KR100907103B1 - Glove-based Human-Computer Interface Device - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a glove-based human computer interface device. More specifically, the present invention provides an interface device in the form of a glove for an interface between a human and a computer, by attaching a bending sensor to the inside of the glove, that is, the palm part, to more accurately detect the shape of the user's hand. A glove-based human computer interface device that enables the manipulation of objects.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention, in the glove-based human computer interface device, a bending sensor is provided on at least one finger of the finger of the glove, the bending sensor is provided on the inner surface of the glove A glove-based human computer interface device is provided.

Virtual Environment, Gloves, Globe, Bend Sensor, Interface, HCI, Haptic

Description

Glove-based Human-Computer Interface Device

The present invention is directed to a glove-based human computer interface device. More specifically, the present invention provides an interface device in the form of a glove for an interface between a human and a computer, by attaching a bending sensor to the inside of the glove, that is, the palm part, to more accurately detect the shape of the user's hand. A glove-based human computer interface device that enables the manipulation of objects.

Recently, with the development of computer technology, interest in virtual reality and application technology using the same has increased. Virtual reality means that the user feels like a real world environment in the virtual environment. Early virtual reality technologies focused on reproducing realistic environments through the presentation of visual and multi-channel auditory information using computer graphics. The use of such computer imaging and interactive interfaces is widely used in the fields of medicine, education, as well as design, simulation, and production automation.

Various interface devices have been proposed for manipulating virtual objects existing in a virtual space constituting a virtual reality. However, the most effective way to manipulate objects in virtual space is to use hands directly. In the real world, it is much easier to grasp the characteristics or properties of an object if you can manipulate it in the same way that you manipulate it with your hands.

A glove-based method may be used as a method of configuring an interface with a virtual object based on the movement of a user's hand. The virtual gloves forming the human-computer interface need to track the bend angle of each joint of the finger as well as the position and orientation of the hand.

In the 1970s, at MIT, Polhemus tried a direct interpretation of hand motion using a 3-SPACE magnetic tracker sensor. Since then, various techniques for tracking the position and the direction of the hand have been proposed, such as optical tracking, magnetic tracking and acoustic tracking.

Meanwhile, the technique of measuring the angle of the finger joint began to be studied in earnest in the 1980s, and various gloves-type interface devices were developed using the same. Developed in 1987, DataGlove has 10 bend sensors and is capable of measuring six degrees of freedom in the hand. DataGlove had a bend sensor on the back of the hand and a 3-SPACE magnetic tracker was used to measure position and orientation. Subsequently, Nintendo developed Power Glove®, a low-cost game controller for home video games, which included a bend sensor for measuring the bend angle and an acoustic tracker for hand tracking. Developed in 1990, Immersion's CyberGlove® was the most sophisticated, accurate and easily worn armored device. CyberGlove® was equipped with 18 to 22 bend sensors in the back of the hand to measure finger bend angles. Recent developments in virtual gloves have been directed to enhancing three-dimensional application by hand in virtual space. Many of these devices employ a flex sensor or a bend sensor to measure the angle of the finger joint. The bending sensor is inexpensive compared to other sensors, and has an advantage of being hardly affected by changes in the surrounding environment. Therefore, the bending sensor has recently been widely used as a means for measuring bending information of a finger.

As an example of a virtual glove, US Pat. No. 5,047,952 provides a glove-type device using a strain gage sensor, in which a strain gage sensor is attached to the back of the hand of the glove.

U. S. Patent No. 6,452, 584 also discloses a data management system based on hand gestures. The system includes a tracking device in the form of a glove, comprising a sensor unit on the back of the hand of the glove, including a flexible circuit board disposed along the wearer's finger and hand.

Such a conventional glove-based interface device is provided with a bend sensor or the like to measure the bending angle of the finger. This is believed to be due to the assumption that the bending angles of the hands and palms will be constant.

However, the actual situation indicates that there is a large defect in the conventional armored based interface device.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of measuring a finger angle along a hand and a palm of an index finger.

The actual bending angle of a finger of a person is determined by the angle made by the bones and joints inside the skin. By the way, as shown in FIG. 1, the bending angle of the finger may be different depending on the back of the hand and the palm.

When the user wants to grab an object in the virtual space, even though the inner surface of the user's hand grabs the object, the conventional glove-based interface device measures the angle of the finger using a sensor located on the hand. There was a problem that there was some error. In particular, when trying to grab an object in the virtual space by using a finger, the above-described error causes a problem that makes sophisticated work using a glove-based interface device difficult.

The present invention provides an interface device in the form of a glove for an interface between a human and a computer, and attaches a bending sensor to the inside of the glove, that is, the palm part, to more accurately detect the shape of the user's hand to manipulate an object in a virtual space. It is an object of the present invention to provide a glove-based human computer interface device.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention, in the glove-based human computer interface device, a bending sensor is provided on at least one finger of the finger of the glove, the bending sensor is provided on the inner surface of the glove A glove-based human computer interface device is provided.

