Imirok: Real-time imitative robotic arm control for home robot applications

Training home robots to behave like human can help people with their daily chores and repetitive tasks. In this paper, we present Imirok, a system to remotely control robotic arms by user motion using low-cost, off-the-shelf mobile devices and webcam. The motion tracking algorithm detects user motion in real time, without classifier training or predefined action sets. Experimental results show that the system achieves 90% precision and recall rate on motion detection with blank background, and is robust under the change of cluttered background and user-to-camera distance.