Vision and Depth Information based Real-time Hand Interface Method Using Finger Joint Estimation

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a vision and depth information based real-time hand gesture interface method using finger joint estimation. For this, the areas of left and right hands are segmented after mapping of the visual image and depth information image, and labeling and boundary noise removal is performed. Then, the centroid point and rotation angle of each hand area are calculated. Afterwards, a circle is expanded at following pattern from a centroid point of the hand to detect joint points and end points of the finger by obtaining the midway points of the hand boundary crossing and the hand model is recognized. Experimental results that our method enabled fingertip distinction and recognized various hand gestures fast and accurately. As a result of the experiment on various hand poses with the hidden fingers using both hands, the accuracy showed over 90% and the performance indicated over 25 fps. The proposed method can be used as a without contacts input interface in HCI control, education, and game applications.