Patent · US Expired

Hand gesture machine control system

US5594469A · kind A · utility

1,098Cited by
3References
16Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 21, 1995
Grant dateJan 14, 1997
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 21, 2015

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04N5/445
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A system for the control from a distance of machines having displays incls hand gesture detection in which the hand gesture causes movement of an on-screen hand icon over an on-screen machine control icon, with the hand icon moving the machine control icon in accordance with sensed hand movements to effectuate machine control. In one embodiment, TV control led by hand signals includes detecting a single hand gesture and providing a hand icon on the screen along with the provision of icons representing TV controls such as volume, channel, color, density, etc., in which a television camera detects the hand in a noisy background through correlation techniques based on values of local image orientation. In order to trigger the system into operation, a trigger gesture such as the "how" sign is distinguished from the background through the utilization of orientation angle differences. From correlation values based on correlating local orientations between a mask defining a particular hand and the later acquired image of the hand, normalized correlation scores for each pixel are obtained, with the correlation peak being detected and then thresholded to eliminate false alarms.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.