EtherPose: Continuous Hand Pose Tracking with Wrist-Worn Antenna Impedance Characteristic Sensing

EtherPose is a continuous hand pose tracking system employing two wrist-worn antennas, from which we measure the real-time dielectric loading resulting from different hand geometries (i.e., poses). Unlike worn camera-based methods, our RF approach is more robust to occlusion from clothing and avoids capturing potentially sensitive imagery. Through a series of simulations and empirical studies, we designed a proof-of-concept, worn implementation built around compact vector network analyzers. Sensor data is then interpreted by a machine learning backend, which outputs a fully-posed 3D hand. In a user study, we show how our system can track hand pose with a mean Euclidean joint error of 11.6 mm, even when covered in fabric. We also studied 2DOF wrist angle and micro-gesture tracking. In the future, our approach could be miniaturized and extended to include more and different types of antennas, operating at different self resonances.