Development of an Information Projection Interface Using a Projector–Camera System

Abstract

SUMMARYThis paper proposes an interface system that enables a user to input and obtain information independent of position within a certain area in an environment with a projector–camera system. Hand gestures detected in the image are used as a cue to start the system, to distinguish gestures based on the user's intention to operate the system from other daily‐life motions, and to specify the position of the user's hand. Hand gesture detection is implemented based on a combination of the background subtraction method and skin color extraction. The user can designate the projection area freely on a flat surface in the environment with his/her hand. The projector is mounted on a pan‐tilt unit that projects information according to the user's indications. Then, the user's fingertip is detected using simple template matching and he/she interacts with the projected information to input commands without any equipment. As one application, we developed an interface system to operate electrical appliances such as a television intuitively in an everyday environment. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn, 96(11): 70–81, 2013; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ecj.11477