CuisiNavi: Cooking guiding system with gesture recognition

Abstract

This system guides the user through the process of cooking by recognizing their actions without markers. Cooking requires complex information analysis of timing, especially when they want to cook several dishes in parallel and they should be served at once. The system reduces the difficulty of cooking beginners, and at the same time, encourages the elderly people to continue cooking by themselves. The system is consisted of two modules: gesture recognition module and timing management module. The gesture recognition module detects predefined user activities such as cutting, peeling, mixing. Those activities might be different from culture to culture, thus the module is implemented to study the activity so that it could adapt to it. The timing management module can read the cooking recipes that is coded in timing chart. When several dishes should be served at the same time, which is quite common in Japanese cooking, the module organizes the procedures in timely manner within the limitation of given number of ranges so that final dishes are ready on time. At the exhibition, the visitor is explained the recipes of three dishes and asked to serve them at once. The minimum possible time to finish them is also presented. They proceed the steps by their gestures and the progress animation is displayed on the cooking table with a projector.