Live Demonstration: A Wearable Eight-Channel A-Mode Ultrasound System for Hand Gesture Recognition and Interactive Gaming

Abstract

This work presents a wearable, eight-channel A-mode ultrasound system for hand gesture recognition and interactive gaming. The wearable system consists of a custom-built forearm bracelet with eight piezoelectric transducers (1 MHz) evenly distributed, an electronic hub housed on a bicep strap, a laptop with a bespoke machine learning algorithm and a robotic hand for actuation. The electronic hub drives the transducers to produce ultrasound pulses that will travel into the forearm muscles. The reflected ultrasound signals will vary based on the forearm muscular morphology (movement-dependent). By decoding the reflected ultrasound signals using machine learning techniques, a robotic hand can be controlled based on the user’s hand motions. In contrast to the conventional surface electromyography methods, the visitor can experience seamless control of a robotic hand and a maze navigation game via ultrasound as a novel sensing modality.