Occluded gesture recognition

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9778749-B2
Application number	US-201414494863-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 24, 2014
Priority date	Aug 22, 2014
Publication date	Oct 3, 2017
Grant date	Oct 3, 2017

Abstract

This document describes techniques and devices for occluded gesture recognition. Through use of the techniques and devices described herein, users may control their devices even when a user's gesture is occluded by some material between the user's hands and the device itself. Thus, the techniques enable users to control their mobile devices in many situations in which control is desired but conventional techniques do permit effective control, such as when a user's mobile computing device is occluded by being in a purse, bag, pocket, or even in another room.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
authenticating a person permitted to control a mobile computing device based on authentication credentials;
providing a radar field using microwave radiation;
receiving, via the provided radar field, a reflection from a hand of the authenticated person;
determining identifying indicia for the hand of the authenticated person based on the received reflection;
recording the identifying indicia effective to enable a later-received radar field reflection from the hand to be identified as being from the authenticated person;
determining a hand gesture of the authenticated person's hand based on the received reflection;
mapping the determined hand gesture to a control input; and
recording the mapping of the determined hand gesture effective to enable a later-received hand gesture to be mapped to the control input.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the received reflection is received responsive to presentation of a proposed gesture and a proposed control input to cause with the proposed gesture.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein mapping the determined hand gesture is responsive to a user selection of the control input to be controlled through the determined hand gesture.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the received reflection includes a human-tissue reflection and wherein determining the identifying indicia for the hand is based on the received human-tissue reflection.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the received reflection includes a reflection from a device worn on the hand of the authenticated person and wherein determining the identifying indicia for the hand is based on the received reflection from the device.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the hand gesture includes a sign-language gesture.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the hand gesture includes a finger gesture.

8. A computer-implemented method comprising:
providing, at a mobile computing device, a radar field through one or more occlusions, the radar field having microwave radiation effective to penetrate through the one or more occlusions;
receiving, at the mobile computing device, a reflection from an occluded gesture within the radar field;
determining, based on the received reflection, identifying indicia of a person making the occluded gesture;
determining, based on the identifying indicia, that the person making the occluded gesture is permitted to control the mobile computing device;
recognizing the occluded gesture based on the received reflection;
determining a control input associated with the recognized gesture; and
passing the determined control input effective to control an entity associated with the mobile computing device.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , wherein providing the radar field provides a directed radar field in a region in which gestures are anticipated.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the region in which gestures are anticipated is determined based on a location of the mobile computing device relative to a location of a person known to be associated with the mobile computing device.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 , further comprising determining the location of the person known to be associated by identifying a hand of the person known to be associated with the mobile computing device.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein a direction of the directed radar field is determined based on tracking a hand of the person known to be associated with the mobile computing device.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , wherein determining the control input associated with the recognized gesture maps the recognized gesture to one control input of multiple control inputs previously associated with multiple respective gestures.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , wherein the one or more occlusions include glass or wood furniture.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , wherein the operation of determining that the person making the occluded gesture is permitted to control the mobile computing device compares the determined identifying indicia of the person making the occluded gesture with a recorded identifying indicia effective to authenticate the person making the occluded gesture.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , wherein determining that the person making the occluded gesture is permitted to control the mobile computing device is based on tracking the person using a radar field after a credential-based authentication of the person and wherein the tracking is based on the identifying indicia of the person.

17. An apparatus comprising:
an occluded-gesture recognition system comprising a microwave radio element configured to provide a radar field having microwave radiation;
one or more computer processors; and
one or more computer-readable storage media having instructions stored thereon that, responsive to execution by the one or more computer processors, perform operations comprising:
detecting a gesture actor interacting with the radar field provided by the occluded gesture recognition system;
determining, based on a reflection from the radar field, identifying indicia for a person associated with the gesture actor;
identifying, based on the identifying indicia, the person associated with the gesture actor;

determining that the identified person is permitted to control the apparatus; and
responsive to determining that the identified person is permitted to control the apparatus, passing a control input determined, based on the interaction or another interaction by the gesture actor with the radar field, to an entity associated with the apparatus, the passing of the control input effective to control the entity.

18. The apparatus as recited in claim 17 , wherein the operation of identifying the person associated with the gesture actor compares the identifying indicia for the the person associated with the gesture actor with a recorded identifying indicia for the person permitted to control the apparatus.

19. The apparatus as recited in claim 17 , wherein the provided radar field penetrates through an occlusion and wherein the operations of detecting the gesture actor and determining the identifying indicia are based on the reflection from the radar field received through the occlusion.

20. The apparatus as recited in claim 17 , wherein identifying the person associated with the gesture actor is based on a prior credential-based authentication at a particular time and tracking of the person using the identifying indicia from the particular time to a later time at which detecting the gesture actor is performed.

Assignees

• Google Inc

Inventors

• Poupyrev Ivan

Classifications

• G06F3/017 Primary

  Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures (interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883) · CPC title

• G01S13/42

  Simultaneous measurement of distance and other co-ordinates (indirect measurement G01S13/46) · CPC title

• G06F3/011

  Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality (blind teaching G09B21/00) · CPC title

• G06F21/32

  using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints · CPC title

• G06F21/316

  by observing the pattern of computer usage, e.g. typical user behaviour · CPC title