Multi-pointing Method Using a Desk Lamp and Single Camera for Effective Human-Computer Interaction

Multi-pointing has become an important research interest, and is used in many computer applications to allow users to interact effectively with a program. Multi-pointing is used as an input method, and can also be fun and very user-friendly. However, in order to use the method, a complex and expensive hardware configuration is required. This paper presents a new and low cost method of multi-pointing based on a simple hardware configuration. Our method uses dual hand recognition, a table lamp, and a single CMOS camera. The table lamp provides a steady illumination environment for image processing, and the CMOS camera is mounted to maintain good stability. A single camera is used for dual hand recognition to achieve multi-pointing. Therefore, image processing does not require intensive computing which allows us to use a stand-alone system (including a 32 bit RISK processor). The results of the proposed method show that effective control navigation of applications such as Google Earth or Google Maps can be achieved.