A Fast and Robust Gesture Recognition System for Exhibit Gaming Scenarios

With no doubt, advanced human-computer interaction technologies represent one of the key selling points of all the most popular new gaming consoles. Players, in fact, can now interact realistically with their gaming environments, not suffering anymore from that lack of authenticity that was caused by the use of a simple joysticks or mice. Such incredible result has been achieved by means of new advanced hardware specialized in the recognition of players ’ gestures. In this work, we show that the same objective can be attained utilizing an off-the-shelf webcam and a robust gesture recognition software system. In particular, our novel gesture recognition system, which is based on artificial vision algorithms, leads to a fast and robust interpretation of hand gestures. This type of technology has proven to be particularly efficient for immersive gaming experiences. The efficacy was demonstrated through a game, which has been enjoyed by hundreds of visitors at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo