IMAGING SURROUND SYSTEM FOR TOUCH-FREE DISPLAY CONTROL

• US 20170068326A1
• Filed: 11/10/2016
• Published: 03/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: California Institute of Technology
• Original Assignee: California Institute of Technology
• Inventors: Gharib, Morteza, Jeon, David
• Application Number:
  US15/348,663
• Publication Number:
  US 20170068326A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/005 Input arrangements through a video camera
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• 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: G06F 3/021 Arrangements integrating additional peripherals in a keyboard, e.g. card or barcode reader, optical scanner
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0227 Cooperation and interconnection of the input arrangement with other functional units of a computer G06F3/023 - G06F3/037 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0304 Detection arrangements using opto-electronic means constructional details of pointing devices not related to the detection arrangement using opto-electronic means G06F3/033; optical digitisers G06F3/042
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/20 Movements or behaviour, e.g. gesture recognition recognition of facial expressions G06V40/16

Abstract

The subject system hardware and methodology combine disparate cameras into a cohesive gesture recognition environment. To render an intended computer, gaming, display, etc. control function, two or more cameras with non-coaxial axes are trained on a space to detect and lock onto an object image regardless of its depth coordinate. Each camera captures one 2D view of the gesture and the plurality of 2D gestures are combined to infer the 3D input.

Claims

1. A system for input gesture recognition comprising:

a first camera having a first optical axis; and

a second camera second optical axis;

the first and second cameras connected for data transmission to a computer processor,

wherein the computer processor is configured to compare images from the first and second cameras to recognize user input gestures without performing stereo imaging calculations, and

wherein the first and second optical axes are angled with respect to one another by at least about 30 degrees.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the optical axes are angled by at least about 60 degrees.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the optical axes are angle by about 90 degrees.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the no calculations are preformed including triangulation of matched features within the images.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the axes are setup at an angle unknown to the user.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein image comparison occurs within the processor with an unknown angle.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the first and second camera are set in separate housings.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the first camera is set in a housing with a primary display.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the second camera is set within a smart phone.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the second camera is set within a tablet computer.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the first and second cameras are each set within a smart phone.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is a processor of one or both of the smart phones.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the primary display is the display of a laptop computer further comprising a keyboard panel section.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the second camera is housed in the keyboard panel section.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the second camera is housed in a smart phone positioned on a plane parallel with and in front of the keyboard panel section.

16. The system of claim 8, wherein the primary display is the display of a laptop computer and the second camera is positioned above the laptop computer by a boom.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the boom is connected to a laptop computer docking station.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the cameras are wirelessly connected.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to perform scale invariant feature recognition for successive images from each camera and generate an output signal corresponding to a gesture from a look-up table corresponding to the combination of the recognized features from both cameras.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the successive images are not necessarily sequential.

21-26. -26. (canceled)