The programmer then may use a combination of speech  1402   1412  and hand gestures  1408 ,  1410  and  1414  to reduce the space  1406  and round the number  1414 . As described, simple selection tap gestures are used. However, other gestures may be used without the speech input with the same result. These gestures can be natural—a contracting of the hand after selection to reduce the space, and swiping the finger after selecting the area to round. 
         [0089]    The resulting code is in  1412  and resulting output  1414 . 
         [0090]    Instruction Execution Location 
         [0091]    Many times for efficient execution code will need to run in parallel. A programmer may explicitly indicate what instructions should run in parallel and on what processor or group of processors.  FIG. 15  illustrates various methods to achieve this. The user may select with a hand gesture  1500  a range of instructions and make an utterance  1502  so that the compiler or runtime knows  1504   1506  to run these in parallel. A second way of achieving the same result is  1508   1510  and  1512 . Two instructions may be made to run in parallel by moving them into a parallel position. 
         [0092]    Grammar Definition 
         [0093]    Grammars  3000  may be defined and changed with speech and gesture events as illustrated in  FIG. 30 . Grammar development is made with similar speech and hand gesture events as described previously. For example, adding a new expression production results in the short style production ‘expr’. Individual components of the grammar can be selected or accessed  3020  using gestures as described previously. 
         [0094]    Assembly Language Development 
         [0095]    Programming in assembly language,  FIG. 36 , is similar to other code development described previously. Menu areas are formed to allow the hand gesture selection of registers, instructions, and memory locations from various segments  3630 . Metadata may be added to functions such as  3610  and a combination of speech and gesture input is made to produce a statement such as  3620 . 
         [0096]    Mathematical Formalism and Operations 
         [0097]    The concise expression of functions and relations are important in mathematics whether they be through some set of symbols and variables or described through natural language. Creating and modifying mathematic entities using a computer has been difficult in the past in part to having to select different parts with cursor keys on a keyboard, or using a mouse. Enabling mathematical objects to respond to speech and hand gesture input alleviates this problem.  FIG. 16  thru  20  illustrate examples and methods for manipulating mathematical objects. In  1600  we have a summation that may be modified by selecting various parts and speaking the new values. Here the user selects  1604  and  1602  by hand gestures  1606  and states changes “1 2 10” to change the lower and upper bounds of the summation and the function x. 
         [0098]      1622  illustrates the gesture progression  1614   1616   1618  of a factoring or decomposition of an equation  1612  into factors  1620 .  FIG. 17  illustrates the factoring or decomposition of a matrix  1700  by selecting  1702  the matrix and performing a gesture sequence  1708   1704  resulting in the optional display of a menu area  1706  to select a type of decomposition. The resulting decomposition is  1712 . Similarly, numbers may be factored or decomposed into factors as shown in  1714   1716   1718 , or, combined or fused through the selection  1720   1722  and hand gesture sequence  1724  resulting in the optional display  1728  and selection  1726  to perform a multiplication of the selected numbers, finally resulting in  1730 . 
         [0099]    Selection of groups of elements may be made using speech and hand gesture input as illustrated in  FIG. 18 ,  1800  and other operations may be performed through speech and hand gesture input.  1802   1804   1806   1810  indicate an matrix inverse operation.  1812   1814  and  1816  indicate a transpose operation.  1900   1902  and  1904  illustrate direct random access and modification of mathematical objects.  1910   1906  and  1908  illustrate the access and modification of structure of the matrix by inserting a column. Operators may be applied to matrices such as addition illustrated in  1914  and  1912  resulting in  1913 .  1916  and  1918  illustrate that matrix system characteristic values and vectors may be determined through the use of speech and gestures. 
         [0100]    Set operations can be performed through speech and hand gesture input, for example, illustrated in  FIG. 20 . The creation of union  2006  and intersection  2010  can be made by selecting two sets  2000  and invoking the operation through some speech and gesture input. Similarly sets of data may be handled in a similar way  2012   2014   2016 . 
