Gesture recognition method, apparatus and wearable device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9977509-B2
Application number	US-201615186796-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 20, 2016
Priority date	Nov 20, 2015
Publication date	May 22, 2018
Grant date	May 22, 2018

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for gesture recognition and a wearable device for gesture recognition are described. A method of gesture recognition involves using a processor to detect a motion artifact from an output signal of a biosignal sensor and generating a control signal to control a function of a target device that corresponds to a reference signal pattern in response to a signal pattern of the detected motion artifact corresponding to the reference signal pattern.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of gesture recognition, the method comprising:
using a processor to detect a motion artifact from an output signal of a biosignal sensor; and
generating a control signal to control a function of a target device that corresponds to a reference signal pattern in response to a signal pattern of the detected motion artifact corresponding to the reference signal pattern.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generating of the control signal comprises:
determining a type of a gesture performed by a user based on the signal pattern of the motion artifact and at least one reference signal pattern stored in a memory; and
generating the control signal to operate the target device based on the determined type of the gesture.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the motion artifact occurs by a physical pressure or a movement applied by a user to the biosignal sensor or an area in a vicinity of the biosignal sensor.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in response to the motion artifact not being detected from the output signal, estimating health information of a user based on a biosignal detected from the output signal.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generating of the control signal comprises:
performing a user authentication based on a biosignal detected from the output signal; and
generating the control signal in response to a successful user authentication.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generating of the control signal comprises:
determining presence or absence of the reference signal pattern corresponding to the signal pattern of the motion artifact among pre-registered reference signal patterns.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reference signal pattern is generated by determining a function type by a user selecting the function type and registering a signal pattern of a motion artifact corresponding to the determined function type.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the biosignal sensor is comprised in a wearable device, and
the generating of the control signal to control the function of the target device comprises controlling a function of the wearable device or a function of another device connected to the wearable device.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the other device is one of a mobile terminal, an Internet of things (IoT) device, and a smart vehicle.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the detecting of the motion artifact comprises:
determining whether the motion artifact occurs based on a mean value of the output signal in a time interval.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
wirelessly transmitting the control signal to a device performing the function.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the biosignal sensor is configured to measure a biosignal comprising at least one of a photoplethysmogram (PPG) signal and an electrocardiogram (ECG) signal, the biosignal being associated with a health condition of a user.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause computing hardware to perform the method of claim 1 .

14. A gesture recognition apparatus comprising;
at least one processor; and
at least one memory configured to store instructions to be executed by the processor,
wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the processor to:
detect a motion artifact from an output signal of a biosignal sensor; and
generate a control signal to control a function of a target device corresponding to a reference signal pattern in response to a signal pattern of the detected motion artifact corresponding to the reference signal pattern.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the biosignal sensor is comprised in a wearable device, and
the generating of the control signal comprises:
generating the control signal to control a function of the wearable device or a function of another device connected to the wearable device.

16. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the generating of the control signal comprises:
determining presence or absence of the reference signal pattern corresponding to the signal pattern of the motion artifact among pre-registered reference signal patterns.

17. A wearable device comprising:
a biosignal sensor configured to measure a biosignal; and
a motion artifact processor configured to determine whether a motion artifact is present in an output signal of the biosensor, and
in response to a determination that a motion artifact is present, initiate a gesture type processor to determine whether the motion artifact corresponds to a reference signal; and
in response to a determination that a motion artifact is not present, initiate a biosignal processor to process the output of the biosignal sensor to determine a health condition of a user.

18. The wearable device of claim 17 , wherein the gesture type processor is configured to determine a type of a gesture performed by the user based on the signal pattern of the motion artifact and at least one reference signal pattern, and generate the control signal to control a function corresponding to the determined type of the gesture.

19. The wearable device of claim 17 , wherein the gesture recognition processor is configured to perform a user authentication based on the biosignal and generate the control signal in response to a successful user authentication.

20. The wearable device of claim 17 , further comprising:
a control signal generating circuit configured to generate a control signal based on the reference signal; and
a transmitter configured to transmit the control signal to a device located apart from the wearable device.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Park Chang Soon
• Kwon Ui Kun
• Kim Sang Joon

Classifications

• G06F1/163

  Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt · CPC title

• G06F3/011 Primary

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

• 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

• G08C17/02

  using a radio link · CPC title

• G06F21/32

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