METHOD FOR TOUCHLESS CONTROL OF A DEVICE

• US 20140240225A1
• Filed: 02/26/2014
• Published: 08/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: PointGrab Ltd.
• Original Assignee: PointGrab Ltd.
• Inventors: Eilat, Eran
• Application Number:
  US14/190,148
• Publication Number:
  US 20140240225A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/156
• 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

Abstract

The invention relates to a system and method for computer vision based control of a device which includes, in one embodiment, obtaining a series of images of a field of view, the field of view including a user'"'"'s hand; identifying a shape of the user'"'"'s hand in an image from the series of images; identifying a location within the image of the user'"'"'s hand in a pre-defined shape; and controlling the device based on an overlap of the location of the hand in the pre-defined and a location of an object in the image.

Claims

1. A method for computer vision based control of a device, the method comprising

using a processor to

detect a first shape of a user'"'"'s hand within a first image from a series of images of a field of view;

detect a second shape of the user'"'"'s hand within a second image from the series of images;

identify a location within the second image of the second shape of the user'"'"'s hand; and

control the device based on an overlap of the location of the second shape of the hand and a location of an object in the second image.

2. The method of claim 1 comprising using the processor to track the first shape of the user'"'"'s hand in the series of images.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the object is a real world object or a synthetic graphical object.

4. The method of claim 1 comprising displaying the field of view on a display.

5. The method of claim 4 comprising displaying an indication on the display when the location of the second shape of the user'"'"'s hand overlaps the location of the object in the image.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the detection of the second shape generates a command to select.

7. The method of claim 6 comprising detecting a third shape of the user'"'"'s hand, wherein the detection of the third shape ends the command to select.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein detecting the second shape of the user'"'"'s hand comprises applying a shape detection algorithm to detect a shape of the second shape or detecting movement of the hand or of a part of the hand.

9. The method of claim 1 comprising detecting at least one finger of the hand.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the second shape comprises two opposing fingers of a user'"'"'s hand, said fingers touching or almost touching at their tips.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein controlling the device comprises causing an event on a display.

12. The method of claim 11 comprising causing an event at or in the vicinity of the location of the second shape of the hand in the image.

13. The method of claim 12 comprising causing an event at or in the vicinity of the location of a tip of one of the fingers of the hand.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the event is dependent on movement of at least part of the user'"'"'s hand.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the event is dependent on movement of the user'"'"'s hand towards or away from a camera used for obtaining the series of images.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein the event is dependent on a distance of two fingers of the hand from each other.

17. A method for computer vision based control of a device, the method comprising

using a processor to

detect a pre-defined shape of a user'"'"'s hand within a series of images of a field of view;

detect a change of the pre-defined shape of the user'"'"'s hand within the series of images;

identify a location within an image from the series of images, of the user'"'"'s hand, after detecting the change of the pre-defined shape; and

control the device based on an overlap of the location of the user'"'"'s hand and a location of an object in the image.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein detecting a change of the pre-defined shape of the user'"'"'s hand comprises applying a shape recognition algorithm to detect a shape of the user'"'"'s hand or by detecting a movement in a specific pattern.

19. A system for computer vision based control of a device, the system comprising

a processor to

detect a hand of a user within a series of images of a field of view, said field of view obtained from a camera that is facing away from the user;

detect a pre-defined posture of the hand;

identify a location within an image from the series of images, of the pre-defined posture; and

control the device based on an overlap of the location of the pre-defined posture and a location of an object in the image.

20. The system of claim 19 comprising a display in communication with the processor to display the field of view to the user.