Pan-and-tilt self-portrait system using gesture interface

Abstract

Digital cameras are widely used in desktop and notebook PCs. Taking self-portraits is one of the important function of such cameras, which allows users to capture memories, create art, and improve photography techniques. A desktop environment with a large display and a pan-and-tilt camera provides users with a good area for exploring more angles and postures while taking self-portraits. However, most of the existing camera interfaces of this type are limited to device-based systems (i.e., mouse and keyboard) that prevent users from efficiently controlling the camera while taking self-portraits. This study proposes a vision-based system equipped with a gesture interface that control a pan-and-tilt camera for taking self-portraits. This interface uses gestures, particularly slight hand movements (i.e., sweeps, circles, and waves), to control the pan, tilt, and shutter functions of the camera. The gesture-recognition achieved good efficiency in performance (less than 2ms) and the recognition rate (0.9 on average in lighting conditions range 100–200). Experimental results indicate that the proposed system effectively controls the options in a self-portrait camera, this approach provides significantly higher satisfaction, particularly in terms of the intuitive motion gestures, freedom, and enjoyment, than when using a hand-held remote control or a conventional mouse-based interface. The proposed system is a promising technique for taking self-portraits in a desktop environment.