         [0101]    Category diagrams  2018  can be construction with speech and gesture input with access to all parts of the diagram. This construction can result in an operational system based on the relation described in the diagram. In other words, creating a diagrammatic relationship results in the creation of code and/or metadata for the code.  2020  and  2022  illustrate the random access and direct manipulation of equations, by changing function composition and rearrangement of terms in an addition operation. 
         [0102]    Programming Language Formalisms 
         [0103]    Operational, Axiomatic, and Denotational Semantics may also be created and modified directly using speech and hand gestures. This is illustrated in  FIG. 31 . The user may provide some speech or gesture input to modify the individual properties of semantics, whether the structure of the semantic or by direct entry. 
         [0104]    Spreadsheet 
         [0105]    Entering data and functions in spreadsheets can be cumbersome as it is difficult make selections and enter the desired functions using a keyboard and mouse. Usually there is quite a bit of back and forth movement between the keyboard and mouse. With speech and hand gesture input there is little.  FIG. 22  illustrates some operations exemplifying this. The user selects a cell, with a hand gesture, to add a function  2104  and makes utterance  2106  additionally selecting two cells  2102 . There is no typing, and no large hand movements. Similarly, row or column operations can be done as illustrated in  2108  and  2110 . 
         [0106]    Presentation Assembly 
         [0107]    A presentation  2200  is assembled using speech and hand gesture input. Presentation title, bullet text, and other objects such as graphics, video, and custom application may arranged. The presentation itself is configured  2202  to respond to various events including speech and hand gesture input. Other inputs may include items such as a hand held wand or pointer. These speech and gesture inputs allow the user to interact with onscreen objects during the presentation. 
         [0108]    Data Mining 
         [0109]    Data mining is complemented with speech and gesture input as illustrated in  FIG. 23 . The user may retrieve some data, classify the data  2300  using hand gestures to draw arcs and uttering  2302 . Further the user may label areas as indicated in  2304 . The user may also cluster data through speech and gesture input and indicated in  2306  and  2310 . 
         [0110]    Hierarchical To-Do List Execution 
         [0111]      FIG. 24  illustrates a hierarchical to do list where a user may make a gesture to indicate an item location and utter a item, such as “Find highest paying interest checking account”. Now, there may be a number of steps involved in fulfilling this item as indicated in  2400   2402 . This forms an optimization problem that the computer or computer agents may assist in. Result disambiguation and requery are done subsequently. 
         [0112]    Game Development and Interaction 
         [0113]    The code for a game may be produced from a hand gesture and spoken description as illustrated in  FIG. 24 ,  2404   2406  and  FIG. 25   2500 . Here the user makes a reference to a desired property  2406  of an object and selects it  2408  using a hand gesture. A character in the game may receive instructions to follow through play speech and hand gesture movement  2502 . A player may give in game instructions. For example as illustrates in  2504  and  2506 , a player may give a baseball pitcher the sign for curveball. 
         [0114]    Examples may also be displayed to disambiguate the input as illustrated in  FIG. 27 . The game developer desires to put a river in a game and wants to select  2704  different wave styles  2700 . Examples are shown and the developer may change parameters  2702  for the desired effect. 
         [0115]    Project Management 
         [0116]    In the project management process, tasks are estimated and tracked.  FIG. 26   a  illustrates the use of hand gestures to select and enter tasks, start and finish dates  2602   2604 , and modifying a graphic representing time. Here general expansion and contraction of the hand modifies the finish date or percentage of the task completed. 
         [0117]    Data Compression 
         [0118]    Data may be compressed interactively using hand gesture and speech input.  FIG. 26   b  illustrates this process.  2610  indicates uncompress or low compressed data and  2616  illustrates the expanding or contracting of the hand to compress the data to  2614 . Optionally, speech and compression parameters  2612  may be utilized. 
