Abstract:
A dual-mode input apparatus is disclosed and includes a panel, a processing module, and an image-capturing system capable of capturing images in front of the panel. The image-capturing system can capture a touch input image and a gesture input device by an image-sensing component and a light-modulating component. The processing module processes the sensed images to determine input information. Alternatively, the image-capturing system can include an image-capturing device capable of rotating relative to the panel. The processing module is therefore capable of controlling rotating of the image-capturing device so as to capture a touch input image and a gesture input image selectively for the processing module to determine input information. Therefore, the dual-mode input apparatus of the invention can provide two input modes by use of the same image device, which overcomes the limitation of a conventional single image-capturing system being applied only to a single input architecture.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0002]    The invention relates to an input apparatus, and especially relates to an optical touch input apparatus. 
         [0003]    2. Description of the Prior Art 
         [0004]    As touch technologies become mature, various touch architectures are widely applied to touch display system, which is different to early input architectures with independent keyboards and mice and improves the convenience of users using electronic apparatus. The size of a current touch screen becomes larger and larger, which can provide users more comfortable conditions of viewing. However, when the user wants to perform touch operation, the user needs to approach the screen, causing that it is inconvenient to the user to view the whole screen during the touch operation, which induces inconvenience in a certain extent to the interaction between the user and the system. Furthermore, it is also inconvenient to the user to perform touch operation over a wide area of the screen. For the inconvenience of the wide-area touch operation, a system of taking gesture images of a user in a space as input is available. Thereby, a user can view the screen at a proper distance and easily perform a wide-area input operation by gestures simultaneously. However, the control preciseness by the gesture input may be insufficient, especially for a small-area input operation such as moving, clicking small icons and so on, leading to poor movement positioning, miss-clicking icons and so on. Either interactive displaying systems of touch input or interactive displaying systems of gesture input have their own physically independent architectures. Therefore, in practice, such interactive displaying system is usually equipped with only an input architecture, so that the interactive displaying system is applicable only to a single input mode, which hardly satisfies both the convenience and the preciseness of input operation. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0005]    An objective of the invention is to provide a dual-mode input apparatus, which can use an image-capturing device to capture touch images and gesture images in front of a panel thereof for the requirements of touch input and gesture input, which transcends the limitation of a conventional interactive displaying system unable to use a single input architecture to perform two different kinds of input modes. 
         [0006]    A dual-mode input apparatus of the invention includes a panel, an image-sensing component, a light-modulating component, and a processing module. A touch input space and a gesture input space are defined in front of the panel. The touch input space is located between the panel and the gesture input space. The light-modulating component is disposed above the image-sensing component toward the touch input space and the gesture input space, such that the image-sensing component is capable of simultaneously sensing a first image relative to the touch input space and a second image relative to the gesture input space through the light-modulating component. The processing module is electrically connected to the image-sensing component and processes at least one of the first image and the second image to determine an input information. In an application, the first image can be a touch image on the panel by a user; the second image can be a gesture image in front of the panel in a distance by the user. Therefore, the dual-mode input apparatus of the invention can allow touch operation and gesture operation by a user to be the basis for input, which transcends the limitation of a conventional interactive displaying system applicable only to a single input mode and further improves the flexibility of interaction input design and satisfies both the convenience and the preciseness of input operation. 
         [0007]    Another dual-mode input apparatus of the invention includes a panel, an image-capturing device, and a processing module. A touch input space and a gesture input space are defined in front of the panel. The touch input space is located between the panel and the gesture input space. The image-capturing device is disposed at a circumference of the panel and capable of rotating relative to the panel. The processing module is electrically connected to the image-capturing device and, according to a switching mechanism, controls rotating of the image-capturing device to be capable of selectively capturing either a first image relative to the touch input space or a second image relative to the gesture input space so as to determine an input information. Similarly, the dual-mode input apparatus of the invention can allow touch operation and gesture operation by a user to be the basis for input, which transcends the limitation of a conventional interactive displaying system applicable only to a single input mode. 
         [0008]    These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0009]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram illustrating the front-view configuration of a dual-mode input apparatus of an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0010]      FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram illustrating a partial side-view configuration of the dual-mode input apparatus in  FIG. 1 . 
