A Novel Methodology for Magnetic Hand Motion Tracking in Human-Machine Interfaces

Hand motion tracking represents one of the most widely used human-computer interfaces. It plays a decisive role in many application areas such as virtual reality systems, diagnostic and treatment of a range of diseases as well as robotic hand training with human hand skills. Oftentimes magnetic field sensors combined with permanent or electric magnets are used for hand motion tracking. Typically, simple magnet models are used, that require additional devices such as acceleration sensors as well as a mathematical model of the anatomic functions of a human hand. In contrast, a sensing methodology is presented in the following, which is based only on magnetic field sensing. Thus, our methodology allows the use of magnetosensitive e-skins for hand motion tracking, whereby all of their advantages are preserved such as compact dimensions or the robustness against harsh environmental conditions. Furthermore, calculations show an outstanding sensing accuracy of the presented hand motion tacking method.