Computers to Read Hand Gestures with Fingertip Digitizer

The Fingertip Digitizer a new device developed in the University at Buffalo’s Virtual Reality Lab is likely to draw computer users deeper into the virtual world with the tap of a single finger.

Users can wear Fingertip Digitizer on the tip of the index finger for transferring information to the virtual world. The device conveys the meaning and intent of common hand gestures, such as pointing, wagging the finger, tapping in the air and other movements to the personal computer with greater precision. The accurate information provided by the device guides and directs the actions of the computer much the same way a mouse directs the actions of a personal computer.

Fingertip Digitizer can transfer precise information about physical characteristics of an object to the computer. It can also sense the shape and size of a human gland or tumor when the user taps, scratches, squeezes, strokes or glides a finger over the surface of the object.

According to Young-Seok Kim, a doctoral degree holder in mechanical engineering from UB, “The gesture-recognition function of this device, in particular, has great potential for a wide range of applications, from personal computing to medical diagnostics to computer games.”

Fingertip Digitizer was developed by Kim and Thenkurussi Kesavadas, director of UB’s Virtual Reality Lab and associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Kesavadas feels that the Fingertip Digitizer will help bridge the gap between what a person knows and what a computer knows.

According to Kesavadas, “With this device a computer, cell phone or computer game could read human intention more naturally.” He expects that the Fingertip Digitizer could be used as a high-end substitute for a mouse, a keyboard or a joystick.

Kim and Kesavadas hope to make the Fingertip Digitizer and related software market-ready in three years.

Haptic technology, an emerging field focused on bringing a sense of touch to technological devices will benefit immensely from the invention of Fingertip Digitizer.

Biomechanical properties of a finger were used to model the design of Fingertip Digitizer and it uses a force sensor, an accelerometer and a motion tracker to accurately and intuitively sense the physical properties of an object. Most haptic tools available in the market are designed as probes and are gripped like a pen.

When a user touches an object, the Fingertip Digitizer reads the force feedback exerted by it with the help of a real-time, multi-rate data acquisition system. The system tracks the acceleration and location of the fingertip device as the finger moves, to understand hand gestures.

The user can direct the opening or moving of an electronic file, simply by gesturing in the air as he looks at a computer screen. All the user needs to do is to have the device attached to the fingertip. According to Kim and Kesavadas the device could be used as a computer-game accessory and the user could imitate the squeezing of a trigger or the stroking of pool cue.

A provisional patent application has been filed on the device and researchers are already developing Touch Painter and Touch Canvas software to accompany the Fingertip Digitizer. This would facilitate digital painting on the computer-screen canvas with a few flicks or taps of the index finger.

Source: UB Virtual Reality Lab