Vision-Based Hand-Gesture Applications
From: Communications of the ACM - 02/2011 - page 60
By: Juan Pablo Wachs, Mathias Kölsch, Helman Stern, Yael Edan

Assistive Technologies

For the impaired, the critical requirements of a hand-gesture interface
system are "user adaptability and feedback" and "come as you are." In this
context, wheelchairs, as mobility aids, have been enhanced through robotic/
intelligent vehicles able to recognize hand-gesture commands (such as in Kuno
et al. [28]). The Gesture Pendant [44] is a wearable gesture-recognition
system used to control home devices and provide additional functionality as a
medical diagnostic tool. The Staying Alive [3] virtual-reality-imagery-and-
relaxation tool satisfies the "user adaptability and feedback" requirement,
allowing cancer patients to navigate through a virtual scene using 18
traditional T'ai Chi gestures. In the same vein, a tele-rehabilitation system
[18] for kinesthetic therapy—treatment of patients with arm-motion
coordination disorders—uses force-feedback of patient gestures.
Force-feedback was also used by Patel and Roy [36] to guide an attachable
interface for individuals with severely dysarthric speech. Also, a hand-worn
haptic glove was used to help rehabilitate post-stroke patients in the
chronic phase by Boian et al. [5] These systems illustrate how medical
systems and rehabilitative procedures promise to provide a rich environment
for the potential exploitation of hand-gesture systems. Still, additional
research and evaluation procedures are needed to encourage system adoption.  

For sign languages (such as American Sign Language), hand-gesture-recognition
systems must be able to recognize a large lexicon of single-handed and
two-handed gestures. 

Read the entire article at:
http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2011/2/104397-vision-based-hand-gesture-applications/fulltext

References:

28. Kuno, Y., Murashima, T., Shimada, N., and Shirai, Y. Intelligent
wheelchair remotely controlled by interactive gestures. In Proceedings of
15th International Conference on Pattern Recognition (Barcelona, Sept. 3-7,
2000), 672-675.

44. Starner, T., Auxier, J., Ashbrook, D., and Gandy, M. The gesture pendant:
A self-illuminating, wearable, infrared computer-vision system for
home-automation control and medical monitoring. In Proceedings of the Fourth
International Symposium on Wearable Computers (Atlanta, Oct. 2000), 87-94.

3. Becker, D.A. and Pentland, T. Staying alive: A virtual reality
visualization tool for cancer patients. In Proceedings of the AAAI Workshop
on Entertainment and Alife/AI. AAAI Technical Report WS-96-03, 1996.

18. Gutierrez, M., Lemoine, P., Thalmann, D., and Vexo, F.
Telerehabilitation: Controlling haptic virtual environments through handheld
interfaces. In Proceedings of ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and
Technology (Hong Kong, Nov. 10-12), ACM Press, New York, 2004, 195-200.

36. Patel, R. and Roy, D. Teachable interfaces for individuals with
dysarthric speech and severe physical disabilities. In Proceedings of the
AAAI Workshop on Integrating Artificial Intelligence and Assistive Technology
(Madison, WI, July 26-30, 1998), 40-47.

5. Boian, R., Sharma, R., Han, C., Merians, A., Burdea, G., Adamovich, S.,
Recce, M., Tremaine, M., and Poizner, H. Virtual reality-based post-stroke
hand rehabilitation. Studies in Health and Technology Information (2002),
64-70.