Patent ID: 8769409

Claim:
A method performed in a multimedia playback system for adaptively modifying a user interface, comprising: receiving, by the multimedia playback system, multimedia content and displaying the multimedia content; generating, by a user interface generator, one or more selectable multimedia controls displayed in conjunction with the multimedia content, wherein each of the multimedia controls corresponds to a command for controlling the multimedia content; identifying, by an object detector, a target object in a field of view of a video capture device coupled to the multimedia playback system, and an initial object reference point of the target object, wherein the target object comprises one of: a user's hand, a remote sensor device, and a passive object in the user's hand; predicting, by a selection predictor, a next selection of one of the one or more selectable multimedia controls based on a path of movement associated with the target object with respect to the initial object reference point; and displaying, by the user interface generator, a virtual pointer representing the target object in a vicinity of the next selection of the one or more multimedia controls based on predicting the next selection, wherein displaying comprises moving the one or more multimedia controls toward the virtual pointer by adaptively relocating the one or more multimedia controls based on the path of movement associated with the target object, wherein predicting and displaying are performed upon the target object performing an approximately straight-line movement from the initial object reference point and upon exceeding a predetermined distance.