Original Gesture Research Articles

Gesture imitation performance in community-dwelling older people: assessment of a gesture imitation task in the screening and diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment and dementia.

Gesture imitation, a simple tool for assessing visuospatial/visuoconstructive functions, is reportedly useful for screening and diagnosing dementia. However, gesture imitation performance in healthy older adults is largely unknown, as are the factors associated with lower performance. To address these unknowns, we examined the gesture imitation performance of a large number of community-dwelling older adults aged ≥65 years in Arao City, Kumamoto Prefecture (southern Japan). The examiner presented the participants with eight gesture patterns and considered it a success if they could imitate them within 10 s. The success rate of each gesture imitation was calculated for three diagnostic groups: cognitively normal (CN) (n = 1184), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (n = 237), and dementia (n = 47). Next, we reorganised the original gesture imitation battery by combining six selected gestures with the following scoring method: if the participants successfully imitated the gestures, immediately or within 5 s, two points were assigned. If they succeeded within 5-10 s, one point was assigned. The sensitivity and specificity of the battery were investigated to detect the dementia and MCI groups. Factors associated with gesture imitation battery scores were examined. Except one complex gesture, the success rate of imitation in the CN group was high, approximately 90%. The sensitivity and specificity of the gesture imitation battery for discriminating between the dementia and CN groups and between the MCI and CN groups were 70%/88%, and 45%/75%, respectively. Ageing, male sex, and a diagnosis of dementia or MCI were associated with lower scores on the gesture imitation battery. Gesture imitation tasks alone may not be sufficient to detect MCI. However, by combining gestures with set time limits, gesture imitation tasks can be a low-burden and effective method for detecting dementia, even in community medicine, such as during health check-ups.

Cross-Scene Sign Language Gesture Recognition Based on Frequency-Modulated Continuous Wave Radar

This paper uses millimeter-wave radar to recognize gestures in four different scene domains. The four scene domains are the experimental environment, the experimental location, the experimental direction, and the experimental personnel. The experiments are carried out in four scene domains, using part of the data of a scene domain as the training set for training. The remaining data is used as a validation set to validate the training results. Furthermore, the gesture recognition results of known scenes can be extended to unknown stages after obtaining the original gesture data in different scene domains. Then, three kinds of hand gesture features independent of the scene domain are extracted: range-time spectrum, range-doppler spectrum, and range-angle spectrum. Then, they are fused to represent a complete and comprehensive gesture action. Then, the gesture is trained and recognized using the three-dimensional convolutional neural network (CNN) model. Experimental results show that the three-dimensional CNN can fuse different gesture feature sets. The average recognition rate of the fused gesture features in the same scene domain is 87%, and the average recognition rate in the unknown scene domain is 83.1%, which verifies the feasibility of gesture recognition across scene domains.

Le waza du washi

Traditional paper making in the village of Kurotani in the mountains north of Kyoto has been the subject of research and interviews for the past fifteen years by Y. Yonehara and, when one of us (F. Joulian) proposed an anthropographic investigation of Waza in Japan, this field seemed ideal to explore this new approach involving an artist, a designer, an anthropologist and a mangaka in the same field.was to explore, according to distinct experiences and disciplinary points of view, different types of recording techniques: notes and sound recordings, photos, videos, and drawings, in order to describe the original art of these artisans, their Waza, which is captured in the very place where the craft is practiced and in its current conditions and constraints.The article we have written is articulated with other productions (videos, photos and a drawn catalog in addition to an exhibition) that complement it using different media. It explores these particular skills from the point of view of their patrimonialization (they are classified as intangible heritage) and the positive or negative effects that this can have on the sustainability of the skills of the activity, but also in the articulation of this profession with the different sectors and other professions that it conditions and that condition it and on which we have also investigated (printing, fusuma, karakami, lanterns…). Two examples allow us to grasp the life of paper, from the tree to the object, and, through different trades, to question the articulation of different knowledge, their kinship, their segmentation or their continuity, but also to question ourselves on the material itself worked and how it brings with it, gestures, requirements and common commitments.The dialogue with this particular material, which transforms itself as it is worked, comes from the pulp of mulberry (kozo) and water, via simple instruments (cauldrons, sinks, frames, dryers) but also from subtle processual and gestural recipes. Does this dialogue with the material engage the artisans in the same bath of values, demands, and pleasures of making, conducive to the maintenance of Waza, or conversely, to circumscribing and weakening it?ill the cultural recognition and the national and international demands for this type of paper ensure the sustainability of the processes? Are the instruments or associated technical systems (steel knives, the natural glue of tororo aoi roots, the mutualization of regional knowledge by the union…), sufficiently stable and robust to keep the activity attractive for the younger generations? The Waza of washi artisans is of course also affected by these external factors, which are difficult to photograph or draw, and our “anthropographic” exploration, beyond the challenge of capturing the craft and the original gestures of the artisans, is also to express the different analytical and narrative virtues of the text, the image or the drawing, and to sketch out a true “multimedia” and scientific proposal, from the recording in the field to its public dissemination.

