Finger motion capture from wrist-electrode contact resistance

Hand motion capture is an important yet challenging topic for biomechanics and human computer interaction. We proposed a novel electrical sensing technology for capturing the finger angles from the variation of the wrist shape. The proposed device detects the signal related to the wrist-electrode contact resistances, which change according to the variation of the wrist shape accompanying finger movements. The developed sensing device consists of a wrist band, sixteen electrodes and a sensing circuit of contact resistances. We investigated the relationships between the finger angles and the system outputs by using a glove-type joint angle sensor. As a result, we confirmed high correlations of the system outputs with the finger angles for several electrodes. Therefore, we conclude that the proposed system can be used for the estimation of the finger joint angles.