The human computer interface device may include an impedance buffer configured to output a signal in the form of a voltage according to a change in resistance of the bending sensor; An AD converter for converting an analog signal of the impedance buffer into a digital signal; And a controller configured to process a digital signal output from the AD converter and output the processed external signal.

Here, the finger of the glove is provided with a terminal bending sensor positioned in the node of the finger end, the inner bending sensor located in the palm direction, the upper portion of the inner bending sensor is disposed to cover the upper portion of the end bending sensor desirable.

In addition, the end bending sensor is attached to be in close contact with the finger of the glove, the lower end of the inner bending sensor is attached to be in close contact with the finger of the glove while the top of the inner bend sensor is not attached to the finger. It is preferred to be provided.

In addition, the finger of the glove is preferably provided with a link connecting the upper end of the inner bending sensor with the finger of the glove so that the upper end of the inner bending sensor is in close contact with the glove direction when the finger is extended.

Here, the link may be made of an elastic material.

On the other hand, in the glove-based human computer interface device according to the present invention, at least one of the detection unit, the stop unit, the ring finger portion, the holding portion of the glove and the first bending sensor provided in the direction of the center of the glove, the first node of the finger And a second bending sensor provided at a position corresponding to the third bending sensor provided at a position corresponding to the second node of the finger, and an upper end of the first bending sensor is overlapped with a lower end of the second bending sensor. The upper end of the second bending sensor may be overlapped with the lower end of the third bending sensor.

Here, the second bending sensor and the third bending sensor are characterized in that the lower portion is formed so as to be in close contact with the glove.

The upper end of the first bend sensor and the second bend sensor in the direction of the glove when the finger of the glove is extended by connecting the upper end of the first bend sensor and the upper end of the second bend sensor to the glove, respectively. Each of the first link and the second link to be in close contact may be provided.

According to the present invention, when the virtual object and the virtual hand makes contact in the virtual space, the position of the actual hand in the real space is accurately reflected. Accordingly, according to the conventional method, a correction in consideration of the thickness and angle of the hand is required for the value acquired by the sensor, and such a correction has been inaccurate in all cases. There are advantages to it.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. First, in adding reference numerals to the components of each drawing, it should be noted that the same reference numerals are assigned to the same components as much as possible, even if shown on different drawings. In addition, in describing the present invention, when it is determined that the detailed description of the related well-known configuration or function may obscure the gist of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted. In addition, the following will describe a preferred embodiment of the present invention, but the technical idea of the present invention is not limited thereto and may be variously modified and modified by those skilled in the art.

2 is a perspective view of a glove-based human computer interface device in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The glove-based human computer interface device 10 according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a glove 12, a plurality of bend sensors provided at a position corresponding to the inside of the glove 12, ie, the palm of the user, and the bend. It includes a control unit 16 for receiving a signal from the sensor and processing.

The glove 12 is connected to the central portion 14, the thumb portion 20, the detection portion 22, the stop portion 24, the ring finger portion 26, and the holding portion, which are connected to the central portion 14, to place the wearer's finger. (28).

The main feature of the present invention is that a bending sensor for sensing the degree of bending of the finger is provided inside the glove 12. For this purpose, it is preferable that a bending sensor is provided for each joint of each finger inside the glove. A bending sensor is a material whose resistance value changes depending on the angle at which it is bent.

Inside the thumb 20, a first thumb bending sensor 30a is provided from the central portion 14 to the thumb 20, and the second thumb bending sensor 30b corresponds to the center joint of the thumb. Located.

Inside the detection unit 22, a first detection unit bending sensor 32a is provided from the center portion 14 to the detection unit 22, and the second detection unit bending sensor 32b is provided to correspond to the first joint of the detection unit. The three detection part bending sensor 32c is provided so as to correspond to the second joint of the detection.

In the same way, the stop part bend sensor 34a, 34b, 34c, the stop part bend sensor 36a, 36b, 36c, and the holding part bend sensor are also applied to the stop part 24, the ring finger part 26, and the holding part 28. 38a, 38b, 38c are provided.

3 is a circuit diagram of a control unit connected to the bending sensor in the glove-based human computer interface device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The bending sensor R _sensor is connected to the resistor R _M , and the source voltage V _in is transferred to the impedance buffer 40 according to the ratio of the resistance R _M and the resistance R _sensor of the bending sensor. The output of the impedance buffer 40 is delivered to the AD converter. The resistor R _M is for maximizing the required strain sensitivity range and limiting the current. Once a suitable resistance (R _M ) value is determined, the output voltage (V _out ) of the impedance buffer 40 can be calculated by the following equation (1).

