Protocol for identifying shared articulatory features of gestures and LSF: application to epistemic gesture

Abstract

This article focuses on the articulatory characteristics of epistemic gestures (i.e., gestures used to express certainty or uncertainty) in co-speech gestures (CSG) in French and in French Sign Language (LSF). It presents a new methodology for analysis, which relies on the complementary use of manual annotation (using Typannot) and semi-automatic annotation (using AlphaPose) to highlight the kinesiological characteristics of these epistemic gestures. The presented methodology allows to analyze the flexion/extension movements of the head in epistemic contexts. The results of this analysis show that in CSG and LSF: (1) head nods passing through the neutral position (i.e., head straight with no flexion/extension) and high movement speed are markers of certainty; and (2) holding the head position away from the neutral position and low movement speed indicate uncertainty. This study is conducted within the framework of the ANR LexiKHuM project, which develops kinesthetic communication solutions for human-machine interaction.