Personal space modeling for human-computer interaction

Abstract

In this paper we focus on the Personal Space (PS) as a non-verbal communication concept to build a new Human Computer Interaction. The analysis of people positions with respect to their PS gives an idea on the nature of their relationship. We propose to analyze and model the PS using Computer Vision (CV), and visualize it using Computer Graphics. For this purpose, we define the PS based on four parameters: distance between people, their face orientations, age, and gender. We automatically estimate the first two parameters from image sequences using CV technology, while the two other parameters are set manually. Finally, we calculate the two-dimensional relationship of multiple persons and visualize it as 3D contours in real-time. Our method can sense and visualize invisible and unconscious PS distributions and convey the spatial relationship of users by an intuitive visual representation. The results of this paper can be used for Human Computer Interaction in public spaces. © 2009 Springer.