Independent Bayesian classifier combination based sign language recognition using facial expression

Automatic Sign Language Recognition (SLR) systems are usually designed by means of recognizing hand and finger gestures. However, facial expressions play an important role to represent the emotional states during sign language communication, has not yet been analyzed to its fullest potential in SLR systems. A SLR system is incomplete without the signer's facial expressions corresponding to the sign gesture. In this paper, we present a novel multimodal framework for SLR system by incorporating facial expression with sign gesture using two different sensors, namely Leap motion and Kinect. Sign gestures are recorded using Leap motion and simultaneously a Kinect is used to capture the facial data of the signer. We have collected a dataset of 51 dynamic sign word gestures. The recognition is performed using Hidden Markov Model (HMM). Next, we have applied Independent Bayesian Classification Combination (IBCC) approach to combine the decision of different modalities for improving recognition performance. Our analysis shows promising results with recognition rates of 96.05% and 94.27% for single and double hand gestures, respectively. The proposed multimodal framework achieves 1.84% and 2.60% gains as compared to uni-modal framework on single and double hand gestures, respectively.