JP2014126879A - Gesture recognition device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a gesture recognition device capable of conveniently, quickly and surely avoiding an action of moving a movable object being falsely recognized as a gesture.SOLUTION: A gesture recognition device includes: imaging means 2 for imaging an operation object and a predetermined movable object which is movable by action of external force; position specification means 5 for specifying the positions of both objects based on picked-up images of the operation object and the movable object; synchronous movement determination means 6 for determining whether the specified positions of both objects moved synchronously or not; and gesture recognition control means 7 for nullifying the recognition result of the gesture based on the picked-up image of the operation object when an affirmative determination result is acquired.

Description

  The present invention relates to a gesture recognition apparatus, and more particularly to a gesture recognition apparatus suitable for recognizing a gesture of an operation object.

  In recent years, mainly home appliances, PCs, game machines, etc., devices that can recognize user gestures and input commands according to the recognition result have become widespread. (See, for example, Patent Document 1).

  In this type of device, too many types of commands that can be entered by gestures using the user's hand impose an excessive burden on the user to learn the movement of the hand. Only simple hand movements were often used.

JP 2006-298003 A

  However, the restricted hand movement may resemble the movement of the hand when moving a movable object that is made movable by the action of an external force. In this case, the movement of the hand that moves the movable object is the gesture. Sometimes it was mistakenly recognized.

  For example, when considering the gesture recognition used by the driver for in-vehicle devices, the movement of the hand around the handle that the driver performed without removing the hand from the handle is recognized as a gesture and the corresponding command input is However, in this case, it may be difficult to determine whether the movement is a hand movement for a gesture or a switch operation such as a winker operation or a wiper operation.

  Specifically, as shown in FIG. 4, when an operation of moving the hand upward with a thumb on the handle is performed, it is determined whether this is a gesture command indicating a volume increase for an audio device or a winker operation. It was difficult to distinguish. In such a case, the switch operation result can be detected and discriminated electrically. However, since the detection timing is late, the operability of gesture recognition is impaired.

  In Patent Document 1, a technique for avoiding erroneous recognition of a gesture is proposed. However, in this technique, a gesture detection area is set only for a spoke that is not gripped at the time of steering. It was necessary to grasp the spokes every time, resulting in complicated operations.

  Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above points, and provides a gesture recognition device that can easily, quickly and surely avoid an operation of moving a movable object being erroneously recognized as a gesture. It is for the purpose.

  In order to achieve the above-described object, a gesture recognition apparatus according to the present invention is a gesture recognition apparatus that recognizes a gesture of a predetermined operation object, and is a predetermined movable object that is movable by the action of the operation object and an external force. Imaging means for imaging an object, position specifying means for specifying the positions of both objects based on the captured images of the operation object and the movable object by the imaging means, and the both specified by the position specifying means Synchronous movement determination means for determining whether or not the position of the object has moved synchronously, and gesture recognition based on the captured image of the operation object when a positive determination result is obtained by the synchronous movement determination means It is characterized by comprising gesture recognition control means for invalidating the result.

  According to such a configuration, when the positions of the operation object and the movable object are specified based on the captured image and the positions of both objects move in synchronization, the gesture corresponding to the movement is recognized. Since the result can be canceled, it is possible to simply, quickly and surely avoid the erroneous recognition of the movement of the movable object as a gesture.

  Further, the determination may be a determination as to whether or not the positions of the two objects have moved in a positional relationship within a predetermined distance.

  And according to such a structure, since the recognition result of a gesture can be canceled when the certainty that it is an operation of moving a movable object is high, the reliability of the processing of the gesture recognition device can be improved. Can do.

  Furthermore, the imaging unit may simultaneously capture the operation object and the movable object, and the position specifying unit may simultaneously specify the positions of the both objects.

  And according to such a structure, the misrecognition at the time of moving a movable object can be avoided still more rapidly and efficiently.

  Furthermore, a feature point mark indicating a feature point of the object is formed on the movable object, and the position specifying unit is configured to determine the position of the movable object based on the feature point mark in the captured image of the movable object. The position of may be specified.

  According to such a configuration, the position of the movable object can be easily specified.

  The operation object may be a user's hand.

  And according to such a structure, it can avoid simply that the operation | movement which a user moves a movable object using a hand is mistakenly recognized as a gesture simply, quickly.

  Furthermore, the gesture recognition device may be mounted on a vehicle.

  According to such a configuration, it is possible to simply, quickly and surely avoid that a user's operation of moving a movable object using a hand in a vehicle is erroneously recognized as a gesture for operating an in-vehicle device. it can.

  Furthermore, the movable object may be a control switch of the vehicle.

  According to such a configuration, it is possible to simply, quickly and surely avoid that the operation of the user moving the control switch using the hand in the vehicle is mistakenly recognized as a gesture for operating the in-vehicle device. it can.

  The control switch may be disposed in the vicinity of the vehicle handle.

  According to such a configuration, it is possible to simply, quickly and surely avoid that the operation of moving the control switch around the steering wheel in the vehicle is erroneously recognized as a gesture performed while grasping the steering wheel.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, it can avoid simply and quickly and reliably that the operation | movement which moves a movable object is misrecognized as a gesture.

