Do-It-Yourself Single Camera 3D Pointer Input Device
This provides a cheaper, simpler alternative to multi-camera systems for human-computer interaction, though it is incremental in approach.
The paper tackles 3D input for human-computer interfaces by developing a low-cost single-camera system that tracks a patterned pointer, achieving acceptable accuracy in 3D localization.
We present a new algorithm for single camera 3D reconstruction, or 3D input for human-computer interfaces, based on precise tracking of an elongated object, such as a pen, having a pattern of colored bands. To configure the system, the user provides no more than one labelled image of a handmade pointer, measurements of its colored bands, and the camera's pinhole projection matrix. Other systems are of much higher cost and complexity, requiring combinations of multiple cameras, stereocameras, and pointers with sensors and lights. Instead of relying on information from multiple devices, we examine our single view more closely, integrating geometric and appearance constraints to robustly track the pointer in the presence of occlusion and distractor objects. By probing objects of known geometry with the pointer, we demonstrate acceptable accuracy of 3D localization.