A primary goal of gesture recognition research is to create a system which can identify specific human gestures and use them to convey information or for device control. Interface with computers using gestures of the human body, typically hand movements. In gesture recognition technology, a camera reads the movements of the human body and communicates the data to a computer that uses the gestures as input to control devices or applications. For example, a person clapping his hands together in front of a camera can produce the sound of cymbals being crashed together when the gesture is fed through a computer.
A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication made with a part of the body, and used instead of verbal communication. It may also be defined as the motion of hands or body to emphasize or help to express a thought or feeling or the use of movements (especially of the hands) to communicate familiar or prearranged signals. Gestures are expressive and meaningful body motions used in daily life as a means of communication. Automatic gesture recognition systems using computer vision techniques may be useful in many contexts, including non-obtrusive human computer interfaces. For such environments, it is important that the systems are easily trained and fast enough to support interactive behavior.