The block diagram which shows embodiment of the gesture recognition apparatus which concerns on this invention The schematic diagram which shows the feature point mark formed in the turn signal / wiper lever as an example of a control switch A flowchart showing an embodiment of a gesture recognition device Explanatory diagram for explaining conventional problems

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of a gesture recognition device according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a gesture recognition device 1 in the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the gesture recognition device 1 has an imaging device 2 mounted on a vehicle as imaging means. The imaging device 2 includes a driver (user) hand as an operation object, A vehicle control switch as a predetermined movable object that can be moved by the action of an external force can be simultaneously imaged. This control switch may be a winker / wiper lever 8 (see FIG. 2) disposed in the vicinity (periphery) of the steering wheel of the vehicle. Further, the imaging device 2 may be a digital camera that includes a solid-state imaging device such as a CCD or a CMOS, and continuously captures a predetermined imaging area in which a hand and a control switch are simultaneously captured at a predetermined frame rate. Furthermore, the imaging device 2 may be installed on a vehicle instrument panel or the like so as to face the vehicle interior.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the gesture recognition device 1 includes a hand feature recognition unit 3, and the captured image of the imaging device 2 is sequentially input to the hand feature recognition unit 3 every time it is captured. It has come to be. Then, the hand feature recognition unit 3 performs hand feature recognition processing on the input captured image based on hand feature data (shape, etc.) D1 held in advance in the hand feature recognition unit 3. It is like that. This recognition processing may be performed for each captured image, or may be performed based on a series of captured image groups for a plurality of frames. The hand feature recognition processing unit 3 sequentially outputs the recognized hand features as hand movement information as a gesture recognition result for each recognition. The hand feature recognition unit 3 may be embodied by executing a program for realizing this function by an arithmetic processing unit such as a CPU. A program to be executed by the arithmetic processing unit is stored in a program storage unit such as a ROM, and hand feature data D1 is stored in a data storage unit such as a ROM or a hard disk drive. A work area such as a RAM may be used for the processing.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the gesture recognition device 1 has a switch feature recognition unit 4, and the switch feature recognition unit 4 sequentially inputs the captured image of the imaging device 2 for each imaging. It has come to be. Then, the switch feature recognition unit 4 controls the control switch based on the feature data (shape, feature point position information, etc.) D2 of the control switch previously held in the switch feature recognition unit 4 with respect to the input captured image. The feature recognition process is performed. This recognition processing may be performed for each captured image, or may be performed based on a series of captured image groups for a plurality of frames. The switch feature recognition unit 4 sequentially outputs the recognized feature of the control switch as the movement information of the control switch for each recognition. The switch feature recognizing unit 4 may be embodied by executing a program for realizing this function by an arithmetic processing unit.

  Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 1, the gesture recognition device 1 has a position specifying unit 5 as position specifying means. The position specifying unit 5 receives hand movement information output from the hand feature recognition unit 3 and control switch movement information output from the switch feature recognition unit 4. Then, the position specifying unit 5 performs the specifying process of the position of the hand and the position of the control switch simultaneously based on each input information. At this time, the position specifying unit 5 may specify the position of the hand / control switch as coordinates (may be multi-dimensional) associated with the pixels of the imaging device 2. The position specifying unit 5 may specify the position of the hand / control switch as the center coordinates of the hand / control switch. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 2, when the position specifying unit 5 forms the feature point mark M indicating the feature point of the switch on the control switch (the blinker / wiper lever 8) by printing or the like, the position of the mark M is displayed. May be specified as the position of the control switch. Note that the mark M illustrated in FIG. 2 has four black circles arranged in a lattice pattern, so that the movement and inclination of the mark M can be easily detected. The position specifying unit 5 outputs the result of specifying the position of the hand / control switch as position information of the hand / control switch. Note that the position specifying unit 5 may be embodied by causing the arithmetic processing device to execute a program for realizing this function.

  Moreover, as shown in FIG. 1, the gesture recognition apparatus 1 has the synchronous movement determination part 6 as a synchronous movement determination means. The position information of the hand / control switch output from the position specifying unit 5 is input to the synchronous movement determining unit 6. The synchronous movement determination unit 6 determines whether or not the positions of the hand and the control switch have moved synchronously (in other words, simultaneously) based on the input position information. This determination may be a determination as to whether or not the positions of the hand and the control switch have moved synchronously in a positional relationship within a predetermined distance. In this case, the predetermined distance may be a distance that can be regarded as a hand touching the control switch, and may be zero. The determination result by the synchronous movement determination unit 6 is output as synchronous / asynchronous determination information. Note that the synchronous movement determination unit 6 may be embodied by causing the arithmetic processing device to execute a program for realizing this function.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the gesture recognition device 1 has a gesture command recognition unit 7 as a gesture recognition control unit. The gesture command recognition unit 7 receives hand movement information output from the hand feature recognition unit 3 and synchronous / asynchronous determination information corresponding to the hand movement information output from the synchronous movement determination unit 6. It has come to be. Then, the gesture command recognition unit 7 responds to the gesture recognition result based on the input hand movement information and the command data (movement pattern information, etc.) D3 previously stored in the gesture command recognition unit 7. A command is issued as an operation process. However, at this time, when the synchronous / asynchronous determination information corresponding to the gesture recognition result indicates a positive determination result, the gesture command recognition unit 7 invalidates the gesture recognition result and issues a command. Is to be prohibited. Note that the gesture command recognition unit 7 may be embodied by causing the arithmetic processing unit to execute a program for realizing this function. The command data D3 may be stored in a data storage unit such as a ROM or a hard disk drive.

