Depth-Based Position Mapping for Gesture Input
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users experience discomfort and inconvenience when providing gesture input to computing devices, such as tablets and mobile phones, due to the need to move their hands or arms across large detection areas, and potential physical interactions between multiple users trying to access the same screen location.
Innovation Solution
A computing device analyzes image data to detect a user's hand or object and uses depth information to determine the intended screen location, allowing users to point without moving their hand, and tracks the movement of the hand's fingertips to map the input accurately, enabling stationary hand operation and simultaneous multi-user input without physical interference.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If users move their hands across the screen to control cursor or access functionality, then the detection area coverage is improved, but user fatigue increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces depth as a third dimension to the traditional two-dimensional hand movement control. By using depth-based position mapping, the system maps hand position in three-dimensional space to two-dimensional screen coordinates, allowing users to control the cursor by moving their hand vertically toward or away from the screen rather than sweeping across the entire screen area.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a virtual copy of the hand's position and orientation in the digital space, mapping the physical hand coordinates to screen coordinates through depth analysis. This allows the cursor to follow the hand's intended direction without requiring the hand to physically traverse the entire screen distance.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple users move hands to the same screen location, then collaborative interaction is enabled, but physical interference occurs
Solution Approach 1:
By utilizing depth information as an additional dimension, the system can distinguish between multiple hands at different depths even when they are projected to the same two-dimensional screen location. This allows multiple users to interact with the same screen area simultaneously without their hands needing to occupy the same physical space.
Solution Approach 2:
The depth-based mapping system acts as an intermediary that translates physical hand positions into virtual screen positions, allowing multiple physical hands to be mapped to the same or different screen locations based on their depth coordinates, thereby mediating the interaction between multiple users.
3Area of stationary object
If the detection area is enlarged to cover the entire screen, then accessibility is improved, but the required hand movement distance increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent leverages the third dimension (depth) to compress the mapping relationship between hand position and screen position. Instead of requiring proportional hand movement across the entire screen width or height, users can access any screen location by adjusting their hand's depth position, effectively folding the large two-dimensional detection space into a compact three-dimensional interaction zone.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution reduces user fatigue and prevents physical interactions by allowing precise and efficient gesture input over the entire screen area without requiring users to move their hands, enabling multiple users to interact at the same location without bumping into each other.
Implementation Method 1
uses depth information to determine the intended screen location
Data Source
AI summary
Approaches to analyze image data to detect a blob corresponding to a user's hand (or other feature) and analyze the depth information associated with the blob to determine a location on a display screen. For example, the user may be pointing one or more fingers towards a particular location on the screen and the computing device may analyze the depth information associated with the user's finger and hand to compute the corresponding location on the screen that finger should be mapped to. Additionally, the computing device may track the movement of the user's finger with respect to other portions of the user's hand (e.g., center of the hand) and adjust the mapped location on the screen based on the tracked movement.