Manual Signs

The hand-based components of sign language communication, consisting of four parameters: hand shape (configuration of fingers), location (where the sign is made relative to the body), movement (how the hands move through space), and palm orientation. Manual signs form the core vocabulary of sign languages but must be combined with non-manual features for complete grammatical expression. In motion capture for signing avatars, accurately capturing manual signs requires tracking multiple finger joints, which is technically challenging due to marker occlusion and the complexity of hand articulation.