Spanish Researchers Design Remote Control with Gesture Recognition Features

Spanish researchers have invented a novel TV remote control that can measure the rotation angle of the wrist and the finger pressure. The remote control has the capability to transmit the measured details to the TV for volume adjustment or for changing the channels.

The device resembles a rubber finger exercise ball. It is drop-resistant and completely waterproof. The device is a part of the thesis of Gonzalo Bailador at the Facultad de Informática of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Gracián Triviño of the Department of Photonic Technology supervised the thesis. The Spanish Patent and Trademark Office has awarded a patent for the invention.

The research focuses on two techniques for soft computing. Soft computing consists of a group of informatics techniques that can model and analyze complex systems across multiple disciplines. Based on soft computing techniques, the invention proposes different types of mechanisms for identifying repetitive body postures and gestures. The fuzzy finite automata technique recognizes various types of signal patterns and models each temporal pattern. Using this technique, the researchers were able to identify individuals by the movements they made and by the pattern of their movements.