           [0011]      FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram illustrating the side view of an image-capturing device according to an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0012]      FIG. 4  is a schematic diagram illustrating the side view of an image-capturing device according to an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0013]      FIG. 5  is a schematic diagram illustrating the front-view configuration of a dual-mode input apparatus of another embodiment of the invention. 
           [0014]      FIG. 6  is a schematic diagram illustrating a partial side-view configuration of the dual-mode input apparatus in  FIG. 5 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0015]    Please refer to  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2 .  FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram illustrating the front-view configuration of a dual-mode input apparatus  1  of an embodiment of the invention.  FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram illustrating a partial side-view configuration of the dual-mode input apparatus  1 . The dual-mode input apparatus  1  includes a panel  12 , two image-capturing devices  14   a  and  14   b,  and a processing module  16 . The panel  12  is a displaying panel, but the invention is not limited thereto. A touch input space  12   a  and a gesture input space  12   b  (shown by dashed lines in  FIG. 2 ) are defined in front of the panel  12 . The touch input space  12   a  is located between the panel  12  and the gesture input space  12   b.  The image-capturing device  14   a  and the image-capturing device  14   b  are identical in structure and symmetrically disposed, and only the image-capturing device  14   a  will be illustrated in the following. The image-capturing device  14   a  includes an image-sensing component  142  and a light-modulating component  144 . The light-modulating component  144  is disposed above the image-sensing component  142  toward the touch input space  12   a  and the gesture input space  12   b  such that the image-sensing component  142  is capable of simultaneously sensing a first image relative to the touch input space  12   a  and a second image relative to the gesture input space  12   b  through the light-modulating component  144 . The processing module  16  and the image-sensing component  142  are connected electrically (shown by dashed lines). The processing module  16  processes at least one of the first image and the second image to determine an input information, for example movement of an object (such as mouse pointer), object (such as icons) clicking, and other effective trajectories (such as object enlarging, shrinking and rotating). 
         [0016]    In the embodiment, when the dual-mode input apparatus  1  is at a touch mode, the processing module  16  will process the first image for the input information. The first image is an image illustrating positions of a finger of a user on the panel  12 . An analysis of the position image and a required hardware configuration therefore depend on the used touch technology. In the embodiment, the dual-mode input apparatus  1  uses the two image-capturing devices  14   a  and  14   b  and three bar light sources  13   a,    13   b  and  13   c  (for example light bars for practice), so as to be able to analyze multi-touch positions, but the invention is not limited thereto. It is added that the first image is an image captured from the touch input space  12   a,  not an image formed by physical touches by the finger on the panel  12 ; therefore, in practice, an effective capture of the first image is unnecessarily based on a precondition of the finger physically touching the panel  12 . In addition, in practice, a single position image can form a touch point position; a sequence of position images can form a trajectory input. These are known by people skilled in the field of optical touch and therefore are not be described herein. 
         [0017]    When the dual-mode input apparatus  1  is at a gesture input mode, the processing module  16  will process the second image for the input information. The second image is an image of a finger gesture of the user in the gesture input space  12   b.  In principle, an image in a space can be captured only by an image-capturing device. In the embodiment, both the image-capturing devices  14   a  and  14   b  can capture images relative to the gesture input space  12   b.  Processing images which are capture simultaneously can also obtain image depth information. However, the invention is not limited thereto. It is added that in the optical touch technology, the first image is usually a one-dimension image. Compared with the first image, the second image is a two-dimension image, which implies more information such as a gesture and a skeleton of a user or a sub-image relative to a specific portion of a user. One two-dimension image can be applicable to various input kinds. A sequence of two-dimension images can also be applicable to input kinds using trajectory. 
