Sensor Analysis for a Modular Wearable Finger 3D Motion Tracking System

• Main Authors: Paolo Bellitti, Michele Bona, Michela Borghetti, Emilio Sardini, Mauro Serpelloni
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-11-01
• Series: Proceedings
• Subjects: data glove; finger tracking; motion tracking; stretch sensor; inertial motion unit; human machine interface
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3900/2/13/1051

Body motion tracking technologies are widespread in military, medical and sport fields. The work proposes a modular wireless wearable system able to detect hand fingers motion. Such system is composed by a readout unit that analyses the data and by a wearable measuring device directly applied on the tracked finger. This device is equipped with an Inertial Motion Unit (IMU) used to track the first phalanx motion and orientation and with a stretch sensor to monitor the bending angle between the first and second phalanxes. We carried out an experimental study, which is divided in two main parts. In the first one, the transducer performance was evaluated, whereas, in the second part, we tested the capability of the overall system to recognize simple finger movements and different objects grabbed. The preliminary results pave the possibility of developing a modular device, one for each hand finger, able to recognize the grabbed object shape or detect complex gestures.