Virtual Game Control

Paper: Hand Gesture Recognition and Virtual Game Control Based on 3D Accelerometer and EMG sensors

Written by: ZhanXu, Chen Xiang, Wang Wen-hui, Yang Ji-hai, Vuokko Lantz, and Wang Kong-qiao

Comments: Aaron

Summary:

This paper compared the EMG sensors and ACC sensors to detect hand motions in order to interact with a computer. EMG is a hands-free application that detects muscle movement, while ACC is an accelerometer that can be easy to wear and helps to figure out the hand motions the user is inputing. Each signal from the ACC and EMG were processed in real time and the motions were then translated into the interactive system that they had created.

There were only 5 subjects for this test and there were two different tests in order to calculate the accuracy of the systems. Their first test was created in order to just test the system's recognition of each hand gestures. The second test dealt with a Virtual Rubik's Cube puzzle that they had created. Each test had three different conditions. The first condition was conducted with just EMG sensors, the second condition was just ACC sensors, and the third condition combined the two sensors. Each participant practiced the gestures ten times each for each test and they found that the average recognition accuracies for the 18 gestures is shown in the graph below.

The results with the combination of EMG and ACC ended up with a 91.7% accuracy. The EMG sensors which are the ones on the participants wrists didn't do as well as the ACC sensors which were located on the persons' head.

Discussion:

I thought this was pretty interesting because there could be great virtual games that could come from this. It would be a lot of fun to be able to play around with this technology and I know that Nintendo's Wii already has a movement recognition system with their controllers and I think that is why the Wii has so much success. For future work they mentioned wanting to make this more robust and I think that may help the accuracy a little bit more. I think with further research on this they will end up with something that will be really good for the gaming industry.