Laser spotlight detection and interpretation of its movement behavior in laser pointer interface

A laser pointer can be used as an input interface in human-machine interaction. Such utilization, however, can be problematic and one of the main issues is the lack of good reliability in the laser spotlight detection. Another problem is how to interpret the user's movement of the spotlight into commands for the application. This paper proposes a method for a laser spotlight detection. The aim is to improve the practicality and reliability of the previous approaches. We use the maximum pixel value as a multiplier in determining the threshold. Maximum pixel value is obtained from environment brightness at a specified time. For the second problem we propose a simple interpretation of incidents that allows the user to use the application, with three main events: laser-move, hover, and single-click. There is no need for users and program to wait a specified time span to be able to interact with each other, and the user can directly give commands to the application after the single-click event. These approaches result in better reliability, easier operation of the application by the user, and allow opportunity for development of a system for rehabilitative, recreation, and input interface devices in the future.