Gesture Feature Extraction and Recognition Based on Image Processing

Gesture recognition has become increasingly popular, in response to the growing demand for intelligent and personalized human-computer interaction (HCI) and human-to-human interaction. However, gesture recognition raises a high requirement on the background color of the gesture image, and faces difficulty in extracting multiple gesture features. To solve these problems, this paper presents a novel approach for gesture feature extraction and recognition based on image processing. Firstly, the workflow of the proposed gesture recognition method was given, and a series of preprocessing was performed on the original gesture image, prior to formal extraction and recognition. Next, the authors detailed the extraction of features from gesture boundaries and fingertips. Finally, a convolutional neural network (CNN) was constructed for gesture recognition, and a gesture recognition model was developed based on residual network. The proposed approach was proved to be valid through experiments. The research results provide a reference for the application of CNN in the recognition of various postures or shapes.

The shape of planar smooth gestures and the convergence of a gesture recognizer

In this work we provide the mathematical framework of !FTL, a new gesture recognition algorithm. This allows us to algebraically quantify the notion of shape for a smooth planar curve, inspired by the notion of shape of a triangle given previously by Lester in this same journal. In particular, we approximate every gesture, considered as a smooth planar curve, by a polygonal path inscribed on that curve. Then, we consider each triple of consecutive points on that polygonal path as the vertices of a triangle having a shape. We show that, as the polygonal line pointwise converges to the original gesture, the corresponding sequence of shapes pointwise converges to a limiting curve of shapes, that we consider to be the shape of that gesture. We use the Euclidean metric and the Riemann integral to measure the distance between the shapes of two gestures. The position, scale and rotation invariances of the shape of a triangle still hold for the shape of a gesture, and this provides one of the main achievements of !FTL. Finally, we mention, for further research, that the two dimensional Euclidean notion of shape can be extended to higher dimensional settings and more general metrics using Clifford numbers.

A hand gesture recognition algorithm based on DC-CNN

In the process of hand gesture recognition, the diversity and complexity of gesture will greatly influence the recognition rate and reliability. In the task of hand gesture recognition, the traditional method based on manual feature extraction is time-consuming, and the recognition rate is low. In order to improve the recognition rate, a novel recognition algorithm based on double channel convolutional neural network (DC-CNN) is proposed. Firstly, the preprocessing, denoising and edge detection of original gesture images are performed to obtain the hand edge images. Secondly, the hand gesture images and the hand edge images are respectively selected as two input channels of the CNN. Each channel contains the same number of convolutional layers and the same parameters, but each has a separate weight. Finally, the feature fusion is performed at the full connection layer and the output result is classified by softmax classifier. Experiments on the Jochen Triesch Database (JTD) and the NAO Camera hand posture Database (NCD) show that the proposed algorithm has improved the rate of hand gesture recognition and has enhanced the generalization ability of the CNN.

