TOUCHLESS HUMAN MACHINE INTERFACE

• US 20120207345A1
• Filed: 02/10/2011
• Published: 08/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continental Automotive Systems, Inc. (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Automotive Systems, Inc. (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Tang, Leung Yu
• Granted Patent: US 10,025,388 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/11 Instrument graphical user interfaces or menu aspects
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/146 Instrument input by gesture
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/1868 according to driving situations
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/21 using cameras
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/10 Input arrangements, i.e. from user to vehicle, associated with vehicle functions or specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/29 Instruments characterised by the way in which information is handled, e.g. showing information on plural displays or prioritising information according to driving conditions
• 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 40/1365 Matching; Classification

Abstract

A system and method for receiving input from a user is provided. The system includes at least one camera configured to receive an image of a hand of the user and a controller configured to analyze the image and issue a command based on the analysis of the image.

Claims

1. A system for receiving input from a user of a vehicle, the system comprising:

at least two cameras configured to receive an image of a hand of the user; and

a controller configured to analyze the image and issue a command based on the analysis of the image, wherein the controller is configured to determine the positions of at least two fingers relative to one another in each image of a series of images to determine a gesture based on each finger path of the at least two fingers in three dimensional space.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to determine the positions of the at least two fingers relative to one another in each image based on triangulation and the position and orientation of each camera.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to determine the positions of the at least two fingers by generating an average of a plurality of background images and calculating a difference between each image in the series of images and the average of the plurality of background images.

4. A system for receiving input from a user, the system comprising:

at least one camera configured to receive an image of a hand of the user; and

a controller configured to analyze the image and issue a command based on the analysis of the image.

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein the controller is configured to determine the position of one of more fingers in the image.

6. The system according to claim 5, the at least one camera is a plurality of cameras, each camera being configured to capture a series of images and the controller being configured to identify the positions of the one or more fingers.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the controller is configured to analyze each series of images to identify positions of the one or more fingers in three dimensional space.

8. The system according to claim 5, wherein the controller is configured to identify each finger of the one or more fingers.

9. The system according to claim 4, wherein the controller is configured to determine the positions of at least two fingers relative to one another.

10. The system according to claim 4, wherein the controller is configured to determine the positions of at least one finger in each image of a series of images to determine a finger path.

11. The system according to claim 4, wherein the controller is configured to determine the positions of at least two fingers relative to one another in each image of a series of images to determine a gesture based on each finger path of the at least two fingers in three dimensional space.

12. The system according to claim 4, wherein the controller is configured to determine the positions of at least two fingers relative to one another in each image based on triangulation and a position and orientation of each camera.

13. The system according to claim 4, wherein the controller is configured to determine the positions of at least two fingers by generating an average of a plurality of background images and calculating a difference between each image of a series of images and the average of the plurality of background images.

14. The system according to claim 4, wherein the controller is configured to match a stored model of a fingerprint to a fingerprint on at least one of the fingers.

15. A method for receiving input from a user, the method comprising:

capturing an image of a hand of the user;

analyzing the image to determine a gesture;

issuing a command based on the gesture.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the image is one of a plurality of images captured by a plurality of cameras on a front console of a vehicle.

17. The method according to claim 15, further comprising determining the positions of at least one finger in each image of a series of images to determine a finger path.

18. The method according to claim 17, further comprising determining the positions of at least two fingers relative to one another in each image of the series of images to determine a gesture based on each finger path of the at least two fingers in three dimensional space.

19. The method according to claim 18, further comprising determining the positions of the at least two fingers relative to one another in each image based on triangulation and the position and orientation of each camera.

20. The method according to claim 19, further comprising determining the positions of the at least two fingers by generating an average of a plurality of background images and calculating a difference between each image in a series of images and the average of the plurality of background images.

21. In a computer readable storage medium having stored therein instructions executable by a programmed processor for receiving input from a user, the storage medium comprising instructions for:

capturing an image of a hand of the user;

analyzing the image to determine a gesture;

issuing a command based on the gesture.

22. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 21, wherein the image is one of a plurality of images captured by a plurality of cameras on a front console of a vehicle.

23. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 21, further comprising instructions for determining positions of at least one finger in each image of a series of images to determine a finger path.

24. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 21, further comprising instructions for determining positions of at least two fingers relative to one another in each image of a series of images to determine a gesture based on each finger path of the at least two fingers in three dimensional space.

25. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 24, further comprising instructions for determining the positions of the at least two fingers relative to one another in each image based on triangulation and the position and orientation of each camera.

26. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 25, further comprising instructions for determining the positions of the at least two fingers by generating an average of a plurality of background images and calculating a difference between each image in the series of images and the average of the plurality of background images.