MID SEMESTER REPORT

Report/synopsis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of

degree of

Bachelors of Technology
in
Electronics and Communication Engineering

Submitted By:
1. Ankush Koundal (13405)
2. Abhinandan Jain (13406)
3. Rahul Dhabhai (13421)
4. Pankaj Kumar (13438)

Under the guidance

of
Er. Shafi Jindal

ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
HAMIRPUR 177001

March, 2017

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TITLE PLATFORM FOR VISUALIZING
3-DIMENSIONAL MODELS.

INTRODUCTION
There has been a surge interest for a touchless human computer interactions system. The
HCI (human-computer interactions) can be defined as the study, planning, design and
the uses of human interface between the users and computers. Most developer wants to
have the best fit in the designing of HCI. The important is to know the activity those are
to be done for HCI. For example the material that are being used needs to be durable,
the development of the hardware needs to be cost effective and also the important is for
it to fit among users, computers and all the task it will corresponding. Therefore, the
main objective for HCI is to get feedback from users about their experience with the
available prototype and the developer will refine the design based on the comments and
suggestion given by the user. Thus the HCI designed by using a touchless system has
taken its place in the market with best possible performance to fit the user.

Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that layers computer-generated enhancements

atop an existing reality in order to make it more meaningful through the ability to
interact with it. AR is developed into apps and used on mobile devices to blend digital
components into the real world in such a way that they enhance one another, but can
also be told apart easily.

AR technology is quickly coming into the mainstream. It is used to display score

overlays on telecasted sports games and pop out 3D emails, photos or text messages on
mobile devices. Leaders of the tech industry are also using AR to do amazing and
revolutionary things with holograms and motion activated commands.

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OBJECTIVES

This project is mainly about using gestural control as input for computer user
interactions.
Therefore, the objectives are:
To develop a 3D interface for gesture control by using capacitive sensing
To construct a low cost 3D gesture controlling device.
To implement the 3D gesture controller by Processing Software for human
computer interactions.
The purpose of this project is to develop a touchless control device in three
dimensional areas of interactions by gestural movement in the air for
interaction with computers.
Our objective is to create a 3D computer interface for visualizing 3D models, graphs
and solid structures using Processing software.

BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE
A capacitor is a passive two-terminal electrical component used to store electrical
energy temporarily in an electric field. The forms of practical capacitors vary widely,
but all contain at least two electrical conductors (plates) separated by a dielectric (i.e.
an insulator that can store energy by becoming polarized). The conductors can be thin
films, foils of metal or conductive electrolyte, etc. The non-conducting dielectric acts to
increase the capacitor's charge capacity.
Materials commonly used as dielectrics include glass, ceramic, plastic film, air, vacuum,
paper, mica, and oxide layers. Capacitors are widely used as parts of electrical circuits
in many common electrical devices. Unlike a resistor, an ideal capacitor does not
dissipate energy. Instead, a capacitor stores energy in the form of an electrostatic field
between its plates.

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METHODOLOGY

The basic principle theory for the study on capacitive sensing is that the capacitor will
work and function similar to a small accumulator. This happens when two metal plates
are placed close to each other without touching, and a current known as a simple
capacitor is supplied to it. It can store energy if there is a current placed on those two
metals. Thus, when the current is removed and the plates are connected to a circuit, the
stored energy initiates a current. The capacitance size, C is determined by the size of
their plates, A and the distance, d between each other. The formulation of this concept
is shown in Equation (1).

= = (1)

Where:
= 8.854 1012 1 ; Permittivity of space
k = relative permittivity of the dielectric the material between the plates
k = 1 for free space, k > 1 for all media

The hypothesis is that the capacitance is directly proportional to the sensor area and the
dielectric property of material between the plates. Therefore, the larger the area of the
sensor, the larger is the dielectric range. In order to use the concept of measuring and
tracking the distance between the sensors and an object, one of the two plates of
capacitors needs to be replaced by any relatively high dielectric constant material. The
materials are usually electrically conductive for example metal, water or human body.
When the material moves closer to the capacitive plate, the capacitance value will
increase. Thus, data resulted from the changing capacitive value can be used to estimate
the distance between the sensor plates and the shunt object.

