A new framework for sign language alphabet hand posture recognition using geometrical features through artificial neural network (part 1)

Hand pose tracking is essential in sign languages. An automatic recognition of performed hand signs facilitates a number of applications, especially for people with speech impairment to communication with normal people. This framework which is called ASLNN proposes a new hand posture recognition technique for the American sign language alphabet based on the neural network which works on the geometrical feature extraction of hands. A user’s hand is captured by a three-dimensional depth-based sensor camera; consequently, the hand is segmented according to the depth analysis features. The proposed system is called depth-based geometrical sign language recognition as named DGSLR. The DGSLR adopted in easier hand segmentation approach, which is further used in segmentation applications. The proposed geometrical feature extraction framework improves the accuracy of recognition due to unchangeable features against hand orientation compared to discrete cosine transform and moment invariant. The findings of the iterations demonstrate the combination of the extracted features resulted to improved accuracy rates. Then, an artificial neural network is used to drive desired outcomes. ASLNN is proficient to hand posture recognition and provides accuracy up to 96.78% which will be discussed on the additional paper of this authors in this journal

Contactless Palmprint Recognition System: A Survey

Information systems in organizations traditionally require users to remember their secret pins or (passwords), token, card number, or both to con�rm their identities. However, the technological trend has been moving towards personal identi�cation based on individual behavioural attributes (such as gaits, signature, and voice) or physiological attributes (such as palmprint, �ngerprint, face, iris, or ear). These attributes (biometrics) offer many advantages over knowledge and possession-based approaches. For example, palmprint images have rich, unique features for reliable human identi�cation, and it has received signi�cant attention due to their stability, reliability, uniqueness, and non-intrusiveness. This paper provides an overview and evaluation of contactless palmprint recognition system, the state-of-the-art performance of existing studies, different types of ``Region of Interest'' (ROI) extraction algorithms, feature extraction, and matching algorithms. Finally, the �ndings obtained are presented and discussed

Activity related biometrics for person authentication

One of the major challenges in human-machine interaction has always been the development of such techniques that are able to provide accurate human recognition, so as to other either personalized services or to protect critical infrastructures from unauthorized access. To this direction, a series of well stated and efficient methods have been proposed mainly based on biometric characteristics of the user. Despite the significant progress that has been achieved recently, there are still many open issues in the area, concerning not only the performance of the systems but also the intrusiveness of the collecting methods. The current thesis deals with the investigation of novel, activity-related biometric traits and their potential for multiple and unobtrusive authentication based on the spatiotemporal analysis of human activities. In particular, it starts with an extensive bibliography review regarding the most important works in the area of biometrics, exhibiting and justifying in parallel the transition that is performed from the classic biometrics to the new concept of behavioural biometrics. Based on previous works related to the human physiology and human motion and motivated by the intuitive assumption that different body types and different characters would produce distinguishable, and thus, valuable for biometric verification, activity-related traits, a new type of biometrics, the so-called prehension biometrics (i.e. the combined movement of reaching, grasping activities), is introduced and thoroughly studied herein. The analysis is performed via the so-called Activity hyper-Surfaces that form a dynamic movement-related manifold for the extraction of a series of behavioural features. Thereafter, the focus is laid on the extraction of continuous soft biometric features and their efficient combination with state-of-the-art biometric approaches towards increased authentication performance and enhanced security in template storage via Soft biometric Keys. In this context, a novel and generic probabilistic framework is proposed that produces an enhanced matching probability based on the modelling of the systematic error induced during the estimation of the aforementioned soft biometrics and the efficient clustering of the soft biometric feature space. Next, an extensive experimental evaluation of the proposed methodologies follows that effectively illustrates the increased authentication potential of the prehension-related biometrics and the significant advances in the recognition performance by the probabilistic framework. In particular, the prehension biometrics related biometrics is applied on several databases of ~100 different subjects in total performing a great variety of movements. The carried out experiments simulate both episodic and multiple authentication scenarios, while contextual parameters, (i.e. the ergonomic-based quality factors of the human body) are also taken into account. Furthermore, the probabilistic framework for augmenting biometric recognition via soft biometrics is applied on top of two state-of-art biometric systems, i.e. a gait recognition (> 100 subjects)- and a 3D face recognition-based one (~55 subjects), exhibiting significant advances to their performance. The thesis is concluded with an in-depth discussion summarizing the major achievements of the current work, as well as some possible drawbacks and other open issues of the proposed approaches that could be addressed in future works.Open Acces

