KR100221335B1 - Transmission system of glove sensor value in a virtual reality system and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an input device for inputting a user's motion in a virtual reality system (VR). In particular, the sensor information about the movement of each joint of the glove is bundled into several groups and transmitted in parallel to improve transmission efficiency. A transmission system and a method thereof, comprising: first to fifth sensor groups (41-1 to 41-5) composed of a plurality of sensors for measuring joint movement and outputting an electrical signal; Means (42) for selecting any one sensor group among the sensor groups (41-1 to 41-5); First to fourth A / D converters 43-1 to 43-4 for converting and outputting a plurality of sensor signals into digital signals; First to fourth buffers 44-1 to 44-4 for temporarily storing and outputting the digital signal; A host computer 45 for receiving the sensor signals of the buffers 44-1 to 44-4; Controlling the operation of the selection means 42, the A / D converters 43-1 to 43-4 and the buffers 44-1 to 44-4 while exchanging information with the host computer 45 Through the present invention constituted by the control means 46 to transmit the movement of the hand to the host computer in real time unit, instead of the method of serially transmitting each sensor value one by one, a plurality of sensor values are converted into one data format. By applying the parallel transmission interface method to configure and transmit it, it is effective to improve the transmission speed.

Description

Glove sensor value transmission system and its method in virtual reality system

The present invention relates to an input device for inputting a user's motion in a virtual reality system (VR). In particular, the sensor information about the movement of each joint of the glove is bundled into several groups and transmitted in parallel to improve transmission efficiency. An improved transmission system and method are provided.

The virtual reality system vividly shows the unfinished or non-existent virtual situation as if it is a real situation that we cannot experience directly, and allows the user to freely do what they want in order to gain much knowledge and experience. It can be obtained based on computer technology and image technology. Unlike the way that existing computers provide a two-dimensional environment of use in the form of windows and treat the user as an observer or a foreigner, virtual reality (VR) provides the user with a three-dimensional environment (virtual world) to the user. It feels like you are in this virtual world and allows you to directly manipulate objects that appear in virtual reality. Because of these differences, the use of virtual reality (VR) technology enables vivid knowledge and experiences that are difficult to provide by traditional information provision and interaction methods, so education / training, entertainment / culture, science / medicine, design, etc. It is expected to create a huge new market in various fields such as manufacturing, telecommunications, and defense.

Such VRs are used interchangeably with terms such as virtual environment, virtual presence, artificial world, virtual world, cyberspace, depending on the point of view. However, in general, it is possible to provide artificial experiences and experiences by providing users with a three-dimensional virtual world similar to the real world created by computers, and providing means and sensory feedback that can be manipulated freely with the virtual world in real time. It's a technology that makes it possible.

The areas that can be applied to such virtual reality technologies include walk-through, virtual kitchen, virtual showroom system, and housing space analysis system. have.

1 is a diagram illustrating a conceptual configuration of a general virtual reality system. As shown in FIG. 1, a virtual reality (VR) system is largely classified into an input / output device and a computer system. The input / output device includes a sensory output device 11, a position, and a sense of sight, hearing, touch, and smell. Comprising an input device 12 for inputting a direction, voice, etc., the hardware 13 of the computer system includes a graphics accelerator 13a, a sound processor 13b, input and output ports 13c, software 14 Is composed of a virtual world database (DB: 14c), a virtual world editor 14b, a simulation manager 14a, and the like.

Here, since the input / output device is a part in which the user directly contacts to experience the virtual world, the reality of the virtual world greatly depends on the performance of the input / output device. Therefore, the configuration of the input / output device varies according to what application is made in the configuration of the virtual reality system and what functions and performances are required.

The input device 12 performs a function of receiving a user's position, voice, motion, and the like. The device receiving the user's position includes a 3D position tracker and an eye for tracking the position of the pupil of the user. Eye tracker and BOOM (Binocular Omni-Orintational Monitors) that show images according to the position of the user's head.They are attached to HMD (Head Mounted Display) or Wired Glove (Head Glove). There is a sensor that detects the position of. In addition, the microphone and the voice recognition means may be used to deliver a desired behavior (command) through the voice in the VR system. Others include a force ball for measuring force and torque, and a three-dimensional mouse that transfers hand movements in three-dimensional space.

