Gestural Control of Autonomous and Semi-Autonomous Systems

• US 20100066676A1
• Filed: 09/10/2009
• Published: 03/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oblong Industries, Inc. (Oblong, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Oblong Industries, Inc. (Oblong, Inc.)
• Inventors: White, Tom, Kramer, Mattie Ruth, Kramer, Kwindla Hultman
• Granted Patent: US 9,910,497 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/158
• 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 3/0325 using a plurality of light emitters or reflectors or a plurality of detectors forming a reference frame from which to derive the orientation of the object, e.g. by triangulation or on the basis of reference deformation in the picked up image
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/245 by locating a pattern; Special marks for positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/107 Static hand or arm

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for controlling a remote system. The controlling of the remote system comprises detecting a gesture of a body from gesture data received via a detector. The gesture data is absolute three-space location data of an instantaneous state of the body at a point in time and physical space. The detecting comprises identifying the gesture using the gesture data. The controlling comprises translating the gesture to a gesture signal, and controlling a component of the remote system in response to the gesture signal.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a remote system, the method comprising:

detecting a gesture of a body from gesture data received via a detector, wherein the gesture data is absolute three-space location data of an instantaneous state of the body at a point in time and physical space of the body, the detecting comprising identifying the gesture using only the gesture data;

translating the gesture to a gesture signal; and

controlling a component of the remote system in response to the gesture signal.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

detecting a first pose of the body;

recording a first position at which the first pose is entered, wherein the first position is a three-space hand position;

setting the first position as a neutral point.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising forming a gestural interaction space comprising an active zone and a dead zone, wherein the dead zone is formed around the neutral point such that the neutral point is surrounded spatially and angularly by the dead zone.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the active zone is adjacent the dead zone.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein movement of the body within the dead zone has no effect.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the controlling of the component in response to the gesture signal is activated in response to the gesture when the gesture is detected in the active zone.

7. The method of claim 3, comprising providing a feedback indicator that indicates feedback of the controlling.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the feedback indicator provides feedback indicating the body is in one of the active zone and the dead zone.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the feedback indicator comprises at least one of a visual indicator and an aural indicator.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein the component comprises at least one of a propulsion component, a navigation component, and an orientation component of the remote system.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the detecting comprises:

detecting a gesture that is a movement of the body relative to a body axis and beyond a boundary of the dead zone;

effecting movement of the remote system relative to a remote system axis, wherein the remote system is capable of movement relative to the remote system axis, wherein the movement of the remote system is analogous to the gesture, wherein the remote system axis is analogous to the body axis.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the movement of the remote system is translational movement in a first direction along the remote system axis.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the movement of the remote system is translational movement in a second direction along the remote system axis.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the movement of the remote system is rotational movement around the remote system axis.

15. The method of claim 11, comprising mapping the gesture to the component.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the component is a control system of the remote system.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the control system is a steering system of the remote system.

18. The method of claim 17, comprising controlling movement of the steering system around a steering system axis in response to the mapping, wherein the steering system axis is analogous to the body axis.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the remote system axis is an axis about which the remote system is stationary.

20. The method of claim 10, wherein the detecting comprises detecting a gesture that is a movement of the body in a first direction along a body axis and beyond a boundary of the dead zone, wherein the body axis is formed with reference to the body.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein, in response to the movement of the body in the first direction, the controlling comprises instructing movement of the remote system in the first direction along a remote system axis, wherein the remote system axis is formed with reference to the remote system, wherein the remote system axis is analogous to the body axis.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the movement of the remote system in the first direction along the remote system axis is at a speed proportional to a distance of the body from the neutral point.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the detecting comprises detecting a gesture that is a movement of the body in a second direction along the body axis and beyond a boundary of the dead zone.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein, in response to the movement of the body in the second direction, the controlling comprises instructing movement of the remote system in the second direction along the remote system axis.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the movement of the remote system in the second direction along the remote system axis is at a speed proportional to a distance of the body from the neutral point.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the body axis lies in a horizontal plane relative to the body.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the first direction is forward and the second direction is rearward.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the first direction is left and the second direction is right.

29. The method of claim 25, wherein the body axis lies in a vertical plane relative to the body, wherein the first direction is up and the second direction is down.

