An interactive image clipping system using hand motion recognition

We present an efficient hand recognition algorithm for an interactive image clipping system, which is widely used for environments such as public facilities and security environments where personal capturing devices including mobile phones are not allowed. User-friendly interface and accurate image capturing function are required for an image clipping system. We build the system by combining Microsoft Kinect, HD webcam and projector. The Kinect and webcam are used to capture the motions of users׳ hand and project is to display the user-selected area from the capturing material. Hand recognition is composed of three steps: (i) the region occupied by users׳ hand is extracted from an image, (ii) the fingertips of the extracted hand region are analyzed using k-curvature algorithm, and (iii) the height of the fingertip is estimated using the depth image from Kinect. The height of the fingertip informs whether users׳ finger touched the surface of the target. The region captured by the fingertip is clipped from the image and stored as the target image. The excellence of our hand recognition algorithm is proved through a user test.