The output device 11 varies according to sensory organs such as visual, auditory, tactile, and olfactory sense. The visual information output device includes an HMD, a monitor, a projector, an electronic shuttering eyeware, and the like. The output device includes a speaker, an earphone, and the like, and a vibrator, a pressure pad, a motion base, and the like to transmit tactile information. Here, the HMD provides the user with a stereoscopic image of a wide field of view so that the user can be immersed in the virtual world, but needs to be improved in terms of resolution, field of view, and wearing inconvenience.

In the computer system, the graphic generator 13a processes a stereo image of about 10 frames per second with a low delay time (within 0.1 seconds or less) to provide a realistic image. Must be provided dynamically. The graphics generator requires a high level of rendering algorithms, a high performance video processor, and a graphics accelerator.

The virtual reality editor 14b allows the user to define the structure of the virtual world, to have geometrical modeling of all the objects that make up the virtual world, and to have behaviors similar to those of the real world. It supports the physical modeling of each object (physical modeling), the dynamics applied between the virtual world and the objects that make up it, and the simulation modeling method of interactions between objects and users.

When the virtual world is defined by the virtual reality editor, the simulation manager 14a reads the modeling results from the virtual world database 14c to provide an initial virtual world, and monitors what the user does to the virtual world. According to the virtual world scenario, the virtual world is operated to cause the virtual world to respond to the action. VR authoring tools that support the creation and operation of virtual worlds include World Toolkit, MR Toolkit, VEOS, VR-DECK, and dVISE.

In particular, the glove of the input device refers to a special glove that can input various commands by hand gestures, and the glove that can interact with a computer was patented in 1977. This special glove, connected to the sensor, senses the movement of the user's fingers, hands and arms to pick up and move objects in the virtual environment. For example, VPL Research's DataGlove uses a magnetic sensor placed on the back of the hand to detect hand movement and position. The globe is operated by a fiber-optic cable that measures the degree of bending of the user's hand joints, and is attached with a magnetic sensor that senses the absolute position and orientation of the user's hands.

The control unit connected to the glove transmits information about the position and orientation of the hand and hand joints to the host computer. Computer interfaces then manage the scanning of the sensors and the communication with the host computer. Here, the coordinating unit can transmit this information to the computer more than 60 times per second via the RS-232C or RS-422 port in a user-definable form.

Various gloves other than VPL Research's DataGlove transmit hand movement information in the same way, that is, the sensor is located at the joint of each finger and converts it into digital signal by measuring the value proportional to the angle of bending of the joint. After that, the method of serial transmission using RS-232C is applied.

Here, referring to RS-232C, RS-232C is a standard published by the Electronic Industries Association (EIA) in 1969, RS is an abbreviation of Recommended Standard, 232 is an identification number for that particular shooting, and C is RS. Indicates the last revision to the -232 standard. The purpose of this specification is to define electrical characteristics for the interface of data terminal equipment (DTE) and data communications equipment (DCE). In a virtual reality system, a DTE is a host computer and a DCE is a glove. In addition, the communication interface RS-232C standard specifies a serial data transfer rate in the range of 0 to 20000bps.

As described above, the method of transmitting the joint sensor value in the glove to the host computer uses the serial interface method (RS-232C), which is not only suitable for the situation in which speed limit is a problem and also needs to be dealt with quickly. There was a problem with not providing various functions.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above problems, the system and method for improving the speed of data transmission by transmitting signals output from the sensor of the glove in parallel in the input device of the virtual reality (VR) system The purpose is to provide.

