Hand detection for virtual touchpad

There are many different kinds of pointing devices for interaction between human and computer. One of the most used and developed pointing devices is the mouse. However, traditional mouse has a limited degree of controls. Another device is the touchpad, the counterpart of the mouse that is usually embedded on laptops. Touchpad basically has the same control as the mouse, but it can have additional controls because it has a different interaction method compared to the mouse. In this paper we discuss about virtual touchpad, a touchpad built using a webcam and some existing computer vision techniques, mostly hand detection. It uses a piece of rectangular object as the pad and works just like a touchpad with a few additional controls. The virtual touchpad built supports clicking (i.e. left click, right click and middle click) and gestures recognition by using manipulation of hand and finger position. The gestures recognized by this touchpad are simple gestures e.g. making a vertical line, horizontal line, V shape, and so on. Although the virtual touchpad is still a prototype, most of the user who tested this device finds it interesting and said that it would be useful if developed further.