Hand pointing estimation for human computer interaction
First Claim
1. A method for estimating a finger pointing direction, comprising:
- providing an active appearance model of an object of interest, comprising a statistical model of a shape and image intensity of the object of interest, the object of interest being a hand comprising the finger, which tracks a plurality of landmarks on the hand, derived from characteristics of a plurality of different hands, in a memory;
receiving a plurality of images acquired from different angles representing a hand having at least one finger having a finger pointing direction;
detecting the hand in each of the plurality of images;
locating a center of the hand in each of the plurality of image;
locating a position of a wrist proximate to the hand in each of the plurality of image;
processing the plurality of images with an automated processor to warp the detected hand in each image from a Cartesian Coordinate representation to a Polar Coordinate representation, with the located center of the hand at the pole, and the polar angle determined by the determined location of the wrist proximate to the hand with respect to the center of the hand;
applying the active appearance model to find a best fit for visible landmarks of the hand in each of the plurality of images, comprising at least two visible features of the at least one finger having the finger pointing direction;
combining the best fit for the visible landmarks of the hand in each of the plurality of images to the active appearance model, to infer a three dimensional position of each visible landmark in each of the plurality of images; and
determining the pointing direction of the at least one finger having the finger pointing direction.
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Abstract
Hand pointing has been an intuitive gesture for human interaction with computers. A hand pointing estimation system is provided, based on two regular cameras, which includes hand region detection, hand finger estimation, two views'"'"' feature detection, and 3D pointing direction estimation. The technique may employ a polar coordinate system to represent the hand region, and tests show a good result in terms of the robustness to hand orientation variation. To estimate the pointing direction, Active Appearance Models are employed to detect and track, e.g., 14 feature points along the hand contour from a top view and a side view. Combining two views of the hand features, the 3D pointing direction is estimated.
11 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for estimating a finger pointing direction, comprising:
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providing an active appearance model of an object of interest, comprising a statistical model of a shape and image intensity of the object of interest, the object of interest being a hand comprising the finger, which tracks a plurality of landmarks on the hand, derived from characteristics of a plurality of different hands, in a memory; receiving a plurality of images acquired from different angles representing a hand having at least one finger having a finger pointing direction; detecting the hand in each of the plurality of images; locating a center of the hand in each of the plurality of image; locating a position of a wrist proximate to the hand in each of the plurality of image; processing the plurality of images with an automated processor to warp the detected hand in each image from a Cartesian Coordinate representation to a Polar Coordinate representation, with the located center of the hand at the pole, and the polar angle determined by the determined location of the wrist proximate to the hand with respect to the center of the hand; applying the active appearance model to find a best fit for visible landmarks of the hand in each of the plurality of images, comprising at least two visible features of the at least one finger having the finger pointing direction; combining the best fit for the visible landmarks of the hand in each of the plurality of images to the active appearance model, to infer a three dimensional position of each visible landmark in each of the plurality of images; and determining the pointing direction of the at least one finger having the finger pointing direction. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method for estimating a finger pointing direction using an active appearance model of an object of interest, comprising a statistical model of a shape and image intensity of the object of interest, the object of interest being a hand comprising the finger, which tracks a plurality of landmarks on a hand, corresponding to landmarks of hands in a training image set to which a principal component analysis is applied to formulate a statistical model of the hand, comprising:
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capturing a plurality of images of a hand from different perspectives; locating a center of the hand in each image with at least one automated processor; determining a position of a wrist associated with the hand in each image with the at least one automated processor; converting a representation of the hand in each image from a Cartesian Coordinate representation to a Polar Coordinate representation with the at least one automated processor, with the center of the hand at the pole of the Polar Coordinate representation, and the polar angle determined by a position of the wrist with respect to the located center of the hand; finding a best fit for the hand in each image to the active appearance model of the object of interest with the at least one automated processor; inferring a three dimensional position of a plurality of landmarks on the hand, comprising at least two landmarks on a finger making a pointing gesture, in each image, with the at least one automated processor; combining the fit of the hand to the active appearance model of the object of interest in each image, with the inferred three dimensional position of a plurality of landmarks on the hand, comprising at least two landmarks on a finger making a pointing gesture, to determine a pointing vector of the finger making a pointing gesture in each of the images, with the at least one automated processor, wherein the at least two landmarks on the finger making the pointing gesture are selected based on an estimated reliability of the resulting vector; and determining a three dimensional pointing vector of the finger based on the determined pointing vector of the finger making a pointing gesture in each of the images with the at least one automated processor. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. An apparatus for estimating a finger pointing direction, comprising:
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a memory configured to store an active appearance model of an object of interest, comprising a statistical model of a shape and image intensity of the object of interest, the object of interest being a hand comprising the finger, which tracks a plurality of landmarks on the hand, derived from characteristics of a plurality of different hands; at least one input port configured to receive a plurality of images acquired from different angles representing a hand having at least one finger having a finger pointing direction; at least one automated processor, configured to; detect the hand in each of the plurality of images; locate a center of the hand in each of the plurality of image; locate a position of a wrist proximate to the hand in each of the plurality of image; process the plurality of images with an automated processor to warp the detected hand in each image from a Cartesian Coordinate representation to a Polar Coordinate representation, with the located center of the hand at the pole, and the polar angle determined by the determined location of the wrist proximate to the hand with respect to the center of the hand; apply the active appearance model of the object of interest to find a best fit for visible landmarks of the hand in each of the plurality of images, comprising at least two visible features of the at least one finger having the finger pointing direction; combine the best fit for the visible landmarks of the hand in each of the plurality of images to the active appearance model of the object of interest, to infer a three dimensional position of each visible landmark in each of the plurality of images; and determine the pointing direction of the at least one finger having the finger pointing direction. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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Specification