Motion Descriptor for Human Gesture Recognition in Low Resolution Images

A great variety of human gesture recognition methods exist in the literature, yet there is still a lack of solutions to encompass some of the challenges imposed by real life scenarios. In this document, a gesture recognition for robotic search and rescue missions in the high seas is presented. Themethod aims to identify shipwrecked people by recognizing the hand waving gesture sign. We introduce a novelmotion descriptor, through which high recognition accuracy can be achieved even for low resolution images. The method can be simultaneously applied to rigid object characterization, hence object and gesture recognition can be performed simultaneously. The descriptor has a simple implementation and is invariant to scale and gesture speed. Tests, preformed on a maritime dataset of thermal images, proved the descriptor ability to reach a meaningful representation for very low resolution objects. Recognition rates with 96.3% of accuracy were achieved.