Pyro: Thumb-Tip Gesture Recognition Using Pyroelectric Infrared Sensing

The Auracle team presented an innovative new technique for interacting with wearable devices, during the UIST conference last week.

uistf2235-file2Abstract: We present Pyro, a micro thumb-tip gesture recognition technique based on thermal infrared signals radiating from the fingers. Pyro uses a compact, low-power passive sensor, making it suitable for wearable and mobile applications. To demonstrate the feasibility of Pyro, we developed a self-contained prototype consisting of the infrared pyroelectric sensor, a custom sensing circuit, and software for signal processing and machine learning. A ten-participant user study yielded a 93.9% cross-validation accuracy and 84.9% leave-one-session-out accuracy on six thumb-tip gestures. Subsequent lab studies demonstrated Pyro’s robustness to varying light conditions, hand temperatures, and background motion. We conclude by discussing the insights we gained from this work and future research questions.

Read the full paper in ACM digital library:

J. Gong, Y. Zhang, X. Zhou, and X.-D. Yang, “Pyro: Thumb-Tip gesture recognition using pyroelectric infrared sensing,” in Proceedings of the Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST).    ACM Press, Oct. 2017, pp. 553-563.  Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3126594.3126615

Watch the video:

Author: David Kotz

David Kotz is the Provost, the Pat and John Rosenwald Professor in the Department of Computer Science, and the Director of Emerging Technologies and Data Analytics in the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health, all at Dartmouth College. He previously served as Associate Dean of the Faculty for the Sciences and as the Executive Director of the Institute for Security Technology Studies. His research interests include security and privacy in smart homes, pervasive computing for healthcare, and wireless networks. He has published over 240 refereed papers, obtained $89m in grant funding, and mentored nearly 100 research students. He is an ACM Fellow, an IEEE Fellow, a 2008 Fulbright Fellow to India, a 2019 Visiting Professor at ETH Zürich, and an elected member of Phi Beta Kappa. He received his AB in Computer Science and Physics from Dartmouth in 1986, and his PhD in Computer Science from Duke University in 1991.

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