Apparatus, method and computer program for recognizing a gesture in a picture, and apparatus, method and computer program for controlling a device

A method for recognizing gestures in a picture, comprising:

• performing at least one Hough transform for identifying arcs in the picture or in a pre-processed version of the picture as identified gesture elements so as to acquire information about the identified gesture elements,
• and to identify a plurality of straight-line segments extending through the picture in various directions as identified gesture elements to provide information about a location, a length or a direction of an identified straight-line segment;
• creating a gesture description while using the information about the identified gesture elements, so that the gesture description describes the gesture as an ordered listing of parameters of identified gesture elements,
• the information about the identified straight-line segments that is provided by the Hough transform being used for creating the gesture description;
• and
• comparing the gesture description to a plurality of comparative gesture descriptions having gesture codes associated with them so as to provide a gesture code of a recognized gesture as the result of the comparison;
• and
• the method for recognizing gestures in a picture is implemented using hardware, a computer system, or a combination of hardware and a computer system.

A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising a computer program for performing, when the computer program is run on a computer, a method for recognizing gestures in a picture, said method comprising:

• performing at least one Hough transform for identifying arcs in the picture or in a pre-processed version of the picture as identified gesture elements so as to acquire information about the identified gesture elements,
• and to identify a plurality of straight-line segments extending through the picture in various directions as identified gesture elements to provide information about a location, a length or a direction of an identified straight-line segment;
• creating a gesture description while using the information about the identified gesture elements,
• so that the gesture description describes the gesture as an ordered listing of parameters of identified gesture elements,
• the information about the identified straight-line segments that is provided by the Hough transform being used for creating the gesture description;
• and
• comparing the gesture description to a plurality of comparative gesture descriptions having gesture codes associated with them so as to provide a gesture code of a recognized gesture as the result of the comparison.

An apparatus for recognizing gestures in a picture, using hardware, a computer system, or a combination of hardware and a computer system, comprising:

• a Hough transformer configured to identify arcs in the picture or in a pre-processed version of the picture as identified gesture elements so as to acquire information about the identified gesture elements;
• a gesture description creator configured to acquire a gesture description while using the information about the identified gesture elements;
• and
• a gesture classifier configured to compare the gesture description to a plurality of comparative gesture descriptions having gesture codes associated with them so as to provide, as the result of the comparison, a gesture code of a recognized gesture;
• wherein the gesture description creator is configured to describe as the gesture description an ordered set of parameters describing contour sections of a gesture area, and
• wherein the gesture classifier is configured to compare the ordered set of parameters to a plurality of comparative parameter sets associated with comparative gestures, so as to acquire information about differences between the ordered set of parameters and the comparative parameter sets, and wherein the gesture classifier is configured to compare one or more cyclically rotated-through versions of the ordered set of parameters to the plurality of comparative parameter sets so as to acquire information about differences between one or more cyclically rotated-through versions of the ordered set of parameters and the comparative parameter sets, and
• wherein the gesture classifier is configured to determine, on the basis of the information about the differences, a gesture code belonging to the ordered set of parameters or belonging to a rotated-through version of the ordered set of parameters.

An apparatus for recognizing gestures in a picture, using hardware, a computer system, or a combination of hardware and a computer system, comprising:

• a Hough transformer configured to identify arcs in the picture or in a pre-processed version of the picture as identified gesture elements so as to acquire information about the identified gesture elements;
• a gesture description creator configured to acquire a gesture description while using the information about the identified gesture elements;
• and
• a gesture classifier configured to compare the gesture description to a plurality of comparative gesture descriptions having gesture codes associated with them so as to provide, as the result of the comparison, a gesture code of a recognized gesture;
• wherein the gesture description creator is configured to describe as the gesture description an ordered set of parameters describing contour sections of a gesture area, and
• wherein the gesture classifier is configured to compare the ordered set of parameters to a plurality of comparative parameter sets associated with comparative gestures, so as to acquire information about differences between the ordered set of parameters and the comparative parameter sets, and
• wherein the gesture classifier is configured to compare one or more scaled versions of the ordered set of parameters to the plurality of comparative parameter sets so as to acquire information about differences between the at least one scaled version of the ordered set of parameters and the comparative parameter sets, and
• wherein the gesture classifier is configured to determine, on the basis of the information about the differences, a gesture code belonging to the ordered set of parameters or belonging to a scaled version of the ordered set of parameters.

An apparatus for recognizing gestures in a picture, using hardware, a computer system, or a combination of hardware and a computer system, comprising:

• a Hough transformer configured to identify arcs in the picture or in a pre-processed version of the picture as identified gesture elements so as to acquire information about the identified gesture elements;
• a gesture description creator configured to acquire a gesture description while using the information about the identified gesture elements;
• and
• a gesture classifier configured to compare the gesture description to a plurality of comparative gesture descriptions having gesture codes associated with them so as to provide, as the result of the comparison, a gesture code of a recognized gesture;
• wherein the gesture description creator is configured to describe as the gesture description a set of parameters describing contour sections of a gesture area, and
• wherein the gesture classifier is configured to detect whether the set of parameter values violates a predefined physical location condition, and
• to suppress provision of the gesture code or to signal an error if the set of parameter values violates the predefined location condition.

An apparatus for recognizing gestures in a picture, using hardware, a computer system, or a combination of hardware and a computer system, comprising:

• a Hough transformer configured to identify arcs in the picture or in a pre-processed version of the picture as identified gesture elements so as to acquire information about the identified gesture elements;
• a gesture description creator configured to acquire a gesture description while using the information about the identified gesture elements;
• and
• a gesture classifier configured to compare the gesture description to a plurality of comparative gesture descriptions having gesture codes associated with them so as to provide, as the result of the comparison, a gesture code of a recognized gesture;
• wherein the gesture description creator is configured to provide as the gesture description a set of parameters describing contour sections of a gesture area, and
• wherein the gesture classifier is configured to determine a current gesture code describing a current gesture state in dependence on a previous gesture code that is determined on the basis of a previous picture and describes a previous gesture state.