Patent ID: 8031175

Claim:
A remote control system for an electronic product having a display screen where at least a portion of that screen defines a control region within which a user-controlled selection indicator may be visually displayed, a handheld remote control unit separate from said display screen and having at least one touchpad disposed for actuation by a user's thumb to effect movement of said selection indicator; a sensor system carried by said control unit and responsive to the user's hand to produce observation signals reflecting characteristics of the user's hand geometry; trained model-based pattern classification system that ascertains at least one user-specific attribute in response to said observation signals; mapping system having at least one parameter controlled by said at least one user-specific attribute; said mapping system defining a first reference frame associated with said at least one touchpad and defining a second reference frame associated with and corresponding to the geometry of the display screen; said mapping system using said at least one parameter to perform a transformation of touch points by the user's thumb upon the at least one touchpad expressed in the first reference frame into points on the display screen expressed in the second reference frame, thereby assisting the user in moving the selection indicator across the display screen control region regardless of its size or geometric configuration of the control region or of the physical limitations of the user's hand and thumb movement geometry.