Continuous Korean Sign Language Recognition using Automata-based Gesture Segmentation and Hidden Markov Model

This paper studies continuous Korean Sign Language (KSL) recognition using color vision. In recognizing gesture words such as sign language, it is a very difficult to segment a continuous sign into individual sign words since the patterns are very complicated and diverse. To solve this problem, we disassemble the KSL into 18 hand motion classes according to their patterns and represent the sign words as some combination of hand motions. Observing the speed and the change of speed of hand motion and using state automata, we reject unintentional gesture motions such as preparatory motion and meaningless movement between sign words. To recognize 18 hand motion classes we adopt Hidden Markov Model (HMM). Using these methods, we recognize 5 KSL sentences and obtain 94% recognition ratio.