Multi-touch Apparatus Discriminating Single-user from Multi-user Inputs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing multi-touch systems struggle to accurately distinguish between intentional multi-touch inputs from a single user and unintentional inputs from multiple users, especially in large systems where users can operate from various angles, leading to difficulties in identifying finger direction and surface contact information.
Innovation Solution
An information processing apparatus equipped with an image acquisition unit, identifying unit, and association unit that captures images of an operation surface, identifies entry positions of objects, and associates multiple objects to recognize cooperative inputs, using range image sensors and visible light cameras to determine positional relationships and detect touch operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a system is configured to enable a plurality of users to simultaneously perform operations, then the system's adaptability and versatility are improved, but it becomes difficult to accurately distinguish between single-user and multi-user inputs
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the operation surface into multiple detection zones and tracks the movement trajectory of each detected object independently. By dividing the monitoring space and analyzing object paths separately, the system can determine whether multiple touch positions belong to a single user's coordinated action or multiple users' independent operations, thus resolving the identification difficulty while maintaining multi-user support capability.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the system is sufficiently large in size to enable multiple users to operate from various angles, then the system's adaptability is improved, but it becomes difficult to obtain accurate finger direction information
Solution Approach 1:
The system transitions from two-dimensional touch position detection to three-dimensional spatial tracking by capturing images from above the operation surface. This additional vertical dimension enables the system to obtain not only the position but also the orientation and direction of each object in space, allowing accurate finger direction identification even when users operate from various angles across a large surface area.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multi-touch operation recognition is implemented, then the system's functionality is improved, but it becomes unfeasible to obtain information about finger contact surface from arbitrary walls or tables
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces direct mechanical contact sensing with optical imaging. Instead of relying on physical sensors embedded in the touch surface to detect finger contact, the system uses an image acquisition device to capture visual information about objects above the operation surface. This substitution enables multi-touch recognition while preserving the ability to obtain contact surface information through image analysis, working effectively with arbitrary walls or tables without requiring specialized sensor integration.
Data Source
AI summary
Conventionally, when an input operation is recognized based on a three-dimensional measurement of user's hands, it was difficult to discriminate whether a plurality of detected hands is a pair of hands of a user or a plurality of users. An information processing apparatus according to the present invention includes an image acquiring unit configured to acquire information about an image capturing a space on an operation surface, a position identifying unit configured to identify the position where each of a plurality of objects to be used for an operational input has entered into the space based on information about the acquired image, and an association unit configured to identify a combination of a plurality of objects based on the position identified for each of the plurality of objects and associate the combined plurality of objects with each other.