APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR TOUCHING BEHAVIOR RECOGNITION, INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM

• US 20100117978A1
• Filed: 11/09/2009
• Published: 05/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: SHIRADO, Hirokazu
• Application Number:
  US12/614,756
• Publication Number:
  US 20100117978A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 13/084 Tactile sensors in general G01L5/16, G01L5/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03547 Touch pads, in which fingers can move on a surface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04144 using an array of force sensing means position sensing using the local deformation of sensor cells G06F3/0447
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/107 Static hand or arm

Abstract

A touching behavior recognition apparatus includes a contact point acquiring unit configured to acquire pressure information items and position information items in a plurality of contact points, a clustering unit configured to perform clustering on the contact points on the basis of information regarding pressure deviations and position deviations of the contact points based on the information items acquired by the contact point acquiring unit to form contact point groups each including contact points associated with each other as a touching behavior, and a touching behavior identifying unit configured to identify a touching behavior for each contact point group.

Claims

1. A touching behavior recognition apparatus comprising:

a contact point acquiring unit configured to acquire pressure information items and position information items in a plurality of contact points;

a clustering unit configured to perform clustering on the contact points on the basis of information regarding pressure deviations and position deviations of the contact points based on the information items acquired by the contact point acquiring unit to form contact point groups each including contact points associated with each other as a touching behavior; and

a touching behavior identifying unit configured to identify a touching behavior for each contact point group.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the touching behavior identifying unit includes:

a feature amount calculating section configured to calculate N feature amounts from each contact point group, the feature amounts typifying a contact pattern, N being an integer of three or more;

a mapping section configured to map an N-dimensional feature amount calculated from each contact point group onto an n-dimensional space for each touching behavior class to determine the presence or absence of each touching behavior on the basis of mapped positions in the corresponding space, n being a positive integer less than N; and

a touching behavior determining section configured to determine a result of touching behavior recognition on each contact point on the basis of the mapped positions in the n-dimensional space.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the mapping section converts the N-dimensional feature amount calculated from each contact point group into two-dimensional data using a learned hierarchical neural network.

4. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the mapping section converts the N-dimensional feature amount calculated from each contact point group into two-dimensional data using a learned self-organizing map.

5. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the mapping section provides the n-dimensional space for each touching behavior class intended to be identified, maps the N-dimensional feature amount calculated from each contact point group onto each of the n-dimensional spaces for the respective touching behavior classes, and determines the presence or absence of each touching behavior on the basis of the mapped positions in the corresponding space, and

the touching behavior determining section determines a single result of touching behavior recognition on each contact point group on the basis of transition data indicating results of determination regarding the presence or absence of each touching behavior on each contact point and priorities assigned to the respective touching behavior classes.

6. A method for touching behavior recognition, comprising the steps of:

acquiring pressure information items and position information items in a plurality of contact points;

performing clustering on the contact points on the basis of information regarding pressure deviations and position deviations of the contact points based on the acquired information items to form contact point groups each including contact points associated with each other as a touching behavior;

calculating N feature amounts from each contact point group, the feature amounts typifying a contact pattern, N being an integer of three or more;

providing an n-dimensional space for each touching behavior class intended to be identified and mapping an N-dimensional feature amount calculated from each contact point group onto each of the n-dimensional spaces for the respective touching behavior classes to determine the presence or absence of each touching behavior on the basis of mapped positions in the corresponding space, n being a positive integer less than N; and

determining a single result of touching behavior recognition on each contact point group on the basis of transition data indicating results of determination regarding the presence or absence of each touching behavior on each contact point and priorities assigned to the respective touching behavior classes.

7. An information processing apparatus for performing information processing in accordance with a user operation, the apparatus comprising:

a contact point detecting unit including tactile sensor groups attached to the main body of the information processing apparatus, the unit being configured to detect pressure information items and position information items in a plurality of contact points;

a clustering unit configured to perform clustering on the contact points on the basis of information regarding pressure deviations and position deviations of the contact points based on the information items detected by the contact point detecting unit to form contact point groups each including contact points associated with each other as a touching behavior;

a feature amount calculating unit configured to calculate N feature amounts from each contact point group, the feature amounts typifying a contact pattern, N being an integer of three or more;

a mapping unit configured to provide an n-dimensional space for each touching behavior class intended to be identified, map an N-dimensional feature amount calculated from each contact point group onto each of the n-dimensional spaces for the respective touching behavior classes, and determine the presence or absence of each touching behavior on the basis of mapped positions in the corresponding space;

a touching behavior determining unit configured to determine a single result of touching behavior recognition on each contact point group on the basis of transition data indicating results of determination regarding the presence or absence of each touching behavior on each contact point and priorities assigned to the respective touching behavior classes; and

a control unit configured to control information processing on the basis of the result of touching behavior recognition determined by the touching behavior determining unit.

8. A computer program described in computer-readable form so as to allow a computer to execute a process for recognizing a human touching behavior, the computer program allowing the computer to function as:

a contact point acquiring unit configured to acquire pressure information items and position information items in a plurality of contact points;

a clustering unit configured to perform clustering on the contact points on the basis of information regarding pressure deviations and position deviations of the contact points based on the information items acquired by the contact point acquiring unit to form contact point groups each including contact points associated with each other as a touching behavior;

a feature amount calculating unit configured to calculate N feature amounts from each contact point group, the feature amounts typifying a contact pattern, N being an integer of three or more;

a mapping unit configured to provide an n-dimensional space for each touching behavior class intended to be identified, map an N-dimensional feature amount calculated from each contact point group onto each of the n-dimensional spaces for the respective touching behavior classes, and determine the presence or absence of each touching behavior on the basis of mapped positions in the corresponding space;

a touching behavior determining unit configured to determine a single result of touching behavior recognition on each contact point group on the basis of transition data indicating results of determination regarding the presence or absence of each touching behavior on each contact point and priorities assigned to the respective touching behavior classes.