(Press-News.org) Mute the song playing on your smartphone in your pocket by flicking your index finger in the air, or pause your "This American Life" podcast with a small wave of the hand. This kind of gesture control for electronics could soon become an alternative to touchscreens and sensing technologies that consume a lot of power and only work when users can see their smartphones and tablets.
University of Washington computer scientists have built a low-cost gesture recognition system that runs without batteries and lets users control their electronic devices hidden from sight with simple hand movements. The prototype, called "AllSee," uses existing TV signals as both a power source and the means for detecting a user's gesture command.
"This is the first gesture recognition system that can be implemented for less than a dollar and doesn't require a battery," said Shyam Gollakota, a UW assistant professor of computer science and engineering. "You can leverage TV signals both as a source of power and as a source of gesture recognition."
The technology is set to appear April 2-4 at the Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation conference in Seattle.
The researchers built a small sensor that can be placed on an electronic device such as a smartphone. The sensor uses an ultra-low-power receiver to extract and classify gesture information from wireless transmissions around us. When a person gestures with the hand, it changes the amplitude of the wireless signals in the air. The AllSee sensors then recognize unique amplitude changes created by specific gestures.
Sensors use three to four times less power than existing gesture recognition systems by harvesting power from wireless transmissions. This allows for mobile devices to always have the gesture technology on and enabled.
Gesture recognition already is possible on some mobile devices, including the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone. But users have to first manually enable the feature and be able to see the device for the gesture technology to work, and if left on, the gesture system quickly drains the phone's battery. In contrast, AllSee consumes only tens of microwatts of power and can always be left on. The user could gesture at the phone in a pocket or handbag to change the volume or mute the phone without having to touch or see the phone.
This technology could allow sensors to be attached to household electronics, making it possible to interact with everyday objects using gestures and also connect them to the Internet and to each other in an "Internet of Things" world.
"Beyond mobile devices, AllSee can enable interaction with Internet of Things devices. These sensing devices are increasingly smaller electronics that can't operate with usual keypads, so gesture-based systems are ideal," said Bryce Kellogg, a UW doctoral student in electrical engineering.
The UW team tested AllSee's capabilities on smartphones and battery-free sensors using eight different hand gestures such as pushing or pulling to zoom in and out. The prototype could correctly identify the gestures more than 90 percent of the time while performed more than 2 feet away from the device.
Researchers have tested the technology for response time and whether it can distinguish between other motions and those directed at it. They found that the technology's response time is less than 80 microseconds, which is 1,000 times faster than blinking an eye.
"This enables a seamless and interactive experience for the user," said Vamsi Talla, a UW doctoral student in electrical engineering. The researchers also designed a wake-up gesture that allows the system not to confuse unintentional motions for actual gestures.
This technology builds on previous work by Gollakota on leveraging Wi-Fi signals around us for gesture recognition around the home. Prior wireless gesture recognition techniques, however, consume tens of watts of power and aren't suitable for mobile or Internet of Things devices.
INFORMATION:
The research is funded by a Google Faculty Research Award and the Washington Research Foundation.
For more information, contact Gollakota, Kellogg and Talla at allsee@cs.washington.edu.
AllSee website: http://allsee.cs.washington.edu/
Video: http://youtu.be/tJCQZxi_0AI
Related paper: http://allsee.cs.washington.edu/files/allsee.pdf
Battery-free technology brings gesture recognition to all devices
2014-02-27
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Bisphenol A (BPA) at very low levels can adversely affect developing organs in primates
2014-02-27
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical that is used in a wide variety of consumer products, such as resins used to line metal food and beverage containers, thermal paper store receipts, and dental composites. BPA exhibits hormone-like properties, and exposure of fetuses, infants, children or adults to the chemical has been shown to cause numerous abnormalities, including cancer, as well as reproductive, immune and brain-behavior problems in rodents. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have determined that daily exposure to very low concentrations of ...
Household wealth still down 14 percent since recession
2014-02-27
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Household wealth for Americans still has not recovered from the recession, despite last summer's optimistic report from the U.S. Federal Reserve, a new study suggests.
Economists at The Ohio State University found that the mean net worth of American households in mid-2013 was still about 14 percent below the pre-recession peak in 2006. Their analysis suggested that middle-aged people took the biggest hit.
