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Kinect Can Detect Clenched Fist

Posted by timothy on from the if-face-red-then-assume-fist-clenched dept.

mikejuk writes "Microsoft Research is currently having a Techfest at Redmond where it is showing off a lot of new work. The latest work on the Kinect uses the same sort of machine-learning approach to distinguish between an open hand and a clenched fist. Although there are no details, its general method was to use a large number of images of people's hands and supervised training to distinguish between open and closed hands. The learning algorithm is based on a forest of decision trees, which is the same general method used to implement the skeleton tracking. Being able to detect an open or closed hand might not seem to be much of an advance, and certainly not as good as a multi-gesture touch screen interface, but it is enough to allow the user interface to distinguish a "pick up" or "grip" gesture. So you can move the hands within an image, close both hands to grip the image points and move apart to zoom. You can't get the software at the moment, but it has been promised for the next version of the Kinect SDK for Windows along with the long awaited 3D scanner Kinect Fusion."

13 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. GTA by meta-monkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    I hope the next Grand Theft Auto game is Kinect-enabled for pimpslapping.

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  2. Can it detect a middle finger? by Kenja · · Score: 4, Funny

    Cause that would speed up a lot of forum conversations.

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    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    1. Re:Can it detect a middle finger? by QilessQi · · Score: 2, Informative

      There would be plenty of training data. Users of Microsoft systems employ that gesture frequently.

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      Koans and fables for the software engineer
    2. Re:Can it detect a middle finger? by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      Your Xbox isn't sentient, you know. But even if it were, why don't you just throw the controller against the wall.

      Because Xbox controllers are expensive and fragile. With the NES I could vent my anger by swinging the controller by the cord and bouncing it off the (lino-covered plywood) floor as hard as I could, and then I could go back to playing...

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  3. We're getting closer... by Antipater · · Score: 5, Funny

    The dream of being able to punch someone through the internet took a step forward today.

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    Everything is better with chainsaws.
    1. Re:We're getting closer... by DFurno2003 · · Score: 2

      The dream of getting a HJ through the internet took a step forward today.

  4. A huge step forward for Kinect by Graydyn+Young · · Score: 2

    The biggest problem with Kinect controls is the lack of gesturing. This results in users needing to hold their cursor over a control for a couple seconds in order to simulate a click or button press. For obvious reasons, this makes the whole control scheme brutally slow. Even worse was the solution used in Child of Eden, where the user need to push their hand forward, thus making the Kinect controls much more difficult than using a normal controller. Just this one gesture to function like a mouse click will greatly improve the user experience for all OS/menu controls and many games.

  5. Microsoft demoed at E3 this two years ago by YesIAmAScript · · Score: 2

    The did it at E3 2011 where Kinect Fun Labs was showed.

    The guy demoing it waved his fists around and it tracked them. When he put fingers out on one hand he was able to draw lines on the screen, it saw the finger out.

    In that case and this one too it was clear that this was so close to the limits of what Kinect can resolve that it wasn't going to be reliable in normal use. But it did work on stage.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jso9r6DI9E&t=3m20s

    MS claimed they would ship this, even named it "Kinect Finger Tracking". But it didn't ship yet. It's likely the current hardware just isn't reliable enough at it.

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    1. Re:Microsoft demoed at E3 this two years ago by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 2

      The commercial Kinect cameras are 640x480. Even if that's decent for finger-level tracking close up, a method designed to measure the activities and placements of fingers close to the camera is not going to have enough data to work on hands further away.

      That being said, it does appear that the demo in the video you linked has sufficient discriminatory power that a fist should be relatively easy—he's not exactly holding his hand right up to the lens.

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    2. Re:Microsoft demoed at E3 this two years ago by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 2

      ...and continuing on that point, now that I think about it, all that video shows is tracking the tip of a moving object. That's not really the full hand.

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      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
  6. Re:Potential applications by hedwards · · Score: 2

    Yeah, because it's only moneyless hillbillies that engage in spouse beating.

  7. "Kinect Can Detect Clenched Fist" by John+Hasler · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So it knows when you are about to smash it?

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    Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
  8. Can it read by NEDHead · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ASL? That might be useful