Recognition of Continuous Sign Language Alphabet Using Leap Motion Controller

This paper describes the development of an SLR system for Israeli Sign Language designed to enable people with hearing impairments to communicate easily and independently using sign language. The research focuses on fingerspelling and the problem of acquiring and extracting data from signers and translating it into written form. SLR entails two main challenges. The first involves acquiring isolated instances of letters and translating each letter individually. This was accomplished by training the Support Vector Machines classifiers using vectors consisting of the Euclidean distances between the fingertips and the center of the palm. The second and more complex challenge involves translating a signed word and converting it into a stream of letters. This was solved in two sub-stages: extracting a single frame from the Leap controller and identifying the sign formed in that frame; and analyzing a continuous stream of frames and determining when the signs for a letter are formed. The recognition process in the system developed, eventually combined the letters to form words, moreover, provides a low-cost solution and is, therefore, suitable for everyone.