Hand modeling, analysis and recognition

Analyzing hand gestures is a comprehensive task involving motion modeling, motion analysis, pattern recognition, machine learning and even psycholinguistic studies. A comprehensive review of various techniques in hand modeling, analysis, and recognition is needed. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of this research topic, we cannot include all the works in the literature. Rather than function as a thorough review paper, this article serves as a tutorial to this research topic. We study 3-D hand models, various articulated motion analysis methods, and gesture recognition techniques employed in current research. We conclude with some thoughts about future research directions. We also include some of our own research results, some of which are shown as examples.