         [0119]    Rate and Direction 
         [0120]    Frequently computer users want to continue some operation. This can be achieved using speech and hand gestures as well as illustrated in  2706  through  2712 . The user desires to scroll through a list and makes a continue gesture  2706  wagging the finger back and forth with continuous motion. Multiple fingers may wag back and forth for faster or courser increments. The speed of wagging can also determine speed of the scroll. To reverse the direction, a thumb is lifted and the continue gestures may, continue. 
         [0121]    Graphics and 3 Dimensional Modeling 
         [0122]    Control points in modeling may be manipulated with speech and hand gesture input as illustrated in  2716   2718  and  2720 . Here the modeler selects a control point with their finger and moves it to a desired location. Other operations can be done including multiple point selection and extrusion as illustrated in  2800   2810  and  2820 , and subdivision as illustrated in  2830  and  2840 . Forward and inverse kinematic systems  2850  are constructed from speech and hand gesture input. Joint angle, rate, and torque limits can be defined  2850   
         [0123]    Direct Manipulation of Function Parameters and Its Visualization 
         [0124]    Frequently signals are used as input to a system to test some system function. These signals may be represented by an equation such as  2900 . Speech and hand gestures are used to directly modify the variables in the equation or the actual visualization  2920 .  FIG. 29  illustrates this in detail. Variables A and theta may be changed by selecting them with a hand gesture and uttering the new value. For example, “change A to  5 ”. Alternatively, a gesture may be made on the visualization  2920  to achieve similar effect. In this case both the magnitude A and the angle theta are modified by the gesture. 
         [0125]    An XML document or text file man be directly created or modified through the use of speech and hand gestures and shown in  3120 . In this XML file elements may be created, named with direct manipulation of values and attributes. 
         [0126]    State Machine and Sequence Diagrams 
         [0127]    State machines and sequence diagrams can be created and manipulated  3206  using speech and hand gesture input. In  FIG. 32   a , two states are created using pointing hand gestures and uttering ‘create two states’. The user then may draw arcs using a finger resulting in edges between states  3200   a    3200   b    3202  and state the condition resulting in moving from one state to the other. The resulting system is then fully operational and may respond to input. 
         [0128]    Similarly, a sequence diagram in  FIG. 32   b  created  3208  through speech and gesture input allows two system A and B  3200   a    3200   b  to communicate through messages  3204 . After sequence diagram is defined system is fully operational and may respond to input. 
         [0129]    Natural Language Search Query 
         [0130]    A major part of efficient goal satisfaction is locating blocks of information that reduce the work required. Humans rarely state all of the requirements of some goal and often change the goal along the way in the satisfaction process in presence of new information. Frequently a concept is understood but cannot be fully articulated without assistance. This process is iterative and eventually the goal will become satisfied. Speech and hand gesture input is used in optimization and goal satisfaction problems. A user may want to find pictures of a cat on the internet with many attributes ( FIG. 34 ) but cannot state all of the attributes initially as there are tradeoffs and the user does not even know all of the attributes that describe the cat. For example, it may be the case that cats with long ears have short tails so searching for a cat with long ears and a long tail will return nothing early in the search. 
         [0131]    A user may have a picture of a cat and utter  3400  “Find pictures of cats that like this one.” A tap gesture event is recognized as the user touches  3410  a picture of a cat. A result from local and internet resources produces the natural language result  3420 . The user may then narrow the results again through an utterance “like that but long haired”  3425 . 
         [0132]    Other search queries are illustrated in  3430  and  3440  with gesture inputs on the right side  3450 . Internet results may also be links with the desired attributes. 
         [0133]    Media Recording and Programming 
         [0134]    Instructions may be given to devices to manipulate audio and video. In addition to using continuous hand gestures for incrementing and decrementing channel numbers as shown in  3520 , speech and hand gestures are used to create lists of recorded audio or video, daily playlists, playing back specific media, and the order of playback, as shown in  3500 . Instructions need not be displayed to be stored or executed.