Kaesra
04-28-2010, 11:46 PM
High-Speed Camera Enables Touchless Gesture Control of Smartphones (http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-04/high-speed-camera-enables-touchless-smartphones-and-3d-finger-tracking)
Welcome to the post-touchscreen future
By Jeremy Hsu (http://www.popsci.com/category/popsci-authors/jeremy-hsu) Posted 04.28.2010 at 12:30 pm [/URL]
http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/touchless.jpg Touchless Phones Who needs touchscreens when you've got a 3D camera field of view to work with? Ishikawa Komuro Laboratory
<!--paging_filter-->Touchscreens can start polishing their resumes now, because a touchless future is drawing closer for the next generation of smartphones. The ever-industrious Ishikawa Komuro Laboratory in Tokyo has enabled mobile devices to touchlessly recognize movements and gestures from user's fingers, according to [URL="http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/new-mobile-phone-input-takes-the-touch-out-of-touchscreen-20100427/"]Geek.com (http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-04/high-speed-camera-enables-touchless-smartphones-and-3d-finger-tracking?page=#comments).
That success relies upon a high-frame-rate camera and algorithm which tracks a binarized finger image to estimate its 3-D motion and posture, a la Project Natal (http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2010-01/exclusive-inside-microsofts-project-natal). The camera can interpret a gesture similar to clicking a computer mouse button if the movement is toward the camera's optical axis, by gauging the size change in the fingertip image.
That allows users to move their mouse cursor over a virtual keyboard and type by making a clicking motion. It also allows for zooming in and out of photos by simply moving the finger closer to or away from the camera, as well as a one-click picture grabbing action.
<object style="height: 425px; width: 525px;">
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8HXnjAyT3cM" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="525" height="425"></object></p> Given the Japanese lab's past work developing the fastest robot hands (http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-08/fastest-robot-hands-east) in the East and the fastest book scanner ever (http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-03/video-blazing-fast-book-scanner-captures-flipping-pages-high-speed-camera) based upon a high-speed camera, this application may not come as a total shock. And there's a good chance that we could see the application appear in commercial devices sooner than MIT's Minority Report mouse glove (http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-03/video-mits-minority-report-glove-mouse-goes-wireless).
[via Geek.com (http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/new-mobile-phone-input-takes-the-touch-out-of-touchscreen-20100427/)]
Welcome to the post-touchscreen future
By Jeremy Hsu (http://www.popsci.com/category/popsci-authors/jeremy-hsu) Posted 04.28.2010 at 12:30 pm [/URL]
http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/touchless.jpg Touchless Phones Who needs touchscreens when you've got a 3D camera field of view to work with? Ishikawa Komuro Laboratory
<!--paging_filter-->Touchscreens can start polishing their resumes now, because a touchless future is drawing closer for the next generation of smartphones. The ever-industrious Ishikawa Komuro Laboratory in Tokyo has enabled mobile devices to touchlessly recognize movements and gestures from user's fingers, according to [URL="http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/new-mobile-phone-input-takes-the-touch-out-of-touchscreen-20100427/"]Geek.com (http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-04/high-speed-camera-enables-touchless-smartphones-and-3d-finger-tracking?page=#comments).
That success relies upon a high-frame-rate camera and algorithm which tracks a binarized finger image to estimate its 3-D motion and posture, a la Project Natal (http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2010-01/exclusive-inside-microsofts-project-natal). The camera can interpret a gesture similar to clicking a computer mouse button if the movement is toward the camera's optical axis, by gauging the size change in the fingertip image.
That allows users to move their mouse cursor over a virtual keyboard and type by making a clicking motion. It also allows for zooming in and out of photos by simply moving the finger closer to or away from the camera, as well as a one-click picture grabbing action.
<object style="height: 425px; width: 525px;">
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8HXnjAyT3cM" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="525" height="425"></object></p> Given the Japanese lab's past work developing the fastest robot hands (http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-08/fastest-robot-hands-east) in the East and the fastest book scanner ever (http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-03/video-blazing-fast-book-scanner-captures-flipping-pages-high-speed-camera) based upon a high-speed camera, this application may not come as a total shock. And there's a good chance that we could see the application appear in commercial devices sooner than MIT's Minority Report mouse glove (http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-03/video-mits-minority-report-glove-mouse-goes-wireless).
[via Geek.com (http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/new-mobile-phone-input-takes-the-touch-out-of-touchscreen-20100427/)]