Handshape recognition using principal component analysis and convolutional neural networks applied to sign language

Handshape recognition is an important problem in computer vision with significant societal impact. However, it is not an easy task, since hands are naturally deformable objects. Handshape recognition contains open problems, such as low accuracy or low speed, and despite a large number of proposed approaches, no solution has been found to solve these open problems. In this thesis, a new image dataset for Irish Sign Language (ISL) recognition is introduced. A deeper study using only 2D images is presented on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in two stages. A comparison between approaches that do not need features (known as end-to-end) and feature-based approaches is carried out. The dataset was collected by filming six human subjects performing ISL handshapes and movements. Frames from the videos were extracted. Afterwards the redundant images were filtered with an iterative image selection process that selects the images which keep the dataset diverse. The accuracy of PCA can be improved using blurred images and interpolation. Interpolation is only feasible with a small number of points. For this reason two-stage PCA is proposed. In other words, PCA is applied to another PCA space. This makes the interpolation possible and improves the accuracy in recognising a shape at a translation and rotation unknown in the training stage. Finally classification is done with two different approaches: (1) End-to-end approaches and (2) feature-based approaches. For (1) Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and other classifiers are tested directly over raw pixels, whereas for (2) PCA is mostly used to extract features and again different algorithms are tested for classification. Finally, results are presented showing accuracy and speed for (1) and (2) and how blurring affects the accuracy

Roadmap on signal processing for next generation measurement systems

Signal processing is a fundamental component of almost any sensor-enabled system, with a wide range of applications across different scientific disciplines. Time series data, images, and video sequences comprise representative forms of signals that can be enhanced and analysed for information extraction and quantification. The recent advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning are shifting the research attention towards intelligent, data-driven, signal processing. This roadmap presents a critical overview of the state-of-the-art methods and applications aiming to highlight future challenges and research opportunities towards next generation measurement systems. It covers a broad spectrum of topics ranging from basic to industrial research, organized in concise thematic sections that reflect the trends and the impacts of current and future developments per research field. Furthermore, it offers guidance to researchers and funding agencies in identifying new prospects.AerodynamicsMicrowave Sensing, Signals & System

Recent Advances in Motion Analysis

The advances in the technology and methodology for human movement capture and analysis over the last decade have been remarkable. Besides acknowledged approaches for kinematic, dynamic, and electromyographic (EMG) analysis carried out in the laboratory, more recently developed devices, such as wearables, inertial measurement units, ambient sensors, and cameras or depth sensors, have been adopted on a wide scale. Furthermore, computational intelligence (CI) methods, such as artificial neural networks, have recently emerged as promising tools for the development and application of intelligent systems in motion analysis. Thus, the synergy of classic instrumentation and novel smart devices and techniques has created unique capabilities in the continuous monitoring of motor behaviors in different fields, such as clinics, sports, and ergonomics. However, real-time sensing, signal processing, human activity recognition, and characterization and interpretation of motion metrics and behaviors from sensor data still representing a challenging problem not only in laboratories but also at home and in the community. This book addresses open research issues related to the improvement of classic approaches and the development of novel technologies and techniques in the domain of motion analysis in all the various fields of application

