Gesture activated home appliance

• US 7,444,001 B2
• Filed: 04/19/2007
• Issued: 10/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Nguyen, Hong Thi, Silver, Edward Michael, Roberts, Linda Ann
• Primary Examiner(s): COUSO, YON JUNG
• Application Number:
  US11/788,212
• Publication Number:
  US 20070211915A1
• Time in Patent Office: 558 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382/103, 382/107, 382/155, 382/187, 382/307, 345/86, 345/158, 345/169, 345/173, 345/863, 455/419, 455/420, 455/456.1, 455/456.2, 455/456.3, 700/12, 700/13, 715/863
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: F24C 7/082 on ranges, e.g. control panels, illumination
• 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 40/20 Movements or behaviour, e.g. gesture recognition recognition of facial expressions G06V40/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4131 home appliance, e.g. lighting, air conditioning system, metering devices home automation data switching networks exchanging configuration information on appliance services H04L12/2807
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/12 by detecting audible sound
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/125 by using cameras
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/40 Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection

Abstract

Apparatus for operating home appliances using gesture recognition are disclosed. An image receiver receives a continuous stream of images of a gesture made within the image receiver'"'"'s field of view. An image processor is connected to the image receiver for sampling the received stream of gesture images to form a gesture image sequence, and for recognizing whether the gesture image sequence corresponds to one of a predefined set of gestures. If the input gesture is recognized as being one of the predefined gestures, an operations processor, which is connected to the image processor, identifies a home appliance operation associated with the recognized gesture. An appliance controller is connected to the operations processor for causing the predefined home appliance operation to be performed. Home appliances and methods for operating home appliances using gesture recognition are also disclosed.

Claims

1. An apparatus for controlling an appliance, the apparatus comprising:

means for receiving an image stream, the image stream comprising a gesture;

means for recognizing the gesture from the image stream;

means for identifying a home appliance operation associated with the image stream, wherein the gesture is associated with a distinct home appliance operation; and

means for causing the distinct home appliance operation to be performed, wherein means for causing the distinct home appliance operation to be performed comprises;

means for accessing a data store to determine the distinct home appliance operation associated with the gesture, and

means for causing the distinct home appliance operation to be performed via a switch coupled to an appliance controller wherein the means for causing the distinct home appliance operation to be performed is configured to actuate the switch to turn on a home appliance if the recognized gesture is associated with the distinct home appliance operation associated with the home appliance.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

means for segmenting the image stream in to a series of frames;

means for deriving positional data corresponding to the gesture from the frames; and

means for comparing the positional data corresponding to the gesture to each of a set of stored sequences of positional data to determine if the gesture is a recognized gesture.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

means for sampling the image stream to form a gesture image sequence;

means for comparing the gesture image sequence to at least one stored gesture sequences; and

means for recognizing the gesture based on the comparison.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the identify means comprises means for comparing the recognized gesture with each of a predefined set of gestures.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising means for notifying a user that the distinct home appliance operation has been performed.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the notifying means further comprising means for generating a sound for notifying a user that the distinct home appliance operation has been performed.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the generating means further comprises means for generating a distinct sound for each of a plurality of home appliance operations to be performed.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the causing means further comprises means for generating a voltage signal for causing the distinct home appliance operation to be performed.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the causing means further comprises means for generating a voltage pulse for causing the distinct home appliance operation to be performed.

10. A method for controlling an appliance, the apparatus comprising:

receiving a gesture, wherein the gesture is recognized from an image stream and is associated with a distinct home appliance operation;

causing the distinct home appliance operation to be performed in response to receiving the gesture, wherein causing the distinct home appliance operation to be performed in response to receiving the gesture comprises;

accessing a data store to determine the distinct home appliance operation associated with the gesture, and

causing the distinct home appliance operation to be performed via a switch coupled to an appliance controller.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

segmenting the image stream in to a series of frames;

deriving positional data corresponding to the gesture from the frames; and

comparing the positional data corresponding to the gesture to each of a set of stored sequences of positional data to determine if the gesture is a recognized gesture.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

sampling the image stream to form a gesture image sequence;

comparing the gesture image sequence to at least one stored gesture sequences; and

recognizing the gesture based on the comparison.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising notifying a user that the distinct home appliance operation has been performed.

14. A system for controlling an appliance, the system comprising:

a memory storage; and

a processing unit coupled to the memory storage, wherein the processing unit is operative to;

receiving a gesture, wherein the gesture is recognized from an image stream and is associated with an appliance operation;

causing the appliance operation to be performed in response to receiving the gesture wherein causing the appliance operation to be performed in response to receiving the gesture comprises;

accessing a data store to determine the appliance operation associated with the gesture, and

causing the appliance operation to be performed via a switch coupled to an appliance controller.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the processing unit is further operative to:

segment the image stream in to a series of frames;

derive positional data corresponding to the gesture from the frames; and

compare the positional data corresponding to the gesture to each of a set of stored sequences of positional data to determine if the gesture is a recognized gesture.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the processing unit is further operative to:

sample the image stream to form a gesture image sequence;

compare the gesture image sequence to at least one stored gesture sequences; and

recognize the gesture based on the comparison.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the processing unit is further operative to cause a notification to be sent to a user that the appliance operation has been performed.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the processing unit being operative to causing the appliance operation to be performed in response to receiving the gesture comprises the processing unit being operative to generate at least one of the following:

a voltage signal and a voltage pulse for causing the appliance operation to be performed.