Apparatus for controlling virtual mouse based on hand motion and method thereof

An apparatus for controlling a virtual mouse based on a hand motion, the apparatus comprising:

• an image processing unit configured to measure a maximum horizontal width of a hand region of a user and a width of a finger in any one of a first depth image captured in a state in which the finger is spread out in a vertical direction with his or her fist and a second depth image captured in a state in which the finger is folded with the fist;
• a hand motion recognizing unit configured to compare the maximum horizontal width and the width of the finger to recognize whether the finger is folded;
• and
• a function matching unit configured to match a change in a folded state of the finger to a pre-set first function and output a control signal for implementing the pre-set first function,
• wherein the image processing unit detects the hand region of the user using foreground/background separation from the first depth image and the second depth image, generates a horizontal histogram from a hand region image of the user, and measures the maximum horizontal width at a point having a maximum pixel number.