Asimo Gestures

Asimo was in the news again (in Manilla), and I thought an update would be nice. "howwa YOU dowin?" (can Asimo look a girl up and down?) The little guy is currently equipped with some gesture recognition (he can wave back) and other computer vision capabilities. He has always had a bunch of synthesized gesture routines in his repertoire. When they made him speak they made him do co-speech gestures. I guess otherwise there would be nothing to watch, since he has no lips to move nor eyebrows to raise. Asimo is making a name for himself on stages everywhere. Rumour even has it he is getting pretentious and is plotting a coup against Mickey Mouse.

Tags: asimo, gesture synthesis, gesture recognition, humanoid, anthropomorphism

Mozilla Mouse Gestures

Could it be a real killer application of gesture recognition? It appears that mouse gestures are a viable option for browsing and games. Optimoz Mouse Gestures is a popular Mozilla Firefox extension which I have been trying for a while now. One could of course argue that this mouse gesturing is hardly new. We've had Palm Graffiti, handwriting recognition, pen gestures, Opera used it first, and we all drag-and-drop with the left mouse button. One could even say that every action used to control a computer other than talking is a gesture. All true. But none of that matters really. A killer app is not necessarily new. Just a really good combination of factors that sparks succes. My Favourite: Making any gesture ending with a straight Right-Up-Left movement opens all crossed links in tabs One of the great things about the current mouse gestures is the use of the right button. I always have that handy for mouse-down actions anyway. I can learn the gestures from a nice sidebar in Mozilla which I like. I did not have to pay anything. Installation was a breeze. No extra kit. And I can impress my colleagues. What more do you need?

Tags: gesture recognition, mouse, software, pen gestures, 2D

In Memoriam Bernard Tervoort

A founding father of sign language research has died on August 17: Professor Bernard T. M. Tervoort. His 1953 dissertation at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) was titled 'Structural analysis of visual language use in a group of deaf children'. It was groundbreaking, pioneering work in sign language research. He was the first to propose a linguistic status for sign languages. As such it predates the works of William Stokoe which usually receives that credit. Ben Tervoort, a dutch Umberto Eco? (source: crime.nl) His bibliography of works on sign language lists 102 works. He also wrote crime novels and childrens books. Some other memorials: Viataal, Doof.nl, Nederlands Gebarencentrum

Tags: sign language, literature, Tervoort, linguistic, memorial

GameTrak Golf

The revolutionary golf game where you swing a club to hit the ball... It sounds rather silly, but the amazing part of it is that the ball isn't real, nor is the golf court really there. It is a computer game for the PS2 or Xbox. This game has been around for a while. It predates the Eyetoy gesture games.

Tags: motion sensing, gaming, action, movement

Recording NGT Signs ELo

The ELo project, in which I participate, aims to create a sign language tutor for deaf and hearing impaired children (age 3-5) to practice sign language. At the TU Delft, where I work, we develop and supply the gesture recognition technology. To train and test the recognizer we are recording a dataset. We are recording 121 signs with as many people as we can to capture natural variation. Deaf kids can use the Electronic Learning Environment (ELo) for some extra practice , like any kid nowadays has some educational games on daddy's computer. It's just in sign language. Do you want to participate? It will take you an hour of recording in our studio at the TU Delft. Traveling expenses will be covered. Use of the data will be restricted. Mail me for more info.

Tags: ELo, gesture recognition, sign language, development

Technorati Tags

Since this blog features quite a bit of techy, geeky stuff on gesture recognition and sign language recognition, I thought it would be nice to start using technorati tags. Dunno how they work exactly yet or what use they are for you as a reader. Feel free to comment on what would be handy.

Garfield Gestures More

A wrote about the gestures I saw Garfield (and Jon) make in six months of their comic a while ago. It is now the single most popular page on this site. So, I decided to browse the ones from April 2006 to now as well. (done till May 27) Garfield: 'Real' Pointing point-caught-in-action point-rude point-focus-attention Index-finger-up point-index-up-attention 2 3 making-a-point 2 announcement Palm-presenting p-p-classic-triad palm-presenting-2hands-out 2 3 4 Palm-down Affectionate-granting-dismissal-wave Palm-out 2hands-imploring-heaven 2hands-up-alert palm-out-hold-it 2 2arms-out-inspecting-self Smile-Grin grin 2 3 4 5 6 hee-hee-laughing (and many regular smiles I just let go) Cheer Yes!-Fist-Driving 2-Fists-high-cheer Looks angry-look-threat eyes-wide-expectation 2 3 4 5 6 7 look-of-exasperation Thoughtful poses lip-touch-doubt 2 3 4 arms-folded-disinterested 2 3 4 5 6 hand-chin-dreamy Other tap-shoulder-attention elbow-stick-out-demanding guard-face-nasty grab-shirt-threat stick-tongue-out 2 sneak-around pat-comfort hide-speech-behind-hand 2 cough-for-attention amplify-speech-1h-by-mouth yawn-boring 2 dancing 1h-ear-listening

Jon: bejeebered-yah-hoo point-index 2 shrug-2arms-stretched 2 chin-touch-thinker 2 hand-forehead-worried fiddle-bowtie lip-touch-doubt 2 palm-presenting hand-chest-air-sophistication thumb-point-self 2 making-a-point grasp-hair-desperate

Others: palm-presenting-triad point-rude stare-into-distance shrug big-grin hands-up-in-shock-and-cover-mouth lip-touch-doubt scratch-head-wonder 2arms-wide-out-welcome thumb-up

Tags: gesture, Garfield, comic, animal, cat, anthropomorphism, meaning, pragmatics

Signing4Babies4Money

Not unexpected yet ever so sad: Baby signing is taking an ever more commercial direction with all sorts of commercial crap coming out. The initial research underlying the whole phenomenon was weak to start with. Now it's been misrepresented so much that it's becoming just a load of crap. This 'baby' can now nag you about an ice cream in two languages (source) I see for example the stuff from signing4babies (clicking this link will not earn me anything) popping up in the AdSense ads in the sidebar. I find AdSense an interesting monitor of online commercial activities related to my topics, but do not recommend the sites per se. Signing4babies is under scrutiny but appears not to be doing anything wrong. But the claims about signing babies they make, such as a boost in IQ, are ridiculous and not validated in the sense of cause-and-effect by the research at all.

Tags: baby sign, business, pseudoscience

Evolution of Nipple Fascination

To what extent are we related to gorillas? Well I do not know, but we do seem to share a fascination with nipples. A very common request of Koko the signing gorilla is to 'see some nipple'. A very common request of signing babies (around 9 months) is for 'Milk', which can be nipple or bottle. Phylogeny and ontogeny meet once again? The gesture people in Chicago say gesture can be a window into our minds. And what is on our minds? Wish you were here? (source Wikipedia)

Tags: evolution, animal, gorilla, desires, needs, nipple, baby sign

Canadian Governments Must Sign

After a fight in court, several Deaf Canadians, supported by the Canadian Association of the Deaf, got their right to equal access to government services confirmed by the Federal Court. Specifically it means that interpreters (in American Sign Language (ASL) and/or Langue des Signes Québécoise (LSQ)) should be available and paid for by the government (read more in this pdf) LSQ is used in Quebec, does the rest of Canada use ASL? (source) It's not the same as an official recognition (like with Flemish Sign Language, New Zealand Sign Language, or others), but a very practical result all the same.

Tags: sign language, Deaf culture, official, education, interpreting