Computer vision gesture based control of a device

Abstract

A system and method are provided for controlling a device based on computer vision. Embodiments of the system and method of the invention are based on receiving a sequence of images of a field of view; detecting movement of at least one object in the images; applying a shape recognition algorithm on the at least one moving object; confirming that the object is a user hand by combining information from at least two images of the object; and tracking the object to control the device.

1 . A computer vision based apparatus comprising:
 a processor, said processor to:
 detect a shape of a hand from a sequence of images; 
 recognize a gesture of the hand; 
 generate a remote control command based on the recognized gesture; and 
 transmit the command to a device. 
   
     
     
         2 . The apparatus according to  claim 1  wherein the processor is to track the hand within the sequence of images to recognize the gesture. 
     
     
         3 . The apparatus according to  claim 1  comprising a camera to obtain the sequence of images, said camera in communication with the processor. 
     
     
         4 . The apparatus according to  claim 1  wherein the processor is to display on a graphical interface information relating to remote device control options. 
     
     
         5 . The apparatus according to  claim 1  comprising an IR LED wherein the transmission of the command to the device is by using the IR LED. 
     
     
         6 . The apparatus according to  claim 1  wherein the device is a set top box or streamer. 
     
     
         7 . A method for computer vision based remote control of a device, the method comprising:
 using a processor to
 detect a shape of a hand from at least two images; 
 recognize a gesture of the hand; 
 based on the recognized gesture, transmit a control command to a remote device. 
   
     
     
         8 . The method according to  claim 7  wherein recognizing a gesture of the hand comprises detecting the shape of the hand. 
     
     
         9 . The method according to  claim 7  wherein recognizing a gesture of the hand comprises detecting movement in the at least two images. 
     
     
         10 . The method according to  claim 9  wherein the movement is in a pre-determined pattern. 
     
     
         11 . The method according to  claim 7  wherein transmitting a control command is performed using an IR LED.