         [0018]    As shown in  FIG. 2 , the light-modulating component  144  includes a first lens  1442  and a second lens  1444 . The image-sensing component  142  includes an optical sensor unit such as CMOS, but the invention is not limited thereto. The optical sensor unit has a first sensing area  1422  and a second sensing area  1424  corresponding to the first lens  1442  and the second lens  1444  respectively. The optical sensor unit uses the first sensing area  1422  to sense the first image relative to the touch input space  12   a  through the first lens  1442 . The optical sensor unit uses the second sensing area  1424  to sense the second image relative to the gesture input space  12   b  through the second lens  1444 . In the embodiment, the optic axis (shown by a chain line in  FIG. 2 ) of the first lens  1442  is parallel to the surface (i.e. touch surface) of the panel  12 . The light-modulating component  144  includes a reflection plane  1446  for reflecting light from the first lens  1442  to the first sensing area  1422  of the image-sensing component  142 . The second lens  1444  is disposed right opposite to the second sensing area  1424 . In practice, a wide-angle lens such as a fish-eye lens can be used as the second lens  1444 , so as to be capable of capturing images relative to the gesture input space  12   b,  but the invention is not limited thereto. For example, in practice, the second lens  1444  can be provided with a reflection plane so as to allow of slant disposition, which is conducive to reduction on the influence of aberration to image analysis. In addition, it is added that in the embodiment, the image-sensing component  142  uses a single optical sensor unit, but the invention is not limited thereto. As shown in  FIG. 3 , in another embodiment, the image-sensing component  143  uses a first optical sensor unit  1432  and a second optical sensor unit  1434  which are separate and correspond to the first lens  1442  and the second lens  1444  respectively. The first optical sensor unit  1432  senses the first image relative to the touch input space  12   a  through the first lens  1442 . The second optical sensor unit  1434  senses the second image relative to the gesture input space  12   b  through the second lens  1444 . 
         [0019]    In the embodiment, the image-sensing component  142  simultaneously senses images at two zones (i.e. the touch input space  12   a  and the gesture input space  12   b ), so in practice, the processing module  16  can direct analyze the first image and the second image to determine which mode the dual-mode input apparatus  1  is. For example, if the first image is an ineffective image, the dual-mode input apparatus  1  can be regarded as being in at the gesture input mode, and the processing module  16  processes the second image to determine the input information; if the second image is an ineffective image, the dual-mode input apparatus  1  can be regarded as being at the touch mode, and the processing module  16  processes the first image to determine the input information. Even when the first image and the second image are effective, the dual-mode input apparatus  1  can be regarded as being in a hybrid input mode, and the processing module  16  simultaneously analyzes the first image and the second image to determine the input information, which can increase more available input instances. 
         [0020]    In the above embodiment, the image-capturing device  14   a  captures images relative to the touch input space  12   a  and the gesture input space  12   b  by use of the two lenses  1442  and  1444  respectively, but the invention is not limited thereto. Please refer to  FIG. 4 , which is a schematic diagram illustrating the side view of an image-capturing device  15  according to another embodiment. The image-capturing device  15  includes an image-sensing component  152  and a light-modulating component  154 . The light-modulating component  154  is disposed corresponding to the image-sensing component  152  and includes a fish-eye lens  1542 . The image-sensing component  152  can simultaneously sense the first image relative to the touch input space  12   a  and the second image relative to the gesture input space  12   b  through the fish-eye lens  1542 . Based on optical principle, the areas corresponding to the first image and the second image are distinguishable, so the above explanation of analyzing the images by the image-capturing device  1  to determine the input information is also applicable herein. 
         [0021]    Please refer  FIG. 5  and  FIG. 6 .  FIG. 5  is a schematic diagram illustrating the front-view configuration of a dual-mode input apparatus  3  of another embodiment of the invention.  FIG. 6  is a schematic diagram illustrating a partial side-view configuration of the dual-mode input apparatus  3 . The dual-mode input apparatus  3  includes a panel  32 , two image-capturing devices  34   a  and  34   b,  and a processing module  36 . The panel  32  is a displaying panel, but the invention is not limited thereto. A touch input space  32   a  and a gesture input space  32   b  (shown by dashed lines in  FIG. 6 ) are defined in front of the panel  32 . The touch input space  32   a  is located between the panel  32  and the gesture input space  32   b.  The image-capturing device  34   a  and the image-capturing device  34   b  are identical in structure and symmetrically disposed, and only the image-capturing device  34   a  will be illustrated in the following. The image-capturing device  34   a  is disposed at a circumference of the panel  32  and capable of rotating relative to the panel  32 . In the embodiment, the image-capturing device  34   a  uses a motor  35  connected thereto so as to rotate relative to the panel  32 , but the invention is not limited thereto. The processing module  36  is electrically connected to the image-capturing device  34   a  and the motor  35 . The processing module  36  controls the motor  35  to drive the image-capturing device  34   a  to rotate such that the image-capturing device  34   a  is capable of selectively capturing either a first image relative to the touch input space  32   a  or a second image relative to the gesture input space  32   b  so as to determine an input information. The configuration of the dual-mode input apparatus  3  is substantially similar in logic to that of the dual-mode input apparatus  1 , so please refer to the above relevant description of the dual-mode input apparatus  1  for other description about the dual-mode input apparatus  3 , which will not be repeated. 