  When a command is output from the gesture command recognition unit 7, this command is input to an operation target device (for example, an audio device), and processing corresponding to the input command is executed in the device. ing.

  According to such a configuration, after the positions of the hand and the control switch are specified based on the captured image and the positions of both objects move in synchronization, the recognition result of the gesture corresponding to this movement is canceled. Therefore, it is possible to simply, quickly and surely avoid an operation of moving the control switch being erroneously recognized as a gesture.

  Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

  In the present embodiment, first, in step 1 (ST1) of FIG. 3, imaging by the imaging device 2 is started. The imaging may be started after a predetermined trigger for gesture input (for example, an operation for turning on the gesture input) is generated.

  Next, in step 2-1 (ST 2-1), the hand feature recognition unit 3 recognizes hand features based on the captured image captured in step 1 (ST 1), and the recognition result is used as hand movement information. The information is output to the position specifying unit 5 and the gesture command recognition unit 7.

  At this time, in step 2-2 (ST2-2), the switch feature recognition unit 4 recognizes the feature of the control switch based on the captured image captured in step 1 (ST1), and controls the recognition result. The information is output to the position specifying unit 5 as switch movement information.

  Next, in step 3 (ST3), the position specifying unit 5 causes the hand movement information output in step 2-1 (ST2-1) and the control switch output in step 2-2 (ST2-2). Based on the movement information, the positions of the hand and the control switch are simultaneously specified, and the specified result is output to the synchronous movement determination unit 6 as the position information of the hand / control switch.

  Next, in step 4 (ST4), the synchronous movement determination unit 6 determines whether or not the hand and the control switch have moved in synchronization based on the position information of the hand / control switch output in step 3 (ST3). (Synchronous movement determination) is performed, and synchronous / asynchronous determination information corresponding to the determination result is output to the gesture command recognition unit 7.

  Next, in step 5 (ST5), the gesture command recognition unit 7 performs gesture recognition based on the hand movement information output in step 2-1 (ST2-1).

  Next, in step 6 (ST6), the gesture command recognition unit 7 determines whether or not the synchronous / asynchronous determination information output in step 4 (ST4) indicates a positive determination result. If a positive determination result is obtained in step 6 (ST6), the process proceeds to step 7 (ST7). If a negative determination result is obtained, the process proceeds to step 8 (ST8).

  If the process proceeds to step 7 (ST7), the gesture command recognition unit 7 invalidates the result of gesture recognition in step 5 (ST5), and the process ends without issuing a command.

  On the other hand, when the process proceeds to step 8 (ST8), the gesture command recognition unit 7 issues a command corresponding to the result of the gesture recognition in step 5 (ST5) and ends the process.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to embodiment mentioned above, You may change variously in the limit which does not impair the characteristic of this invention.

  For example, the present invention may be applied to gesture input in a space other than the vehicle interior.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Gesture recognition apparatus 2 Imaging device 5 Position specific part 6 Synchronous movement determination part 7 Gesture command recognition part

Claims (8)

A gesture recognition device for recognizing a gesture of a predetermined operation object,
Imaging means for imaging the operation object and a predetermined movable object that is movable by the action of an external force;
Position specifying means for specifying the positions of the two objects based on the captured images of the operation object and the movable object by the imaging means;
Synchronous movement determining means for determining whether or not the positions of the two objects specified by the position specifying means have moved synchronously;
A gesture recognition apparatus comprising: a gesture recognition control unit that invalidates a gesture recognition result based on a captured image of the operation object when a positive determination result is obtained by the synchronous movement determination unit. . The gesture recognition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determination is a determination as to whether or not the positions of the two objects have moved in a positional relationship within a predetermined distance. The imaging means images the operation object and the movable object simultaneously,
The gesture recognition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the position specifying unit specifies the positions of the two objects at the same time. A feature point mark indicating the feature point of the object is formed on the movable object,
The said position specific | specification part specifies the position of the said movable object based on the said feature point mark in the picked-up image of the said movable object. The one of the Claims 1 thru | or 3 characterized by the above-mentioned. Gesture recognition device. The gesture recognition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the operation object is a user's hand. The gesture recognition device according to claim 5, wherein the gesture recognition device is mounted on a vehicle. The gesture recognition apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the movable object is a control switch of the vehicle. The gesture recognition device according to claim 7, wherein the control switch is disposed in the vicinity of a handle of the vehicle.

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