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The simplest capacitor consists of two metal plates put close together without touching
each other. When current is placed on those plates they can store energy. When the
current is removed and the plates are connected through a circuit, the stored energy
initiates a current. Thus, a capacitor works like a small accumulator. The capacity
(capacitance) depends on the size of the plates and their distance.
Using the effect mentioned above, one can measure and track the distance between a
sensor and an object. For this, one of the two plates of a capacitor is replaced by the
object to be tracked. In order to hold enough free electrons or charged molecules, the
object has to have a relatively high dielectric constant. Most of these materials are
electrically conductive like metal, water or the human body. When the object gets closer
to the plate, the capacitance of this pseudo-capacitor increases. One can measure the
capacitance of this capacitor and from this estimate the distance between sensor plate
and object. Connecting the object or person to ground can increase the availability of
free electrons in it and thus the sensitivity of the device.
The most common way to measure the capacitance of a capacitor is to use a resonant
circuit. Depending on the capacitors capacitance, the resonant circuit resonates faster
or slower. This technique of measuring distances between a sensor and an object is
called capacitive sensing. Such sensors allow measurement of microscopic
displacements in the range of micrometers. They are the industry standard for ultra-high
precision measurements in many application areas.
However, capacitive sensing can also be used to track objects, e.g. the human hand as
electrically conductive object, in larger ranges. The feasibility of using capacitive
sensing for position and gesture input to enable intuitive human computer interaction is
the main contribution of this work.

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The purpose of this project is to develop a touchless control device in three dimensional
areas of interactions by gestural movement in the air for interaction with computers. The
method used to develop the 3D controller is by using capacitive sensing. Capacitive
sensing method uses electrodes as sensor input. The electrodes act to detect the E-field
variations at different positions in order to measure the origin of the electric field
distortion from the varying signals received due to the conductivity of the human body
itself that shunted to ground. Then the information is used to calculate the position, track
movements and to classify movement patterns (gestures).

Fig. 1: Variation of E-Field in 3D capacitive sensing.

This method uses three aluminum foil board and building it in cube form with each plate
act as x, y and z coordinates. The cubes are conductive so that it can store capacitive
charge with current and voltage supplied by the Arduino UNO. The Processing software
is used to display the tracking interface of the sensor when it detects our hands within
the sensor region. We use serial connection between Arduino and the Processing
software so that the cube sensor can establish a control for user computer interface
control.

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IMPLEMENTATION

Fig. 2: Basic Block Diagram for Hardware Implementation

STEPS

1. Designing virtual 3D space using Processing Software

Fig. 3(a): A 2-D graphical plot in Processing 3(b): Expected 3D plot.

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 2. Designing capacitive sensor for 3d space

Fig. 4: A 3D cube plot in processing capable of rotating in all directions.

3. Interfacing the software & hardware

4. Coding for realizing the specific applications

APPLICATIONS

The proposed system can have several applications:

Primary level education learning- Explaining basic 3D science structures
in an effective manner (E.g. Carbon tetrahedral model, human organs )
Engineering Drawing (top view, front view, side view)
Interface with Google earth will provide better visualizations.
Entertainment and gaming purposes.

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 The future scope may extend to biomedical field applications (visualizing
human organs in 3D).

CONCLUSIONS

There are many methods that can be used to develop a touchless interface, for example,
the use of the 3D camera and IR sensor. However, each method has its advantages and
disadvantages. Most of the tools have disadvantage associated with the high cost
development and complicated hardware and software design. With the capacitive
sensing designed in 3D sensing with X, Y, and Z coordinates, the application for
computer based touch-less interaction is developed. Therefore, the program has the
ability to be controlled. Implementing the concept of capacitive sensing as an
application for human computer interaction based on this method has made it
sustainable and allowed the use of greener technology at a low cost in the establishment.
.

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REFERENCES

[1]. Allard et al., "Marker-less Real Time 3D modeling for Virtual Reality", Immersive
Projection Technology, IPT 2004, Iowa State University.
[2]. Segen et a;., "Human-computer interaction using gesture recognition and 3D hand
tracking", ICIP 98, Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Image
Processing, vol. 3, pp. 188-192, Oct. 4-7, 1998.
[3]. Shadmi, A., U.S. Appl. No. 12/683,452 "Three-Dimensional User Interface" filed
on Jan. 7, 2010.
[4]. Dekker, L., "Building Symbolic Information for 3D Human Body Modeling from
Range Data", Proceedings of the Second International Conference on 3D Digital
Imaging and Modeling, IEEE computer Society, pp. 388-397, 1999.
[5]. B. Bongers. Physical interfaces in the electronic arts. Trends in Gestural Control of
Music, January 2000
[6]. Wimmer, R., Holleis, P., Kranz, M., & Schmidt, A. (n.d.). Thracker - Using
Capacitive Sensing for Gesture Recognition.

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