         [0022]    In the embodiment, the image-capturing device  34   a  can sense images in either the touch input space  32   a  or the gesture input space  32   b  at the same time, so in practice, the processing module  36  will switch the input mode of the dual-mode input apparatus  3  according to a switching mechanism. In the embodiment, the dual-mode input apparatus  3  includes a sensor  38  disposed close to the panel  32  (for example at the top middle) and electrically connected to the processing module  36 . The sensor  38  is capable of sensing a sensed signal of an object (such as hands or body of a user) in the touch input space  32   a  or the gesture input space  32   b.  If the processing module  36  judges that the sensed signal matches a switching criterion, the processing module  36  correspondingly controls the image-capturing device  34   a,  i.e. controls the motor  35  to rotate such that the image-capturing device  34   a  is capable of capturing the first image relative to the touch input space  32   a  or the second image relative to the gesture input space  32   b.  Thereby, the switching mechanism is realized. 
         [0023]    In a practical application, the sensor  38  can be a distance sensor for sensing distance, for example by technologies of infrared ray, radio waves, sonar and so on, so the sensed signal is based on a distance relative to the object. If the processing module  36  judges that the sensed signal is larger than a first predetermined value, the processing module  36  controls the image-capturing device  34   a  so as to capture the second image relative to the gesture input space  32   b.  In other words, when the dual-mode input apparatus  3  is at the touch mode, the processing module  36  controls the rotating of the image-capturing device  34   a  such that the dual-mode input apparatus  3  is at the gesture input mode; when the dual-mode input apparatus  3  is at the gesture input mode, the processing module  36  maintains the current capturing angle of the image-capturing device  34   a  such that the dual-mode input apparatus  3  keeps being at the gesture input mode. 
         [0024]    Similarly, if the processing module  36  judges that the sensed signal is smaller than a second predetermined value (such as 2 cm), the processing module  36  controls the image-capturing device  34   a  so as to be capable of capturing the first image relative to the touch input space  32   a.  In other words, when the dual-mode input apparatus  3  is at the gesture input mode, the processing module  36  controls the rotating of the image-capturing device  34   a  such that the dual-mode input apparatus  3  is at the touch mode; when the dual-mode input apparatus  3  is at the touch mode, the processing module  36  maintains the current capturing angle of the image-capturing device  34   a  such that the dual-mode input apparatus  3  keeps being at the touch mode. It is added that in practice, the first predetermined value and the second predetermined value can be the same. 
         [0025]    In another practical application, the sensor  38  can be a temperature sensor, so the sensed signal is based on a temperature of the object. If the processing module  36  judges that the sensed signal is smaller than a third predetermined value, the processing module  36  controls the image-capturing device  34   a  to capture the second image relative to the gesture input space  32   b.  In other words, when the dual-mode input apparatus  3  is at the touch mode, the processing module  36  controls the rotating of the image-capturing device  34   a  such that the dual-mode input apparatus  3  is at the gesture input mode; when the dual-mode input apparatus  3  is at the gesture input mode, the processing module  36  maintains the current capturing angle of the image-capturing device  34   a  such that the dual-mode input apparatus  3  keeps being at the gesture input mode. 
