Abstract-Gesture recognition pertains to recognizing meaning-

ful expressions of motion by a human, involving the hands, arms,

face, head, and/or body. It is of utmost importance in designing

an intelligent and efficient human-computer interface. The ap-

plications of gesture recognition are manifold, ranging from sign

language through medical rehabilitation to virtual reality. In this

paper, we provide a survey on gesture recognition with particu-

lar emphasis on hand gestures and facial expressions. Applications

involving hidden Markov models, particle filtering and condensa-

tion, finite-state machines, optical flow, skin color, and connection-

ist models are discussed in detail. Existing challenges and future

research possibilities are also highlighted.-　Abstract-Gesture recognition pertains to recognizing meaning-

ful expressions of motion by a human, involving the hands, arms,

face, head, and/or body. It is of utmost importance in designing

an intelligent and efficient human-computer interface. The ap-

plications of gesture recognition are manifold, ranging from sign

language through medical rehabilitation to virtual reality. In this

paper, we provide a survey on gesture recognition with particu-

lar emphasis on hand gestures and facial expressions. Applications

involving hidden Markov models, particle filtering and condensa-

tion, finite-state machines, optical flow, skin color, and connection-

ist models are discussed in detail. Existing challenges and future

research possibilities are also highlighted.