Adaptive gesture recognition system and method for unstable work environments

1. A gesture-based touch screen display system, comprising:

a touch screen display including at least a touch sensitive region, the touch sensitive region adapted to receive gesture-based input commands from a user, the touch sensitive region configured, upon receipt of the gesture-based input commands, to generate gesture signals representative of the gesture-based input commands;

an instability detector configured to detect when at least one of the touch screen display or the user is being subjected to an acceleration having a magnitude and a direction and, upon such detection, to supply instability descriptors representative of the detected acceleration; and

a processor coupled to receive the gesture signals and the instability descriptors, the processor configured, upon receipt of the gesture signals and the instability descriptors, to (i) determine if the instability descriptor is representative of a lateral acceleration, a vertical acceleration, or both, (ii) selectively apply lateral corrections, vertical corrections, or both to the gesture-based input commands based upon the instability descriptors,

wherein the processor is configured to selectively apply vertical corrections by:

determining if consecutive gesture segments are received within a predetermined interval of time;

discarding the gesture-based input command if consecutive gesture segments are not received within a predetermined interval of time; and

if the consecutive gesture segments are received within a predetermined interval of time:

sampling the gesture-based input command to define an input gesture profile; and

determining whether the input gesture profile represents a linear gesture profile or a curved gesture profile.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein, if the processor determines the input gesture profile represents a linear gesture profile, the processor is further configured to:

extend individual lines segments of the input gesture profile;

compute intersection points of the individual line segments; and

clip line segments that extend beyond the intersection points.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein, if the processor determines the input gesture profile represents a curved gesture profile, the processor is further configured to:

conjoin both ends of individual curved segments;

compute intersection points of extended, consecutive curved segments; and

clip curved segments beyond each intersection points.

4. A gesture-based touch screen display system, comprising:

a touch screen display including at least a touch sensitive region, the touch sensitive region adapted to receive gesture-based input commands from a user, the touch sensitive region configured, upon receipt of the gesture-based input commands, to generate gesture signals representative of the gesture-based input commands;

an instability detector configured to detect when at least one of the touch screen display or the user is being subjected to an acceleration having a magnitude and a direction and, upon such detection, to supply instability descriptors representative of the detected acceleration; and

a processor coupled to receive the gesture signals and the instability descriptors, the processor configured, upon receipt of the gesture signals and the instability descriptors, to (i) determine if the instability descriptor is representative of a lateral acceleration, a vertical acceleration, or both, (ii) selectively apply lateral corrections, vertical corrections, or both to the gesture-based input commands based upon the instability descriptors,

wherein the processor is configured to selectively apply lateral corrections by:

sampling the gesture-based input command to define an input gesture profile;

determining whether the input gesture profile represents a linear gesture profile or a curved gesture profile; and

implementing an iterative lateral error minimization process to iteratively minimize lateral errors in intermediately corrected gesture profiles.

5. A gesture-based touch screen display system, comprising:

a touch screen display including at least a touch sensitive region, the touch sensitive region adapted to receive gesture-based input commands from a user, the touch sensitive region configured, upon receipt of the gesture-based input commands, to generate gesture signals representative of the gesture-based input commands;

an instability detector configured to detect brain activity; and

a processor coupled to receive the gesture signals and the detected brain activity, the processor configured, upon receipt of the gesture signals and the detected brain activity, to (i) correlate the detected brain activity to cognitive workload and performance values of the user and (ii) selectively apply both lateral corrections and vertical corrections to the gesture-based input commands.