         [0026]    Similarly, if the processing module  36  judges that the sensed signal is larger than a fourth predetermined value, the processing module  36  controls the image-capturing device  34   a  so as to be capable of capturing the first image relative to the touch input space  32   a.  In other words, when the dual-mode input apparatus  3  is at the gesture input mode, the processing module  36  controls the rotating of the image-capturing device  34   a  such that the dual-mode input apparatus  3  is at the touch mode; when the dual-mode input apparatus  3  is at the touch mode, the processing module  36  maintains the current capturing angle of the image-capturing device  34   a  such that the dual-mode input apparatus  3  keeps being at the touch mode. It is added that in practice, the third predetermined value and the fourth predetermined value can be the same. Furthermore, in practice, if an environment temperature is also under consideration, the sensor  38  can also sense an environment temperature, and the sensed signal reflects the difference between the sensed temperature relative to the object and the environment temperature. 
         [0027]    In the above description, the switching mechanism is triggered by the function of the sensor  38 , but the invention is not limited thereto. For example, when the dual-mode input apparatus  3  is at the gesture input mode, the image-capturing device  34   a  can capture a single input image relative to the gesture input space  32   b.  The processing module  36  analyzes the content of the single input image. If the processing module  36  judges that the single input image (or the content of this image) matches a foreground ratio requirement or a foreground configuration requirement, the processing module  36  controls the rotating of the image-capturing device  34   a  such that the image-capturing device  34   a  is capable of capturing images relative to the touch input space  32   a;  that is, the dual-mode input apparatus  3  switches from the gesture input mode to the touch mode. Therein, the foreground ratio can be the ratio of the occupied area by a user image in the input image to the whole input image; the foreground configuration can be the configuration situation of the user image in the whole input image, including the skeleton posture of the user. In the embodiment, the switching mechanism is triggered directly by the implicit function of the image-capturing device  34   a,  which reduces the disposition cost of the sensor  38 . 
         [0028]    In addition, in the embodiment, the switching mechanism is automatically performed by the dual-mode input apparatus  3 , but the invention is not limited thereto. In practice, the switching mechanism can be triggered by an input operation by the user. For example, when the dual-mode input apparatus  3  is at the touch mode, the user can perform touch control operation in the touch input space  32   a  to the dual-mode input apparatus  3 . The image-capturing device  34   a  correspondingly captures a sequence of input images, each of which includes information of touch positions. The processing module  36  analyzes an input information from the sequence of input images. If the processing module  36  judges that the input information matches a predetermined trajectory or a clicking order, the processing module  36  controls the rotating of the image-capturing device  34   a  such that the image-capturing device  34   a  is capable of capturing images relative to the gesture input space  32   b;  that is, the dual-mode input apparatus  3  switches from the touch mode to the gesture input mode. 
         [0029]    In another aspect, when the dual-mode input apparatus  3  is at the gesture input mode, the user can perform gesture input operation in the gesture input space  32   b  to dual-mode input apparatus  3 . The image-capturing device  34   a  correspondingly captures a sequence of input images. The processing module  36  analyzes an input information from the sequence of input images, for example a movement speed of the skeleton such as arms of the user in the images. If the processing module  36  judges that the input information matches a foreground movement speed requirement, the processing module  36  controls the rotating of the image-capturing device  34   a  such that the image-capturing device  34   a  is capable of capturing images relative to the touch input space  32   a;  that is, the dual-mode input apparatus  3  switches from the gesture input mode to the touch mode. It is added that in practice, the dual-mode input apparatus  3  judges in advance whether the input information is a trigger input for the switching mechanism. If the judgment result is negative, the dual-mode input apparatus  3  treats the input information as a normal input for a feedback to an application program in operation. 
         [0030]    In the case of triggering the switching mechanism by the input operation by the user, in practice, the panel  32  thereon (for example on the displaying plane) displays an icon  40  (as shown in  FIG. 5 ) for the user to click for triggering the switching mechanism. That is, if the processing module  36  judges that the icon  40  is clicked, the input mode of the dual-mode input apparatus  3  is switched. The processing module  36  controls the rotating of the image-capturing device  34   a  such that the image-capturing device  34   a  is capable of capturing images relative to either the touch input space  32   a  or the gesture input space  32   b  correspondingly. In other words, when the user clicks the icon  40 , the dual-mode input apparatus  3  switches from the gesture input mode to the touch mode, or from the touch mode to the gesture input mode. 
         [0031]    Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.