Auslan Sign Recognition Using Computers and Gloves

Wouldn’t it be great if computers could understand sign language (and Auslan in particular)? This would open the door for some interesting applications for both Deaf and non-Deaf people. We are seeing the development of interesting technologies for speech recognition, but no real commercial products for sign recognition. There are a number of commercial reasons for this (like the size of the market); but there are also significant technical difficulties, mainly in two areas: getting the data of body movements into the computer and trying to learn to recognise signs once they are made. However, researchers have been attacking the problem for some time, and the results are showing some promise, though it is still early days. This paper presents a general overview of research in this area, before going into greater depth about the author’s current and ongoing research with Auslan recognition using instrumented gloves. In particular, the work focuses on developing techniques for helping computers tell different signs apart.