In a report last June, the Federal Reserve said that net worth of Americans – which includes the value of homes, stocks and other assets minus debts ...
IUPUI study reveals how dogs detect explosives, offers new training recommendations
2014-02-27
INDIANAPOLIS— A research team at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) has helped determine the science behind how canines locate explosives such as Composition C-4 (a plastic explosive used by the U.S. military). The study found the dogs react best to the actual explosive, calling into question the use of products designed to mimic the odor of C-4 for training purposes. These findings are the culmination of a four-year contract funded by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).
"Appropriately, dogs that are trained to find real explosives are going ...
Type 1 diabetes: Vitamin D deficiency occurs in an early stage
2014-02-27
Vitamin D is known as a major regulator of calcium levels and bone metabolism. Furthermore, it also influences the immune system. Previous studies have shown that patients with recently diagnosed type 1 diabetes have significantly lower vitamin D levels.
Scientists from the Institute of Diabetes Research (IDF) and the Helmholtz Zentrum München, a member of the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), as well as from the Diabetes Research Group at the Technische Universität München (TUM) examined whether a vitamin D deficiency occurs during an early stage of type 1 diabetes, ...
Scientists learn how pathogens hack our immune systems to go undetected
2014-02-27
A new report appearing in the March 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal helps shed light on what drives the evolution of pathogens, as well as how our bodies adapt to ward them off. Specifically, the report shows that our bodies naturally employ a mechanism, called "CD33rSiglecs," that not only dampens unwanted immune responses against one's own cells, but also evolves rapidly to recognize foreign invaders. What's more, the report explains how pathogens exploit this immunological "vulnerability" of "self-recognition" to evade our bodies' defenses. This leads to a seemingly ...
Scientists highlight the importance of nutrients for coral reefs
2014-02-27
A new publication from researchers at the University of Southampton and the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton highlights the importance of nutrients for coral reef survival.
Despite the comparably small footprint they take on the ocean floor, tropical coral reefs are home to a substantial part of all marine life forms. Coral reefs also provide numerous benefits for human populations, providing food for millions and protecting coastal areas from erosion. Moreover, they are a treasure chest of potential pharmaceuticals and coral reef tourism provides recreation ...
Mentoring the next generation of black chemists (video)
2014-02-27
WASHINGTON, Feb. 27, 2014 — The American Chemical Society (ACS) is wrapping up its celebration of Black History Month with a focus on the future. A new ACS video showcases the mentors that are helping shape the next generation of chemists and chemical engineers. The video is available at http://youtu.be/6pX4kmHIeAE.
The video, produced with the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE), highlights the efforts of Isiah Warner, Ph.D., Boyd Professor at Louisiana State University, to mentor students in the ...
Researchers X-ray living cancer cells
2014-02-27
Göttingen-based scientists working at DESY's PETRA III research light source have carried out the first studies of living biological cells using high-energy X-rays. The new method shows clear differences in the internal cellular structure between living and dead, chemically fixed cells that are often analysed. "The new method for the first time enables us to investigate the internal structures of living cells in their natural environment using hard X-rays," emphasises the leader of the working group, Prof. Sarah Köster from the Institute for X-Ray Physics of the University ...
Study projects big thaw for Antarctic sea ice
2014-02-27
Antarctica's Ross Sea is one of the few polar regions where summer sea-ice coverage has increased during the last few decades, bucking a global trend of drastic declines in summer sea ice across the Arctic Ocean and in two adjacent embayments of the Southern Ocean around Antarctica.
Now, a modeling study led by Professor Walker Smith of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science suggests that the Ross Sea's recent observed increase in summer sea-ice cover is likely short-lived, with the area projected to lose more than half its summer sea ice by 2050 and more than three ...
The pain of social exclusion
2014-02-27
We would like to do without pain and yet without it we wouldn't be able to survive. Pain signals dangerous stimuli (internal or external) and guides our behaviour. Its ultimate goal is to prioritize escape, recovery and healing. That's why we feel it and why we're also good at detecting it in others. Pain in fact protects not only the individual but also his social bonds. The brain contains circuits related to the more physical aspects of pain and others related to affective aspects. As observed in a study just published by Giorgia Silani, Giovanni Novembre and Marco Zanon ...