Ring-a-Pose: A Ring for Continuous Hand Pose Tracking

Authors:
  • TYTianhong Catherine Yu
    Tianhong Catherine Yu
  • GHGuilin Hu
    Guilin Hu
  • RZRuidong Zhang
    Ruidong Zhang
  • HLHyunchul Lim
    Hyunchul Lim
  • SMSaif Mahmud
    Saif Mahmud
  • CLChi-Jung Lee
    Chi-Jung Lee
  • KLKe Li
    Ke Li
  • DADevansh Agarwal
    Devansh Agarwal
  • SNShuyang Nie
    Shuyang Nie
  • JOJinseok Oh
    Jinseok Oh
  • FGFrançois Guimbretière
    François Guimbretière
  • CZCheng Zhang
    Cheng Zhang
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Abstract
We present Ring-a-Pose, a single untethered ring that tracks continuous 3D hand poses. Located in the center of the hand, the ring emits an inaudible acoustic signal that each hand pose reflects differently. Ring-a-Pose imposes minimal obtrusions on the hand, unlike multi-ring or glove systems. It is not affected by the choice of clothing that may cover wrist-worn systems. In a series of three user studies with a total of 30 participants, we evaluate Ring-a-Pose's performance on pose tracking and micro-finger gesture recognition. Without collecting any training data from a user, Ring-a-Pose tracks continuous hand poses with a joint error of 14.1mm. The joint error decreases to 10.3mm for fine-tuned user-dependent models. Ring-a-Pose recognizes 7-class micro-gestures with a 90.60% and 99.27% accuracy for user-independent and user-dependent models, respectively. Furthermore, the ring exhibits promising performance when worn on any finger. Ring-a-Pose enables the future of smart rings to track and recognize hand poses using relatively low-power acoustic sensing.