Steerable Camera Optical-Axis Control for AR Hand Tracking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Head-worn AR systems lack effective user input modalities, making it difficult for users to indicate intent and invoke actions due to the absence of physical input devices like touchscreens or keyboards, and existing image sensors waste resources by capturing unnecessary areas outside the user's hands.
Innovation Solution
A steerable camera system that adjusts its optical axis to focus on the user's hands, using actuators or configurable optical elements to capture high-resolution images of hand gestures without requiring direct manipulation of virtual objects.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If a wide-field image sensor is used to capture the entire surrounding environment, then the user can view the complete real-world scene, but the system wastes computational resources capturing areas outside the user's hands for gesture recognition
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a steerable camera system where the optical axis can be dynamically adjusted to track hand movements. The camera transitions from a static wide-field view to a dynamic focused view following the user's hands, capturing only the relevant gesture area while maintaining awareness of the broader environment through computational tracking algorithms.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments the imaging function into two components: a wide-field camera captures the complete surrounding environment for contextual awareness, while a steerable camera focuses specifically on the hand area for gesture recognition. This segmentation allows the system to process only the necessary hand-region images for gesture identification, reducing computational waste.
2Ease of operation
If traditional input devices like touchscreens or keyboards are added to head-worn AR systems, then user input capability is improved, but the device complexity and weight increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces physical mechanical input devices (touchscreens, keyboards) with a gesture-based input system. The steerable camera captures hand gestures in mid-air, and computational algorithms translate these gestures into digital commands. This substitution eliminates the need for physical input hardware while maintaining user interaction capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary computational layer that translates physical hand movements captured by the steerable camera into digital input signals. This intermediary gesture recognition system acts as a bridge between the user's physical actions and the AR system's digital functions, eliminating the need for direct physical contact with input devices.
3Measurement precision
If the camera optical axis is fixed, then the device structure is simple, but the system cannot efficiently track hand gestures across different positions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a steerable camera system where the optical axis can be dynamically adjusted to track hand movements. The camera transitions from a static wide-field view to a dynamic focused view following the user's hands, capturing only the relevant gesture area while maintaining awareness of the broader environment through computational tracking algorithms.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the optical parameters (angle, position, focus) of the camera dynamically based on detected hand locations. By adjusting these parameters in real-time, the camera maintains optimal focus on the hand gesture area, improving measurement precision without requiring a completely complex mechanical reconfiguration system.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for hand tracking for an Augmented Reality (AR) system. The AR system uses a camera of the AR system to capture tracking video frame data of a hand of a user of the AR system. The AR system generates a skeletal model based on the tracking video frame data and determines a location of the hand of the user based on the skeletal model. The AR system causes a steerable camera of the AR system to focus on the hand of the user.