Gestural Detection in Immersive Flume Pools via Overhead and Subsurface Cameras
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing computer vision systems fail to consistently track a person's body position and movements in aquatic environments, limiting communication and real-time analysis in swimming pools and spas.
Innovation Solution
A system incorporating overhead and subsurface cameras, along with computer processors, to detect and interpret gestural movements, control pool operations, and provide real-time feedback and analysis, enhancing user interaction and swimming experience.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If computer vision systems are used to track body position in aquatic environments, then real-time analysis and communication capabilities are improved, but the systems fail to consistently track due to water distortion and lighting conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the tracking task into multiple independent components: overhead cameras capture upper body and gesture information, while subsurface cameras capture lower body and full-body movement. This segmentation allows each camera system to operate in its optimal environment, with overhead cameras avoiding water distortion and subsurface cameras providing stable full-body tracking regardless of surface conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary processing system that receives data from both overhead and subsurface cameras, fuses the information, and compensates for individual system limitations. The overhead cameras provide high-quality gesture detection while subsurface cameras provide reliable full-body tracking, and the intermediary system integrates these complementary data streams to achieve consistent and accurate tracking.
2Reliability
If multiple cameras are deployed to improve tracking reliability, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Both overhead and subsurface cameras serve multiple functions: they track body position, detect gestures, monitor swimming technique, and provide data for real-time feedback. This multi-functionality justifies the complexity by maximizing the utility of each camera system and reducing the need for additional specialized sensors.
Solution Approach 2:
The system adds a spatial dimension by deploying cameras both above and below the water surface, creating a three-dimensional tracking volume. This dimensional expansion allows the system to capture complete body movement data that would be impossible to obtain from a single camera location, thereby improving reliability without requiring an excessive number of cameras in a single plane.
3Ease of operation
If gesture detection is implemented to enable user control, then ease of operation is improved, but the system becomes more complex in detecting and measuring gestures
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses the swimmer's own body movements and gestures as the control interface, eliminating the need for external control devices. The overhead cameras naturally capture gestures as the swimmer performs normal swimming actions, and the system automatically interprets these gestures to control pool features, making operation intuitive and self-service oriented.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical control systems (buttons, switches, physical interfaces) with a gesture-based optical control system. The overhead cameras detect gestures through image processing and computer vision algorithms, substituting mechanical interaction with optical field-based detection, which simplifies user interaction despite the computational complexity of gesture recognition.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for detecting gestures of a swimmer in an aquatic environment such as a flume pool. In one embodiment, a pool system includes a set of cameras, one of which is an overhead camera positioned above the water in the pool to capture images of a swimmer. The system also includes computer processors, such as a GPU, CPU, and game engine which implement a computer vision platform. The processors are configured to receive images from the cameras, determine the swimmer's body position from the images, detect a defined gesture in the swimmer's body position, and in response to detecting the defined gesture, invoking a corresponding control operation of the flume pool, such as controlling water flow through the pool or updating an interface display which is projected onto the interior surfaces of the pool.