The RotoView
PC-Based Evaluation System for Tilt-Based Display Navigation
IMPORTANT NOTE: This system
was released in 2003, many years before the emergence of today's
smartphones and hand-held gaming devices that already include built in
accelerometers and software drivers. See the new
RotoView app for comparison.
The RotoView
Evaluation System provides you with the essential tools you will need to
evaluate RotoView on a convenient PC platform. In addition to view navigation
demonstration, it allows you to develop the response curves and gesture
captures which are at the heart of the RotoView technology.
The PC based
RotoView Evaluation system (p/n INN-8778) includes the RotoView sensor module
(with onboard tilt control accelerometer), a USB cable, and a CD with the
RotoView development software. When activated, the software emulates a virtual
hand held device which navigates a display based on the tilting of the RotoView
sensor module.
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- Open Bitmap Button
- Selects the bitmap to navigate with your RotoView module or navigation
buttons.
- The USB Button is
used to establish a connection between RotoView and your PC.
- Active
Indicatorshows if there is an active communication between RotoView and
your PC.
- The Start/Stop
Button is used for manual activation of view navigation. View navigation
can also starts on user's hand gesture.
- Navigation and
Center buttons, for emulating RotoView when the sensor module is inactive.
- Expand/Contract
Button - When expanded, the development panel (7) is extended below the
RotoView emulation.
- Development Panel
activates the various design features of this development
system.
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Development of
RotoView Response Graphs
The RotoView Evaluation System incorporates
various advanced tools, which are described in the
Features section. As an example, the
following picture shows the RotoView Response Graph Editor:
Connecting
RotoView to Hand-Held Devices
Recently smartphones and gaming devices
include built-in accelerometers and software drivers as part of their operation
systems. The RotoView technology can be easily implemented in those devices,
using the controlled SDK and tools provided by the smartphone manufacturers.
The actual development and simulation can be done on the PC based development
system. Once created and debugged, the user can copy the response curves to the
to the application he or she develops on the actual hand held device.
RotoView
Evaluation System is supported by Windows 2000, XP and Vista only.
How It
Works
The RotoView
Evaluation System is an inexpensive testbed for developers who want to explore
this new and unique navigation method for smartphones. The RotoView board
connects directly to your PC, and once the RotoView software is installed you
can begin experimenting.
Our patented RotoView relies on modern tilt
sensors and our unique Non-linear Dynamic Response (NLDR) algorithms, so it
quickly responds to the user's orientation changes. This creates a closed
control loop that alleviates the need for exact linear relation between the
orientation changes and the resulting display navigation.
Orientation
sensors have been used for many years in virtual reality systems and in a
variety of three-dimensional pointers and 3D mice. RotoView relies on MEMS
accelerometers for their extremely low current (<0.4mA) and low operational
voltage (3V), reasonable tilt resolution, adequate response time, ease of
interface, small size, and low cost.
Most smartphones manufactured
today already include an accelerometer and software driver to auto-select
"portrait" or "landscape" display mode. We illustrate the RotoView operation
using the evaluation board we have released in 2003, many years before the
emergence of the modern smartphone.
The core electronics of smart
hand-held devices employ at least one micro-controller, a display controller,
and memory storage for program and display data. These functions are often
integrated into a single chip or a processor and chip-set arrangement. For
clarity, other common components like the power source and the keyboard/stylus
interface are not shown in the block diagram. The mode switch selects between
fixed mode and view navigation mode and can be controlled by a button or by
using the software to detect specific hand gestures. Ideally, RotoView should
be implemented at the core electronics and operating systems level.
RotoView relies on a dual-axis MEMS
accelerometer to detect the changes in the spatial orientation at which the
device is held. The sensor is mounted so that its X-axis and Y-axis generally
coincide with the "pitch" and "roll" axes of the device. An optional Z-axis
sensor may be used to improve performance. The sensor provides analog voltages
or duty cycle modulator (DCM) signals that are responsive to the tilt of the
sensor and hand accelerations along each axis. The sensor interface converts
these analog signals to digital format.
During the view navigation
mode, the micro-controller translates the changes in pitch and roll orientation
to navigation commands that scroll the large virtual display stored in the
memory. This process is controlled by the dynamically changing response curves
of the RotoView navigation algorithm.
The user's hand movement cannot
be restricted only to tilt change - all hand movements include some lateral
movements with acceleration components that add to the sensor's measurements.
Choice of a non-linear dynamic algorithm and the natural subliminal closed loop
comprising the user's hand movements and the resultant navigation combines the
lateral movement and actual tilts to achieve the desired results.
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The
RotoView PC-based Evaluation System allows our potential licensees to preview
and evaluate many features of the RotoView technology. While this system is not
attempting to demonstrate all of the RotoView IP, it cover many of the basic
features. Recently smartphones and gaming devices include built-in
accelerometers and software drivers as part of their operating systems. The
RotoView technology can be easily implemented in those devices, using the
controlled SDK and tools provided by the smartphone manufacturers. We have
recently released a new demonstration and
development app that takes advantage of the tri-axis accelerometers
available in modern smartphones. |
Click here to download the RotoView PC-Based
Evaluation System Fact Sheet. (PDF file, 179k)
PC Evaluation System