Upgraded self-repeated gestures in Japanese interaction

Participants in interaction sometimes produce self-repeated gestures, that is, a gesture which can be seen as the same as a gesture produced by the same person immediately before. Drawing on data from Japanese interaction, it is shown that self-repeated gestures can be produced in a weaker form, involving smaller, less energetic, shorter, and/or less distinct movements, or in a stronger form, involving larger, more energetic, longer, and/or more distinct movements. Self-repeated gestures are found in contexts of repair or redesign of the utterance package. The weaker, or attenuated, forms occur when the repair or redoing is not related specifically to the gesture. The attenuated forms are not designed as downgraded. The stronger forms occur when there is some problem with the original gesture, often a problem with recipiency, and the gesture itself is repaired or otherwise redone. The gesture is designed as upgraded. The concept of upgrading has generally been applied to actions performed through talk. The analysis of upgraded self-repeated gesture shows that it can also be applied to gesture, though its application may be limited. The possibility of applying downgrading to gesture may be even more limited.

Visions from behind a desk? Archival performance and the re‐enactment of colonial bureaucracy

Can ten weeks of archival research be considered a re‐enactment of the daily life of black African clerks who created the records? What would such a claim entail when it is made by a white female scholar? Drawing from my experience of archival research in Zambia, and from recent enthusiasm in historical geography for “enlivening” or “animating” the past, I analyse what parameters would be necessary for this re‐enactment to be considered a success. This paper explores how breaking up historical situations into units of gesture and experience affects the narrating of history. It asks what models of the self are implied by re‐enactive historical investigation; in relation to the agency of historical actors, and also to the performativity of their original gestures. It argues that performative investigation of the social and cultural geographies of the subaltern sits uncomfortably with current scholarly practices in historical geography. This is in part because that work is largely carried out by lone scholars, but also because of the highly individualised, self‐conscious and self‐possessed modes through which the outcomes of performative research are narrated. Finally, borrowing the term “acts of transfer” (from the performance scholar Diana Taylor), this paper proposes that this contemporary performance of clerical work is only one route through which the colonial past resonates, or acts, in the present. The lives of the colonial clerks were locked into structures of racial and socioeconomic inequality that survive outside my performance. Does “performing” the past overwrite or obscure these other continuities? To avoid such an erasure, both the ethical consequences and epistemological goals of performative research in historical geography need to be more clearly articulated in relationship to the sociomaterial geographies of the present.

A Human-Centered Approach to One-Shot Gesture Learning

This paper discusses the problem of one-shot gesture recognition using a human-centered approach and its potential application to fields such as human-robot interaction where the user’s intentions are indicated through spontaneous gesturing (one-shot). Casual users have limited time to learn the gestures interface, which makes one-shot recognition an attractive alternative to interface customization. In the aim of natural interaction with machines, a framework must be developed to include the ability of humans to understand gestures from a single observation. Previous approaches to one-shot gesture recognition have relied heavily on statistical and data-mining-based solutions, and have ignored the mechanisms that are used by humans to perceive and execute gestures and that can provide valuable context information. This omission has led to suboptimal solutions. The focus of this work is on the process that leads to the realization of a gesture, rather than on the gesture itself. In this case, context involves the way in which humans produce gestures—the kinematic and anthropometric characteristics. In the method presented here, the strategy is to generate a data set of realistic samples based on features extracted from a single gesture sample. These features, called the “gist of a gesture,” are considered to represent what humans remember when seeing a gesture and, later, the cognitive process involved when trying to replicate it. By adding meaningful variability to these features, a large training data set is created while preserving the fundamental structure of the original gesture. The availability of a large data set of realistic samples allows the use of training classifiers for future recognition. The performance of the method is evaluated using different lexicons, and its efficiency is compared with that of traditional N-shot learning approaches. The strength of the approach is further illustrated through human and machine recognition of gestures performed by a dual arm-robotic platform.

