US Patent 8660300 Apparatus and method for optical gesture recognition

An optical gesture recognition system is shown having a first light source and a first optical receiver configured to receive reflected light from an object when the first light source is activated and output a first measured reflectance value corresponding to an amplitude of the reflected light. A processor is configured to receive the first measured reflectance value and to compare the first measured reflectance value at first and second points in time to track motion of the object and identify a gesture of the object corresponding to the tracked motion of the object.