In the system for transmitting a signal measuring the degree of movement of the joint from the glove attached to the sensor to achieve the above object, a plurality of sensors for measuring the movement of the joint of the wrist, wrist and finger to output an electrical signal First to fifth sensor groups consisting of; Means for selecting signals from a plurality of sensors from any one of the first to fifth sensor groups; First to fourth A / D converters for converting a plurality of sensor signals output from the selecting means into digital signals and outputting the digital signals; First to fourth buffers for temporarily storing and outputting a digital signal output from the first to fourth A / D converters; A host computer generating a sensor value request control signal Req_signal and receiving the measured sensor signals of the first to fourth buffers; And means for controlling the operation of the selection means, the A / D converter and the buffer while exchanging information with the host computer.

In order to achieve another object as described above, in a method for transmitting a signal measuring the degree of movement of the joint from the glove attached to the sensor, a plurality of sensors of the joints are grouped into one sensor group and one sensor group is selected. A first step of initializing a sensor group selection signal (N) for A second step of generating a request control signal Req_signal requesting input of a sensor value; A third step of selecting a corresponding sensor group according to the request control signal Req_signal and the sensor group selection signal N; A fourth step of outputting a plurality of sensor values belonging to the sensor group corresponding to the sensor group selection signal (N) in parallel; A fifth step of converting the parallel output analog sensor values into digital signals and outputting the digital signals; A sixth step of temporarily storing the parallel output digital sensor values; A seventh step of generating a response control signal Ack_signal indicating that a valid sensor value exists; An eighth step of transmitting the temporarily stored valid sensor values in parallel; And a ninth step of repeatedly executing the second step after receiving the transmitted sensor value.

1 is a conceptual diagram showing the configuration of a general virtual reality system;

Figure 2 is a view showing the joint position of the hand to which the sensor is applied to the present invention

3A and 3B illustrate the structure and electrical characteristics of a band resistance sensor applied to the present invention.

4 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a system for transmitting glove sensor values in parallel in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a 32-bit data format in which digital sensor values measured from any sensor group consisting of four sensors in FIG. 4 are transmitted in parallel;

6 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a method for transmitting glove sensor values in parallel according to the present invention.

* Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

41-1 to 41-5: First to fifth sensor group 42: Selection means (multiplexer)

43-1 to 43-4: First to fourth A / D converters 44-1 to 44-4: First to fourth buffers 45 Host computer

46 control means

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail a preferred embodiment of the present invention

First of all, in order to naturally model hand movements, it is necessary to consider both the knuckles and the wrist joints, at least three of each of the five fingers (15 joints), the joint between the fingers and the fingers (four joints), and the wrist joints ( The degree of refraction of one joint) should be measured.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing joint positions of a hand to which a sensor to which the present invention is attached is illustratively shown, and shows 20 sensor positions for measuring the degree of refraction of a finger joint and a wrist joint.

There are many types of sensors for measuring joint movement, and among them, band resistance sensors are generally used because they are small in volume, easy to attach and use, and can be expected to have a relatively accurate measurement degree.

3A and 3B illustrate the characteristics of the band resistance sensor applied to the present invention.

As such, the sensor output voltage according to the movement of the hand is converted into a digital signal by using a band resistance sensor whose voltage varies according to the refraction angle.

In this case, when the left and right gloves are used, the output voltages of at least 40 sensors must be transmitted. However, if the serial interface is applied as in the past, it is not suitable in a situation requiring a fast response speed.

In order to prepare for such a situation, the purpose of the present invention is to improve the transmission speed and to propose a low parallel transmission.

In this embodiment, the minimum angle change amount of the band resistance sensor to be measured is set to 0.5 °, and the range of the total change angle is set to 0 ° to 90 °, so that a total of 181 angles are generated. The minimum number of bits needed to level these 181 angles is 8 bits.

On the other hand, if the data size that can be processed at the same time by parallel transmission in a general PC is 32 bits, the output values of four sensors having 8-bit values can be transmitted simultaneously.

In this case, in order to process 20 sensors of the glove to which the sensor is attached as shown in FIG. 2, four sensors are set as one group, and five sensor groups are created.