4 is a block diagram of a controller in a glove-based human computer interface device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The control unit includes an AC converter 44, a processor 46, and an EEPROM 48. The signal from each bend sensor 30a, ..., 38c is delivered to the AD converter 44 through an impedance buffer comprising the OP amplifier 42. The processor 46 filters the digital signal from the AD converter 44 according to the program stored in the EEPROM 48. The filtered signal is transmitted to the outside 52 through a transmitter 50 such as RS-232 so that the position of the virtual hand is determined according to the shape of the hand in the virtual environment.

5 is a diagram illustrating an example for determining the position of the finger tip according to the angle of the finger.

In FIG. 5, l ₁ is the length of the first phalanx of the finger, l ₂ is the length of the second phalanx, l ₃ is the length of the third phalanx, and θ ₁ is first. An angle formed by one node, θ ₂ is an angle formed by the first and second nodes, and θ ₃ is an angle formed by the second and third nodes.

Accordingly, the position (x, y) of the fingertip and the angle α indicated by the fingertip are determined by the following equation (1).

On the other hand, in order to obtain an accurate value from the bending sensor attached to the glove 12, the position to be attached to the bending sensor should be selected well, and the bending sensor should move in close contact with the movement of the hand. In the case of Immersion's Cyberglove®, a spandex fabric was used to increase the adhesion between the bending sensor and the finger. The Cyberglove® has a bend sensor attached to the back of the hand, so when the finger is bent, the bend sensor is bent like a finger, and when the finger is extended, the bend sensor is extended by the finger. By the way, the present invention has the advantage that it can accurately reflect the actual movement of the hand with a minimum error, provided that the bend sensor on the bottom of the hand, but the problem that the bend sensor is bent from the inside of the hand to bend more bending May occur.

As a solution to this problem, the present invention proposes the following configuration.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of attaching a bending sensor in a glove-based human computer interface device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a glove-based human computer interface device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a finger is bent, and FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a finger is removed in a glove-based human computer interface device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

6 to 8 illustrate the detection unit 22 of the glove 12, and the same method is applied to the other finger portion of the glove 12.

6 to 8, the third detection unit bending sensor 32c closest to the fingertip of the detection unit 22 is attached to the detection unit 22 of the glove 12, and the second detection unit bending sensor 32b is An upper end (here, the upper end means a fingertip direction portion) is provided to overlap the third detection unit bending sensor 32c. In addition, the upper end of the 1st detection part bending sensor 32a is provided overlapping the upper part of the 2nd detection part bending sensor 32b.

Preferably, all the 3rd detection part bending sensors 32c are in close contact with the detection part 22 of the glove 12. As shown in FIG. Such close contact may be achieved by wrapping the bending sensor in a stretchable material such as spandex and attaching it to the surface of the glove 12 by sewing or using an adhesive. On the other hand, the second detection unit bending sensor 32b and the first detection unit bending sensor 32a are coupled so that the central direction of the glove 12 is in close contact with the detection unit 22 while the finger end direction is not in close contact with the detection unit 22. It is provided. With this configuration, it is possible to prevent the bending sensor from curling inside the finger and bending more than the movement of the finger when the finger is bent.

In the case of FIG. 6, when the fingers are stretched while the fingers are bent, the first and second detection part bending sensors 32a and 32b may not be straightened. To this end, the first link 60 connecting the end of the detection unit 32 and the upper end of the first detection unit bending sensor 32a and the end of the detection unit 32 and the upper end of the second detection unit bending sensor 32b are connected to each other. Preferably, a second link 62 is provided for connecting.

Here, the first link and the second link may be made of a material such as wire or thread and may be made of an elastic elastic material.

When the fingers are bent as shown in FIG. 7, each of the detection unit bending sensors 32a, 32b, and 32c is bent to reflect the bending state of the finger. Then, when the fingers are stretched, as shown in FIG. 8, the first link and the second link pull the upper ends of the first detection unit bending sensor 32a and the second detection unit bending sensor 32b to change the state of the finger. , 32b).

The first link 60 and the second link 62 function to straighten the first detector bend sensor 32a and the second detector bend sensor 32b together when the fingers are unfolded. Another embodiment thereof is described as follows.

9 is a view showing another embodiment of the first and second links in the glove-based human computer interface device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

According to FIG. 9, the other first and second links 60 'and 62' are made of an elastic material, and the upper end of the first detection part bending sensor 32a and the upper end of the second detection part bending sensor 32b are respectively formed. It performs the function of connecting to the detection unit 22 in the close position.

That is, the functions of the first link 60, 60 'and the second link 62, 62' are such that the first detector bend sensor 32a and the second detector bend sensor 32b move together with the finger when the fingers are extended. It should be understood that the purpose is to make it possible.

The operational performance of the bending sensor in the case where the first and second links are provided is as follows.

