GESTURE RECOGNITION APPARATUS AND METHOD OF GESTURE RECOGNITION

• US 20120176303A1
• Filed: 05/23/2011
• Published: 07/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Miyake, Yuichi
• Granted Patent: US 8,730,164 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/156
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/213 comprising photodetecting means, e.g. cameras, photodiodes or infrared cells A63F13/219, A63F13/655 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1087 comprising photodetecting means, e.g. a camera
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6045 for mapping control signals received from the input arrangement into game commands
• 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 40/28 Recognition of hand or arm movements, e.g. recognition of deaf sign language static hand signs G06V40/113

Abstract

A gesture recognition apparatus (200) which controls a display device (101) based on a gesture operation performed by a user in a vicinity of a screen (101a) includes: a picture obtainment unit (201) which obtains a picture of the vicinity of the screen (101a); a direction determination unit (204) which determines, based on position information indicating a direction from the screen (101a) or the picture obtainment unit (201) toward the user, an operational direction which is a direction of a movement to be recognized as the gesture operation; a gesture recognition unit (205) which recognizes, as the gesture operation, a movement of whole or part of a body of the user in the operational direction determined by the direction determination unit, with reference to the obtained picture; and a display control unit (206) which controls the display device (101) based on the recognized gesture operation.

Claims

1. A gesture recognition apparatus which controls a display device based on a gesture operation performed by a user in a vicinity of a screen, said gesture recognition apparatus comprising:

a picture obtainment unit configured to obtain a picture of the vicinity of the screen;

a direction determination unit configured to determine an operational direction based on position information indicating a direction from the screen or said picture obtainment unit toward the user, the operational direction being a direction of a movement to be recognized as the gesture operation;

a gesture recognition unit configured to recognize, as the gesture operation, a movement of whole or part of a body of the user with reference to the picture obtained by said picture obtainment unit, the movement being in the operational direction determined by said direction determination unit; and

a display control unit configured to control the display device based on the gesture operation recognized by said gesture recognition unit.

2. The gesture recognition apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the picture is taken by a camera,

said gesture recognition apparatus further comprises a position obtainment unit configured to obtain, as the position information, a divergence of a direction from the screen or the camera toward the user from an optical axis of the camera or a normal to the screen, and

said direction determination unit is configured to determine either a horizontal direction or a vertical direction as the operational direction based on whether or not the divergence exceeds a threshold.

3. The gesture recognition apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein the divergence indicates a horizontal divergence which is a divergence on a horizontal plane, and

said direction determination unit is configured to determine the vertical direction as the operational direction when the horizontal divergence exceeds the threshold.

4. The gesture recognition apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein the divergence indicates a vertical divergence which is a divergence on a vertical plane orthogonal to a horizontal plane and the screen or an imaging surface of the camera, and

said direction determination unit is configured to determine the horizontal direction as the operational direction when the vertical divergence exceeds the threshold.

5. The gesture recognition apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein said direction determination unit is configured to determine the threshold depending on accuracy in recognition of the gesture operation.

6. The gesture recognition apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein the camera has an optical system including a fisheye lens, and

said position obtainment unit is configured to recognize an image of the user included in the picture obtained by said picture obtainment unit, and obtain the position information based on a distance between a position of the image of the user and a center of the picture.

7. The gesture recognition apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said display control unit is configured to shift an object displayed on the screen in the operational direction, when said gesture recognition unit recognizes the gesture operation.

8. The gesture recognition apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein, when a plurality of objects displayed on the screen are scrolled, said display control unit is configured to scroll the objects displayed on the screen in the operational direction.

9. The gesture recognition apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said display control unit is configured to display the position information on the display device.

10. A display device comprising the gesture recognition apparatus according to claim 1.

11. A method of gesture recognition for controlling a display device based on a gesture operation performed by a user in a vicinity of a screen, said method comprising:

obtaining a picture of the vicinity of the screen;

determining an operational direction based on position information indicating a direction from the screen or a position where the picture has been taken toward the user, the operational direction being a direction of a movement to be recognized as the gesture operation;

recognizing, as the gesture operation, a movement of whole or part of a body of the user with reference to the picture obtained in said obtaining, the movement being in the operational direction determined in said determining; and

controlling the display device based on the gesture operation recognized in said recognizing.