An Optical Guiding System for Gesture Based Interactions in Smart Environments

Abstract

Using gestures to control Ambient Intelligence environments can result in mismatches between the user's intention and the perception of the gesture by the system. One way to cope with this problem is to provide the user with an instant feedback on what the system has perceived. In this work, we present an approach for providing visual feedback to users of Ambient Intelligence systems that rely on gestures to control individual devices within their environments. This paper extends our previous work on this topic [1] and introduces several enhancements to the system.

Making Tabletop Interaction Accessible for Blind Users

“…As stated above [9], special care has to be taken not to overload a blind user, so that he/she can still follow an ongoing discussion. Besides the alert message boxes, as they are used e.g.…”

“…With this setup, it is possible to reliably track pointing gestures to targets on the tabletop, depending on the user's pointing accuracy. To overcome this problem, we show a visual feedback on the screen similar to the approach described by the Majewski et al for smart homes [9], which encourages the user to align his or her pointing direction with the wanted target.…”

“…However, frequent use of such gestures may result in an information overload if these gestures are presented without any filtering. The participants also saw the danger of interpretation errors, distraction and information overflow [9].…”

“…For such an idea generation, mind maps are one of the established ways to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas [18] on a common workspace. Other scenarios for using interactive surfaces include teaching and learning [9]. However, they rely on visual communication and visual perception of the artifacts [1], [19], excluding blind or partially sighted people or hindering their full participation in the meeting.…”