A Service Robot Design with an Advanced HCI Scheme for the Person with Disabilities

Abstract

Compared with conventional human computer interface (HCI) designs, communications with the machine using commands of the person's active hand gestures is a convenient and friendly scheme and will gradually become a HCI tendency in the near future. Especially for the specific person with some certain degree of disabilities, a well-developed service robot with the function of the person user's body gesture and hand gesture recognition deployed in the home or the security center will make a great benefit. This study aims mainly at an integration design of both the service robot device and the wearable armband-based hand gesture and body gesture control. The person user with disabilities can establish his desired body gesture or hand gesture commands for each of all function operations in the service robot, such as movements of the robot platform and command operations of the application program provided by the robot. A feasibility analysis to system development plans of the service robot controlled by body gesture or hand gesture commands will be explored in this work, including designs of (1) gesture action command database establishments, (2) recognition of gesture commands, (3) recognition of identity of the gesture command providing user, (4) data transmissions among the user with an armband, the service robot with applications, and the remote system monitor center, and (5) system integrations of all technique component issues.