Wearable Gesture Detection via Body Tissue Signal Pathways
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies face challenges in accurately determining the location of gestures on projected images, particularly in terms of precision and fidelity, when users interact with digital interfaces through wearable devices.
Innovation Solution
The integration of computer vision using a camera on a wearable device and a separate modality, such as a wearable wristband with transducers, to enhance the detection and location accuracy of gestures by projecting images onto the user's body and receiving signals through the body's tissue, allowing for precise interaction without encumbering the user's motion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a single wearable device projects images onto the user's body, then the user can interact with virtual interfaces, but the precision in determining gesture location is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines computer vision technology with transducer-based sensing in a unified detection system. The camera captures visual information about user gestures while transducers detect mechanical signals from body tissue, and both data streams are processed together to achieve precise gesture location determination that neither system could achieve alone.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces signal processing algorithms and data fusion mechanisms as intermediaries between the raw sensor data and the final gesture detection output. These intermediaries process and correlate signals from multiple sources (camera images, transducer readings) to extract accurate gesture location information while filtering out noise and false positives.
2Reliability
If multiple sensors are integrated into wearable devices to improve gesture detection, then detection fidelity increases, but the device encumbers user motion
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs flexible substrates and thin-film transducers that can conform to the user's body contours without creating rigid structures. These flexible components move naturally with the user's skin and body parts, maintaining comfort and freedom of motion while still detecting gestures accurately through their ability to sense mechanical deformations in the body tissue.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent distributes multiple lightweight sensor modules across different locations on the wearable device rather than concentrating all sensors in one bulky unit. This segmentation allows each sensor to be small and unobtrusive, reducing overall encumbrance while maintaining comprehensive gesture detection coverage through the distributed sensor network.
3Measurement precision
If transducers are used to detect gestures through body tissue, then detection precision improves, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces complex mechanical gesture detection mechanisms with transducer-based sensing that detects gestures through body tissue using electrical or acoustic signals. This substitution eliminates the need for bulky mechanical components while achieving high precision through non-contact or minimal-contact sensing methods that penetrate or sense through body tissue properties.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes changes in physical parameters of body tissue (such as electrical conductivity, acoustic impedance, or mechanical impedance) that occur during gestures to detect touch locations. By monitoring these parameter changes rather than direct mechanical contact, the system achieves high precision with simpler sensor configurations and reduced signal processing complexity.
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
This solution enables precise detection and location of touch gestures on projected images, allowing for accurate interaction with virtual or augmented interfaces without hindering the user's movement, and supports multiple wearable devices for enhanced functionality.
Implementation Method 1
projecting an image onto a portion of a first appendage of a user
Implementation Method 2
a wearable wristband with transducers, to enhance the detection and location accuracy of gestures by projecting images onto the user's body and receiving signals through the body's tissue
Data Source
AI summary
An example method of identifying a touch gesture on a user is provided. The method includes receiving, by one or more transducers of a wearable device, a set of signals that establish a signal pathway to the wearable device. The method also includes, while receiving the set of signals, determining baseline characteristics for the signal pathway, and sensing a change in the baseline characteristics caused by user interaction with an affordance of a user interface projected or perceived on the user's appendage. The method further includes, in accordance with a determination that the sensed change in the baseline characteristics satisfies a contact criterion, reporting a candidate touch event on the user's appendage to a separate electronic device that creates the user interface or is in communication with another electronic device that creates the user interface.