Original Gesture: Hand Eloquence on the Early Modern Stage

This essay brings together two Renaissance illustrations (or sets of illustrations) that have for a long time been held apart, despite the clear potential for their mutual explication—an interpretive correspondence that, in turn, bears on speculation about early modern acting. The Longleat manuscript contains the only surviving sketch of a Shakespeare performance made in his lifetime, but many of its elements have raised more questions than answers, including the significance of its arm and hand gestures. John Bulwer’s illustrations and analysis of gestures in Chirologia. . .Chironomia (1644) would seem to be instructive in this case, but because of the text’s current estimation as a wholly prescriptive rhetoric or book of sign language for the deaf, it has rarely been thought relevant to the popular stage. The discussion begins by rethinking the aims of Bulwer’s text and, through an analysis of Hamlet 2.1, outlining its connection to an idea of gesture typical of Shakespeare’s plays. After then situating Bulwer’s illustrations among earlier manuscript and print examples of drawn eloquence, the study ends by comparing the Longleat gestures with those described in the Chirologia. . .Chironomia. Rather than a series of simplistic associations, the comparisons offered here highlight the copiousness within formal expressions of emotion, and the subtle ways in which these fixed meanings might have been exploited on stage.

The Triple Play of Violence in Ismael R. Mbise’s Blood on Our Land

Ismael R. Mbise’s novel Blood on Our Land (1974) re-creates the events known as the Meru Land Case, when in 1951 a group of Wameru from northern Tanganyika petitioned the UN to prevent the British authorities from evicting them from their land. The petition drew international attention to the area for a fleeting moment and, though unsuccessful, it has since entered the national imaginary as an original gesture of peaceful resistance to colonial control. Mbise’s re-creation has also been read as a critical allegory of the implementation of villagization associated with the policies of Ujamaa. The novel does this and more in its brilliant comparative analysis of the vectors of violence within the politics of language, history, and representation, the practices of Indirect Rule and its force of law, and development and its mechanics of ‘modernization’: a triple play.

Contando estórias e inventando metodologias para discutir a violência contra as mulheres

Neste artigo discorro sobre a importância de se criar metodologias alternativas para trabalhar com a violência contra as mulheres dentro do campo da psicologia. Produções artísticas como a literatura, o teatro, a contação de histórias, entre outras, possibilitam o questionamento de identidades fixas e binárias na regulação de gênero e podem permitir a reconstrução de normas identitárias por meio de enunciados e gestos inéditos, ensejadores de novos mapas que abarquem as diferenças e refutem as normalizações. Trago a possibilidade de pensar a inserção do/a psicólogo/a nesse debate, amparada em dispositivos artísticos como estratégias de resistência e construção de subjetividades dissidentes, e exemplifico essa narrativa trazendo a estória de Branca e José Pássaro Volante, personagens da obra de Lídia Jorge em "O dia dos prodígios".

Mainstreaming gesture based interfaces

Gestures are a common way of interaction with mobile devices. They emerged especially with the iPhone production. Gestures in currently used devices are usually based on the original gestures presented by Apple in its iOS (iPhone Operating System). Therefore, there is a wide agreement on the mobile gesture design. In last years, it is possible to see experiments with gesture usage also in the other areas of consumer electronics and computers. The examples can include televisions, large projections etc. These gestures can be marked as spatial or 3D gestures. They are connected with a natural 3D environment rather than with a flat 2D screen. Nevertheless, it is hard to find a comparable design agreement within the spatial gestures. Various projects are based on completely different gesture sets. This situation is confusing for their users and slows down spatial gesture adoption.This paper is focused on the standardization of spatial gestures. The review of projects focused on spatial gesture usage is provided in the first part. The main emphasis is placed on the usability point-of-view. On the basis of our analysis, we argue that the usability is the key issue enabling the wide adoption. The mobile gesture emergence was possible easily because the iPhone gestures were natural. Therefore, it was not necessary to learn them.The design and implementation of our presentation software, which is controlled by gestures, is outlined in the second part of the paper. Furthermore, the usability testing results are provided as well. We have tested our application on a group of users not instructed in the implemented gestures design. These results were compared with the other ones, obtained with our original implementation. The evaluation can be used as the basis for implementation of similar projects.

