HAND POINTING DEVICE
First Claim
1. A hand pointing apparatus comprising:
- illuminating means for illuminating a person to be recognized;
a plurality of image pickup means, located in different positions, wherein an image pickup range is adjusted for each image so that said person to be recognized, who is illuminated by said illuminating means, may be within the image pickup range and an illuminated range on a floor surface, which is illuminated by said illuminating means, may be out of the image pickup range; and
determining means for extracting an image part corresponding to said person to be recognized from a plurality of images based on a plurality of images of situations picked up by said plurality of image pickup means, the situations being indicative of said person to be recognized pointing to either a specific position or a specific direction, and for determining either the position or the direction pointed to by said person to be recognized.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
Over an information input space to which an information inputting person comes, a pair of near-infrared light illuminators are arranged in such a manner that the illumination ranges thereof are adjusted so as to illuminate the information inputting person from different directions. A pair of near-infrared-light-sensitive video cameras are also arranged in different positions so as to correspond to the illuminators. The image pickup range of the video cameras is adjusted so that it is out of the range on the floor surface illuminated by the corresponding illuminator, while the information inputting person is within the image pickup range. A controller allows one illuminator at a time to be switched on/off. An image of the information inputting person is picked up by the video camera corresponding to the switched-on illuminator. The information inputting person is extracted based on the images picked up by the video cameras, whereby the position or direction pointed to by the information inputting person is determined.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A hand pointing apparatus comprising:
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illuminating means for illuminating a person to be recognized;
a plurality of image pickup means, located in different positions, wherein an image pickup range is adjusted for each image so that said person to be recognized, who is illuminated by said illuminating means, may be within the image pickup range and an illuminated range on a floor surface, which is illuminated by said illuminating means, may be out of the image pickup range; and
determining means for extracting an image part corresponding to said person to be recognized from a plurality of images based on a plurality of images of situations picked up by said plurality of image pickup means, the situations being indicative of said person to be recognized pointing to either a specific position or a specific direction, and for determining either the position or the direction pointed to by said person to be recognized.
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2. A hand pointing apparatus comprising:
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a plurality of illuminating means for illuminating a person to be recognized from different directions;
a plurality of image pickup means, located in different positions corresponding to each of said plurality of illuminating means, wherein an image pickup range is adjusted so that said person to be recognized, who is illuminated by said corresponding illuminating means, may be within the image pickup range and an illuminated range on a floor surface, which is illuminated by said corresponding illuminating means, may be out of the image pickup range;
controlling means for switching on/off said plurality of illuminating means one by one in sequence, and for controlling so as to pickup an image of said person to be recognized pointing to either a specific position or a specific direction by said image pickup means corresponding to said switched-on illuminating means; and
determining means for extracting an image part corresponding to said person to be recognized from a plurality of images based on a plurality of images picked up by said plurality of image pickup means, and for determining either the position or the direction pointed to by said person to be recognized.
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3. A hand pointing apparatus comprising:
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a plurality of illuminating means for illuminating a person to be recognized from different directions;
at least one image pickup means for picking up an image of said person to be recognized, who is illuminated by said illuminating means;
discriminating means for switching on/off said plurality of illuminating means one by one in sequence, for comparing a plurality of images of said person to be recognized pointing to either a specific position or a specific direction picked up by the same image pickup means during the switching on of said plurality of illuminating means, and for discriminating between an image part corresponding to said person to be recognized and an image part other than the image part corresponding to said person to be recognized in said plurality of images for at least one image pickup means; and
determining means for extracting the image part corresponding to said person to be recognized from said plurality of images picked up by said image pickup means based on a result of a discrimination by said discriminating means, and for determining either the position or the direction pointed to by said person to be recognized.
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4. A hand pointing apparatus comprising:
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illuminating means for illuminating a person to be recognized;
a plurality of image pickup means for picking up an image of said person to be recognized, who is illuminated by said illuminating means from different directions;
determining means for extracting an image part corresponding to said person to be recognized from a plurality of images based on a plurality of images of situations picked up by said plurality of image pickup means, the situations being indicative of said person to be recognized pointing to either a specific position or a specific direction, and for determining either the position or the direction pointed to by said person to be recognized; and
preventing means for preventing an object which is not the subject to be recognized from remaining on the floor surface around said person to be recognized.
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5. A hand pointing apparatus comprising:
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illuminating means for illuminating a person to be recognized who arrives at a predetermined place;
a plurality of image pickup means for picking up an image of said person to be recognized, who is illuminated by said illuminating means from different directions;
storing means for storing information for corresponding three-dimensional coordinates of a plurality of virtual points, positioned near said predetermined place, to the positions of said plurality of virtual points on said plurality of images picked up by said plurality of image pickup means; and
determining means;
for extracting an image part corresponding to said person to be recognized from a plurality of images based on a plurality of images of situations picked up by said plurality of image pickup means, the situations being indicative of said person to be recognized pointing to either a specific position or a specific direction;
for determining the position of a feature point of said person to be recognized in each of said images;
for determining the three-dimensional coordinates of the feature point based on the determined position of the feature point and the information stored in said storing means; and
for determining either the position or the direction pointed to by said person to be recognized based on the determined three-dimensional coordinates of the feature point. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A hand pointing apparatus comprising:
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illuminating means for illuminating a person to be recognized;
a plurality of image pickup means for picking up images of said person to be recognized, who is illuminated by said illuminating means from different directions;
determining means for extracting an image part corresponding to said person to be recognized from a plurality of images based on a plurality of images of situations picked up by said plurality of image pickup means, the situations being indicative of said person to be recognized pointing to either a specific position or a specific direction, and for determining either the position or the direction pointed to by said person to be recognized;
first detecting means for extracting the image part corresponding to a predetermined part of a body of said person to be recognized from said plurality of images, and for detecting a change in any one of either an area of the extracted image part, an outline of the extracted image part, or a length of an outline of the extracted image part; and
processing means for executing a predetermined processing when said change is detected by said first detecting means. - View Dependent Claims (17)
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11. A hand pointing apparatus comprising:
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illuminating means for illuminating a person to be recognized;
a plurality of image pickup means for picking up images of said person to be recognized, who is illuminated by said illuminating means from different directions;
determining means for extracting an image part corresponding to said person to be recognized from a plurality of images based on a plurality of images of situations picked up by said plurality of image pickup means, the situations being indicative of said person to be recognized pointing to either a specific position or a specific direction, for determining the three-dimensional coordinates of the feature point whose position is changed when said person to be recognized bends or extends an arm, and the three-dimensional coordinates of a reference point whose position is not changed even if said person to be recognized bends and extends an arm, and for determining either the position or the direction pointed to by said person to be recognized based on the three-dimensional coordinates of the feature point and the three-dimensional coordinates of the reference point; and
processing means for calculating the distance between said reference point and said feature point and for executing a predetermined processing based on the change in the distance between said reference point and said feature point. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18)
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Specification