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11th October 2006

In the current European Design Engineer online magazine, Carl Pickering of the Jaguar and Land Rover Technical Research centre at Coventry surveys developments in gesture recognition driver interface systems in cars as a successor for at least some functions to voice recognition systems.

Several manufacturers are now carrying out research to develop new gesture-operated interfaces using camera-based systems that use image recognition software. Much of this work is being carried out in conjunction with Tier 1 suppliers and universities. However, this research has identified several inherent difficulties associated with in-car camera-based gesture recognition systems, such as adapting to uncontrolled variations in lighting, maintaining accuracy with dynamic backgrounds, and real time operation.

Mr. Pickering believes that there is a reasonable probability that gesture recognition technologies will be in widespread use in numerous automotive applications by 2020.

Engineers at Jaguar Technical Research are pursuing an alternative sensor-based approach less technical complex than camera-based systems but which can achieve the same safety benefits. Sensor-based gesture recognition technology largely builds on pioneering work undertaken at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Low-frequency electric field sensors are safe, do not require line-of-sight, offer fast response times and high resolution, consume little power and are low cost. The intervention of a human hand entering the path between the transmit and receive electrodes cause a change in the displaced current measured at the receive electrode; this can be used to transmit control inputs to a human-machine interface or HMI.

- Carnegie Mellon University is developing the iWave gesture recognition system in collaboration with, and funded by, General Motors. The Institute for Human Machine Communication at the Technical University of Munich has carried out a research study in collaboration with BMW to evaluate differences in driver distraction while controlling different input interfaces. In this study, haptic (touch) and gesture input modes are compared with regard to distraction from a controlling task similar to steering a car.

- Daimler Chrysler, together with Visteon, is funding the Georgia Institute of Technology to develop a system, called the Gesture Panel, that allows a driver to control secondary devices using simple gestures. The Gesture Panel uses a camera aimed at a grid of infrared LEDs, and gestures are made between the camera and the grid.

- GM Daewoo Automotive Technology is collaborating with the University of Dundee to develop a non-contact pointing interface for control of non-safety-critical systems, such as radio and climate control, with a virtual implementation displayed in front of the driver. Daewoo featured this system in its Mirae concept car.

- Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation, in partnership with Keio University of Japan, is developing a new camera-based system that will allow drivers to operate secondary controls using hand and finger gestures only; drivers would not have to look at or touch any controls.

- Renault’s Research Department has collaborated with the Université de Bretagne-Sud in Vannes, to evaluate the performance of subjects using a small gesture touchpad interface versus conventional rotary controls to execute given tasks.

- Toyota’s Compact Sports and Speciality (CS and S) concept car made its debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show 2003 featuring the company’s ‘Space Touch It’ concept. This is an integrated multimedia interface system operated by a series of holographic projections that the user ‘touches’. Spheres of information appear to float in space but, when touched, they allow the user to operate the vehicle’s secondary controls.

Increasing awareness of the need for a safer driver interface has also led parties outside the automotive industry to suggest that gesture recognition applications could help to achieve this. The UMEA Institute of Design in Sweden has carried out research based on gesture recognition to control a car radio. The theoretical model suggests using an image of the radio reflected onto the windscreen and some form of hand proximity/position sensors for interactive control of a limited number of the radio’s controls. Either an array of UV sensors, or capacitance/resistance switches are suggested.

Alpine Electronics has developed a working prototype automotive gesture control system called ‘Space Commander’, which uses a holographic projector system to display a secondary controls menu. The system uses infrared radiation gesture recognition and an innovative air curtain that provides haptic feedback when a finger gesture input is made to the hologram.

The rate of introduction of any automotive gesture recognition system will be largely dictated by the rate of user acceptability. This will be driven by how fast and widespread gesture recognition becomes established in our everyday lives where human interaction with machines takes place. Although touch-based gesture interfaces are likely to gain the first real significant market penetration, it is the non-contact gesture recognition technologies that will ultimately be more widespread, Mr Pickering believes. Non-contact gesture recognition systems are more flexible, as they can be used remotely from the sensing technology.

(www.engineerlive.com/european-design-engineer/automotive-design/16448/gesture-recognition-technology-could-improve-automotive-safety.thtml, 10 October)