Student Design Challenge

We are in awe when rabbits are pulled out of hats. We are stunned when a human body is cut in half and magically rejoined. We have seen many more of these tricks and have always been amazed by them but we have never failed to miss the magic wand that channels the wizard’s magical energy into the performance. We believe the secret of invoking internal magical energy is revealed through human hand gesture. Thus, we set forth on a journey to unravel the mysteries of human hand kinesics using inertial measurement units (IMU). An IMU with 6 degrees of freedom was used to recognize hand gestures as input for casting spells. A successful cast of a spell results in the activation of a laser beam which flashes with various signal patterns, creating a magical performance. 3D printed models of wands were embedded with an Arduino Micro, a 6-DoF IMU and a 5 mW 532 nm laser. A wave of the magical wand is broken down into accelerometer data that can be interpreted by the processor. The data is then cross-checked with a magical gesture library. The technology at hand is a starting point from which the benefits to future devices are numerous. A musical conductor’s hand gestures can be recognized and translated to a digital orchestra. In the field of sports, fencing and many other racket based sports can be digitized. A better understanding of hand kinesics can aid in development of smart-tools that are more ergonomic in nature and can execute the user’s commands simply with a wave of the hand. The project was funded and motivated by the Graphics and Media at York (GaMaY) workshop. We would like to thank GaMaY and Foad Hamidi for the support.