Gloved and Free Hand Tracking based Hand Gesture Recognition

Hand gesture recognition system can be used for human-computer interaction (HCI). The use of hand gestures provides an attractive alternative to cumbersome interface devices for HCI. Proper hand segmentation from the background and other body parts of the video is the primary requirement for the design of a hand-gesture based application. These video frames can be captured from a low cost webcam (camera) for use in a vision based gesture recognition technique. This paper discusses about continuous hand gesture recognition. It reports a robust and efficient hand tracking as well as segmentation algorithm where a new method, based on wearing glove on hand is utilized. We have also focused on another tracking algorithm, which is based on skin colour of the palm part of the hand i.e. free hand tracking. A comparative study between two tracking methods is presented in this paper. A finger tip can be segmented for proper tracking in spite of the full hand part. Hence, this technique allows the hand (excepting the segmented finger) to move freely during the tracking time also. Problems such as skin colour detection, complexity from large numbers of people in front of the camera, complex background removal and variable lighting condition are found to be efficiently handled by the system. Noise present in the segmented image due to dynamic background can be removed with the help of this adaptive technique which is found to be effective for the application conceived.