Patent ID: 8379134

Claim:
A method of object selection for use in a device having digital camera functionality, the method comprising: detecting the occurrence of a gesture by a pointing member in an image frame captured by an image sensor; recognizing the gesture and determining an object pointed to thereby; and selecting the object as a result of the gesture recognition, wherein gesture recognition comprises: capturing a first image using infrared (IR) illumination turned on capturing a second image using infrared (IR) illumination turned off; calculating a third image as the difference between the first and second images; performing a union find on the third image to identify one or more distinct objects located in the third image; discarding from consideration those of the one or more distinct objects that are smaller than a threshold size; discarding from consideration those of the one or more distinct objects that are not along an edge of the third image; and determining vectors and points for each of the one or more distinct objects that has not been discarded from consideration.