Continuous hand openness detection using a Kinect-like device

This paper presents a novel method to reproduce in real time the opening and closing gestures of a human hand, animating a three-dimensional model of it. In other works, this result can be achieved by mapping a set of significant points of a real hand on the corresponding points of the model to animate. We propose an alternative way to produce the same effect without mapping points, but using a level-based estimation of the degree of opening of the hand. The experiments have been executed using Microsoft Kinect™, but the method would work on any other Kinect-like devices (as defined herein). The results obtained are particularly encouraging and demonstrate real-time performance of the system.