EyeGlove for Inspection and Measurement in Confined Environments

A novel wearable vision system is proposed in this article. The wearable system contains a vision glove (EyeGlove) and a wearable display unit, which assists operators with inspection and measurement in confined environments. Three microcameras and an artificial fiducial marker are integrated on the index and middle fingers of the EyeGlove with disjointed camera configurations. Operators can achieve complex camera configurations and movements by using their dexterous hands while wearing the EyeGlove. The wearable vision system distinguishes itself by having two different functions, of which the inspection function uses one or two cameras to inspect in confined environments. For the measurement function, all three cameras and the artificial marker are used to identify object dimensions. Two of the three cameras form a stereovision system with disjointed camera configurations and variable baselines. The third camera and the artificial marker are used to determine the variable baseline in real-time. Inspection and measurement results are presented by the wearable display unit onto a virtual display. To make the wearable vision system adapt to dark environments, three auxiliary LED lights are integrated adjoining the three cameras. Experiments are conducted in both bright and dark environments to verify the measurement accuracy with an average relative error ≤ 5.0%. Furthermore, experiments are also conducted in the confined turbine engine combustor to verify its potential application in industrial environments.