Figure 1. The concept of future car with full gesture control system[1]

Have you ever wondered about those sci-fi movies where the characters could control their car with their hands, basically without touching any part in the car? Those kinds of dreams have been replaced by reality. Today, you could experience GSA yourself. But, is it really necessary for us to have that kind of technology?

Before we answer that, we would have to go back to where it began. In 1980, voice control and special hand gloves were used to interact with an object on a large screen. Starting from 1990, gesture control technology has been used to help disabled people. In 2004, Visual Touchpad was introduced, a vision-based device which could interact with desktop PC's, laptops, public kiosk, and large wall displays. The method of gesture visualization was introduced in 2006, which started the testing of implementation of accelerometer data and the animation of hand movement at the time of gesture control. In 2007, users could control a wheelchair using head gestures with a prototype of a hands-free intelligent wheelchair control system. In 2009, the development of user-defined gesture for surface computing had been finished, which led to a user-defined gesture set, implications, and taxonomy of surface gesture and technology. Researched on mobile touch-screen gesture design was published in 2011, and the research resulting in an industrial design perspective on pointing devices as an input channel[2].

There are many types of gestures that have been developed and used, which are hand and arm gestures, hand and face gestures, and body gestures. Hand and arm gestures technology recognize hand movements and hand poses. Hand and face gestures can recognize human’s nodding/ head-shaking, facial recognition, facial expression recognition, etc. Gesture control technology has wide-range areas, including entertainment sector, consumer electronics sector, automotive sector, healthcare sector and education sector.

 

Figure 2. The features of gesture control system  in the car[3]

The development in gesture technology continually leads to the development of gesture control system in the automotive industry. BMW is one of the first to developing gesture technology. BMW developing and implementing a prototype which could recognize 17 hand gestures and 6 head gestures using IR light and a camera[2].

After that, we must know the process of how gesture control system works. Let's say  Hyundai, which has an eye-tracking camera and 3-D hand gesture recognition[4]. Both of those technologies make it possible for drivers to choose the radio and use their hands to change the station of the radio, without even taking their eyes off from the road. Of course,  there is another one that already been used in daily life, which is hand movement technology. You could operate it easily, you just have to raise or lower your hand, pointing, swipe left or right, etc.

There is another one that currently developing gesture control system too, which is PSA group [5]. According to PSA Group, gesture control system symbolizes man-machine relationship where the machine offers comfort and safety. Comfort means giving pleasure for drivers to interact with their cars. Safety means giving drivers more attention on the road, not on radio or touchscreen. For PSA group, technologies must have safe and flexible surfaces. That's why they are currently developing new gesture control systems, which are time-of-flight camera and infrared sensors. Time-of-flight camera has the ability to know the movements of driver's fingers while offering an extensive and precise base of usable signals. Infrared sensor works specifically on directional moments and functioning as well in darkness. You just have to activate it and it will work perfectly.

You should know that there are a lot of reason why drivers should have gesture control system on their car. One of it is a gesture-controlled system could improve your safety[5]. Gesture control system has the ability to decrease disruption from the road because the driver doesn't have to search and press the button that isn’t in their driving vision of line. Gesture control system also gives easy access for the driver to keep driving. It is because the driver doesn’t need to take their eyes from the road to control radio/ any electronic devices in their car. Furthermore, gesture control system gives the driver sense of amenity so the driver could drive with ease.

Although gesture control system gives easy access and comfort for the driver, it is still burdensome for the consumer to purchase it. The main reason is the price. The average cost for gesture control system is still a bit expensive[6]. Additionally, when customers buy gesture control features for their car, they wouldn't do it hastily. Until the price goes down, there would be slight chance for customer to buy gesture control system promptly.

Gesture control system has enormous advanced features that could help human to be more responsible to look at the road and drive the car. It could also give human convenience since they don’t have to divide their attention from looking at the road and their devices. So, to answer the question at the beginning, the correct response would be certainly yes because it would make your life more convenient and enjoyable.

Kontributor : Michael Ethan (ARE Semester 1 2017/2018)

 

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