A hand gesture recognition method and its application

If information concerning speech and hand gestures is handled in an integrated way, a more user-friendly interface will be realized. These are defined here as the “hand gesture” as the “shape and motion of hands to transmit the intention of the speaker.” They aim at the realization of the hand gesture interface. Using the hand shape input device Data GloveTM, we investigate the coding of the hand shape/motion information, a series of hand shapes in a continuous motion and the recognition method for the hand motion. For the case of hand shape/motion in the alphabet gesture in the sign language, a recognition experiment is executed. It is verified that some 20 hand gestures can be recognized, including the dynamic hand gestures. As the interface for the map guidance system, the instruction by speech and hand gesture is realized.