Gesture detection from digital video images

• US 20040151366A1
• Filed: 02/04/2003
• Published: 08/05/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Nefian, Ara V., Cavin, Robert D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,224,830 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/10 Human or animal bodies, e.g. vehicle occupants or pedestrians; Body parts, e.g. hands

Abstract

Human gestures are detected and/or tracked from a pair of digital video images. The pair of images may be used to provide a set of observation vectors that provide a three dimensional position of a subject'"'"'s upper body. The likelihood of each observation vector representing an upper body component may be determined. Initialization of the model for detecting and tracking gestures may include a set of assumptions regarding the initial position of the subject in a set of foreground observation vectors.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting a set of foreground pixels from a pair of digital video images, at least some of the foreground pixels representing an upper body;

selecting an anthropological measure to limit the pixels representing at least one component of the upper body;

determining the coordinates for at least one joint of the upper body; and

calculating the observation likelihood of the upper body component.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising creating a disparity map based on a measured difference between the pair of digital video images.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising calculating the observation likelihood for a first, second and third upper body component.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising estimating the position of the first upper body component from ate least some of the foreground pixels, and calculating the observation likelihood of the second and third upper body components based at least in part on the estimated position of the first upper body component.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the first upper body component is a neck.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the upper body component is a torso.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the upper body component is a head.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising storing the anthropological measures in memory.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising identifying an upper body gesture.

10. A system comprising:

a stereo digital video input port to generate a first set and a second set of pixels depicting an upper body; and

a processor coupled to the stereo digital video input port to create a disparity map from the first set and second set of pixels and to determine the probability that the sets of pixels represent a selected upper body component.

11. The system of claim 10 further comprising a stereo camera coupled to the stereo digital video input port.

12. The system of claim 10 further comprising system memory to store a set of anthropological measures.

13. The system of claim 10 wherein the processor calculates the probability that the sets of pixels represent a plurality of upper body components.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the plurality of upper body components include at least a head and a torso.

15. An article comprising a machine-readable storage medium storing instructions that if executed enables a processor-based system to:

detect a set of foreground pixels from a pair of video images of an upper body;

select an anthropological measure stored in system memory limiting the parameters of an upper body component;

determine the coordinates for at least one upper body joint from the foreground pixels, the coordinates limited by the anthropological measures; and

calculate the observation likelihood for the upper body component.

16. The article of claim 15 wherein detecting the foreground pixels further comprises calculating a disparity map from the pair of video images.

17. The article of claim 15 wherein determining the coordinates for at least one upper body joint comprises selecting a plane in the foreground pixels, the normal to the plane facing the upper body.

18. The article of claim 15 wherein calculating the observation likelihood comprises calculating the observation likelihood for a plurality of upper body components.