Image measurement of hand dimensions based on anatomical structure and creases

A hand version of the computer manikin, called "digital hand", is considered as an effective assessment tool for hand-operated products at the design stage. In order to construct various sizes and proportions of hands in a computer, it is required to develop the system that can measure the accurate dimensions of hands automatically. In this paper, an image-based measurement system of hand dimensions has been proposed. The system utilizes an image scanner for acquiring a hand image in 2D. First, the joint positions of fingers are estimated by extracting the edges of the wrinkles on a palm and fingers in this image. For this process, anatomical constraint is effectively considered. Then, the 2D dimensions of a hand are automatically calculated. In addition, based on the fact that the dimensions of a hand are highly correlated each other, the system estimates the 3D measures of a hand, such as the thickness and circumference of fingers and a palm by regression analysis. The accuracy and reproducibility was validated using the proposed system by comparison with actual results measured by traditional method. The results prove our system has enough capability for actual hand measurement and its applications.