Simultaneous Recognition of Hand Shape and Two-Axis Wrist Bending Using Wearable Wrist Contour Measuring Device

Hand gestures can express various kinds of information. However, existing techniques present difficulties for practical use such as environmental limitations and obstructions to natural gestures. To address these difficulties, our earlier work has developed a wrist contour measuring device that recognizes a hand shape and pronation angle. An earlier report has described the necessity of increasing the number of recognizable hand motions to realize a highly usable screen operation. This paper reports a trial of simultaneous recognition of hand shape and wrist-bending state. After observing the wrist contour and then clarifying the phenomenon, we design features, and construct a recognizer. The simultaneous recognition rate of four hand shapes and 14 wrist-bending states achieved, in this research, is 79.7%. As described in this paper, a trial of a user interface using hand gestures recognized by the device is also conducted. Several problems related to practical use are discussed.