Virtual Keypad Vehicle Entry Using Repeatable Gesture Touchpoints
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle entry systems face challenges in providing secure access without the need for physical keys or fobs, while minimizing hardware costs and ensuring accurate detection of user gestures or biometric data, which can be inconvenient or inaccurate.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle entry system utilizing a camera-based virtual keypad that allows users to customize a sequence of touchpoints on or near the vehicle, using preexisting features as anchor points, and employs image processing to recognize distinct and repeatable gestures for secure access.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a physical keypad is positioned on the exterior of a vehicle to provide secure access, then security functionality is achieved, but hardware costs, wiring requirements, and installation complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a virtual copy of a physical keypad by projecting visual indicators (lights or images) onto a surface within the vehicle's field of view. This virtual keypad replicates the functionality of a physical keypad without requiring actual physical buttons, wiring, or mounting hardware on the vehicle exterior.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical physical keypad system with an optical detection system. Instead of physical buttons that require electrical wiring and mechanical actuation, the system uses visual indicators projected onto a surface and an image sensor to detect user interactions through optical means.
2Adaptability or versatility
If predefined hand gestures are used for vehicle access, then key sharing capability is enabled, but user education requirements increase and detection accuracy decreases due to confounding variables
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary training where the user demonstrates the desired gesture sequence multiple times before the system finalizes the access code. During this training phase, the system collects data about the user's specific gesture patterns and uses this information to establish accurate detection parameters, ensuring high recognition accuracy when the actual access attempt is made.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides feedback during the training phase by monitoring and analyzing the user's gesture performance. The image sensor detects the gestures and the system processes this information to confirm proper recognition, allowing the user to adjust their gestures if needed before finalizing the access code.
3Reliability
If biometric data collection is required for each authorized user, then security is enhanced, but the ability to share access with others is lost when the biometric owner is unavailable
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a virtual representation of the authorized user's gesture sequence that can be replicated and shared with others. Instead of relying on the physical presence or biometric data of the original user, the system captures and stores a digital model of the user's gestures that can be performed by anyone who knows the sequence, enabling access sharing while maintaining security.
4Device complexity
If a virtual keypad is projected onto a vehicle surface, then hardware costs are reduced, but the system requires accurate optical detection of touchpoints which can be affected by environmental factors
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses an image sensor as an intermediary device to detect user interactions with the virtual keypad. The image sensor captures visual information about user gestures and translates them into detectable signals, serving as a mediator between the user's physical actions and the system's digital processing, thereby enabling accurate detection without direct physical contact sensors.
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
Enables reliable and user-friendly vehicle access by allowing customization of a security code through touchpoints, ensuring distinctness and repeatability without the need for predefined gestures, thus enhancing security and reducing hardware costs.
Implementation Method 1
an image sensor configured to capture real-time images according to a predetermined field of view from the vehicle
Data Source
AI summary
Access to a vehicle is controlled by detecting gestures pointing to a virtual keypad. A setup mode preconfigures a sequence of touchpoints as a security key, wherein an administrant performs a timed series of distinct gestures according to a chosen number and location of touchpoints which are detected by the vehicle using captured real-time images. Touchpoints during a plurality of repetition trials provide respective sets of datapoints for each one of the distinct gestures in the series. A respective deviation contour is determined for each respective set and then expanded to represent regions of validity for respective touchpoints corresponding to the sequence of touchpoints. The expanded deviation contours are accepted as defining the sequence of touchpoints for the security key if there is no overlap between any expanded deviation contours to complete the setup mode.