<i>Dietari</i> von Tàpies - Ritualisierung und Revitalisierung des Alltags

Summary: This essay deals with Dietari (2002), a cycle of five pictures dating from Tapies’ last creative period. In this work some central elements of his esthetics flow together within the frame of diary, producing a dimension of existential significance. The pictures show daily ordinary activities such as walking, eating, digesting and washing, which, after being transposed in an esthetic context and enriched by symbols and penetrating signs, expose features of a ritual. First, we identify the diary as a place of mediation between routine, art and ritual. Then we retrace the role of the process of integration and conversion of symbolic and linguistic signs on different levels. By contemplating each of the five paintings and their relations to one another, we can immerse ourselves in an interplay of associations and possible meanings. One can observe two central aspects: objects and signs reacquire their original gesture and their everyday context. As a matter of fact, the figurative signs cannot be removed from artwork, for they incite interactive participation, while mental and sensorial processes of synesthetic perception have to be seen as a unity. Tàpies does not limit himself to the artistic ritualization of the profane, but uses it as a way of influencing everyday acting by restoring its fully procedural meaning. [Keywords: Tàpies; diary; ritual; mediation; gesture; synesthetic perception; procedural ritualization]

A SEQUENCE ALIGNMENT APPROACH APPLIED TO A MOBILE AUTHENTICATION TECHNIQUE BASED ON GESTURES

In this paper, a biometric technique based on gesture recognition is proposed to improve the security of operations requiring authentication in mobile phones. Users are authenticated by making a gesture invented by them holding a mobile phone embedding an accelerometer on their hand. An analysis method based on sequence alignment is proposed and evaluated in different experiments. Firstly, a test of distinctiveness of gestures has been proposed obtaining an equal error rate (EER) of 4.98% with a database of 30 users and four repetitions. With the same database, a second experiment representing the unicity of accessing attempts has resulted in an EER value of 1.92%. Finally, a third experiment to evaluate the robustness of the technique has examined a database of 40 users with eight repetitions and real falsification attempts, performed by three impostors from the study of recordings of the carrying out of the original gestures, resulting in an EER of 2.5%.

Using virtual reality and 3D industrial numerical models for immersive interactive checklists

At the different stages of the PLM, companies develop numerous checklist-based procedures involving prototype inspection and testing. Besides, techniques from CAD, 3D imaging, animation and virtual reality now form a mature set of tools for industrial applications. The work presented in this article develops a unique framework for immersive checklist-based project reviews that applies to all steps of the PLM. It combines immersive navigation in the checklist, virtual experiments when needed and multimedia update of the checklist. It provides a generic tool, independent of the considered checklist, relies on the integration of various VR tools and concepts, in a modular way, and uses an original gesture recognition. Feasibility experiments are presented, validating the benefits of the approach.

Dancing to the Rhythm of a Geiger Counter: Modern(ist) Narcissism and the Anthropo(s)cenic Shock

In 2011, the biggest nuclear accident since Chernobyl took place at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. Soon after the nuclear accident, a video appeared on YouTube in which a rogue power plant worker walked towards one of the site’s CCTV cameras and pointed to its centre while watching his own image being streamed live on his smartphone. Despite it clearly being a reinterpretation of Centers, the 1971 performance by Vito Acconci, this essay argues that the Fukushima reenactment not only questioned the cultural paradigms that grounded Acconci’s original gesture, but also signaled the urgent need for humankind to reconsider its own ontological and epistemological grounds in the face of imminent extinction. By comparing Vito Acconci’s Centers with its Fukushima reenactment, the essay tells the history of Modernity and of its failure as a project of human emancipation, grounded on a fantasy of human mastery of ‘Nature.’
 Author(s): João Florêncio
 Title (English): Dancing to the Rhythm of a Geiger Counter: Modern(ist) Narcissism and the Anthropo(s)cenic Shock
 Journal Reference: Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture, Vol. 10, No. 1-2 (Summer-Winter 2013)
 Publisher: Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities – Skopje 
 Page Range: 111-122
 Page Count: 12
 Citation (English): João Florêncio, “Dancing to the Rhythm of a Geiger Counter: Modern(ist) Narcissism and the Anthropo(s)cenic Shock,” Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture, Vol. 10, No. 1-2 (Summer-Winter 2013): 111-122.

