Gesture activated home appliance

• US 20050286737A1
• Filed: 08/18/2005
• Published: 12/29/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property, Inc. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Nguyen, Hong Thi, Silver, Edward Michael, Roberts, Linda Ann
• Granted Patent: US 7,236,611 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: F24C 7/082 on ranges, e.g. control panels, illumination
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/20 Movements or behaviour, e.g. gesture recognition recognition of facial expressions G06V40/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4131 home appliance, e.g. lighting, air conditioning system, metering devices home automation data switching networks exchanging configuration information on appliance services H04L12/2807
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/12 by detecting audible sound
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/125 by using cameras
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/40 Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection

Abstract

Apparatus for operating home appliances using gesture recognition are disclosed. An image receiver receives a continuous stream of images of a gesture made within the image receiver'"'"'s field of view. An image processor is connected to the image receiver for sampling the received stream of gesture images to form a gesture image sequence, and for recognizing whether the gesture image sequence corresponds to one of a predefined set of gestures. If the input gesture is recognized as being one of the predefined gestures, an operations processor, which is connected to the image processor, identifies a home appliance operation associated with the recognized gesture. An appliance controller is connected to the operations processor for causing the predefined home appliance operation to be performed. Home appliances and methods for operating home appliances using gesture recognition are also disclosed.

Claims

1. Apparatus for operating a home appliance, the apparatus comprising:

an image receiver for receiving a continuous stream of gesture images of a gesture performed within a field of view of the image receiver;

an image processor that receives a video signal corresponding to the continuous stream of gesture images and recognizes the gesture based on information contained in the video signal;

an operations processor coupled to the image processor for identifying a home appliance operation associated with the gesture; and

an appliance controller coupled to the operations processor for causing the home appliance operation to be performed.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the appliance controller is a voltage generator for generating a voltage signal that causes the home appliance operation to be performed.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the appliance controller is a pulse generator for generating a voltage pulse that causes the home appliance operation to be performed.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a performance indicator coupled to the appliance controller for providing an indication that the home appliance operation has been performed.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a data store, readable by the image processor, for storing data representative of the gesture and of the home appliance operation.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the image processor comprises:

an image sampler for sampling the continuous stream of gesture images to form a discrete sequence of gesture images; and

an image comparator for comparing the discrete sequence of gesture images to each of one or more stored discrete gesture sequences, and for recognizing the gesture based on the comparison.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the operations processor identifies the home appliance operation by comparing the recognized gesture with each of a predefined set of gestures, wherein each of the predefined gestures is associated with a respective home appliance operation.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a switch coupled to the appliance controller and adapted to be coupled to the home appliance, wherein the switch is responsive to the appliance controller for causing the home appliance operation to be performed.

9. A home appliance comprising:

an image receiver for receiving a continuous stream of gesture images of a gesture performed within a field of view of the image receiver;

an image processor that receives a video signal corresponding to the continuous stream of gesture images and recognizes the gesture based on information contained in the video signal;

an operations processor coupled to the image processor for identifying a home appliance operation associated with the gesture; and

an appliance controller coupled to the operations processor for causing the home appliance operation to be performed.

10. A method for operating a home appliance, the method comprising:

receiving a continuous stream of gesture images of a gesture performed within a field of view of an image receiver;

recognizing the gesture based on information contained in the continuous stream of gesture images;

identifying a home appliance operation associated with the gesture; and

causing the home appliance operation to be performed.