An Improved Articulated Model of the Human Hand.
John C. McDonald, Karen Alkoby, André Berthiaume, Pattaraporn Chomwong, Juliet Christopher, Mary Jo Davidson, Jacob David Furst, Brian Konie, Glenn Lancaster, Steven L. Lytinen, Lopa Roychoudhuri, Eric Sedgwick, Noriko Tomuro, J.C. del Toro, Rosalee J. Wolfe · Digital Library (University of West Bohemia) · 2000
We present an improved anatomically based approach to modeling the human hand for use in the animation of American Sign Language. The joint rotations in the model are based on the bone and muscle configurations of the hand, and a forward kinematic solution is used to position the hand. In particular, we investigate the rotations of the base joint of the thumb. This joint is a saddle joint with non-trivial rotational axes and centers, and must be treated with care in such a model. We take advantage of several correlations between joint rotations in the hand to reduce the number of degrees of freedom in the model and provide a simple, intuitive and interactive interface for American Sign Language handshape transcription. Keywords: Modeling, Animation, American Sign Language, Anatomically Based Modeling 1.