A Method to Recognize Facial Gesture using Infrared Distance Sensor Array on Ear Accessories
Kyosuke Futami, Kohei Oyama, Kazuya Murao · 2021
Many hands-free input methods using ear accessories have been proposed. Although most of previous studies use canal type earphones, we focus on the following two points. 1) A method for using the hands-free input function with ear accessories that are not canal type. 2) A method for using the same hands-free input function across multiple ear accessories. Then, using an infrared distance sensor attached to the ear accessory, we propose a method for recognizing the gesture of the user’s facial expression. Based on the change in distance between the infrared distance sensor attached to the ear accessory and the skin, the proposed method detects skin movement around the ear, which differs for each facial expression gesture. We created a prototype system for the root of the ear, earlobe, and tragus ear accessories. The evaluation result for nine gestures and five subjects showed that F-value was 0.94 or more for one device alone, and the F-value was 0.97 or more for the pattern combining multiple devices.