FINGER-POINTER - POINTING INTERFACE BY IMAGE-PROCESSING

We have developed an experimental system for the 3D direct pointing in terface ''Finger-Pointer,'' which can recognize finger pointing action s and simple hand forms in real-time by processing the image sequences captured by stereoscopic TV cameras. The operator is not required to attach any peculiar device such as the Data-Glove or a magnetic sensor . Simple and fast image processing algorithms employed in the system e nable real-time processing without any special image processing hardwa re. By introducing the notion of ''VPO (Virtual Projection Origin),'' the system can recognize pointing actions stably and accurately regard less of the operator's pointing style. The system also synchronizes an d integrates the audio and the visual channels by introducing the ''Ti ming Tag'' technique.