Estimation for a hand position and orientation robust to motion of fingers using a web camera

We present a method to estimate the position and the orientation of a hand from a captured image for applications which need to manipulate instinctively and freely using a hand. We use a hand as a tool instead of an input device such as a mouse or a marker, and we use only a web camera instead of multiple-camera or an infrared camera, in order to improve mobility and usability. We focused on four valley-points between neighboring fingers as invariant feature points. By detecting four valley-points, the method makes possible the robust estimation for the position and the orientation of a hand regardless of the bending and the closing of fingers. In the method, we are able to move fingers freely when all valley-points are viewable. In an experiment, we qualitatively evaluated the robustness and usefulness of the proposed method by drawing 3DCG objects.