The present application is related to and claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) of a Korean patent application filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Jul. 27, 2011 and assigned Serial No. 10-2011-0074508, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention generally relates to motion recognition devices, and more particularly, to a finger motion recognition glove using conductive materials and a method thereof.
Currently, intelligent robots techniques are being developed in many fields. Development of techniques and equipment for disabled people are also increasing. For example, Korea's disabled population is currently about 2.4 million in 2009, which is approximately 5% of the total population. Of this, about 10% of the Korea's disabled population is classified into those having hearing-impaired and speech disorders.
In the U.S., the hearing-impaired population is about two million, which is a relatively large number of people For these people, sign language is a principle means of communication. Korean sign language includes sign language words of 5000 or more, 31 finger alphabets, and 26 finger numbers. U.S. sign language also includes words of 6000 or more, 26 finger alphabets, 26 finger numbers.
In general, people having hearing-impaired and speech disorders talk to others using sign language. It is difficult for people having hearing-impaired and speech disorders to communicate with the general public who do not know sign language. Accordingly, a finger alphabet recognition sensor glove for disabled people has been developed. There exists techniques in which it is possible for disabled people to communicate with the general public in a relatively easy manner.
To address the above-discussed deficiencies of the prior art, it is a primary object to provide at least the advantages described below. Accordingly, an aspect of the present invention is to provide a data glove for the purpose of recognizing a sign language motion.
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a finger motion recognition glove using conductive materials for recognizing the bending of fingers using a characteristic in which a glove is made of a conductive fiber material that may function as a sensor.
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a data glove capable of being made relatively inexpensive without overly burdening the sign language motion process.
Before undertaking the DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION below, it may be advantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases used throughout this patent document: the terms “include” and “comprise,” as well as derivatives thereof, mean inclusion without limitation; the term “or,” is inclusive, meaning and/or; the phrases “associated with” and “associated therewith,” as well as derivatives thereof, may mean to include, be included within, interconnect with, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, or the like; and the term “controller” means any device, system or part thereof that controls at least one operation, such a device may be implemented in hardware, firmware or software, or some combination of at least two of the same. It should be noted that the functionality associated with any particular controller may be centralized or distributed, whether locally or remotely. Definitions for certain words and phrases are provided throughout this patent document, those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that in many, if not most instances, such definitions apply to prior, as well as future uses of such defined words and phrases.
For a more complete understanding of the present disclosure and its advantages, reference is now made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals represent like parts:
As shown in
The present invention uses electromagnetic shielding fibers or antistatic packing materials, and the like. These materials have a conductive coating on their surface. The electromagnetic shielding fibers or the antistatic packing materials have resistance on the order of several Kilo-ohms (KΩ). Also, electric resistance on specific two points may be changed according to bending of the fibers. If a glove is made from this characteristic, a resistance value between specific two points may be changed as fingers of the glove are flexed between an unbent and a bent position. Thus, motions of fingers may be measured through the change of the resistance value.
As shown in
The contacts may include first contacts 201 having five contacts attached on the upper parts of the respective five fingers of the glove and second contacts 202 having five contacts attached on lower parts of the respective five fingers of the glove. Accordingly, as described above, the glove according to the present invention is made of conductive fibers such that, as a user bends and unbends fingers, resistance values between the first contact points 201 and the second contacts 202 are changed. Thus, the motions of fingers may be measured through the change of the resistance values.
As shown in
Each of sensor units 301 is positioned between each of the first contacts 201 and each of the second contacts 202 of
Each of the interface units 302 is coupled to each of the second contacts 202. Each of the interface units 302 receives data generated by each of the sensor units 301 and sends the received data to the data processing unit 303. The interface units 302 may include an Analog to Digital (A/D) converter.
The data processing unit 303 is coupled to each of the interface units 302. The data processing unit 303 receives the data sent from each of the interface units 302 and processes the received data.
The power unit 304 is coupled to the data processing unit 303 and supplies power to the data processing unit 303.
The communication module 305 receives the data processed in the data processing unit 303 and transmits and receives the data.
As shown in
The reason for coupling the total five output resistors 401 with the first contacts 201 is to measure a terminal voltage of each of the sensor units 301 as an internal resistor value as each of the sensor units 301 changes. That is, as a user bends and unbends fingers while wearing the glove, the internal resistor value of each of the sensor units 301 may change. A changed terminal voltage of each of the sensor units 301 may be measured according to the internal resistance value of each of the sensor units 301. Accordingly, changes to the terminal voltage of each of the sensor units 301 may be measured for detecting the motions of the fingers.
The resistance value of each of the output resistors 401 may be selected according to resistance changes of each finger. A method of obtaining an output resistor value optimized for each finger is calculated by Equation (1) below.
A terminal voltage (voltage input to an Analog to Digital (A/D) converter) of each of the sensor units 301 may obtained, as described above, according to the voltage divider rule.
Herein, respective symbols are defined as follows.
VS: a terminal voltage of each of sensor units
VIN: a voltage supplied to each of fingers
RS: an internal resistor of each of sensor units
RI: an output resistor of each of fingers
When each of fingers is flexed from a bent to an unbent position, a terminal voltage (a voltage input to an A/D converter) of each of the sensor units 301 may be obtained by measuring a difference between a terminal voltage when each of fingers is unbent and a terminal voltage when each of fingers is bent.
Herein, respective symbols are defined as follows.
VD: voltage difference (difference between voltages when each of fingers is unbent and bent)
RF: an internal resistor of each of the sensor units when each of fingers is unbent
RB: an internal resistor of each of the sensor units when each of fingers is bent
RI: an output resistor of each of fingers
Equation (2) is arranged by a quadratic equation for RI. If an RI value is arranged according to root's formulas,
For convenience of calculation, A and B values are replaced with the following values.
Herein, an optimum value of RI may be obtained when a recognition rate is a maximum value (VDMAX). At this time, RI may be obtained by Equation (3) above.
For convenience of calculation. A and B values are replaced with the following values.
As shown in
As shown in
While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.