Structural design of magnetostrictive sensing glove and its application for gesture recognition

Purpose Gesture recognition plays an important role in many fields such as human–computer interaction, medical rehabilitation, virtual and augmented reality. Gesture recognition using wearable devices is a common and effective recognition method. This study aims to combine the inverse magnetostrictive effect and tunneling magnetoresistance effect and proposes a novel wearable sensing glove applied in the field of gesture recognition. Design/methodology/approach A magnetostrictive sensing glove with function of gesture recognition is proposed based on Fe-Ni alloy, tunneling magnetoresistive elements, Agilus30 base and square permanent magnets. The sensing glove consists of five sensing units to measure the bending angle of each finger joint. The optimal structure of the sensing units is determined through experimentation and simulation. The output voltage model of the sensing units is established, and the output characteristics of the sensing units are tested by the experimental platform. Fifteen gestures are selected for recognition, and the corresponding output voltages are collected to construct the data set and the data is processed using Back Propagation Neural Network. Findings The sensing units can detect the change in the bending angle of finger joints from 0 to 105 degrees and a maximum error of 4.69% between the experimental and theoretical values. The average recognition accuracy of Back Propagation Neural Network is 97.53% for 15 gestures. Research limitations/implications The sensing glove can only recognize static gestures at present, and further research is still needed to recognize dynamic gestures. Practical implications A new approach to gesture recognition using wearable devices. Social implications This study has a broad application prospect in the field of human–computer interaction. Originality/value The sensing glove can collect voltage signals under different gestures to realize the recognition of different gestures with good repeatability, which has a broad application prospect in the field of human–computer interaction.