Measuring velocity of hand motions

Projects General Guidance
1

Based off of somebody else's model (see geps.synack.ch), I built a musical data glove that uses an MPU6050 accel/gyro sensor to measure the user's motions and map those values to sound or sound parameters. I want to modify it to measure the user's velocity instead -- this allows for more intuitive motions. Is there a chip out there that I could use to measure the speed of hand motions, instead of accel?

I found this: ZX Distance and Gesture Sensor - SEN-13162 - SparkFun Electronics, ZX Distance and Gesture Sensor, but I would prefer something I could hook up to the arduino and stick directly onto the glove, like I have now with the MPU6050.

Does anybody have suggestions or ideas? Thanks!

2

Velocity is calculated using the acceleration and time.
That's how an IMU works.

3

Thanks, mikb55 -- but, correct me if I'm wrong, in order to get the quasi-instantaneous velocity, I need to integrate my accel values, right? That's quite complicated to do in PureData, the language we're using to parse the sensor data and map to sound. Is there a more effective way?

5

I'm still a bit confused, probably because I don't fully understand how accelerometers work. Delta_G, could you explain to me why multiplying the values by the time difference would work? I'm just not sure I understand what you mean, so I can't come up with an effective implementation. Thank you!!

6

If an object accelerates at a rate of 3 metres per second2 for a second, it will be travelling at 3 metres per second.

7

Hi,

If an object accelerates at a rate of 3 metres per second2 for a second, it will be travelling at 3 metres per second.

If it starts from stationary position.

Tom.... :slight_smile:

8

TomGeorge:
Hi,If it starts from stationary position.

Tom.... :slight_smile:

Ha ha. Fair enough. My bad. :slight_smile:
I should have said that it will be travelling at 3 metres per second faster than it was prior to the acceleration.

9

Thanks, it makes sense -- a lot simpler than trying to use calculus! :slight_smile:

10

As pointed out earlier, an accelerometer can only indicate changes in velocity.

It is impossible to use an accelerometer to distinguish between a hand that is not moving at all from one that is moving at constant velocity (where velocity includes both direction and speed of motion).