Designing a Gesture Recognition System

By Charles J. Cohen

November 14, 2005

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Typically, the purpose of gesture recognition is to allow a device to receive input in the form of some type of sign language, such as American Sign Language or finger alphabets. However, recent gesture recognition systems have been created for two reasons: 1) as an aid to speech input for input devices, and 2) for device control. Gesture recognition systems do not suffer from the limitations of other input devices, and serve as perfect interfaces for controlling other software or images, such as on-the-air television weather maps. Evidence indicates that gesturing does not simply embellish spoken language, but is part of the language generation process.

I work for Cybernet Systems, an R&D company based in Ann Arbor, MI, that has developed software to automatically recognize gestures and determine the intent of body motion. Body tracking, coupled with gesture recognition, provides a highly innovative and powerful interface for controlling devices since it allows users to interact with systems in a non-contact and intuitive manner.

Cybernet has a long history of designing and building gesture recognition applications for organizations such as NASA, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, DARPA and commercial entities. For NASA, we created a system that recognizes two-dimensional gestures and generates commands based on them. For the U.S. Army, we designed a gesture recognition system capable of tracking untagged human features (such as hands) and detecting intentional gestures (including 3D gestures)—particularly useful during silent maneuvers. For the U.S. Air Force, we delivered a system for tracking untagged human features under controlled conditions to manage a data wall of information. Furthermore, we have worked with the U.S. Air Force to demonstrate how a gesture recognition system can be extended to perform a more sophisticated analysis called behavior recognition.

Cybernet also created a family of products that allow TV meteorologists to control on-air weather displays through gestures.

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