Hand pattern switching apparatus

• US 7,499,569 B2
• Filed: 02/23/2005
• Issued: 03/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi FUSO Truck & Bus Corporation (Daimler Truck Holding AG)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi FUSO Truck & Bus Corporation (Daimler Truck Holding AG), KEIO University
• Inventors: Yamamoto, Keiichi, Sato, Hiromitsu, Saito, Hideo, Igarashi, Hiroya, Ozawa, Shinji
• Primary Examiner(s): Carter; Aaron W
• Application Number:
  US11/064,428
• Publication Number:
  US 20050238202A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,469 Days
• Field of Search: 382/103, 382/104, 382/203, 382/218, 715/863, 345/156, 348/77, 348/148
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/59 inside of a vehicle, e.g. relating to seat occupancy, driver state or inner lighting conditions
• 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 camera for taking an image of movement of a hand, and a hand pattern switching apparatus which operates an object equipment based on the result of the image taken by the camera, having a storage unit for saving the image taken in the state that a hand does not exist in the image pickup area of the camera, as an initial image data, a differentiation unit for obtaining a difference image data between an original image data that is the image taken in the state that a hand exists in the image pickup area of the camera, and the initial image data, a luminance detection unit for obtaining an average luminance in a place close to a hand based on the image data of a place close to a hand obtained by the differentiation unit, and a processing unit for performing binary processing of the original image data by a threshold value based on the average luminance calculated by the luminance detection unit.

Claims

1. A hand pattern switching apparatus which operates an object equipment based on the result of the image taken by an image pickup means for taking an image of movement of a hand, comprising:

means for saving the image taken in a state where a hand does not exist in an image pickup area of the image pickup means, as an initial image data;

differentiation means for obtaining a difference image data between an original image data, which is the image taken in a state where a hand exists in the image pickup area of the image pickup means, and the initial image data, to determine a part of the difference image data corresponding to a place close to a hand;

luminance detection means for obtaining an average luminance of the original image data corresponding to the part of the difference image data in a place close to the hand obtained by the differentiation means; and

processing means for performing binary processing of the original image data by a threshold value based on the average luminance obtained by the luminance detection means.

2. The hand pattern switching apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the luminance detection means is configured to obtain the average luminance of a part of the original image data corresponding to the part of the difference image data which has a largest area.

3. The hand pattern switching apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing means converts the original image data into binary data using a threshold value which is smaller than a value of the average luminance obtained by the luminance detection means by a set value.

4. A hand pattern switching apparatus for operating an object equipment based on a hand gesture, comprising:

an image pickup device that picks up an image in an image pickup area;

a storage device that stores an initial image data corresponding to an initial image of the image pickup area without any hand image in the image pickup area picked up by the image pickup device;

a differentiation unit that obtains a difference image data representing a difference image based on the difference between a hand image data representing a hand image in the image pickup area picked up by the image pickup device and the initial image data representing the initial image;

a luminance detection unit that obtains an average luminance close to the hand image based on the difference image data obtained by the differentiation unit; and

a processing unit that performs binary processing of the hand image data by a threshold value based on the average luminance obtained by the luminance detection unit.

5. The hand pattern switching apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the luminance detection unit obtains the average luminance of a part of the hand image data corresponding to the part of the difference image data having a largest area.

6. The hand pattern switching apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the processing unit converts the hand image data into binary data using a threshold value that is smaller than a value of the average luminance obtained by the luminance detection unit by a set value.