A comparison of two gesture design methods: adopting sign language gestures and using user created gestures

Objective: This study evaluated and compared two methods for gesture design, that is, the method of utilizing sign language gestures and that of using user created gestures. Three evaluation criteria were employed: intuitiveness, preference and physical stress. The objective was to evaluate the possible utility of sign language gestures in gesture design. Background: A number of methods have been developed for designing gestures. They include: design by experts or system designers, computer generation of gestures and using user created gestures. Adopting existing sign language gestures may be considered as an alternative as it has a couple of distinct advantages: first, the existing sign languages are complete human languages rich in vocabulary and expressions; thus, utilizing them may provide an easy means for developing large gesture vocabularies and continually extending them. Second, utilizing existing sign languages will allow disabled individuals to quickly adopt newly developed gesture-based interaction systems. Method: Eight university students designed gestures for a set of 22 commands; the design was conducted without using any references. Also, the Korean and American sign language gestures for the 22 commands were found from sign language dictionaries. Ten individuals who were blind to both the user created gestures and sign language gestures, evaluated the designed gestures in intuitiveness, preference and physical stress. The Borg CR-10 scale was used to evaluate intuitiveness and preference. A modified version of RULA was utilized to assess physical stress. Results: Significant differences were found between the two gesture design methods in intuitiveness and physical stress. Conclusion: It is necessary to explore new gesture design methods that overcome the limitations of sign language gestures while retaining their distinct advantages. Application: The study results suggest possible directions for developing new methodologies for gesture design.