Patent ID: 6982697

Claim:
A system for selecting an object within an environment by a user pointing to the object with a pointing device, comprising: a pointing device comprising a radio frequency (RF) transceiver and orientation sensors, wherein the outputs of the sensors are periodically packaged as orientation messages and transmitted using the RF transceiver; a base station comprising a RF transceiver which receives orientation messages transmitted by the pointing device; a pair of imaging devices each of which is located so as to capture images of the environment from different viewpoints; a computing device which is in communication with the base station and the imaging devices so as to receive orientation messages forwarded to it by the base station and images captured by the imaging devices, and which computes the orientation and location of the pointer from the received orientation message and captured images, and which also selects an object in the environment whenever the pointing device is pointed at it using the orientation and location of the pointing device.