An example of classifying a sensor into five sensor groups is as follows. The joints 1, 2, 3 of the thumb and the joint 4 of the wrist are the first sensor group, and the joints 5, 6, 7 of the index finger and the joint 8 between the thumb and the index finger are second sensors. The joints 9, 10 and 11 of the middle finger and the joint 12 between the middle finger and the index finger as the third sensor group, and the joints 13, 14 and 15 of the ring finger and the joint between the ring finger and the middle finger ( 16 is used as the fourth sensor group, and the joints of the fingers 17, 18, and 19 and the joint 20 between the base and the ring finger are bundled into a fifth sensor group to form five sensor groups.

The sensor group thus formed is shown in the table below.

[table]

Group index (N) Sensor number Group 1 Sensor 1, Sensor 2, Sensor 3, Sensor 4 Group 2 Sensor 5, Sensor 6, Sensor 7, Sensor 8 Group 3 Sensor 9, Sensor 10, Sensor 11, Sensor 12 Group 4 Sensor 13, Sensor 14, Sensor 15, Sensor 16 Group 5 Sensor 17 Sensor 18, Sensor 19, Sensor 20

In the above table, the number of each sensor corresponds one-to-one to the joint number representing the joint position of FIG. 2, and each sensor value is assigned with 8 bits, and the total number of bits in each group is 32 bits in parallel through the 32-bit data bus. Is sent.

An embodiment of a parallel transmission system for parallel transmission of sensor values configured as such a sensor group will be described with reference to FIG. 4.

4 is a block diagram of a transmission system for parallel transmission of sensor values of a globe according to the present invention, wherein the parallel transmission system includes the first to fifth sensor groups 41-1 to 41-5, the multiplexer 42, and the first to fifth sensor groups. The first to fourth A / D converters 43-1 to 43-4, the first to fourth buffers 44-1 to 44-4, the host computer 45, and the control means 46 are comprised. .

The first to fifth sensor groups 41-1 to 41-5 are composed of a plurality of sensors that output electrical signals by measuring movement of joints of a wrist, a wrist, and a finger.

The multiplexer 42 selects a plurality of sensor signals belonging to any one of the first to fifth sensor groups 41-1 to 41-5.

The first to fourth A / D converters 43-1 to 43-4 convert a plurality of analog sensor signals output from the multiplexer 42 into digital signals.

The first to fourth buffers 44-1 to 44-4 temporarily store digital signals output from the first to fourth A / D converters 43-1 to 43-4, and then control the Output by the control signal of 46).

The host computer 44 generates a sensor value request control signal Req_signal and receives data from the buffers 43-1 to 43-4.

The control means 45 generates a control signal for controlling the operation of the multiplexer 42, the A / D converter 43, and the buffer 44 while exchanging information with the host computer 44.

As shown in FIG. 5, the 32-bit data format output from the first to fourth buffers 44-1 to 44-4 and transmitted to the host computer 45 is the 8-bit leftmost sensor value of the table ( 1 byte corresponds to the most significant byte (MSB) of 32 bits, and 8 bits of the rightmost sensor value correspond to the least significant byte (LSB).

Now, a process of simultaneously transmitting four sensor values through the parallel transmission system of FIG. 4 will be described.

Description of the control flow with reference to FIG. 6

The control means 46 determines whether the received signal is a sensor value request control signal Req_signal (S3), and if it is a sensor request signal, provides the sensor group selection signal N to the multiplexer 42 (S4). . In this case, the sensor group selection signal N corresponds to a value obtained by modularly calculating a value obtained by adding 1 to the previous sensor selection signal N as 6.

In step S4, it is determined whether the sensor group selection signal value N is "0" (S5). If "0", the value N is increased by one (S6).

In response to the sensor group selection signal N, the multiplexer 42 selects a corresponding group from the sensor groups and outputs four analog sensor values belonging to the group. The analog sensor value is converted by outputting the joint angle of movement to a voltage signal according to the characteristics of the band resistance sensor of Figure 3, the output four analog sensor values are the first to fourth A / D converter (43-1 ~) 43-4) is converted into an 8-bit digital signal (S7).

The digital signals output from the first to fourth A / D converters 43-1 to 43-4 are temporarily stored in the first to fourth buffers 44-1 to 44-4 (S8).

