Pointing Gesture Recognition Using Robot Head Control

We have developed a robot-head control system that recognizes a person's pointing gestures by a motion sensor. The robot head comprises two servo motors and a motion sensor and moves similar to a human head. The orbit of the person's pointing gesture is calculated from the hand and elbow positions measured by the motion sensor. The robot head moves such that the motion sensor orients along the pointing orbit. If an object measured by the motion sensor is within a certain space on the orbit, it is recognized as the target object of the pointing gesture. Object targeting by this system was successfully demonstrated.