Hybrid Target Selections by "Hand Gestures + Facial Expression" for a Rehabilitation Robot.

Journal: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)
Published Date:

Abstract

In this study we propose a "hand gesture + face expression" human machine interaction technique, and apply this technique to bedridden rehabilitation robot. "Hand gesture + Facial expression" interactive technology combines the input mode of gesture and facial expression perception. It involves seven basic facial expressions that can be used to determine a target selecting task, while hand gestures are used to control a cursor's location. A controlled experiment was designed and conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid technology. A series of target selecting tasks with different target widths and layouts were designed to examine the recognition accuracy of hybrid control gestures. An interactive experiment applied to a rehabilitation robot is designed to verify the feasibility of this interactive technology applied to rehabilitation robots. The experimental results show that the "hand + facial expression" interactive gesture has strong robustness, which can provide a novel guideline for designing applications in VR interfaces, and it can be applied to the rehabilitation robots.

Authors

  • Yi Han
    Department of Anesthesiology, the Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan 030001, Shanxi, China. Corresponding author: Han Yi, Email: 13753171979@163.com.
  • Xiangliang Zhang
    CEMSE, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, SA, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: xiangliang.zhang@kaust.edu.sa.
  • Ning Zhang
    Institute of Nuclear Agricultural Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
  • Shuguang Meng
    Faculty of Information Engineering and Automation, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650000, China.
  • Tao Liu
    Institute of Urology and Nephrology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China.
  • Shuoyu Wang
  • Min Pan
    the School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China, and.
  • Xiufeng Zhang
    Tianjin Chengjian University, Tianjin Shi, China.
  • Jingang Yi