30. The method of claim 10, wherein the detecting comprises detecting a gesture that is a rotation of the body in a first direction around a body axis.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein, in response to the rotation of the body in the first direction, the controlling comprises instructing rotation of the remote system in the first direction around a remote system axis, wherein the remote system axis is analogous to the body axis.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the detecting comprises detecting a gesture that is a rotation of the body in a second direction around the body axis.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein, in response to the rotation of the body in the second direction, the controlling comprises instructing rotation of the remote system in the second direction around the remote system axis.

34. The method of claim 30, wherein the remote system axis is an axis about which the remote system moves.

35. The method of claim 1, wherein the component comprises an operational mode controller of the remote system, wherein the operational mode controller comprises at least one operational mode.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the controlling comprises selecting an operational mode.

37. The method of claim 35, wherein the controlling comprises activating an operational mode.

38. The method of claim 35, wherein the controlling comprises deactivating an operational mode.

39. The method of claim 35, wherein the controlling comprises resetting an operational mode.

40. The method of claim 35, wherein the controlling comprises parameterizing an operational mode.

41. The method of claim 1, wherein the controlling comprises selecting the component from among a plurality of components.

42. The method of claim 41, comprising selecting an additional component from among a plurality of components.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the controlling comprises forming a group to include the component and the additional component.

44. The method of claim 1, comprising controlling scaling of the detecting and controlling to generate coincidence between the physical space and component space inhabited by the component.

45. The method of claim 44, comprising a mapping between a physical distance of displacement of the body during a gesture and a physical dimension between successive points in the component space, wherein the mapping controls translation of the component along a dimension of the component space.

46. The method of claim 44, comprising a mapping between a physical distance of displacement of the body during a gesture and a virtual dimension of the component space, wherein the mapping controls a virtual aspect of the component in the virtual dimension of the component space.

47. The method of claim 1, comprising aligning a control axis of the component with a dimension of the physical space.

48. The method of claim 47, wherein the dimension is a depth dimension.

49. The method of claim 47, wherein the dimension is a horizontal dimension.

50. The method of claim 47, wherein the dimension is a vertical dimension.

51. The method of claim 47, wherein the dimension is a lateral dimension.

52. The method of claim 47, wherein the navigating comprises motion along the dimension to effect a translation along the control axis.

53. The method of claim 1, wherein the detector comprises a plurality of optical sensors.

54. The method of claim 1, comprising positioning the detector on the remote system.

55. The method of claim 1, comprising positioning the detector on the body.

56. The method of claim 1, comprising positioning the detector in the physical space.

57. The method of claim 1, wherein the gesture data comprises a three-dimensional data point cloud representative of the body.

58. The method of claim 57, wherein a resolved depth accuracy of data points in the three-dimensional data point cloud is approximately 1 millimeter (mm).

60. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting includes detecting an evolving position of the body.

61. The method of claim 60, wherein the body is a hand of an operator.

62. The method of claim 61, wherein the position comprises a position of the hand.

63. The method of claim 61, wherein the position comprises a position of a set of fingers of the hand.

64. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting comprises extracting positions of the body.

65. The method of claim 64, wherein the detecting comprises recovering quantized poses and orientation vectors of the body.

66. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting includes detecting an evolving orientation of the body.

67. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting includes detecting an evolving pose of the body, wherein the pose is a geometric disposition of a part of the body relative to at least one other part of the body.

68. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting includes detecting evolving motion of the body.

69. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting includes detecting at least one of an evolving position of the body, orientation of the body, pose of the body, and motion of the body.

70. The method of claim 1, comprising analyzing the gesture into a sequence of gestural events.

71. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting includes detecting at least one of a first set of appendages and a second set of appendages of the body.

72. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting includes dynamically detecting a position of at least one tag coupled to the body.

73. The method of claim 72, wherein the detecting includes detecting position of a set of tags coupled to the body.

74. The method of claim 73, wherein each tag of the set of tags includes a pattern, wherein each pattern of each tag of the set of tags is different than any pattern of any remaining tag of the plurality of tags.

75. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting includes dynamically detecting and locating a marker on the body.