People and object tracking for video annotation

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia InformáticaObject tracking is a thoroughly researched problem, with a body of associated literature dating at least as far back as the late 1970s. However, and despite the development of some satisfactory real-time trackers, it has not yet seen widespread use. This is not due to a lack of applications for the technology, since several interesting ones exist. In this document, it is postulated that this status quo is due, at least in part, to a lack of easy to use software libraries supporting object tracking. An overview of the problems associated with object tracking is presented and the process of developing one such library is documented. This discussion includes how to overcome problems like heterogeneities in object representations and requirements for training or initial object position hints. Video annotation is the process of associating data with a video’s content. Associating data with a video has numerous applications, ranging from making large video archives or long videos searchable, to enabling discussion about and augmentation of the video’s content. Object tracking is presented as a valid approach to both automatic and manual video annotation, and the integration of the developed object tracking library into an existing video annotator, running on a tablet computer, is described. The challenges involved in designing an interface to support the association of video annotations with tracked objects in real-time are also discussed. In particular, we discuss our interaction approaches to handle moving object selection on live video, which we have called “Hold and Overlay” and “Hold and Speed Up”. In addition, the results of a set of preliminary tests are reported.project “TKB – A Transmedia Knowledge Base for contemporary dance” (PTDC/EA /AVP/098220/2008 funded by FCT/MCTES), the UTAustin – Portugal, Digital Media Program (SFRH/BD/42662/2007 FCT/MCTES) and by CITI/DI/FCT/UNL (Pest-OE/EEI/UI0527/2011

Biometric Systems

Because of the accelerating progress in biometrics research and the latest nation-state threats to security, this book's publication is not only timely but also much needed. This volume contains seventeen peer-reviewed chapters reporting the state of the art in biometrics research: security issues, signature verification, fingerprint identification, wrist vascular biometrics, ear detection, face detection and identification (including a new survey of face recognition), person re-identification, electrocardiogram (ECT) recognition, and several multi-modal systems. This book will be a valuable resource for graduate students, engineers, and researchers interested in understanding and investigating this important field of study

An Investigation into the Relationship between Static and Dynamic Gait Features. A biometrics Perspective

Biometrics is a unique physical or behavioral characteristic of a person. This unique attribute, such as fingerprints or gait, can be used for identification or verification purposes. Gait is an emerging biometrics with great potential. Gait recognition is based on recognizing a person by the manner in which they walk. Its potential lays in that it can be captured at a distance and does not require the cooperation of the subject. This advantage makes it a very attractive tool for forensic cases and applications, where it can assist in identifying a suspect when other evidence such as DNA, fingerprints, or a face were not attainable. Gait can be used for recognition in a direct manner when the two samples are shot from similar camera resolution, position, and conditions. Yet in some cases, the only sample available is of an incomplete gait cycle, low resolution, low frame rate, a partially visible subject, or a single static image. Most of these conditions have one thing in common: static measurements. A gait signature is usually formed from a number of dynamic and static features. Static features are physical measurements of height, length, or build; while dynamic features are representations of joint rotations or trajectories. The aim of this thesis is to study the potential of predicting dynamic features from static features. In this thesis, we have created a database that utilizes a 3D laser scanner for capturing accurate shape and volumes of a person, and a motion capture system to accurately record motion data. The first analysis focused on analyzing the correlation between twenty-one 2D static features and eight dynamic features. Eleven pairs of features were regarded as significant with the criterion of a P-value less than 0.05. Other features also showed a strong correlation that indicated the potential of their predictive power. The second analysis focused on 3D static and dynamic features. Through the correlation analysis, 1196 pairs of features were found to be significantly correlated. Based on these results, a linear regression analysis was used to predict a dynamic gait signature. The predictors chosen were based on two adaptive methods that were developed in this thesis: "the top-x" method and the "mixed method". The predictions were assessed for both for their accuracy and their classification potential that would be used for gait recognition. The top results produced a 59.21% mean matching percentile. This result will act as baseline for future research in predicting a dynamic gait signature from static features. The results of this thesis bare potential for applications in biomechanics, biometrics, forensics, and 3D animation