SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GESTURAL CONTROL OF VEHICLE SYSTEMS

• US 20150116200A1
• Filed: 01/20/2014
• Published: 04/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Kurosawa, Fuminobu, Habashima, Yoshiyuki, Gleeson-May, Michael Eamonn, Alaniz, Arthur
• Application Number:
  US14/159,401
• Publication Number:
  US 20150116200A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/156
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/00742 by detection of the vehicle occupants' presence; by detection of conditions relating to the body of occupants, e.g. using radiant heat detectors
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/146 Instrument input by gesture
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/1464 3D-gesture
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/21 using cameras
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/592 Data transfer involving external databases
• 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 35/85 Arrangements for transferring vehicle- or driver-related data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0381 Multimodal input, i.e. interface arrangements enabling the user to issue commands by simultaneous use of input devices of different nature, e.g. voice plus gesture on digitizer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04808 Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen
• 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 20/597 Recognising the driver's state or behaviour, e.g. attention or drowsiness
• 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 method and system for gestural control of a vehicle system including tracking a motion path of a grasp hand posture upon detecting an initiation dynamic hand gesture in a spatial location associated with the motorized vehicle system, wherein the initiation dynamic hand gesture is a sequence from a first open hand posture to the grasp hand posture, controlling a feature of the vehicle system based on the motion path and terminating control of the feature upon detecting a termination dynamic hand gesture, wherein the termination dynamic hand gesture is a sequence from the grasp hand posture to a second open hand posture.

Claims

1. A method for gestural control of a vehicle system, comprising:

tracking a motion path of a grasp hand posture upon detecting an initiation dynamic hand gesture in a spatial location associated with the motorized vehicle system, wherein the initiation dynamic hand gesture is a sequence from a first open hand posture to the grasp hand posture;

controlling a feature of the vehicle system based on the motion path; and

terminating control of the feature upon detecting a termination dynamic hand gesture, wherein the termination dynamic hand gesture is a sequence from the grasp hand posture to a second open hand posture.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein tracking the motion path comprises determining an amount of change between a position of the initiation dynamic hand gesture and a position of the termination dynamic hand gesture.

3. The method of claim 2, comprising determining a first control point based on the position of the initiation dynamic hand gesture and determining a second control point based on the position of the termination dynamic hand gesture.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the amount of change is based on the first control point and the second control point.

5. The method of claim 3, comprising mapping a first vector between the first control point and the second control point.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein controlling the feature of the vehicle system comprises translating the first vector into directional movements for controlling the feature of the vehicle system.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein controlling the feature of the vehicle system is executed in real-time based on the motion path.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the feature of the vehicle system is a movable component of the vehicle system.

9. A system for gestural control in a vehicle, comprising:

a gesture recognition module tracking a motion path of a grasp hand posture upon detecting an initiation dynamic hand gesture in a spatial location associated with a vehicle system, wherein the initiation dynamic hand gesture is detected as a sequence from a first open hand posture to the grasp hand posture, and the gesture recognition module detecting a termination dynamic hand gesture, wherein the termination dynamic hand gesture is detected as a sequence from the grasp hand posture to a second open hand posture; and

a gesture control module communicatively coupled to the gesture recognition module, wherein the control module controls a feature of the vehicle system based on the motion path.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the feature of the vehicle system is a movable component of the vehicle system.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein vehicle system comprises at least one actuator and the gesture control module communicates with the actuator to selectively adjust an orientation of the movable component based on the motion path.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the gesture control module translates the motion path into x, y and z-axes movements.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the gesture recognition module determines a first control point based on a position of the initiation dynamic hand gesture and a second control point based on a position of the termination dynamic hand gesture.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the gesture control module determines a difference between the first control point and the second control point.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the gesture control module determines a displacement vector between the first control point and the second control point.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the motorized vehicle system is an air vent assembly.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform the steps of:

tracking a motion path of a grasp hand posture upon detecting an initiation dynamic hand gesture in a spatial location associated with the motorized vehicle system, wherein the initiation dynamic hand gesture is a sequence from a first open hand posture to the grasp hand posture;

generating a command to control a feature of the vehicle system based on the motion path; and

terminating control of the feature upon detecting a termination dynamic hand gesture, wherein the termination dynamic hand gesture is a sequence from the grasp hand posture to a second open hand posture.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the feature of the vehicle system is a movable component of the vehicle system and the command to control the feature comprises a command to adjust the moveable component in an x, y and z axes direction.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the command to control the feature of the vehicle system is executed in real-time based on the motion path.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein generating the command comprises providing the command to an actuator of the vehicle system.