Efficient deformable template detection and localization without user initialization

A novel deformable template is presented which detects the boundary of an open hand in a grayscale image without initialization by the user. A dynamic programming algorithm enhanced by pruning techniques finds the hand contour in the image in as little as 19 s on a Pentium 150 MHz. The template is translation- and rotation-invariant and accomodates shape deformation, significant occlusion and background clutter, and the presence of multiple hands. (C) 2000 Academic Press.