On the other hand, the control means 46 provides the host computer 45 with a response control signal ACK indicating that there is an effective sensor value (S9), and the first to fourth buffers 44-1 to 44-4. ) And simultaneously output each 8-bit digital sensor value to be loaded on the 32-bit data bus to the host computer 45 (S10).

After the host computer 45 receives the 32-bit sensor group signal, the host computer 45 repeatedly performs the second step.

That is, when the sensor value request control signal is received from the host computer, the sensor group selection signal is changed, and according to the selection signal, 32 bit data of the first sensor group, 32 bit data of the second sensor group, and 32 bit data of the third sensor group. In addition, since 32-bit data of the fourth sensor group and 32-bit data of the fifth sensor group are transmitted, the values of all the sensors can be transmitted, thereby improving the transmission speed by at least 32 times compared to the conventional serial transmission. .

As described above, in transmitting the movement of the hand to the host computer in real time unit, instead of the serial transmission of each sensor value one by one, instead of the parallel transmission in which a plurality of sensor values are configured in one data format and transmitted. By applying the interface method, the transmission speed is improved.

Claims (6)

In the system for transmitting a signal measuring the degree of movement of the joint from the glove attached to the sensor, A plurality of sensor groups 41-1 to 41-5 each composed of a plurality of sensors for outputting an electrical signal by measuring movement of a joint of a wrist, a wrist and a finger; Means (42) for selecting signals of a plurality of sensors from any one of the plurality of sensor groups (41-1 to 41-5); A plurality of A / D converters 43-1 to 43-4 for converting a plurality of sensor signals output from the selecting means 42 into digital signals and outputting the digital signals; A plurality of buffers 44-1 to 44-4 for temporarily storing and outputting digital signals outputted from the plurality of A / D converters 43-1 to 43-4; A host computer 45 for generating a sensor value request control signal Req_signal and receiving sensor signals of the plurality of measured buffers 44-1 to 44-4; Controlling the operation of the selection means 42, the A / D converters 43-1 to 43-4 and the buffers 44-1 to 44-4 while exchanging information with the host computer 45 Glove sensor value transmission system in a virtual reality system, characterized in that it comprises a control means (46). The glove sensor value transmission system according to claim 1, wherein the sensing sensors of the plurality of sensor groups (41-1 to 41-5) use band magnetic sensors. 2. The selecting means according to claim 1, wherein the control means (46) determines whether one of the plurality of sensor groups (41-1 to 41-5) is selected by determining whether the sensor value request control signal (Req_signal) is present. A glove sensor value transmission system in a virtual reality system, characterized by providing a selection signal to (42). 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control means (46) monitors the buffer status and provides a response control signal (Ack_signal) to the host computer (45) when it is determined that there is a valid sensor value, and the plurality of buffers are sensor signals. Glove sensor value transmission system in a virtual reality system, characterized in that to control to output the value at the same time. In the method for transmitting a signal measuring the degree of movement of the joint from the glove attached to the sensor, Grouping a plurality of sensors of the joint into one sensor group, and initializing a sensor group selection signal (N) for selecting one sensor group; A second step of generating a request control signal Req_signal requesting input of a sensor value; A third step of selecting a corresponding sensor group according to the request control signal Req_signal and the sensor group selection signal N; A fourth step of outputting a plurality of sensor values belonging to the sensor group corresponding to the sensor group selection signal (N) in parallel; A fifth step of converting the parallel output analog sensor values into digital signals and outputting the digital signals; A sixth step of temporarily storing the parallel output digital sensor values; A seventh step of generating a response control signal Ack_signal indicating that a valid sensor value exists; An eighth step of transmitting the temporarily stored valid sensor values in parallel; And a ninth step of repeating the execution from the second step again after receiving the transmitted sensor value. The method of claim 5, wherein the third step is to interpret the signal and if the request control signal (Req_signal), the value of increasing the current sensor group selection signal (N) 1 to the previous sensor group selection signal (N) to 6 Generated as a modulated value, and at this time, if the current sensor group selection signal (N) is "0" (S5), the increased value is generated as the current sensor group selection signal (N). How to send glove sensor value of system.