Creating the Norm: The African-American Literary Tradition

Abstract This paper starts from the premise that norm, in the sense of a prescriptive tradition based on a set of standards deriving from past practices and regulating future ones, is the result of an initial creative gesture; in other words, first there was creativity and creativity became the norm. Based on this premise, the paper looks at some of the earliest African-American pieces of writing to trace the itinerary from creativity to norm, thus witnessing the birth of the African-American literary tradition. To this end, the paper analyses the first published Black narrative and identifies the trope of the talking book as illustrating that original gesture which, by creatively incorporating the norm, marks the beginning of a new tradition. Then the paper follows subsequent early Black narratives and identifies the creative transgression of the norm illustrated by the Middle Passage as the process by which the new norm is established.

Communicative intentions in wild chimpanzees: persistence and elaboration in gestural signalling

We examine evidence for communicative intent during conspecific interactions in wild chimpanzees (Budongo Forest, Uganda), focusing on persistence in gestural communication. Previous research indicates that great apes have large gestural repertoires and produce gestural communication in a flexible and intentional manner, including the production of gesture sequences. Although there is a lack of consensus on the form and function of sequences, there is some evidence that sequences are produced when signallers fail to receive any response from a recipient. Here, we provide first systematic evidence for communicative persistence in wild chimpanzees. Rather than examining only the presence or absence of a response, we used the most commonly observed response to assign meanings to gestures and examined sequence production in relation to response congruency. Chimpanzees ceased communication if successful, but persevered when unsuccessful. Chimpanzees repeated gestures when a response partially matched their goal but substituted the original gesture when a response was incongruent. Persistence was also mediated by recipient intent to respond, with more sequences produced within competitive than affiliative contexts. Gestures within sequences were homogenous in semantic meaning and signallers continued until the response matched the assigned meaning of the initial gesture. Gestural sequence production was not primarily affective; gesture intensity (in terms of modality) did not increase within sequences. Chimpanzee gestural sequences emerged to achieve specific outcomes; given variability in recipient behaviour following initial gestures, signallers were flexible in their persistence towards these goals.

Virtual Gesture Control and Synthesis of Music Performances: Qualitative Evaluation of Synthesized Timpani Exercises

The increasing availability of software for creating real-time simulations of musical instrument sounds allows for the design of new visual and sounding media. These past decades have especially focused on the control of real and virtual instruments by natural gestures. In this paper, we present and extensively evaluate a framework (Figure 1) for the control of virtual percussion instruments, by modeling and simulating virtual percussionists gestures. By positioning the virtual performer at the center of the gesture-sound synthesis system, we aim at providing original tools to analyze and synthesize instrumental gesture performances. Our physics-based approach for gesture simulation brings some insight into the effect of biomechanical parameters of the gesture on the instrumental performance. Simulating both gesture and sound by physical models leads also to a coherent and human-centered interaction and provides new ways of exploring the mapping between gesture and sound. The use of motion capture data enables the realistic synthesis of both pre-recorded and novel percussion sequences from the specification of gesture scores. Such scores involve motion editing techniques applied to simple beat attacks. We therefore propose an original gesture language based on the instrumental playing techniques. This language is characterized by expressivity, interactivity with the user, and the possibility to take into account co-articulation between gesture units. Finally, providing 3D visual rendering synchronized with sound rendering allows us to observe virtual performances to the light of real ones, and to qualitatively evaluate both pedagogical and compositional capabilities of such a system.