Construction of a Production System of CG Sign Language Images for Intelligent Communication and a Transmission Experiment of Animated Sign Language Images using a Communications Satellite

本研究的目的是开发一种基于智能通信方法的手语图像传输技术，并进行传输实验来验证所提出技术的有效性。智能通信分三个步骤进行；1)在对图像分析的基础上对待传输的图像数据进行智能编码；2)传输编码后的文本或参数数据；3)利用CG技术对接收到的数据进行智能解码，重建原始图像。在第一步(1)的研究中，分析了手语的手势以及手势图像与手语单词的对应关系。介绍了一个由多面体构成的手和手臂的三维CG模型，并将该三维模型的二维图像投影到二维平面上，与从实际运动视频图像中提取的轮廓图像进行匹配。引入了语义信息空间的概念，提出了一种将手语图像与语义相对应的方法。我们利用通信卫星准备了通信系统来进行第二步的研究，并进行了图像和运动图像的传输实验。实现了一种基于Internet的电视会议系统，并对听障人士对传输的手语运动图像的理解能力进行了评价实验。为了开发一种通过通信卫星在两台计算机之间高效传输数据的系统，构建了客户端-服务器系统并进行了传输实验，为将来开发用于手语图像传输的客户端-服务器系统提供了基础数据。开发了一种新的CG技术来为步骤3创建手语图像。例如，开发了一种纹理映射技术来实现CG手语图像的高速创建。利用cg生成的多面体对手和手臂进行了三维建模，取得了良好的效果。在手语动画制作中，提出了一种基于网络模型的手指和手的自然运动生成方法。虽然在1)-3)的每个步骤的研究中都获得了新的知识，但将图像识别、CG技术和卫星通信相结合的智能通信实验研究仍有待进一步研究。少

The purpose of this research is to develop a transmission technique of sign language image based on a method of an intelligent communication and to conduct a transmission experiment to verify the validity of the proposed technique. The intelligent communication is performed in the three steps ; 1) an intelligent coding of the image data to be transmitted based on the analysis of the image, 2) transmission of the coded text or parameter data, 3) original images reconstruction by an intelligent decoding of the received data using CG technique. In the research on the step 1), analysis of the gestures of sign language and the correspondence of the gesture images with words of sign language were conducted. A three-dimensional CG model of hands and arms constructed with polyhedrons was introduced and a matching technique between two-dimensional image of this 3-d model projected onto the two-dimensional plane and the silhouette image extracted from the real motion video images of the sign lan … More guage was examined for analyzing the sign language gesture. A concept of an information space of the meaning was introduced and a technique to correspond sign language image with their meanings was developed. We prepared the communication system using a communications satellite to conduct the research of the step 2) and an experiment of transmitting pictures and motion images was conducted. A TV conference system by Internet was achieved and an experiment on evaluation of understanding the transmitted moving images of sign language by the hearing impaired persons was conducted. In order to develop an efficient system for transmitting data between two computer systems through a communications satellite, a client-server system was constructed and a transmission experiment was conducted, which resulted in acquisition of fundamental data for developing such a client-server system for transmiting sign language images in near future. A new CG technique was developed to create sign language images for the step 3). For example a texture mapping technique was developed to achieve high-speed creation of CG sign language images. A three-dimensional modeling of hands and arms using CG-generated polyhedra was also examined and good results were obtained. A method of network model was proposed to generate natural motion of fingers and hand in producing animation of sign language. Although new knowledge was obtained in the investigations of each step of 1) -3), an experimental research of intelligent communication unifying image recognition, CG technique, and satellite communication was left as a future study. Less