waveSense: Low Power Voxel-tracking Technique for Resource Limited Devices

Abstract

In this paper, we describe waveSense, a power-efficient optical voxel tracking system for hand tracking in resource-limited devices. waveSense uses off-the-shelf, low-cost, non-focused infrared (IR) sensors and emitters. To achieve power efficiency, we introduce a novel selective volumetric illumination (SVI) technique, which illuminates different areas of a scene with variable power IR light and captures the reflected energy using non-focused IR sensors. Our technical evaluation suggests the feasibility of using waveSense for hand tracking performed within 45cm radius of the device. We believe with waveSense, gesture-based interactions would become more practical on resource-constrained wearables such as head-mounted displays (HMDs) and smartwatches.