Persian sign language (PSL) recognition using wavelet transform and neural networks

This paper presents a system for recognizing static gestures of alphabets in Persian sign language (PSL) using Wavelet transform and neural networks (NN). The required images for the selected alphabets are obtained using a digital camera. The color images are cropped, resized, and converted to grayscale images. Then, the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is applied on the gray scale images, and some features are extracted. Finally, the extracted features are used to train a Multi-Layered Perceptron (MLP) NN. Our recognition system does not use any gloves or visual marking systems. This system only requires the images of the bare hand for the recognition. The system is implemented and tested using a data set of 640 samples of Persian sign images; 20 images for each sign. Experimental results show that our system is able to recognize 32 selected PSL alphabets with an average classification accuracy of 94.06%. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.