Input of Japanese Characters by Recognizing the Number of Fingers

Many recent studies centered on recognizing human gestures using images for man-machine interfaces do not deal with information on Japanese or other characters. We propose inputting Japanese characters by recognizing the number of fingers of one hand. Recognized numbers are converted to characters using the “pocket-bell” rule. The number is recognized by image processing. Range images are used as image information to implement the method. We also discuss how to control recognition timing and canceling input data. Experimental results using a range image sensor show the effectiveness of the proposed methods.