A non-contact input device using infrared sensor array

Abstract

An input device is a communication method between human and telecommunication device. General public input devices include keyboard, mouse, and joystick. These input devices are used to communicate between humans and telecommunication devices. Many kinds of telecommunication device are emerging, including intelligent robots. We must develop adaptable input devices for many telecommunication devices and their applications. We have to consider, not only interface performance, but also fun and user experience, when developing the input devices for users. This paper proposes a position-based input device, embedding a new paradigm using an Infrared sensor array. Our Non-contact Input Device specification supports fun and the user experience when communicating between humans and telecommunication devices, including robots. Our non-contact type input device transmits commands to control mobile robots. It can also control Google Earth's map searching programs, and other applications.

A Gesture Recognition Method with a Charge Induction Array of Nine Electrodes

“…A non-contact method using infrared sensors is proposed to detect four motion directions, forward, backward, left and right, where a 4 × 5 array of infrared sensors is used as a non-contact input device to detect the change of the motion distance and output corresponding analog voltages [ 19 ]. However, the disadvantage of the infrared sensor is that the nonlinearity relation between the output analog voltage and the motion distance, especially for a distance less than 4 cm away, which leads to the difficulty of distinguishing complex gestures, such as digital input.…”