Researchers at the Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, China, say they have developed a novel HMI that relies on advanced gesture recognition. It is based on what is described as a simple structured, sensitive bending angle triboelectric nanogenerator (BA-TENG), usable with intelligent HMI systems ranging from flexible devices to real-time wireless communication modules and graphical interfaces.
The bending angle sensor can detect multidimensional information in hand gestures, including finger bending angles, bending speed and bending time. The team’s results were recently published in a paper titled Triboelectric Bending Sensor based Smart Glove towards Intuitive Multi-Dimensional Human-Machine Interfaces in the international journal Nano Energy.
The researchers noted that new HMIs require not only simple and efficient design but also intuitive operation. As detailed in the paper, multi-dimensional signal extraction of hand gestures is achieved using the flexible sensor and the signal processing system. Using the system to interact with a virtual keyboard, the research claimed its recognition accuracy rate reached up to 93.1%.
The use of a trans-impedance amplifier-based signal conditioning circuit eliminates most of the crosstalk and noise in the real-time transmission of multi-channel signals, enhancing the robustness of the system. The research team stated that its work provides new ideas for developing multidimensional HMI, which has unlimited potential for future applications including in automotive.