76. The method of claim 75, wherein the detecting includes detecting position of a set of markers coupled to the body.

77. The method of claim 75, wherein the set of markers form a plurality of patterns on the body.

78. The method of claim 75, wherein the detecting includes detecting position of a plurality of appendages of the body using a set of markers coupled to each of the appendages.

79. The method of claim 1, wherein the translating comprises translating information of the gesture data to a gesture notation.

80. The method of claim 79, wherein the gesture notation represents a gesture vocabulary, and the gesture signal comprises communications of the gesture vocabulary.

81. The method of claim 80, wherein the gesture vocabulary represents in textual form instantaneous pose states of kinematic linkages of the body.

82. The method of claim 80, wherein the gesture vocabulary represents in textual form an orientation of kinematic linkages of the body.

83. The method of claim 80, wherein the gesture vocabulary represents in textual form a combination of orientations of kinematic linkages of the body.

84. The method of claim 80, wherein the gesture vocabulary includes a string of characters that represent a state of kinematic linkages of the body.

85. The method of claim 84, wherein the kinematic linkage is at least one first appendage of the body.

86. The method of claim 85, comprising assigning each position in the string to a second appendage, the second appendage connected to the first appendage.

87. The method of claim 86, comprising assigning characters of a plurality of characters to each of a plurality of positions of the second appendage.

88. The method of claim 87, wherein the plurality of positions is established relative to a coordinate origin.

89. The method of claim 88, comprising establishing the coordinate origin using a position selected from a group consisting of an absolute position and orientation in space, a fixed position and orientation relative to the body irrespective of an overall position and heading of the body, and interactively in response to an action of the body.

90. The method of claim 87, comprising assigning characters of the plurality of characters to each of a plurality of orientations of the first appendage.

91. The method of claim 1, comprising imaging the body with the detector, wherein the gesture data is generated from the imaging.

92. The method of claim 91, wherein the imaging comprises generating wavefront coded images of the body.

93. The method of claim 92, wherein the gesture data comprises focus-resolved data of the body within a depth of field of the imaging system.

94. The method of claim 93, comprising generating intermediate images by coding images gathered by the imaging system.

95. The method of claim 94, wherein the intermediate images are blurred.

96. The method of claim 94, wherein the intermediate images are insensitive to changes in at least one of the body and the detector that include defocus aberrations.

97. The method of claim 93, wherein the gesture data comprises focus-resolved range data of the body within the depth of field.

98. The method of claim 97, wherein the focus-resolved range data of the body within the depth of field is derived from an output of the detector.

99. The method of claim 93, wherein the gesture data comprises focus-resolved position data of the body within the depth of field.

100. The method of claim 99, wherein the focus-resolved position data of the body within the depth of field is derived from an output of the detector.

101. The method of claim 91, wherein the detector comprises a plurality of cameras.

102. The method of claim 101, wherein at least two of the cameras are wavefront coded cameras comprising a wavefront coding optical element.

103. The method of claim 101, wherein at least two of the cameras are wavefront coded cameras comprising a phase mask that increases a depth of focus of the imaging.

104. The method of claim 91, comprising generating modulation transfer functions and point spread functions that are invariant to a distance between the body and the detector.

105. The method of claim 91, comprising generating modulation transfer functions and point spread functions that are invariant with respect to defocus.

106. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote system comprises a vehicle.

107. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote system comprises an aircraft.

108. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote system comprises a watercraft.

109. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote system comprises a toy.

110. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote system comprises a medical assistive device.

111. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote system comprises a medical instrument.

112. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote system comprises a motorized object.

113. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote system comprises a wheelchair.

114. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote system comprises a scooter.

115. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote system comprises a robot.

116. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote system comprises a robotic device.

117. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote system comprises a construction device.

118. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote system comprises a crane.

119. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote system comprises a left.

120. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote system comprises a pump assembly.

121. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote system comprises a steerable device.

122. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote system comprises a tool.

123. A system comprising:

a detector for receiving gesture data that represents a gesture made by a body; and

a processor coupled to the detector, the processor automatically detecting the gesture from the gesture data, wherein the gesture data is absolute three-space location data of an instantaneous state of the body at a point in time and physical space, the processor identifying the gesture using only the gesture data, the processor translating the gesture to a gesture signal, the processor controlling a component of a remote system in response to the gesture signal, wherein the component inhabits a component space.