SoftThought, Inc. > Projects > Gesture Recognition Gesture Recognition Another part of our Control System is Gesture Recognition. It is not necessary for the working of our vehicle systems but can be used to move the vehicle into place for testing without the use of radio-control or some wireless devices. It also adds a layer of safety in that the person performing gestures can control the vehicle externally. The image processing section sees the operator and a set of initializing gestures that authenticate the operator’s commands. Then the vehicle can respond to a number of commands. The operator stands in front of the vehicle and gets its attention through some hand movements. The software on the vehicle then acknowledges the operator and each individual control by issuing audio feedback currently in the form of music phrases (we use these simply because they’re more fun than simple beeping noises). The image processing software then forms a grid surrounding the range of the operator’s hands so that it can read the gestures as shown in this figure (an example of this is included on the enclosed video). Controls are simple but useful and add more capability to our system. It is our interest that eventually robotic vehicles in a battle zone would be easier to control with hand gestures without all of the special lighting conditions currently used under special settings. We believe that a soldier being able to communicate silently with a robotic carrier of supplies, munitions or patients could be more effective. This image shows the grid configuration once the calibration process is complete. From here the user needs only to place both hands into the center cell to tell the computer that he or she is ready to input a command. Home | Contact Us Copyright 2006 SoftThought, Inc.