DiscoBand: Multiview Depth-Sensing Smartwatch Strap for Hand, Body and Environment Tracking

Real-time tracking of a user’s hands, arms and environment is valuable in a wide variety of HCI applications, from context awareness to virtual reality. Rather than rely on fixed and external tracking infrastructure, the most flexible and consumer-friendly approaches are mobile, self-contained, and compatible with popular device form factors (e.g., smartwatches). In this vein, we contribute DiscoBand, a thin sensing strap not exceeding 1 cm in thickness. Sensors operating so close to the skin inherently face issues with occlusion. To help overcome this, our strap uses eight distributed depth sensors imaging the hand from different viewpoints, creating a sparse 3D point cloud. An additional eight depth sensors image outwards from the band to track the user’s body and surroundings. In addition to evaluating arm and hand pose tracking, we also describe a series of supplemental applications powered by our band’s data, including held object recognition and environment mapping.