Multimodal human hand motion sensing and analysis - a review

Human hand motion analysis is an essential research topic in recent applications, especially for dexterous robot hand manipulation learning from human hand skills. It provides important information about the gestures, tactile, speed and contact force, captured via multiple sensing technologies. This paper introduces a comprehensive survey of current hand motion sensing technologies and analysis approaches in recent emerging applications. Firstly, the nature of human hand motions is discussed in terms of simple motions, such as grasps and gestures, and complex motions, e.g. in-hand manipulations and re-grasps; secondly, different techniques for hand motion sensing, including contact-based and non-contact-based approaches, are discussed with comparisons with their pros and cons; then, the state-of-the- art analysis methods are introduced, with a particular focus on the multimodal hand motion sensing and analysis; finally, cutting- edge applications of hand motion analysis are reviewed, with further discussion on facing challenges and new future directions.