Video: Melanie Gonick

Aircraft-carrier crew use a set of standard hand gestures to guide planes on the carrier deck. But as robot planes are increasingly used for routine air missions, researchers at MIT are working on a system that would enable them to follow the same types of gestures.




The main challenge in classifying the signals, Song explains, is that the input — the sequence of body positions — is continuous: Crewmembers on the aircraft carrier’s deck are in constant motion. The algorithm that classifies their gestures, however, can’t wait until they stop moving to begin its analysis. “We cannot just give it thousands of [video] frames, because it will take forever,” Song says.






dannyzcontact  - Wonderful Innovation! 2012-03-15 05:43:24
Wonderful, I can imagine the sheer volume of algorithms that would be required to complete such a complex project successfully.

However, one important factor to give serious consideration in developing such sophisticated ‘Command and Control’ systems is safety.

The consequences of a malfunction can be catastrophic, especially if the technology will be applied to commercial aircraft. Consequently, such a system must be designed to be fault-tolerant. For example, it should include redundancy in case of equipment failure, or it should include fail-safe systems in case of operator error. This is in spite of the fact that fault tolerance often adds to the complexity of systems.

E-Mail: dannyzcontact@gmail.com
Lagos, Nigeria.
remomitmath  - a good innovation still some questions arises 2012-03-16 00:53:44
no doubt it's a good creative work by yale song,congrats! but still there arises few questions about the whole sequences of mechanism.
it says it will work on some specific gestures by the user. but if the plane is at a good distance from the user then how can he control the plane?
the next is, is there any security system( special for the mechanism ) built to protect the plane from the hackers while the mechanism works? as we can notice that when the user operates it he will make some gestures of hand,now if someone take the picture of the specific user and then with automation develope a robot similar to that man( which can perform similar operation) & then while the robot plane is in sky it will take access to its image capturing system and then using the robotic gesture take the control of that plane ,then it will create a risk!!! so please explain its security steps..
soutrik roy chowdhury
Shailendra  - does it mean... 2012-03-15 07:30:43
does this breakthrough mean an aeroplane can be controlled form remot location by jestures?

so no need of pilots on board...

what happens if a person who is in control gets eitching in palms?
a mosquito bite etc?

remomitmath  - its sound funny 2012-03-15 09:17:24
i dont think that it will create too much problem if the controller has some very urgent work to do(!!) during the operation. because the image processor or the sensitivity machine will only grab the specific gestures...so within that time the plane will follow the previous directed movement of the controller.
saeble  - KISS principle 2012-03-19 06:05:59
guys... why not borrow from systems already in place in other industries, namely motion capture systems for games.

If you know the deck drew are going to be actively guiding planes in a given area, set up that area with a net of position readers, then get each deck officer to wear a specific uniform, replete with tags which the readers can see.

tag the hands, fingers, elbows, whatever is required and cut down on all that other hard to capture and process data.

whizzer tech which can interpret video, is awesome, but what really matters? getting the job done or proving how awesome your combination of hardware/software/algorithims is

why track peoples limbs with sheer visual processing... that's arrogance and ultimately, prone to failure.