Zesture meaning series#

Unfortunately, with the popularity of motion and gesture studies over the last years, I see that many people use the term gesture more or less synonymously to action or motion. For example, the meaning you convey when you wave “good-bye” to someone may be independent of whether you do it with the left or the right arm, the size of the action, etc. Also, the same meaning can be conveyed through different types of physical actions. As such, a gesture can be seen as a semiotic sign, in which the meaning is conveyed through an action, but it is highly subjective and dependent on the cultural context in which the action is carried out. A gesture is not the same as action or motion, although it is related to both of them. Gesture: the meaning being expressed through an action or motion. But, based on knowledge about human cognition, it is possible to create systems that can estimate various action features based on measurements of motion. As such, I do not think it is possible to measure an action directly, since there is no objective measure for when an action begins or ends, or how it is organised in relation to other actions.

This uncertainty as to how actions should be segmented (or chunked), is what makes them subjective entities.

Zesture meaning series#

Actions may have a clear beginning and end, but they may also overlap due to coarticulation, such as when playing a series of tones on the piano. Then it makes more sense to talk about one or more motion sequences, but most probably it makes even more sense to talk about individual actions.Īction: a goal-directed motion (or force) sequence, for example picking up a stone from the ground, playing a piano tone. Since motion is a continuous phenomenon, it does not make sense to talk about it in plural form: “motions”. I have previously also discussed the difference between motion and movement. A motion capture system could be anything from a simple slider (1-dimensional), to a mouse (2-dimensional), to a camera-based tracking system ((3-dimensional) or an inertial system (6-dimensional: 3D position and 3D orientation). Motion is an objective entity, and can be recorded with a motion capture system. This object could be a hand, a foot, a mobile phone, a rod, whatever. Motion: displacement of an object in space over time. Here is a summary of my current take on these three concepts: I have been discussing definitions of the terms motion/movement, action and gesture several times before on this blog (for example here and here).