We have developed the Hand Motion Understanding (HMU) system that understands static and dynamic signs of the Australian Sign Language (Auslan). The HMU system uses a visual 3D hand tracker for motion sensing, and an adaptive fuzzy expert system for classification of the signs. This paper presents the hand tracker that extracts 3D hand configuration data with 21 degrees-of-freedom (DOFs) from a...

The timely provision of traffic sign information to drivers is essential for the drivers to respond, to ensure safe driving, and to avoid traffic accidents in a timely manner. We proposed a timely visual recognizability quantitative evaluation method for traffic signs in large-scale transportation environments. To achieve this goal, we first address the concept of a visibility field to reflect ...

Sign languages (alternatively, signed languages) are human languages whose forms consist of sequences of movements and configurations of the hands and arms, face, and upper torso. Typically, sign languages are perceived through the visual mode. Sign languages thus contrast, of course, with spoken languages, whose forms consist of sounds produced by sequences of movements and configurations of t...

This study investigated whether deafness contributes to enhancement of visual spatial cognition independent of knowledge of a sign language. Congenitally deaf school children in India who were born to hearing parents and were not exposed to any sign language, and matched hearing controls, were given a test of digit span and five tests that measured visual spatial skills. The deaf group showed s...

The perceptual loop theory of self-monitoring posits that auditory speech output is parsed by the comprehension system. For sign language, however, visual input from one's own signing is distinct from visual input received from another's signing. Two experiments investigated the role of visual feedback in the production of American Sign Language (ASL). Experiment 1 revealed that signers were po...