10 is a view showing the operating performance according to the provision of the link connected with the bending sensor in the glove-based human computer interface device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 10, (a) shows the signal of a bending sensor in the case of providing a link, and (b) shows the signal of a bending sensor in the case of not providing a link.

Referring to FIG. 10, when the finger is not provided as in the case of (b), the bending sensor does not sufficiently follow this as the finger is stretched, but in the case of (a), the bending sensor is operated by the finger. You can see that it exactly follows the operation.

On the other hand, in the above description, it has been described that the bending sensor is located at a portion corresponding to the finger joint of the inner portion of the glove. However, in the practice of the present invention, it is a matter of course that the bending sensor may be additionally provided in the palm surface or the portion interconnecting the fingers other than the joint portion of the finger. In addition, it is also possible that the bending sensor may be provided only on some fingers instead of all the fingers.

In addition, the above description is merely illustrative of the technical idea of the present invention, and those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains various modifications, changes and substitutions without departing from the essential characteristics of the present invention. This will be possible. Accordingly, the embodiments disclosed in the present invention and the accompanying drawings are not intended to limit the technical spirit of the present invention but to describe the present invention, and the scope of the technical idea of the present invention is not limited by the embodiments and the accompanying drawings. . The protection scope of the present invention should be interpreted by the following claims, and all technical ideas within the equivalent scope should be interpreted as being included in the scope of the present invention.

Since the present invention can accurately estimate the motion information of the actual wearer's hand, the accuracy of the interface device in the form of a glove can be improved, and thus the industrial applicability is high.

1 is a diagram illustrating an example of measuring a finger angle according to a back of a hand and a hand by an index finger;

2 is a perspective view of a glove-based human computer interface device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a circuit diagram of a control unit connected to a bending sensor in a glove-based human computer interface device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

4 is a block diagram of a control unit in a glove-based human computer interface device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

5 is a view showing an example for determining the position of the fingertip according to the angle of the finger,

6 is a view showing a configuration for attaching a bending sensor in a glove-based human computer interface device according to an embodiment of the present invention,

7 is a view showing a state in which a finger bent in a glove-based human computer interface device according to an embodiment of the present invention,

8 is a view showing a state in which a finger is released in a glove-based human computer interface device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

9 is a view showing another embodiment of the first and second links in the glove-based human computer interface device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

10 is a view showing the operating performance according to the provision of the link connected with the bending sensor in the glove-based human computer interface device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

<Description of reference numerals for the main parts of the drawings>

10 interface device 12 gloves

14 central portion 16 control unit

20: thumb 22: detection unit

24: stop part 26: medicine branch

28: holding part 30a, 30b: thumb bending sensor

32a, 32b, 32c: detection part bending sensor 34a, 34b, 34c: detection part bending sensor

36a, 36b, 36c: detection part bending sensor 38a, 38b, 38c: detection part bending sensor

Claims (9)

In the armor-based human computer interface device, A bending sensor is provided on at least one of the fingers of the glove, the inner surface of the glove, The bend sensor is located in the finger end node of the glove and attached to be in close contact with the finger of the glove, and positioned in the palm direction of the glove, the lower end is to be in close contact with the finger of the glove It is attached and the upper end includes an inner bending sensor which is provided so as not to attach to the finger and disposed to cover the upper portion of the end bending sensor, A glove-based human computer interface device, characterized in that a link is provided to connect the upper end of the inner bending sensor with the finger of the glove so that the upper end of the inner bending sensor is in close contact with the finger in the direction of the glove. The method of claim 1, An impedance buffer outputting a signal in the form of a voltage according to a change in resistance of the bending sensor; An AD converter for converting an analog signal of the impedance buffer into a digital signal; And Processor for processing the digital signal output from the AD converter to output to the outside Glove-based human computer interface device characterized in that it further comprises a control unit. delete delete delete The method according to claim 1 or 2, The glove-based human computer interface device, characterized in that the link is made of a flexible material. In the armor-based human computer interface device, A bending sensor is provided on at least one of the fingers of the glove, the inner surface of the glove, The bending sensor may include a first bending sensor provided in the center direction of the glove, a second bending sensor provided at a position corresponding to the first node of the finger, and a third bending sensor provided at a position corresponding to the second node of the finger. Is provided, The upper end of the first bend sensor is provided overlapping the lower end of the second bend sensor, the upper end of the second bend sensor is provided overlapping the lower end of the third bend sensor, When the finger of the glove is extended by connecting the upper end of the first bend sensor and the upper end of the second bend sensor to the glove, the upper ends of the first bend sensor and the second bend sensor are in close contact with each other in the direction of the glove. A glove-based human computer interface device, characterized in that it is provided with a first link and a second link. The method of claim 7, wherein And the second bend sensor and the third bend sensor are formed such that only a lower portion thereof is in close contact with the glove. delete

Images