Designing Laser Gesture Interface for Robot Control

Abstract

Abstract.A laser pointer can be a powerful tool for robot control. However, in the past, their use in the field of robotics has been limited to simple target designation, without exploring their potential as versatile input devices. This paper proposes to create a laser pointer-based user interface for giving various instructions to a robot by applying stroke gesture recognition to the laser's trajectory. Through this interface, the user can draw stroke gestures using a laser pointer to specify target objects and commands for the robot to execute accordingly. This system, which includes lasso and dwelling gestures for object selection, stroke gestures for robot operation, and push-button commands for movement cancellation, has been refined from its prototype form through several user-study evaluations. Our results suggest that laser pointers can be effective not only for target designation but also for specifying command and target location for a robot to perform.

exTouch

“…Laser Gesture [1] is a system for operating mobile robots by using a laser pointer and ceiling camera for detecting pointer. It is convenient but not applicable for complex motion and also faces laser safety issues.…”

“…Recent approaches for direct selection of the target device are based on hand gestures, and laser pointers [1]. Another approach for device selection is using a touch screen with camera captured image [2] [4].…”

A review and framework of laser-based collaboration support

“…Lasers incur relatively lower cost and higher functional flexibility (Brogardh, 2009); lightweight, accurate, and highly reliable (Ishii, Zhao, Inami, Igarashi, & Imai, 2009); can have wider bandwidth, lower power requirements, and increased potential for covert data links in comparison with radio-based systems (Sofka, Nikulin, Skormin, Hughes, & Legare, 2009). Lasers can enable better tracking (Luber, Tipaldi, & Arras, 2011) and have inherent precision which results in better functionalities for precise collaboration.…”

“…A laser pointer provides a powerful alternative as a user interface for robot control. It is inexpensive, lightweight, points accurately, and is reliably recognized (Ishii et al, 2009). Previous research showed that a laser pointer can be useful for providing target designation for a picking-up robot (Kemp, Anderson, Nguyen, & Xu, 2008) and developed for a button-pushing robot (Suzuki, Ohya, & Yuta, 2005).…”

Sublimate

“…TouchMe [10] applies direct-manipulation techniques for remote robot control using video see-through AR and a touch-screen interface. Ishii et al [15] enable real-world pointing and gesturing for robot control, using a tracked laser with projected visual feedback.…”