Abstract of ProjectMudra

In recent years the popularity for natural interfaces has experienced tremendous growth. Natural interfaces provide the computers or the so called machines with a sense of humanity. The basic knowledge required to understand and utilize a computer system is reduced to a minimal extent. There have been recent commercial developments in the area of natural interfaces, including the Microsoft XBOX Kinect and Nintendo WII. However, the capital cost of such a system remains very high.

The primary purpose of this project is to explore and develop an interface that helps simple computer systems to support gestural interface. Recent laptops have cameras attached to their screens and almost all desktop PCs have webcams. We could utilize these existing facilities to support detection of human gestures, which would ultimately lead to the direct interaction of computers with humans.

In the implementation of the project, we would be using infrared lights to distinguish multiple fingers. With a glove having infrared light emitters on the fingertips, the setup will allow to distinguish gestures such as pinching fingers, turning hands, and so forth. As a result, the input bandwidth to the computer system is increased from a single mouse pointer to that of 10 fingers at max. This allows us to utilize multi-touch features that come along with the recent Windows 7 operating system. The goal is to use positional information and temporal trajectories to track gestures. However, the touch area would be limited to the size of the monitor and only 2-dimenional analysis would be made.

The project ensures that the natural interfacing is reached to the common hands with minimal cost. These utilities would have a crucial social impact. According to the United Nations Millennium goals, child education is one of the major focuses. The children could seamlessly interact with computer system in a very natural way. The fun of multiple children interacting with a single computer would be a unique experience in collaborative learning. The learning curve for using a computer is reduced to a minimum. The social impact of this project would be noteworthy. The game and HCI industry would benefit a lot in this project endeavour.