Real-Time Recognition of NZ Sign Language Alphabets by Optimal Use of Machine Learning

The acquisition of a person’s first language is one of their greatest accomplishments. Nevertheless, being fluent in sign language presents challenges for many deaf students who rely on it for communication. Effective communication is essential for both personal and professional interactions and is critical for community engagement. However, the lack of a mutually understood language can be a significant barrier. Estimates indicate that a large portion of New Zealand’s disability population is deaf, with an educational approach predominantly focused on oralism, emphasizing spoken language. This makes it essential to bridge the communication gap between the general public and individuals with speech difficulties. The aim of this project is to develop an application that systematically cycles through each letter and number in New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL), assessing the user’s proficiency. This research investigates various machine learning methods for hand gesture recognition, with a focus on landmark detection. In computer vision, identifying specific points on an object—such as distinct hand landmarks—is a standard approach for feature extraction. Evaluation of this system has been performed using machine learning techniques, including Random Forest (RF) Classifier, k-Nearest Neighbours (KNN), AdaBoost (AB), Naïve Bayes (NB), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Decision Trees (DT), and Logistic Regression (LR). The dataset used for model training and testing consists of approximately 100,000 hand gesture expressions, formatted into a CSV dataset for model training.