Patent ID: 7646372

Claim:
A computer implemented method for detecting direction when interfacing with a computer program, comprising: (a) capturing an image presented in front of image capture device, the image capture device having a capture location in a coordinate space and the image includes a person; (b) identifying a human head of the person in the image and assigning the human head a head location in the coordinate space; (c) identifying an object held by the person in the image and assigning the object an object location in coordinate space; (d) identifying a relative position in coordinate space between the head location and the object location when viewed from the capture location, wherein the relative position defines a pointing direction of the object when viewed by the image capture device, wherein the relative position is identified by computing an azimuth angle and an altitude angle between the head location and the object location in relation to the capture location; and (e) displaying the pointing direction of the object on a display screen.