Gesture-Based Autonomous Vehicle Control Interface

A gesture recognition system serves as an intermediary between the driver and the autonomous vehicle system. The system includes sensors to detect gestures, processing circuitry to interpret them, and a controller to execute corresponding actions. This intermediary allows drivers to make minor adjustments to the autonomous driving system's planned actions through intuitive gestures without requiring full manual control, thus maintaining high automation while improving ease of operation.

The patent replaces traditional mechanical or complex electronic control interfaces with a gesture recognition system. Instead of requiring physical buttons, levers, or complex control panels, the system uses sensors to detect and interpret driver gestures in air space. This substitution reduces the physical and structural complexity of the control interface while maintaining ease of operation, as drivers can naturally gesture without learning complex control mechanisms.

The gesture recognition system is designed to recognize multiple types of gestures (hand movements, arm movements, body movements) using a unified sensor array and processing framework. The sensors can detect various gesture types and the processing circuitry interprets them according to predefined criteria. This multi-functional approach allows the system to handle diverse gestures with a single detection mechanism, improving ease of operation while managing the complexity of gesture detection through a universal recognition framework.